Forgot W-number for Xercise4Less (Writing them a letter for cancellation)

[Kieron1992]

Hi,

 

I cancelled my direct debit after the 12 month contract,

received a swift letter from harlands stating I need to setup the Direct Debit

otherwise I'll face a £25.00 administration fee.

 

I was writing them a letter with the following (template used):

 

I refer to your letter of 09/12/2015.

My agreement with Xercise4Less was for a minimum of 12 months.

The first payment was for the amount of £34.99 (joining fee + first monthly payment), dated 02/11/2014.

 

 

The remaining payments were taken on the 2nd of every month up to and including 02/11/2015

with one additional monthly payment of £14.99 after the agreed minimum contract period, taken 02/12/2015.

 

I cancelled my Direct Debit mandate on 07/12/2015 and this was adequate notice of my cancellation of the agreement,

as per the case of The OFT v Ashbourne Mgt Services Ltd in 2011.

 

I now realise I should have paid one further month's fee for the notice period and am willing to offer you £14.99 now.

If you confirm in writing within 14 days that you'll accept £14.99 in full settlement of all amounts due, I will pay it promptly.

 

If you fail to accept my offer within 14 days, or if you demand any administration or cancellation fees (unlawful penalties),

my offer will be withdrawn and I may ignore further demands from you and/or CRS.

 

Such demands may be reported to Trading Standards.

Yours faithfully,

 

However, I can't find my W-number in my email folders to add to the letter,

just the reference number from the letter they sent regarding reinstating my Direct Debit.

Should I just use the reference number quoted on the letter or?

 

Additionally, what legal leverage do I hold on the situation?

 

Thanks

[slick132]

Hi Kieron and welcome to CAG

 

I haven't heard of a "W number" before. What is it ?

 

Your letter above is fine for now. Don't make or take any calls to Harlands/CRS at all. Keep it in writing only.

 

Wait until Harlands reply specifically to your letter but keep us informed of further contact from Harlands/CRS.

 

If you've not already done so, read other Harlands/CRS threads here, so you know what to expect.

 

[Kieron1992]

There's a page on the xercise4less website (cancel page) which requires the w number. I was presuming it was a way to identify you or your account since there isn't any other form of identification other than reference numbers?

 

Thanks for the information, I'll keep you posted.

[Kieron1992]

I have had a response from Harlands.

 

As we were unable to collect your December installment by direct debit we have added a £25.00 administration fee, which means you have to pay £39.99 to bring your account up to date.

 

Call the harlands helpline and we can collect this by debit/credit card and REINSTATE your direct debit instruction. If you wish to pay by any other method, you must still phone us to discuss your options.

 

If you do not call us 10 January 16 you will incur a further £25.00 administration fee.

 

Has anyone got any advise on this matter, given the letter I sent them about cancelling my direct debit?

 

Regards

 

Kieron

[slick132]

Hi Kieron,

 

Until Harlands specifically reply to your letter in post #1 above, ignore their demands.

 

Keep us posted.

 

[Kieron1992]

I have had a response referring to my letter:

 

Further to your recent letter to our offices,

 

Harlands can confirm that you can bring your agreement up to date, however, you will need to contact the branch also to cancel the agreement.

 

We will awair your contact.

 

What should I do now they have responded to my letter, pay and contact the branch to cancel?

 

Regards

 

Kieron.

[slick132]

Hi Kieron,

 

Write to Harlands saying :-

 

I refer to your letter of xxdate.

 

I will make a final payment of £14.99 to close this matter only when you confirm this will be accepted by Harlands/CRS and the gym in full settlement of all that I owe.

 

I will not contact the gym branch further as my notice to you is adequate for the purpose of cancelling.

 

Their letter is far too ambiguous and they could be suggesting that " ...... you can bring your agreement up to date " really means "You need to pay us all outstanding gym fees to date, plus our admin fees."

 

They're way too slippery to be trusted.

 

[Kieron1992]

Hi Slick,

 

Thanks for the reply, I will write it up now and send it.

 

You're right about the ambiguity in their response.

 

Regards

 

Kieron

[Kieron1992]

The latest response from Harlands:

 

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

 

The January 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 is £79.98.

 

If you do not call us by 31st January 16, then the collection of your membership fees will cease to be administered by Harlands and will be passed to a Debt Recovery company. This may incur you significant fees and ultimately result in court action.

 

They have not responded to my latest letter (Slick's response), but decided to state that I have not responded directly to them. Unless it's a matter of back dating.

 

What do you guys think? It's becoming a bit of a nuisance and a bit worrying.

 

Regards

 

Kieron.

[slick132]

It may be a nuisance and it's definitely annoying but you shouldn't be in the least bit worried.

 

If they can't be bothered to read your last letter and reply properly, that's THEIR problem.

 

Ignore this completely but keep us posted ...............

 

[Kieron1992]

Following an 8 week "ghost" period from Harlands I have received another response. This time from credit resolution services.

 

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 out fees totalling £66.50 have been added. Therefore, your account balance now stands at £186.47.

 

In big red letters "WE WANT TO REACH AN AMICABLE RESOLUTION WITH YOU!"

 

In order that we can do this, please ring out non premium rate number

 

Big red letters again "WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS?"

 

1. You want to continue your membership - No

 

2. You believe you've cancelled your membership - Yes

 

3. You're experiencing financial difficulties

 

We'll cease further letters for 7 days, so please call us on.......

 

It's funny because the previous letters I have sent them about this case have obviously been disregarded as I have had no direct response to any of them. I thought after such a long period without contact they had just given up on perusing the money but it turns out they haven't.

 

So, what should I do next?

 

Regards.

[Kieron1992]

bump

[dx100uk]

ignore

[slick132]

Hi Kieron,

 

Harlands and CRS are one and the same !

 

Did you get proof of posting when you sent the letter in January.

 

Reply to Harlands (not CRS) :-

 

I refer to your letter of xxdate using CRS Letter Heading.

 

You failed to reply to my letter of xxth January. If you wanted to accept my offer, you should have replied specifically to it, hence the offer is now withdrawn.

 

Further demands from Harlands/CRS will be reported to the relevant authorities.

 

See what they do next but get a free Certificate of Posting from the PO when you send this, and keep it safe.

 

[Kieron1992]

HI Slick,

 

Yes, I have kept my receipts for postage, both of them.

 

CRS have sent another letter dated 26/03/16 however I have been away for a few days.

 

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

 

The options available to us are:

 

1. Legal action

 

We believe you are in breach of a legally binding contract with Xercise 4 Less because you have not paid your membership and our fees. We may pursue a claim under this contract through the Courts. If we do so the following process would apply:

1. We will write a formal letter explaining what we are demanding and give you a final opportunity to pay/reply

2. If this failed to settle the matter we would issue proceedings against you in the County Court;

3. You could then either:

a. Make payment, ending the legal process, or

b. dispute some, or all, of the amount was owed.

4. If you dispute and amount was owed the Court process would continue, at the end of which the Court would make a decision on our claim

5. A strict Court imposed timescale will apply in relation to the Court process

 

Were we to be successful in our claim, or if you ignore the claim, a County Court Judgement (CCJ) may be registered against you requiring you to make payment. You may also be liable for our costs pursuing legal action and interest on the amount owed.

 

2. Outsource external agents

 

You can avoid this happening if within the next 10 days you contact us on 01444449165 to arrange payment with us.

 

Will these ever get off my back or am I going to end up paying these fees?

 

Regards

 

Kieron

[dx100uk]

usual may,if,might,could

not will anywhere

[Kieron1992]

Yeah I feel that they're very threatening in the way they word their letters. They still have no specifically replied to me so as far as I'm concerned I'm still due a response rather than being ignored. What's happened with previous cases such as this in terms of an end result? Have people end up paying because I don't see them backing off over this.

[slick132]

Hi Kieron,

 

You really need to read other threads here. When you do, you'll see that virtually everyone who stands up to Harlands does not pay what they demand.

 

They're just a pain in the bum but ignoring them is often the best strategy for now.

 

Also, why not use Twitter and/or Facebook to publicly shame X4Less for allowing Harlands/CRS to harass their gym members.

 

Ignore the above letter - you said all you needed to say in your last 2 letters.

 

Also, you can make written complaints to Trading Standards and The CMA about the tactics used by Harlands/CRS.

 

[Bazooka Boo]

Defo get onto social media and highlight to any potential 'new' customers, that this outfit need to be avoided as they use some very undesirable third party clowns to harass and pester their customers to pay money they don't owe!

[Kieron1992]

So after sending them another letter, with no direct response, they decided to write another letter dated today.

 

We regret that despite our attempts to reach an amicable resolution to your account, you remain in arrears to Xercise 4 Less.

 

We must therefore give notice that failing to reply to this letter within the next 10 days will result in your account balance being passed to Zinc Group Ltd, one of the UK's leading providers of debt recovery solutions.

 

Followed by the same we would like to resolve this matter blabber.

 

What should my approach be to this now?

 

Regards

 

Kieron

[dx100uk]

ignore

dca's are powerless

they are NOT BAILIFFS

[dx100uk]

Yes that's already what we do

And have advised for years now

 

DX