Esporta Watchdog investigates the health club.

21 March 2007

Esporta says it's one of the UK's fastest growing health clubs. When you join, you sign a contract that commits you to a year's membership. But, as some Watchdog viewers have found out, the firm can save the toughest workout for the time you want to leave.

Liz Fisher was an Esporta member for five years. Last August she was moving house and decided to leave. She hand-delivered her cancellation letter.

"I didn't hear anything until December when I got my bank statements. I opened them to find that Esporta had been taking money. And I was just absolutely shocked," says Fisher.

She contacted her bank to make sure Esporta couldn't take any more of money. But when Esporta couldn't get her cash it called in the debt collectors. The company finally cancelled Fisher's contract last month, but owes her more than £200.

Esporta's terms and conditions say you may even be able to cancel your membership within your first year of joining if you get an illness or medical condition that means you can't use the gym. All you have to do is provide ‘reasonable' evidence, such as a doctor's letter.

So, when, after three months of membership, Susan Minear was told she needed a hysterectomy and bladder surgery, she sent Esporta two doctor's letters. She assumed the firm would cancel her membership.

Despite its terms and conditions, Esporta decided that Minear's doctor's letters weren't, in fact, reasonable evidence that she was sick. She's now had her surgery, but once again Esporta has called in the debt collectors.

Minear told Watchdog: "I just want peace and quiet, and all the time I'm getting harassment."

Two months after joining Esporta, Charlotte Campbell was diagnosed with ME. "I've lost my job, I can't go out, and I can't even go for a walk. Obviously, using a gym is completely out of the question," she explains.

"I rang the gym to say my doctor had told me that under no circumstances should I to do any exercise. Its response was that it couldn't do anything until I'd been off [work] for three months and had sick notes to back this up."

Campbell continued to pay for the next three months, and then sent Esporta her medical notes and letters from her specialist. Yet again, Esporta refused to cancel. Then, when she cancelled her direct debit, Esporta sent in a credit management company.

Campbell says: "I've always got that constant worry that I'm going to have to end up in court fighting for something that I shouldn't have to fight for."