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Xercise4Less/Harlands/CRS.. help!


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Hello!

 

I've read alot of threads about Xercise4less/Harlands/CRS, im currently having a similar problem with them as i've seen a number of other people are having. I was just wondering whats the best thing to do.

 

I joined Xercise4less in Leeds in April 2015, my first payment was taken on the 16th of April and continued at £9.99 a month until December (I paid on the 16th of December). Payments were then suspended for January and February as the gym was shut due to flood damage. I continued to pay in March 2016 and April and then cancelled my direct debit after the April 2016 payment.

I was told by a member of staff at the gym that all I needed to do to cancel my membership was to cancel my direct debit and as far as i was concerned I'd completed my 11 month contract. I understand I might owe them £9.99 as I didn't give them 30 days cancellation notice.

 

Fast forward 4 months and I receive a letter from CRS saying they've been passed on my details by Harlands/Xercise4less and I owe them £207 (!!) They said I did not respond to previous letters, which were apparently sent to my old student accommodation in Leeds. I have since finished university and moved back to home and so I have no idea what letters were sent or when to my old address. CRS told told me my membership wasn't cancelled I should cancel using the X4L website.. I haven't done this yet should I?

 

I've had a look at the letter templates available on other threads, but im not too sure what I should do!

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Edited by kkdt
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Hi KK and welcome to CAG

 

There are many threads here telling similar tales.

 

Here's a draft you can use - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?464998-Xercise4less-crs-spratt-edicott-once-again&p=4815303&viewfull=1#post4815303

 

Alter the letter a little to make it reflect your own circumstances. They're usually too greedy to accept your low offer but you can ignore them after the 14 days is up. Just keep us posted.

 

By the way, the gym being closed due to flooding was not your fault and I would have included those months as part of the 11 months m/ship, regardless of whether you had to pay for them or not. Anyhow, print off the letter and sent it off getting a free Certificate of Posting from the PO when you send it.

 

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Hi slick,

Thanks for the reply. I'll edit that letter and send it off! Who should I send the letter to CRS or Harlands or X4L or all of them? Also do I need to cancel my membership online using the form?

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Hi KK,

 

Address the letter to Harlands Group - Rockwood House, 9-17 Perrymount Rd, Haywards Heath RH16 3TW

 

Harlands and CRS are one and the same although they pretend that CRS is a separate entity.

 

Don't do it online now using the X4Less system or Harlands will say this is the cancellation date and they'll demand payments up to now, plus one month for the notice period.

 

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Hi Slick,

 

I was just wondering if you'd be able to see if this was okay to send? I've been busy moving house and forgot to send the letter off last week. Thank you! :)

 

Dear sir or madam,

 

I refer to my membership at Xercise4Less gym in Leeds.

 

I joined the gym in April 2015 and continued to pay £9.99 a month until April 2016. Payments were suspended for 2 months (Janurary and Feburary) whilst the gym was closed due to flood damage, this was through no fault of my own and therefore my 11 month minimum contract was completed. I cancelled my direct debit mandate on the 18th April 2016, this was adequate notice of my intention to cancel.

 

I now realise I should have paid a final month's fee to you for the notice period in the sum of £9.99 to you now. I will not pay you any administration or cancellation fees - these are penalties that are unlawful and unenforceable.

 

Please note that from the 12th of August my address will be: . Please ensure all future correspondences are sent to this address.

 

If you confirm in writing that you'll accept the amount of £9.99 in settlement of all that I owe, I will pay you promptly. If you fail to accept my offer within 14 days or you demand any other payment, I will pay you nothing and my offer will be withdrawn.

 

Yours faithfully,

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That's good to go.

 

Get a Cert of Posting from the PO as advised above.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi again!

So after my letter I didn't hear anything for a few weeks. I then started get get texts and phone calls from CRS for about two weeks, all of which I ignored. I then received this letter (below) which was sent to my old address, even though I told them I was moving house in my original letter. I was just wondering what to do next and should I reply? Thank you :)

 

' following our inital letter, we are disappointed that your account with 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 our fees. We may persue a claim under this contract through the courts. If we do so the following process would apply:

1. We will write a formal letter explaining what we are demanding and give you a final opportunity to pay/reply;

2. If this failed to settle the matter we would issue proceedings against you in the county court;

3. You could then either:

A: make payment, ending the legal process, or

B: dispute some, or all, of the amount was owed.

4: if you dissolute the amount was owed the court process would continue, at the end of which the court would make a decision on our claim.

5: A strict court imposed timescale will apply in relation to the court process.

 

We're we to be successful in our claim, or if you ignore the claim, a county court judgment (CCJ) may be registered against you requiring you to make payment. You may also be liable for our costs of pursuing legal actions and interest on the amount owed.

 

If you fail to pay the amount covered by the CCJ we would take the next steps required to enforce the judgment. 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 - to arrange payment with us

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Hi KK,

 

I assume this is from CRS but please confirm.

 

They haven't taken any cases to court apart from one last year that they totally screwed up, then dropped. So don't take their threat of court action seriously at all.

 

I suggest you simply write to them saying :-

 

I refer to your letter of xxdate in which you failed to mention my letter of xxth August.

 

Despite me giving you my current address, you wrote to my old one. Please ensure your records are updated or I will make a formal complaint to the ICO.

 

Even though you have replied after the deadline I gave in my last letter, I am still prepared to pay you 1 month's fee to settle this matter if you accept my offer within 14 days from now. Failing that, I will pay you nothing.

 

Get a free Cert of Posting and keep us posted.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Final reply (for now) to Harlands, not CRS.

 

I refer to your CRS letter of xdate.

 

You have twice declined my offer to settle by paying the only amount I owe. Accordingly, my offer is now withdrawn as stated in my previous letters.

 

Your other comments are noted but I dispute them. I will pay you nothing further and will ignore further demands from Harlands/CRS, Zinc and Spratt Endicott. However, such demands will be noted and reported to Trading Standards and The CMA if I consider such demands constitute harassment.

 

That'll do for now.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello..

Another reply from CRS which I've attached...

Is it true that they've won court cases before? Or is that just an empty threat?

Should I reply to this letter or ignore it?

Thank you :)

 

I've rotated it, I. Not sure how to convert it as I've taken the picture on my phone. The letter says..

 

We note you dispute to our explanation as to why you owe more than £9.99 despite us quoting clear legal precedent for such charges.

 

As such we will offer some alternative points for you to consider.

Initially the former regulating body the office of fair trading reviewed our organisation including the contracts we recommend and charges associated with them as part of an investigation of the entire leisure industry and raised no concerns regarding these fees.

 

The results of the OFTs investigation can be found online and you yourself can verify this if you wish.

 

Secondly the office of fair trading and their successors ( The financial conduct authority ) as there is issued guidance on how such charges may be applied.

 

Our charges comply with both sets of guidance and we refuse to accept that not one, but two organisations appointed by the government to ensure business at correctly and fairly would advise organisations on when they may apply unlawful charges.

 

Thirdly we have enforced these fees in court on numerous occasions and no judge has yet deemed these fees to be unlawful or unenforceable.

 

Finally we would point out that as we do not buy debts, all of the membership fees still go to the club.

 

As such our only source of income is the fees you claim to be unlawful.

If you follow the implications of your claim through to their conclusion you will see that you actually training is to be a criminal organisation and yet no criminal proceedings have ever been brought against us or any member of staff with in our organisation for what is essentially organised-crime.

 

For the above reasons we cannot except that your argument is valid but if you remain confident in these fees are either unenforceable unlawful a booth please take what ever action you deem necessary in regard to this.

 

Our position remains as previously advised. If you are not willing to set up a payment plan with Us, we have no alternative but to proceed with further action against you. We will hold this for a further seven days. If you advises again that you do not intend to pay we will continue our collection procedure but will not continue to enter into further correspondence as a decision has been made

CRS letter.pdf

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letter rotated and convert to pdf

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Hi KK,

 

Re-post please as DX says to make the letter easier to read.

 

Re their remarks about them "enforcing their fees in court on numerous occasions" and "no judge has found their fees unlawful", this is a load of Hogwash.

 

In the many years and thousands of cases we've been dealing with Harlands, I can recall just 2 cases that went to court. The last claim (last year) was withdrawn after the solicitors made a real hash of the case from the start.

 

Harlands don't normally take court action, probably because they know they have poor grounds to litigate and a poor chance of winning a claim.

 

I would just ignore their letter as nothing you say will change their mind. They'll just continue to make demands and after Harlands/CRS, Zinc and then Spratt Endicott will come begging.

 

Keep us posted.

 

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What a weird letter....

Did you say their fees were unlawfully or did you incorrectly say they were illegal?

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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This is just another example of Harlands/CRS going into great detail in the hope that you'll be persuaded they are right, so you pay them.

 

But NOT if you have found CAG and seen exactly how Harlands/CRS try to operate.

 

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Please give something if you can. We all give our time free of charge but the site has bills to pay.

 

Thanks !:-)

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Hi DX.. I replied saying it was unlawful, I've used slicks guidance on all of my letters. I did think it was a strange letter, I haven't seen anyone post on CAG saying they've received a similar letter!

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Office junior

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi..

so today I received my first contact from Zinc.. I got the following email, and was just wondering what I should do next.. thank you!

 

 

'Dear Sir / Madam,

 

Welcome to the Zinc Group, we have been instructed by our client to assist you with the resolution of your account. We would therefore like to invite you to review the options we have made available to you as a priority customer, these have been designed to make the process as simple as possible while ensuring that you have full control of your circumstances.

 

At Zinc we understand that not all of our customers are the same, but we are committed to treating all of our customers fairly.

 

You can visit our website WeWantToSayYes.co.uk or contact your personal account manager'

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all and bugger

 

 

a DCA is NOT A BAILIFF

and have

NO SUCH LEGAL POWERS.

 

 

dx

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Hi KK,

 

Ignore this completely - no reply is needed at all.

 

Keep us posted.

 

:-)

We could do with some help from you

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Please give something if you can. We all give our time free of charge but the site has bills to pay.

 

Thanks !:-)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey all,

So I've had a few phone calls and voicemails fro

Zinc which I've ignored. And today received an email from zinc saying..

'I am now your allocated Customer Account Manager and have been assigned your CRS on behalf of Xercise 4 Less account (Zinc Reference xxxx.)

 

Please can I ask that you call me on 0141 230 9101, visit WeWantToSayYes.co.uk to update your account or email me by return to confirm receipt of this message, I am here to help you so please don't hesitate to ask if you need anything.'

 

I'm assuming I keep ignoring these emails and phone calls? Just wanted to double check!

 

Thanks :)

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As post 14

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi, another email from Zinc.. I'm continuing to ignore them but just thought I'd keep you posted..

 

'We note that as yet you have been unable to contact us so that we can start the process of closing your account. As a result we are concerned that time is now running out on the options we have made available to you as a Zinc Priority Customer.

 

Today and for a limited time you can still:

 

Call us on 0141 230 9101 and ask to speak to your personal account manager, who is ready to help and assist you with a variety of options.

 

You can visit our website http://www.WeWantToSayYes.co.uk where you will be able to do the following:

 

Contact us using Zinc Chat, Skype, Text Message or by Emailing us.

Use our income and expenditure calculator, so you know how much you can afford to pay.

Use our payments slider to see how much and how long it will take you to clear your account.

Make an offer of repayment

Make a payment

Find out if a full and final settlement is available on your account

Check the balance of your account

Enjoy peace of mind through taking control of your finances

We are keen to help you resolve this matter before it is escalated so please contact us now.'

 

Thanks :)

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Hi KK and thanks for the update.

 

Continue to ignore !

 

:-)

We could do with some help from you

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                                            Have we helped you ...?  Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

 

Please give something if you can. We all give our time free of charge but the site has bills to pay.

 

Thanks !:-)

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