To ask you how to get money back from personal trainer who is ignoring me

[lorettalemon]

I'm sure this must happen a lot. I gave a personal trainer a lot of money on account (£1500) I had a couple of sessions, then he became impossible to pin down and cancelled at the last minute every time I had an appointment.

It's clear our personal training isn't going to happen and I'd like the money back. I've messaged him 3 times and he's ignoring me and hasn't answered my calls.
He is a proper personal trainer (as opposed to a man pretending to be one to get money out of people!) he has articles about himself in newspapers and works with some celebrity clients who post pictures of themselves with him so he obviously is who he says he is and an actual personal trainer with a reputation to care about.

Can anyone give me any advice on getting the money back? I do want it back and it's an awful lot to write off.

Thank you.

Small claims court

I would go to the Small Claims Court and file against him - that should bring him around.

Here it is.

Text him and tell him you are going to take to small claims if he doesn't return money by x date.

@zebra22 @HollowTalk I didn't realise I could do that - would I basically be claiming the money back because the service wasn't provided?

If you paid by card, your bank can do a chargeback on account of it being a service that hasn't been provided. I did it once on an app that was supposed to help you get a cancellation for a driving test. It didn't work and I couldn't get a response from them so the bank refunded me and dealt with it.

Why would a personal trainer need money on account? It's not like they're fitting a kitchen or a bathroom, where they're having to buy stuff in advance. It sounds very dodgy to me.

Small claims court OP - good luck!

I would send him one last message.

I paid you £1,500 on (date)
We were supposed to have a PT session on these dates (list them) and you cancelled each of them.
I have tried to contact you on (give dates) and have had no response.
Please return my money immediately.
If you do not get in touch by the end of today I shall have to ask on Twitter and Facebook whether anyone has seen you.
I shall then file with the small claims court to retrieve my money.

Fill out Small Claims forms, post a copy thru his door with note saying he's 3working days to transfer the £ or you're proceeding with your claim. Worked for me.

Go through the bank if you paid by credit or debit card. They will open a fraud or non delivery of services dispute and give you the money back and take it back off him.

I also got money back for a faulty car from my bank
Good luck xx

Have you had any sessions at all with him?

What is the name of his company. There is a personal trainer I hired once who was notorious for this but thankfully I completed all my sessions a through talking I had mentioned I was a lawyer. Turns out he had a conviction for ripping people off. His name starts with N.

Report him to trading standards

Small claims. This is quite a lot of money. What a jackass

As above replies. How did you pay? If your bank can't help (if you paid by a bank transfer they can't). If it was PayPal they can help. If neither then small claim court.

I got scammed by a car rental company (Goldcar) a few years ago. I emailed and called every number possible but didn't seem to be getting anywhere. A website called aspokemansaid got involved. (I think I'd posted on there for advice when searching for ways to get my money back) I was contacted by email and asked if they could write about it and try to help, while I was simultaneously submitting a claim through some other European commission. Somehow, whether it was them or a combination of gold car and Ryanair (I'd booked through their system) getting hounded by me, and 2 independent sources, I'll never know, but I got the money back.

As this trainer is involved with celebrities and in the public eye, they should be concerned about their reputation. It might be worth contacting that website and tell them your story. It's some sort of consumer champion, a bit like MSE I think. I'd never heard of them before. Haven't since either. But something worked for me and I was determined not to lose that money.

Judge rinder

Is he affiliated with or a member of any professional body?

A similar thing happened to DH and his driving instructor, and we were told which professional body he should be a member of by another driving instructor, and how it went against their code of conduct.

I would send HollowTalk's message, plus adding in anything about his professional membership.

Issue a MCOL (money claim online) - google it, the modern day small claims court. He’ll have to pay the money owed, the application fee and interest. If he doesn’t pay he’ll be issued a CCJ & you can apply to the bailiff or for an attachment of earnings.