Hi, So Zinc have picked up their ringing of late - they ring every week now. Have been logging it. I wrote the letters you suggested above and received this back from my local office: Your complaint: Protection from Harrassment Act 1997 Further to your complaint your first contact will have to be with the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline. (They give details) The adviser will take the required information from you and provide you with the advice you require to resolve your complaint. If any further action is required from Trading Standards, the information will be referred to the relevant local Trading Standards department for the business, as well as us, because you live in the town. This is the process we must follow as our team do not have the capacity to assist with civil complaints and can only investigate criminal matters. One thing to consider is when a person signs up to gym membership, they are contractually bound to pay the membership fees until the contract is properly cancelled, simply cancelling the direct debit does not render the contract null and void. If this is what you have done, you have not complied with the terms and conditions of the contract and will be liable. If Harlands are in fact contacting you to collect a legally enforceable debt as found in Section 1(1A) © (i) and (ii) of the aforementioned Act, you will struggle to show that harassment is taking place unless they are doing more than what is reasonable to do in the circumstances. Enforcement of the criminal provisions of the Act are dealt with by the Police so a complaint would have to be made to them, you will need to make sure you have all the information about the dates, times and frequency that Harlands are making contact. If you would like to discuss the content of my response in more detail then please do not hestitate to contact me on the above number......etc etc. I have still not received back a response from the CMA. I feel as if they could go on demanding forever! I don't really worry too much now that they are going to take me to court as it would seem unlikely due to the time this has all taken, but it is very annoying to receive phone calls and letters demanding payments for something years ago - I did offer to pay them the monthly I owed them then and they did not accept it! Are there any further steps I should take?

That sounds great - yes please. If I were to complain to the TS - what would the main points to highlight? Did Xercise4 Less break any laws? I mean, I think they have certainly acted unfairly.....

Checked my voicemail and had a message from Zinc on 21st Feb asking me to ring them and giving me a reference number. What is my course of action here? Do I send them a letter similar to the one I sent before? Or add more to it? Many thanks for your advise!

https://www.ombudsman-services.org/what-are-you-complaining-about-os.html would this be the place?

I would like to also add a complaint to wherever it was that you complained to - I have been harassed by Harlands for going on 3 years now and would like to put a stop to it - not just for me! Where did you complain to Gemma?

Am very happy to go ahead with complaint to CMA - and also would consider the court procedure if you could give me more details?

I'll chat to my husband and let you know. Xercise4Less has just opened a gym in the town where I have moved to. I don't want people here to suffer the same stress I had over two years ago. There is a lot of debt in this town and these kinds of organisations make me mad! I have got all the letters they have sent me and the ones I have sent them and the receipts from the post office to say they have been sent. I have logged on here pretty much every time they have texted/rung, I'm sure there are some that are missing, but will go through my recent texts/calls and log them.

Hilariously just received another letter yesterday which is almost word for word from the letter I had over 2 years ago from them: We regret that despite our attempts to reach an amicable resolution to your account, you remain in arrears to Xercise 4 Less. We must therefore give notice that failing to reply to this letter within the next 10 days will result in your account balance being passed to Zinc Group LTD, one of the UK's leading providers of debt recovery solutions. WE WOULD STILL LIKE TO RESOLVE THIS MATTER We're happy to listen to your reasons for not paying and will do whatever we can to reach an acceptable resolution for both parties. All that is required is for you to call us on 01444449165 by no later than 22th October 17 so we can discuss your account further. Yours sincerely For Credit Resolution Services Rob Avery Collection Manager Have also had numerous texts and phone calls from them all of which I have ignored.

As I check this....another text from them....'we need to speak to you today!'

Received a letter just before Christmas dated 21/12/16 Literally word for word the letter they sent me before (see p.2 of this thread) - with slightly different ways of numbering/arranging the paragraphs! Following our initial letter, we are disappointed that your account for Xercise 4 Less is still in arrears and our fee has not been paid. We would still like to reach an amicable resolution to this, however, if you fail to respond to this letter, we will have no option but to commence further action to recover the monies owed. The options available to us are: 1. Legal action We believe you are in breach of a legally binding contract with Xercise 4 Less because you have not paid your membership and fees. We may pursue a claim under this contract through the Courts. If we do so the following process would apply: -We will write a formal letter explaining what we are demanding and give you a final opportunity to pay/rely; -If this failed to settle the matter we would issue proceedings against you in the county court; - You could then either a) Make payment, ending the legal process, or b) dispute some or all of the amount that was owed. -If you dispute the amount was owed the Court process would continue, at the end of which the Court would make a decision on our claim. - A strict Court imposed timescale would apply in relation to the Court process. Were we to be successful in our claim, or if you ignore the claim, a County Court Judgement may be registered against you requiring you to make payment. You may also be liable for our costs of pursuing legal action and interest on the amount owed. If you then fail to pay the amount covered by the CCJ we would take the next steps required to enforce the judgement. To do this we would have to make an application to Court. 2. Outsource to External Agents. Your account would be passed to another Collection Agency who will take further action to recover the monies owed. YOU CAN AVOID THIS HAPPENING IF WITHIN THE NEXT 10 DAYS YOU CONTACT US ON 01444 449165 TO ARRANGE PAYMENT WITH US. Yours sincerely For Credit Resolution Services Rob Avery (An extremely badly photocopied signature!) How do I respond to this?! Are they likely to just pass me over to Zinc again and we do full circle?!! Or will they do one of the other options this time? lol! Hope you've had a good Christmas! (I have not let this worry me!)

And another text saying....'Ring us urgently' Ignored

A phone call yesterday - they left one of those automated messages asking me to ring back to discuss the account - carry on ignoring them?!

Another text message today: 'Please call CRS on 01444449165 between 9am and 6pm. We sent you a letter a week ago and we need to discuss this with you. Thank you'. They are VERY ANNOYING!!

And after sending the letter about change of address etc last week I received this letter today from CRS: Further to your recent correspondence regarding your account We have passed your file by Xercise 4 Less in regards to unpaid arrears due under the terms of your Membership Agreement. On 7 Feb 2013 you entered into a Membership Agreememt with Xercise for Less. You agreed to pay £9.99 a month and give a months written notice when you wished to cancel. As your payments were not honoured and you failed to rectify your breach of Agreement charges were applied to your account and your file was referred to ourselves. Xercise for Less have not received the relevant notice from you to cancel your Membership. Please contact us within the next 7 days on 01444 449165 to discuss repayment of your balance. Yrs Sincerely, N Bright What do I respond to this?!!! My account seems to be £158.97....which is interesting

Ok, I had a further text from them (but from a different number) earlier this week: 'We're now able to offer you an amazing 50% settlement. Please call CRS on 01444 449165 between 08.30 - 6pm in order to agree this with us'