Hi, I received a letter today from ARC Europe stating that I have arreas of £85.50 from David Lloyds (Which I accept) however I have a balance of £332 apparently. I'm assuming this is all made up of some admin fees. Do I need to pay these? The missed monthly payment came from all my direct debits being cancelled and I've been offshore the past month so DL have not been able to contact me as I haven't had a phone signal obviously. What exactly can I do about this? I would like to just pay the £85.50 and move on ideally. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks

From my favourite Consumer site in the whole world... Look carefully.... [ATTACH=CONFIG]58202[/ATTACH]

Dear CAG, I have had similar issues as other forum members with LA Fitness engaging ARC Europe to chase for 'debt'. I received a number of letters from LA Fitness claiming I owed a months membership, then two, then that they were referring the issue to an outside agency. In fairness, I ignored this as I knew I did not, and had followed the cancellation policy correctly. Eventually I started receiving phone calls, text messages, emails, letters, and voice mails from ARC. The initial phone call I answered as it came up as a mobile number and I did entertain a couple of other calls to no result. They were fairly non-threatening, until they started escalating the costs and the severity of their threats to court and legal action. The language used was always hypothetical; 'if', 'could', 'may' etc. and because of that I was still fairly unconcerned about their legitimacy. However, I eventually received a call from a chap who was rather more threatening and aggressive in his manner - his tone and approach was quite invasive and he started putting immediate time limits on when I could pay by. He suggested that if I didn't pay by 8pm that evening there would be consequences in terms of the progression of the issue. That was enough for me, so looked on-line and found this website. It instantly validated my scepticism, and having found a couple of threads with example letters, used their content to draft the below and sent it to ARC. Given I was getting contact on a near daily basis, I haven't heard anything for a month so consider they have received and understood the letter. I would like to offer my thanks to the forum, and particularly 'slick132', for their patience in assisting others with their dealing with these companies. I can definitely understand how the nature of their communication would very easily scare many people into giving them significant amounts of money that they do not owe. I hope the below letter helps to prevent this as well. Best Dear Sir or Madam, I refer to my monthly membership at LA Fitness *location* gym. I visited the gym confirming my need to cancel. I followed this visit up with a phone call to head office. I cancelled my Direct Debit mandate via my bank after the months’ notice period on instruction. These actions are adequate notice of my cancellation of the gym agreement, as per the case of The OFT v Ashbourne Mgt Services Ltd in 2011. I am now being pursued for further payments from ARC which I will not pay. If LA Fitness or ARC continues to seek payments when I have cancelled my membership properly, I will report the matter to The OFT and Trading Standards without further warning. I owe LA Fitness nothing and I will not pay you any more. Yours faithfully,

Hi All! I have been signed up with LA fitness since roughly October 2014. When I was signing my contract I stated I might change my job in few months and the person handling my contract was very friendly and assured me few times that it takes only 5 minutes to break the contract and there will be no problems, I only need a proof. In January 2015 I was going back to my country and wasn’t sure if I am going to go back. I wrote a letter and gave it to the person at the reception together with copy of proof of booking my flight ticket. She said I don’t need to worry and she will send it to Head Office. After few days she called me saying there are not enough information on the proof of booking and I need a copy of actual ticket (I didn’t have it as it was before check out). I was flying after two days and didn’t have time to bring it so I left it at that point and just cancelled my direct debit. I was back to England after few weeks and got a letter from LA Fitness with outstanding balance. I didn’t pay it and just ignored the letter. There were more letters and then ARC Europe started to chase me. I called LA Fitness saying I gave my letter and what happened to it and they said they never received it (because person at the reception never passed it). Some time ago ARC Europe called me and I confirmed I still live at the same address as I thought the call was from someone else. When I realized who are they I said that my cancelation letter got lost in the process and I don’t have any copy of letter or flight tickets anymore. The person from ARC Europe was very rude and hanged up. I got another letter now saying I owe them £440…..! And they are going to take my case to the court. I am not sure if the template letters you published are appropriate. I know it is partly my fault as I should bring my flight ticket but I went there few times before trying to cancel and they were making problems or there was no person available who could help me, that’s why I gave it up. I feel lost now. Could you advise me, please?

Hi guys, new to this but tried reading as much as possible on other threads to get an idea of what to do but my situation is slightly different so hopefully someone can help. Went into DW Milton Keynes back in August last year to cancel my membership. Spoke to just a young girl working behind the front desk who let me know what i already knew.. . its fine I've made a note of you giving your notice and 1 months payment will have to be taken still. AT NO POINT DID I SEND A LETTER OR RECEIVE ANY WRITTEN CONFIRMATION. Money was taken in September which was fine ...but it was also taken in October. I wasn't in a position to visit the gym at the time as i was in sheffield - tried calling a number of times to query but either was left on hold or the person i needed to speak to wasnt about to take my call. I decided to just call my bank and get them to cancel the direct debit so nothing was taken in November and they also got back for me the money from October. STILL NO WRITTEN EVIDENCE OF ANY KIND. I received emails over the coming weeks from DW saying they were unsuccesful taking direct debit from my account. I applied to these emails explaining my situation but heard nothing back. Then in December i received a letter from ARC Europe stating they were trying to take £94.00 on behalf of DW. Maybe foolishly ignored this letter but now it has been passed onto Major Law who are looking for £94 plus £25 court fee plus £50 solicitors costs and £7.52 annual interest. saying i have 14 days to pay or they MAY issue the claim. I feel foolish cus i signed no cancellation form when i went in or sent a letter to DW all i have is 2/3 unresponded to emails from the time they tried taking my direct debit again unsuccessfully. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, First time poster after reading some information about similar issues other people have had with Arc, but as I've never had an issue such as this before I'm not particularly confident in handling this. In December 2013 I signed up to David Lloyd on a 3 month membership, when I signed up I was given a 'special deal' where I only had to pay the pro-rata fee for December. As I was paying this I presumed this counted as my first month and therefore my third month would be February. In February I had only been to the gym twice in those months & wrote to my gym giving a months notice on 1st March (as required) and informed them I would be making no further payments and wanted my membership to cease as of 1st April 2015. I received a letter in response confirming this was fine and my membership would finish but I would have to make any payments outstanding, of course I cancelled the direct debit immediately and thought nothing more of it. Jump to April 13th, I receive a letter saying Arc Europe are acting on behalf of David Lloyd & I owe £139 which must be paid by 22nd April otherwise they may pass my account onto solicitors. Firstly my membership was £69 & my arrears is £89 which I can't make sense of. Secondly the balance I apparently owe is £139, both of these numbers seem completely fabricated and pulled out of nowhere! I may have misunderstood when my 3 month contracted ended which I would be willing to pay the £69 I would then owe however I refuse to pay charges or any extra when I have received no corespondance from David Lloyd. Also I do not want this to progress any further and possibly hurt my credit score, go to court, have people coming over etc but I really have no idea how to address this issue with either David Lloyd or Arc Europe. Help would be extremely appreciated.

How often do ARC Europe go legal?? This relates to a Quickquid PDL which is quite a few years old... (Suspect Fraud again here) & A Virgin Gym membership which is mine but currently being disputed as to amount owed...

Hi, I see a lot of people have had similar issues and wondered if you could help me with my particular case: I signed up to my LA Fitness membership in August 2013, at the time the personal instructor told me to put my work address as the address on my account so that I would be able to cancel my membership at any time due to change of address (my home address is an hour away from where I worked). In May 2014 I changed jobs and moved closer to home I went to inform the LA Fitness branch and told them I'd like to cancel my membership. They told me I would have to call up their head office, which admittedly I did not do I simply cancelled my direct debit. In December 2014 after receiving numerous letters and phone calls from ARC, I called up the La Fitness branch and the manager told me to email him proof of my new address and the debt collecting would cease. However it has not, do you have any advice? Thanks

Hi all, I joined Virgin Active gym few months back, and after 2 months of joining I left because I ended up not going because of loss of interest and the price, so I cancelled the DD (the contract was for 6 months), and like a week later I received a letter from them demanding the money, and they sent me a few text messages too. After a few more weeks I received a letter from ARC demanding me to pay £210, they keep calling me constantly, sometimes like 10 calls; one after the other, which I ignored. After couple more weeks ARC sent another letter threatening court actions if the outstanding balance was not paid. 2 weeks later (today) I received a letter from Major Law solicitors threatening court actions as well, they have said I should contact ARC to repaid the debt. I have have had no contact with Virgin, Arc or Major sols yet, meaning I haven't spoken to them. Can they actual take me to court? I don't really care about credit ratings. I am 20, living with my parents, can they get the bailiffs involved? Thanks very much. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I have outstanding debt with QQ, the amount started at £400 currently know at £1200 or something. Massive rolled over charges. Received this today. Am I right in sending a SAR to QQ to provide breakdown of charges - not easy being in hardship so everything counts. Thanks

Cancelled membership at DW by letter (normal post), called to check rec'd letter but mgr would called me back if probs as not there. No call rec'd. Another DD taken so sent further letter and cancelled DD. Ltr from gym demanding money. Rang again but no call back. Ltr from ARC. Called ARC and said I'd sent ltrs and called. Called DW and mgr busy. Call received from ARC saying they'd spoke to gym and initial ltr not rec'd so insufficient notice given. Apparently onus on me to check ltr rec'd and no proof I sent it but pointed out no proof they hadn't so my word against theirs! Am I less honourable! Called DW again and mgr answered phone. He wouldn't budge. Said my fault and I can't prove I sent it (apart from copy I have). Two days later and today rec'd ltr from sols in Nottingham with added expenses! Where do I stand and have others succeeded in their disputes like this? Do I have to pay admin charges and sols fees? Thank you

Hi all i need advice on how to tackle this 2195.00 credit card with Nationwide. It has now gone through various places and ended up at ARC Europe. They are now issuing court proceedings and i wish to send them a letter which tells them i cannot afford to pay more than £1 a month. I'm currently going to college whilst living at my mum and dads which is a pain from all the phone calls and letters. I am barely working and havnt been in receipt of JSA as i'm at college and also i struggle to get one day a week work with friends or family right now. This has been on going for probably over a year now however ive not been financially stable since. Thanks all.

Hi, I had a twelve month contract for a gym membership with Dw fitness that I took out in August last year. I have been poorly and in March this year had to move in with my parents on the other end of the country. I wrote to Dw's head office in April to cancel with a copy of a letter about my benefits from the DWP confirming that I'm ill and that my address has changed. I waited a reasonable amount of time and heard nothing from them so I cancelled my direct debit, reasoning that if I owed them a month I would pay it, I didn't want to leave the direct debit ongoing. I heard nothing about it all until I got a letter from ARC Europe on 8 July demanding three months payment (for May, June and July) plus admin costs. I told them that I had cancelled and sent proof of address. They said they'd look into it and then got back to me to say that although my cancellation was received, it could not be processed because I cancelled my direct debit before they processed it. I offered to pay for the month's notice but they wouldn't accept that. I didn't understand why they were asking me for three months and only today have they clarified that they're seeking payment until the end of my original contract. They originally said that the cancellation wasn't processed so my membership carried on until they decided to pursue it. Do I owe them three month's worth of membership? Was my cancellation invalid? ARC have said they are now preparing a claim for the county court. Thanks in advance

So I had a payday loan with Quickquid and extended it, meaning 2 loans (original + extension). Couldn't pay back etc and they were both defaulted, paid the extension of at £10 a month (£160) and currently paying the original loan off at £10 a month (balance £619). Credit files says default balance £660 & regular payments £647. Had issues back and forth with quickquid & ARC (sure they are the same company). I am tempted to stop paying and wait for a settlement offer from ARC but I really don't want it passed on to another DCA who will place another default on my file. Also should I have had 2 loans in the first place? Do qq only report to callcredit?

Hi all. Just found these forums after trawling the interweb for people who've had similarly nasty experiences with David Lloyd and their debt collectors ARC. A couple of years ago my wife our son and I transferred our membership from David Lloyd Fitness in Solihull to David Lloyd Cranmore, also in Solihull. We didn't sign a new contract at the new gym and were never made aware that the terms and conditions of our membership had changed, so when we decided to terminate our membership earlier this year I duly gave the one months notice stipulated on the contract we had signed at David Lloyd Fitness. David Lloyd Cranmore have demanded that I pay for a further two months, stating that three months is their standard notice period. I have said that if they can show me documentation which supersedes the contract I have, then of course I will pay; they haven't provided this documentation - because it doesn't exist; I never signed a new contract. I exhausted the DL internal complaints procedure. I complained to Trading Standards (via the Consumer Advice helpline on the now defunct OFT website) but they don't investigate individual complaints. I've spoken to the Financial Ombudsman who were very sympathetic, but this is outside their jurisdiction. Ive yet to contact the Financial Conduct Authority, but like Trading Standards they don't fight individual cases. David Lloyd have now passed me on to ARC who are threatening court action to extract the £400 from me which they claim I owe. I've sent them a copy of the contract I have showing that I'm bound by a one month notice period not three, but they're not interested. Should I be taken to court I'm 99% sure I'd win, but I'm worried about that 1% chance where I'd get a CCJ and my credit rating would be destroyed. ARC have told me I've a week before they get their solicitors involved. What should I do? Thanks in advance, Steve

Hi I have been a member of DW fitness for quite a while now and decided I wanted to cancel my membership. I wrote a letter on the 25th October 2013 stating I was giving one months notice to cancel and that my last payment would be going out on the 2nd December 2013.I never heard anything back so thought all was fine. I then received a letter from ARC Europe Limited on the 12th February saying that I have ten days to pay £54.90 this includes a £15 admin fee. Taking into account I only payed £19.95 a month I'm not quite sure where they got this amount from. I straight away sent a letter Recorded Delivery to Arc Europe informing them I had sent a letter to DW Fitness stating I wish to cancel my membership.I also sent them a copy of that letter. I just wished I had sent my initial letter Recorded Delivery to DW Fitness. I then received a letter back on the 20th February to say I quote "Although you claim you gave our client written notice they have never received this.Therefore unless you are able to provide proof of delivery of your notice to cancel: the above balance remains outstanding and must be paid". I have yet to respond, any advice on what I should do next?

Stupidly I answered a call from ARC (i was waiting for a call from an a gas engineer to fix our boiler so did not have his number) they called from a mobile number. The guy on the phone just said "Hello is that MR xxxxxxxxxxx" I said "Yes" he then proceeded to tell me all about my debt with them, who I owe, how much it was for. Is this legal - they claim it is!

Hi All I haven't posted for a while, just after a little bit of advice on how to deal with ARC Europe. Recently I have received a couple of texts from this company and an answer machine message asking me to call them which I ignored. About a week ago I answered the phone to one of they're agents who was quite pushy with me, but I refused to go through the security questions with him including my address, whilst on the phone to me he told me that he wanted to discuss Nationwide with me. I told him to put everything in writing to me, he told me that that they already had and hadn't received a response from me that is why he was calling, I told him that he must have the incorrect address for me, I refused to give him my current address. Because I refused the security questions he ended the call using the words 'Thats Unfortunate'. I did have a Nationwide account which became Statute Barred about a year ago, I haven't heard anything about this account in about 6+ years although I have moved a couple of times in that period. Today I received a further message from one of the agents from ARC asking me to call them back, my question is, should I just ignore them or would it do any harm to give them my current address to enable them to write to me? I am concerned that they may try and obtain a judgement in my at a previous address, maybe by fabricating a phantom payment. What do you guys suggest? Thanks in advance QB

Hi all, I joined DW Sports 1st November 2013 but by mid November I lost my job and had to sign on to the dole, by the end of November I had to cancel dw by going to the bank and cancelling DD I had a £1000 wonga loan after numerous rollovers and a 500 sunny finance loan and still not got them sorted and today I receive a letter from ARC stating they want £215 and if I don't pay within 10 days they will take it to a solicitors. I'm 19 and in debt which I'm trying to get a job to start paying them off but I don't know what to do atm. Thanks

Can any fellow users give me some advice on this company. They are chasing me for an old credit card debt. The tone of their e mail and letters are quite threatening. CAN THEY TURN UP AND REPOSSESS SOME OF MY BELONGINGS? What should I do? My instinct is telling me to ignore them and not enter into dialogue. On the other hand I was thinking of offering them £400 to settle the debt which id around £2000. Do you think they will accept this. Really really grateful for any replies

I joined a Virgin active gym a year ago, but with 4 months left I cannot afford to pay the membership. ARC phone me everday making threats, which I know they will do anything to get my payment. I cannot pay them any time soon, and don't really want to pay at all after I feel the gym mis-sold my membership, but they wont do anything about it and my only contact is with ARC. Whar exactly will ARC do, just keep phoning me for how long? Actually take me to court? Send round debt collectors? CCJ? THE DEBT IS £244.00, current situation is ; I informed them I cannot pay at this moment due to financial difficulty. Thanks

Hi everyone. I'm new here and I'm sorry my first post is a moan. I joined David Lloyd in Aug 11. I had a minimum term of 12 months, which I completed. I only realized I had to provide 3 months notice in the 12th month so I did so towards the end of Aug 12. At this point I had moved about 100 miles away from the gym so rather than handing in the notice face to face I posted them a letter. In Nov 12 after the third month's payment (notice period), I cancelled my direct debit. When Dec 12 arrived, I started receiving automated emails from David Lloyd saying I owed them membership fees for the month. As I was busy I ignored this and assumed this was an error on their part as I had completed my notice period. I then received communications from a company called Arc claiming to be debt collectors acting on behalf of David Lloyd. At this point I rang David Lloyd who claimed that my membership wasn't cancelled as they hadn't received my letter. long story short, we settled on me just paying them one final month (Dec 12) - only accepted by me as I made the mistake of not using recorded delivery. I have email communications from my local David Lloyd stating that my last month of membership was Dec 12 and I have a receipt for the final payment which was posted to me. now despite no longer being a member, I continued to receive automated communications from David Lloyd and letters and emails from Arc. Initially I just ignored them as I had no outstanding debt with David Lloyd. However, as these communications kept on coming in and I began to get more and more annoyed I eventually wrote to both my local David Lloyd and Arc, questioning their competency and accuracy of information. David Lloyd apologized in writing and informed me that they had now contacted their head office and Arc to make sure I was not contacted again. Arc just said, David Lloyd passed on my details so they were doing their job, no apology. Yet since my last communications with David Lloyd, I have received more automated emails from head office David Lloyd and from Arc, now for payment of Apr 13's fee. Today I got a letter from Arc about possible filings in court. It put me in quite a bad mood all evening. I@m not bothered about any threats from Arc as my membership ended in Dec 12 and David Lloyd have acknowledged this on more than one occasion in writing. I have made several requests using email, to Arc to stop contacting me. My view is that I consider all their communications unsolicited and therefore harassment. I have no relationship with them and as I owe David Lloyd nothing, they have no right to pass on my details to Arc. I was just wondering where I stand from a legal point of view as part of me wants to file proceedings over harassment and a breach of data protection laws against David Lloyd and Arc. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hello all. I signed up to LA fitness October 2011 on a 12 month student off peak contract to which I was told at the time was 12 months contract ONLY as it was a student membership as I was paying a discounted amount . I proceeded to cancelling my membership via direct debit after they had taken the last payment(i think) in September 2012 as i had then finished university and moved out of the area. 3/4 months later I have today received a call from ARC Europe stating that I owe them £59 to pay today but something about owing 100 and something in total. When I questioned the man about why 59 today but 100 something overall he was waffling and not making much sense and about fees? or offering me a logical explanation and only seemed to be currently after the £59. He was rather aggressive in pursuing this money and very firm and didn't even offer a goodbye before he put the phone down. They said they had sent correspondence to the address I had given at the time of signing up but I have obviously not been receiving these as no longer live there. When I asked why they hadn't contacted me by phone or email sooner they did not offer a reason and kept asking for my new address in order for them to send the proof ( i told them i didn't believe them) of it which I declined to provide as I do not currently have a permanent fixed address and kept asking them to email me the details which he kept refusing. I have gone through my emails and found that I signed the electronic copies of the contract on a 12 month agreement stating the overall value of the contract for the 12 months which I think I have paid in full via my direct debit each month. I have now read that I had to give a months notice which I now know I didn't so is partly my fault but I just assumed it was a 12 month contract as I was told that and just assumed all I had to do was terminate my DD at the end of the agreement. I do however think all these extra costs as a result are unjustified and unfair. I would happily pay an extra month (19.99) as the one months notice I didn't provide. Also I have read suggestions that I should not correspond with ARC via telephone and use letters but as I do not have a permanent address is there any other way of doing so like emailing which I am able to do? I am now in the position where I feel very upset and distressed as I am currently unemployed and cannot afford to pay all this money and do not want any problems with my credit score rating etc. Is there any advice you can offer me please in order to help rectify the problem? or am I going to be bullied into paying the debt collection agency this money? If so would they let me pay the £59 or do they want over £100? I would happily make a donation to the site as would rather the money go to a good cause like this rather than con artists like LA fitness and ARC Europe. kind regards

I had a 6 month contract with dw sports that started in march 2012. in January i asked the woman at reception if i could cancel my membership and i was told that it would take a month, i said that was ok and at the end of February i cancelled the membership by direct debit. I received letters stating that i had not gave them the notice and that they wanted the £33.99 for my months notice. i ignored these letters. but today i received a letter from ARC europe threatening court action if i did not pay the fee plus a 15 pound admin charge. has anyone else had this problem and what should i do. thanks

Hi everybody I have an ongoing problem with David Lloyd and now ARC Europe Ltd which I would like to share with you to see what your views are. I took out membership for myself, wife and 3 children at our local DL leisure club in August 2011. I knew it was a 12 month minimum contract, so i paid for a year upfront and signed a direct debit authorisation which would kick in when the second year started. On 1st Aug 2012 David Lloyd removed over £500 from my bank account with out any prior warning and absolutely no authorisation from me. I will cut this short and give a brief over view of what happened next. Once i discovered the money had gone I contacted head office of DL by phone. First the lady i spoke to said no such sum of money had been taken I gave her the date when the money was removed, and she said yes, she now sees it on her system I ask her why the money was taken, she says she will have to check, I wait on the phone. She comes back to say it is an advanced payment for 2 of my children for another years membership I ask if this is company policy........... not sure is her answer I explain that i had agreed to pay monthly by DD She says there is a note on the system to say I had been informed of this sum being taken, and had agreed I tell her I was not informed, and even if I was there is absolutely no way i would have agreed. I am livid about DL helping them selves to my money so write in to my local branch and I give my 3 months notice. I said to them repay my money and I will continue my last 3 months payment by direct debit, or take 3 months payment out of the money they took and return the remainder. They replied to me with a standard letter saying how sorry they were to lose me and my family as members etc etc. No mention of the £500 they had taken from me. I looked on the internet and found that my bank could take the money back if it had not been authorised, they did this. At this stage I was still prepared to pay my last 3 months membership, and paid the next month. They then send a letter saying if I do not repay the £500 "any monies outstanding will eventually be forwarded to our debt recovery agency" So I stop any further payments to DL. I wrote 2 times after this to explain that they had in effect stolen money from me, and then when I had taken back what is mine, they threaten me with debt collectors. I have never had a letter back from DL, apart from numerous standard letters telling me to pay what I owe them. The situation now is an invoice from ARC for about £880, which is the £500 plus 2 months membership and fees they have added on. Any advice would be welcome, thanks for your time.