Showing results for tags 'admin'.
-
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.
-
Good afternoon all, I'm sure you're all busy so I will keep this as short as possible. Was a VM customer for 8 odd years. Had to cancel their services last year as my Ex and I separated and I was moving to a new place. Account was in my name, so I phoned to cancel it. Phone call lasted about 10 minutes as they tried to get me to shift it to the new address etc. They explicitely said "there is no further charges to pay" on the phone. (I have it recorded as an .m4a file.) In fact, we were due a refund. A week or two later, I get a letter (at my new address!) asking me to pay a £23 cancellation charge. I wrote them a letter explaining both the phone call, and my annoyance at them chasing the additional charge when we'd been good customers for 8 years. I got another chaser a few days later, and expected the letter hadn't been processed yet, and then nothing.... After not getting any correspondance, I assumed it was done. It was £23, and I thought it would all be sorted. Last week, i'm at the bank applying for a loan, and I am denied and told to check out Experian. Three strikes from Virgin Media over the late payment of £23. The rest of the credit report is absolutely sweet. Credit score tarnished by their mistake and incompetence. Any advice on how best to rectify this, and if I should pursue any further action? All the best, D
-
Hi there, First post! I’m a student an as it is summer and i’ve not been getting my student loan recently and only work part time i’ve struggled a little with money recently. My DD for xercise for less failed. Like many others on here i’ve been charged that famous £25 ‘admin fee’ in an email. The email reads: Harlands administer the collection of all payments due under your agreement with Xercise 4 Less. Your bank have advised us that your August instalment has been returned unpaid "refer to payer" as there were insufficient funds in the account to pay the amount due. We will therefore debit your account on 23 AUG 18 for the total amount of £36.99 made up as follows: Instalment Amount £11.99 Administration Fee £25.00 Total Due £36.99 You’ll see that it says they will debit my account on 23rd Aug. I dont get paid until 24th so i’m assuming they will then add a further £25 ‘admin fee’. After reading various related threads on here i came to the conclusion that i don’t wish to pay the £50 ‘admin fees’ that i will inevitably be charged and so cancelled my direct debit. Afterall, this is the first payment delay there’s been in the entire 15 months ive been attending the gym. I’m thinking about emailing they gym and, alike to other posters on here, offering them their August membership fee that I owe and then hopefully continue with my membership. I’m aware by cancelling my DD i’ve probably tarnished my relationship with the gym but I just think the fees are extortionate. Thanks in advance
-
Hi, I received this email Dear [my name] Harlands administer the collection of all payments due under your agreement with Xercise 4 Less. Your bank have advised us that your March instalment has been returned unpaid "refer to payer" as there were insufficient funds in the account to pay the amount due. We will therefore debit your account on 5 APR 18 for the total amount of £34.99 made up as follows: Instalment Amount £9.99 Administration Fee £25.00 Total Due £34.99 Please note that the submission for this will be made two working days prior to 5 APR 18 and if this date is not convenient, please contact us on the HARLANDS HELPLINE - 01444 449033. Our lines are open 8am to 8pm Monday - Friday and from 9am to 12pm on Saturday. Thank you Once the submission has been made the debiting of your account cannot be stopped. You must ensure that sufficient funds are in the account to prevent further charges being made and possible default action being taken against you. We trust you find this in order and we look forward to hearing from you soon. Yours sincerely Harlands TL;DR: Payments come out on 26th, had insufficient funds, 27th I get the above email I send them this: Dear Sir/Madame, I am a member of Xercise4less, [city[. I have been a member for about 3 years now. A payment of £9.99 was due on the 26th which I had insufficient funds for, immediately a £25 administration fee was added. Such administration charges are unlawful and unenforceable. I am going to cancel my direct debit to avoid paying this unlawful fee. If you at any point attempt to claim this money from me, I will ask my bank to refund me the money which I am fully entitled to under the Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme. To settle this matter, I will pay you the final fee of £9.99. This payment will be made only when Harlands confirm that this will settle the matter. If you fail to agree to this within 14 days, my offer will be withdrawn and you will be paid nothing. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Your Sincerely, [my name] I also send this to the Manager of the Gym: Dear Xercise4Less, I'm a student at University of [City] and have been a member of Xercise4Less for about 3 years now. On the 26th of March 2018 my DD bounced due to lack of funds and after less than 24 hours Harlands are now seeking to charge a £25 admin which I will not pay. Such administration charges are unlawful and unenforceable. To avoid Harlands abusing the DD mandate, I have had to cancel my DD. I am happy to pay you the £9.99 I owe and use your gym in the future but I will not fall victim to this disgusting practice and allow Harlands to charge unlawful fees. If you supply payment details within 14 days, I will pay you £9.99. If you don't accept this, my offer will be withdrawn and I'll consider the matter closed. Yours faithfully, [Name] Then I get this response from the manager (front desk actually cause i guess manager is lazy) Good Afternoon [my name] In regards too the admin fee you have been charged, this is standard procedure of missing a direct debit, same as any other standard order who may charge if missed. We have explained that this will happen is a direct debit is failed to be taken on our terms and conditions which you have accepted. When you activate your account with us and then go on to do your health questionnaire, you accept the terms and conditions before it's all complete. If you have accepted these, this too us means you have read them and agree. If you did not read those, i have attached them too this email for you to read through. Unfortunately, due to this being in the terms and conditions, there is nothing i can do to withdraw this. If you would like to take matters further, i have attached the complaint procedure too the email also, you will have to follow the instruction. However, there is no guarantee this will be cancelled for you, as all your terms and conditions have been accepted by yourself. Kind regards Reception team They also send me the T&C I replay like this Hello, Thank you for the swift replay. As you have not accepted my offer of paying you the outstanding £9.99, I will now consider the matter closed and you will receive no payments from me. I apologize if I did not make myself clear in my previous email. There is no need to withdraw the admin fee, I have canceled my DD to avoid paying this fee. I know for a fact that you cannot enforce this administration fee so if I refuse to pay it you will not receive it. I don't have to accept the £25 admin fee just because it's in the T&C's. The admin fee is punitive and not a true reflection of cost incurred by Harlands due to my failed DD. In the even any money is taken from my account I will have my bank refund it under the DD Guarantee Act. I will also refrain from using your gyms in the future and will inform individuals who use your gym of this ill practice. I am still willing to pay the outstanding £9.99 owed to you but from this point forward all correspondence from you will be ignored and I will only take this matte up with the head office. Kind Regards, [NAME] They replay like this: Hi, I have explained everything possible too you and also sent you the proof as to what happens if you miss a direct debit. There is nothing more i can possibly do here for you. However, you will receive letters from Harlands stating your direct debit has been missed/cancelled. If there is no payment made within 3 months, this will go too a third party. Please be aware, that if this gets to that point, there is nothing at all we can do from club level too help. We have tried to help today by explaining this is a one off payment, as this will happen if you miss it. I will forward this email too our Head Office to make them aware that you have refused to resolve this situation. If you do happen to contact Xercise4less regarding this issue in months to come, there is nothing we can do to help. Kind regards Reception team What is your take on this. It seems like i won't be paying them anything but I won't be able to use their gym anymore. My images dont appear so I just copy and pasted the messages.
- 11 replies
-
From their website: "Charged to cover the administration of issuing an arrears chase letter." - Outgoing arrears letter I'm not condoning missing mortgage payments, but surely £27.50 is a lot for a one-page (presumably computerised) letter and envelope being sent out? I think this has been covered previously (in 2011) but I'm not sure of my best course of action. Or whether I have a claim at all? Can anyone help me? I have received 2 of these letters in the last fortnight alone. £55 is hard to take for 2 sheets of paper and 2 envelopes! This figure is clearly exceeding actual administrative costs, and I find them unfair and therefore unlawful. Are they well within their rights to charge such a figure? Sometimes I have had these letters without even a prior phone-call to chase/remind me to make payment.
-
Hi, I have been receiving letters from Harlands regarding failed direct debit payments and admin charges etc, similar to many of the other posts on this forum. Back in August, I paid for two memberships with Lifestyle fitness(for me and my girlfriend), both of which were on a "flexible" contract which required a minimum one month commitment. Both of these direct debits were setup under my bank account. My girlfriend moved back home in September and I wanted to go to a more local gym and so tried to cancel the memberships. My girlfriend rang the gym up who informed her that only the owner of the bank account can cancel the contract. I sent an email off at the beginning of October to Harlands customer support including my name, bank account and sort code and asked them to cancel both direct debit agreements linked to my bank account. 10 or so days later, after hearing no response from Harlands and it being only a few days before the next direct debit payment was due to be took out, I decided to cancel both direct debits via my online bank account. After this, I had no contact from Harlands for around a month or so until I received a letter through the post addressed to my girlfriend with the whole admin fees crap. Strangely enough, I didn't receive the same letter for whatever reason. I think I read before in the T&Cs that you must give at least a month's notice if you're cancelling, which I didn't realise. I'd happily pay the last month's fee for my girlfriend but outright refuse to pay the now £50 admin fee. Is there anything I can do to get them off my back?
-
Hi there, First time posting, but in doing a bit of research before I delved into discussing a letter I received from Harlands, there seemed to be a lot of valuable information on this forum, so hoping someone can help with my specific situation. On 31st March I took out a gym membership with Xercise4Less on a monthly rolling contract with the following information in an email confirmation from that date: "You are committing to a single £20.00 admin fee payment and £19.99 per month for a minimum of 1 months. After this minimum term your membership payments will continue on a monthly basis. You have chosen to pay by monthly Direct Debit and we can confirm that the Direct Debit details provided by you are correct." "You have the right to cancel your Direct Debit Instruction at any time simply by writing to your Bank or Building Society, with a copy to us. Please note cancelling your Direct Debit does not absolve you of your Membership contractual obligations." The following dates had direct debits of £19.99 taken out: 02.05.2017 30.05.2017 30.06.2017 31.07.2017 30.08.2017 I since have been taking on more responsibilities within work that mean I am not getting to go to the gym at all, and as such have cancelled my Direct Debit a couple of weeks ago, and thus my membership (or so I thought, as had been the way at previous gyms...) However, yesterday I came home to the following letter: "Dear XXXXX, re: Your membership to Xercise4Less Harlands administer the collection of all payments due under your membership agreement with Xercise 4 Less. Your bank have advised us that your September instalment has been returned unpaid "instruction cancelled". You have therefore been charged a £25.00 administration fee which means you need to pay £44.99 to bring your account up to date. Call HARLANDS HELPLINE - XXXXXXXX immediately so we can collect this by DEBIT / CREDIT card and reinstate your Direct Debit over the telephone. If you wish to pay by another method, you must still phone to discuss your options. If you do not call us by 23 October 17 you will be charged a further £25.00 administration fee. Our telephone lines are open 8:00am to 8:00pm Monday to Friday & 09:00am - 12:00pm on a Saturday. Your sincerely, Harlands" My question then is how to handle this? I do not want to reinstate my DD / gym membership. I do not think they are legally allowed to charge me an 'admin fee' (?!), I do not want them to continue adding more lots of £25 to my 'account', and I'm not sure whether ringing them would be a good idea at all. Any help would be much appreciated!!
-
Hi I'm after help step by step. I was with Ge for several years until over 12months ago it was passed to Kensington. It's been irritating me the fact all these feed Ge charged me for and interest on last communication received from.them and wondered if I could still attempt to claim them back (also annoying is letter fees which we never even received letters). Firstly. What do I do? Do I do a SAR? If so can you point me to the form. Or do I write a letter of complaint? I'm not good at this type of thing but want to see if I can claim anything back. Thank you for anyone's help in advance
-
I would be grateful if anyone here can give me a brief outline of the actual law relating to gym's that attempt to charge an administration fee (£25.00)? Am I correct in saying that this is legally defined as a penalty fee and therefore unlawful and can be safely ignored? Thanks in advance for any help provided. And might I say what a wonderful resource this forum is. All power to your elbow. Dubs
-
Possible to obtain a restraining order/ injunction
northmoore posted a topic in General Legal Issues
A few months ago a male, who is a live in employee at a property opposite my girlfriends house aggressively threatend to smash my face in and knock my teeth out, when I asked a delivery man to move his van that was blocking the driveway, the delivery man moved his van and drove away but the other man made more threat and demanded I fight him in the street and telling me what he will do to me, so I called the Police. Police never came out because they said I was safe inside my girlfriend house. The Police investigated but the male employee who made the threats denied it, the delivery man was traced and also said he didn't see or hear anything, but he had already moved his van and drove away before the threats wre made. Since this occurred the male employee is always outside in the street when I visit or stay at my girlfriends house,, always staring at me and now always parks his van outside my girlfriend house very close to the drive but not blocking it, he never parked there before. -
Hi I recently cancelled my direct debit that was set up for my Gym etc membership. I had not used the gym in many moths ~6+ and I believe I was 1 month away from the 12 month contract being up. I received a letter asking for the 25£ i owe as the final installment of my membership contract AND a 25£ admin fee to be payed, so 50£ in total. I am willing to pay the 25£ and either end my gym contract or keep it going but I am not willing to pay the 25£ admin fee. I sent an email to harlands saying this: Hi I have not used my gym membership for many months due to a lack of time because of university and work and you can check that I have not used my membership by looking at my account. I cancelled it and I thought that my contract, which I can't view anywhere, ended in July because in 2016 I cam back from Germany in July and started my membership again . If possible I would like to either pay the 25£ that was due for the last month or restart my membership as in my current financial status an extra 25£ charge is something that I cannot afford currently. I hope you understand this. I have not yet had a response. If they do not respond should i assume that they don't need to be paid. And what should I do if i want to sign up to that gym again?
-
Hi, I have cancelled my Direct debit with Xercise4less around 4 months ago due to money problems as I had just moved into a new house and didn't realize how much bills were going to cost, I did not have the money to pay them so I cancelled the direct debit through my bank account. I received the email below from the Harlands company. "We refer to our previous letter and note that you have not contacted us. You have now incurred a further £ 25.00 charge and are £ 73.98 in arrears. Under your Membership Agreement, you have promised to pay this debt. If you continue to refuse to honour that commitment, we will have no option but to take further steps to collect the outstanding balance. We want to help you resolve this situation but you must call us. Ignoring our letters is only resulting in further charges being added. Please call the HARLANDS HELPLINE on 01444 449033 to clear your arrears by Debit/Credit Card and reinstate your Direct Debit. If you are unable to clear your arrears in full then we may be able to help you but you must call us to discuss this. If you do not contact us by 17th September 2017 your balance of £ 157.91 will be passed to a Debt Recovery company who will add their fees to your account." I have checked my emails and can not see any emails from them previously? I would have dealt with this sooner, they are threatening to charge me 160?! I am now in a place were I can pay the 11.99 a month to Excersise4less but surely I don't need to pay the admin fees, that is too much money, can they make me pay these? I do not know what to do and can't afford to pay £73. I would be happy to pay 11.99 a month again to the GYM
-
web designer refusing admin login Help
shaha77 posted a topic in Broadband and other Internet issues
Hi cags I hired web design company to design my e-commerce store. I have discussed every thing about design time was set for 4 to 5 weeks . Design was not what we discussed specially product pages. They offered to add 30 products and will show me how add ,edit product how to operate site which they never did. 50% deposit was paid and remaining 50% will be payable before go live. once web site gone live i realize issues product image was showing up half awful on mobiles view and tablets. they required remaining balance before the can do any work . I needed go live just don't want create any argue so paid the balance in line that any changes required they will and i have emailed from them to prove . Since they got the money ignorance start no answer my phone calls . so i requested them to provide me admin login details so i can do myself or pay somewhere else to do the work. They refused me admin login details and set up as a user only Stating that they don't give out admin login details their explanation was that you can change what you like and some thing go wrong you will blame on us . its nearly month now this game is going on . last thursday i emailed them that you are leaving with no option to take legal action, their response was go to court and we will take this email as pre-court letter. website is ready to go live . IN their contract i own the website, design ,content after full payment .its wordpress e-commerce and i own the domain myself. They knows that i wanted go live so playing games and causing me potential financial loss . What is my options are? Take legal action against them, and pay some one else to website from scratch and claim the cost from them plus compensations They have no legal right to take my website hostage. when there is no dispute. I am running out from options. any advice will appreciated thanks -
Hi All Just a quick question. My partner is signed up for local authority gym on an annual contract . This month his wage was paid a little later than usual and he missed DD - but then when money came in this DD was taken fine. However all of a sudden we received a letter that they will be taking a £20 admin charge as well? I called them and sad its illegal and they cant justify such a charge however they said its part of the contract and thats it! I am about to write complaint to their customer services ? is there any other suggestions on what I can do as I am sure its unreasonable charge thank you
-
There is a huge amount of misinformation regarding the forcing of entry for court fines. In the first instance, a separate warrant is not necessary and is not a requirement. For the avoidance of doubt, forced entry is permitted by the warrant itself. It is not used that often and in most cases, is used where a debtor refuses to engage with the enforcement agent. It is sadly the case that forced entry has also taken place because the debtor himself has been wrongly advised of the legal position. As an example, on Saturday, I received an enquiry where a locksmith was present. In that particular case, the debtor had paid a lot of money (approx £150) to have a statutory declaration prepared claiming that he did not own any of the goods within the house. He was told that the enforcement agent must accept this document as evidence and that he was therefore not allow to gain entry. These statutory declarations are causing a lot of problems at the moment.
-
Good morning, My 18 yr old daughter took out a policy with 'MyPolicy' car insurance 8 months ago when she passed her test. They seemed the best price at the time but have cost dearly over the 8months, mainly in charges for extra miles. a few weeks ago she was involved in an accident which wasn't her fault, the other driver admitted blame immediately. The claim has been settled and they have sent the cheque. Now, the problem is the charges they want to slap on her. Her car was a write off so she is going to buy her brother's car. They want to charge her £150 for a new black box and £100 to change the details on the policy to the new car. This sounds totally unreasonable to me and is a loss on her part seeing as the accident wasn't her fault. Baring in mind the black box only cost £50 to fit when she first took out the policy. She's young and inexperienced and doesn't know what to say on the phone. Last time I tried, they wouldn't speak to me, but surely if she gives her permission that should be fine? I need to fight her corner for her as I can be stronger on the phone. I need some advice as this charging can't be right. It's a total rip off to me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
-
Hi, Sandy here, not sure who to ask but is it possible I could put something in the helpful organisation bit please? It says you need to ask admin. I would like to put something about The Lullaby Trust is allowed? This is The Cot Death charity I fund raise for in memory of my granddaughter . A lot of people still do not know about SIDS, it takes more babies then anything else and is known as the silent killer If not allowed , no problem Sandy AKA snowdragon x
-
Transmitter purchase On the 20/05/15 I purchased a Quad transmitter from HobbyKing for £167.18. This price included carriage by FedEx to my door. On the seller web site was a page for selecting a carrier. The default choice by the seller was FedEx and was highlighted by a button selection. All of the carriers offered carriage at about the same price (DHL etc). The carriage price offered by FedEx was the most competitive at $33.32 and I continued with the payment process. At no point was I advised of any other affiliated costs or charges. I paid the full amount as directed via PayPal. I was informed that as soon as the parcel was despatched I would receive a consignment number. The carriage cost in GBP was about £22 which I thought quite acceptable. I was well aware at the time that an item at this price would attract import duty of about £30. A few days later I received the parcel from Fedex. All seemed fine until some days later I received a request for £45.75. I thought this was a bit high for import duty. I sent Fedex an email as I was unable to contact them by phone and enquired as to the amount. I received a reply which informed me that the bill was in fact two separate amounts. One for the duty (£33.75) and one for an amount labelled Admin. I done some research on the Web and discovered that the ‘Admin’ charge was for processing the duty requirements, or there abouts. This was news to me as I had no prior knowledge of any such cost. I contacted Fedex by email and advised them that I had no intension of paying the admin charge as I had not been informed at anytime of this fee. But I would pay the duty charge as shown. I sent Fedex a cheque for £33.75 with a covering letter explaining my position again. A month or so passed and then I received a reminder from Fedex about the outstanding admin amount. I sent Fedex an email covering my position again. A few months went by with no further correspondence. I received a Payment demand from a DCA for the amount of £12 along with various frightening statements that would happen if this amount was not paid. This has escalated to more letters and phones calls demanding the money along with the sum being demanded increasing with each contact. I am at a loss as to how a company can demand money when I have never been asked to agree to the service offered. I have signed no contract with Fedex and have not asked them to do any service for me. Where does the figure of £12 come from this could be any amount at all £1200 even. I have read some posts on this site and noticed that this admin fee has increased by over 150% in one year originally being about £5. This ‘admin’ fee was not featured at the sellers web site at time of purchase. This however has now been amended. It now advices that there may be an admin fee on some items. But no amount is specified. Any thoughts or advice greatly appreciated. PS I have donated the £12 to this site.
-
Good morning, I originally joined xercise4less in January 14 after a phone call from a sales person. I was reluctant but they talked me round by offering two months for free & £9.99 a month there after. Even though the gym was 18 miles from my home I niaevely agreed to become a member. I didn't/haven't used the facilities once & in February I emailed the operations manager asking to cancel my membership but received no reply. I left it until April and sent another request to cancel via but again didn't get a response. In September I noticed they were still taking the amount so I cancelled by direct debit. Now I am receiving threatening letters saying I owe £69:98 with x2 £25 'admin' charges and the threat of court. I've rang xercise4less but been told the manager isn't available - I've emailed the operations manager again and haven't gotten a response (I see a pattern here) however when I messaged them publicly on Twitter they responded (funny that!) but in their DM they have simply said "Sorry however unfortunately you cannot cancel your membership via email unless you have this agreed by the operations manager - do you have this indicated in your emails" I replied stating that I hadn't received a reply and asked how they could resolve the matter but they have not responded. I'm not sure why an email won't suffice when the only contract I've received was via email and I haven't signed anything from them. In fact the only letters I have received were from Harlands threatening me and charging me x2 £25. Do you have any advice for me - I can't have a CCJ against me because of my employment. They have no responded saying that "unfortunately in this instance you will need to pay the cancellations charges - what is your contact number so a member of the membership team can contact you?" I feel this is completely unfair - howe should I respond.
- 17 replies
-
- admin
- cancellation
-
(and 4 more)
Tagged with:
-
Dear all, Great website and excellent information. Below is an explanation of my current situation. It's a bit long but I have given as much info as possible in order to be as accurate as possible. Here goes... I was forwarded on a letter from my Mum today (I've recently moved back from abroad and have been using my parents' address) from Harlands regarding my recently cancelled Fit4Less membership. I cancelled my membership earlier this month as when I checked their website I saw that they stated: Monthly membership – paid via Direct Debit Membership agreements are for a period of 12 months, however we do not enforce contracts, long term commitment or pursue missed payments, as we understand that customers require flexibility and freedom to chose when and where they exercise. To cancel your membership at any time simply contact your bank and cancel your direct debit instruction. Please be advised that your membership will be terminated WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT and your access to the gym will be prohibited from the day you cancel your direct debit. To get the most out of your last month at the gym, it is advisable to cancel your direct debit about 7 working days before the date when your next subscription is due to be collected. Please do not leave it any later than this, or your bank will not have time to prevent the collection of your next month’s subscription." .fitness4less.co.uk/terms_and_conditions.html Taking this at face value I cancelled my Direct Debit via my online banking earlier this month. However I then receive the letter that states (in full): "Harlands administer the collection if all payments due under your membership agreement with Fit4Less abd you bank has recently advised us that your Direct Debit Instruction has been cancelled. The membership agreement you signed states that all payments must be made by Direct Debit. Therefore you must call HARLANDS HELPLINE... immediate in order for us to reinstate your Direct Debit over the phone. If you do not contact us by 18 october 15 you will be charged an administration fee. The telephone lines are open..." Now, the vague wording of the letter and the fact that they give me no concrete reason why I need to pay an admin fee of £25 leads me to believe they are trying to pull a fast one. Also I am not going to pay their ridiculously expensinve hotline. I have returned to my DD agreement and seen it states: "Amount to be debited from your account You will be debited £19.99 on 18/04/2015 and thereafter on the same day each month until further notice. The debit will be collected on or immediately after the date specified Start date for regular billing 18/04/2015 The company name which will appear on your bank statement is Eazipay Ltd. Your Membership details Chosen Membership: Online DD No Contract To start on: 18/03/2015" Then, on checking the T&C sent to me in April (the month I joined) I noticed the following (which is why I think they are trying to sting me here) "If your bank fails to make a due direct debit payment from your account, we will write to advise you of this. We may apply to your bank for payment by direct debit twice within one calendar month and we reserve the right to refer any missed due payments to a debt collection agency. We may charge a fee for failed direct debit payments and/or letters sent to you in respect of unpaid amounts. 5.7 Should any membership fees not be paid within 30 days of the due date, the full membership fee for the remainder of the commitment period will automatically become due and payable in full. 5.8 Any unpaid and overdue membership fees referred to a debt collection agency will be subject to a surcharge to cover the collection costs incurred. This surcharge together with all other charges and legal fees incurred in the collection of the overdue membership fees will be the responsibility of the member and will be legally recoverable from the member" At this stage I am looking for advice as how to reply. I think the website is misleading but I am willing to pay a final £19.99 for the final month membership to close the matter. The admin charge appears unlawful so I want to dispute this. Any help would be greatly appreciated and I will post back here to let you know how the matter is progressing so other people caught out can hopefully learn from my experience. Thanks Des
-
In July of this year me and my partner felt we would like to switch to a new gym which was much better suited to our needs, from our then current gym Xercise4less. We know that when you cancel a membership there tends to be a contract to honour or a notice to fulfill, so we decided that we would not make the switch until payments had been sorted with Xercise4less. Money is tight and we are frugal, so we would not have two memberships running at the same time. We went in to our local branch in St Helens and spoke to a young man on reception, who's etiquette left a lot to be decided, distracted by mates and such. To be fair to him they seemed short staffed. However, he categorically told us that as we had only signed a 12 month contract and had been there for 18 months, so we were free to cancel our membership and there was no notice or fee or anything. He took down our names and looked on the system and told us that as the cancellation would take a few minutes, he would go through it on the computer and we were free to go home. We were a little surprised it was that easy, but he categorically told us the above facts so we had been given the green light to sign up with the new gym. We cancelled our direct debits the next day to be on the safe side, because we had heard stories about Xercise4less (Harlands) continuing to take payments. So we have been at our new gym ever since, when out of the blue this morning, we both received texts telling us "You cancelled your direct debit, so your account has gone in to default". I enquired on the phone number given on the msg, and the agent told me that I was supposed to give them a months notice, so that Harlands could take a final payment of £9.99. As the DD was cancelled, I have incurred a £20 admin fee since. So I owe them £29.99. I explained that their Xercise4less colleague had wrongly informed us of the terms, and had we known, we would have absolutely not joined the new gym till a month later. He agreed and put a notice on my account that I was wrongly informed and told me there was nothing he could do, but I needed to speak to the general manager of the St Helens branch to see if they could reason with me. I rang up the branch and the man on the phone told me they had no general manager until October. I have to say the phone call was quite blunt and the staff in that gym are generally not the most professional people. Not sure what to do next then. I have to admit I hate these situations, I am not a confrontational type, I am very shy and I went in to the gym today for answers, but when I saw there was no staff on reception I bottled it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
- 11 replies
-
- admin
- cancellation
-
(and 4 more)
Tagged with:
-
Hi, I urgently need advice on dealing with Harlands, Here is the story so far. Me and my boyfriend signed up to our local Lifestyle fitness gym, under a 12 month contract. Both memberships were set up to be debited from his account. 8 months in, he got a letter saying that there weren't sufficient funds to pay his membership, so they were asking for the £15 for the months membership, and a £25 admin fee. We went into the actual gym and asked if the other membership (mine) had been paid for, and they said that only one of our memberships was suspended, so one must have been paid. I then got a letter saying that mine hadn't been paid, with them asking for the same amount (£15 membership and a £25 admin fee). Because I had not changed my address with them (completely my fault) my letter got to me late, so when they tried to take the £40 out for my membership, they couldn't take it, and I got a letter explaining a charge. 'Your bank have advised us that our submission of £40.00 to cover the previously returned instalment plus the administration charge has been returned "refer to payer". You have now incurred a further £25.00 charge and are £60.00 in arrears.' 'Your next instalment is due in a few days time but we will not make another submission until the outstanding £65 is paid'. They then carry on to say I had to call by 27/10 to avoid further charges. I didn't call as I was unable to contact them during their opening hours due to other commitments. I have recently received another letter which states - 'We refer to our previous letter and note that you have not contacted us. You have now incurred a further £25 charge and are £105.00 in arrears. Under your Membership Agreement, you have promised to pay this debt. If you continue to refuse to honour that commitment, we will have no option but to take further steps to collect the outstanding balance. We want to help you resolve this situation but you must call us. Ignoring our letters is only resulting in further charges being added. If you do not contact us by 13th November your balance of £135.00 will be passed to a debt recovery company who will add their fees to your account'. I've tried to read up as much as I can on what to do, but I'm just really confused now. Do I call them, so it doesn't get passed on to a Debt recovery company, or do I email them and only leave a paper trail? My dad had told me I need to call them and pay them the £135.00, but I don't understand how it could cost them £75 in administration. I can't afford to pay it and I don't know what to do because they just keep putting more admin fees on top of it and I feel like its going to spiral out of control.
-
When I moved into a new property recently, I was charged a £75 one off admin fee. This seemed a bit steep for sending me a tenancy agreement and doing a bit of filing, but I was in a bit of a bind, so I accepted. Is it legal for landlords to charge such a fee? Thanks Jeff
-
Hi Caggers! Brief History. I was a legacy customer (old Telewest customer) since 2005. The last contract renewal was in 2007 when I moved house the previous time, so contract was well out of band. Notified them in December that I was moving and would like to take my services with me, they said sure, no problem and could probably provide the services I wanted. Great. I moved house 9th January. I contacted them on the 19th January to find out what was happening with my service installation at the new place. Was told the service was activated on the 17th. That would have been a miracle as the house has no cable through the wall. Upon asking them to check, they had reactivated the service at my OLD address. Having established that this was their fault, and establishing that they did not in fact operate in my new area they agreed that the account was closed, I owed them nothing further and in fact was due a refund of £21. Result! Phoned Sky and got a great deal. 3 weeks later they send me a bill for a months worth of charges. After swearing at the statement I calmed down and called them. Explained everything to them in great detail (had to repeat myself a couple of times because, overseas call centre), they apologised profusely and said I dd in fact have nothing to pay (no mention of the refund though) and to disregard the bill. 2 weeks ago I get a reminder that I still owe the amount on the recently provided bill. Off I go to tweet my displeasure to Virgin Media in a lovely public forum. They were on it like a rocket, very helpful and said it was now all sorted. Monday I get a threatening letter saying pay up or they'll pass it no to a collection agency, and today I get another bill! I want to charge them an admin fee for dealing with this cr*p and having to put with the stress! Advice please, how do I deal with these muppets?
Latest
Our Picks
Reclaim the right Ltd
reg.05783665
reg. office:-
262 Uxbridge Road, Hatch End
England
HA5 4HS
The Consumer Action Group
×
- Create New...
IPS spam blocked by CleanTalk.