Hey all, looking for a quick bit of advice here. I signed up for a membership with X4L on the 14th of May 2018, and have only used the gym a handful of times in that time. I haven't been at all during 2019. I now have free access to a local gym which a friend owns, so I cancelled my direct debit with X4L/Harlands on Jan 4th 2019. I then cancelled my membership via their Online Cancellation Portal not long after. After doing so, I received this email - Then this email the following day, Never realised that I wasn't supposed to cancel the DD until they had taken their last payment, but I didn't think it'd matter since I haven't used their facilities in months, even after cancelling my membership (which they can check, because they use fingerprint scanning to allow you access at my gym). On the 24th of January I received an email from HG (Harlands Group) notifying me that I owed them £45 because of admin fees. I sent them a reply letting them know that I would be fine paying the £19.99 for the remaining month of membership (which I never even made use of), but I would not be paying any of their silly admin fees. They never replied, and then on Feb 16th I received this email, So it has suddenly increased from £45 to £69.99? Am I in the wrong here? TL;DR - Cancelled via direct debit, then online using cancellation portal, received email saying not to cancel the DD (I already had by this point), offered to pay for the remainder of the membership (£19.99), now they're trying to charge me £69.99.

Good Evening Everyone! Another Harlands post unfortunately, I've had a good read through and followed some of the advice and am now at the next step and wondering what is my best course of action, Let me start with the background. I signed up to a rolling contract with E4L in Milton Keynes, I had used the gym over the months but unfortunately suffered a quite catastrophic knee failure that has made even a daily dog walk a chore (Joys of getting old I guess!). Because of this I cancelled my E4L DD thinking it was the best way to cancel (My fault, Should have checked the T&C's). I received an email but truth be told I thought it was a cancellation email and ignored it... On the 27th of December I received an email confirming that because I failed to rectify the situation they had added fee's on and I owed them £36.99 and if I didn't call them before 16th of January. I called them on the 15th of January to discuss this (I recorded this mainly because I always worry about situations like this!). I apologised and offered to pay two months to bring the account up to date, would continue my membership as normal.. I got told basically to pay the fee's and deal with it.... Nice! I then received a further email on the 23rd of January now saying because I hadn't called them I now owe them £73.98 and had to call them by 7/2/19. I've followed the advice here and sent them a written letter offering to pay what I owe less the fee's to cancel my account etc etc, I have proof of posting and tracking number for this. After this I've received two emails, the first being an Email from CRS saying I owe them £107. The second is an email from Harlands which is the following: Thank you for your recent letter. We can confirm all cancellations are dealt with online via an online cancellation form, this can be found on the Xercise 4 Less App or use the following link for the Xercise 4 Less website cancellation form: (Removed due to forum rules) You will need your W reference number which is W14960979 and then you need to input the branch that you use and your Date of Birth. Please note, to enable you to complete the form, your payments must be up to date and you must have an active direct debit in place, if your direct debit is cancelled and/ or you're in arrears please use the following link to reinstate and/ or make a catch up payment: (Removed due to forum rules) Once completed you will receive a confirmation of cancellation receipt. Your membership is currently in arrears for missed payments and therefore charges have been applied. These charges have been applied correctly under the terms and conditions you agreed to during your sign up. These arrears will need to be cleared for you to be able to complete the online cancellation form. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. I'm not sure what to do now going forward, Surely its not possible for them to continue charging me on the basis that unless I pay my fee's I cannot cancel my contract?

Hi, I've just found myself in a situation, whereby I was caught without money in my account on the day by DD was due - and now I'm being charged the £25. However, I would like to carry on using the gym, - and not pay the £25 - is that possible? Very annoyed, as I really am enjoying the gym - particularly because it's a good hobby when I don't have much money! However, my integrity is swelling, and I can't bring myself to let them rob me.

Hi Only signed up today but I've been reading quite a few posts. Can't wait to use Slick132 letters in regards to Harlands / CRS. How am I best starting the letters as they don't have my correct email or even my address (never moved yet never received any letters they've said they've sent me)? Thanks Annieb_101 x

when I was a membership the staff at X4L accidentally locked me in the gym. I was putting my pants on in the changing room and the lights went out. As soon I put my jacket on to leave the room I realized there was no one there and the steel shutters were down. This resulted me having to leave through the fire exit which caused the alarm to go off at 10 o'clock at night. The staff apologized to me and I carried on training there for two months. Come september I leave the gym to relocate to my university city. I cancelled the membership through my bank because I have read stories about them continuing to take money after cancelling through their online form. A few months and 5 harlands emails later I have received an intimidating phone call from an X4L head office person demanding me pay £125 to cancel my membership. The thing is when I signed up I picked the membership option that allows me to cancel anytime I want as you pay £10/month extra for no minimum 1 year time frame. Now they are lucky I didn't take legal action when they locked me in the gym (what if I was blind like my friend????) now I am being harassed on a bi-weekly basis over phone and text messages to pay 'administration fees'. I have had it! What are my rights and would my case stand a chance in court if I were to press legal action?

Hi, I am new to this site. My son received a letter from the bank the weekend stating that Harland s had tried to take money but there were insufficient funds to take the money. I phoned the bank for him and they are not charging him for this. As far as I was aware he had joined the gym last September being told by the staff that he could cancel anytime. Being that he is aspergers I'm pretty sure they must have said this to him. He told me that he phoned x4l when he had the letter and they told him he needed to make sure the money was in his bank by 24th which is tomorrow plus £25 admin fee for not leaving funds in his account. he was only 17 when he joined which they shouldn't have given him the membership which I didn't realise until now. I phoned x4l this evening to explain the situation and ask if I paid the £9:99 would that be sufficient. The girl was quite rude, I said that he was only 17 and shouldn't have been allowed, told her that the girl in reception told him to alter his d.o.b to make him look over 18. She said well he is 18 now, if he were still 17 then I would be obliged to cancel but he's not so it needs to be paid and unless the money in the account tomorrow the charges will increase.And that I consumptive this was said to him. I have reinstated his harlands acc with the bank and I intended to put the £35 in tonight ready but after reading this site I am unsure what to do....please can you advise asap please. Many thanks

Hi everyone Sorry if something like this has already been posted a million times before but I'm at work and I haven't got time to trawl through all the posts trying to find a similar situation to mine! I took out a gym membership in October with Xercise 4 Less. It was £9.99 and I was going 3 times a week. On New Years Eve I badly dislocated my knee whilst at work and was put in a leg brace which had to be on for at least 6 weeks. I (stupidly) cancelled my gym DD because I knew that I would be out of action for a while with very little money coming in. Just £80 a weeks statutory sick pay and that's not a lot when you've got rent/bills to pay. Today I received a text saying ; 'Dear Member. Your account is in default and if left unresolved will be passed to a third party debt collectors. To prevent this call us on 01132038602 to settle '. I've just called them and explained the situation/why I cancelled but they've said that I need to send them a sick note before they will let me cancel. I'm now back at work and technically I can exercise but I do struggle going down steps etc. I'm not sure that my doctors would write me a sick note because I could probably go to the gym but in reality I'd rather do my very limited and basic physio exercises in the comfort of my own home. The only other option that they gave me was to pay my account in full. My contract doesn't end until October so that would be quite a lot of money for a gym membership that I just won't use. I also asked if I could set up my direct debit again to finish off my contract and they said that they could but it would have to be for another 12 months which is essentially a new contract. Should I just pay it all? What will happen if I don't? Thanks X

Hi All, Like many others on this forum, I've been having a lot of trouble with Harlands/CRS/X4L and wish for it to stop. I've been putting off posting here for a while and simply been following the advice given to everyone else by ignoring the threats from CRS and Harlands and replying in writing. I signed up for a 12-month contract on the 3rd November 2015, and after 12 months decided to cancel my direct debit on the 22nd November 2016 after fulfilling my 12-month obligation. Initially I ignored the letters from Harlands demanding payment, however after they threatened to pass my 'debt' of £171 onto CRS, I decided to reply with a letter to them explaining that I'd fulfilled my 12-month obligation but offered to pay the £9.99 to cover the cancellation period which I had missed, and to stop further demands otherwise they'd be reported to TS etc, etc. In the meantime, my 'debt' was passed onto CRS, and Harlands replied with a letter simply stating that they could not cancel the agreement as they were simply the direct debit company acting on their behalf and to get in touch with X4L directly. So I did just that, basically sending the same letter to X4L head offices, offering to pay the £9.99 but nothing more, and again to stop CRS/Harlands contacting my otherwise I'd report them to TS and the CMA. However, on Tuesday I received this response via email: I'm a bit confused by all of this as they just seem to be passing the buck onto one another, and I'm a bit confused as to what steps I should take next, as CRS have since begun Texting me and sending me Emails demanding I ring them. Anything I should say to X4L in response to this? Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Many thanks

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 was a member of the exercise 4 less gym for over 18 months and stopped using the facilities. I emailed the gym manager stating my wish to leave and cancelled membership online, I kept direct debit open for sufficient time and in my eyes did everything I was meant to. Around 2 month later I received a letter stating I owed £9.99 plus an admin fee, I contacted the gym and they took my number and said someone would call straight back.. .that never happened, a few letters later I apparently then owed 150+ because they kept on adding on admin fees Can the debt collection agency add this fee on? I have tried to contact the gym numerous times and keep getting the we'll call you back and it never happens. I am adamnant I am not in the wrong but I am beginning to worry as the fees they are chasing me for are adding up. Can they do anything and are these enforceable? Please help

Hi, Sorry for another thread. I have used this forum to help make my case so far, however I've had another letter and now I feel that i'm at a dead end. I've attached a copy of the letter I sent to CRS, this fully explains my particular situation. I did also send a very similar letter to X4L head office, but they didn't respond. I've also scanned in the response and I don't know what to do next. I don't have a copy of my cancellation form but I DID sign one. I was a loyal customer at X4L for 2 years and never missed a payment, so I absolutely will not pay a penny out of principle more than anything. I am extremely fed up as this has been ongoing since February 2016. I'm very close to sending a letter just telling them that I do not acknowledge the debt and they will have to take me to court (I'd also like to remind them that they will incur court fees if they lose, as they have said the same to me!) I just don't know if this is tempting fate, because ultimately I cannot prove I handed in my written notice - it will be my word against theirs. I can however demonstrate good character through loyalty as a customer and all my dates will add up (in terms of graduating from university and relocating to an area with no X4L facilities) as well as a good academic/professional record which shows that I wouldn't simply 'forget' to cancel my membership. Would this hold up in court? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Alex

Hi all, Another victim of Harlands here! Was following slick's outstanding advice and thought everything was going well but having read a few horror stories I thought I'd check what my next move should be. Long story short: Cancelled my direct debit after 11 months, not 12 (oops). This was the end of April. Got the Harlands "you didn't pay your May instalment so now owe us two months' subscription plus a £25 default fee" letter on 18 May. Panicked, rang around a bit, told the X4L branch on the phone I wanted to cancel, was referred to the X4L membership team (in another office - Leeds?) who agreed that I could cancel if I paid a £29.99 on-the-spot admin fee - I asked for a full breakdown of this admin fee and the best the manager could do was that it was "for contacting Harlands". I thought "hang on, this sounds a bit dodgy", I want to find out more about this... ...and Google sent me here! 18 June I got the Harlands "you owe us three months' subscription plus a £50 default fee" letter. Checked my direct debit email they sent me and it contains these lines... I pinged off this in reply (I hope it is OK! Sent recorded delivery)... Wasn't expecting to hear anything from them but got a letter saying... Now I'm confused. Next move, anyone? (Just FYI when I get Harlands off my back I'm totally donating my £25 admin fee to this site - brilliant work, helped me loads already, thank you!)

Hello I signed up for an X4L membership on the 25th January using an online offer of no admin fee, no sign up fee and first month free. I signed up on a Sunday and read the T&C's that I could cancel up to 14 days after signing up if I didn't use my code. A week later before going I was made redundant in my job. I went into the X4L website and sent a message telling them I would like to cancel my membership as I had been made redundant. I received no emails or phone calls back from them. Now on 9th April I got a letter through from Harlands chasing up for £94.98 due to missed payments. I emailed Harlands asking them to explain the charges. They said I missed payments and were also adding admin fees on top of this. They said I missed payments in both February and March and were adding 3 admin charges on top of that. The letter I received in April was the first I had heard from Harlands. I ignored this email and emailed X4L directly but to no avail. I have since received a letter from C.R.S adding £70 to the total taking it up to £265. Bear in mind, the last figure they gave me was £94.98. Throughout this time I have been unemployed so would have not been able to pay this money. I also broke my hand on the 15th March so would have been unable to attend the gym at this time! I have since found employment and start on the 18th May. Should I pay the £265 that they are chasing me for? I have not set a foot inside the gym and I am getting charged this ridiculous amount! Any advice would be much appreciated