Harlands Missed payment

[Disintegrate]

I missed a payment of 12.79. for my gym membership.

The funds to make this payment became available at 18:00PM on the day it was due, so not even 12 hours after the missed payment.

 

It is my fault but I think it is slightly unfair to instantly charge the admin fee (£25).

I do not have the funds to cover this and if I were to pay as much as possible I would not be able to make it to work.

 

I have advised them via E-Mail that  can not make the late payment fee and that I will accept any action they may take.

I have read elsewhere however that the late payment fee isn't legally enforceable so can I not pay it and send them the original amount owed?

I have paid all other previous missed payment fees as a matter of principle however this time I simply can not.

Thanks.

[BankFodder]

Simply tell them that you won't pay. Tell them that the fee does not represent any administrative losses that they may have suffered by your very slightly late payment.

Be aware of course that they may take this opportunity then to cancel your membership. If they do then you should refuse to pay anything further and tell them to take you to court if they want.

Make sure you do everything in writing and once you have made the situation clear to them, don't write to them any more. Come back here if you have any further problems.

Keep us updated as to whether or not they decide to cancel your membership.

[dx100uk]

you should never be blindly paying these unlawful admin fess

how many have you paid

i'd be trying to reclaim them all as they are unlawful under the FCA rules and harlands know this well.

 

 

[Disintegrate]

2 hours ago, BankFodder said:

Simply tell them that you won't pay. Tell them that the fee does not represent any administrative losses that they may have suffered by your very slightly late payment.

Be aware of course that they may take this opportunity then to cancel your membership. If they do then you should refuse to pay anything further and tell them to take you to court if they want.

Make sure you do everything in writing and once you have made the situation clear to them, don't write to them any more. Come back here if you have any further problems.

Keep us updated as to whether or not they decide to cancel your membership.

 

Thank you for the fast reply!

 

I have informed them that I will not be paying the admin fee in writing.

The only other issue is that I can't seem to make an X amount payment to them for the 12.79 owed.

 

I am unable to find the company on my internet banking to make the payment (https://gyazo.com/8b41d46f4038f306c2568cd8e21fcd0d) and their online "Payflex" system will only allow me to make the payment of the amount that they claim i owe (https://gyazo.com/f33764dd3a3120ca9722ec94e4aba509).

 

2 hours ago, dx100uk said:

you should never be blindly paying these unlawful admin fess

how many have you paid

i'd be trying to reclaim them all as they are unlawful under the FCA rules and harlands know this well.

 

 

Your reply is much appreciated, I paid 2 admin fees (Excluding this one) as i wasn't aware of the illegitimacy of their charges nor did I think to question it.

 

How would I go about claiming them back, directly via. communication with them or by contacting the FCA?

[BankFodder]

It's probably too much hassle to claim the admin fees which you have already given to them. The FCA is certainly not the organisation – and in fact there is no organisation that regulates this industry.

The best you can do is threaten them and tell them that you will be paying their admin fee if they want to take you to court your counterclaim for the return of the fees that you have already paid because you now understand that they are excessive and unfair contrary to the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

The money which you are trying to pay – are you trying to pay to Harlands or to the gym? He should pay to the gym. Have nothing to do with the debt collectors

[Disintegrate]

Thank you.

The gym website only shows payments made by card and the "Manage my payments" option directs me to Harlands Payflex, which only allows me to pay the amount owed + admin fee. 

 

I have found the company that owns the gym

however I do not know how to make a payment directly to them.

 

The company and gym are not listed when trying to make a payment via internet banking and they do not have a separate website for the company itself rather than the gym.

[BankFodder]

Send a cheque to Harland's. Make sure you take a copy and send it with a letter saying that this is what you are paying. If they refuse to pay it then that's up to them.

[dx100uk]

if you dont want to continue with the gym then just ignore everything

but I think you like it there?

 

 

[slick132]

Hi Dis,

 

1. Please tell us the name of the gym.

 

2. Do you definitely want to remain a member at the gym.

 

If the answer to 2. is YES, Harlands are not going to allow you to continue with the m/ship until you've paid all admin fees they say are due. It could be £25 or more than that by now.

 

I'd normally suggest one of my letters (offering to pay Harlands just the missed fee and no more) and, when they fail to accept, ignore  all further demands and pay them nothing.

 

But this course means you'd no longer have use of the gym.

[Disintegrate]

It is Xercise4less,

I am still awaiting their response to my previous e-mail

however there are plenty of others gyms so I think regardless of their response I will do as you said and pay only what is owed and lose access to the gym.

 

Thanks!

[slick132]

Hi Dis,

 

Cancel the DD mandate via your bank if you've not already done this. Harlands may try to use it again to collect monthly gym fees and/or their increasing admin fees - if they do this and the bank bounces the DD re lack of funds, the bank will charge you and you have no hope of avoiding the banks' fees.

 

Let us know if Harlands reply but don't send them anything back for now. If you do need to reply at all, you can tell them that you've cancelled the DD Mandate to avoid them using it to collect unlawful penalty fees.

 

[Disintegrate]

Hi Slick,

 

I have cancelled the DD and have not messaged them again since the first e-mail. They have not yet responded however when they do I'll drop an update on here. Thanks

[Disintegrate]

Hello,

 

They replied and advised the admin fee will remain on my account and that, once it has been paid, my membership will be live and that I will have full access into the facilities. I assume from the wording of this that no further action will be taken other than my loss of access to the gym? They also sent another document which just detailed methods of making the payment and that a further admin fee will be applied on the next payment date if the balance isn't settled.

[dx100uk]

ignore

[slick132]

As suggested above,  ignore further demands from Harlands/CRS for now.

 

They will continue to make demands and threats regardless of how you interpret the email from Harlands.

 

Keep us posted please .............