Holmes Place
Posted: Tue 17 October, 2006 Filed under: Customer Services, Getting Organised, Health 7 Comments »So yes, Holmes Place, the snivelling bunch of bureaucratic tosspot scumbags. I really can’t begin to emphasise just how gobsmacked I am by their attitude to customers, but I have to say, I wouldn’t ever recommend Holmes Place to anyone ever again.
Fair enough, I understand, they have a minimum contract, and they make their money from the people who sign up in January in a fit of the New Year resolutions, do maybe a month or two, and then don’t come back. That’s where the profit and cream comes from for the business – after all, if people have to pay, but choose not to use the facilities, that’s their choice.
What I object to on just about every front, though, is their attitude when this isn’t the case, when you’ve moved (or, in my case, am primarily based) somewhere else, where there’s no Holmes Place within a radius of 65 miles. I can’t help that, and it’s down to the company not having a facility in the area. If there were a Holmes Place in the area, I’d be using it, and I would’ve transferred my membership over to that one. But there simply isn’t the facility. Yet I’ve still got to pay for four months where I can’t use the gym, not where I decide not to.
I’m still going to find the name of their customer services director, and write another snotty letter to them. In the meantime, well, it’s time to get D4D™ into the top ten on Google for a search on Holmes Place. Currently I’m only at about #15…
Their senior customer service manager is Briony Middleton and her email address is briony.middleton@holmesplace.com. You can also use this email: member.enquiries@holmesplace.com
Some advice for you now:
Cancel your direct debit and email them and tell them they can take you to court for the remaining amount and you will defend the claim. Guess what? they don’t go to the cost of taking you to court – their sham as you rightly noted above is all built on empty threats and hassle factor. People moving back to Australia, South Africa etc are also routinely lied to and told they have to pay which is ridiculous as the contract is clearly frustrated and any term/condition to the contrary is void by virtue of the unfair contract terms act legislation.
Trust me – just cancel your direct debit and write to HP and tell them there is no local HP gym therefore the contract has been frustrated and any term/condition to the contrary is void by virtue of UCTA legislation and you will defend any court claim. You could also state if they continue to demand money you will report them to the Police and consider a court claim for harrassment. It costs HP (or any company) around £500-£700 minimum in lost management time plus solicitors and court fees to take you to court **if you defend the claim** so Holmes Place NEVER issue claims as it is not economically viable.
PS I’m planning to blog about the corrupt practices at Holmes Place.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9558-1985368,00.html
This might be useful for you too:
Chairman Graham.Reddish@holmesplace.com
Chief Executive Ian.Burke@holmesplace.com
Sales and Marketing Director Nick.Burrows@holmesplace.com
I have recently been contacted by Arc Europe, who are hired debt collectors by Holmes Place. They have asked me for a charge of £270 in missed payments from August to November. I had actually cancelled my membership back in June (I was a member for more than 12 months and was therefore within my rights to do this).
Holmes Place never contacted me themselves regarding this, leaving to a debt collector to call me at work, which I found very embarrassing and stressful.
I happened to have the cancellation email that I had sent to Holmes Place still and their reply saved in my inbox (stating that this was the start of the 30 day notice period). I forwarded this to the debt collector and proceeded to contact Holmes Place using the email addresses listed on this page – I have now sent 3 emails but have not yet heard back (here’s a new one though S.Dick@virginactive.co.uk).
The cancellation email was sent on 29th June 2006. Therefore my membership would finish on 30th July 2006. I made a direct debit payment on 1st August 2006 – 3 days after my membership ceased to be. I then cancelled my direct debit on 8th August so no more payments were made. Beacuse of the payment made on 1st August, I have asked Holmes Place for this to be returned to me.
I received another email from the debt collectors today advising that my outstanding account balance has now been reduced to £25.59….I have replied to them asking what this could possibly be for.
I will let you know how it goes…..
What happened in the end? I left Holmes Place in September told the reception manager I was cancelling but now I’ve got some pushy git from ARC Europe phoning 3 or 4 times a day for £275 ….I was member for 3 years , paid thousands in personal training and know feel like **** and helpless against the now threat of ‘solicitors action’ I have contactef the local gym manager who says he’s sorting it out but still the calls and nasty threats keep coming. Have gyms got some sort of special right to act like *****.
Anyone got any helpful advice. I was even considering going back but not now….
Has anyone had any sucess with this. I have currently got the same problems outlined above. I cancelled my membership, had no contact from Virgin and now have ARC Europe chasing me for £180! No one at virgin active will speak about it and ARC Europe are not particularly helpful either.
I want to contact somebody at the top of Virgin Active, any ideas on the best person? Cheers
I’ve also made a mistake of getting a membership at Holmes Place Budapest, Hungary. I have signed up for a 24 months contract, but being more busy than I realised, I ended up not visiting the club even once within the first 5 months of my subscription. But I was paying the membership, ofcourse.
Now I am about to have a second baby and become more busy than before, so I realized that I should simply cancel my membership and avoid throwing money away in vain each month. I just learned that I cannot cancel the membership and have to pay it all until the end of contract that I signed. Not that it would be a big problem, I could even visit it from time to time, to tell the truth (the gym itself is ok here) but knowing the fact that I am basically f$#cked in terms of bureaucracy is not making me feel good about my damn membership anymore. I am about to find out what can be done against Holmes Place, whether such contracts without exit option are legally correct and probably go to court with them, report them to police and the local consumer protection authorities, press, Internet campaings, etc… This is where I am now with Holmes Place.. join them if you think that this is what you want as well… but have a look at their terms and conditions from the back side of the contract first… (http://micora.net/holmes-place.jpg) point by point and you will learn that you basically have no rights whatsoever. You owe them from the very same second you sign the contract… Every cent, until the end and if you don’t notify them 3 months in advance, the contract is automatically prolonged for an undefinite amount of time. Good luck, have fun – one life, live it well!