Hi, Its my first time posting on here so bear with me. Iv seen a few different posts about this already but thought I would start a new one to see peoples thoughts. I signed up to exercise4less earlier in the year as I was working very near to one. (I work away from home for long periods of time). I signed up to the £14.99 monthly subscription instead of the £9.99 12 month one. And I explained when signing up I was a contractor working in the area and would only be around for a couple of months at most. I set up the direct debit and attended the gym for a couple of months as agreed, until I got finished from where I was working. Before I got finished I told them in the gym I would be leaving within a matter of weeks and wouldn’t be coming back for the foreseeable future. (Unfortunately I have nothing in writing or anything to proof this). I have since been working somewhere else and have rarely been home. However when I have been back I have found letters from Harlands saying I have missed a direct debit and then from CRS saying they have been passed my debt and are looking for £180 to settle it. Also said I only have 7 days to respond, which had already past by time I got home. From what I understand CRS and Harlands are the same people? And any charges they add on are both unlawful and don’t need to be paid? Im not intending on paying them a penny as iv not used the gym so I refuse to pay anything for it. What I would like to know is how I can make this go away? If I just ignore it will they finally give in or am I better off writing to them and if so what do I say? They have also started phoning and texting me saying I must contact them? Thanks in advance for any help

Hope somebody can help advise me how to proceed with this, sorry is a bit long. I work as a support worker for people with mental health problems as part of my job I promote healthy living and exercise with the service users I work with. In July I agreed to take a service user to our local Exercise 4 Less (Wigan) and train with him, I can claim back my expenses from work as long as I am taking service users. We signed up but it was never pointed out that it was a 12 month contract I even asked "what if I can no longer make it to the gym due to work", in fact the girl told me "no problem you can cancel any time if its because of work illness or moving home". Happy with this I did the direct debit. the sessions with the service user never came off as he got a job so I never ended up going to the gym. I paid the direct debit until October when I decided to cancel. I wrote a letter asking them to cancel my membership and dropped it off at the gym in person and cancelled the direct debit. I heard nothing until last month when I got a call from Harlands telling me as I had defaulted on my direct debit I owed them £34.99. I explained that I had cancelled my membership. He told me "no you can't it is a 12 month contract. I tried to explain what had been told to me in the gym but got the impression he didn't believe me, so just told him I wasn't paying it and the call ended. Fast forward to this month Monday I received a letter from Harlands saying I now owe £69.98 as I have defaulted again on my arrangement. If I don't pay it will be £129 by 26th December. I rang them and again explained the situation they told me to go directly to the gym and explain to them which I did, I was told to ring head office and given the number. Head office told me they could not help and I need to go and speak to the gym manager, who told me I need to pay its a 12 month contract and its in the terms and conditions, I had to leave before I punched his head in On the day I signed up to the direct debit at the gym, I left the gym with no paperwork what so ever no copy of any agreement or terms as I usually read such things. I have checked my emails and the day I joined I received an email titled "All you need to know about your gym membership" there are no terms and conditions on it just advertising and a link to the website. Sick of being given the run around, what should I do? Charlie

Hey guys, first time posting here. I just submitted the 'cancel my membership' form for my xercise4less membership. I did this because my 12 month student contract is up and according to my local branch I was now 'eligible' to cancel. I feel I may have messed up because in the 'additional comments' section I put my reason for not renewing was because I have permanently moved away. I am concerned they may ask for proof of this? Can they ask for proof of moving away even when you have completed your 12 month contract with them? Surely they won't ask for proof even when the contract is officially up? I could have put the words 'I hate this gym' or 'i can't be bothered to renew' Thanks, Mike can they ask for proof of moving even when you are out of your 12 month contract?

I joined Anytime Fitness Stroud November 2015. Now due to me working away I am unable to go to the gym, or at least that gym and Anytime Fitness do not have any gyms close to where I am working. When I joined I knew there was a possibility that I might be working away, so I asked how much notice I would need to give to cancel the membership. I was told 1 month. At no time was I told it was a 12 month contract. I gave my bank details to set up a DD, but was never given a contract to sign. I was told that they didn't have access to the contracts at the time but I would sign one next time I was in. In the whole 10 months I have been a member I have never signed a contract or seen a copy of the T&C's despite asking on numerous occasions (Staff always too busy). I have now decided to cancel, sent an email to the manager of the club and received a numerous responses including; "At the time you joined Anytime Fitness, all memberships were subject to 12 months contract and all personnel were trained to advise prospective members of this. Having not signed paperwork does not mean that you have not agreed to a contract." and "Having accepted the fob and having accepted the monthly payments this indicates that you accepted the contract terms." How could I accept the contract terms if I never received a copy of the contract? Now yes I should have insisted on signing the contract but after being fobbed off I eventually gave up. Am I contractually obliged to continue paying for the membership or are they trying to call my bluff? Many thanks Ian

Hello Everyone I've noticed there is plenty of threads in regards to memberships with X4L but every single one of them seems to have some unique twist on it after a long time of receiving letters from CRS and now spratt edicott I decided to share my problem. On the March 13th 2015 I started 12 month contract with X4L which I wanted to cancel before the contract ended as the membership started to hit my budget after a while. Unfortunately the process to achieve this was rather difficult with my only option to give proof of redundancy according to the first email I sent to the gym. That was not possible in my case as at that time I had no job. JI was a university student with very little cash. I decided to just bite the bullet and cancel direct debit around February-March 2016 time as the contract ended. From that point I started to receive letters from X4L and CRS. I have sent them another email with a request to cancel my gym membership and the response you can see in the second screenshot . I have no idea where they got 1 remaining payment from as the contract finished and my cancellation of direct debit meant I don't wish to continue with their membership. HI would not cancel direct debit if they had an easier option to end the membership. Currently I'm being harassed with calls(which are ignored) from them and I'm constantly receiving letters from CRS lately I have received a letter from spratt endicott demanding £131.49 I've attempted to just ignore them but they don't seem to give up In and the advice I received from Citizen Advice was to just pay which left me bit disappointed. My question is what should I do? Continue to ignore them or accept my fate and pay?

Hi, I joined DW Fitness back in January and was fine with my contract for a few months before I began developing chest pains. I had no history of heart problems at the time but I did have a family history so I thought it was worth checking out. I was then referred for ECGs, Echocardigrams and a whole manner of tests over the next three months whilst being told that I wasn't allowed to continue exercising because it was putting stress on my heart. I explained this to the person in the gym and she said it was fine, I had grounds to cancel since I was already three months into my contract I only had three to go. It also states in the terms and conditions that I am able to cancel if I go into the gym and speak to a person. The tests revealed that it wasn't anything sinister and I still have them all on file, but now DW are saying that I never cancelled and they knew nothing of my medical condition. They are sending me emails saying that I needed to pay the final three months and that they have now added fees on top. I have recently had a letter stating that they will add around 120 pounds onto the debt in 14 days if I don't respond then they will take me to court. I have called them and been waiting on the phone for 45 minutes to speak to them before the woman rudely told me that there is no information stating that I had cancelled and that I am lying so I have to pay. I have the medical reports to back me up but I have no idea what to do or if I have to pay it because I'm in breach of contract. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am terrified they are going to send me more letters telling me the bill is even higher. I am currently receiving daily calls from ARC telling me that I need to pay, it is less than 70 pound that I currently owe, I don't know why they are being this rude.

Hi I am sure plenty of members are aware of Labours National Executive Committees (NEC)decision to bar all members who joined in the last 6 months (100,000 people approximately) from voting in the new leadership race? That is unless you pay a £25.00 membership fee within the next two days? The questions I would like to pose are, a)Is it illegal to, retrospectively, change the constitution/rules to deny the’ new’ labour party members a chance to vote? b) How much would it cost to mount a legal challenge against their decision? c) Would the new Labour party members be willing to pay an extra couple of quid to finance the challenge ?( here is my £2) d) Would anyone from CAG be able to assist in setting up a secure holding account etc etc if required? Now whether it’s Mark Twain, “If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.” Or Ken Livingston’s twist on it (I think?) “If voting made any difference they would ban it.” Both quotes and the labour parties NEC decision give me grave concern in this world of “open and transparent democracy”. Regards Biff

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 became a member of DW gym in aylesbury 4 years ago, with a special offer for the opening, for £19.99 a month. I always paid by direct debit and never had any problems. Last year I moved out of town and I couldnt go anymore, because of my programme and also because of the distance (18 miles). I tried to find a way, but after three months I realised that there is no way I can make it. I cancelled the direct debit. last time I paid them it was in the first week of april. This morning, as I was looking in my spam folder, I found few e-mails from them, telling me that my membership remains in arrears despite their repeated requests. I suppose that by these repeated requests they mean letters sent to my old address. the today's email threaten that they will pass the debit to Arc europe. I remember that I join the gym on internet, probably in may 2012. I tried to find any confirmation email or something but I havent made any progress yet. At the time I join the gym, there was a one year contract. Last November, when I was at the gym last time, knowing that I was about to move out of town, I asked one of the guys at the gym if I can cancel. I told them I had been with the gym since it started but I wasnt sure if I would be able to come anymore. And they told me that all I need to do was to cancel the direct debit. And because there was a big sign outside saying "no contract. No catch. No hassle" I trusted them I didnt do anything else but cancel the direct debit. now they tell me that I have arrears, which is quite annoing and it seems unfair to me. I dont know how to deal with this. I will read all the threads available to have a better idea, but I could really use some advice from someone who knows these things better. Thank you very much!

Hi, I've recently decided to move gyms, I'm roughly a year out of my contract with Gymetc (I think they're otherwise known as FX Leisure). So I was on a monthly rolling contract. I've canceled my direct debit with the gym, emailed them informing them of doing so. Got a reply back saying I owed 1 month notice, due today. I'm fine with that - however I'm unable to get in touch with Harlands to make the payment, I've tried calling the past three days being on hold for 15-20 minutes every time. I've even requested a callback on their website, albeit for a different reason than it was intended for to no avail. Anyone got any ideas? I've now emailed the gym back informing them, but I suspect they won't be much help. Gym cancellations are bloody awful.

Hi, I'm usually pretty confident with dealing with debt collectors and things like this but this one has got me scratching my head a little and so I'm just looking for a little bit of advice from people that know far more about these things than I do. I signed up with our local gym in June of last year. It's a council owned gym but they outsource their membership management to a company called Debit Finance Collections (DFC). Our membership is actually a Consumer Credit Agreement provided by DFC which runs for 12 months and ends in June. Everything was going well until I went to the gym in January and they declined my membership card saying that my account had been suspended. Embarrassed and confused I went home to telephone DFC and I was informed that I had cancelled my direct debit. I told them I hadn't and offered to pay them over the phone there and then. They declined this and told me to just set up a new DD which I did. I again got knocked back at the gym as once again my account had supposedly been suspended. I contacted DFC who once again said that I had cancelled my DD. After a few days of me arguing that I hadn't and them arguing that I had, I received a letter from them threatening me with solicitors if I didn't pay what I owed. I have written to them and emailed them numerous times practically begging them to take the money out of my bank. Despite communicating with them for several weeks, DFC wrote to me saying how disappointed they are that I am choosing to ignore their letters and saying that they have no choice now but to enforce the agreement in full. They are demanding over £300 which covers the period of January upto June. Due to all this happening, and not wanting to miss out on keeping up my weight loss, I joined Pure Gym in February to keep me going until this was resolved. Due to their behaviour I did a little bit of research into DFC and discovered that they no longer possess a Consumer Credit Licence. It was cancelled in October. I contacted them about this and they said that they are no longer pursuing the original agreement as a consumer credit agreement and are simply pursuing it as an outstanding debt. This has gotten me confused. Are they allowed do that? Surely if I sign a CCA for 12 months then it has to be treated as such for the entire period? Secondly, the gym that I was signed up with has never held a consumer credit licence, so should they be acting as a broker? I read that them filling in the consumer credit application form for me and sending it off to DFC constitutes being a broker for which they need to be licensed. I'll be honest, at this point, I'm just looking for a way out of this now. I'm happy with Pure Gym and I've had nothing but stress for the last 3 months with DFC. Again, I apologise for the length of this post but I just wanted to give you as much information as possible. If anybody can offer a bit of advice regarding this then I'd be very grateful. Thanks, Paul

I would value your advice on how to respond to an offer from Xercise4less that hopefully would result in the closure of a dispute over my son's alleged membership arrears. In brief, my son and his friend joined Xercise4less last May on a monthly rate of £9.99 four months later when they went away to university they both cancelled. A month or so later my son noticed the monthly fee was still being deducted he cancelled the direct debit. Shortly after that he received a letter from Harlands claiming he was in arrears and that he owed monthly fees plus administration charges of £25. Others followed a month ago CRS sent him a letter (followed by a text) asking for fees of £66.50 as part of alleged arrears now totalling £166.45. He tried to contact Xercise4less by phone (no one ever answered) and by email (the company replied by referring him back to his local gym as central office hadn't received any evidence of the cancellation of his membership). More emails to the gym manager followed until he was told that in fact he was not a member of that particular gym - but of another one 6-8 miles away!! He had used the local gym for 4 months but no one had ever challenged him on the fact that apparently he wasn't even a member there... By this time the whole situation was annoying me as much as my son. I am regularly in pain and sleep is often difficult I vowed to resolve this matter once and for all. I emailed Xercise4less two days ago and this afternoon they replied. They asked for evidence of his cancellation from the gym (it was a verbal cancellation with nothing in writing). They asked for proof that he had moved to university (I have an email from his university with an accommodation tenancy agreement). Then came the money part of the offer, the bit I need your advice on... They said if evidence of relocation is provided a request would be submitted for his membership to be recalled from CRS. However this would need “a final £9.99 payment and a £20.00 administration fee” for the account to be fully closed down. My question is: should I pay any or all of those fees?

Like it says. I won't go into detail and I won't enter into any further correpondence but, because of the reception I got for suggestions of sound advice and places where more specialist support could be found - and the debacle in that particular thread that has been unfolding since - I no longer wish to be associated in any way with CAG forums. I dare say the quality of support is, in general, excellent but I have had enough of the hostility here for my positive contribution on the subject I hold close. Interestingly, I now note there have been historically other people here, in a similar situation while pursuing a similar topic, who have been subject to the same treatment and have felt the need to react similarly, all of which which only serves to highlight the questions I have over the reliability and impartiality of advice given on this site. I have requested my membership be deleted on two occasions via the "contact us" facility in my profile but have not even had an acknowledgement, hence the ironic and unfortunate need to make this request, to an organisation championing a Consumer Rights, publically via their own consumer rights forum. Can a mod please action? Good bye Thudd

Hi, I have seen a few threads on topic but couldn't find one where the OP had any success in it. My wife and I have been david lloyd members since 2012 and renewed every year. Always paid for a year in advance. This year, i want to renew but wife wants to stop the membership. So when my wife called to confirm her cancellation a week before it was due to end, she was told that to check her contract that she needs to give 3 months notice. We were never told about auto renewal or that 3 months are required to give notice. As we are paying in advance, membership should end at the end of the term if we don't renew. They asked us to check the contract, but we did not get any on renewal. I think we only got one in 2012 which I cannot find anymore. What is the best way forward? Many Thanks for your help. Sunny

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, 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

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:)

Good evening, I visited DL under 3 weeks ago, joined, was told December would be free and my payments would start in Jan (for a 3 month contract). I asked the sales person if there was a cooling off policy, he said if I hadn't used the facilities "it would be fine". So, two cancelled inductions later (cancelled by DL) I cancelled. Turns out the "changing your mind" can only be done in 7 days after paying the joining fee. This isn't what the sales guy told me. It is on the back of the contract (DL pointed it out to me when I cancelled). Is there anything I can do about this? I haven't used the gym, I am still under the free membership month. Not sure why they gave me December free though. Or do I take a hard lesson in never believing sales people and reading everything before I sign it? Thank you for any advice!

Hi, I have a gym membership at the Altrincham Total Fitness gym active from October 2014. I went to the gym and spoke with an assistant a few weeks later and I showed him my student card asking to switch to student fees. He said it will not be a problem and he will process it. After the next payment came out, I saw i was still on the regular fees and when I asked if there is a problem, he said the manager has not been in since and will check it on the following week. However, I just had a look at my bank statement and it seems that the last payment from 02/01/15 is still at regular fees. On the 31st December I moved house - from Lymm to Manchester, however at the time of joining the gym at Altrincham was the closest one to Lymm (hence my choice) which is no longer true as there are a number of other clubs around me within walking distance. I have emailed the club asking to cancel my subscription as I cannot afford paying the higher fee plus traveling all the way to Altrincham and have also provided them with proof of address. Their reply was that the cancellation has been denied because I am still within 15 miles radius (they also helpfully provided me with a list of gyms, the closest of which is indeed Altrincham at 7 miles distance). Is there anything I can do to terminate the contract? I depend entirely on myself financially, I am paying for a masters degree, rent and bills and everything else on my own, already struggling with overdraft and I cannot afford going all the way to Altrincham on a regular basis? Thank you in advance. Any help will be appreciated. - L

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?

Hi, I hope someone might be able to provide some general advice. I am trying to reclaim £450 in Platinum Card membership fees, I have already unsuccessfully been through their complaints process and they've sent me the FoS leaflet. 1 - I've had both a British Airways Amex card and a Platinum Amex Charge card (with flexselect credit) for almost ten years. The latter has a membership fee of £450, paid in December 2 - I hadn't actually used the Platinum Card for two years until April 2015 when I tried to use it to pay for a hotel abroad - declined, despite my statement telling me I had over £1000 of my £3500 Flexselect credit available 3 - I rang Amex, and they essentially told me that because I was a risky customer, they were declining to put through my charges. Yes, late last year I ran into financial difficulties and had problems making loan and credit card payments and this will have affected my credit file 4 - However, at no time did Amex tell me I can't use the card. There is no notification on my online account, and I have received no letters or phone calls, so this is the first I had heard of it 5 - In fact the card does work sometimes. It usually works for smaller (less than £20) amounts in supermarkets etc. Not always. Yesterday an £8 charge went through, today a £17 one didn't 6 - I wrote to Amex making a complaint asking that my card be downgraded to one of the free ones, and that as I had been sold a card I can't actually make full use of, that my year's membership should be refunded 7 - Amex has rejected the complaint saying I could only have a pro rata refund (which I guess would be £300 odd) and making me aware that they can basically stop me using it when they want as it says so in the Tcs and Cs I would now like to complain to the FoC. The basis of my complaint will be that Amex knowingly sold me a card membership I can't make full use of, and never told me that I can't fully use the card. Had I known this, I would not have paid them the £450 at the end of last year. I have two questions: 1 - There is £550 due to be paid next week, some of this is from the small purchases I have been able to make - public transport, small supermarket shops etc. The rest is from my flex select balance. I am in a position to pay this, but would there be any grounds for me not to, if I am disputing the account? Or would this make things worse and I should just pay up as normal. 2 - Because the Amex card seems to work for most smaller charges, does this in any way negate my complaint? The £450 membership is sold with various travel benefits, but as I discovered I can't actually use the card when travelling Any other advice of how I should approach this with the FoS is appreciated. Thank you for hearing me out, all being well I'll look to submit my FoS complaint in the next few days

As has been previously mentioned on here ANPR have now been given the boot by the BPA Ltd. This is their press release:- http://britishparking.co.uk/News/bpa-terminates-membership-of-anpr-limited And about time too!

Hello. I stumbled upon this forums and read a lot. I found it very useful and would like to share my issue here and see if I can get any help. I joined a gym in May and agreed a Direct Debit with Harlands for a minimum of 6 months. Our agreement provides me with an option to freeze/cancel it if I move away from the gym ( a couple of miles). In July I left the country and told the gym that I want my membership frozen as I am going abroad for an internship, which ends in Sept, but I may stay longer and don't know when I will be back. A few days ago I had my post forwarded to me by my ex flatmate. Apparently, the gym employee froze the membership only for Aug and Sept and it was reinstated in Oct. She did send me an email in July, but I just saw it as I thought that the matter was done at the time. I have never agreed to it or replied to it. In the meantime, Harlands sent me two letters, which were forwarded to me two days ago, that I owe them money, which were both after the date of reinstatement of my membership. I canceled my DD a few days after the collection date in Oct. There was no money in the bank for the DD to be collected. Now Harlands claim that I owe them two months of membership + some admin charges of 25, a total of 215 and that if I do not pay them, they'll pass it to a debt collection agency. I argued with them, that they should have frozen the membership indefinitely, as per my instructions. Also I told them, that it is a bit sneaky of them to contact me via post, when they know that I am abroad, and that we have already established communication via email. They also told me that I should have replied to that last email. However, I expressly said that I want my membership frozen and did not state any period. What are my options? What can they do about it?

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

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!