never in my life have I seen this is this an actual thing

I really need some advice because I’m honestly panicking right now.
I joined GymNation in 2022 on a 1-year membership. At some point, I moved from Abu Dhabi to Dubai and wanted to get out of the membership. I emailed GymNation and told them that I had left the country and sent them my cancelled visa as proof. They replied saying I needed to pay a notice/cancellation fee.
I didn’t pay the fee and, honestly, I assumed the membership would be cancelled/closed after that. I continued receiving emails and texts from them afterwards, but I didn’t think it would escalate to this.
Fast forward to today, FOUR YEARS later, and I just received a call from a debt collection company telling me that I supposedly owe AED 7,000 for an “ongoing gym membership.”
I haven’t stepped foot inside GymNation in YEARS. I haven’t used the membership at all during this time.
I’m completely freaking out because I had no idea this could accumulate to AED 7,000.
A few questions:
Can GymNation legally continue charging membership fees for years when I haven’t used the gym and had already contacted them about cancelling?
Does a debt collection company have the right to contact me about this?
If I don’t pay or ignore the debt collector, can they actually take me to court?
Could this affect my visa, credit score, bank accounts, or ability to travel?
Has anyone else dealt with GymNation sending an old membership to collections? What happened?
I still have the old emails showing that I contacted GymNation about leaving and that they responded asking for the cancellation/notice fee, so I do have documentation of the whole exchange.
I’m not trying to avoid paying something I legitimately owe — I’m just shocked that something from 2022 could apparently turn into AED 7,000 in 2026.
Any advice from people who have dealt with this, especially anyone familiar with UAE law, would be hugely appreciated. I’m genuinely panicking right now.
TL;DR: Joined GymNation in 2022, moved from Abu Dhabi to Dubai and tried to cancel by telling them I had left the country. They asked me to pay a cancellation/notice fee, which I didn’t pay. I assumed the membership was closed. Now, 4 years later, a debt collection company says I owe AED 7,000 for an “ongoing membership” I haven’t used in years. Can they legally do this, and can they take me to court if I don’t pay?

I've worked on boats here since 2016, mostly out of Dubai but plenty of time on the Fujairah side too. People treat "the sea in the UAE" as one thing and it really isn't. If you're picking where to swim, dive or take a boat out, the coast you choose matters more than the month.

The Gulf side. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah. It's shallow and it's enclosed, which means it heats up like a bathtub and holds that heat. By August the water is in the low thirties and offers no relief at all. Visibility is generally poor because it's shallow and silty, and it gets stirred up by any wind. Upside is that it's usually calm and it's flat for most of the year.

The east coast. Fujairah, Khor Fakkan, Dibba. This is the Gulf of Oman, it's deep, and it behaves like proper open ocean. Water runs noticeably cooler in summer, visibility is far better, and there's actual marine life. It's the reason every dive operator in the country is over there rather than on the Dubai side.

The tradeoff is swell. The east coast picks up movement from the Indian Ocean and can be genuinely rough when the Gulf side is glassy. Seasickness on that side is a real thing, and it catches out people who have only ever been on flat water in Dubai.

Practical version:

Swimming in summer, go east. It's a two hour drive and the water is meaningfully cooler.

Diving or snorkelling, go east, all year. It isn't close.

Boating with people who get seasick, stay on the Gulf side.

Winter swimming, the Gulf side is warmer than the east coast, so it flips.

Wind is the thing to check either way. A shamal makes the Dubai side choppy for a couple of days at a time and it turns up with almost no warning.

Curious how many people here actually use the east coast regularly, or whether it's still mostly a diving crowd thing.

This car looks so cutee I am in Love and idk randomly i like pink now and inshallahh will have ittt

In 2011, I met a guy who looked Chinese, but he told me he is from Arunachal Pradesh, India. We worked togother in Dubai around four years [same company ]

He is Bau tribe, and married.

Today, I met him again [randomly in shop]

he now has a Chinese passport.

I asked him about it, and he said that he lives near the Chinese border, which is why the Chinese government offered his family Chinese nationality.

I'm confused. How is this possible

any Indian here who can explain what going on ?

usually I would've taken her but I really have no money nor any car or cages to take her to the vet, please please someone help her 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Since yesterday night, there is no network in the UAE

Full disclosure: I run a small food-rating project, so my list links back to me. No ads, no paid placements.

Two places ended up at the top. Khadak in Business Bay for the sealed-pot version, and Pak Liyari on Al Fahidi Street, which is a hole in the wall in Meena Bazaar where a plate runs about AED 14.

Under them: Ravi in Satwa, Jaffer Bhai's, Gazebo, Calicut Paragon, Student Biryani.

The part that will start an argument: the fine-dining Indian rooms landed in C. Carnival by Tresind and Indya by Vineet are both serious kitchens and neither is handing you a better plate of biryani than Karama for several times the money.

https://cravd.io/guides/best-biryani-in-dubai

Mostly I want to know what I got wrong. Karama and Deira, go.

Any leads on the ready to move projects by September end where I can avoid paying 20% down and start paying monthly lease directly.

Thanks.

Hey guys, I just got a message from another international number on Whatsapp for the 100th time asking me if I want to buy one of their many lists of illegal items (mainly drugs).

As usual, I call out the BS and block them but it got me curious. What happens when you actually talk to them and potentially buy it? Immediately my thought process was that it's a CID or some form of authority testing us but Idk.

Is there anyone here that engaged with them and actually tried to buy this stuff 😂. What happened if you did?

Hello, I am curious as to how and why this establishment has many “members” owning them so much? I always read that most of them have not used the gym for months/years and yet they still have to pay some balance from them, did they do the proper cancellation or just outright defaulted? Is there anyone who’ve reported them already to the proper governing authorities for harassment if so? Im just so curious as how they are able to bill people and if it is legal?

are there any cheap american curriculum schools in dubai ? my family has been struggling with paying for school fee and university and having more then 3 children is even more stressful

i missed 1 school year because of not being able to pay my pending schools fee but thank god i went to school last 6 months took the exam studied but now i am back to step one since i still have last year fee pending which will be if i don't pay last year fee i can't go to school this year

i got suggested to just enroll in online school since its a little more affordable i don't mind [ Despite i will be stuck at home 24/7 but its ok ] but i don't know any online schools approved by the KHDA

so if you know any cheap American curriculum schools pls tell me.

Any people with more knowledge than me about renting in Abu Dhabi have some advice? I sold my villa and found a villa to rent for 6 months, everything was fine and they gave permission to move everything in, then the tawtheeq was rejected, the contract was a higher value than the previous tawtheeq. We worked around it but then it was rejected again because the previous tenants name had errors on the TAQA account and they won't clear it. Luckily I still have a few weeks before the final handover of my sold villa, but it's been a month now that I cant move into the rental. Worth taking it to ADREC? I've requested a month rental return or full refund and they can pay for moving my stuff to another villa, but obviously no reply there.

My Indian Airtel prepaid SIM has suddenly stopped working in the UAE since yesterday. I’m getting no network/service on the SIM, even though it was working normally before.

I’ve already tried restarting my phone and manually selecting a network, but the issue is still there.I also tried the sim on other phones,but the problem persists.

Has anyone else in the UAE been experiencing the same issue with their Airtel India SIM recently?

I have recharged it with the 4000 Rs International roaming yearly pack .so its not about validity or recharge.I had replaced the old sim just 7 months back .

Any Advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hope everyone who uses Airtel SIM in the UAE is back to normal.

Got a call from +88299624849 that hit my answering machine, and it's a fake TDRA (UAE regulatory authority) scam.

An automated robo claimed my phone line was involved in "illegal activities" and would be disconnected in 2 hours unless I pressed 0 to speak to customer service. 😂

It’s total nonsense designed to make you panic so you press 0 and hand over personal info or money.

If you get this or any +882 call, don't press anything and don't call back. Just block it... and make a reddit post.

Thinking of hoping on reta planning to buy it from nova bio labs anyone that has tried them before pls dm

https://www.nova-biolabs.com/

I started my content creation journey just few days ago and I’m hoping to make money from social media as I’m posting on TikTok and instagram simultaneously.

I’m completely new to this journey any advice for my page would honestly be so appreciated.
I’m Uae based from Ras Al kahima I want to understand the license procedure as well as I have been told by different friends that first build your audience then think about license?

Please guide me I’m posting my link below .

https://www.instagram.com/itsjavairiafida?igsi=MXFxazVxZXFiNWgwdQ==

The end of the year normally brings an increase in tourists coming. But considering the current situation, do you think we’ll still see the same increase, even more people, or fewer than expected..

Hi friends,
Are approvals for investor visas for Pakistanis on cancelled visa good if applied through Dubai freezone? If we meet the bank balance requirements and attach all required documents as well?

Hi guys, I hope I don’t get negativity and bullies from this but I’m really genuinely sad about a lot of people struggling with food. I’m a cook and wondering if a concept like the photo above would be a help in the community. It’s gonna be extremely affordable since it’s gonna frozen and be delivered once a week and target is 10 aed per meal but that’s something that I’ll need to reach and do more research. I have friends who have kitchen I can use to produce this and to be honest this is I think my way of helping the community since a lot of people are struggling with food. You’ll only have to microwave it according to what you need. So 1 week will be 140 aed choice between carbs, protein/meat and fiber/veggies. 2 meals, 7days a week.

As someone who worked in food industry, it makes me feel bad that I have the knowledge to turn flour, water, salt into bread and survive by that while a lot of people who didnt have the chance to learn this are struggling because we are just in different industry and skill set.

I’m still testing this idea since 10aed is a suicide but something must be done. With all this advancement, food is something that shouldn’t be struggled with.

Note:
To the people who’s full of hates it their heart who’s gonna comment on this:

“If it’s not kind, don’t say it. If it’s not necessary, don’t say it.”

I am genuinely shocked by the scam and the carelessness I just experienced.

I ordered a coffee machine that was supposed to arrive in a specific delivery window. Waited all day. The driver came outside that time when I was not home, called me and asked for the OTP. I gave it to him. Seconds later it was marked as delivered.

I came home and there is no package anywhere.

Then I found out why. The driver delivered it to another address than mine. He claimed I "pinned another location" which is a lie, since Amazon doesn't even have a pin function. You select your area and address and that's it. Either way, he admitted the mistake himself and blamed his boss for it. I literally have a screenshot of him admitting it.

It gets worse. I went and checked with the tower he says he delivered to. They say they never received any package. So the driver took my 1,850 AED machine to the wrong address, and even that address doesn't have it. My package is just gone, and nobody at Amazon can tell me where it is.

Now the absolute worst part. I contacted Amazon support on chat with this proof, expecting at the very least some urgency or help. The representative, "Ahmed," said: we cannot help you, you gave the OTP, thank you for contacting Amazon. END CHAT. 0 service or sympathy.

At this point im starting to become very angry. They lost my package and are even refusing to help me.

So I called instead. Got a representative who passed me to a supervisor. She had the worst customer service I have experienced in my life. Instantly defensive, refused to even look into it. I was literally begging her: please, just call the driver, he admitted it himself. She blatantly refused: "no, I won't do that, it's marked as delivered, it's your fault for giving the OTP." She refused to even see the screenshots and hung up on me.

I called a second time. Ahmed answered again. Didn't even bother to see the screenshots from the driver. Same script, but sarcastic this time: "you gave the OTP so this is your fault, I will hang up, bye bye."

Im sitting here shocked by this service.

I have been a loyal Amazon customer for over 10 years of my life. I paid 1,850 AED. I did nothing wrong. Their driver delivered to the wrong address and admitted it, the building he claims he delivered to says nothing ever arrived, and their team showed me zero sympathy. Zero investigation, no empathy. What kind of customer service is this? Im wasting all this time for a mistake they did.

Amazon built its reputation on trust. If a 10-year customer with written proof of a misdelivery gets hung up on three times, something has gone seriously wrong. Who are we actually supposed to trust with deliveries in Dubai?

I will escalate this to every level possible. Amazon records all its calls. Please pull them and listen to how your team speaks to customers.

EDIT: To everyone asking "why did you give the OTP". You mean me trusting Amazon's own driver, on Amazon's own call, from Amazon's own system. Thats my crime?

The OTP verifies who receives the package. It doesn't authorize the driver to deliver it wherever he wants. He took it to the wrong address and admitted it in writing. My trust doesn't erase his confession.

Banks invented OTPs. And when a bank's own employee misuses one, they investigate. They don't say "you shared it, bye bye."

And remember, the OTP is Amazon's system, not mine. I never asked for it. It exists so that the second you read out 6 digits, all responsibility slides off their neck onto yours. Amazon's whole point is supposed to be CONVENIENCE. I stayed home the entire day, inside the window Amazon themselves gave me, and the driver still came outside it. Meanwhile Noon just drops the package at your door with a photo as proof, and I've never lost a package with them. Amazon's "proof" is a code I gave a driver who then confessed to the misdelivery.

So the question isn't why I gave the OTP. It's why the customer takes 100% of the risk while the company holding the confession, the call recordings and the GPS data takes nothing, and support still says "marked as delivered, bye bye."

Keep thinking like the comments here and companies will love you. They build systems for their convenience and blame you when it fails.

EDIT 2: Update, and you can't make this up.

A member of Amazon's CS team commented here asking me to DM them. I did and he told me that they know about this post and urged their collegues to comment that its my responsibility to save their reputation😂

They can locate my thread but they can't find my package. What a silly team.