Simply Gym, Cheltenham - told to cancel DD - sent slick letter - now Harlands/UK search

[Troubles]

 

Hi and Hello everyone.

 

I know this has been done to death but just want to check that we are still doing the write thing.

 

My son was at Uni and took out gym membership,

towards the end of his studies he could afford the fees,

he spoke to a member of staff at the gym to ask how to cancel his membership and was told to just cancel his direct debit which he did.

He finished uni and came home briefly before moving back out

 

while home he received a letter from Harlands say that he owed £212.46 for not cancelling his membership,

I sent a letter using one of your templates see below by recorded delivery.

 

Thursday 21^st June 2018 

 

Credit Resource Solutions Ltd

3rd Floor West

Bowling Mill

Dean Clough

Elland

West Yorkshire

HX3 5AX

 

 

 

To whom it may concern,

 

                                    I have received a letter about an owed debt due to my Gym membership. I refer to my membership at Simply Gym, Cheltenham. I spoke at the time to a member of staff at the gym about cancelling my membership, this was and is due to being a student and having maxed out my student overdraft of £1000 and currently being unemployed and struggling just to buy food on which to live. They told me it would be fine to just cancel my direct debit mandate. 

 

I cancelled my Direct Debit Mandate but realise now that I should have given 30 days’ notice to cancel my membership (I did not realise I had to give 30 days’ notice when leaving the gym, as I do not have a terms and conditions in writing, or on my email notifying me of this). So, I now offer to pay the final months fee of £14.99 to cover the notice period. I will not pay any administration or cancellation fees these are penalties that are unlawful and unenforceable.

 

            If you confirm in writing that you accept the amount of £14.99 in full and final settlement of all that I owe, I will pay you promptly. If you fail to accept my offer within 14 days or you demand any other payment, I will pay you nothing and my offer will be withdrawn.

 

I will only deal with this in writing to my parents address above any other form of communication will be reported to the relevant authorities as harassment.

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

 

I think he had one more letter which he ignored and then nothing

 

yesterday a letter turned up at my Address.

I rang my son who no longer lives with us, as it said private and confidential on it but had no details on the envelope on where it was sent from. He said open it.

 

Its from UKSEARCH LIMITED - Date of correspondence 17-04-19 - Reference  number xxxxx debt owed to - Harlands Group type of debt unpaid membership

 

the letter reads

 

Dear XXXX

 

RE Debt address:   (where he lived when at Uni)

Type of Debt: unpaid membership.

 

UK Search act on behalf of our client Harlands Group who has instructed us to recover the amount of £212.46, being owed to them under the reference above. As you have not responded to earlier communications to clear this debt in a satisfactory way, you should now deal directly with us.

 

If you are unable to pay in full, call us immediately with your proposals for repayment. We will consider repayment by instalments, based on your individual circumstances.

 

If you do not respond to this letter within 7 days, we will need to escalate this matter to recover the debt on behalf of Harlands Group. If you Callus, we will explain this further.

 

yours sincerely

 

01246 570500.

 

My question is should we ignore this letter?

should we send them one of your template letters?

or ring them.

 

The letters are being sent to my son at my address where he no longer lives and the at present don't have his new address

 

Any advice  greatly received.

 

 

[BankFodder]

Tell them that your only proposal for payment is the notice period – and a cheque is enclosed.

Tell them that you don't intend to make any other payments and that if they want to make an issue of it then they should take you to court.

 

Hang on for input from @slick132 for confirmation of this

 

[Troubles]

Do I tell ukasearch uk this as the debt is with Harland's or do I deal direct with Harland's who the contract was with and who, I have already made an offer too but didn't accept my offer? Thanks

[dx100uk]

you don't respond further to anyone.

you said your piece

end of the matter

[Troubles]

Thanks will sit tight for now then

[slick132]

Hi Troubles and welcome to CAG

 

It may be that Harlands are no longer using their own "In House" DCA (who are CRS) but time will tell.

UK Search Ltd appear to be an external DCA but, with Harlands gym cases, I doubt they'll be any more effective than CRS.

 

YS correctly referred to the advice from the gym staff and made an offer that Harlands have failed to accept within the 14 days specified.

 

As long as Harlands have his current contact address (at his parents' home) this should be fine. He needs to know what Harlands are up to at any given time.

 

Tell him to ignore demands and any other attempts to contact him for now. Just keep us posted.

 

[slick132]

Thread moved to Gyms forum

 

[Troubles]

Thanks Slick did look for gym forum but struggled to find which topic it was in.  I will sit tight for now and keep you updated as and when. Thanks to all who have answered I will sleep easier tonight.