Help! I have been a member of LA FITNESS for about 6 months and I loved the gym however mainly for the use of the pool. During my time at the gym there were rumours pure would be buying the gym I have been a member at pure before and hated it. I contacted LA Fitness via telephone to enquire about the closure of the pool and they confirmed this would happen in October once I had confirmation I definitely wanted to cancel however they explained this would not be possible!! I also explained to them I was moving house to fareham where I wouldn't be able to use the gym anyway. In the end this did not happen but they also said i could not cancel! They asked me to speak to my gym personally regarding cancellation. I went into the gym and they confirmed they were being taken over by pure and la fitness was closing down and said if I wanted to cancel I should contact their customer service as I already did and they would note on my account my closure but said due to the closure of the pool and the change of ownership I was within my right to cancel. I cancelled through my bank and have since recieved a letter to say that I needed to fill in a direct debit form to continue my payment! I received nothing else no emails or phone calls until today when I recieved a letter from ARC EUROPE saying I owed £334.40!!! I am absolutely gobsmacked it has gone from setting up my direct debit again to owing this money! They gym is now refurbished and a pure gym so isn't even LA Fitness anymore! There is nothing about this in my contract although it states if there is a change to the use of my gym I.e my main use (the pool closing) I can cancel. Or I move which at the time I was meant to I could cancel! Please help! I don't fancy a court case or paying for a gym that doesn't even exist anymore!!! Help me please

Hi I joined a Gym called Fitspace during the first Month a double payment of £11.99 was made to them . I only realized this when i checked over a week after it was taken out via my bank statements. This indicated to me that it could happen again as I was not contacted by the gym regarding this mistake. I sent a letter to by Bank and to Fitspace stating that the Contract had been breached as the contract stated the first payment of £11.99 will be taken out on the 16th of August 2015. however a double payment was taken out on the 17th of August 2015. I expressed that i have lost trust in the Gym for making this error and not following up to rectify the mistake. I received an email from Fitspace apologising for the mistake, instructed me to cancel my DD immediately by 27th of August 2015 and they offered me a free month if i was to rejoin. The reason for the double payment was a duplicate account was made, which i have no idea on how that happened. Then on the 3rd Of September I received a letter from harlands stating 'We write to you to confirm that your duplicate membership has been cancelled and the duplicate payment has been credited against your missing August installment on your live account. The terms of your Membership Agreement mean that you have to repay all your installments by Direct Debit. Therefore, you must call Harlands Helpline immediately'.... I chose to ignore the letter and received another letter on 20th of October saying that they have added admin fee leaving me at £31.99 in arrears. I chose to ignore this letter also. Then on the 20th of November 2015 i got another letter stating that they have added a further £20.00 charge which is leaves me at £63.98?? (dunno how they did the maths on that). They further threatened me saying that further charges will be added if i do not contact them by 4th of December 2015 and the balance of £159.90 will be passed on to a DRC who will add their fees onto my account. So i have written out a letter but before i send it i wanted to check up on it with the experts (YOU GUYS ) 26/11/2015 To whom it may concern I am writing to you regarding the lawful cancellation of my FitSpace membership, Fitspace reference number: First of all my argument against you is that Fitspace has acknowledged the mistake made by them and allowed me to cancel the membership on terms of breach of contract. They asked me to cancel my direct debit immediately by the 27th of August. They also offered me a free month if i was to ‘re-join' with them. The word 're-join’ confirms the agreed cancellation of my membership. No disputes were made by them about having to reinstate by direct debit because they know just as well as you do, if the contract is breached I am in my legal right to cancel my Direct Debit. I have this written in Email sent to me by Fitspace which i will attach to this letter. I hope you realize under The Protection From Harassment Act 1997 you are breaking the law by sending out these invoices in the pretext of bills/debts. You have no power or authority to do so, if you choose to continue with harassment I will be forced to report your actions to the Trading Standards and to the CMA. I would also like to notify you that I entered in a 12month contract with another one of your Gyms (Xercise4less). If this harassment continues I will most certainly be cancelling my membership at the end of the contract with Xercise4less . Also I was told by Fitspace that the double payment would be cancelled but it never was. I did not chase this up as I wanted to leave with a good gesture . Also do not attempt to settle me with further ‘good gesture payments’ as I am absolutely aware that I do not owe any money and I did not break any membership agreement as you argue against me. If you genuinely believe I owe a debt then do not hesitate to skip all the nonsense and pursue this case in court. I hope you are aware of a high court ruling where a judge openly said these gyms are out to take advantage of people and that there is no room for this kind of practise in business. Your Sincerely Il be looking forward for your sincere advice and help Thanks Jon

Hello on behalf of a friend I would like to ask some advice. Friend signed up for Virgin gym 12 month contract at £85.00 per month and has 6 months left on it, due to a change in circumstances she finds that she cannot attend the gym anymore due to time constraints and change in financial circumstances means she cannot afford the payments. She has emailed Virgin asking if she could cancel early but they have informed her that she can't, this means that any payments due to them each month will not be honored as she lacks the funds. She is is considering offering them £5.00 a month to clear the outstanding balance and so I am asking if this would be a good idea and if so doe's anyone have an idea how to word the letter. Regards to all

Good evening. I have read the gym membership cancellation advice but wanted a little clarification. I have a contract with fit4less that is due to expire on 30th November this year. My direct debit came out from my account on 2nd November 2015 so on this date I emailed cancellation and cancelled my direct debit. They have emailed me back saying I have to give 30 days notice not the 29 days I have given. I think this is a little petty but they are sticking to their guns. Does anyone have any advice? If we have been in a 31 day month it wouldn't be an issue. Thanks in advance.

Hi all, Yesterday I signed up for the £24.99 monthly option at a lifestyle fitness gym. I went on this membership type because I don't like the thought of contracts, and I wanted to try out the gym for only a few months. It states on the confirmation email I received, that its basically month to month, with a £25 joining fee. [ATTACH=CONFIG]59928[/ATTACH] I just want to clarify, if I was to cancel say, after 3 or so months, I could do this with 30 days notice for any given reason? I've heard some nasty things about gyms after I joined, and so I just wanted to double check. For the record, the option I am on stated NO CONTRACT in caps, so they should honour that right?? Thanks, also if anyone has had an experience with this membership package, I'd be interesting in hearing.

Hello I would be grateful for any help you can give me. I joined Results Health Club when I was 17 (actually 17 and 8 months) and signed Direct Debit form from Harlands for 12 months membership for £35 per month. I was full-time student with part-time Saturday job. Usual story, after using gym on few occasions I asked at the gym if I could cancel membership. Not sure of exact date when this happened but some time in November. I was told that I had to complete 12 months contract. Struggled on to make payments, even using 18th birthday money to do this. After making 10 months payments a relative found out and looked at the paperwork. I hadn't noticed but my dob on the Harlands Direct Debit form had been amended to show that I was 18 at time of signing. Rightly or wrongly they advised me to cancel the Direct Debit immediately and I also wrote to bank telling them what had happened. Much to my surprise the bank refunded the whole £350 payments I had made. I was advised to write to Harlands informing them what had happened and that the contract was void and unenforceable. They then asked for sight of my birth certificate which I duly sent, thinking they were going to sort things out and they then wrote saying that as I had made payments after my 18th birthday I had validated the contract. Letters from CRS followed adding further charges. Total amount they say I owe is £647.36. I believe both Harlands and CRS have been attempting to contact me by telephone but I have not answered. Wrote to CRS advising them to only contact me in writing but have received a text message from them acknowledging my letter and asking me to get in touch. Also have had another telephone call from them today. Please advise what I should do now. Thank you.

To start my story: Started 12 month gym membership Jan 2012. Ended: April 2015. CRS letter to parents address: Sept 2015. I personally went into the gym in April 2015 to sign to say that I was cancelling my gym membership, they said one more payment will be made - these payments were taken out of my bank account and then I stopped my DD at the end of May 2015. I have called the gym, who said that their records show that I stopped my membership in July 2015 - as soon as I mentioned Harlands they hung up. Harlands have said they have been repeatedly trying to contact me via letters - I have moved address but CRS have contacted my parents. They suggest I owe £25, but because CRS are now involved they are charging an exta £102. I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

Hi, can anyone help please? I took out a one year membership with Xercise 4 Less gym last year but didn't really use it so decided to cancel after about 11 months. I cancelled my direct debit but, didn't contact Xercise 4 Less to cancel my membership (which I now realise was a bit silly!) but I only had a month to go so figured that when my direct debit didn't go through they would just cancel my membership. I had no contact from Xercise 4 Less to query why my direct debit wasn't going through or if I wanted to continue my membership, so I assumed all was fine. However about 3 months later I get a letter, dated 29 July, from CRS Credit Resolution Services saying that "We've been employed by Xercise 4 Less as your membership remains in arrears despite previous letters being sent to you." (which I did NOT receive) "As a result of this, our fees of £102.50 have been added. Therefore, your account balance now stands at £207.47". I then e.mailed Xercise 4 Less giving them notice that I wished to cancel my membership with immediate effect as I was under the impression that it would end automatically at the end of the 12 month period. My contract with Xercise 4 Less was for £9.99 a month so even if my contract continued after the initial 12 months until I gave them written notice of cancellation, the maximum I could owe them would be 3 months membership totaling £29.97 so how they came to the figure of £207.27 I do not know! I also understood from other threads on this forum that CRS's fees were penalty charges and so not enforceable by law, so I decided to wait for a response from Xercise 4 Less and ignore the letter from CRS. I had no response from Xercise 4 Less to my cancellation e.mail and I then received another letter dated 19th August from CRS threatening Legal Action, or passing to a Debt Collection Agency if I did not contact them within 10 days to arrange payment. Again I ignored this letter. I was then out of the country for a couple of weeks at the beginning of September but when I got back there was another letter from CRS dated 10 September saying that if they did not here from me in 10 days they would pass my account balance to Zinc Group Ltd "one of the UK's leading providers of debt recovery solutions". As I only read the letter when I got back to the UK yesterday, the 10 period is almost up. In between these letters I have also had various texts and automated phone messages asking me to get in touch with CRS. A few days ago I also had an apparently automated email response from Xercise 4 less, to my cancellation e.mail (which I sent back at the end of July!) simply saying that they had received my email and would deal with my query shortly. I am happy to offer to pay the one month's membership fee for the last month on my 12 month contract or even, at a push the 3 months' membership up to the point of my cancellation e.mail but I really don't think I should pay CRS's fees as they seem extortionate to me just for writing a few letters, and as I understand it they are not enforcable in law, and these companies just try to scare people into paying them lots of money. Please could anyone advise me on where I stand with all this and what the best course of action would be for me to take. Any advise and help would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance Stuart

Hi all Wondered if anyone could help re the cancellation of gym membership. LA have been taken over by Pure Gym. As a result of this, my club's pool will be closing on Wednesday so they can fill it in and put more gym equipment in. Essentially this means that the gym will become just another run of the mill cheap gym. I pay through salary sacrifice, and despite sending copies of the correspondence from LA/Pure confirming what is happening, they are refusing to cancel the membership. This is leaving me paying over the odds for a gym I didn't sign up to. The term's and conditions have nothing around this, but surely as the service becomes different to what was originally purchased then there should be a force majeure type clause. I have mentioned I may go to Trading Standards but could do with some advice please guys?

Hello, I joined the JD Sports Gym in Liverpool on a flexible, rolling contract, with no minimum contract. It can be seen on their website (I can't post the link) Now this was in January. However, a few months ago (July or so) I wanted to cancel, due to lack of use, so I consulted their website and found this in the FAQ page: Which is exactly what I did. I got a few letters from them regarding missed payments, and administration fees. I (naively) thought this may be a mistake, and left it. After that I got this letter through at the end of last week stating this: I did what the website said. As far as I'm aware, I don't owe them anything. It wasn't a fixed contract. Am I liable to pay them anything? I just want them to leave me alone. Any help would be fantastic. Best regards, Steven

Hi everyone, I’ve been having issues with Harland/CRS and have had a few correspondence go back and forth with the help of this forum but I’m a little stuck with what to do next now and would love some advice. I appreciate that this is a little long winded but I didn’t want to leave anything important out…

The story so far;

After visiting Hone Gym is and chatting to a staff member they informed me that I could pay £20 for a months membership with no obligation, I made what I believed to be a one off payment with the website being what I perceive now to be heavily misleading. I didn’t realise until 9 months later that they had continued to deduct £20 from my account every month. I immediately cancelled the DD, had my bank raise an indemnity claim and thought no more about it. Roughly a month later on the 23/07/15 I received a letter from Harlands stating I had ignored their first letter (which I never received) and that the £179.91 that had been refunded was now £204.91 to include their admin fees. I replied with the following;
 Re; Hone Gym Membership Ref No: edited Regarding your statement that a letter dated 3rd of July was sent to me at my address, no letter was received. Please forward a copy of this letter. An indemnity claim was made as I had only authorised one payment to be debited from my account, not nine. The Hone Gym website has demonstrably been updated a number of times and has subsequently changed its wording to make it clear that further payments will be automatically debited. This was not the case when I approved a registration payment and a one month membership payment to be taken and goes against what I was told by senior staff at the gym. Namely, that I would have to action the payment each month and that I would receive a new pin for entry. As I was provided with misleading information regarding the ongoing deduction of funds from my account and the terms of the membership I consider this to be a breach of Section 5, CPUTR 2008. Please respond within 14 days or a complaint to the OFT will be made without further notice. Kind Regards Clueless Dan
 On 14/08/15 CRS sent a letter covered in bold red lettering stating they’d been employed by Harlands and I now owed £278.68. This was my reply; Dear Mr Avery Re; CRS Ref No: edited Harlands Ref. No:edited As I stated in my previous letter, the information provided to me both on the website and by staff members in the gym was misleading. I did not authorise the ongoing deduction of funds from my account after the first month and I consider this to be a breach of Section 5, CPUTR 2008. Firstly, with reference to the above account, I request that you send me a true copy of the credit agreement, signed by Daniel Johnson and entitled “IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY”. I understand that this is my right under the legislation contained within section 77 (1) and section 78 (1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and am entitled to receive a copy of my credit agreement on request. Your obligation also extends to providing me with a statement of account. I enclose a £1 postal order which represents payment of the statutory fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act. I understand that a copy of my credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days from the date of this letter. I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act, creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act. Also, since you are a debt collection agency, I would also ask that you supply a signed true copy of the executed deed of assignment for the above referenced agreement. This is an obligation, whether you are the original creditor or not, under section 189 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. In summary, I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THIS DEBT AND THEREFORE REQUIRE YOU TO SUBSTANTIATE THIS BY PROVIDING THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTATION BEFORE I CORRESPOND FURTHER : 1. True copy of original credit agreement 2. Statement of account 3. Copy of the executed deed of assignment from Hones Gym to Credit Resolution Services As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the CCA and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued. Secondly, I draw your attention to the OFT guidelines on debt collection: Charging for debt collection 2.9 Charges should not be levied unfairly. 2.10 Examples of unfair practices are as follows: a. Claiming collection costs from a debtor in the absence of express contractual or other legal provision. b. misleading debtors into believing they are legally liable to pay collection charges when this is not the case, for example, when there is no contractual provision d. applying unreasonable charges, for example, charges not based on actual and necessary costs e. applying charges which are disproportionate to the main debt. I consider your charge of £73.77 to be disproportionate to the main debt and not based on actual and necessary costs. Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested and consider this matter to be “in dispute”. Thanks in advance and I hope to hear from you within the statutory time limit. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours faithfully, clueless Dan On 12/09/15 I received this reply. [ATTACH=CONFIG]59298[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]59299[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]59300[/ATTACH] Where can I go from here? I’m starting my second year of uni this week so really don’t need the stress and can’t afford the expense of just paying out. I appreciate that I could have been a little more thorough in reading through the documentation but took the staff at their word which was in keeping with the misleading wording of the website… Any advice would be hugely appreciated, Kind Regards Dan

Hello, I currently have a grievance regarding overpaying my corporate membership fees at Nuffieldhealth Cheam and was wondering if someone could please help if I have a case here. I've been a member of my onsite corporate Nuffield gym since 2011 which I pay £10 per month for. Wanting access to a pool, I decided to take advantage of my corporate discount at other Nuffield gyms and joined Nuffield Cheam in 2012. When I joined Cheam in 2012, I took my company ID badge and was told by the salesperson that their discounted corporate rate at Nuffield Cheam would be £56 per month, which I have paid every month since. Recently, I thought I'd inquire about a swim only membership as I thought £56 to basically just use their pool was excessive. I spoke to the manager at Cheam who advised they don't do a swim only membership but in fact my corporate rate was actually £35 per month and he would complete a new membership form for me to sign to adjust my monthly direct debit. I felt that I had grossly overpaid and emailed their complaints contact regarding a refund of the money I had overpaid over the past 3 years, I didn't hear back from them so inquired about this when I next went into Nuffield Cheam. I was provided with an email address of the MD of Nuffield Cheam and emailed my complaint. I heard back from the Deputy Manager who said that they were unfortunately unable to refund any overpayments but would amend my DD to £35/month and provide me with some free guest passes. As my next step, could I take this to Trading Standards (or whoever is the gym's sector ombudsman)? Surely this can't be right to not get a refund for a mistake they have made and where I haven't breached my contract terms? May someone who knows about this please steer me in the right direction if I have a case. My calculations show that I should be refunded around £756. Apologies for the lengthy read and thanks in advance for any assistance:)

Hi there guys, I hope someone can advise me on the below: I cancelled my Direct Debit in January 2015 after being with Gold’s Gym [Hanwell]for around 2 years, however I havent sent them written notice or whatever at first. – so after that I received letter from Gold’s Gym on 19th of January chasing me for unpaid January monthly membership that they were trying to take from my account on 15thJan as each month. Right away I called local Hanwell gym and went there as instructed on the same day January 19th 2015. I discussed the situation with present at the reception Golds Gym personnel we discussed the letter I received and cancellation steps. I confirmed my will of cancelling my memberships. I paid my outstanding monthly membership for January and additional fee by my debit card at the reception. Following this I was handed the Gold’s Gym cancellation form and singed it. I asked Gold's Gym stuff while signing the form if everything is correct on the form as the content of the form was unclear for me and seems like it can be interpreted in many ways. Paying attention to the phrase next to date put but Golds GYm personnel : "Please cancel my/our membership for 30 days from the next DD payment (1st or 15th ) ".........and here Golds GYm stuff put date of 15 Feb 2015. I understood my next DD scheduled for 15th Feb will no longer be applied? Sa I asked about the amount of days and does the date of 15th of February put on the form by your stuff means that this is the date from which my DD is cancelled. I was assured everything is now done and there is nothing else for me to pay or worry about. I was also assured the amount of days is also fine and I will not have to pay any further. I said I wont to close this case and not receive any further letters chasing me for money. I was again assured everything is fine now and no further letters are going to be sent. Additionally I wasnt told to unblock my DD because of FEB payment? Therefore I wasn’t questioning it further. I do have my cancellation forms and receipts with me. I had no further attempts to contact me after that day at the gym. My cancelled direct debit stayed cancelled as I wasn’t advised otherwise. I never received any further letters or calls from Golds Gym. Now after almost 8 months I received letter from CRS demanding £122. I contacted CRS explaining the situation and that i dont understand why am I being chased for FEB money when I cancelled my membership in Jan. I told them Gold Gym personnel did fill out the form incorrectly for me or they don’t understand Golds Gym Cancellation Policy themselves and are giving wrong information to the customers. Now CRS is telling me Gold gym told them that i.e I cancelled my DD not my membership and that I should pay for Feb as Feb is my month notice not January ect. But we pay for membership upfront not the other way around, why should I be paying for 15 Feb to 15 March as well? Can you advise please? Are they actually right? Many thanks for your help in advance!!!!

hi dear all i read tones of posts over hire about the gym problems and all is brilliant thx for help all of you first of all. but i need a simple info /sample of letter/ or info what i should send to them ( gym / crs ) as i not the first one over hire with this problem i make my story short . i joined golds gym on harrow last january 2014, ( btw, if any one can tell which gym we talking about in other golds gym post will be nice ) and i been using this gym for 4-5 monte, then because i was living London and i move to sundown area witch is far away from gym ( 1 HR drive ) at least , i decided to canceled the gym. on reception desk i told the lady i like to cancel my membership, i was told i can't do this until minimum 12 monte contract expired .ok, lady on reception desk told me she will put a note on my profile after last payment in january 2015 my membership will be closed and i don't have to come back with anything ( formal cancelation letter etc. ) so , after january 2015 february exactly i canceled my DD for this gym this means i was pay for gym for whole 12 month and 1 extra mont february as i should . btw. 10 years ago i done exactly same thing with golds gym on hanwell and all was fine . and there story is started, last saturday ( 01.08.2015) i received a letter from CRS as i own the gym and CRS 403.20 where ( as a result of this our fees totalling 133.20 been added ) so that means i own the gym 270 and 133.20 to CRS ( i think anyway ) as unexperienced person in that cases i called them up ( crs) this was pointless, i also called the gym ,pointless to, i spoke with citizen advice biro, they told me the best option is to talk to gym. ( pointless ). what to do next ? as above i need info about letters i should sent, breakdowns of this amount ? BTW. i moved from London last august , how they know my new address ? also what is important , when i joined the gym i fill up the form with address , email, tel.nb. they didn't contact me in any of the above apart twice a week about promotions by text massage, they i my opinion try at least contact me if they had any problem ? no ? and also if any one ask me how i know they didn't send me any letters , friend of mine live in my prevues address and all letters to me she keep .and i pick them up from time to time . sorry for very haotic description of that case , i am just pist .... on all this and i don't even know what to ask. hope someone help me with this. if anyone have any questions or any thing is not clear enough please ask . thx a lot up front.

Hello Slick132, I was looking at a question you answered for a member regarding xercise4less and was hoping you may be able to assist me also? I recently signed up to this gym after recommendation by a friend, initially contacting via email which then turned into a day pass followed by a barrage of calls from sales members asking me to come in for a "chat" Eventually they persuaded me to join however I had some doubts as I asked for my agreement only to be told this would be sent via email. I made the initial payment however did not receive any information and when queried the gym blamed a system error and my details however sent me a few emails. I decided after a few days this was not for me after being involved in a heated, almost physical altercation with another member of the gym. I have asked politely to leave but they are telling me as I signed in the gym I "waived all rights to a cool off period" and "any privilege to leave has been removed from me" and are trying to insist I stay even going as far as to bar the member who was involved in the fracas which in turn left me no choice but to play middle men between the two gyms as they decided on the person's fate (Without him ever knowing) I have spent hours on the phone to countless branches and staff who all say they understand my situation and can help me then ultimately say they cant and to speak to the next person up (who is conveniently never available) and now I am growing frustrated that they are trying to delay and stall me into a corner so I cannot request to leave. I can 100% guarantee I was never made aware of the no cooling off period otherwise I would never have signed. If possible could you advise on my next steps in order to protect myself and still get the desired outcome as currently I am in need of any guidance I can get. Initially I signed up on Friday 24th July and I made it clear I was unhappy on the proceeding Monday via email (which received no response) and in person on Wednesday which was when I was informed of my rights by the receptionist (which they have conveniently forgotten about now). I have sent out numerous emails to supposed managers and even an area manager with no real response. Please accept my apologies if this is not the correct way to go about seeking advice I am just extremely desperate for some help. Many Thanks

Hello I used to live in the midlands (now in york) and took out a gym membership back in April 2012 with the windmill village and golf course. I fell into a long term illness (just got over it) after being with the gym for about 3 months. I ended up having to leave my job and the last thing on my mind was the gym so I failed to pay the membership. After another month or so I got a letter from the infamous CRS demanding I paid the £430.56 in membership fees I still owed but because I couldn't pay in time I rang them and told them I could only afford to pay £10 a month. They agreed but then sent a letter out saying I owed the previous amount as well as a new £210 charge that had been added (£15 setting up fee and £195 handling fee which was £3 per instalment) which brought the total to £646.56. At the time I was no wiser and too ill to challenge any of this so just went along with it. I don't have a copy of the original gym membership agreement that I signed and so far I have paid off £410 of what I owed. Now I am better I searched online to see if these extra £210 charges were in fact legal and found all of your threads which lead me to starting my own and see if I can just pay off the remaining £20.56 that I owe to the gym then ignore the ridiculous charges CRS have added. I don't really know what my options are from here. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Rich

can you tell me if this could be used for a 12 month contract where you have cancelled the direct debit as i cannot afford to go anymore? theyve sent me a letter saying i must pay the dd and £25 admin charge and reset the dd up

Hi Can anyone help with this. I joined DW sports in October 2014 signing a 6 month contract, by December my work/private commitments changed and could not attend the gym. I asked at reception if I could cancel my membership, I was told that I could not and would have to wait until March when my contract ends, having been a member on and off for a number of years I respected that decision and continued to pay by DD, although I did not use the facility since mid December. In Feburary 2014 I wrote a letter to cancel my membership and that the letter was my months notice for the contract to end at the end of March. I heard nothing from DW until I cancelled my DD when I got a letter saying my account was in default and I owe £56 and if I don't pay my debt would be handed to arc debt collections which they now have. I wrote a 2nd letter to DW this time by recorded delivery (because they say my 1st letter did not arrive) explaining the situation and that the fact is they owe me £28 as they took a extra payment for April as I had not cancelled my DD and I had sent my months notice, this fell on deaf ears and that if I don't pay debt collection agency would take on the case. I have had a number of text, phone calls and letters from arc I have told them that I do not recognise this debt, as my contract with DW was complete and paid in full. They have now passed this on to solicitors major law and the debt as risen to £151 and now being threatened with county court

Hi, I'm looking for some advice, haven't used the site before but came across it when trying to research. I joined JD gym in December, joining online. The main reason I joined was because it was the only gym in the city that was contract free. The website clearly states several times "No contract- cancel at any time". Because of various referral incentives I persuaded my husband and mother to join also. We were supposed to receive free towels, bags and a PT session. Over the 5 months that I attended I saw the club deteriorate; it took us 4 months to receive the bags and towels as they were out of stock or manager not available and no one else had access to them. We booked in a PT session twice and turned up both times to find the PT could not carry out our session as he'd been left on the floor by himself, there was never any effort to contact us beforehand to avoid a wasted trip. The showers got smellier, the gym got busier, often despite paying a premium for off-peak membership there wouldn't be any treadmills or rowers available for the best part of an hour. My mother and I decided to quit. We spoke to the guy at the desk who gave us a number for Harlands who are responsible for procuring the direct debits. I tried to call them but one of the digits had been incorrect so I called the gym and they gave me an email address for Harlands Customer services. It took 2 emails for them to reply stating that they couldn't find my name on the system and asking me to provide my DOB. I did so, they replied again saying they still couldn't locate me could I send my address which I did. They still couldn't find me so advised me to call their customer services. I called and was cut off the first time, put on hold for 40 minutes the second time and eventually they also couldn't find my details with my full name, address, DOB and start date. They advised me to email customer services detailing my intention to quit and cancel my direct debit, a view shared with several others trying to cancel on JD's facebook page. This was at the beginning of May. This week I received a debt collection letter from Harlands stating that I owe nearly £53 in charges including a "cancellation period charge" and an "admin charge for default of payment". Naturally my mother and I were appalled at this so I called the number on the letter; Harlands Customer Services. The lady was not particularly helpful claiming that I need to email customer services informing them of my intention to cancel. When I read the emails out to her she told me to "tone down my sarcasm or she would have to end the call". I'm not entirely sure whether she thought the responses I was reading from Harlands was sarcastic or the fact that I was disputing the effectiveness of emailing them. She told me that JD gyms had changed their cancellation terms recently and had sent correspondence to all members to inform them of this. Not myself, my husband or my mother have received anything via email, post, text or phone from JD other than fitness updates. She said they were unable to cancel things at their end as it was up to JD so I could either contact them to sort the issue or.... email Harlands Customer Services. I did both. After sending two emails I am still waiting 4 days later for Harlands to reply. JD only replied once I had made a public post on their facebook page about being very disappointed in their customer care and response to cancellation. (Upon looking on the facebook page I can see there have been quite a lot of people who have struggled to cancel as the process is not clear and they get no replies). JD have messaged basically sending me a copy of the generic Harlands T&C's. and stating that I have to give 14 days notice via email if I wish to cancel. This would be entirely fine if they would accept a cancellation but two months on and I am struggling to make any progress and incurring more fees each month. The T&C's are geared towards a contract-based membership and make no mention of contract-free memberships. In fact, to my mind the only contract that should be in place is the direct debit agreement. I can't see how legally you can have no contract with a company and yet be billed for services unused, paid in advance and cancellation periods. Please can anyone advise on this. Thanks in advance.

Hi all I have been in a contract with xercise4less for over my 12 month period and have since joined a new gym! I cancelled my dd as was now 'out of contract' I have just received a letter from hardlands group demanding a 25 quid admin fee and the cancellation period fee? Can I just ignore this? I am moving house soon in any case... Any help appreciated thanks!

I signed up to Easy Gym on 20th of March this year. Then on the 17th of April, they sent an email out to everyone to say the showers are going to be refurbished starting the next day without giving a completion date. I haven't been to the gym since as we don't have showers in the office, and I can only go in the mornings to the gym. I am client facing so defiantly not a good idea to spend an hour at the gym, without washing. I have canceled my membership, as of this morning, but they are refusing to refund for the time I haven't been able to use the gym. Do I have a case for a refund since the gym is advertised as with shower facilities, but haven't provided them. They told me I am still free to use everything else in the gym so they won't refund. 20 March 2015: Signed up 17 April 2015: Easy Gym sent email to say showers going to be refurbished 18 April 2015: Showers out of action 24 April 2015: "Unfortunately we have discovered that this is a much bigger job than anticipated" 13 May 2015: I sent an email to ask about the refurbishment. 20 May 2015: Reply "Due to reasons outside our control we are currently unable to specify a date in which the works will be completed." 03 June 2015: "we were forced to shut down the showers by the landlord over alleged leaks. " 04 June 2015: Emailed requesting my account to be closed, my email was ignored. 08 June 2015: "We are writing to give you an update on our male shower room refurbishment. We have now received approval to continue our work and all being well, the new shower block will reopen on Monday 15th June. " 08 June 2015: Reminded them about my previous email, Also emailed another department about my closure request. 09 June 2015: They closed the account, but won't refund me.

Hi I just cancelled my gym membership with xercise4less on 1 March 2015 a payment went out on 3 March 2015 but I think it may cover February's fee does this mean I have to pay membership for March too? I signed a cancellation form in xercise4less to cancel my membership the lady who was dealing with my cancellation said I shouldn't have to pay again end of March. After reading some reviews I thought I call Harlands to see if they have my cancellation. They said they do but I have to pay £9.99 on 28th March. I've cancelled my direct debit on online banking but could reinstate it before 28th March if I need to make £9.99 payment or will they add £25 on since I cancelled it now. Do you think I should pay £9.99 at the end of this month?

I joined Xercise 4 Less in January 2014, and paid £9.99 a month for 12 months. It was in January this year (2015) that I decided to cancel my membership. I cancelled by physically entering the gym and handing over a written statement saying I wanted to terminate my membership. This was then accepted by a member of staff who told me everything had gone through and I would be charged for the next 30 days (as I had to give notice) but this would be one final one off payment then I would no longer be charged, which I accepted. I waited for the February payment to be taken as expected, and only after this did I cancel my direct debit as I was under the impression from Xercise 4 Less that my membership had been successfully cancelled. However, 2 days ago I received a letter from Harlands stating that my payment for March had been returned unpaid 'instruction cancelled' and they would be charging me £9.99 for my 'unpaid' instalment and a £25.00 administration fee!! They also say if I do not pay by 26 March I will be charged another £25 admin fee!! I contacted Xercise 4 Less and explained the situation, they then proceeded to tell me that they couldn't find any 'record' of my cancelled membership on my file and basically accused me of lying. I told the member of staff the exact date and time I came into cancel and she said she would check CCTV (as proof) and call me back first thing this morning to confirm. Alas, I received no phone call (what a surprise!) and am now left with an unfair letter and a lot of unnecessary stress!! Any advice would be much appreciated, as I'm sure Xercise 4 Less are in some sort of breach of contract here somewhere along the line!! Many thanks

I'll try and keep this short as there is a lot of information. December 2014: asked Gym Etc to cancel gym membership as I was moving about 200 miles away. They said yes - cancel whenever. All i needed to do ws show proof of new address. Hadn't moved yet but was away all over Christmas, so wanted to cancel before we moved. Showed them estate agent contract on phone - they agreed I could go home and cancel it. Explained I didn't want to leave new address as my boyfriend is in the military (given current climate, this isn't unreasonable at all). From Gym Etc website: CANCELLATION Relocation: This agreement can be cancelled in the event that your new permanent address is more than 15 miles away from the facility upon receipt of a copy utility bill or bank statement showing the new address. Long term (over 3 month) illness or injury: This agreement may be cancelled in the event of an illness, injury or medical condition which in the written opinion of a doctor or other suitably qualified medical practitioner prohibits exercise for 3 months or longer upon appropriate proof being provided. Redundancy: This agreement can be cancelled upon appropriate proof of redundancy from your employer or other loss of livelihood. Pregnancy: This agreement can be cancelled if you become pregnant upon the appropriate written proof being given.Please note – ANY Cancellation for the above reasons will not be effected until the appropriate proof is provided and received (in writing or via email) by Harlands or the club. 5th January 2015: First letter from Harlands Group. No contact from Gym Etc. Said I owed them £25 in admin fees, and had to clear 'arrears' on my 'account', which was now £44.99. This includes £25 admin fee and £19.99 monthly gym price. 19 January 2015: Called Harlands (first mistake - should've kept it all in writing). They said they would contact the gym after I explained they said I could cancel it. 2 February 2015: Next letter from Harlands. Still no contact with Gym Etc. My 'account' is now £89.99 - can't work this out at all and there is no breakdown. 11 Feb 2015: emailed Gym Etc. They said I had to send proof. They said they didn't say I could cancel it. I sent my pay slip (blocked out all information including post code and house number). They said they would accept this as a 'good will gesture' and my cancellation would be affected after 30 days, as this was my 'notification'. They said all charges would still stand. I said no. Their terms don't reference a 'cancellation form' or a 'notice period'. They said i was in a '12-month legally binding contract' so I asked for a copy of this contract. They simply send me a link to the terms that I have read about a million times and found several faults in. Mainly, that the 'Please note' section is included within the 'pregnancy' bullet point, so why would I read this?! Proper proofreading evidently isn't their skill. Terms: won't let me post the URL but its under 'terms' at the bottom of the Gym Etc website. They copied and pasted the last point from the 'automatic renewal' paragraph with the about cancellation. I told them putting these separate pieces together doesn't make them match up whenever they want them to. Idiots. Emailed Harlands telling them I owed them nothing, explained everything. This is their reply: We can confirm that we have been in contact with the club who have confirmed that a cancellation has not been agreed. We will need to see a copy of a utility bill or tenancy agreement to prove that you are now at a different address. Your arrears still stand, your membership is still in default. The club have advised you are aware of the membership you signed yourself in to, also the members of staff at the facilities do not agree a cancellation verbally. Please forward us this proof other we will be unable to cancel this contract, please note that further charges may be applied to the account if you choose to ignore this email. I'm treating these as different matters as I never entered into an agreement with Harlands, and I do not have any such account with them. I called Citizens Advice Bureau who advised I write to Gym Etc and say they are in fact in breach of the terms of the contract as they said I could cancel and are now pursuing me for money I do not owe them. Thoughts, anyone?

Hello everyone! I am looking for some advice. 2 years ago I joined a Fit4less gym. When i joined, there were no joining fees an it was advertised as "no contract". Sure enough, i gave over my card details and a regular payment of £19.99 came out of my account every month. A few months ago i decide that i wanted to quit the Gym so i simply stopped the payment from coming out of my account. I then received a letter and email from Fit4less basically explaining that unless i give 1 month notice and cancel my membership in writing then they will get the debt collectors involved. So i guess i'm asking, are they allowed to get any form of debt collector in at all? I would like to point out that i didn't sign a single piece of paper nor consent to any "contract". Could this just be a clause in their TOS? Any advice would be much appreciated! If you need to know anything more then please ask! Thank you!