Taking issue with Jackie Skelly
Conor Pope
A Ray Darcy listener got in touch with me about Jackie Skelly Fitness. It’s a long story but does, I think, illustrate a real problem with gyms in Ireland and customer service in general. This chap moved to the US six months ago and before he left he filled out a cancellation request form at the fitness centre in Applewood Swords.
He handed the form and waited a week before calling to see had they’d any news. He was told it was still in the review process but three days later he got a call confirming his membership had been cancelled, so off he went.
Then not long ago, he got phone call from his dad saying he’d opened his bank statement and noticed €65 a month was being taken by Jackie Skellys. “I called the gym and someone in the admin department told me that she’d received no letter and had no record of my cancellation,” he says.
“Since then no-one has called me back. I have called so many times, I have the call records and all I get is “she’ll call you back” she’s on another call” she’s off today” “her computer is down” . I’m not trying to scam anyone out of money I just want the money that was taken out of my account put back. I’m sure if I owed them money it would be a different story.”
I have to say I empathise with him on Jackie Skelly’s reluctance to call him back because I’ve been following this problem for several weeks now and I have made many, many phone calls to Jackie Skelly’s and never once got a callback. Just as I was beginning to despair of every hearing back from them, they got in touch with me late last week.
They told me that our listener had been a member since December 2005 on a minimum 12 month contract. With this type of contract you’re obliged to stay for at least 12 months and then if you wish to cancel your membership at any stage after this you are required to give two months notice to the gym in writing by filling out a cancellation form at the club, writing a letter or sending an e-mail.
A spokeswoman said the gym requires it in writing “so that we always have a record of the cancellation”.
Hmm.
She said the first recorded contact they have with our listener was the end of August when he discovered his direct debit payments were continuing to come out of his account.
She said there was no record whatsoever of the cancellation form he completed and the phone call he received. I was told cancellation of an account and a confirmation call are always noted on the member’s account. She said there were no such notes on his account and the cancellation form was not found his paper file.
She assured me that they did a thorough search for this cancellation request by looking at two months either side of the date that he said he cancelled on just in case his cancellation was filed incorrectly but there was no cancellation request found.
Hmm.
The spokeswoman said she was “sympathetic to his situation but as a company we simply cannot refund these type of requests when we have to record either on his paper file or on his record on our computer system”.
It’s interesting because it seems that the old concept of the customer being always right is not something that holds much sway in Jackie Skelly’s. A situation like this quickly turns into a he said she said thing. He says he filled in the form, they say they can’t find it so won’t give him his money back. I will leave it up to you to decide who to believe.
The statement went on to say that “as we now have an unhappy ex member we would like to offer 3 options of compensation:
One year’s Platinum membership for him – this would allow him use of all clubs. It is of course entirely useless to him as he is in the States. They also offered him a year’s platinum membership for a person he nominates – again, if I was him, I’d not be impressed with this offer.
The third option is one year’s membership as a prize for a charity of our listener’s choice I am told this would be to the value of €852.It’s a nice offer. Now if I was running the gym what I would do would be give him his money back – it’s not that much, €300 or so, and give one year’s membership as a prize for a charity of our listener’s choice.
They concluded by apologising to him for any inconvenience caused said they would “love to welcome him back as a member to enjoy all the benefits of health & Fitness.
I think there is a broader issue involved here and that is the whole nature of gyms and how they do business.
Generally speaking I think people should be very, very careful when it comes to joining a gym and there are certain questions which should always be asked before any money is handed over or any financial details are given.
Many gyms sign you up for a full 12 months and making getting out of the contract next to impossible if not completely impossible – so that is the first question that should be asked if you are considering joining a gym.
Another point, and one that a lot of people aren’t aware of, is that when the initial 12 month contract comes to an end, some gyms stipulate that they will automatically renew the contract on a rolling basis unless you contact them in writing at least 10 days before the initial contract expires to cancel. If you don’t do that then you have to give them two months notice before you can leave – now you do get use of the gym for that period but it is like you’re trapped in the gym. I think that is particularly sneaky. And I would never join a gym that had such a policy.
When it comes to payment, although you may be paying by direct debit, some gyms make you give credit card or laser card details as well and have it in their terms and conditions that they can debit money from either should you fail to pay your direct debit or try to cancel it in dispute. This is buried in the terms and conditions and can be very hard to find.
Some gyms – and Jackie Skelly’s is one of them – employ debt collectors. I know this because they are advertising for them on their website – you’d have to wonder about that. Incidentally a lot of the time gyms threaten people who haven’t paid with debt recovery agencies and suggest non-payment may affect credit ratings – but this isn’t actually the case as gyms are not registered with the Irish Credit Bureau.
The gyms will say that they are covered by their terms and conditions and say are very upfront about what they are offering and to a point this is true. But I have to say that the small print is ridiculously small. And of course some gyms are worse than others. I went in search of a couple of examples. Crunch Fitness is a Dublin chain and here is there contract. The size of the text on the contract is normal, there might be 20 terms and conditions and it is easy enough to read.
Jackie Skelly’s on the other hand is ridiculous. You’d need a microscope to read it, the text is so small. And there are so many terms and conditions that anyone reading through them all would deserve a special prize.
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5:05 pm
It’s all been well documented before: http://www.jackieskellymembership.com/ He is not the first to complain of this, nor will he be the last. When is the NCA going to step in and do what they’re supposed to!!!???
Comment by John