Admin charge cancellation at Xercise4less, we wern't informed

[Magpiesolution]

In July of this year me and my partner felt we would like to switch to a new gym which was much better suited to our needs, from our then current gym Xercise4less. We know that when you cancel a membership there tends to be a contract to honour or a notice to fulfill, so we decided that we would not make the switch until payments had been sorted with Xercise4less. Money is tight and we are frugal, so we would not have two memberships running at the same time.

 

We went in to our local branch in St Helens and spoke to a young man on reception, who's etiquette left a lot to be decided, distracted by mates and such. To be fair to him they seemed short staffed. However, he categorically told us that as we had only signed a 12 month contract and had been there for 18 months, so we were free to cancel our membership and there was no notice or fee or anything. He took down our names and looked on the system and told us that as the cancellation would take a few minutes, he would go through it on the computer and we were free to go home.

 

We were a little surprised it was that easy, but he categorically told us the above facts so we had been given the green light to sign up with the new gym. We cancelled our direct debits the next day to be on the safe side, because we had heard stories about Xercise4less (Harlands) continuing to take payments.

 

So we have been at our new gym ever since, when out of the blue this morning, we both received texts telling us "You cancelled your direct debit, so your account has gone in to default". I enquired on the phone number given on the msg, and the agent told me that I was supposed to give them a months notice, so that Harlands could take a final payment of £9.99. As the DD was cancelled, I have incurred a £20 admin fee since. So I owe them £29.99.

 

I explained that their Xercise4less colleague had wrongly informed us of the terms, and had we known, we would have absolutely not joined the new gym till a month later. He agreed and put a notice on my account that I was wrongly informed and told me there was nothing he could do, but I needed to speak to the general manager of the St Helens branch to see if they could reason with me.

 

I rang up the branch and the man on the phone told me they had no general manager until October. I have to say the phone call was quite blunt and the staff in that gym are generally not the most professional people.

 

Not sure what to do next then. I have to admit I hate these situations, I am not a confrontational type, I am very shy and I went in to the gym today for answers, but when I saw there was no staff on reception I bottled it.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome,

 

I've moved this thread to the appropriate Forum, hopefully you will get some advice shortly.

 

Regards,

 

Scott.

[Magpiesolution]

Hello and Welcome,

 

I've moved this thread to the appropriate Forum, hopefully you will get some advice shortly.

 

Regards,

 

Scott.

 

Ah right, thank you Scott!

[Bazooka Boo]

Slick will be along and will advise you how to pen a letter/email and get rid of these pests.

 

In the meantime, stay OFF the phone, if Harlands/CRS ring just laugh and hang up.

 

The £20 ''admin fee'' is nothing more than an unlawful penalty and you will NOT have to pay that.

 

At the very most, all you will be forced to pay them is one months fee of £9.99.

 

But only when they agree to it and they very often fail to, so they end up with nothing.

[Magpiesolution]

Great info Boo thanks.

[fkofilee]

Arh, wait for Slick to advise... Will probably be relatively simple to sort this out.

[slick132]

Hi Magpie and welcome to CAG

 

Were the texts from Harlands or from X4Less ?

 

Stay OFF the phone from now on and keep everything in writing only.

 

Ignore Harlands/CRS for now but let us know if they contact you. I suggest a letter to X4Less' Head Office as follows but correct anything as necessary :-

 

Xercise4Less Leeds

Unit 1, Kirkstall Industrial Estate

Kirkstall Road

Burley, Leeds

LS4 2AZ

 

Dear sir or madam,

 

We were members at St Helens gym but wanted to cancel. We wanted to do this properly as we had heard of Harlands reputation for harassing ex gym members.

 

So we visited the gym on xxdate and spoke to a staff member. He looked on the computer and said we could cancel immediately as we were only committed to 12 months and we'd been paying for 18 months. He said there were no further fees payable by us.

 

He said the process would take him a few minutes but we could leave him to finish it off. We left and cancelled the DD mandate via our bank the next day.

 

We were very surprised to receive text messages on 9th September saying our memberships were in default because we had cancelled our DD mandates.

 

We're very annoyed that this has happened despite us taking the trouble to visit and do things properly.

 

Please ensure the memberships are cancelled as agreed, and instruct Harlands not to contact us.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

[Magpiesolution]

It was from Xercise4less.

 

Thank you for this, I have to say this is an excellent forum, I really appreciate the replies and this letter. I will be sure to send it off tomorrow and keep you informed as and when I get a response.

[Bazooka Boo]

And ALWAYS remember YOU are in control, not these tin pot corporations who only feed off money & profit.

[Magpiesolution]

Well what can I say... They sent me an email this morning in response to the letter...

 

Good morning Martin

 

I have received your letter at Head Office and have looked into yours and Sarah's case.

After investigation i have cancelled down both memberships and cleared any arrears

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused

 

Healthy Regards

Esther

 

Head Office Enquiries

 

I thought that would be the first stage of many, but no, all cleared. Thanks to you guys for replying so readily and helping us save £60. I have left a small donation as a token of our thanks.

[slick132]

Hi Magpie and thanks for the update.

 

It's good to see x4Less taking responsibility and NOT leaving you at the mercy of Harlands awful collection activity.

 

This is excellent news and I hope Harlands/CRS don't contact you any more. If they do, just let us know.

 

Thanks for your donation which will help CAG be here to support others.

 

[Bazooka Boo]

Excellent well done,