Xercise 4 less /CRS soon Zinc

[Vrilex]

Hi to Everyone here...

 

good to have place like here to ask for help...

 

after 3 letters from them

 

I sent them by email something like that :

 

Dear sir or madam,

 

I refer to my membership at Xercise 4 Less gym, and to your demands for payment.

 

I joined gym 17 October 2012 paying 29.99 when they opened business in Bolton and started paying DD from 28 November 2012 paying 9.99 every month.

 

I cancelled my DD mandate 28 July 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 August 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you fail to accept my offer within 14 days or you demand any other payment, I will pay you nothing and my offer will be withdrawn.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,

 

**************

 

CRS Ref No: .......... , Xercise 4 Less Ref. No: ...........

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Not sure if it will help but want to ask for advice what to do now...

 

regards

[dx100uk]

if this all started in july I would simply ignore them.

 

 

when did you send that email

 

 

dx

[Vrilex]

Thanx for reply...

I sent it yesterday by email not sure if it was better send it by post...

[slick132]

Hi Vrilex and welcome to CAG

 

Did you send the email in post #1 yesterday and is that exactly what you said to them.

 

What date was the letter from CRS.

 

Harlands and/or CRS can be a pain but all their threats and demands usually come to nothing if you deal with them properly.

 

[Vrilex]

Hi slick132

thanx for reply...

 

Email was sent yesterday and was exactly what i said to them... ([email protected]) hope correct email...

First letter was on 11 January 2015, second one 30 January 2015 and the last one 20 February 2015.

 

regards

[slick132]

Hi Vrilex,

 

Thanks for the further info and let us know how they reply.

 

[Vrilex]

Hi all

Just got reply from them...

 

Dear Mr ******

 

Re: CRS Ref No: ******** / Xercise 4 Less Ref No: ********

 

We refer to your letter dated 25 February 2015.

 

The debt passed to us is 2 month's arrears, plus the 1 month notice that you failed to give. You have also incurred charges as per the terms of your contract. These are legitimate charges that have not been deemed unlawful or unenforceable and we request you provide evidence of this claim if you believe differently.

 

Cancelling your Direct Debit is not adequate to give notice and the Ashbourne Judgment does not confirm this. The Judgment actually states it was acceptable for anyone who had taken out an unenforceable contract with Ashbourne to simply cancel their Direct Debit as no notice was required to do this.

 

Whilst the debt of £207.47 is valid, we are willing to offer a compromise as follows:

 

If payment is made within 14 days, we will accept £118.72, which is the 3 month's membership owed and 50% of the total charges added.

 

If this is not acceptable, the full balance of £207.47 will remain due to be paid. Payment can be made by Credit/Debit card by calling us on 01444 449165.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Rob Avery

 

Collections Manager

 

well... any suggestions?

regards

[dx100uk]

yea off and bugger

 

 

dx

[slick132]

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

 

I refer to your letter/email of xxdate.

 

There is plenty of case law which confirms that your admin fees are, in fact, penalty charges which are unlawful. The fact that they are included in gym's T&C's does not alter that fact. If you decide to take action to enforce such penalties, I will produce the necessary evidence to the court.

 

If you believe that the case of The OFT v Ashbourne Mgt Services Ltd did not set precedents applicable to all gym (or other similar) cases, that is your prerogative. However, I will rely on this judgement if court action is taken.

 

I will make you one final offer to pay the month's notice fee of £29.99. This is my final offer, valid for just 14 days. Accept it in writing and I will pay. Otherwise I will pay you nothing.

 

Further demands from you will be reported to Trading Standards.

 

[Vrilex]

Hi ... and thanx for reply...

I will send them Your letter but cant find Harlands email ... thought CRS and Harlands is same...

Can someone send me pm with email...

regards

[slick132]

Harlands and CRS are the same outfit so you can use either for an email.

 

Otherwise send by post and get a free Certificate of Posting from the PO.

 

[Vrilex]

Hi again.... Really fast respond from them...

 

Dear ?????

 

Re: CRS Ref No: ???????? / Xercise 4 Less Ref No: ??????

 

We refer to your e-mail dated 9 March 2015.

 

We do not accept there is any case law that has deemed our charges unlawful. Please provide details of the cases you claim to prove otherwise.

 

We are confident about are position on the OFT v Ashbourne case as a result of advice from our solicitors and from the OFT itself.

 

The lowest settlement we are able to accept is £118.72. If this is not acceptable, then we will withdraw that offer and have no option but to continue to pursue you for the full balance of £207.47.

 

We will hold this offer for a further 10 days. Payment can be made by calling us on 01444 449165.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Rob Avery

 

Collections Manager

[slick132]

Hi Vrilex,

 

If they don't understand the rules that apply to their gym agreements, that is their problem.

 

I see no reason to respond to them further at this stage.

 

Ignore and see what happens ..............

 

[Vrilex]

Hi all....

After long time i got today letter from Zinc...

before that was one letter from CRS...

Thanx for any advice....

Best regards

Edited June 22, 2015 by Vrilex

[dx100uk]

next bloke next desk diff coloured skirt on.

 

 

ignore their rather childish letter

 

 

dx

[slick132]

Hi Vrilex,

 

I suggest a very brief reply to Zinc, who are a separate DCA :-

 

I refer to your demand of 17th June.

 

Harlands are fully aware of the dispute I have with them and the offers I've made to settle the matter.

 

Harlands had no right to pass the matter to Zinc and your involvement is a breach of the OFT Debt Collection Guidelines.

 

Accordingly, I will now lodge a formal complaint with Trading Standards and The CMA about the tactics used by Harlands and Zinc.

 

You should then draft a brief letter of complaint to Trading Standards and send a copy to The CMA. It just needs to say:-

 

This is a formal complaint about the actions of Harlands who deal with the admin for many thousands of gym memberships. My complaints are :-

 

1. Harlands are demanding payment of gym fees that are not due and admin fees that are unlawful penalty charges.

 

2. They have since instructed a DCA (Zinc) to chase for payment, in breach of The OFT Debt Collection Guidelines.

 

Accordingly, I would like my complaint acknowledged and looked into.

 

I'm trying to get more folk to make proper complaints about Harlands, so they can be brought into line.

 

[Vrilex]

Hi

As usual thanx for advices...

I will do exactly like you suggest.

 

Regards

[Bazooka Boo]

They really are sad and desperate! Don't ignore the seriousness of their self created drama!

[Vrilex]

Hi again

 

I sent emails to 3 places like you suggested. Zinc, Trading standards and CMA...

 

Regards

[slick132]

Hi Vrilex,

 

I should have said to send posted letters, but the emails will do for now.

 

Please make sure the emails are acknowledged by each recipient.

 

[Vrilex]

Hi again...

fast respond from Zinc...

 

Zinc reference:********

Client reference: *******

Client Name: Xercise 4 Less - *****

Current Balance:£207.47

 

Good afternoon Mr *****

 

Many thanks for your email received on 23rd June. Please accept our apologies for the delayed response. It is not our intent to cause any undue distress or inconvenience regarding this matter.

 

We would very much like to assist you in resolving this outstanding account. In order to assist you further, we ask that you provide the following details where relevant:

 

Details of dispute

Proof Paid

Proof of cancellation out of contract

Proof cancelled within cooling off period

Medical documentation

Redundancy

 

Your assistance would be much appreciated as this will enable us to conclude this matter more swiftly as our clients have instructed us to deal with your account on their behalf.

 

We would be very grateful if you could confirm a suitable contact telephone number and the best time to contact yourself.

 

 

Kind regards

 

Marianne

[Bazooka Boo]

Dear Bill & Ben,

 

For the avoidance of doubt, this matter is already concluded, no further correspondence will be entered into.

Your continued ignorance has again been reported to the relevant authorities.

 

I can confirm that all and any further contact by you in regards to this matter, which is now closed, is being

collated and will be used in any legal action I may bring.

 

Regards.

 

Perfect proof of why entering into letter ping pong doesn't work.

But I always like to have the last word....

[slick132]

Hi Vrilex,

 

I see no need to reply further to Zinc unless you want to, in which case, tell them :-

 

I refer to your letter of xxdate.

 

I have neither the inclination nor the obligation to deal with Zinc further.

 

As promised, your involvement in this matter will be reported to Trading Standards and The CMA.

 

Further communication from you will be ignored.

 

Or you can simply ignore them completely.

 

In any event, have you complained to TS and The CMA yet.

 

[Vrilex]

HI...

Thank You for tips...

I will do like You suggest.

Best Regards

Vrilex

[Downtown5]

How was this solution resolved? I am going through a very similar thing right now with CRS and soon to be zinc i guess...

Thanks kate