A WOMAN was charged almost £200 by a Morpeth gym despite leaving it two years ago.
Operator Leisure Connection took £184.80 in error from the bank account of Felton resident Carolyn Reynolds after moving to a new database system.
She had been a member of Harpers Fitness gym at the Riverside Leisure Centre, but cancelled her memb
ership in September 2007.
The company has apologised for the mistake, which accidentally re-instated her as a current member, and says she was fully refunded on Tuesday, August 25.
But Mrs Reynolds is very angry with how the issue has been handled.
"I find it incredible that money has been taken from my account by Leisure Connection when I have not had a business relationship with them for two years," she said.
"The gym may have been closed for a while because of the flood, but that is no excuse for having a poor data management system that has caused this error.
"As soon as I was made aware of this I tried to contact someone at the Riverside or from Leisure Connection to discuss the situation, but I did not hear anything until a few weeks later and even then I was told I would have to wait another week for the money to be returned.
"I don't understand why my details were not removed soon after I cancelled my membership and I have written to them before this incident requesting that they stop sending me letters asking for payment."
The Riverside Leisure Centre was closed because of flood damage last September and re-opened again in February after repair and improvement work by Castle Morpeth Council and Leisure Connection.
A company spokesman said: "Leisure Connection would like to apologise for the delay in handling this particular payment issue.
"This error has been caused by recent changes to a new database system, but all issues have been quickly resolved and we don't expect to see any further problems.
"Leisure Connection refunded all monies owed to the customer on Tuesday, August 25 and will also be covering any banking charges incurred due to the error as per company policy.
"Anyone in the Northumberland County Council area who has a similar problem should contact Leisure Connection's Customer Services Department on 01480 401 328."
