Odeon Cinema / Harlands Group

[ITPR]

My wife set up Odeon Cinema limitless memberships around 9 months ago.

At the time my wife was working full-time earning quite a good wage so there was no problems paying the £17.99 per month each to enable us to go out now and again and have a bit of time to ourselves.

 

unfortunately my wife has, over the last 6-7 months, had a number of problems including blood clot on the lung and problems with her kidneys and a number of other serious problems which caused her to lose her job.

 

At the moment our only income is universal credit which has over halved our monthly income and we are struggling quite badly at the moment trying to live each month. Each month we owe out way more than we have coming in.

 

Since being on universal credit and getting the payment on the 8th of each month by the time the odeon was due (nearing the end of the month) there are no funds in the bank to pay on the 'due' date which has away meant a charge was added to the amount by £9.99 for an administration fee.

then a week or so later they try to take out the membership again with the admin charge added, as the funds are still not there yet another admin charge is added.

 

when this first started happening we simply paid the membership and charges each month. paying £37.64.

This caused us more debt each month and over the last couple of months the amount up to over £65 as we have not had any money to pay it off.

 

My wife contacted harlands via email explaining about her health and how we was struggling financially.

She told them the effects this was having on her health and asked if they would they be willing to remove all the charges and change the payment date to the 8th so there was definitely funds in the bank.

 

She asked harlands if they wouldn't remove the charges then would they accept a small amount each month to clear what was claimed to be owed.

after she sent the email a week later they sent a email claiming they had been trying to contact her but she had ignored their attempts and they stated they would be adding more charges in the future.

 

My wife replied back stating she had already contacted them and resent her email.

Today she got a reply saying tough... could anyone advise or help with this situation.

 

The email received is below.

 

Quote

Many thanks for your email.

We do regret to inform you in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of your agreement with Odeon Cinemas we are unable to remove the administration charge that you are disputing.

One of the Terms of this agreement, which you have agreed to be bound by, is that "if you fail to pay any monies due under this agreement or if any Direct Debit is returned unpaid or any cheque is returned unpaid or if any other form of payment is not honoured for whatever reason, you shall pay us on demand fee of £9.99, which we require to cover our costs of seeking to pursue such payment from you.".

We have attempted to correspond with you regarding this matter to ensure that no further charges are applied, this would have allowed you opportunity to rectify the matter and to obtain minimal financial inconvenience to yourself. However further charges will be applied if the requests for payment are not adhered to.

The payment in question has been returned unpaid by your bank due to insufficient funds with the banking instruction 'refer to payer' the instalment remains uncollected within your agreement and will be pursued for accordingly.

May we confirm, £25.00 is the amount deemed by our directors as representative of our costs in dealing with the administration involved with a missed or returned payment.


When we submit for a payment by Direct Debit which is then returned, we are also charged by the bank. The charge also covers the costs we incur to reapply for the payment and the sending of letters to members. The administration charge has been incurred due to the extra work involved to resubmit the payments, the accounting time it takes to process the return and reverse the transaction, the cost of sending a letter and assigning to the database.


Please note to make a payment of your current outstanding balance of £65.95 you are required to contact our offices on the helpline number listed below.


We do advise if the arrears within your account remain to be outstanding, we will proceed with the default procedure on the 5th October 2019 within your account with the risk of further charges being applied and ultimately with further action being taken against you.


Please be advised a charge has been applied to your account, it is non-negotiable and not up for dispute and therefore any further correspondence regarding the matter will not alter the outcome, as per the above.


We hope this has provided clarification on why the charge in question has been incurred.

Unfortunately, due to data protection we are unable to confirm any details on OH account, we note he will be required to contact us in order to leave permission or discuss the account.

For all Enquiries Call Harlands : 01444 449044
Quote Reference : ********
Our telephone lines are open 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday and 9am to 12pm on Saturday.

Yours sincerely,
Some Dude...

Harlands Group

 

 

[fkofilee]

Honestly F*** Em'

 

Harlands do this with Gym Memberships too... Same rules apply here...

This wont go on your Credit File and If they are not prepared to do anything to help then why should you bow to them... Directors Cost my arse... 

 

Seriously - Go on with your life and try to relax... They cant do anything to you... Youve tried to be reasonable...

 

By the way - Ive edited your email... Taken away personal deets

[fkofilee]

FWIW - I would love to see Harlands provide a full breakdown of that £25 charge... Would make for some interesting reading...

£5 for sending a letter you say?!?

[dx100uk]

pers i'd be contacting your bank and getting any payment you made BACK under the DD guarantee scheme that included any penaty fees.

they are unlawful, so thus outside of the contract you signed upto 

 

 

[ericsbrother]

now you should read up on frustrated contracts as well, her illnees will revent her from using the facility s the contract is ended on a no fault basis.

However, as Odeon are using a cmputer to make the decisions it wont be understood regardless of how often you tell them.

Also agree about the misuse of the DD guarantee scheme, your bank should understand that well by now