antihero
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 4,274
- Name
- Paul
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Bare with me on this...
We started our 5 year old on swimming lessons at the local leisure centre and paid by monthly direct debit. My wife dealt with all the setting up of it. To cut a long story short, we are less than impressed with them. They constantly swap the instructors around and in one 4 week period he had 4 different instructors...and low and behold one of those weeks was to determine whether or not he moved up a class. Unsurprisingly NOT ONE child got moved up. After 6 months, the progress shown by not just my son, but all the others in the class was minimal. We decided to remove him and sent him to lessons somewhere else on recommendation from others. I have since found out that a lot of people have stopped their kids having lesson there for the same reasons.
On the day we decided would be his last lesson, I informed the receptionist of this and was rudely and abruptly told "you have to put it in writing with a months notice". This got my back up so I got my phone out and looked at the t&c's on their website. They do 2 different contracts, a rolling month contract or a 12 month fixed which is slightly cheaper ( my wife is useless at this sort of thing and couldnt remember which she signed up for), but although the clauses concerning Membership Cancellation are different, the clauses concerning Direct Debits for both contracts is the same, and I quote;
"5.1. Members are not permitted to cancel their agreement during the Minimum Term. If a Member purports to cancel their agreement during the Minimum Term Serco shall be entitled to continue to collect the Monthly Membership Fees at a reduced rate of 75% of the prevailing Membership Fees as set out at the Facilities website for the duration of the Minimum Term. Members may cancel their agreement by no less than 30 days written notice taking effect upon the expiry of the Minimum Term. After the expiry of the Minimum Term, the member can, at any time, cancel their membership by providing the Company with thirty days written notice addressed to the Facilities. The membership will be cancelled with effect from the last day of the month following the completion of the thirty day notice period. All Membership Fees will be payable up to the date of cancellation. "
"5.2. Where a Direct Debit has failed, the membership shall be suspended until payment is received. Any member who falls behind in payment for more than 30 days will forfeit his/her membership and subsequent re-instatement of the membership will be subject to the current membership fees applicable at the date of re-instatement."
Upon reading this, we got home, I sent off a letter to them and cancelled the Direct Debit (and we haven't used the facilities since). Received a letter today saying we need to contact them because the DD has been cancelled and their is an outstanding balance and to contact them immediately. I did...I was told that the contract isn't due to finish until February and no letter has been received (even though it doesn't matter in this instance) and was then asked why we wanted to cancel, so I told her. "I'll look into it and ring you back" I was told....
I realise i'm not quite playing by the rules, but why should we be locked into a contract where the service provided is woeful to say the least? It will be interesting to see what they come back with as it's pretty clear to me (may not be correct though!) that cancelling your DD in 5.2 is a way of contradicting what is written in 5.1?
Thoughts?
We started our 5 year old on swimming lessons at the local leisure centre and paid by monthly direct debit. My wife dealt with all the setting up of it. To cut a long story short, we are less than impressed with them. They constantly swap the instructors around and in one 4 week period he had 4 different instructors...and low and behold one of those weeks was to determine whether or not he moved up a class. Unsurprisingly NOT ONE child got moved up. After 6 months, the progress shown by not just my son, but all the others in the class was minimal. We decided to remove him and sent him to lessons somewhere else on recommendation from others. I have since found out that a lot of people have stopped their kids having lesson there for the same reasons.
On the day we decided would be his last lesson, I informed the receptionist of this and was rudely and abruptly told "you have to put it in writing with a months notice". This got my back up so I got my phone out and looked at the t&c's on their website. They do 2 different contracts, a rolling month contract or a 12 month fixed which is slightly cheaper ( my wife is useless at this sort of thing and couldnt remember which she signed up for), but although the clauses concerning Membership Cancellation are different, the clauses concerning Direct Debits for both contracts is the same, and I quote;
"5.1. Members are not permitted to cancel their agreement during the Minimum Term. If a Member purports to cancel their agreement during the Minimum Term Serco shall be entitled to continue to collect the Monthly Membership Fees at a reduced rate of 75% of the prevailing Membership Fees as set out at the Facilities website for the duration of the Minimum Term. Members may cancel their agreement by no less than 30 days written notice taking effect upon the expiry of the Minimum Term. After the expiry of the Minimum Term, the member can, at any time, cancel their membership by providing the Company with thirty days written notice addressed to the Facilities. The membership will be cancelled with effect from the last day of the month following the completion of the thirty day notice period. All Membership Fees will be payable up to the date of cancellation. "
"5.2. Where a Direct Debit has failed, the membership shall be suspended until payment is received. Any member who falls behind in payment for more than 30 days will forfeit his/her membership and subsequent re-instatement of the membership will be subject to the current membership fees applicable at the date of re-instatement."
Upon reading this, we got home, I sent off a letter to them and cancelled the Direct Debit (and we haven't used the facilities since). Received a letter today saying we need to contact them because the DD has been cancelled and their is an outstanding balance and to contact them immediately. I did...I was told that the contract isn't due to finish until February and no letter has been received (even though it doesn't matter in this instance) and was then asked why we wanted to cancel, so I told her. "I'll look into it and ring you back" I was told....
I realise i'm not quite playing by the rules, but why should we be locked into a contract where the service provided is woeful to say the least? It will be interesting to see what they come back with as it's pretty clear to me (may not be correct though!) that cancelling your DD in 5.2 is a way of contradicting what is written in 5.1?
Thoughts?
