Xercise4less/ CRS!!!

[Fern77]

Hi

 

I'm hoping I can get some advice.

 

 

I joined Xercise4less in May/June 2013,

 

 

I can't honestly remember if it was on a 12 month contract or not.

 

 

I haven't been to the gym for months due to my new job

 

 

in September 2014 I cancelled my direct debit.

 

 

My last payment for £9.99 went out on 28 August 2014 and I heard nothing.

 

 

I have today received a letter from CRS saying I owe £207, which includes £102.50 of their charges!!!

 

 

I have contacted the gym who cannot help me because it's been longer than 3 months since I cancelled my DD.

 

 

I moved house 12 months ago and so have received no letters from anyone regarding my membership

because they have the wrong address details.

 

 

They have however managed to send me this particular letter, which is the first I've had,

 

 

the letter states I have had numerous letters sent to which I've not responded,

this down to the fact they have incorrect address details.

 

 

What should my next move be??

 

 

I accept I should have given them a months notice but even if that's as of today

 

 

I should only owe £40 tops (oct - jan).

 

Any advice greatly received.

[dx100uk]

have a read of a few threads here

 

 

numerous threads with exactly the same scenario.

 

 

write including/offering ome month payment

then ignore them.

 

 

the DCA are NOT BAILIFFS

and have

NO SUCH LEGAL POWERS.

 

 

dx

[slick132]

Hi Fern and welcome to CAG

 

Harlands added fees are nothing to worry about and we always recommend challenging them.

 

Speaking to the gym will get you nowhere, so deal with Harlands just now. You could write to them as follows :-

 

Dear sir or madam,

 

I refer to my membership at xxx Gym, and to your demands for payment.

 

I cancelled my DD mandate September 2014 because I was no longer using the facility. This is adequate notice of my desire to cancel the gym agreement as per the High Court ruling in The OFT v Ashbourne Mgt Svs Ltd in 2011.

 

I will not pay you any admin or Cancellation Fees as these are penalties that are unlawful and unenforceable.

 

I now realise I should have given a month's notice and, to remedy this, I offer to pay you a final month's fee of £9.99 for September 2014.

 

If you confirm in writing that you'll accept this amount in settlement of all that I owe, I will pay you promptly. If you fail to accept my offer within 14 days or you demand any other payment, I will pay you nothing and my offer will be withdrawn.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Send this by normal post but get a free Certificate of Posting from the PO when you send it. And let us know how they reply.

 

[Fern77]

Thank you for your help, I'll send my letter tomorrow

[slick132]

OK.

 

If you cancelled the DD before the September payment would normally be taken in the month, then my draft is correct.

 

But if you cancelled AFTER the September DD date, then you probably owe 2 months' payments.

 

However, Harlands won't agree to accept your offer to pay one or two months' fees anyway, so just send it off as it is.

 

[Fern77]

Hi

 

I have finally received a reply from CRS today,

 

 

they state that I entered into an agreement on 16/05/2013 to pay £9.99 a month and to give a months written notice if I wanted to cancel.

They are saying my payments were not honoured and I failed to rectify the breach and so agreement charges were added and the file referred to them.

 

 

They say they have checked with the gym to see if I cancelled correctly and have said they are willing to accept £112.49 on settlement of the debt

 

 

they say I owe of £207.47. I have until 27 feb.

 

I might just add that I received no letters from anyone in connection with the so called breach as I'd moved address

and it was CRS that traced me to my current address by that time the account was up to £207.

 

What should my next move be?

 

I am concerned that I don't want any negative records on my credit history, can they do this?

 

Thank you!!

[dx100uk]

never goes on CRA file.

 

 

can you scan up the letter please

 

 

HOW TO UPLOAD DOCUMENTS / IMAGES ON CAG IMMEDIATELY YOU DO NOT NEED 10 POSTS

.

IMPORTANT To protect your IDENTITY and ensure you remain ANONYMOUS on CAG

YOU MUST ensure that you REMOVE all Personal Information including Barcodes, Names, Addresses etc

.

ENSURE: To leave all Monetary Figures and Dates.

.

DO NOT USE A BIRO, PEN, SEE THRU TAPE OR LABELS TO EDIT THE INFORMATION

.

1. SCAN YOUR DOCUMENT

.

- Set your default scan page size to A4 less than 300 DPI (150 will do)

- Scan the required letters/agreements/sheets - as a picture (jpg) file

.

- Don't forget you can use a mobile phone or a digital camera too!!

.

- If you have multiple scans/pictures please put these into a WORD DOC first ensuring you have removed all Personal Information before converting to PDF.

if you dont have MSOFFICE, use openoffice its free and has a PDF converter.

- IPHONE ONLY: Take a picture and Convert to PDF via an APP

.

2. HOW TO EDIT (Remove Personal Information)

.

- Do this using MSPAINT.EXE or any Photo Editing program and ensure to save the document.

PLEASE TRY AND REFRAIN FROM POSTING FILES OF +1Mb in size

a single sheet of a4 should be about 50kb.

.

.

3. HOW TO CONVERT YOUR DOCUMENT TO PDF

.

- If you have OFFICE installed this has an installable PRINT to PDF option so use this and save as PDF.

- If you have PDF as an installed driver use this program and save as PDF.

.

OR Go to one of the many free online pdf converter websites:

.

- http://freejpgtopdf.com/

- http://www.convert-jpg-to-pdf.net/

- http://www.freepdfconvert.com/

- http://www.pdfmerge.com/

- http://www.primopdf.com/

.

PLEASE REMEMBER: It would be better to upload a Multi-page PDF rather than multiple Single PDFs.

.

4. BEFORE UPLOADING YOUR DOCUMENT ON CAG

.

- Logically Name your PDF File so Users know what it is. DO NOT NAME YOUR FILE USING BANK NAMES OR CAG IN THE TITLE

.

- For Example: Default Notice DDicon-MM-YYYY.

.

IMPORTANT To protect your IDENTITY and ensure you remain ANONYMOUS on CAG please ensure that you do a final check that all Personal Information including Barcodes, Names, Addresses etc. are REMOVED before carrying out the NEXT STEP

.

5. HOW TO UPLOAD YOUR DOCUMENT ON CAG

.

- In your Thread/Post open a new msg box here.

- Click 'Go Advanced' below the msg box.

- Click 'Manage Attachments' below that box.

- Click the 'Add Files' button on the top right.

- Click 'Select Files', navigate to your file(s) on your PC.

- Click 'Upload Files'.

.

- You DON’T have to put a link to the attachment in the msg box just upload it ……… JOB DONE

- You can click on your links to check them too!!

.

[Fern77]

Hi

 

 

Apologies, missed the obvious.

 

 

New attachment should be ok.

 

 

Thanks

[dx100uk]

I bet they'd like you to hand them "122.49

 

 

two words

 

 

bugger and off

theres no legal remit for any dca or fake/tame sols to add any PENALTY charges

 

 

dx

[Fern77]

My thoughts exactly, what would you advise I do now?

 

 

Should I send them a cheque for £9.99 being the months notice stating that is on full and final settlement of the outstanding amount on my contract?

 

Thanks

[dx100uk]

pers I'd abide by the advise of slick's letter

 

 

they have failed to accept you offer

 

 

so they can go bugger off

 

 

dx

[slick132]

Hi Fern,

 

As DX says, gym m/ships are no longer reported on CRA files so this is not an issue.

 

I'd reply to Harlands (not CRS) as follows :-

 

Dear sir,

 

I refer to your letter of 17th February.

 

Cancellation of the DD mandate was adequate notice of intention to cancel and that is why the gym has no record of my cancelling "correctly".

 

You failed to accept my reasonable offer to make the only payment which I owe, for the month after my DD mandate was cancelled. You failed to reply within the 14 days I said and you have demanded far more than I am willing, or due, to pay.

 

However, as a further demonstration of my desire to pay what I owe, I again offer to pay £9.99 for the month's notice I should have given. Accept this offer in writing within 14 days and I'll pay you promptly.

 

If you demand more or reply later than 14 days after receiving my letter, I will pay you nothing and will not communicate with you further.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

[Fern77]

Thank you for this, my original letter I addressed to CRS, does this matter if I send my reply to Harlands (albeit they're the same company)?

[slick132]

No, that's fine.

 

Harlands and CRS are the same company, where CRS pretend to look like a separate collection entity.

 

[Fern77]

Hi

 

I have received this reply in response to the letter you suggested I send, should I just ignore this now?

 

Thanks

 

Sarah

[Bazooka Boo]

Too small to read.

 

What does it say?

[Fern77]

It says

 

"Further to your recent correspondence we duly write.

We refer to our previous correspondence and our position remains the same, you continue to have an outstanding account balance of £207.47.

A cancelled direct debit would not equate to termination of your membership.

If you continue to remain unsure of your obligations we would recommend you seek legal advice."

 

Thanks

 

Sarah

[slick132]

I'd reply saying :-

 

You are wrong in your assertion about cancellation of the DD mandate. The 2011 High Court case of The OFT v Ashbourne Mgt Services Ltd set a precedent that can be applied to similar cases regarding gym and other service providers.

 

You should also be aware that the admin charges added by Harlands/CRS are unlawful and unenforceable penalty charges and this is why I will not pay them.

 

The offer I made was reasonable but you have chosen not to accept it.

 

[Bazooka Boo]

PMSL, this has set me up for the day now!