Money taken from account...now in an awkward situation.

[Pollytom]

I've AIBU for traffic.

A couple of months ago, I purchased some fitness classes at my local gym. An invoice was sent to my email and I paid for the classes with my instructor. After the sessions, another invoice was sent over (the instructor had incorrectly billed me) but I paid the invoice anyway and notified her of the error, which she just said she would take off next time. There was absolutely no indication at any point that I had signed up to any type of subscription. It was simply an invoice with the amount for the sessions and then the option to pay for the classes using my bank card. There was no contract, and I didn't sign anything that reflected I had entered into any type of agreement.

Anyway, after two block of sessions with her, I notified her that I wouldn't be continuing as I felt confident to do my own thing. No invoice arrived - but a large chuck of money left my account. I've reached out to her to query this, and her response is that she needs 14 days notice and I must continue with this block of sessions. She didn't tell me I needed to give her notice, and she didn't tell me at any point that it was a subscription I was entering into. I don't have a clue how this has happened tbh. Why send me invoices, and then suddenly no invoice but an automatic withdrawal.

I feel awkward now as I needed that money for DD's birthday and now it's gone and will have to continue with classes that aren't even needed.

I’m guessing you’re salaried and know exactly how much income you have every month. She said she liked the trainer and the sessions, I think it would have been good of her to give a warning she wouldn’t continue before the month was up, not that she should continue even if she doesn’t want to. Try cancelling your phone contract/magazine subscription/netflix with no notice, you can’t, and if you forget, you suck it up. Why do they get away with it but a self employed female without a big legal department isn’t afforded the same consideration?

Can you report her to the gym? I'm sure you aren't the only person being done over in this way.

Because you have a contract. The OP hasn't had an ongoing contract with the trainer, either verbally or in writing/online. If I signed up for five sessions of osteopathy or massage, the therapist couldn't assume that I wanted to continue after these sessions were completed unless I had expressly signed up for that.

She’s effectively retained your information (GDPR breach) and set up a direct debit. Don’t you have to sign a direct debit guarantee to be authorised to deduct funds from an account? I think this could be classed as fraud?

She hasnt set up a direct debit
She has used the card number and set up a continuous payment authority. They are totally different ways of making payments

I think you need to a) report her to trading standards and b) report her to the police for fraud. She has taken you for a mug. Nobody remotely decent does what she has done. She's a grifter and has stolen money from you. Stop thinking of her as the 'nice girl she was pretending to be. If she were genuinely nice, you would have your money back.

OP I can't see that you have asked her for a copy of the small print she's says you are contractually held to.

Please ask for a copy.

At the moment this is simply theft unless she can prove how she is able to hold you liable for the payment and notice period which you claim to know nothing about.

I am self employed myself and work hard for my money. I wouldn't take money from a customer's account because my reputation would be ruined. I look for new customers to replace working for yourself is hard work but you will never achieve success if you take money from people who can't afford it.

Geez.. you have been a decent client and she has charged you without your permission. Even if you had inadvertently signed up to terms and conditions that required notice, she should have pointed this out to you straight away, with proof and then probably refunded you anyway.... it is not in her best interest to upset clients of the gym.

Strong communication needed..

I did not authorise this payment. You have used my payment details without my knowledge. If you do not return this money I will be left with no alternative other than to take this further. This has put me in an awkward position but I am not prepared to let it slide.

Yep.

And your bank can cancel these.

I’ve had to speak to my bank on a couple of occasions in the past where money has been taken that shouldn’t have been because my card details have been retained. They’ve always refunded me the money because I never authorised the payment.

Tesco uses my bank details to take the appropriate amount out on the day each order is picked and packed, as do Holland and Barrett and M&S etc BUT I have not signed up to a rolling contract per se. It's only legal for them to take money if I have made an order and it's been accepted as such and an email sent to me.
I keep a very watchful eye on my bank accounts and go through them weekly. On my mobile calendar, I log every event and incoming/outgoing payments in different colours and log the day on which they're due to go out or get paid in.
Bank transfers out in yellow and in payments in grey, doc/dentist/blood donations - red, parcels arriving - blue, utility bills paid - green and I use audible notifications to alert me of upcoming events/payments. My banks also alert me whenever a regular payment is taken or I personally pay in store.
It's all very simple.

Wherever possible, I use PayPal.

Reading this, I'm so glad I use cash

Christ. Who has time for that!

If you haven’t already contact stripe and ask them to remove your payment method/ card from file, may be able to do this online if you set up a login when you paid. I have a separate current account I use for all online payments, I only transfer money into it when I need to pay something or I know something is due off, I did this after a few things similar to this with payments coming off I wasn’t expecting I’m a bit useless with managing things like that so this way the account all my money is held in is never used for payments and I don’t need to worry about payments coming off unexpectedly. Super easy to transfer money between the accounts on banking app when needed.

I voted yabu because this ‘nice girl’ has stolen money from you but you don’t want to make it awkward! Sort yourself out! What’s more important. Calling out a thief or your daughters birthday?!

I've told her I want to see her today. I will be confronting her head on and seeing what she has to say for herself.

She has committed fraud by helping herself to money from your account.
Tell her to pay it back right now, if she refuses claw back via bank & they will chase her.
This is a business arrangement not a friend you are dealing with here you need to be forthright with her!
How many others is she pulling this with?
Any sort of cancellation time or subscription legally HAS to be notified at the time of sign up & if she hasn’t done this she hasn’t got a leg to stand on regarding the cooling off period for cancellation.
Cancel your bank card & order a new one because I imagine she will try this again next month!

Once you set up the calendar system, to track income, bills & other outgoings, it tracks automatically.
Set up takes about half an hour, depending on how many payments you have to add, & when any new bills or incomes etc appear you add them within minutes & they are tracked via the colour system.
I use Snoop app to keep track of mine.

@CornishGem1975
You don't have time to take care of your finances?
What a shocking admission.
It takes less than 10 minutes PER WEEK to add up the amounts in my several accounts as I do open banking, therefore every bank account is shown in each bank app. I only need to log in to one bank app to see all my accounts in one place and total them using the phone calculator on a split screen.
As for events and debit/credits on the calendar, they're done just once each, so if I expect a parcel or place an order, it takes about 10 seconds to input it on the calendar.
If you can't imagine spending those few seconds or minutes in a week on stuff which impacts your daily life, then you're seriously disorganised.

Spending that infinitesimal amount of time on your finances and calendar events and reminders, saves you or anyone else from spending precious time complaining on MN about unexpected money losses or forgetting what you paid, when you paid it and to whom, as well as invites, presents to be bought, appointments you forgot, ad infinitum.

This used to be a well known gym scam. Remember a lot of negative publicity about it at the time. Either she knows what she's doing or is completely naive and has someone else (who isn't nice) doing the business side. I think you may have been premature to agree to photos/testimonials when this is going on (it's still part of the whole agreement - if I bought a machine and they took 5 monthly payments rather than an agreed 3, no matter how brilliant or good value I'd not be leaving a good review).

Personally I'd go with a formal letter stating my expectations, eg refund & data deleted). However if you want to keep it at arm's length just let the bank/visa sort it..... I'm presuming you've firmly asked the bank not to accept any further payments from the gym.

Good Luck

@Vynalbob
Withdrawals...surely.

I bet she will smile sweetly and say, oh so sorry blah blah blah! Get your money refunded and be firm and clear about it.

Hope you read her the riot act today!