I am seeking some advice,

I signed up for a gym membership in January 2015 under a 12 month contract in GymEtc Preston, Lancashire.

In May 2015 I had to move back to Northern Ireland

I asked a receptionist at the gym if I could cancel my membership

but they told me I couldn't as it is a contract I took their word for it.

As I was moving and had no job to go to I had to cancel the direct debit.

I cancelled the direct debit in May 2015, my last payment was 1st May 2015.

Harlands/CRS act on behalf of the gym (which I wasn't aware of at the time of signing up)

they then started sending me letters chasing me for money - a total of £410.

I agreed to pay them £15 a month beginning October 2015 and because I was paying instalments

they charged £2.50 per installment which then added another £100 onto the balance making it £510.

It wasn't until recently I started looking into this more and reading reviews on Harlands/CRS, which aren't good as all.

I had already paid 4 installments of £25 to the gym before I cancelled the direct debit. If I had of stayed with the gym at £25 a month I would a paid a total annual cost of £300.

I then called Harlands/CRS to see why the amount was so high

to which they said there were 9 months of payments left on the contract totalling £225.

Also 2 x £25 for missed payments, a debt recovery fee of 36% which was £99

and £36 for tracing me to my new address.

The only terms and conditions of the gym mentioned on their website are;

- If you fail to pay any monies due under this agreement or if any Direct Debit is returned unpaid

or any cheque is returned unpaid or if any other form of payment is not honoured for whatever reason

, you shall pay us on demand an administration fee of £25

(which we require to cover our costs of seeking to pursue such payment from you).

- If you fail to pay any amount due under this agreement for a period of more than thirty days

, then we may pass the debt to a third party company for collection.

The reasonable and direct costs incurred in employing the third party company will be borne by you

including costs in tracing you if you have changed your address without telling us.

In the terms and conditions it states: CANCELLATION

•Relocation: This agreement can be cancelled in the event that your new permanent address I

s more than 15 miles away from the facility upon receipt of a copy utility bill or bank statement showing the new address.

I have since spoken to the gym and they have waived all their fees and said they would backdate any debt agency fees for my relocation to the month

I moved (May 2015). I have already paid Harlands/CRS £105 and they are still wanting £99 for their fees.

Are the fees they are charging enforcable by law from what is mentioned in the contract terms and conditions?

I contacted the FCA to see what they could do and it turns out that Harlands/CRS are no longer regulated by the FCA

so they can't do anything about it, however they were regulated by the FCA at the time I became a member of the gym.

They said any rules would only apply if the agreement with the gym was a consumer credit agreement,

which I emailed the gym and they have replied saying it is a consumer credit agreement.

I then complained to the Financial Ombudsman as stated in my terms and conditions that I could do so:

"CONSUMER CREDIT ACT 1974 (”THE ACT”) You have a right to complain in relation to consumer credit

matters to The Financial Ombudsman Service.

CRS sent me a letter to confirm the receipt of the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

They also added, Please be aware that the contract you entered into is not a credit agreement

and therefore outside of their jurisdiction to deal with.

We can confirm the administration fees of £25 are stated in your contract.

It is also stated you would be liable for our debt recovery costs and trace fees.

In view of this we maintain that all fees are valid and legal."

They have attached a copy of terms and conditions which are Harlands terms

and conditions and not the gyms, which is not what I signed up to originally.

Then they have also increased the balance from the agreed £99 to £212.50.

The issue is no longer regarding the gym as they have waived their fees from the month i moved back home to Northern Ireland.

The gym have told me it is a credit agreement, Harlands/CRS have told me it's not.

I have already paid them £105 and they are still wanting £99,

plus for paying that back by instalments another £2.50 per instalment charge would be added!!!

I don't want anything going on my credit file and definitely not a CCJ/DEFAULT.

What should I do?

***PLEASE NOTE: ANY PHONE CALLS I HAVE MADE TO HARLANDS/CRS HAVE BEEN RECORDED ON MY PHONE SO I HAVE PROOF OF CONVERSATIONS MENTIONED***

I would be so grateful of any help I can get.

Thank you in advance

bottom line is you are being had blind.

stop paying them

you owe no-one anything.

time to ignore everyone now

the fees are unlawful

no gym contract is gov't by the CCA nor the FCA

and the FOS wont get involved.

and they don't show on your credit file.

just because something is in someones T&C's it

dos not make penalty fees enforceable.

go enjoy your life

they've spoofed you out of their pound of flesh already

they are NOT BAILIFFS

Hi Fightright and welcome to CAG

I've had to skim through your first post as it's so long but the bottom line is, you've been HAD !!

Stop making any payments to them immediately.

Good news - this will NOT affect your credit records at all as gym m/ships arrears data is not reported by CRA's.

If you'd come here when you first wanted to leave the gym, we'd have told you to pay one final fee after giving a month's notice. We'd have then told you to ignore demands from Harlands/CRS.

In theory, you could sue Harlands for the return of moneys paid to them in excess of what you owed. However, I think you should maybe just see this as a lesson learned.

Once you've stopped paying, Harlands/CRS will whinge, moan and tell you to restore payments or they'll do all sorts of scary things. But you'll see from all the other threads here that very little is likely to happen when you stop paying.

Thanks for the reply guys

What I was going to do is make a direct debit indemnity claim

under my direct debit guarantee that I am entitled to,

in order to get all the direct debits back that I had paid totalling £105 to CRS.

Would this be okayto do?

It is mentioned in my terms and conditions that I would have to pay a tracing fee for them finding me at my new address

and £25 admin fee for a missed direct debit,

once I get my funds that I have paid them from my indemnity claim should I pay them these 2 fees

since it was in the original T&Cs?

CRS told me the tracing fee was £36.

What I don't understand is the gym have told them they have accepted

my confirmation of moving more than 15 miles away from the gym

but yet I still have to pay CRS fees,

even the guy at the gym knew there would still be their fees to pay.

Thanks for any further help

get them back and ignore them

they rarely do court.

no fees are lawful end of!

dx

Thanks dx! I wish someone could do something about this and get them done for what they are doing. From the amount of things I have read about them for what they are doing to so many people is wrong, they need to be stopped!!!

just following on from what every DCA does on any debt they fleece people on

Hi FR,

Can you just confirm, did you set up a new DD to start paying "arrears" to Harlands/CRS from October 2015.

Personally, I do NOT think you should reclaim the £15 monthly payments, paid from October 2015, under the DDGS. You agreed to make those payments in the belief you owed arrears.

Harlands did not take incorrect amounts, or use the DD mandate to take payments you had not agreed to.

On a different note, you do not need to worry about paying Harlands/CRS "tracing fees" or anything else mentioned in the m/ship Terms and Conditions.

Don't call Harlands/CRS for any reason and, if they call you, just hang up !! You have no need to speak to them at all.

Hi Slick, Yes I set up a DD as I thought through the letter that I received from the back in October that this would go against me on my credit rating and I didn't want that so that is why I started paying them. I didn't realise until about March 2016 what kind of company that they were and that I shouldn't have paid them. If I had of known back in October what I know now I wouldn't have paid them a penny. Do you not advise me to get the DD's back that I have paid CRS already? I think as the gym have accepted my cancellation for moving more than 15 miles away as of June 2015 why have Harlands/CRS not accepted that? Also why should they be entitled to any of the money I have already paid?

Hi FR,

I'm just saying what I think is right, objectively.

However, I can also see there's also a decent argument for reclaiming the DD's paid from October 2015 onwards, on the basis that :-

1. The gym advised you wrongly that you couldn't cancel, despite moving away more than the required distance.

2. You were told incorrectly by Harlands/CRS that you owed them money and should pay "arrears" by the new DD.

So I'm now happy to agree with the advice from DX on this occasion - contact your bank immediately and tell them you require the DD's paid to Harlands/CRS from (I'm guessing) October 2015 to January 2016 inclusive because you now realise the payments were not payable and you paid them due to being misinformed and threatened.

The bank should refund without question and let us know when this is done.

Then we'll help you deal with the repercussions that will no doubt come from Harlands/CRS.

Hi Slick, thanks for your reply again...youre a star

Well I don't see why I shouldn't do an indemnity claim for the money I have paid so far, the gym have accepted my cancellation so why can't Harlands/CRS as the gym are the ones I had a contract with and not them.

Also should I reply to the letter that they sent me which I mentioned in my original post? It is the reply to the complaint I made with the Financial Ombudsman which they said it is out of their jurisdiction (although its mentioned under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 section in my T&Cs that I have the right to complain to them) as the balance they quoted me before my complaint was £99 now they want £212?!?!

Also the T&Cs they have sent me are Harlands and not the gyms. They are quite similar but not the exact same. I signed up for the gyms terms and not theirs!!

If you think I should reply what should I say? Or could you kindly draft me up something please? Thanks again

Hi FR,

You have no need to contact Harlands/CRS at all and doing so is a waste of time - they won't agree with anything you say.

The FOS has no jurisdiction with gym m/ships. There is no Credit Agreement so forget this line of complaint.

All you need to do just now is tell the bank you require the refund of DD as per the DDGS.

Let us know when the money is refunded.

Hi again. Havent posted for a while as havent been in the country, also havent had a chance to do the indemnity claim yet.

However CRS have still been hounding me with letters, phone calls and texts to which I havent responded. I received a letter from them yesterday dated 28th June in which I have 10 days (8th July) to contact them or they are going to pass the matter to Zinc... Any advice now would be appreciated thanks guys!

you ignore

a DCA is NOT A BAILIFF

Get that indemnity claim using the DDGS asap.

Ignore the latest from CRS and the same treatment for Zinc if they write.

Keep us posted.

Thanks for the responses . I think I would like to write a letter to them to get them to stop making contact with me as I am sick of it. Is there anyone I can threaten them with if they forward my details on to Zinc or any of their associated companies and if they keep contacting me? I take it Zinc have no legal powers? I just don't want anything on my credit file or CCJs or whatever else, I don't care about anything else. Thanks in advance

Hi FR,

Do things in the right order and get the DD's reclaimed via your bank.

Let us know when this is done.

Harlands won't be pleased about the refund and will go through their normal collections procedure - Harlands/CRS, Zinc the Spratt Endicott. The more you ignore their demands, the quicker they'll give up.

If you want to take action to stop their harassment, take them to Small Claims Court seeking damages at the court's discretion. A claim can be started for just £25 plus a further £25 if the case goes to a hearing, which would be at a court local to you.

Harlands/CRS, Zinc and Spratt Endicott have no legal powers and we've said before that this will not appear on your CRA files. The chance of a CCJ is minute and, even if they took you to court and won, you have 20 days to settle the judgement amount and avoid the judgement going on to the public register.

Of course, if you're now back in N Ireland, that may affect your ability to take Harlands to court but we can look into that in more detail if necessary.

Thanks Slick, will do. I will keep this forum updated.

They can't justify what they do and shouldnt get away with it. Something needs to be done?

Hi everyone I just phoned the bank today and within an hour I have had the imdemnity claim put back into my account. Behold the letters from CRS or whoever, havent heard from them since the last letter but will keep this updated anyway.

Well done

Hi FR,

Good to hear you got the DD back.

Just sit back and wait now, until Harlands/CRS start whining about the refund.

Hello again,

Got a 3 page letter from CRS after my indemnity claim,

saying that I entered into a legally binding contract with agreement of 12 months

and also telling me I had only made three payments (I made 4 payments)

before I cancelled my direct debit.

I cancelled the direct debit as I was moving more than 15 miles away

and the gym receptionist said I couldn't cancel the contract.

They also mentioned about clauses in the contract which incurred

2 x £25 missed DD payments, £99 recovery fees and £36 in tracing me to my new address.

The total balance was £510 including their monthly direct debit handling fee.

After I had been stupidly paying CRS since October 2015 and only found out in April 2016

that me moving address could have in fact cancelled the membership

I contacted the gym and they backdated my cancellation request to June 2015.

CRS are only saying this is valid from the date in April 2016 when the gym cancelled everything.

They want a response/payment within 7 days - which is Friday 29th July or they will take further action.

What can I do with this one?

Is there anyone I can report this company to?

Thanks in advance

Tough on them.

you got your money back

they got months that they shouldn't have as well.

safe to ignore them now me thinks

there is stuff all they can do to you.

dx

Hi FR,

Harlands have no right to demand a response/payment by any date, so don't worry about that.

You need only write to Harlands saying what I said in post #10. No need to say any more really.

Get a free Certificate of Posting at the PO when you send the letter.

If you want to draft the letter and put it here first, I'll look in later to comment.

Hi again, Low and behold, CRS have now passed this on to Zinc Group, with a balance of over £350.... What is the process when it is passed to Zinc? Any advice on what I do now? All help will be appreciated as always