Harlands - Xercise4less

[Robswan]

Ive seen a few posts on here regarding harlands so thought id share my situation for advice.

 

I joined Xercise4less in april 2014.

 

 

I recently cancelled this 12 month contract through my Direct Debit (28/04/15)

and today had a letter through saying the April installment has been returned unpaid and asking for the following;

 

£9.99 Outstanding Subscription

£9.99 Cancellation period

£25.00 Default fee (first of all they call this an "administration fee"

 

The next part mentioned if i do not call them by 21 May 15 they will charge me a further £25.00 administration fee.

 

I mentioned to Harlands and Xercise4less that this was done by accident and they still wanted me to pay their fees.

I have no intentions of paying them any Cancellation fee or Default fee.

I am willing to pay any outstanding subscription but not prepared to return to the gym after all this.

 

If anyone could advise me on this matter that would be brilliant.

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome,

 

Hopefully slick132 will be along to help you shortly.

[dx100uk]

if you read a few threads here

 

 

you will see numerous letters from slick132

that you can use

 

 

correct

don't pay and default/penalty fee , they are unlawful.

 

 

IMHO offer to pay the 2*£9.99 by xyz date if they write and accept your offer

 

 

but make it clear you will not be paying anything more

 

 

dx

[slick132]

Hi Robs,

 

Don't worry about their threat of adding more fees - we always advise that their fees be challenged and not paid.

 

I'm very interested that they want a cancellation fee and will deal with that in a suggested letter shortly.

 

If you failed to give the gym one month's notice of intent to cancel, then you do owe a final payment of £9.99.

 

Please confirm :-

 

1. When was the 12th monthly fee payable.

 

2. When did you cancel the DD mandate.

 

[Robswan]

thanks all for the replies.

 

Hi Robs,

 

Don't worry about their threat of adding more fees - we always advise that their fees be challenged and not paid.

 

I'm very interested that they want a cancellation fee and will deal with that in a suggested letter shortly.

 

If you failed to give the gym one month's notice of intent to cancel, then you do owe a final payment of £9.99.

 

Please confirm :-

 

1. When was the 12th monthly fee payable.

 

2. When did you cancel the DD mandate.

 

 

 

I understand I am likely to owe them a final payment.

 

 

The first initial payment fee was taken on the 30th april 2014 with the 12th monthly fee paid on the 30th march 2015 i believe.

 

The Direct Debit was cancelled on the 28th of april 2015

 

 

Thanks

[slick132]

Hi Robswan,

 

In your first post, you say Harlands wanted "£9.99 Cancellation period"

 

Is this exactly what they said. If not, please confirm what they said exactly.

 

[Robswan]

Hi, this is the letter I had through;

 

"Harlands administer the collection of all payments due under your membership agreement with Xercise 4 Less. Your bank have advised us that April instalment has been returned unpaid "instruction cancelled"

 

You have there fore been charged a £ 25.00 administration fee which means you need to pay £34.99 to bring your account up to date. Call HARLANDS HELPLINE - 01444 449162 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 uss by 21 may 15 you will be charged a further £25.00 administration fee. The telephone lines are open 9.00am to 1.00pm and 2.00pm to 5.00pm Monday to Friday and we look forward to receiving your call.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Harlands"

 

 

it then has a box at the bottom of the letter " FOR YOUR INFORMATION" regarding what i should to if i want to cancel my membership. This says Under the terms of your membership agreement, you simply have to pay a 1 month cancellation fee and your membershsip will be terminated.

 

£ 9.99 Outstanding subscription

£ 9.99 Cancellation period

£ 25.00 Default fee

 

£44.98 "

 

 

 

Thanks Rob

[slick132]

Hi Robs,

 

I think you only need to offer them one final month's fee so send this letter, adapted as necessary :-

 

Dear sir or madam,

 

I refer to my membership at Xercise4Less gym in [Town].

 

I cancelled my direct debit mandate at the end of April 2015 and this was adequate notice of my intention to cancel.

 

I should have made one final payment for the May 2015 payment and offer to pay this to you now. I will not pay you any administration or cancellation fees - these are penalties that are unlawful and unenforceable.

 

If you confirm in writing that you'll accept the amount of £9.99 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,

 

Get a free Certificate of Posting from the PO when you send it and let us know how they reply.

 

[Robswan]

Thanks for the help and advice Slick. I will send this off today and await response from Harlands.

 

 

Rob

[Robswan]

Hi Slick,

 

 

Had this letter through today;

 

 

"We thank you for your letter dated 11th May 2015" It was actually dated the 12th.

 

 

"Unfortunately Harlands do not deal with cancellations for Xercise4less. These are dealt with directly by the club directly.

 

 

As of yet, we have not received any contact from Xercise4less to state that a cancellation has been confirm therefore we are unable to process this.

 

 

One of the terms of this agreement, which you have agreed to be bound by, "If you fail to pay any monies due under this agreement or if any Direct Debit is returned unpaid or if any cheque Is returned unpaid or if any other form of payment is not honoured for whatever reason, you shall pay us on demand an administration fee of £25."

 

 

We would ask that you contact Xercise4less directly to discuss your cancellation further. We have held your account until the 28th May in order for you to do so.

 

 

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

 

Yours, Sincerely

 

 

Harlands"

[slick132]

Hi Robs,

 

Harlands should know by now that you can cancel by various means and you can do so by via the club OR their admin company. They continue to deny this though, saying the AMSL High Court case didn't apply to them. This is, of course, nonsense as High Court rulings set precedents which can be applied to all similar cases.

 

Letter to Harlands :-

 

I refer to your letter of xxdate.

 

The AMSL High Court case confirmed that notice can be given to the gym OR to their admin company. Accordingly, I am able to cancel via Harlands or the gym.

 

The clause you quote from membership T&C's about admin fees make such fees neither lawful nor enforceable. The fees are punitive in nature and are not a genuine pre-esitmate of loss.

 

However, I wish to be reasonable and, although my offer to pay one month's fee of £9.99 has now expired, I am prepared to extend it by a further 14 days from now.

 

If you fail to accept this final offer, it will be withdrawn and I will reserve my right to ignore further communications from you.

 

This matter is in clear dispute and you cannot pass the matter on to a third party. If you do so, I will lodge a formal complaint with Trading Standards.

 

After this I suggest you ignore Harland/CRS but let us know what contact you receive.

 

[Robswan]

Received a response from Harlands on the 4th June.

 

 

" Further to your recent letter to our offices,

 

 

Harlands can confirm that with our agreement with Xercise 4 Less we are not to process any cancellations without their authority. Therefore, we advice to you again that you will need to contact your Swansea branch to cancel the agreement. Please see contact information below"

 

 

"We do apologise for the inconvenience and strongly advice that you get this confirmation in writing from them when you come to an agreement to cancel, for your own records, yours sincerely, Harlands"

[slick132]

Hi Robs,

 

An unusually civil reply from Harlands, which makes a change ! However, it changes nothing to do with your case IMHO.

 

If they are authorised to handle the club's admin, collect DD's, chase payments, charge admin fees and set CRS on folk who they claim owe them fees, how on earth can they absolve themselves of any responsibility when folk want to cancel.

 

Even if Harlands have been told by X4Less that the gym must deal with cancellations, Harlands could simply refer the matter on to the gym. If I was a cynical person, I might even think this is a process dreamed up by the gym and/or Harlands to make the cancelling process more difficult !!

 

If Harlands "can't" process cancellations, they should refer the matter to X4Less without delay.

 

I'd reply to Harlands :-

 

I refer to your letter of xxdate.

 

Even if you are "not to process any cancellations" without the authority of Xercise4Less, you surely have an obligation to inform the gym of any cancellation attempt.

 

I will now make a formal complaint to Trading Standards and The CMA about this arrangement between Harlands and Xercise4Less which I believe may make it more difficult for gym members to cancel, thereby having to pay more while the matter is resolved. This is contrary to the decisions made by Mr Justice Kitchin in the AMSL case in 2011.

 

I suggest you supply the gym with copies of any communications between Harlands and me, that refer to cancellation.

 

I have no intention of contacting the gym or Harlands further.

 

I would then ask that you complain to your Trading Standards office and The CMA. CMA address is here - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?442733-David-Lloyds-problem&p=4744811&viewfull=1#post4744811

 

Enclose a copy of Harlands latest reply and say you feel this arrangement between the gym and Harlands is unfair to you as a consumer as it makes the cancelling process more difficult and therefore more lengthy and costly to you.

 

Post a draft here if you want.

 

[ice198625]

I know how you feel pal, i have had nothing but hassle with this gym and this harlands lot, they send my case to a solicitor or a DCA who ever it was and now they demand i pay £219 even though 12 months of gym membership is £119

 

They have done nothing but stress me out over this i am thinking about sending a letter to the xercise4less head office and tell them i am not happy with the way you have made me feel towards your staff and at your gym they took my £37 for a joining fee promised loads of goodies and delivered nothing to me.

 

Also thinking about telling them i want my £37 back

[crunchynutter]

totally agree. I had the same letter but for JD gyms. After visiting the gym in person, calling and via their facebook page they all assure me that I need to contact Harlands to give them 14 days notice of cancellation. Harlands are telling me 30 days and it has to be through the gym. Total [problem].

[Robswan]

Hi Slick,

 

I chose to ignore the last letter off harlands and since had this letter through a month later.

 

"We are disappointed that you have not responded to our previous correspondence.

 

The may installment has now been missed, resulting in a further administration fee of £25.00 being added. The total amount now to bring your account up to date iss £69.98.

 

Please call the Harland helpline..

 

If you do not call us by 15 august 15, then the collection of your membership fees will cease to be administered by Harlands and will be passed on to a Debt Recovery company. This may incur you significant additional fees and ultimately result in court action.

 

yours sincerly,

 

Harlands."

[slick132]

Hi Robs,

 

You'll see from other threads here that similar letters have been sent to other CAGgers.

 

Ignore this completely as there's nothing to be gained by replying.

 

........ then the collection of your membership fees will cease to be administered by Harlands and will be passed on to a Debt Recovery company

 

In other words, I'll push your file to my colleague at the next desk and we'll suddenly become CRS !!

 

If they make further demands, I'd like you to make a formal complaint to both The CMA and to TS.

 

[Robswan]

Hi Slick, hope all is well.

 

Just came on to this site as I have been having letters off a parking firm who are trying to get money out of me also.

 

Thought I would post the latest update, which you were right became CRS.

 

" We've been employed by Xercise 4 Less as your membership remains in arrears despite previous letters being sent to you.

 

As a result of this, our fees totalling £ 66.50 have been added. Therefore, your account balance now stands at £171.47."

 

 

An awful lot of RED and underlined writing in this letter haha.

 

It goes on to say what the options are and wanting to reach an amicable resolution with me.

[slick132]

Hi Robs,

 

Ignore this letter completely but do keep us updated.