Xtreme Fitness Centre, Everton Park, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia - payment problems

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on February 24, 2003:

From: Wilma Aplin [Email User]

RE: Xtreme Fitness Centre, Everton Park, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia - payment problems

On the 1st May 2001 I signed what I thought, was a 12 month contract with Xtreme Fitness Gym, Everton Park, Brisbane, paying the first month cash, including a $5.00 set up fee, to the gym and then allowing Financially Fit Australia Pty Ltd to debit my savings account for $39.65 per month, payable to the gym.

I dropped out after a couple of months and didn't return. I rang the gym to find out if I could terminate the contract and was told it would cost me $150.

I didn't have that money so left the debit process as it was expecting it to finish in June 2002. Towards the end of 2002 I was telemarketer again by the gym, with the gym leaving a message on my answering service telling me that I was one of the lucky people selected in the area to receive this fabulous deal from the gym. It was the same invitation to join the gym as I had had in the first place and which had got me to join. I paid no attention thinking that I had paid out my contract and that was the end of it.

In January 2003 I received my quarterly bank statement and found that the payments via Financially Fit Australia had continued into November 2002 and then ceased.

I rang Financially Fit Australia and was told that the payments had continued because I had signed a contract that had a box ticked "until further notice, minimum 11 payments". I then rang the gym and spoke to a woman who said she could help me with my query and explained that because I had signed the contract, which had the above mentioned box ticked, there wasn't anything I could do about it as it was all legal. The woman told me that this clause would have been explained to me when I joined, way back in May 2001.

I expressed my disappointment at having shelled out an extra $250.00 while I hadn't been to the gym in well over a year . The woman told me that occasionally she would go through the old contracts and inform Financially Fit to terminate the direct debit processes of people who hadn't been into the gym or contacted the gym after their 12 months was up, which is why my payments stopped in November. However, when I went to the gym I would have my membership card scanned and I would fill out my program card and date it.

The woman also told me that the wording "until further notice" on the contract meant that when my 12 months was up I could continue at the rate of payment, written on my contract or I could end the contract. However, the woman told me that they no longer had that style of contract because of the many complaints they had had, from people like me who had not continued their visits to the gym and who had forgotten or not understood that they needed to inform the gym that they no longer wished to attend. The woman said there was nothing she could do other than to offer me a 6 month membership at the gym, either for myself or a family member. I told the woman that I didn't want it. I was angry and disappointed but at no time abusive.

It's bad enough that I paid for 12 months membership and only turned up about half a dozen times but it distresses me even more that I paid an extra $250.00 because I had forgotten about the need to contact the gym to cancel the payments. Why couldn't the gym contact me to let me know that the contract was due to end or chase me up to get in to the gym?.

Surely there is some obligation for the staff to look after their clients. If they found the time to market me again (while I was still paying) why couldn't they have contacted me about my membership being overpaid. When I rang about terminating the contract why wasn't it mentioned to me then that I needed to let them know that I didn't want to continue when my 12 months was up?. Surely that was obvious.

Where do these people get off overcharging their clients and then telling them, sorry you can't do anything about it because it's all legal. What about the morality of it?.

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Signed ... Wilma Aplin

Brisbane