just stand by your guns... they will send more 'bully' emails and texts... My final note to them was if they want the money issue court proceedings if they continue to harass me I will take them to court. Not heard anything from them in nearly a year.

done. lets see what happens from that.. Cheers Slick. M

Hi Slick, Zinc have now started to contact via email and set me up an account to pay the fictitious debt from CRS. They have kindly assigned me an 'account manager' and given us a number of ways to pay them. I have two thoughts to progress… continue to ignore as we have not confirmed that we have received the email (however I would have expected them to have email tracking on. The other approach is to give the situation that the charges have been consistently challenged, however I would happily pay then the £9.99 that I believe I owe to close this matter. Again if they will not accept this then they can take me to court as we will vigorously defend. Do you have a view ? Cheers Mart

...

Will do

Hi Slick, been using the 'Ignore' approach as working outside of the Uk at the moment. Apparently they have sent a further letter saying.. : 'Please contact us as we want to come to an amicable resolution. If they don't hear from me in 10 days then they will send the case to the UK's leading debt recovery agency 'Zinc'...' Boy I'm shaking in my boots; I thought I've been quite clear with them over the last number of months... ACCEPT THE £9.99 to clear the account or TAKE ME TO COURT!!!! AS always I do accept to pay the £9.99, all other charges they can whistle... Am I correct in the belief that Zinc are part of the same circus as these other clowns ??

Oh the joy's.... another BS letter stating that they do believe that court rulings set general legal precedents... but believe this precedent cannot apply in this case... basically if I don't pay ALL of there fee's they will continue with there collection procedure, but will not continue to enter into further correspondence... fantastic no more letters, texts or phone calls.... clearly the next step will be to then start sending letters etc from the Zinc crew.... I feel a real dollop of ignoring coming on... which is a shame as I would happily pay the £9.99.. as always all advice is welcomed...

Cheers slick. I have just been reading their posted accounts from Company House... does make interesting reading to see how much this outfit actual make a year using their bully tactics and threats with crazy unjust charges over such small initial amounts. The profits are running into multi Millions for the last two years that I have read and set to double for the 2013/14 year.. Clearly this is a well oiled machine, but they do need to get a grip of the cancellation matters, especially with the 'auto renew' instances. As the bigger they are getting the more spotlight they will get for all the wrong reasons, as believe it or not, I do think organisations like this can help gym's etc to enable cash flow, but the stupid charges that are clearly plucked from the air, along with the harassment tactics clearly puts them in the dark corners of the Financial world. But they are still human after all as they have donated to charity as listed in there accounts... with an eye watering amount of just over £500 for the year ending 2013.. such a nice bunch

pretty much what they say.. below is their response "With regards to Mr. Justice Kitchin's ruling, we believe you have misinterpreted his comments in regards to acceptable methods for terminating a membership agreement. This statement does not appear in Mr. Justice Kitchin's 240 point judgment but instead in his much briefer 32 point Penal Notice issued specifically to Ashbourne Management Services Limited, John Clayton-Wright and Dawne Clayton-Wright. It is our understanding, therefore, that this only applies to Ashbourne Management Services Limited, John Clayton-Wright and Dawne Clayton-Wright, and has been ordered specifically because contracts 1-13 examined in this case, manufactured, recommended and supplied to Ashbourne Management Services Limited's clients by Ashbourne Management Services Limited were found to be unfair and thus unenforceable. Any action which indicates a desire to end a membership entered into via one of these contracts should therefore be considered acceptable, as any attempt to hold a consumer to a contract deemed unfair by a judge is in itself unfair practice. Xercise 4 Less' contracts have not been supplied by Ashbourne Management Services Limited and have, to our knowledge, never been deemed unfair by a judge. There is, therefore, no reason to believe that terms which seek to limit when and how a member may terminate their agreement will not be enforceable in other instances. To be clear, the addition of these charges in such circumstances is stipulated in the terms of your agreement. It is our position, based upon legal advice, that our charges are lawful and in line with all relevant guidance. The club, like any business, has overheads to pay (for maintenance, utilities, staff wages etc.), and like any business the funds to pay these overheads comes from the revenue they receive from their customers. The club provides a service, the overheads for which are the same whether you attend or not The agreement between you and the club is legally binding upon both parties, meaning that the club have obligations just as you do. Until the correct cancellation procedure is followed, therefore, the club have a ' contractual obligation to hold your membership open. This is, therefore, a membership that they cannot sell to anyone else, and all the time that you are not paying for the service they are providing at your request, the portion of their overheads which are to be covered by that membership must still be paid and as such the club are experiencing a loss, a loss brought about by your breach of contract." Wilsonmg

So today we have received the letter stating that they reject our offer and that the High Court ruling I have quoted does not cover the 'agreement' they have with us, therefore all charges apply (and they have increased).. I plan to respond (via Letter) and in the interest of fairness I will offer again to pay the £9.99 that was a missed payment (due to the cancellation clause). Also in the letter, if they again wish to reject our offer I would like a copy of our signed agreement via return post along with a breakdown of the 'alleged charges' and how they have arrived at the costs associated. Again if they reject the offer I will request no further contact from them as I will then only respond to a FORMAL letter from the county court so we can have our day in court to solve this matter once and for all. All in all this is a pain in the arse for such a petty initial amount, but clearly for the sake of £9.99 I aint going to pay hundreds of pounds in made up charges. any advice always welcome Wilsonmg

Thanks Slick132... I will engage the 'not listening mode' until they have the decency to either accept or reject my offer... by the way, if it did go to court, am I correct to state that as I've made an offer and they have not responded accordingly, then this would support my case (that's if it went that far) Wilsonmg

Hi all, well I sent the letter as advised via recorded delivery Low and behold today we received the general threat letter back. basically threatening legal action or sending it out to external agents ..... the way the letter has been written it clearly looks like a template as it makes no reference to the letter we sent offering to pay the £9.99 that is all we deem is owing. my view of the next step is to write one last time to highlight our offer and if they don't respond with a clear response showing they had considered our offer, then they can go and whistle and we will see them in court if they so choose to take it that route as we have set aside ample funds to defend such highway robbery.. would be interested interested in peoples views on how they have got on with any defending against these cowboys in the Courts..or has anyone had any 'Visits' from these External Agents...... M

Hi Slick132, that was pretty much what I had drafted based on the other information in the CAG (mostly from your goodself) I do have one question though... should send this to the Gym, Harlands or CRS ? (or all three) wilson

many thanks

Thats the plan