Harlands £25 admin fee

[desakathejazzman]

Dear all,

 

Great website and excellent information.

 

Below is an explanation of my current situation. It's a bit long but I have given as much info as possible in order to be as accurate as possible.

 

Here goes...

 

I was forwarded on a letter from my Mum today (I've recently moved back from abroad and have been using my parents' address) from Harlands regarding my recently cancelled Fit4Less membership.

 

I cancelled my membership earlier this month as when I checked their website I saw that they stated:

 

Monthly membership – paid via Direct Debit

Membership agreements are for a period of 12 months, however we do not enforce contracts, long term commitment or pursue missed payments, as we understand that customers require flexibility and freedom to chose when and where they exercise.

 

To cancel your membership at any time simply contact your bank and cancel your direct debit instruction. Please be advised that your membership will be terminated WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT and your access to the gym will be prohibited from the day you cancel your direct debit. To get the most out of your last month at the gym, it is advisable to cancel your direct debit about 7 working days before the date when your next subscription is due to be collected. Please do not leave it any later than this, or your bank will not have time to prevent the collection of your next month’s subscription."

 

.fitness4less.co.uk/terms_and_conditions.html

 

Taking this at face value I cancelled my Direct Debit via my online banking earlier this month. However I then receive the letter that states (in full):

 

"Harlands administer the collection if all payments due under your membership agreement with Fit4Less abd you bank has recently advised us that your Direct Debit Instruction has been cancelled.

 

The membership agreement you signed states that all payments must be made by Direct Debit. Therefore you must call HARLANDS HELPLINE... immediate in order for us to reinstate your Direct Debit over the phone.

 

If you do not contact us by 18 october 15 you will be charged an administration fee. The telephone lines are open..."

 

Now, the vague wording of the letter and the fact that they give me no concrete reason why I need to pay an admin fee of £25 leads me to believe they are trying to pull a fast one. Also I am not going to pay their ridiculously expensinve hotline.

 

I have returned to my DD agreement and seen it states:

 

 

"Amount to be debited from your account

You will be debited £19.99 on 18/04/2015 and thereafter on the same day each month until further notice. The debit will be collected on or immediately after the date specified

Start date for regular billing 18/04/2015

 

The company name which will appear on your bank statement is Eazipay Ltd.

 

Your Membership details

 

Chosen Membership: Online DD No Contract

To start on: 18/03/2015"

 

Then, on checking the T&C sent to me in April (the month I joined) I noticed the following (which is why I think they are trying to sting me here)

 

"If your bank fails to make a due direct debit payment from your account, we will write to advise you of this. We may apply to your bank for payment by direct debit twice within one calendar month and we reserve the right to refer any missed due payments to a debt collection agency. We may charge a fee for failed direct debit payments and/or letters sent to you in respect of unpaid amounts.

5.7 Should any membership fees not be paid within 30 days of the due date, the full membership fee for the remainder of the commitment period will automatically become due and payable in full.

5.8 Any unpaid and overdue membership fees referred to a debt collection agency will be subject to a surcharge to cover the collection costs incurred. This surcharge together with all other charges and legal fees incurred in the collection of the overdue membership fees will be the responsibility of the member and will be legally recoverable from the member"

 

At this stage I am looking for advice as how to reply. I think the website is misleading but I am willing to pay a final £19.99 for the final month membership to close the matter. The admin charge appears unlawful so I want to dispute this.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated and I will post back here to let you know how the matter is progressing so other people caught out can hopefully learn from my experience.

 

Thanks

 

Des

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome Des,

 

Hopefully slick132 will pick this up shortly and help you out.

 

Regards,

 

Scott.

[slick132]

Hi Des and welcome to CAG

 

You don't need to contact Harlands using their expensive number. In fact, the odds are that you rarely get through to them anyway. Stay OFF the phone even if Harlands/CRS say you must call them - you don't have to and they cannot make you speak to them.

 

Can you post a link to the content on the gym website which say, "Membership agreements are for a period of 12 months, however ........" etc. I would like to see that.

 

Ignore any demands from Harlands/CRS for now, until we can suggest how best you can deal with this matter.

 

Read other threads here and you'll see we always tell folk to challenge, and not pay, Harlands/CRS admin fees.

 

[desakathejazzman]

Thanks for the swift response. The T&C can be found here:

 

fitness4less.co.uk/terms_and_conditions.htm

 

From my previous post, does it seem I'm in the wrong regarding cancelling my DD? I followed the procedure on the website and that is why I was so surprised to get the letter from Harlands. I've been ooking on the site. It seems like Harlands are frightening people left right and centre so I'd like to respond to them robustly and also take it up with trading standards or whoever are best to contact to highlight these practices.

[slick132]

Ok, so it's at Cancelling your Membership, Item 2

 

From a quick read of their T&C's, I think you were right to cancel and expect there to be no consequences. Accordingly, I'd write to Harlands as follows :-

 

Dear sir or madam,

 

Membership at Fitness4Less in [town or city]

 

I refer to your letter of xxdate.

 

Please confirm why you are charging me admin fees after I cancelled my DD mandate.

 

I will only deal with this in writing and will not call your Premium Rate contact number, or any other number.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

See how they respond and we'll take it from there.

 

[desakathejazzman]

Great! Thanks. I'll keep you all in the loop when I hear back.

 

Good luck to everybody else having the deal with these guys.

 

Des

[Raj123]

Thanks for the swift response. The T&C can be found here:

 

fitness4less.co.uk/terms_and_conditions.htm

 

From my previous post, does it seem I'm in the wrong regarding cancelling my DD? I followed the procedure on the website and that is why I was so surprised to get the letter from Harlands. I've been ooking on the site. It seems like Harlands are frightening people left right and centre so I'd like to respond to them robustly and also take it up with trading standards or whoever are best to contact to highlight these practices.

 

 

Hi,

 

I'd like to flag that fit4less and fitness4less seem to be different companies - I almost made the same mistake!

 

The T&Cs for cancellation are different for each one - Fit4Less need the notice in the T&Cs whereas Fitness4less say you can just cancel the direct debit

 

Hope this helps

[slick132]

Yes Raj, the 2 companies have very similar names but are separate entities with VERY different approaches to keeping customers happy.