CRS/Xercise 4 Less Help Needed.

[Kalanovic1]

Hi,

 

I desperately need some advice on how to deal with two letters I have received from CRS over the last month.

 

I joined Exercise 4 Less during my time at University on a rolling contact of £14.99 per month.

 

I left Hull in August 2014 to move back home after completing my degree, I didn't until November 2014 realise I had forgot to cancel my gym membership, after phoning up to try and cancel my membership over the telephone they informed me I would have to send in a cancellation form. I received the cancellation form at 15:17 on the 3rd of November 2014, which I printed off, filled in and posted the following day.

 

On the cancellation form it says 'You are required to give one calendar month’s notice as per the terms and conditions of your membership. Please do not cancel your Direct Debit with Harlands as you may incur additional charges.' So I sent off the form and thought they would take one last payment and that would be that.

 

Until July 2015 when I finally got online banking and realised that I was still paying for my membership via direct debit and cancelled it straight away, although I was annoyed I didn't think asking for a refund or anything as I didn't think it would be worth the hassle.

 

But then on the 6th of November I got a letter from CRS saying that 'despite previous letters' that I now owed £222.47, yet this is the first contact I have had from anybody about Exercise 4 less since November 2014. So I decided to ignore it.

 

I have just opened a letter from CRS dated the 26th of November (I have been away) saying 'Following their initial letter' (I thought you'd sent me ones previous ones to the one dated 6th November). Saying I have ten days to pay or their will be legal actions.

 

Starting to panic what should I do?

[fkofilee]

Dont panic... Full of hot air. I think you should recall all the payments from the date you sent the cancellation from.

You are permitted to under the DD guarantee.

[Kalanovic1]

Going to send this to the Managing Director

 

 

Dear Mr Wright,

 

I am having to contact you directly as previous contact with your Hull branch was obviously not actioned.

 

I joined your gym on a rolling £14.99 per month contract while at university in Hull and found the service and facilities to be excellent.

 

However when I left Hull to return home after completing my degree in July 2014 it wasn't until 3rd of November that I realised I had forgotten to cancel my gym membership, I rang up the gym and they said that I couldn't cancel my membership over the phone and would have to come into the gym, after explaining how that was no longer possible seeing as I didn't live in the area they sent me a cancellation form via email at 15:17 on the 3rd of November.

 

I printed the cancellation form off, filled it in and popped it in the post the following day the 4th November 2014.

 

On the cancellation form it states;

 

'You are required to give one calendar month’s notice as per the terms and conditions of your membership. Please do not cancel your Direct Debit with Harlands as you may incur additional charges.'

 

 

So I didn't cancel my direct debit and thought that one more payment would come out and that would be that, so I forgot about it completely.

 

 

Until July 2015 when I finally got online banking and realised that the direct debit was still being taken out of my account which I cancelled immediately.

 

 

Skip forward to the 6th of November when I received a letter from CRS (which I note is a trading title of Harlands.) which goes on to state:

 

 

CRS Ref No:

Xercise 4 Less Ref:

 

 

'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 £102.50 have been added. Therefore your account balance now stands at £222.47.'

 

 

I would like to make extremely clear that I have received no such correspondence and this was the first contact about my account I had received from CRS or yourselves. Which is made clear in the following letter from CRS dated the 25th of November which starts with:

 

 

'Following our INITIAL letter, we are disappointed that your account with Xercise 4 Less is still in arrears and our fee has not been paid.'

 

 

And are now threatening legal action.

 

 

I have to say that I am deeply disappointed by this and that my once excellent views of Xercise 4 Less as a gym and a business have been well and truly tarnished.

 

 

I would appreciate a breakdown of the aforementioned arrears that I owe so that I can seek further advice before I address this matter.

 

 

I have been advised to the recall all the payments from one month after I sent in the cancellation form via the direct debit guarantee totalling £104.93 between January 2015 and July 2015. However I would feel much better about Xercise 4 Less as company if you were willing to refund the money yourselves.

 

 

I await your response.

 

 

Kind Regards

 

 

Sam

[slick132]

Hi Kalanovic and welcome to CAG

 

Just ignore Harlands/CRS for now. They are powerless and very little except make empty threats.

 

I wouldn't send that to the MD yet. It's too long and you need to sort out your strategy properly first.

 

X4Less won't have a clue how the CRS demand is made up and you don't need to know how it's made up. It'll be mostly Harlands/CRS's spurious admin fees but they're not enforceable.

 

After you posted the Cancellation Form to the gym, you should have paid one more gym fee. The fees taken since then should definitely be reclaimed by you under the DD Guarantee Scheme. Instruct your bank to refund these and they should do this without question.

 

I'd do this first and, once you've reclaimed the wrongly-taken DD's, let us know and we'll assist in drafting a shorter letter to the gym's HO.