So I've seen numerous posts about Harlands and the problems people have had with them.

This one may be more on me though. I went to my gym's (Simply Gym) website to see how to initiate cancellation and it simply said to cancel the direct debit with my bank. I did this, then a week later (28th February 2017) I received a letter from Harlands saying that I owe them £14.99 plus £25.00 admin charge.

I then proceeded to look up my membership and it turns out that I am on a 12 month contract and the website states that they will expect every payment in this membership. I should say that the reason I cancelled was due to being a student and wanting to save a bit extra money each month.

As I say, I understand that in this instance I may have breached T's & C's so if I have to restart the DD to continue the monthly payments, I would understand but I'm obviously hesitant to pay the £25 charge.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Dont pay anything yet. Especially admin charges. They are penalty charges and should never be paid.

While you wait for the regular posters, have a search around the forums. Harlands do this to everyone and the advice to every person is exactly the same.

Hi DJB and welcome to CAG

You were at fault in cancelling the DD mandate. Our guide here would have helped you but obviously this is too late - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?452671-Cancelling-your-Gym-Agreement-Get-it-right-!(2-Viewing)-nbsp

However, your breach of the m/ship T&C's does NOT entitle Harlands/CRS to levy admin (penalty) charges against you. So while you were initially in the wrong, Harlands/CRS could also be said to be in breach of your right to be treated fairly.

Offer to pay Harlands the missing DD's to bring the m/ship up to date but refuse to pay their admin fees. Make the offer valid for 14 days, after which you'll withdraw it.

Send the letter to Harlands Haywards Heath address by RM Signed For delivery and post a draft here for checking first. Keep the letter as short as I've suggested and say nothing more really.

Harlands are just too greedy to accept your offer and, when they fail to accept your offer, you can just ignore them.

Thanks for the responses, how's this for a draft.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I recently accidentally cancelled my direct debit with you. I have consequently missed one month's payment. I am willing to pay that month's fee and restart the direct debit so that I can continue to make my direct debit payments. However, I refuse to pay the administration fees which are unenforceable.

This offer will stand for fourteen days, after which it will be withdrawn.

Kind regards,

DJB

Will I have to put any other details in the letter?

Hi DJ,

No need to say you cancelled accidently when it was actually done in error.

So I'd say :-

Dear Sir/Madam,

I recently cancelled my direct debit in error, for my membership at xxxxx gym in xxxxxxxtown/city.

I have consequently missed one month's payment but I'm willing to pay that month's fee and restart the direct debit so that I can continue to make my direct debit payments.

However, I will not pay administration fees which you want to charge.

This offer to pay will stand for fourteen days, after which it will be withdrawn.

Kind regards,

DJB

Okay, so I sent the letter, as written above, signed for delivery. The Post Office is website is showing the letter as signed for by a Mr. Barnes on March 7th at 09.23am. I feel this is important as today (31st March, 2017) I received a letter from Harlands saying the following:

We refer to our previous letter and note that you have not contacted us. You have now incurred a further charge and are £79.98 in arrears.

Under your membership agreement, you have promised to pay this debt. If you continue to refuse to honour that commitment, we will have no option but to take further steps to collect the outstanding balance.

We want to help you resolve this situation but you must call us. Ignoring our letters is only resulting in further charges being added.

Call the Harlands helpline blah blah blah

If you do not contact us by 9th April 2017 your balance of £154.93 will be passed to a Debt Recovery company who will add their fees to our account.

Sincerely,

Harlands

My issue is, the letter I sent offering to re pay the missed month and re-start the direct debit is shown as signed for over three weeks ago and they are saying I haven't contacted them. Is there need for any further action from myself?

Thanks in advance,

Dominic

Hi DJB,

All that matters is that you wrote to Harlands and made a reasonable offer but they've chosen to ignore it. That offer is now withdrawn.

Ignore this letter completely.

When Harlands say they'll pass the balance to a debt recovery company, Mr Barnes will take off his Harlands cap, put on his CRS cap and put CRS headed paper in the typewriter to send you a scary demand from CRS. They are the same outfit !!

Keep us posted.