Hello everyone, I signed up today the 13th of February with a gym membership with Fit4less in Brentford. I decided to do that online so I selected £24,99 per month no contract. I received 2 e-mails after subsrcibing, one welcome e-mail from the club and one with my DD information, the terms and conditions and other relevant information. After reading the e-mail and reading also a lot of reviews for this type of gyms I decided to cancel my membership the same day. On the e-mail they state 'Please note that if you completed this membership agreement whilst not in the club, you have a period of 7 days from today in which to cancel this membership. This right to cancel will cease once you visit the club, or the period of 7 days has elapsed, whichever is the earlier.' I decided to call them to cancel the membership. First time I talked to A advising me that they have not received my details yet and I have to call back tomorrow (at that point I didn't say the reason of my call). Second time I talked to M asking her if they have received my subscription and information she confirmed and then when I told her that I want to cancel she told me I have to call back tomorrow because they do not have all information (only name and bank details). After putting a bit of pressure she said she will check for me. After waiting for 6-7 min on the line, she replied back saying she will put a note on the system and cancel my membership tomorrow. When I asked her if I will receive a written confirmation she replied she can sent me an e-mail. When I asked her when she will sent it she replied between 9:30 and 5:30. Obviously having read a lot of information on this forum I do not have faith that they will do that automatically tomorrow. So what would your advice be? Call them again tomorrow or put my cnacellation request in writting? Thank you for your help. Kind regards,

Hi I received a text today telling me to call a number which seemed suspicious, I then googled the number and it turned out to be CRS who I had never heard of - saw they worked with Harlands gym. Back in August I signed up to the gym in my hometown on a month by month contract of 24.99. It was set up via direct debit. Within two weeks of joining the gym I tore the tendons in my shoulder (whilst at work). Following a doctors appointment for my painful shoulder I was advised to not go to the gym anymore. As such I cancelled the direct debit on my account. I was then charged 49.98 at the start of September but due to insufficient funds, I had sent money from one account to another thinking it was the one paying for the gym. Foolish I know but mistakes happen. I then moved to uni in September - I saw the money go out and back into my account. I assumed this was because I had cancelled the direct debit and it was action on their behalf. I hadn't been home to my family home where all my post is to see that I have apparently been sent 3 letters about my outstanding debt that I didn't know about. On calling CRS today I was met with a rather rude South African guy who went on to have a go at me and treat me like a complete idiot. When I asked why there was no attempt to email or call me prior to today he went on a rant asking why the gym should have to do such a thing. During the phone call he told me I owe £161 to harlands and that my case had been passed over to them in order to collect the debt. I asked why it had raised to such a high fee and he wasn't really clear in his answer despite me asking to clarify. He just said because the payment failed and was late. He then said that if I want to pay off the debt, they would (Very kindly) wipe away £70 worth of the debt. I would then owe 95.48. Rough figures I was walking to a meeting with my bank ironically. The guy was extermely unproffesional, in his explanation on why it was cheaper to pay the £90 he said "cash is king". I am getting all post brought to me this Saturday so I will check what they have sent me. I just wanted to check surely they can't charge me that much extra for unknowingly missing a payment??? I asked if I could call back later and my account has been put on hold until 28th of November. Any help would be most appreciated, I know this is long winded but I wanted to cover all corners I could.

HI all, In 2015 I joined Exercise for Less. I cancelled the direct debit having spoken to the gym manager as I didn't like the facilities and naively thinking that would be the last i heard from them. I then battled with Harlands (I offered them the 9.99 as advised by this forum) then CRS (who gave my account back to Harlands after II sent them an email composed by the legendary Slick132). This happened in November 2015. However, as I was clearing my inbox I found this email from Harlands dated 05/01/17 ( this is the first I've heard from them since November 2015). ".......we note that you still have an outstanding balance £xxx.xx. We want to help you resolve this as soon as possible. We can set up a payment plan or look at a settlement figure to resolve this. Please call us today on 01444 449165 between 08:30am and 6:00pm. Your reference number is 829xxxxx. If you would prefer us to call you, please confirm a suitable number to reach you on. We regret that if we do not hear from you within the next 7 days, your account will be transferred to our Solicitors Spratt Endicott for further action. Many thanks,//......" What do I reply? I'm now worried they're going to take me to court. All help is much appreciated. Thanks

Hi ive read plenty about these cowboys on this forum but couldn't find specifically what i was looking for so apologies if im covering already worn ground i just received a letter from harlands saying i need to call the immediately or i will owe them £25. I was a member at xercise4less for about 2 years and then decided to cancel my 1 month rolling contract online, no problems it said i had successfully cancelled, i then checked my bank account 4 month later and realised they still had being charging me membership fees i cancelled the direct debit. thats when i just received this letter from them, should i ring them like the letter says or just ignore them? they surely dont have any right to be charging me anything anymore. Thanks for any help, Adam

I signed up for a year membership @9.99 and have had membership for well over that time. I cancelled my direct debit now they are trying to charge me 25.99 and now another 25.99. because i never cancelled through their website. Can you advise me what to do next. Thanks Scott

Hi everyone, it is a long time since I used this site, but would really appreciate some help and knew this would be the safe place to do so. It seems many others have been in a similar predicament. Joined Fit4Less in Halton, Leeds last summer. I was not really using it during Nov/Dec so cancelled the DD in mid December believing that I was under no contract terms as had taken a rolling monthly contract. I was away for a few days over new year and returned to a letter from Harlands requesting £16.99 missed payment and with a £20 charge slapped on for admin costs. This sounds ridiculous. Please could you advise as to what to do. Surely I shouldn't have to pay such a massive £20 charge? I have read some of the threads but am unsure of the success people are having in dealing with Harlands. I am a little anxious as feel I shouldn't pay it but don't want loads of debt collection letters. Thanks in advance

Hello, I moved to university in Burnley in September 2014, and at the freshers fair there was a gym - the now notorious X4L. I joined on the 23rd September 2014 on a minimum 11 month contract. However, after the year was over I wanted to cancel but was unaware of the process as it had not been made clear to me when I joined so I just cancelled my DD which I had done at a previous gym with no trouble whatsoever. Then I got a letter from Harlands saying I owed money - I binned most of their letters (stupidly) so only have a few. To cut it short I got a letter on the 26th July saying my account was £69.98 overdue. The letter also said if I fail to pay my membership fees will CEASE TO BE ADMINISTERED BY HARLANDS (insinuating an outside debt collection agency). I paid them £104.97 (I have an email to prove this) as, in fairness, I had broken the T&C's of the contract I signed. I paid this on August 31st 2016 then the lady at Harlands told me to go online and cancel so I went and did it properly. Then on the 16th of November I got an email from Harlands saying they could not cancel my membership as they had not received confirmation from X4L. As I did it online I have no proof that I cancelled it so they'll say I haven't - but I did what was asked of me. I then received a letter from this 'outside debt collection agency' Called CRS (which I only opened today) dated from 13th December 2016 - saying I now owe £171.47. This outside agency has the EXACT SAME address, the EXACT SAME registered office as Harlands and the EXACT SAME company registration number and I will be keeping the letters as evidence if needed. Harlands have made up a debt collection company to try and extort more money from me (which I'm sure you already know about). This is such an obvious [problem] that X4L are certainly in on and I am so angry about it I have contacted X4L on twitter, contacted BBC watchdog and now contacted CAG. If somebody could suggest the best course of action now I would be hugely appreciative.

i had joined the gym at around 2014 i entered a 12 month contract with them which was done but i kept my membership and kept going until around late this year, i had received a couple of letters from harlands and i recently received a letter from crs, i had realised that i had a missed payment as i had insufficient funds in my bank account but i had paid any late payments to harlands over the phone. I went on holiday around november got back and i had a letter from crs saying i had to pay £171 i decided to phone them up ask what the payments were for and it was mostly admin fees which i got deducted i paid any missed payments of £10 for the months membership but they tried to charge me £66 for debt recovery charge which i refused to pay, i have also cancelled my membership around the start of december and then few days ago rang my bank and told them to cancel the direct debit for harlands. i also recently received a message from crs saying the need to speak to me urgently edit: the months were 2 months around august and September but when i received a letter from the first time harlands i had paid them £10 for each of the month but then they sent even more letters saying that i owe even more now so i just ignored them

Hello, I am hoping somebody could assist me. I attempted to cancel my membership with Excercise4Less in November, after making no progress, but giving them over the phone notice that I wished to cancel, I cancelled my Direct Debit payments to Harlands X4L. At the same time, I joined another Gym that also uses Harlands as their Direct Debit Collector (This may be irrelevant, but it may matter) After canceling my DD Harlands sent me a letter demanding that I reinstate the direct debit to continue the membership, which i ignored. Today I received the following letter: "We Refer to our letter dave 24 NOV 16 and note that you have no contacted us. As we were unable to collect your installment, we added a £25 administration charge which means you need to pay £34.99 to clear your arrears." "Please call harlands helpline blablabla and reinstate your bank details blablabla, please call us by 23 DEC 16 To avoid further charges" Does anybody have any suggestions of what I can do? I am okay with paying my £9.99 a month membership fee until my contract ends in February, but I can not afford to pay the £35 (Christmas+Student=Bad Combination) Any help or advice is appreciated, thank you and merry christmas!

Hello! It seems I am another persons struggling with CRS/Harlands etc etc. Way back in 2012, I entered into a gym contract with Fitness First in Leeds whilst at University. I then moved back home (40 miles away) and called Fitness First and asked them to transfer my "home" club to being back at my parents home, they said this was fine. Fitness First then shut down my local gym, I called them and they said everything was cancelled and that they were sorry for any confusion. I then found a DD on my bank account to "Harlands" in around February/March 2013, went into my bank, said I didn't know who this was and they reversed the charges, I didn't hear anything at all. Then came emails in August 2013 from The Zinc Group, asking me to contact them. Being a naive early 20's anxiety ridden mess, I only communicated with them once to tell them to stop calling me. This went on for a few weeks as I ignored their calls, then I heard nothing from them. Roll on to Friday last week (December 9th 2016) and I receive a text message from CRS saying "Please call CRS today on 01444 449*** as your account has now been returned to us from the Zinc Group. We're open between 8:30am and 6pm" I then received an email asking me to contact them regarding my account at TruGym Leeds (which is what the Fitness First turned into - I never stepped foot in the place), and I have received another email this morning asking me to contact them today, other wise they will pass it on to Spratt Endicott Just looking for some advice really. I don't think they have my correct address as I have not received anything in writing from them, and old emails from Zinc have my old student house address on them. The balance is apparently £193.35, but I do not plan on paying them a penny. I do not have a copy of my old contract with Fitness First, and I have never signed ANYTHING with TruGym Leeds. I never even set foot in the building to my knowledge. If anyone could advise what I need to do next that would be great. Should I continue to ignore everything from them? Seems a bit strange for them to contact me three years since they last attempted to. I genuinely thought all this had gone away. Thank you for taking the time to read this, you lovely bunch of people!

I joined Xercise4less Falkirk in June 2014 rarely used it due to a knee injury that took ages to recover from. When I did use the gym I found it oversubscribed and young lads continually leaving weights lying around. I complained to staff but I don't think they bothered much. In June this year I finally decided to leave after I tripped over a barbell that was left lying around the floor which caused me injury and embarrassment. I emailed the Xercise4less manager informing him I was leaving. I received an out of office reply which stated he would deal with it on his return and I heard nothing more. I kept both emails and I've attached them to this post. I cancelled my direct debit a month afterwards and I thought that was the end of the matter. However I received a threatening letter today from Harlands demanding money from me because I had cancelled my direct debit. As I understand it as I was with Xercise4less for 2 years so I had already served my contract period. As I also understand I had cancelled my membership officially and I am not due Harlands any money. Clearly Harlands are making out I haven't cancelled my membership. Can anyone offer me advice how to handle this. Please see the threatening letter from Harlands and my cancellation email and their reply.

Hi all, Another Harlands/Xercise4Less post, but I just wanted to check that I also fall under the 'ignore them' category. I cancelled my membership in May, and cancelled my direct debit shortly afterwards. A few months have gone by and I receive the classic letter from Harlands, saying I owe them X pounds via admit fees etc. I called Xercise4Less, and they say my account is in arrears, I didn't pay the 1 months notice and they've continued to bill my account. They can 'clear' the Harlands charge, if I pay £59.95 (admin fee and some number of months payments), and then cancel my account straight away. When I look back at my accounts, I did cancel my DD too early - so they never charged me my final bill (during my notice period, final months payment of £19.99). When I called I said I'd pay the amount I 'owe', which would be one months charge. They said this wasn't possible, as I'd never 'cancelled my membership', I'd only started the process - a process which had then been cancelled when they didn't receive my final payment. Am I right to ignore Harlands etc, or should I pay the offered £59.95?

can anyone advise me on what to do, I started a gym membership with fitspace for 12 months my bank account was closed I wrote a letter to the gym a few months after I started getting calls and emails from crs which I ignored I recently received a letter from Spratt endicott threatening legal action in 7 days. The amount crs claims I owe is £270 which is ludicrous as I was paying £16 a month from January up until may. Can anyone advise me on what to do as I also don't want my credit rating to be affected

I joined this gym in May 2016 went for about 2/3 weeks before things changed and i stopped going 5 months later I realise I am still paying my direct debit which is totally my fault as i simply forgot to cancel it. October 2016 I cancel it after the payment came out £19.99. Funny enough I get a letter through the door a day or 2 later saying that your direct debit had been cancelled we see this as a mistake. Please get in touch with us to reinstate your direct debit. (Amazing that I have been paying for the past 5 months and not going at all but never got a letter to see what was happening but money stops and bang they are there) I simply ignored this letter because i did not wish to carry on my membership. 2 days ago i received another letter saying that I have missed my payment for November 2016 due to this payment being missed you have incurred a £20 admin charge which leaves my account in arrears by £39.99. In the letter it says we remind you that under the terms of your membership you need to provide 1 months notice and therefore make another payment. Failure to do so will result in further action. Now I do not think i should have to pay anything I never signed a contract, never saw any terms and conditions nothing. The website even says no contract, in fact when I signed up I told the person I only wanted 1 month. now i am not sure what I should do, do i just ignore these letters? or just pay to get them off my backs? I have until the 16th November to get in touch with them. Thanks Josh.

Hello. Hope someone can help me. I did an online application in November 2013 for a 12 month contract at £9.99 per month. They sent me an email with a link which I haven't used. I cancelled my DD after 4 payments because I had never put a foot in the door. I have been receiving letters from Harlands on a regular basis and now I have received a letter from CRS claiming they have been employed by Xercise4 for less and I owe them £186.43 (including £66.50 in fees). Today I went to the gym to try and sort it out but they said it was out of their hands now because CRS had taken on the 'debt'. They also said if I had contacted the gym before receiving these letters they could have done something about my cancellation :-/. I did offer to pay £60.00 to cancel my membership but they said the least they could accept was £96.50. Ithought as I have already paid 4 x £9.99 the offer of £60.00 would mean I had paid for my year's membership. Any advice gratefully received. Thank you.

I'll start at the beginning and try to include as much relevant detail as possible. I joined Xercise4less in Nottingham in January 2015 under what I believed to be a year-long contract and then month-to-month, which I could withdraw from in several ways, one of which being that I move location to somewhere without an Xercise4less in the surrounding area. I stayed in my contract and used the gym throughout my time in Nottingham training to become a teacher, then moved home in around July 2015. While I was in Nottingham I met my girlfriend, and we dated long-distance until around September of 2016 when I moved back to Nottingham. From July 2015 to around January/February 2016, I used the gym very occasionally (less than 20 times). In around March/April of 2016, I realized I was still paying for this gym in Nottingham (the contract was only £9.99 a month so I literally had not noticed it until now) and went to the gym and asked to cancel. The gym told me to return with proof of my new address. I did a few days later, showing them my driving license with my new address in Essex over 2 hours away. Bear in mind at this point any trips to the gym cut into my limited weekend time with my girlfriend, and that as I am living over 2 hours away I can't just drop in and chat to the gym staff. I spoke to the man at the desk, who took lots of details, had a good look at my driving license, checked my new address in the computer to determine there wasn't an Xercise4less in the area, and then implied to me that it was taken care of and I could return to the gym for the remainder of the month, after which my contract was up. I came once more that month and have not been since. A couple of months later (around June/July) I noticed that I was still being charged for this gym. This was during the examination period at my school, and being a maths teacher I am required to often work very long hours during this period. I therefore decided to simply cancel the direct debit and accept the two or three monthly payments of £9.99 that had been taken out of my account. I thought it was taken care of at this point, until I was sent a letter in October 2016 from CRS stating that I owe them £207. This letter came to my parents' house in Essex (by this point I had moved back to the Nottingham area). Following the receipt of this letter, I called CRS to discuss the situation. The £207 request was broken down to me as follows. £9.99 contract + £25 direct debit bouncing fee £9.99 contract + £25 direct debit bouncing fee £9.99 contract + £25 direct debit bouncing fee(???) approx £60 to pass the case on to CRS (operates out of the same office as Harlands, the contract company I pay the debit to) £37 tracing fee (in order to find my Essex address) He explained that Harlands has been trying to reach me for the £9.99, each time they failed it was £25 charge and they sent me a letter. The ridiculous part is that all of these letters were sent to my original address I had in Nottingham as of January 2015, so I didn't receive it as I was at the time living in Essex. This happened three times. Throughout this process Xercise4less, and by extension Harlands, had my e-mail address and mobile phone number. now it gets passed on to CRS at a cost of £60ish (which seems to just be part of Harlands) who apparently have to use a 'tracer service' to get my address (this costs another £37!), while all this time both of them have my current e-mail address and phone number. Remember also that I gave the man at the front desk of Xercise4less this address, which he wrote down. I have called CRS on multiple occasions and was at first explained the contract and eventually told 'it's your fault for not cancelling your membership properly'. They have offered that I pay a settlement fee of £112 pounds, which I declined. At that point the account manager at CRS suggested I seek legal advice and wished me a good day. I'm pretty confident that regardless of how my contract turned out, the amount I am being asked to pay, and even the settlement amount are nonsensical amounts. In addition, the reason the problem is so significant and I wasn't able to simply respond to the first £9.99 and £25 direct debit charge (which was supposedly accompanied by a letter) was because I moved (from student accommodation so no forwarding address) which was precisely how I cancelled/tried to cancel my membership initially. In addition, Xercise4less, Harlands and CRS had my e-mail and mobile phone number the whole time, so their 'repeated attempts' to reach me can't have been that desperate. After reading other threads, I also believe I am outside of my 12-month contract agreement, and so don't even really need to provide a reason to cancel my membership... Thanks very much for any help you can offer. I studied law for a little while after university so am quite excited about the prospect of being taken to court!

Hey guys I was at the Xercise4less gym in Bradford on a 14.99 rolling contract i signed up for it on 8/10/2015 and the last direct debit to leave my account was on 7/4/16 I cancelled the direct debit and thought that was it - which is what i had been told by a staff member but evidently this wasn't true. Since then i have been receiving letters for £222 from harlands, moving to CRS and now finally SprattEndicott who are considering legal action. Funnily enough out of sheer laziness i only ever used the gym in the first two months and paid 5 Months of gym membership for nothing I have spoken to sprattendicott on the phone, having ignored the others so far, and they said to email them whatever response i have to say / stating my issue. If theres any more info needed il add it in Thanks for any help you guys offer!

Hello All, I am new to posting, but have read many of the topics on here via google searches...some excellent work I am currently enjoying a comical exchange with Harlands / xercise4less. I signed up for the rolling monthly membership, this was done online . After a mere ten days it was clear this facility wasnt for me... I have been a member of many gyms but this one had 12 year old kids hurtling the barriers to run around the gym climbing on equipment and disrupting people without a single member of staff flinching. That was me done. I handed in a letter after 10 days stating that during the initial cooling off period I had realised the gym was not for me and I wanted to cancel. I stated my reasons, this was taken off me at reception by a staff member who gave his name as ..... I noticed the direct debit had come out one afternoon a fortnight or so later, no problem. £20 membership and £20 joining fee, I then cancelled this via my banking app on the Friday. From here I was introduced to the riddlers at Harlands. they have said I owe £65 due to a £25 admin fee plus the earlier fee's. The initial £40 was not accepted and returned to my account on the Monday morning. They have also told me they cannot cancel my membership it needs to be done in branch. I have done. They know nothing about this they say. Not my problem I say . Cancel online they now say. No need to I say, writting is perfectly acceptable. I am now engaging them via email, and quite sadly enjoying the whole process of annoying them. I will post the emails below. Any advice welcomed.

Hello! I am currently experiencing problems regarding a £207.47 debt I supposedly owe to Harlands/Xercise4less despite having terminated my 12 month contract back in April this year!! I joined Xercise4less in Leeds in February 2015 - I signed up to a 12 month membership (the minimum duration) £9.99 p/m. Despite having used the gym a total of less than 10 times in the whole year, I held up my end of the contract and paid for the full year. Due to payments having not been taken for January and February 2016 (as the gym was shut due to flood damage) I was unsure whether this meant my contract would be extended to make up for those two months... Once the gym reopened, I rang the gym 3 times: 1) The first time I was told by a member of staff that he would send me a cancellation form. I never received this. 2) The second time i was told i had been misinformed and that the only was was to cancel online. 3) The third time was to seek advice as i had been experiencing problems with their cancellation page, but they told me to try again at a later time. In the end I had definitely submitted something online but whether it was done correctly i dont know. To be honest, i was so fed up with the hassle of trying to terminate a simple gym membership that i hadn't even used yet fully paid for (and continued to pay for until april!) that I resulted to seeking advice from my bank and they advised me to just cancel the DD. In short, the 2 month flooding that they had experienced was not my fault, yet to be on the safe side I ensured I made 12 full payments (Feb 2015 - April 2016 ) before terminating my DD . I heard nothing from them for almost 4 months, then suddenly received a letter from CRS saying I owed £207.47. I genuinely thought this was some sort of mistake and therefore rang up and said I would not be paying it. I received 2 more letters over the following weeks - both of which i ignored. GI have returned from holiday today to find another letter -this time from Spratt endicott - threatening that failure to pay within 7 days (tomorrow being the 7th day!) will 'result in legal proceedings' ?!?!?! Please help!!

Hi All, I'm hoping you can help me I was a previous member of Lifestyle Fitness when the gym first opened December 2012 to which I signed up to a monthly rolling contract of £17.99. After cancelling my membership in November 2015 I was phoned weekly numerous times and then sent an email from the manager Jason Lombard trying to get me to re-join. I sent an email stating that I would CONSIDER it under the same terms of my previous membership i.e monthly rolling contract £17.99. After a phone call explaining this to him. I then received an email from him that a new membership had been set up (he never specified a type) I checked my bank account and a DD was in place however I had not signed anything neither did I receive a membership contract like the one where I initially signed up. I cancelled the direct debit immediately and no payment was taken. I have then been pursued by Credit Resolution Services claiming that I had entered into a 12 month annual membership at £17.99 and that I know 'owe' £397.60. These con artists continue to pursue me through SMS messages, Recorded phone calls and emails. Despite emailing and phoning them to clarify that I did not agree to this they have not been interested in trying to resolve this and are unable to send me a membership agreement. This begun on January 26th, 2016. I have entered the stage of 'Spratt endicott' solictors. I've also used Resolver and tried to direct message Lifestyle Fitness on facebook. As CAB advised me to send them a letter to the complaints department funnily enough there is no form of contact details for such a department. Please help

Hi, Its my first time posting on here so bear with me. Iv seen a few different posts about this already but thought I would start a new one to see peoples thoughts. I signed up to exercise4less earlier in the year as I was working very near to one. (I work away from home for long periods of time). I signed up to the £14.99 monthly subscription instead of the £9.99 12 month one. And I explained when signing up I was a contractor working in the area and would only be around for a couple of months at most. I set up the direct debit and attended the gym for a couple of months as agreed, until I got finished from where I was working. Before I got finished I told them in the gym I would be leaving within a matter of weeks and wouldn’t be coming back for the foreseeable future. (Unfortunately I have nothing in writing or anything to proof this). I have since been working somewhere else and have rarely been home. However when I have been back I have found letters from Harlands saying I have missed a direct debit and then from CRS saying they have been passed my debt and are looking for £180 to settle it. Also said I only have 7 days to respond, which had already past by time I got home. From what I understand CRS and Harlands are the same people? And any charges they add on are both unlawful and don’t need to be paid? Im not intending on paying them a penny as iv not used the gym so I refuse to pay anything for it. What I would like to know is how I can make this go away? If I just ignore it will they finally give in or am I better off writing to them and if so what do I say? They have also started phoning and texting me saying I must contact them? Thanks in advance for any help

Hi all, I've read loads about harlands and crs in relation to gym debt etc but this situation it slightly different. I was a member at a gym franchise (Energie) that recently left their franchise, closed down and re-opened as an independent gym. Preceding this I was directed to cancel my DD, so I did. Of course, I've now received a letter stating I have "incurred a £20.00 admin charge which leaves your account in arrears by £39.99". When I called Harlands to tell them the situation, they proceeded to tell me that I didn't give notice of termination and so would need to make another payment. The problem is, there's no gym to give notice to. And I'll be paying for a service that doesn't exist. Any info on the matter is hugely appreciated as I fear I'll get blacklisted and end up with huge debts. Thank you, Anon27.

Sorry, I can see there are many threads about this and I have searched but can't find any advice specific to my issue. I joined simply gym online in a period before a gym was actually open (joined at the end of November and gym due to open at the end of February) I decided it wasn't for me after all and simply cancelled my direct debit (I know, I know...!) I received an email on joining saying that my first direct debit would be taken on 26th February. On the 14 dec I received a letter stating they had not been able to collect my direct debit (true, I'd cancelled it) and that I needed to pay it. I did ponder why they had tried to take my direct debit in December when a) the gym wasn't open and b) they'd said no direct debit was due until 26th February. There was no joining fee as I recall, as it was a pre opening offer but I think I was out of the 7 day cooling off period - can't find the information about that at the moment. With the magic (!) of Christmas I completely forgot about the letter and did nothing In fairly certain I don't have to pay the admin charges (now up to £50) but I'm not even sure I need to pay the 12.99. Should I make telephone contact or send a recorded letter? Any advice, please? It was a month by month contract.

Hi All Just a quick question. My partner is signed up for local authority gym on an annual contract . This month his wage was paid a little later than usual and he missed DD - but then when money came in this DD was taken fine. However all of a sudden we received a letter that they will be taking a £20 admin charge as well? I called them and sad its illegal and they cant justify such a charge however they said its part of the contract and thats it! I am about to write complaint to their customer services ? is there any other suggestions on what I can do as I am sure its unreasonable charge thank you

Hi guys. Just after a little reassurance. I joined my local X4Less around November last year (2015) over the telephone. I was informed at the time that it was a rolling 12 month contract of £9.99, and i could leave if i moved away from the area, was made redundant, medical grounds etc etc... Roll on March 2016. I suffered a back injury and informed the gym of this. They said they needed proof so i went back to the doctors and asked him to give me a note stating i couldn't continue in the gym. I proceeded back down to the gym and presented this to one of the staff behind the counter. She advised me to fill in the online form to cancel. I told her i didn't have internet access at that time and she said she would action it for me. I noticed on my bank account 2 months later that direct debits were still being taken out so i cancelled them. I then was bombarded with texts from X4Less informing me my account was in arrears and every-time i rang they said don't worry we'll look into it. I then started to recieve texts saying my debt was being passed onto Harlands. And again every-time i rang Harlands and stated my reasons for cancelling the DD they said they would investigate. Then Harlands started sending letters telling me that £25 admin fees have been added to my account. And the whole process went round in circles until recently CRS have sent a letter threatening Bailiffs, CCJ's, Court action etc etc.. I have managed to speak to ROB Knight/ROB Avery whom is the collections manager as i never get any sense from the imbeciles in the office and to be honest he wasn't much better. He advised me to go back to the doctors and get another note stating i couldn't continue with the gym and CRS would end the dispute. I went back to the doctors at a cost of £80 BTW:shock: and faxed another note to them explaining my back problems. Today i receive another E mail from CRS saying thanks for the doctors note but as the account was already in arrears the debt needs to be settled.:mad2: I have spoke to the collections manager again today and he insists that what they are doing is Legal, they don't need to be regulated by the FCA and they have the full backing of the courts if required. Is it safe to just ignore all letters now? I don't see how i can be held responsible for someone at the Gym not carrying out instructions. And i have made a conceivable effort to try and sort this out but to no avail. Any help much appreciated.