Fitness studio membership cancellation problems - Munich

Hi,

I have been a member of a fitness studio called INJOYLady in Hofmannstrasse. Although I handed my resignation in April, they claim they never received it. I threatened to get a lawyer, and now they say my membership ends at the end of January next year! And they want my membership card, which I handed to them personally in April. I am planning to get a lawyer and fight for my rights, and am looking for more women who have been robbed by these people.

Also, does anyone know a good lawyer here in town?

Tasha

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Did you hand in the resignation personally? If so, did you get a receipt? If you didn't get a receipt, do you remember the name of the person who accepted the resignation/card? Did you write the resignation in a computer stored document? Any of the above will all help to support your side of the story.

Unfortunately although I handed the resignation in personally, they didnt give me a receipt, and the young girl at reception said it was OK, it was all I needed to do.

It is the first time I experience something like this in Germany, I never had problems before. So of course silly me trusted them as well.

But I intend to make them suffer even if it costs me more money than just paying off the membership. Now its a principle issue for me.

Go down there in person, find out who was on duty at the time you handed in the resignation and inform the head/owner of the studio. They have to prove that you have not resigned if they want any money off of you.
Studios are all the same: I handed in a doctor's certificate that I had a pinched disk and the studio said I could at least still use the pool. I wangled myself out anyway but it took a while. And the collecting agency was a farce, the mail arrived four days after the date of the letters with a 5 day deadline. They got more than an earfull and never wrote again.

Germany's cancellation policies are full of shit. Everyone needs to start complaining about the idea that some BS notice of 3 months to 1 year is required. Rise up and fight. This is a revolution against these revolting policies.

I thought of that as well. Will probably go there tomorrow. Might even threaten with calling the police as this is blind robbery! I just feel like these people need to get a real fright.

Am still considering getting a lawyer to go after them. But I also need to find out if there are more people who had the same problems with this same studio. I wont let them get off lightly.

Revolution is a light word for what I want to do to them

You are right, their policies are full of BS.

You should have made them give you a copy of the letter with the fitness company stamp and dated receipt...In the words of the XFiles...Trust No One...

Good Luck.

Tasha27---good luck with this. Just something to look out for---I cancelled my membership in time from another gym in Munich as well, via fax and email. Even followed up with a call (where I verbally attacked for cancelling) They got it alright, but continued for over a year to try and STEAL (yes, that is what it is) the money off my account.

Here is the thing--do they have your bank details? If they do, be very careful and check your account regularly. These jerks even knew the general times I left for home each year, and tried to take off the money 3 or 4 more times(over a year later, I repeat) thinking I might miss the 6 week cutoff, and they would get paid anyway. TOTAL BS is right.

BTW these thing all happened after calls made and letters sent by my lawyer.

I am still watching my account and it has been 2 years, because I think they will try it on again.

Eurovol is too right on this on. Even if you do it right, they will still try it on AS THEY HAVE ALL YOUR BANK DETAILS what the hell...

#1 Don't pay your fees from the month you would normally have stopped paying (if they had not *lost* your letter)
#2 Give them a hard time: phone in, harrass them, learn to enjoy this

I have actually worked for companies with guidelines such as "if they don't ask for a receipt, just throw the thing away".

I was young and needed the money

What works is: Harrassment, not paying, threatening with the press, the Verbraucherzentrale, etc.

They most likely will back down. Good luck!

Wow, Dimmer, that is frightening...but it does teach us that we have to be diligent. People are business to make money and not to be our friends...

Oh yes, the bank! Revoke any direct debit the studio might have with a certified letter/return receipt and copy to the bank. If you have a standing order, cancel it immediately. All this if you haven't done so already.

In my case, HypoVereins would not let me do it (despite several requests), ever though they had all the supporting documentation. JUST BE CAREFUL -- really is a license to steal.

Sorry, I know this not about me, but I just hate to see anyone else go through the same. A

What? Your own bank won't let you do something to your own account?!?

Believe it or not...I even asked an acquaintance that is a VP over there to help, and he made calls and told me the same thing...can you believe it (I can't still even)...but like I said, it is a license to steal

Most banks won't let you cancel, or close your account without first getting the people who do the standing orders sorted out. Buddy of mine went thru this same prob. He was with a Sparkasse. He showed them letters sent/recieved, the reciept/signature from the certified letter etc.
They still wouldn't do it...

Hi all,

thanks for the support.

Yes am going to talk to my bank, if they dont agree, I will get another bank account somewhere else and not send any money to the old one. ut I have been with them for 11 years, never had a problem with them.

I am going to contact a lawyer and am definetly not letting this thing just go on like this. Time to go after the crooks

Tasha

That still won't work... If there is not enough $ in the account to cover the Standing order, it will still go thru, but your account will go into the negative, thus inccuring additional bank costs, and the amount you are minus, all of which you would still be responsible for.

You are right but I will find a way out. A lawyer should help there. I cant give up, this is robbery, and there must be a way of getting them. I know someone else who is with them, and will try to find out who has been with them. Maybe someone else had the same problem. And I will try to warn whoever is with them about this.

YOU GO, GIRL...!!!

You could do what my friend did, write the gym another letter, stating that you will be moving out of the country, and that they need to cancel the contract or you will be forced to get a lawyer. Most of the time this works for most contracts. You maybe required to produce additional documents backing this up. But I'm sure you can be very "creative" with such documents/requests.. If not, I can help

Gym membership cancellation letter - how to write such a letter in German

Thanks for the Link EB, but that looks to be the standard "1st letter" type thing. I believe the OP is well past that stage, and is ready to get a lawyer to settle things, as the gym still doesn't acknowlage the reciept of any letter, and doesn't want to stop the bank xfers. It's time to get "creative" with letters, etc.

Great ideas

Well, I did write another letter, lets see what they answer. I might "get out of the country"...

Thanks for the support

just for future requests. in your letter of resignation, always write that you want a written letter in return acknowledging your resignation. whether in person or not. in my letters i always have the standard "schriftliche bestätigung" at the end.


good luck.

I'd even go so far as to request 1) receipt of the cancellation in writing; 2) confirmation that they will no longer debit your account after (date); 3) date of contract termination. If you have it in their writing they're stuffed.

when paying things like this, always try to set up a standing order, as opposed to a direct debit, the difference is a standing order is you giving the company your money on a set date, but a direct debit is when u give the company permission to TAKE the money from your account and so is more awkward to cancel, as you need to go to the actual company to cancel in most instances. standing order is between you and your bank and as such you can cancel whenever...i used to work in a bank and the little facts you pick up come in handy sometimes...

I personaly can vouch for the "we're moving from the country" thing. It worked with Vodafone although we had to finaly speak with a customer service representative at the highest level.

The "standing order" that peteb speaks of is called a "Dauerauftrag" and is usefull for all your payments in Germany. Especially rent. (If the Hausverwaltung doesn't fix the XYZ and make this place livable you can withhold your rent till they fix it.)

that's not so easy. i know when i went to sign up for my gym membership, they said "lastschrift" only. that was a condition of their contract. i argued with them (i had only been in germany 1 year and the idea of letting someone take their money out of my account was terribly awkward) and lost. the same goes for my rental contract.

for mvv, for example, they say you can do a "lastschrift" and cancel it at any time so instead i have a "dauerüberweisung", yet they still send me a bill hoping i switch over to "lastschrift".

Can't you just close your account?

It's hard to take money out of an account that doesn't exist...

This happened me before too, I sent my Gym 2 cancellation per post (unfortunately no receipt (not per "Einschreiben"))

I thought all was OK until I got a letter from their lawyer wanting money for time after I sent my cancellation (over a year later) there was no way out, had to pay as they "conveniently" had no record of my cancellation, and as I couldn't prove otherwise I had to pay...

When I said I didn't know that I hadn't been cancelled, the told me "Dummheit schutzt vor Strafe nicht"...

yea i forgot to mention that most companies will onyl accept direct debits, but sometimes you can argue and say you want to pay by standing order, giving the choice between getting money from you or none at all, they will take whatever way you want to pay them. gyms are a different breed though, they are evil...

peteb's tip for the day: save money by not going to the gym:- lifting heavy chairs and bags of sugar, or using books as weights can be worthy substitutes to "official" weightlifting...also, walking to turn over the tv burns those calories!!

@Hazza

If its a Lastschrift, No you can not.. The bank won't do it (Close your account) until all lastschrifts are stopped. No money in the account, no prob. most accounts allow foreigners an overdraft of up to 500 Eur. Germans and EU Citz. can usually go up to 2k Eur. The lastschrifts will still be taken out of the account up till the overdraft limit. Then you gotta fight the bank to pay that $$ back then all the banks penalities.

Either way your boned... But the best way is to go after the lastschrift takers with legal action. (Or threats of)

Looks like the best I can do is to demand a bill with the remaining time and tell them to give receipt of some sort. I managed to get the confirmation for my cancellation now, after threatening to get a lawyer. But now they say they dont have my membership card... looks like that is something as well that I will have to pay for. B******s!

Fight that too...

have a good friend who is in SERIOUS trouble with this - she told em (in writing) that she wished to cancel 1 month before the renewal date - was reassured that they would only take that month and then it would stop , but sure enough they kept taking - so she closed her bank account , opened a different one and wrote to explain that she was moving country - next thing she gets a lawyer's letter looking for 2k in her home country. Ideas ?

If she really has moved country (or can at least make it plausible) then she has moved more than 30km from the gym and has a right to special termination. There should be a clause in the agreement about that.

@ sara - you mean in the original gym contract ? Thanks for your reply , I didn't see anything like this in the contract however.

it's not in any contract, but it is german law. i went through the same thing when i moved here from stuttgart. justification was moving more than 30 km away, but i also got a letter confirming my cancellation.

We had contracts that automatically renewed every six months but could be cancelled six weeks before renewal date. We took the cancellation letters to them and got a copy stamped as being received. Since then no problems. They also said we could have cancelled at anytime as we were moving away. All we had to do was show them the Ummeldungs thing and they would have been happy.

Thanks, honey. It was expressly stipulated in mine, that's why I remember it.

Thanks a bundle... this should be enough.

QUICK UPDATE: My lady friend spoke to her lawyer - he confirmed what you guys said - so he sent faxes to both the fitness company and the lawyer in Prague trying to screw her out of 2k euro. Next thing homeboy lawyer in Prague somehow gets her Mum's mobile number and starts threatening. Is there any way to put the shits up him ??? Like some EU law forbidding his obtaining her Mum's number ?

No, but he is not allowed to threaten her for example with bodily harm, impounding her bank account or killing her dog.

Ok, I missed the 3-month deadline for cancelling my fitness center contract and REALLY do not want to pay for another year's membership. They've already made an obscene amount of money from me.

So does the whole "I'm leaving the country and didn't know before the 3-month deadline" trick work?

OK - so quick update and then a how to - so my lady friend's lawyer wrote the lawyer in Prague a fuck-u-pal-it's-German-law-that-counts letter , and basically if he called her Mum again he'd have his ass on a spit... not heard from that guy since... dont know if this means its over yet - because honestly it's been a huge mess.

How to ? write a letter saying you're returning to your home country - and that your lawyer/buddy/friend told you that German law says that once your outside of a certain distance they have to can the contract. My gf gave her forwarding address ... I'm not sure if this was the best idea in the world though.

Hey is this thread dead?
I am in trouble.
I fell for one of these schemes they call contracts in a gym in Dresden.
I signed for 3 months but there was a clause which prolonged the membership automatically for one year.
When they gave me this contract to sign they said that it was no big deal and sweet words like that
but they told me that I should have given notice four weeks in advance if I wanted to terminate the contract.
Well on the contract in geman ( which I dont speak at all) they say it is 6 weeks. So they also lied to me.
I am really pissed of. This is of course a big scheme many german gyms use to make some more money.
They set a cancellation time so early in advance that the probability you forget is very high.
They know people have more important things to do than remember about their stupid gym deadlines!!!
F**ck these bastards.
They hav to make your life hard.
By the way I paid the 3 months cash, I didn't give them my bank account.
Should I worry??
Any advice?

Hi Minollo
I cant really help you except to say my gym lied to me as well, and I hope this thread isnt dead either! I was never told once my 12 month contract had rolled over I would then have to pay for another full year's gym membership. the guy that signed me up knew I didnt speak/read German and didnt explain anything.

I would like to warn people off from THE FITNESS COMPANY!!! Do NOT use the FITNESS COMPANY!!! I dont believe the problems I have had with them this year, in fact I am now the fifth person in my office to leave them in 12 months as we have all had so many problems with them.

I got a programme from a personal trainer employed by the gym. Our 'conversation' regarding my expectations and what I wanted to achieve was tossed over his shoulder as he whisked me through the gym within 1 minute of meeting him as he sped toward the cardio machines. My programme consisted of cardio, nothing else. I asked when we would be doing weights and he looked really confused. 'You want weights as well?'. What was the most disturbing thing though was I was NEVER asked what injuries I have/had, even when I came back a week later for my weights programme. They dont weigh you first, there are no measurements taken, you are just given a very generic programme. Is this why you very seldom see woman using free weights here?? As a result I contacted my own trainer back home and got her to write me a programme which I faithfully do when I go to the gym.

They wont take money out of an offshore bank account. I got a German bank account and they wouldnt take money out of that either, even when I gave them my number.

As a result I paid cash. However I expected at the start of every month when I swiped my card they would look at the computer and say ' you owe us money'. However they dont. Even if your card comes up with a red cross (meaning there's a problem) all they ever do is check your birthdate and let you through! After 3 months I received a letter saying my membership was cancelled as I had not paid. I had never been asked to by the desk staff!!! I explained this when I paid, but no notice was ever taken as the afore mentioned office colleagues also had problems and were just waved though.

The guy who signed me up said I could take a leave of absence from the gym at any time. End of subject. I went in one day and said I wouldnt be in Germany the following month and was letting them know. They got me to scribble that down on a piece of paper as apparently that is what is required. Again, didnt know. The next time I required a leave of absence I took my typewritten letter in 14 days in advance thinking I was all prepared. No no, the rules had changed again. This time I needed to take a form back from the gym, fill it in and get my EMPLOYER to also write a letter to say I wouldnt be in Germany for a month.

In the meantime I am still having problems with the haphazard cash-payment method they insist on using - ie, I approach them and say I think I owe you money and pay that way, or I wait until I got another cancellation letter in the mail because I had not paid.

The last straw was the last time I took a leave of absence (with all the correct paperwork done and faxed to both head office and my local gym stating I would be away for a total of 6 weeks). I stated the date I would be back in Germany on it. 6 days after I arrived in the country I received a letter demanding I pay a sum of 120 euros within 7 days or else it would be referred to the lawyers!!! Why??? Your guess is as good as mine. I went in to the gym to find out and they said my contract had rolled over and I hadnt paid the next 3 months in advance. All news to me. I said I had only been back in the country for a total of 9 days now, why was I getting this threatening letter? They said they had sent a number of letters asking for this money but nothing had been paid. What??? They had all this information saying I wouldnt be in the country, they still sent me letters regardless and now because I 'hadnt replied' (ie I hadnt even been in the country to receive/answer letters) I was being threatened with legal action???!!! All my mail comes in through the office, I checked, only one letter came for me while I was away, it was the fitness company asking me to pay 53 euros for the month of September.

Honestly that company is run by a set of incompetent idiots, their administration is a shambles, I would urge anyone to steer well clear of them

Can anyone be so kind as to post here (or PM me) some German text for foolproof cancellation of Fitness contract. I will send it registered post to avoid any problems. Many thanks in advance.

a Munich court has now confirmed that is possible for customers to cancel gym contracts if they move to a new city:

http://www.n-tv.de/ratgeber/steuernrecht/B...icle366371.html