The Student Room Group
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>

Can I get my money back for a swimming membership I never agreed to have renewed?

Hi there,

First off, I have spoke to the swimming pool and someone is due to call me back tomorrow to discuss this. I'm just wondering if this has happened to anyone else and whether you can offer any advice, or am I ****ed?

I had a swimming membership (£20 per month) with my local swimming pool from September/October 2015 to what I thought was going to be until September/October 2016.

I would never have agreed to renew it for another year given that I left to start a 12 month MSc degree at Swansea university, 200 miles from home! Plus I only came back throughout the entire 12 months once for two weeks during Christmas, this doesn't matter though because again, I would never had renewed it, I had a membership in Swansea, both gym and swim.

I have a vague memory of telephoning the pool around October 2016 to make sure the membership would not be renewed. Not something I can really prove though.

Do I have a case here to get my money back as I have had £20 per month for one year taken out of my account. The only reason I didn't notice is because I started uni with a fair bit of money and £20 per month wasn't noticeable.

Thanks for reading, any advice here would be greatly appreciated.
Original post by BillMurray
Hi there,

First off, I have spoke to the swimming pool and someone is due to call me back tomorrow to discuss this. I'm just wondering if this has happened to anyone else and whether you can offer any advice, or am I ****ed?

I had a swimming membership (£20 per month) with my local swimming pool from September/October 2015 to what I thought was going to be until September/October 2016.

I would never have agreed to renew it for another year given that I left to start a 12 month MSc degree at Swansea university, 200 miles from home! Plus I only came back throughout the entire 12 months once for two weeks during Christmas, this doesn't matter though because again, I would never had renewed it, I had a membership in Swansea, both gym and swim.

I have a vague memory of telephoning the pool around October 2016 to make sure the membership would not be renewed. Not something I can really prove though.

Do I have a case here to get my money back as I have had £20 per month for one year taken out of my account. The only reason I didn't notice is because I started uni with a fair bit of money and £20 per month wasn't noticeable.

Thanks for reading, any advice here would be greatly appreciated.


You can always try, but it might be difficult. Many of these things automatically renew unless you explicitly cancel - that's probably written in the small-print.
May be a difficult one. Have you looked over the contract to check there isn't a "give us 30days notice before membership cancellation" on something part on there?
Reply 3
Avatar for BillMurray
BillMurray
OP
10
Original post by Otherside22
May be a difficult one. Have you looked over the contract to check there isn't a "give us 30days notice before membership cancellation" on something part on there?


Honestly, I have no idea. I didn't read the contract (I know!). I was always under the impression (not that that is worth anything) that it was a 12 month contract and at the very least I would be told it was going to be automatically renewed.

I did telephone them in October 2016 requesting it to be cancelled because I remember seeing that another £20 had come out of my account in October and thinking that that is not right, I'm currently in Swansea!

I don't recall how that telephone conversation went though, I'd imagine they agreed to cancel it.
Original post by BillMurray
Honestly, I have no idea. I didn't read the contract (I know!). I was always under the impression (not that that is worth anything) that it was a 12 month contract and at the very least I would be told it was going to be automatically renewed.

I did telephone them in October 2016 requesting it to be cancelled because I remember seeing that another £20 had come out of my account in October and thinking that that is not right, I'm currently in Swansea!

I don't recall how that telephone conversation went though, I'd imagine they agreed to cancel it.


If they're planning on calling you, talk to them first. See if they will refund the £20 as a goodwill payment given the circumstances. If not, I'm not sure there's much you can do other than try and cancel this.

Ask them over the phone to stop taking money from your account, whether that's via Direct Debit or Continous Payment Authority (They're probably taking money through one of those methods), and that you want your membership cancelled.

Then, however the conversation goes, put that in writing, post it to them so it's very clear to them that you want it cancelled, and keep a copy of what you sent.

After that, check on your bank whether theres a Direct Debit set up to pay the gym. If there is, cancel it (might be able to do this online). The gym should agree to stop taking money through Continous Payment Authority (if thats how your paying), but if they don't, you'll need to call your bank and get it removed.
You can try, but they'll probably query why you let the membership run for a year without trying cancel again.

For future reference, if you cancel a membership, always cancel the direct debit yourself at the same time.
I doubt you'll get anywhere with this now. You probably had to actively cancel the membership, generally that's how these things go. The year is a minimum contract length and after that it automatically continues until you formally cancel it. If you called that should ahve meant it got cancelled but it's always better to dos oemthing like that by email so you have proof that you attempted to cancel. You can tell them you called to cancel but you have no proof and no one else will remember. Had you done this soon after the payment continued you'd have had an argument but you really should be checking what's leaving your account more often.

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you