Morning everyone,

Hoping you can help with another Harland’s mess.

Tru gym- first joined 28th April, £19.95 p/m. As per sign up email; “You are committing to a single £0.00 Admin Fee payment and £19.95 per month for a minimum of 1 months. After this minimum term your membership payments will continue on a monthly basis.”

First payment came out on 12th May- £19.95

Second payment was taken on 30th May- £19.95

Monday 12th June, notices went up around the gym saying they were closing down and would ‘cease trading on Wednesday 14th June 2017’.

My direct debit was then cancelled by the gym/Harland’s on the Tuesday 13th June, without me having to do anything.

Later that Tuesday/Wednesday the gym announced they were then staying open.

I had found a new gym to join by this point and went ahead with joining this new gym so I didn’t reinstate my DD with Tru Gym.

I thought that was the end of it until

13th July when I noticed I had been charged another lot of £19.95 on the 6th July, from a direct debit for Tru Gym that had been reinstated around the 4th July.

This direct debit was reinstated on my bank account without any approval from myself. I signed up to the first DD, but not this second one.

I spoke to my bank and raised an indemnity claim for this unapproved second direct debit.

I emailed Tru Gym explaining what had happened and that this email should be taken as a cancellation notice of my membership with immediate effect.

I then have an email from the gym manager claiming a refund would be processed for the mix up, and my membership would be immediately cancelled.

I was refunded on the 14th July for a total of £19.95.

I have spoken to HSBC twice on the phone who have confirmed the indemnity claim has been fulfilled as the gym have been refunded me directly.

Harland’s are claiming this indemnity claim still shows as valid on their system, and as the bank are chasing them for it, if Harlands pay the bank, I will have to refund Harlands, plus the admin fee of £25.

Harlands confirmed over the phone if I could prove the indemnity claim was cancelled by the 16th Aug this would close the case and I would owe them nothing.

I spoke to the bank on the 8th August, who said they could send a letter to confirm the indemnity claim would be cancelled, I’m still currently waiting for this letter but will be ringing the bank later to chase this up.

I’ve now received an email from Harland’s stating that as I have yet to clear my account I now owe them £69.95.

“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.

Please call the HARLANDS HELPLINE on 01444 449025 to clear your arrears by Debit/Credit Card and reinstate your Direct Debit. If you are unable to clear your arrears in full then we may be able to help you but you must call us to discuss this.

If you do not contact us by 30th August 2017 your balance of £ 69.95 will be passed to a Debt Recovery company who will add their fees to your account.”

Where do I stand with this?

As the gym was closing down they cancelled the direct debit with me in the first place, do I owe them anything?

Can anyone advise how best to proceed?

Thank you,

Jo

You ignore them and stay off the phone

You got you money back

You owe nowt

Scary red letters from CRS..ZINC...etc next

Ignore those too

They are not bailiffs and are totally powerless

Hi Jo and welcome to CAG

Any amount taken by DD that you did NOT agree to should have been repaid to you by the bank direct, or by the gym. If this happened, all is well and you need do nothing further.

If Harlands/CRS make any further threat, respond telling them any further harassment will be reported to The CMA and Trading Standards.

Keep us posted.

Hi guys, many thanks for the responses.

My other half spoke to the financial ombudsman who although they don't have any legal jurisdiction over Harlands, agreed that we would have a case if we wanted to pursue legal help.

We've since gone back to Harlands and have spoken to one of the managers who has actually agreed that as the gym have contacted Harlands directly confirming the issues, I owe them nothing.

Harlands have agreed to close my account as it is with no money owing to them.

Sounds like I've got off easy compared to some of the other threads I've been reading.

Hopefully this is the end of it for now but if they do rear their ugly heads again I'll be straight back here for more advice.

Thank you!

Jo

Hi Jo and thanks for the update.

Let us know if Harlands/CRS make any further contact.