Harlands/Xercise4less have messed up

[Discover]

Hi everyone

 

After a quick Google, I see I am not the only one having issues with Harlands and Xercise4less.

 

You will like this one. Please bare with this one as it is a little long winded.

 

My son and I joined Xercise4less in (I think) October 2016 as my son wanted to join a gym and we went along to see all about it.

 

 

I went with my son as he was/is under 16, he is 15 and I knew there would be some kind of parental consent required.

 

After chatting to the sales rep,

I explained that I was involved in a very nasty accident just weeks earlier which resulted in broken ribs, torn muscles and limited movement in my arms and he advised that me joining the gym would help with any rehab, so upon this advice I joined at £9.99 a month.

My details were taken and a membership set up.

 

 

Then it was my sons turn to sign up.

The sales rep took the details of my son,

but rather than putting us down as some kind of family membership,

they gave him his own (min age 18) membership so he could visit the gym on his own.

 

 

We paid our joining fee and left with our Xercise4less goody bag.

Please note that I had no knowledge of any age fixing.

 

Cut a long story short,

due to my injuries sustained in the accident,

I am on light duties at work and I am still unable to fully partake in any gym activities and we have only been once or twice to the gym since joining and on both occasions, I just observed my son.

 

 

I dont allow my son to go alone as he is just 15, so we are canceling his membership aswell.

 

Heres where the fun starts.

 

I recently found out that I could cancel my membership due to ill health and went to my local gym to see how.

 

 

After explaining my situation and that my son would have to end his membership,

the sales rep was very understanding as said that they will help me sort it out.

 

The documents I took to prove ID was our passports and also my 10 page doctors report on my physical and mental injuries after my accident.

 

 

First was the cancellation for my son.

The scanner was not working to scan documents,

so the sales rep used their own mobile phone to take images of my sons passport and forward those images to their company email.

They then went through the process of cancelling my sons membership.

 

 

A few days later,

I received an email to say that my sons membership was cancelled.

Happy days (or was it)!!

 

Then it was my turn to do the cancellation form.

Again, the sales rep whipped out their phone and took images of all 10 pages that contained sensitive medical information.

 

 

Long story short (again) after 30 minutes of trying to send more than one image

(you can only send one image on the cacellation page)

we ended up taking an image of 2 pages on one picture to send.

 

 

I got an email a day later saying that this was not an accepted form of doctors letter and all I needed was a doctors note from my GP saying I could no longer continue with any gym activities.

 

 

COME ON, you just had a 10 page document telling you I am not fit and have a prognosis on some conditions of 18 months!!!!

 

What with one thing or another,

I missed a payment due to insufficiant funds in my account and received an email from Harlands saying that they will be applying a charge of £25 and that they will attempt to take £34.99 out on the 22nd.

 

 

I called them up to explain that I do not get paid until 25th and that I was in dispute with Xercise4less due to me having to make an appointment to see my GP to get a doctors note.

 

 

The person I spoke to said they will postpone the direct debit until 8th May to give me time to get my note and to sort things out.

 

On 24th April,

they attempted to take funds from my account

I called them and they denied they had.

 

 

I then asked if my sons membership had been cancelled and this is what I got

"I am sorry, but I can not discuss his account with you as we need his consent to discuss his account with you".

 

 

After I explained that he is under the age of consent at the age of 15

they said that is not what his records say.

 

 

Apparently, the person selling us membership falsified my sons age so that he was able to give him a full membership instead of a family membership.

 

 

They entered his D.O.B as being born in 1991 and because his age according to their records is over 18, they would not discuss it further.

 

I then asked about my account and the details I gave were incorrect so were unable to proceed with the call and advised me to contact the gym.

 

 

Another admin cock up shows me living at another address a mile down the road.

They didnt enter my postcode correctly at sign up so Harlands can not discuss my account with me either.

 

SOoooooo,

I go back to the gym and ask to speak to the gym manager because this time I wanted to speak to the organ grinder.

 

 

He was a helpfull guy who took my email and he asked me to send a PDF of my 10 page medical report to him. He said

 

 

"Thank you for sending this over to me, I have forwarded this on with a request to terminate. If I require any other information I will be in touch other than that please assume it has been terminated correctly. Thanks again for your time today."

 

Today I have received a letter from Harlands saying that their submission for £34.99 had been returned as "return to payer" and that a further charge of £25 will be added making a total of £59.99 in arrears. This is because they attempted to take it out on the 24th which they denied they had.

 

The best bit is that the letter says that I must call them before 9th May to avoid further charges. THEN TALK TO ME AS THIS IS MY SONS ACCOUNT THEY KEEP ADDING TO WHO IS UNDER THE AGE OF CONSENT!!!!!

 

 

I can only assume that they are sending letters to the other address I dont live at.

 

Please advise as nobody wants to talk to me

 

BTW, should I cancel my direct debits with the bank?

[dx100uk]

simply cancel the DD's and ignore them

[Discover]

DD's cancelled. Lets see what happens now

[dx100uk]

scary letters from powerless DCA's

they are not bailiffs.

[Discover]

But if they wont discuss accounts, what can I do? I do actually have an email from Xercise4less to say my sons membership is cancelled, but Harlands are saying it is not.

[dx100uk]

you ignore them...

 

 

they cant do anything to you

[slick132]

Hi Discover,

 

Your first post is too long to go through properly just now. Just too much info !!

 

Yours son's m/ship sounds like it's sorted. If not, let us know.

 

Regarding your m/ship, the bottom line is this - when you gave notice to quit, you had to make one final payment after you gave notice to cancel. Did you do this, or not.

 

Was it Harlands or X4Less that said they needed different info from your Doctor ?

 

Whichever it was, they do NOT have the right to demand you supply further info, etc.

 

Cancel the DD mandate immediately and we'll help you further as necessary.

 

If we need more info, we'll ask specific Q's that you can give short answers to.

 

[Discover]

 

Regarding your m/ship, the bottom line is this - when you gave notice to quit, you had to make one final payment after you gave notice to cancel. Did you do this, or not.

 

Was it Harlands or X4Less that said they needed different info from your Doctor ?

 

 

1. No. I am also within the twelve month contract period, but I am terminating on medical grounds. I have cancelled both DD's as they are whacking on penalty charges.

When I call to discuss membership details either my son's account or mine,

because the security details I provide are incorrect due to Xercise4less cock up,

I can not discuss my account as they have the wrong address/postcode on their system.

 

Because they need my son to give consent for me to discuss his account,

they can not talk to me.

Under 18 they can discuss it but as he is over 18 on their system, they wont discuss.

 

2. It was Xercise4less who sent the email.

Thank you for contacting Xercise4Less.

In regards to cancelling your membership, unfortunately the information you have provided does not satisfy our cancellation policies.

 

The documents that are required to cancel fixed contracts are: (evidence must be scanned and attached)

 

1. Relocation (more than 15 miles) – Utility bill or equivalent required

 

2. Medical sign-off by a doctor – Doctors note ONLY required

 

3. Redundancy – A letter from employer confirming your redundancy

 

Please note this is an automated response and this inbox is not monitored.

 

Team Xercise4Less.

 

Sorry for the long winded answers and questions, but it is so frustrating.

 

 

I dont mind paying what I owe,

but I am not paying any charges

because nobody will discuss anything

and its

"you need to speak to the gym"

or

"you need to speak to Harlands"

Save

Save

Edited April 30, 2017 by Discover

[dx100uk]

you don't speak to any of them ever...

 

 

writing only...

[slick132]

Hi Discover,

 

DX is absolutely right - forget trying to speak to anyone. Deal with this in writing only so you have a proper record of every exchange. Don't call Harlands or the gym anymore as it's a waste of time and effort.

 

 

Forget YS's m/ship for now and don't discuss it on this thread any more. If Harlands make any demand for YS, start a new thread and remind us he was 15 when he joined but the gym put him down as 18. This will dictate how we tell you to deal with Harlands.

 

For your own case, even though you were cancelling on medical grounds, you still had to give a month's notice regardless of any discussions you've had with the gym staff, manager, etc.

 

Please give simple replies to the following Q's so we can advise you properly :-

 

1. Date your DD was normally taken each month.

 

2. Date you visited the gym with your doctors report.

 

3. Date and amount of the last DD taken by Harlands.

 

4. I assume you've cancelled the DD mandate(s) now but please confirm.

 

Ignore all demands from Harlands for now.

 

[Discover]

1. 8th of the month

 

2. April 18th

 

3. 2 x £9.99 8th March. April was returned as they attempted to claim DD 2 weeks early

 

4. Yes, both DD's cancelled

 

I have received an email from the gym manager showing screenshots that my sons membership is cancelled and an email from head office confirming my membership closed. Just need to wait for it to filter to Harlands then see which way they will go as I was told that all charges will be dropped if membership is cancelled.

[slick132]

Hi Discover,

 

It's good that the gym mgr has confirmed YS's m/ship is cancelled.

 

Good also that HO have confirmed that your m/ship is closed.

 

What may still happen is Harlands say you either owe for a missed DD or for any admin fees they have added. But if they come back to you with any demand, tell us first and don't reply to them or X4Less in any way.