Me and 2 of my friends joined a gym a few months back where they were offering a half an hour programme at half the regular amount. Since our schedule allows us to only half an hour time from office, we decided to enroll in the same. The fee we gave had 2 components to it:
1.) the monthly programme fee (1500+Service tax)
2.) The registration fee. (500 rs)
The gym did not inform us that this programme they started was not a regular feature of the gym and was subject to dicontinuation in case they did not find "enough number of customers"
The next month when we went to renew our monthly services we were informed that the gym had discontinued the half an hour schedule and to continue using services we should be joining the full one hour schedule which was double the, price and also required us to pay additional registration fee (1000 Rs). Since our schedules do not allow us to join the full hour programme everyday, which was the main reason we had not joined the gym before these half hour services were introduced, we decided that we would not continue the membership furthur.
Now I understand that the registration fee is not refundable in cases where the consumer voluntarily pulls out of the programme they register for. But in this case, we were very much willing to stay a part of the half an hour programme they had introduced, but it was the gym that had discontinued it.
My question is, that in this case, is it legal for the company to deny refunding our registration fee that we had paid for the half an hour service? Is is not arm twisting the customer if you say that either you pay extra for staying a member of the gym anymore or you lose what you have paid altogether. And we are not even talking about the monthly fee here, that is obviously the fee we paid to use the services. It is the registration fee we are speaking of here. It seems that just because they have already got the money we paid, (which is beyond the charges of the service we used), it becomes a win win situation for them in either ways even if we dont join. It is the customer who has lost the money becuase the people who are offering the services are free to disregard any investments we have made, any time they want to. Please advise.
1.) the monthly programme fee (1500+Service tax)
2.) The registration fee. (500 rs)
The gym did not inform us that this programme they started was not a regular feature of the gym and was subject to dicontinuation in case they did not find "enough number of customers"
The next month when we went to renew our monthly services we were informed that the gym had discontinued the half an hour schedule and to continue using services we should be joining the full one hour schedule which was double the, price and also required us to pay additional registration fee (1000 Rs). Since our schedules do not allow us to join the full hour programme everyday, which was the main reason we had not joined the gym before these half hour services were introduced, we decided that we would not continue the membership furthur.
Now I understand that the registration fee is not refundable in cases where the consumer voluntarily pulls out of the programme they register for. But in this case, we were very much willing to stay a part of the half an hour programme they had introduced, but it was the gym that had discontinued it.
My question is, that in this case, is it legal for the company to deny refunding our registration fee that we had paid for the half an hour service? Is is not arm twisting the customer if you say that either you pay extra for staying a member of the gym anymore or you lose what you have paid altogether. And we are not even talking about the monthly fee here, that is obviously the fee we paid to use the services. It is the registration fee we are speaking of here. It seems that just because they have already got the money we paid, (which is beyond the charges of the service we used), it becomes a win win situation for them in either ways even if we dont join. It is the customer who has lost the money becuase the people who are offering the services are free to disregard any investments we have made, any time they want to. Please advise.
