'Elite Fitness', Harlands

[mejacks]

Hi All,

 

I've been reading through some of the other Harlands threads and there's some pretty solid advice so I thought I would give this a go.

 

In October last year I went to Elite Fitness to get a gym membership. I was told they offer a 4 month student membership and since I'm a student I went for it! I was told it was 4 months initially but I could cancel after 3. I asked to sign up for the 4 month contract and all I had to do was fill out a small slip with details/bank details etc and it would be 24.99 a month through direct debit. A month later 64.00 was taken out my account (poss joining fee?) and 2 months later I missed a direct debit to which Harlands took a 25.00 'missed payment fee' on top of my original membership payment.

 

I never received a copy of my contract by post or by email after I signed up. The 4 months passed and I cancelled the direct debit, now I've recieved a letter stating:

 

"We have been advised by Harlands that your Direct Debit for your membership appears to have been cancelled for Elite Fitness.

 

You currently have 8 months outstanding of your 12 month contract, a copy of which I have enclosed with this letter, therefore the amount due is £199.92, which equates to 8 months at £24.99 eachplus a fee of £50.00 for the 2 attempts to take the direct debit from your bank.

 

Account settlement Payment can be made at reception with any Debit or Credit card or By BACS Transfer to:

xxxxx

Quoting your Reference Number with in the next seven days."

 

Despite it stating in the email there was an enclosed copy of my contract there was not. I would have never intentionally signed up for a 12 month contract and I was obviously misled or lied to by the person who set up my contract. In addition to this, the owner of the gym has since claimed that the person who set up my contract is not allowed to set up contracts and denies that he did it.

 

I am aware of 4 other students that signed up for the same gym, for the same contract and have all received similar letters or emails.

 

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

[BankFodder]

Welcome to the cancellation industry.

 

Cancellation fees must reflect administrative losses. Read around this gym sub-forum and you will soon understand the issues and what your correct responses should be. Furthermore their £25 letter fee is probably unenforceable, and so if there is any administrative loss then set that charge off against it.

Bring your student friends here to report their stories as well. They should each deal with the problem in a similar way - but independently - not as a group.

You say that you were a student. Were you less than 18?

[BankFodder]

Write the gym a letter. Explain

 

1. That you will not be paying any further money
   
2. That in any event, as a responsible company they should be aware of the rules concerning cancellation charges which are contained in the common law and in the UTCCR
   
3. Furthermore, the contract was a 4 month student contract - not 12 months
   
4. That if they continue, you will complain to Trading Standards
   
5. That you suggest that they issue a county court claim and let a judge decide the issue - and where you will file a counterclaim for the return of the £25 letter fee which now realise is extortionate and unlawful.
   

[renegadeimp]

Have a scan of this forum for posts by slick, one of the site team. You'll get a very good idea of what to say in your letters.

[mejacks]

Welcome to the cancellation industry.

 

Cancellation fees must reflect administrative losses. Read around this gym sub-forum and you will soon understand the issues and what your correct responses should be. Furthermore their £25 letter fee is probably unenforceable, and so if there is any administrative loss then set that charge off against it.

Bring your student friends here to report their stories as well. They should each deal with the problem in a similar way - but independently - not as a group.

You say that you were a student. Were you less than 18?

 

I am over 18, a university student.

 

I have looked through Slick's posts, however I thought there may be differing responses due to the fact that I believed I was under a seperate contract.

 

Thanks for the responses!

[renegadeimp]

Hi mejacks, if you like, you could form your own letter and we can advise on what to change if you like.

[slick132]

Hi Mejacks and welcome to CAG

 

The admin charges that Harlands want from you are probably unenforceable penalty charges and we always recommend that you refuse to pay these.

 

Can you please confirm exactly how much you have paid to Harlands or the gym so far, including any joining fee, monthly fees and admin fees.

 

[mejacks]

Thanks!

 

I have paid 164.93 so far. I had no choice in paying the extra 24.99 missed direct debit fee as it took it out automatically along with payment!

[renegadeimp]

Go to your bank and invoke the dd guarantee. Get it refunded.

[slick132]

Hi Mejacks,

 

I agree that you should seek a refund from the bank using the DD Guarantee Scheme.

 

Work out which of the most recent payments you need to be refunded, to take the total paid less than £100. Then tell the bank you need these amounts refunded as they were taken in excess of the amounts you agreed should be paid via the Harlands DD mandate.

 

Once you have the money back in your a/c, we'll help you draft a letter to send to Harlands which will explain exactly why you sought the refund using the DDGS. You can also then offer to pay whatever balance is needed to take your total pay'ts back up to £100. I would suggest this amount is only paid when Harlands agree to accept it in full settlement of all amounts due to them.

 

Let us know if you need any help writing the letter to the bank.

 

Ignore Harlands and/or CRS completely for now. We'll help you deal with them shortly.

 

[mejacks]

Hi Slick,

 

I'm going to go into my bank and request the DD be returned tomorrow.

 

On another note, I have now recieved a letter from a debt collection company, Tremark Associates.

 

This letter states:

 

- I now owe 321 pounds (without giving reason for the extra costs)

- "We have been instructed by our client to demand full payment of the above overdue account for gas supplied to the above address." Gas!? This was a gym membership, also there is no 'above address' it just states, 'elite fitness'

- That a cheque should be sent to their address (Tremark associates) made payable to elite fitness.

 

I'm not sure whats going on or if Harlands are still involved in this.

[slick132]

Hi Mejacks,

 

I'd love to respond to the "gas supplied" letter but it's simply not necessary.

 

Let us know when the bank have refunded the money as per my post #10. Please confirm what amount you have paid in total to the gym after the refund.

 

Then we can draft a suitable letter for you.