Change to terms and conditions at gym

[PestoSansVesto]

Background: I belong to a gym which was owned & run by Esporta. As my DDs aren't members I bulk purchased child passes for them to use the facilities. I paid £100 for twenty passes and this was over a year ago.

Anyhoo, when I went to take dd2 there this weekend, the receptionist said I could no longer use my child passes as the gym is now run by Virgin Active and they will only now accept their own passes. I asked if I could therefore swap my passes for the new ones and was told no. I asked for a refund for the unused passes and again was told no, nothing to do with them as the gym no longer run by Esporta.

My question is, do I have any comeback legally? I haven't written to complain yet, just wondering where I stand. Our income is severely limited now as DH is terminally ill and I don't really want to worry him by asking for more money

[NeilsBoar]

Firstly, sorry to hear about your DH.

I speak as someone who deals with contracts running a business, rather than as a lawyer - but my opinion is that your contract is with Esporta. So if Esporta still exist then they should refund you, if they have been bought by Virgin Active then your contract is now with Virgin Active and they should honour them, but if Esporta has been wound up as a company then legally you have no recourse. Having said all that I suspect Virgin Active management may well be more sympathetic than the receptionist (who may not be able to make the decision to refund you).

[PestoSansVesto]

Ok, that's what I thought might be the case. Maybe I'll try a letter to the Manager then and not hold my breath. When I asked the Receptionist today, she said the Manager had said there weren't to be any exceptions though

But I s'pose it's worth a try.
Thank you.

[NeilsBoar]

According to their website it looks like they were taken over - which in my opinion means they have to honour the vouchers. Unless there was something in the T's & C's on the vouchers that allowed them to cancel them after a certain date or whenever they felt like it, but that seems unlikely.

[MOSagain]

Not an expert but I'd have thought that if they were changing over existing members should have been given adequate notice of this and it should have been made clear that passes could not be used once Virgin took over.

Hope you get it sorted Pesto. So sorry about your DH

[prh47bridge]

As you bought the passes over a year ago it is possible they have expired. Is there anything in the Ts & Cs on the vouchers to say they must be used before a certain date?

If you get no joy from the manager I suggest you contact Virgin Active's customer services team. They should either be able to tell you who to contact to get your money back or, if the passes should still be honoured, give the manager a kick.

[PestoSansVesto]

Thanks all,
The vouchers don't have any terms & conditions nor an expiry date on them. We didn't get any written notifcation that they would no longer be valid, but Receptionist said that they had put up signs in the gym saying that these passes and other guest passes would no longer be accepted. I have to say I have been every week, but didn't spot any such signs.
Am grateful for your input(s). And I will start putting a letter together.

[MOSagain]

I hate bloody gyms, they try to rip you off all the time.
I pay rather a lot of money every month for myself, DH and our two DC to go to the gym. The only thing the DC can use is the pool which they have now closed for 4 weeks but refuse to give a refund in respect of the kids membership

[tibni]

I belong to a gym that was Esporta and is now Virgin Active.

At the gym I attend there were notices up for a couple of months saying that the old Esporta passes would only be valid to a set date. I think I had an e-mail with the same information on.

As an aside childrens membership with virgin is far cheaper than with Esporta - £10 a month so the cost of a couple of passes.

I think all you can do is talk to the manager. Esporta did used to have a degree of flexibility but also had more member rate costs / concessions than anyone could keep up with. I have not heard of anyone getting the same deals with virgin.

Good luck

[PestoSansVesto]

Thanks Tibni, I haven't had any emails - grrr!! But will check out how much the child memberships are aswell.
It's just annoying as the DDs don't always want to come with me, but with the passes we had the option.

[PestoSansVesto]

MOSagain,
that is sooooo annoying