Waiting for refund on invalid contract

I WAS a customer of Planet Fitness for seven years and I always paid cash in advance on a monthto-month contract.

When I went to renew this year in April, I was told that this was no longer allowed – all contracts had to include banking details. Saying that I would go elsewhere, I then got up to leave, but they called me back, claiming that they could work it out.

Several days later, after a lot of lies and manipulation, they said they had found a way to give me the one-year contract I wanted and persuaded me to fill out a contract form and turn over R2 988.That was on June 5. The contract asked for banking details, but they said that was okay. Why I agreed to this escapes me – a very senior moment indeed. I was told to come back the next day to receive my entry key, which I did, and was called in to say that the contract was invalid because I had not given them banking details. I asked for a refund.

They said that all refunds were done by bank transfer, but that my banking details would only be given to the refund department.

They purportedly rang the refund department and I talked to an agent who agreed to the refund if I supplied my banking details, which I did by e-mail the next day. I have never received the refund, despite two follow-up e-mails.

Reading over this, I can’t believe how stupid I was. But still, they took my money under false pretences and now are refusing to give it back.