Shady business practices

In July 2019 I join your gym. Prospects were looking good. Little did I know my life was about to take a downward spiral. My incomes was dwindling and I came to the point where I would not be able to afford a gym membership.

In August I went to the gym and requested that my membership be cancled due to the fact that I won't be able to afford the monthly payments anymore. After terrible service from the on site staff, they tell me to call the number on my card.

I then spoke to a person on the phone telling me that to get out of a membership that I can't afford, I have to pay four times the monthly amount as a cancellation fee.

This caught me off guard as the contract I signed said nothing about four times the monthly fee. It only refers to a "reasonable cancelation fee". I had to go to a third party source, the Virgin Active website, to finally discover the " hidden clause".

For the next four months I scrabled to get the funds together to ensure that I don't get into arrears. I didn't want to get myself into debt, making my situation worse than it already is.

In November it got to the point where I won't be able to pay for the membership anymore. I went back to the gym to talk to the sales staff. To see if there was a way we could remedy the situation. I finally got to talk to the first helpful person at Virgin Active. He sent an email to his superiors explaining the situation, stating that i want to cancel my membership and ask if they could assist. That was on 29/11/2019. It's been seven weeks and I have yet to recieve any response from them.

It finally got to the point where my membership got into arrears. It was unnavoidable at that point. The moment I missed a payment I got a call from Virgin Active asking when they will recieve their funds. I explained the situation and the person on the phone just said Okey goodbye. They then proceded to harass every morning, asking when I will have the funds to pay. I told them the truth and said "I don't know".

This brings us to today. I finally got some money to buy some basic necessities, such as my medication. Lo and behold a debit order from Virgin Active. I'm now forced into a situation where I can't afford my medication because Virgin Active thinks it's monthly payment is more important than my health.

My contract is still not cancelled. I have no means of even affording the monthly payment, let alone the rediculous cancelation fee. I'm stuck without my medication and Virgin Active refuses to even attemp te help.

What do I do now?