COERCED INTO SIGNING A DEBIT ORDER FOR ANNUAL SERVICE FEE

<p>My husband Craig Edward Foley Id No.721 ********** -081, signed a 12 month fixed term contract for my son, Dillon Edward William Foley Id No. ********** 100081 at Planet Fitness Westwood on the 29th of December 2014 with the consultant by the name of Lolly Chiliza. <br />When he took the contract out he advised Lolly that he specifically wanted the contract for 12 months only and did not want a debit order on his account and wanted to pay cash for the 12 months. She advised him he could pay cash for the 12 months but had to sign a debit order for the annual service agreement fee because that goes off at a specific date of the year and that he couldn’t pay cash for it. He wasn’t happy to sign a debit order because of previous experience but she insisted it was only a once off and was all fine.<br />It has since transpired that his account has been debited every month since then for a service agreement fee after he paid cash. My husband works away as a site manager and never picked this up but kept on wondering why his account was going overdrawn by over R500.00 every month. I picked it up when he was away the end of last year in Swaziland. When he got back from Swaziland he went into the bank and that is when he found out he is being charged this amount every month from January 2015 to December 2015. He since called the Planet Fitness call centre to cancel it as per Gavin Pringle, Manager at Planet Fitness Westwood.<br />He went to see the Manager Gavin Pringle at Planet Fitness Westwood and he said that he must contact the contact centre because there is a clause in the contract that the contract will be automatically renewed if no cancellation instruction has been received from the customer. This is all good and well however I would like to draw your attention to the fact that there is a clause in your contract to say that at least 40 days before the expiry of the fixed term, Planet Fitness would contact the customer in writing to let us know that our membership is coming to an end. We never received any such notification because if we had of it would have been at this stage that we would have reminded you that it was only for a year and that the contract had to be cancelled.<br />Another thing that I find very disturbing is that she marked all the places with an X where my husband had to sign and told him to sign. When entering into a contract you have to explain the contract to the contracting parties. My husband can’t read as he is dyslexic. Please note if this practise is being followed it is legally incorrect in terms of the FAIS and FICA act.<br />I would like this matter investigated urgently and the money refunded to my husband immediately as he was coerced into signing the debit order to make a sale.</p> <p> </p> <p>"We get told to speak to someone at the call centre on ********** 463 and I have called 3 times now to get a valid E Mail address to send the above E Mail to and each time I am given the incorrect E Mail addresses. When I request to go through to someone senior I get a whole lot of questions instead of being put through to someone senior and then put on hold after telling the consultant I want to speak to someone senior. I am using airtime all the time plus data to send E Mails and they are being returned. I am just being given the run around and want this matter sorted out because as consumers we have rights too."</p> <p> </p>