Another CRS story

[kendog87]

Hi all,

 

My girlfriend received a letter the other day from CRS saying they have been employed by her previous gym because her membership is arrears despite previous letters being sent. We have since moved house but are still in contact with our old landlord and any letters would have been forwarded.

 

They're saying she owes a total of £182.48 of which £102.50 is for there fees. I find this extremely high just for sending out a letter. There is also no breakdown of the fees from the gym.

 

As far as I'm aware she joined on a 12 membership and paid that for at least 10 of those months. But she was always complaining about how busy it was and that she could never get on any the machines so she decided to join a bigger and cheaper gym. She just cancelled the direct debit and thought that was sufficient.

 

She acknowledges that she should have informed the gym by letter and accepts that she may owe the gym a few months membership plus one for cancellation before the end of the 12 month term but even the £79.98 that's apparently membership fee's seems rather high considering how far she was into her membership.

 

I have not made any contact with the gym itself or CRS

 

I have read many a threads on this but would greatly appreciate any advise tailored to her particular case.

 

Many thanks

[renegadeimp]

You can notify them via letter, but as far as i am aware, there was a court case where the judge stated that the simple act of cancelling the direct debit was deemed to be valid notice.

 

Gym companies, or rather their processing merchants tend to ignore the rules and claim they dont have to follow them.

[slick132]

Hi Kendog and welcome to CAG

 

If you're dealing with CRS, I assume Harlands was the admin company. Is this right and what was the gym involved.

 

Any admin fees added by Harlands/CRS are effectively penalty charges and are not genarally enforceable.

 

If YG moved home and couldn't attend because of distance, she could have cancelled because of that by giving a month's notice. However, I think it is now too late to use this method to cancel.

 

If YG had concerns about the facilities and not getting to use certain machines, she should have addressed this properly in writing at the time. If she didn't, she cannot just cancel before the end of the minimum 12 month period.

 

She should pay the final 2 months fees to the gym and I suggest a letter to Harlands as follows :-

 

Dear sir or madam,

 

I refer to Harlands/CRS demands for payment of £xxx.

 

I cancelled my DD mandate on xxdate and this was adequate notice of my cancellation of the gym agreement, as per the case of The OFT v Ashbourne Mgt Services Ltd in 2011.

 

I now realise I should have paid the final 2 month's fee for the initial membership period and am willing to offer you £xx.xx now. If you confirm in writing within 14 days that you'll accept £xx.xx in full settlement of all amounts due, I will pay it promptly.

 

If you fail to accept my offer within 14 days, or if you demand any admin or cancellation fees (unlawful penalties), my offer will be withdrawn and I may ignore further demands from you and/or CRS.

 

Such demands may be reported to Trading Standards.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

See how they respond.

 

[kendog87]

Hi

 

Thanks for the quick replies.

 

I’ve never heard of Harlands but in the small print at the bottom of the letter it does say ‘Credit Resolution Services is a trading title of Harlands Services Ltd’. The gym in question is 1 Gym in York.

 

My GF knows she went about cancelling her membership the wrong way and understands, and is willing, to pay the remainder of her membership.

 

I have checked with my previous landlord and there was never any letters delivered even though it states in the letter they had sent them.

 

Thank you so much for the draft letter to send out, I will get it printed out and sent this week

 

Many Thanks