I'm having an issue cancelling my rolling contract with Xercise 4 Less. I handed in my cancellation directly to the branch over 2 weeks ago and still haven't received any confirmation of my cancellation request despite asking for this 7 times now. Thus far I've been given no explanations and been told twice they'd ring me back to no avail. I've noticed on the Harlands website it says I'm not allowed to cancel my direct debit or I'll incur penalty charges. If the gym is refusing to communicate with me about my cancellation, am I within my legal rights to cancel the direct debit after the 30 day notice period has passed? I'd also be interested to know if they have a legal obligation to respond to me as a current customer. I really can't understand how any company can get away with treating customers like this! Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone and thanks for this great forum! I'm very new to this so sorry if i get some things wrong. Here is a timeline of events: 03/08/14: I join the Newcastle branch of Excersise4less, being told it is a rolling contract of £9.99 and that I can cancel at anytime. The same day i head home to find an email telling me that my contract is in fact for 11 months. That's fine, I intent to go anyway. 25/08/15: 12 months of not going to the gym later and I start thinking that maybe this membership is a bit of wasted money. I cancel my Direct Debit and cancel my subscription in the gym. They note in the gym that a final payment of £9.99 will need to be taken on 2/9/15 as part of the 30 day notice period. As my direct debit was cancelled with the bank and was established with X4Less I figure they will just reinstate the DD for one final payment before closing the account. 02/09/15: No payment is taken, no attempt at any payment is made, bank records show nothing from Harland and X4Less. 15/09/15: I received a text from X4L Informing me as follows: "Dear Member. Your account has gone into default due to you cancelling your direct debit. To prevent further charges being added please call us on 01132038602." The number goes to Harlands debt collection and they inform me that I owe them the £9.99 (fair enough) and a £25 admin charge as a penalty. I told them I was not prepared to pay the admin fee, but they wouldn't budge. I don't really know where to go from here. Should I contact the gym direct as see if I can settle the outstanding £9.99 with them? Or should I dispute the matter with Harlands? Point 6 of my contract does state that they can charge a £25 admin fee for returned DDs or cheque. But the DD wasn't returned it simply was never claimed. It also just seems very harsh. Any help would be appreciated. I look forward to the responses.

HI! I'm hoping someone can give me some advice. I joined Rush Fitness in Feb 2015. I signed a contract to pay £17.99 a month for a minimum of 1 month and could cancel at any time with 1 months notice. Rush Fitness DD is managed by the Harlands Group. In Sept 2015 a payment of £29.99 was taken as direct debit from my account, I tried contacting Harlands but every time I tried they were either closed or wouldn't answer the phone. I made contact with my bank who clawed the money back under the direct debit guarantee. I then received a letter from Harlands on 29th Sept which said: "we have today received an indemnity claim from your bank to refund the sum of £29.99. Consequently we write to clarify the situation. As you should be aware, you have entered into a membership agreement with Rush Fitness. At no time did we or Rush Fitness receive notice to cancel your agreement. The agreement also states that such payments are non refundable. We therefore ask that you request your bank to withdraw its claim immediately. Should you not withdraw the claim and rectify this breech of your agreement with 14 working days, you will incur a £25.00 administration charge and matter will be referred to a debt recovery company to pursue for the full amount and cost incurred. If you would like to discuss this matter please contact the Harlands Helpline. We trust this letter receives your urgent attention." I then responded via email with this: "Dear Sir/Madam, I am deeply disappointed and disgusted to read the content of your letter dated 29th September 2015, your reference XXXX. I have been a member of Rush Fitness for a period of time and throughout this period I have ensured regular payments to the sum of £17.99/month as agreed in the terms of my contract. However, I was shocked to find a sum of £29.99 had been deduced from my bank account instead of the £17.99 agreed. With reference to the contract and your statement "your direct debit payments are protected with a money back guarantee and you will receive 3 working days advance notice of any changes" - This holds you in breach of contract, as I have received no correspondence informing me of any increase in my membership fees. Not being able to make contact with yourselves due to your restricted opening hours, I had spoken to my bank who further confirmed that you were in breach of the direct debit agreement and therefore had made contact with you to recover the payment taken. Which as your statement also states above is protected by a money back guarantee. It appears my bank has recovered the full amount rather than the overcharged, I am happy to forward you £17.99 as per our agree in lieu of 1 months notice to terminate my membership as I no longer wish to be a member of Rush Fitness. My last day of membership will therefore be 23rd October 2015. I trust you will give this email your urgent attention and hope to hear from you soon. A disappointed customer, XXXXXX" They didn't respond so I sent them another to say - I would be grateful if you either promptly respond to my email or discuss my account with my father, who may be available to call you on my behalf. They responded to that no problem and there was an email trail so they've read the first. My father then spoke with them and they were unhelpful and basically dismissed what he said saying I have to pay all of it. Sorry this is so long!! Any advice on how to resolve this before it goes any further would be really helpful! N x

oh dear I have received the same letter as kjm987. Having read the thread I am not looking forward to communications with Harlands. It has however been ver helpful to read this before I emailed them so thanks to all who posted. I have sent an email and will see if I get a response. I too missed a payment on 26/10/15 and they now say they will take £9.99 plus £25 admin fee on 6/11/15. I am cancelling my direct debit as I am on income support and really cannot afford such charges.

Hi everyone, I would be really grateful for some help as I'm loosing sleep over my ongoing battle with Zinc/Harlands/CRS. My partner and I joined Exercise for Less on an 11 month contract in March 2014, by April 2014 we decided to cancel our membership as the gym was not to our liking. I mistakenly believed that I could just cancel my direct debit. Within a few days we started to receive letters. So on 20th April, we sent them a letter offering the £9.99 (taken from the forum). Harlands have denied receiving this letter. So now the debt (which currently stands at £226.00) has been passed to Zinc. Two days ago I sent Zinc the following email: "I refer to your attempts to contact me seeking payment for gym membership.membership. Harlands were made fully aware in April 2015 and Later about why their demands are wholly disputed. They failed to accept my reasonable offer to settle, nor did they attempt to discuss any alternative (please find letter attached).Accordingly, your demands are in clear breach of the OFT debt collection Guidelines and, if you contact me further, you will be included in my formal complaint to Trading Standards." Zinc replied with this: "Thank you for your email, the contents of which have been noted. It is not our intent to cause any distress or inconvenience.In order to resolve this matter, please provide evidence that you cancelled your gym membership in writing.I look forward to hearing from you within the next 2 days to prevent the possibility of further action." I don't know what to do to make them stop and I can't afford to pay them. I truly appreciate any help you can give me

Hello everyone, This is quite a complicated case, but I need some advice on how to deal with it as I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. 1. Signed up to Xercise4Less Nottingham in September 2014. Was led to believe that I was joining on a rolling contract, and also was never given a copy of the contract or any paperwork for that matter 2. Went into the branch to freeze my membership for 6 months (free of charge as I am a student). My student ID was photocopied and they said that the freeze would then commence after a few days of processing or whatever. 3. Checked my direct debits in June to find that payments to Harlands (£9.99) had still been going through the whole time! Whilst my membership was supposed to be frozen! 4. Phoned and phoned to no avail, with most phone calls ending due to no-one even bothering to pick up the phone. Phoned the Leeds branch (their HQ I believe) and was told that I'd receive a call back in half an hour. They didn't call me back. I emailed the front desk and also submitted my story through their website's customer support page. Still no replies/ people saying they didn't know what to do. 5. Finally got through to someone (Olivia) who knew what was going on! She found my freeze application form in a drawer at the Nottingham branch. She informed me that it had simply never been processed because whoever was working on reception that day must have forgotten. It turned out that the receptionist then left the job that weekend, so my form was sat in a desk drawer for months without anyone knowing about it! 6. Persistently tried to contact Xercise4Less to get my money back but yet again found myself running down dead ends. Really poor customer service as per usual. I emailed Tim Slaven, a receptionist, and explained the situation and that I wanted my money back. This is his reply: Hello Daniel, I have chased this up for you and our head office have decided that it's best to freeze the membership but still allow access to the club. The reason for this is that you are still in contract. When taking out this contract you agreed to paying Xercise4Less 12 payments. If Xercise4Less were to action this refund you will have had a 12 month contract for the price of 6. This would also cause a breach in the contract agreement. I apologise for any inconvenience that may have resulted from your membership not being frozen. Kind regards, Tim Slaven 7. I replied to Tim, but he also then went dead on me and I was left with nowhere else to turn in terms of contacting people at the gym, so I turned to Barclays (my bank) and got an indemnity payment. Barclays took back my money and refunded it into my account. I thought that would be the end of it. 8. I received the notorious CRS - IMPORTANT - PLEASE CALL US... letter on 20th October 2015. They say that my account balance stands at £222.43. It was sent to my home address in London (perhaps my 2nd address on my Xercise4Less account) They claim to have sent me previous letters but they must have been sent to my uni halls address (I am now a second year student living at a different address). 9. I've phoned CRS (a mistake, I know) and told them that I would not pay a "settlement fee, as a good will gesture". I missed a call from them this morning. What do I do now? Please help!

Hi CAG, I've joined Xercise 4 Less in February 2015. In July 2015 stopped going to gym but kept paying DD as per my agreement. I wasn't aware that it's a roll on contract so after 14th payment cancelled DD with the bank. Unfortunately never read their T&C's and on 27th May received first letter from Harlands with £34.99 to pay. I called their helpline to explain that I'm not paying any admin fees because didn't know about their roll on system and that I haven't used gym since July 2014. The woman gave me number to E4less and advised to call them which I never did. I then started receiving letters from CRS which I ignored. After reading about similar cases on your forum I went to gym in person accompanied by my Fiance as a witness to talk to their Manager and offer £9.99 as Cancellation fee but the manager said that we can close the case if I paid £69.99 which I've refused. That was on 7th October. Today received letter from Spratt Endicott Solicitors requesting contact within 7 days to discuss my payment proposals (the outstanding balance is now £171.47) Please can you advise me what to do now?

BBC1 Watchdog 29th October 7.30pm - available on BBC iPlayer https://youtu.be/ABjYCjxsW9g Xercise4Less were exposed for failing to process several customers' cancellations, leading to contact from Harlands and then CRS. Hmmm, now where have I seen that before ?? The funny thing is that X4Less have actually been behaving slightly better to their customers recently, when contacted directly. But it's Harlands that really need to be brought to account for the appalling harassment of their victims. Time to crank up our efforts to involve the CMA and Trading Standards.

the 5th of April 2014 me and my brother set up a membership with xercise 4 less ,this as states on the email i got was for a minimum of 12 month with and initial payment of 34.99 and then proceed on to a monthly direct debit of 14.99. fast forward to the 5th of may 2015 ( this being 13 month after i set up my membership) decided to hand my notice into the gym and cancel my direct debit due to moving gyms a little closer to home, thankfully this is a cash in hand gym and not a pesky direct debit. several months of ignoring letters that i owed them money i received a letter from crs saying a owe a total of 186.47 and goes on to say they may take me to county court i am loosing sleep over the matter, am i in breach of my contract even though i handed my notice in after the 12 months minimum? what is my course of action? if anyone is knowledgeable please don't hesitate to input

Dear all, Great website and excellent information. Below is an explanation of my current situation. It's a bit long but I have given as much info as possible in order to be as accurate as possible. Here goes... I was forwarded on a letter from my Mum today (I've recently moved back from abroad and have been using my parents' address) from Harlands regarding my recently cancelled Fit4Less membership. I cancelled my membership earlier this month as when I checked their website I saw that they stated: Monthly membership – paid via Direct Debit Membership agreements are for a period of 12 months, however we do not enforce contracts, long term commitment or pursue missed payments, as we understand that customers require flexibility and freedom to chose when and where they exercise. To cancel your membership at any time simply contact your bank and cancel your direct debit instruction. Please be advised that your membership will be terminated WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT and your access to the gym will be prohibited from the day you cancel your direct debit. To get the most out of your last month at the gym, it is advisable to cancel your direct debit about 7 working days before the date when your next subscription is due to be collected. Please do not leave it any later than this, or your bank will not have time to prevent the collection of your next month’s subscription." .fitness4less.co.uk/terms_and_conditions.html Taking this at face value I cancelled my Direct Debit via my online banking earlier this month. However I then receive the letter that states (in full): "Harlands administer the collection if all payments due under your membership agreement with Fit4Less abd you bank has recently advised us that your Direct Debit Instruction has been cancelled. The membership agreement you signed states that all payments must be made by Direct Debit. Therefore you must call HARLANDS HELPLINE... immediate in order for us to reinstate your Direct Debit over the phone. If you do not contact us by 18 october 15 you will be charged an administration fee. The telephone lines are open..." Now, the vague wording of the letter and the fact that they give me no concrete reason why I need to pay an admin fee of £25 leads me to believe they are trying to pull a fast one. Also I am not going to pay their ridiculously expensinve hotline. I have returned to my DD agreement and seen it states: "Amount to be debited from your account You will be debited £19.99 on 18/04/2015 and thereafter on the same day each month until further notice. The debit will be collected on or immediately after the date specified Start date for regular billing 18/04/2015 The company name which will appear on your bank statement is Eazipay Ltd. Your Membership details Chosen Membership: Online DD No Contract To start on: 18/03/2015" Then, on checking the T&C sent to me in April (the month I joined) I noticed the following (which is why I think they are trying to sting me here) "If your bank fails to make a due direct debit payment from your account, we will write to advise you of this. We may apply to your bank for payment by direct debit twice within one calendar month and we reserve the right to refer any missed due payments to a debt collection agency. We may charge a fee for failed direct debit payments and/or letters sent to you in respect of unpaid amounts. 5.7 Should any membership fees not be paid within 30 days of the due date, the full membership fee for the remainder of the commitment period will automatically become due and payable in full. 5.8 Any unpaid and overdue membership fees referred to a debt collection agency will be subject to a surcharge to cover the collection costs incurred. This surcharge together with all other charges and legal fees incurred in the collection of the overdue membership fees will be the responsibility of the member and will be legally recoverable from the member" At this stage I am looking for advice as how to reply. I think the website is misleading but I am willing to pay a final £19.99 for the final month membership to close the matter. The admin charge appears unlawful so I want to dispute this. Any help would be greatly appreciated and I will post back here to let you know how the matter is progressing so other people caught out can hopefully learn from my experience. Thanks Des

Hi all, After reading through many reviews and experiences of the cancellation issues with Harlands - I wanted to ask a few questions before I took any action which would get me into trouble/involve admin fees. I joined Fit4less in in September for £17.99 a month (no contract). I did use the gym at first but have not had the time to go recently and so would like to cancel the membership. However, I would like to do it in a fool proof manner so I don't end up falling into the trap of such charges and admin fees, that I have read about. What I intend to do: Send an e-mail AND a letter (recorded delivery) to the gym manager informing me of my intention to cancel, and accepting that I will pay one more monthly payment (as per the notice period of 30 days). This final payment will be in November. What I would like to ask is about the contents of the letter - Do I need to include the direct debit details? And should this letter also be sent to Harlands? Should I expect a reply from the Fit4less or Harlands, confirming cancellation? The reason why ask so many questions is that I haven't actually come across any experiences of people who have done it 'the right way' and had no issues whatsoever. So I'm just wondering if I'll get hassled regardless of how I go about cancelling my membership... Thanks very much in advance

Hello, excuse the long post - I figured more information was better than less so people have all the information to advise me. I recently joined TruGym on 07 Oct 2015 on impulse (stupid I know) because of the low price (£14.99 a month for 12 months) & because I was told they had an offer on so there'd be no joining fee. [My free advice is this: never join a gym on impulse, always read online reviews before signing up, check if the Office of Fair Trading or other firms have had any dealings with the gym - in other words prevention is better than cure]. I needed to contact Harlands after joining because in the rush to join & snap up what I considered a good deal I'd mistakenly given them the details of my main current account and I wanted to change these details to that of my second current account which I use purely for direct debits . I called the gym to change my account details and was surprised to be told to call Harlands who deal with their DDs - I assumed the gym would be processing the DDs, not another company. [if indeed Harlands IS separate from TruGym - how could I find that out? Companies House doesn't say they're linked, but would it even if they are?] the gym gave me the number 08712 502423*** to call Harlands and since numbers starting 08 aren't included in my inclusive minutes, my first port of call was SayNoTo0870, where I found the geographic number 01444 449166. [i've since come across other numbers: 01444 449152 (from a letter from Harlands setting out my DD instruction), 01444 449157 (Harlands Group website), 01444 449150 (Google)]. I called, but wasn't able to get through - it just rang and rang and no-one answered. Oh well at least I wasn't paying per minute. *** this 08712 number is a 10p/min revenue-generating number - is that classed, or could it be classed, as unfair? shouldn't they give out a geographic number as a matter of course? I then emailed Harlands on 13 Oct 2015, but to date (16 Oct 2015) have received no reply. Both the inability to get through by phone and no reply to an email sent up a red flag, so I started Googling TruGym and Harlands and started reading loads of bad reviews: "Stay away", "Don't join", "Rude", that sort of thing - one poor review after another. I also read about the OFT forcing them to change unfair clauses in their Ts & Cs & unfair (illegal?) practices: e.g. people's DDs inexplicably going up, contracts rolling over for another year with seemingly no way to get out of the contract, house moves & redundancy not taken as a valid reason to cancel, etc. [NB the current Ts & Cs have directly addressed some, but not all, of these issues] I wanted a copy of the Ts & Cs, because I hadn't been given a copy when I signed up at the gym, nor had I been given a copy of my contract with them. I was expecting them to arrive by email, but nothing came. emailed the gym and the following exchange of emails took place between me and the manager of the gym: Me: Hello, could you please email me a copy of your Terms & Conditions - can't see any on your website. Thank you. Manager’s reply: Our terms and conditions are present on the sign up page, I can see you already a member is there anything I can help you with direct? Kind Regards, [manager’s name] My reply: Could you do the following please: - let me know the web address for the Terms & Conditions because I can't find them anywhere at [TruGym URL1] or at [TruGym URL2] - email me a copy of my contract - email me a payment schedule showing the dates and amounts of the direct debits for the 12 month contract including the first payment. I was told there was no joining fee because of a special offer, yet there is no mention of this at [TruGym URL3l] where a £20 joining fee is listed. Manager’s reply: I will not be doing the following as stated [unbelievable!!!], The terms and conditions are on the website joining process and you must click you agree to the terms before continuing to the payment form. If indeed it was advertised as an offer then I am willing to refund the difference if you where [sic] charge [sic][= were charged] My reply (in shock): You won't supply the information requested - why on earth not? I need a copy of your Ts & Cs for my records, as well as a copy of my contract and a payment schedule. I didn't sign up online, but in the gym in [name of town]. Regardless of ticking a box saying I'd read the Ts & Cs I still want a copy of them to refer to. The manager simply didn't reply to that last email. I went round to the gym on 14/10/2015 (one week after joining) in person and the manager wasn't exactly bending over backwards to be helpful or friendly (quite the opposite). I forced myself to stay calm and eventually he grudgingly, and after much persuasion, printed me out a copy of the Ts & Cs, which I intended to read later on and see where I stood legally. At this point I need to mention that after reading posts on CAG I'd already come to the conclusion that as I'd joined on the premises I wasn't entitled to a cooling-off period, yet I was confused on this matter because (a) what difference does it make HOW or WHERE you apply?, and (b) I applied in the gym by filling in my details on the gym's tablet in reception which was connected to the gym's website, so is this classed as distance selling or not? I mean I could just as easily have made an online application from home, so what's the difference between applying online on the gym's tablet or at home on my laptop? I can't see there is any. I mean unless the gym's website server was based in the gym (which I highly doubt), then surely this constitutes distance selling, doesn't it? (And if it doesn't, it should, shouldn't it? Has a lawyer ever argued this point in court?) And even if I'd filled in a paper application in the gym, why does applying on the premises exempt people from a cooling-off period? I simply don't get it. If anyone can explain it to me in a way that makes sense, I'd like to know why the law is set up the way it is. I can't see any logic or sense to it at all. If distance selling regulations entitle people to a cooling-off period WITHOUT HAVING TO GIVE A REASON, then why do people who sign up for something on the premises not also benefit from a cooling-off period? Makes absolutely no sense to me. After joining I also noticed that the advertised opening hours (mainly 24 hrs apart from at weekends) didn't match the actual opening hours (which were long, but not 24 hrs). So this constitutes false advertising, doesn't it? Before I went in on 14/10/2015 to speak to the manager for not answering my questions by email, I took a photo of the sign outside advertising (almost) 24 hr access and while I was inside I took a photo of the opening hours on the inside of the front door. The manager didn't like that one little bit. "What's the purpose of all this?" he asked in a very unfriendly tone. I didn't say I thought they were guilty of false advertising or rudeness or failure to answer a simple email, but I did say "Am I still in the cooling-off period?" (expecting the answer to be no because of what I'd read on CAG & then intending to go home, read the Ts & Cs and see if there was any other legal way to get out of the contract) (by the way the TruGym Ts & Cs DO say that you have a 14-day cooling-off period if you didn't join on the premises). To my surprise the manager said yes I was still in the cooling-off period (after establishing that I hadn't used the gym yet) and so I then asked to be cancelled. He emailed Harlands with my cancellation request & emailed me a copy (which I received and have printed out). I then asked the manager to print out this cancellation request (because I didn't want to leave the gym without a hard copy) and asked him to print & sign his name and date it, which he did. The only problem is that the sheet he signed doesn't show who the cancellation request was emailed to, whereas the sheet I printed out does (but doesn't bear his signature). The manager then told me to cancel my DD, which I did. So I'm confused - am I cancelled or not? Surely the manager must know his own Ts & Cs? Or maybe I spooked him by taking photos of the opening hours, asking for a copy of the Ts & Cs, a copy of my contract and a copy of the payment schedule? Does he have the discretion to cancel someone's contract who applied on the premises, even though the Ts & Cs don't usually allow for that? Has he breached the contract by not giving me a copy of my contract (which I still haven't received either by email or post)? Also, who owns the gym? TruGym or Harlands? How would I go about finding out? What is the relationship between the two entities? I wasn't informed of any cooling-off period (or lack of one) when I signed up - was the person who signed me up (not the manager) acting illegally by not informing me of the situation re the cooling-off period? Is the inability to cancel in the 1st year an unfair term in the contract? (I ask because the last gym I was at only required a month's notice to cancel - I gave a month's notice, cancelled my DD and that was the end of the matter, just as things should be). So, as I said, I'm confused - am I cancelled or not? Could someone please advise me? Thank you KJ

First, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this site and this forum in particular. It has given me support, courage and information, without which I would have probably have given in to the bullying and harassment of Harlands (H£) and their questionable business practices. I would like to share my ‘journey’ along the relentless grinding mill that Xercise4Less, (X4L) H£ and CRS subject us to so that it may (hopefully) encourage others to stand up to them. I offer my apologies in advance for a lengthy post. Our story began in February 2014. The gym was being installed in Bristol and my wife and I joined in a porta-cabin outside the building. I signed up for a rolling monthly membership and my wife signed up for an 11 month minimum contract. We paid initial membership fees in advance and agreed to Direct Debit payments from my current account for subsequent membership payments starting after the gym opened. The gym opened in May 2014. We made payments each and every month from June 2014 to April 2015, the minimum terms had been fulfilled. My wife had used the gym but by April 2015 had not attended for many months so we decided to cancel our membership. I cancelled the bank DD on 4th May 2015. To my shame, the ONLY time I actually entered the X4L gym was on 5th May 2015 to hand in our cancellation letters as required by the gym T&C’s. I told the staff that I had already cancelled the DD and they said that was a problem due to the notice period. I offered to pay any outstanding amounts, there and then in the club, but was advised that it was not possible and I must call H£ to “sort it out”. They gave me the phone number. I repeatedly tried to call the number which rang forever and eventually dumped me into a “voicemail is full” message and terminated the call. This raised my suspicions. I searched the web for Xercise4Less + Harlands on my phone and immediately found many references including this forum. I consider myself very fortunate because this prompted me to go back into the gym and ask a staff member to sign and date a copy of the cancellation letters so I had some proof, which they did. On 6th May 2015, having read many threads in this forum, I sent an e-mail to Harlands, copied to the operations manager of the gym, informing them of the cancellation and offering to pay the outstanding amount due for the notice period. Based on the advice found here I stated a limited time offer, refuting any fees or penalties and instructions that all communications must be in writing to me only as the payment agreement was only with me. H£ sent a response that they could not deal with cancellations, they must be instructed by X4L. X4L say “contact H£”. To me, this appears to be evidence of some collusion between H£ and X4L to deliberately obfuscate and delay cancelations to try to maximise exit payments. On 11th May 2015 I re-sent, by e-mail, the cancellation letter to H£ emphasising in the e-mail the fact that we had fulfilled our contractual obligations to the club, had evidence of the cancellations and were willing to make the final payments due, once again copied to the operations manager of the club. I got nothing after the “e-mail received” auto responder. On 15th May 2015 we received letters claiming outstanding subscription payments a “1 month cancellation fee” (which is not in the T&C’s) and “Default fees”. On 17th May 2015 I sent a further e-mail stating; “I have offered to fulfil my financial obligations to Harlands but you have chosen to ignore this offer and pursue a completely unnecessary waste of time for all concerned.” I told them that I would report them to the relevant authorities (and why) and gave them a final chance to accept payment for the notice period. On 17th May I submitted a complaint on the Citizens Advice website as that appears to be the only way to report something to the Trading Standards Authorities. My submission included the following; “Their letter states “under the terms of your membership agreement, you simply have to pay a 1 month cancellation fee”. There is no such fee in the terms and conditions. I believe that this a fraudulent claim for payment. I believe that Harlands‘ decision to ignore my offer of a fair and reasonable settlement and send letters with exaggerated claims is an attempt to mislead and intimidate and amounts to aggressive commercial practices as defined in the “Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008“ (CUTR). CA responded that they have passed the complaint on to Trading Standards (TS) as a criminal act may have taken place. Despite the advice on here I did try calling the gym on several occasions which proved utterly pointless. Since May we have had the usual stream of letters from Harlands and then CRS along with numerous calls and texts to my wife and I on our mobile phones which I consider to be harassment because I specifically requested all contact to be writing and only to me. The last letters from CRS (22/8/15) threatened either legal action or outsourcing to external collection agents. I believe that these threats and the ongoing harassment is further evidence of criminal behaviour under CUTR so I made a further complaint to CA which they have added to the TS case. I have discovered that CUTR was amended in 2014 so that a consumer, who is subjected to aggressive business practices by companies pursuing them for an alleged debt, can counter claim against those companies for damages to reflect any alarm, distress, inconvenience or humiliation suffered as a direct consequence of a trader using aggressive business practices. I am seriously considering that as an option. I will post any further developments. Thank you all once again.

Hello I would be grateful for any help you can give me. I joined Results Health Club when I was 17 (actually 17 and 8 months) and signed Direct Debit form from Harlands for 12 months membership for £35 per month. I was full-time student with part-time Saturday job. Usual story, after using gym on few occasions I asked at the gym if I could cancel membership. Not sure of exact date when this happened but some time in November. I was told that I had to complete 12 months contract. Struggled on to make payments, even using 18th birthday money to do this. After making 10 months payments a relative found out and looked at the paperwork. I hadn't noticed but my dob on the Harlands Direct Debit form had been amended to show that I was 18 at time of signing. Rightly or wrongly they advised me to cancel the Direct Debit immediately and I also wrote to bank telling them what had happened. Much to my surprise the bank refunded the whole £350 payments I had made. I was advised to write to Harlands informing them what had happened and that the contract was void and unenforceable. They then asked for sight of my birth certificate which I duly sent, thinking they were going to sort things out and they then wrote saying that as I had made payments after my 18th birthday I had validated the contract. Letters from CRS followed adding further charges. Total amount they say I owe is £647.36. I believe both Harlands and CRS have been attempting to contact me by telephone but I have not answered. Wrote to CRS advising them to only contact me in writing but have received a text message from them acknowledging my letter and asking me to get in touch. Also have had another telephone call from them today. Please advise what I should do now. Thank you.

Hi Guys, I've ensured I have not spoken to these guys on the phone so far so a few emails below and some background; I'm being chased for debt I feel I do not owe. I moved to Eccles and heard about your gym which was more local than the gym I'd been using before the move, I found out they had a 7 day trial so I thought I'd give it a go. After the 7 days I had follow up calls from a representative of Your Gym, I explained that although it was a little more local the facilities weren't as good so I was unsure if I'd take a membership but I'd have think. Following that I received another couple of calls with the final one offering a deal; The deal was, if you're not sure you can pay £30 up front and that will get you 3 months membership, after that if you're not convinced you can cancel. I decided to take the offer and keep my other gym membership running so I could see which I used more, I hardly used Your Gym in the end preferring my old gym for it's equipment. I have records showing the calls I received, I have direct debits that show I continued with my old membership at the same time. I was told to go online and pay the £30 on the your gym website, which I did in good faith. 3 months later I had cancelled the Direct Debit as I didn't want to continue as per the advice from your gym, then I began to get letters from Harlands and subsequently CRS who are now saying I owe £164.47. It all went quiet after my last email requesting a copy of the signed contract (which doesn't exist as it was online) and all they've ever sent is a copy of a confirmation email! Now I've just had a letter through the door from CRS - we seem have gone from £15.99 (membership fee) to me owing £164.47 It's a joke that they do this. I've sent a letter to the gym, I've only corresponded with harlands via email, the gym haven't responded so I've just got this to deal with now. I've now received this from CRS; Dear Mr Further to your email of 18th May 2015 please be advised initially that Harlands is no longer regulated by the FCA as they no longer deal in regulated Credit Agreements and have allowed their Consumer Credit License to expire on 31st May 2015. In regards to your request for a signed document we apologise that Harlands have incorrectly used the term "signed" to describe how you entered into this agreement. We are unable to enclose a signed copy of your minimum term membership agreement, as this was entered into via an online sign up process and as such, no signed physical document exists. An online agreement is no more or less binding than a signed contract. A party must agree to the terms of a contract in order for it to become legally binding. Although this is usually done by the signature of those with authority to enter into the agreement, it is commonly recognised that parties can enter into a contract by any course of dealing, signifying their acceptance of the terms of the contract. In January 2009, the High Court in Grant v Bragg considered whether a contract was formed by two parties agreeing to the terms of the draft contract via e-mail. The Court considered it was enough for Mr Grant to have e-mailed Mr Bragg, accepting the contract's terms previously e-mailed to him by Mr Bragg's lawyer, and that it did not matter that neither party had actually signed the contract. The Court acknowledged it may have been the parties' original intention to be bound only on execution of the final contract, but maintained it was evident that their intentions had changed during the course of their e-mail correspondence. In the case above, the court believed it was clear the parties had intended to enter into the contract via e-mail, and that to hold otherwise would just serve to defy the commercial reality of the situation In the instance of the Your Gym online sign up portal you have been told that "You are committing to £15.99 per month for a minimum of 3 months. After this minimum term your membership payments will continue on a monthly basis." You have also been informed that by ticking the "I agree" button and then clicking the next step button you are indicating that you have read and agreed to be bound by the terms. You have completed this process and so are bound by the agreement. It is correct that only a judge may enforce a "penalty charge" however it is our position that all charges applied to this balance are to cover actual and necessary costs and thus are not penalties. Lord Dunedin set out in Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage & Motor Co Ltd (1914) that: "It is no obstacle to the sum stipulated being a genuine pre-estimate of damage, that the consequences of the breach are such as to make precise pre-estimation almost an impossibility. On the contrary, that is just the situation when it is probable that pre-estimated damage was the true bargain between the parties ( Clydebank Case, Lord Halsbury; Webster v. Bosanquet, Lord Mersey)." The above applies to the cost of £25.00 applied twice by Harlands and also in regards to our own collection fees of £66.50. We believe, therefore; that these charges do not constitute a penalty and are thus fully enforceable. If you still doubt any of the above we would recommend that you seek legal advice but it is our intention to continue with recovery action against you for the sum of £164.47. Yours sincerely,

Hello, just stopping by to bring you yet another issue with the infamous Harlands/CRS/Zinc triad. me and my girlfriend joined the gym back in 09/14. I went for about a month (typical) and then decided I did not want to go anymore, I cancelled my direct debit. I have very recently sorted it out and gave Zinc an offer for what I owed exactly (11 x £9.99 payments), did not take the offers they were giving me of course as these included 'charges' which obviously I am not liable to pay in any way. They accepted this with no issues and as far as I am aware my side of things is sorted. My girlfriend's situation isn't as simple. She had sent them an almost identical e-mail as me (only things different were the number of months owed and hence, the settlement offer.) She received a response saying that they would accept the offer, however they would refer the remainder back to Harlands (i.e. themselves, as we all know they are in the same office, doh) to decide on. My problem is that I don't know where that leaves my girlfriend. Does this mean that they are technically still trying to incur extra charges on her that she isn't legally liable to pay? Should we take that as a termination of agreement? Should we tell them we are going to wait for Harland's verdict before any payment is made? I would know what to do usually but the way they have worded their response seems a bit crafty in an attempt to strike fear and guilt. I will provide the e-mails below for context. Any advise would be appreciated! Dear ..... Thank you for your email 18th August. I understand that you are querying this amount from our client and I can confirm that this balance is a result of the gym membership that you signed up to with Xercise 4 Less Bristol for £9.99 a month. In order to resolve the matter, we can offer you a settlement of £147.32 which can be paid in 3 monthly instalments. Once payment has been made, we will close the account and return it to our client If the settlement amount is not affordable, we would be happy to set up an affordable repayment plan on the full outstanding balance of £196.42. Please contact us on the details below at your earliest convenience, so we can discuss the best way forward for you. If we do not hear from you within 7 days, your account will fall back into the collections process and may run the risk of being returned to our client. Kind regards .............. Dear Holly, Please see e-mail dated 20th Aug 2015 below for reference. This reply is further to said e-mail. I regret I will have to decline your settlement offer. The reason for this is because my agreement with Harlands is for a minimum term of 12 monthly payments of £9.99. According to my records, I have currently paid 4 of these monthly payments and therefore have 8 more to pay, equating to a total of £79.92. This is of course different to the balance you claim is £196.42, and is also different to the settlement amount you have offered me for £147.32. Therefore, I am currently only willing to settle with the amount equal to what I rightfully owe your client, Harlands, which is indeed £79.92. I am more than happy to pay the full settlement of £79.92 immediately as I am in a position to do so at this moment in time. I must add that if any further requests from yourselves or Harlands are directed at me to pay any more than the amount rightfully owed, this will be regarded by myself as an attempt to incur penalty charges. This would be an unlawful action on your/your client's part, and by continuing to request such penalties which are not enforceable by law, it would therefore mean that I would have to consider my agreement with Harlands as terminated on this basis. I look forward to your response. Sincerely, ...... Good afternoon Thank you for your email, the contents of which have been noted. I would be happy to accept your payment of the undisputed balance of £79.92. I need to make you aware that the remaining balance of £116.50 will be returned to our client advising them of your dispute as they may wish to pursue the matter further. If you are happy to continue on this basis, please confirm that the payment of £79.92 is an affordable amount and you are up to date with priority bills such as rent / mortgage / council tax and utilities. Please contact us on *** or 01789 273149 as soon as it is convenient, so that we can set up your repayment plan. If we do not hear from you within 7 days, your account will fall back into the collections process and may run the risk of being returned to our client. We look forward to hearing from you soon. Kind regards ......

I joined Fit4less a long time ago (over a year) It was know as Energie Fitness. I have never had a problem with them until recently. When the gym became Fit4Less tehy asked me to update my DD details with them so I could continue my membership. I did so and was told I could cancel anytime. My partner gave birth to twins in June and since then I haven't had the time/energy to attend the gym. 3 months passed with me not going once so I thought well I'll just cancel my Direct Debit. A few weeks later I received a letter from Harlands redirected to my new address. Dated 15th Sept, 2 days after I cancelled the DD. The letter stated: Your bank has advised us that your final instalment has been returned 'unpaid' "instruction cancelled". We have therefore, added a £20.00 administration charge which means tehre is a balance due of £39.99. Then they go on to say I need to call this 10p per min line to collect the money. They also I could send in a cheque before the 22nd Sept. They also gone on to say they assume I do not wish to renew my membership etc. After reading similar threads on this website. I emailed this morning the following: Dear sir or madam, I refer to my membership at Fit4Less gym in Croydon. I cancelled my direct debit mandate in the middle of September 2015 and this was adequate notice of my intention to cancel. When I joined Fit4Less over a year ago (previously named 'Energie Fitness') I was told there was no contract and I could cancel at anytime. All they asked me for was my direct debit details, I did not sign anything and was not given any contract or terms and conditions. However I realise now I should have made one final payment for the September 2015 payment and offer to pay this to you now. I will not pay you any administration or cancellation fees - these are penalties that are unlawful and unenforceable. If you confirm in writing that you'll accept the amount of £19.99 in 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. Yours faithfully, Domo I hope I said the right thing, anyway you can clearly see on their website: f4l.com 'Fit4less Croydon is a great value gym at only £19.99 per month & No contract! I can't find their terms and conditions anywhere on their website and I certainly wasn't given any when I joined. Hope you can help me, any advice would be greatly appreciated as I really can't afford to be paying out extra expenses at the moment. Kind Regards

To start my story: Started 12 month gym membership Jan 2012. Ended: April 2015. CRS letter to parents address: Sept 2015. I personally went into the gym in April 2015 to sign to say that I was cancelling my gym membership, they said one more payment will be made - these payments were taken out of my bank account and then I stopped my DD at the end of May 2015. I have called the gym, who said that their records show that I stopped my membership in July 2015 - as soon as I mentioned Harlands they hung up. Harlands have said they have been repeatedly trying to contact me via letters - I have moved address but CRS have contacted my parents. They suggest I owe £25, but because CRS are now involved they are charging an exta £102. I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

Ive seen a few posts on here regarding harlands so thought id share my situation for advice. I joined Xercise4less in april 2014. I recently cancelled this 12 month contract through my Direct Debit (28/04/15) and today had a letter through saying the April installment has been returned unpaid and asking for the following; £9.99 Outstanding Subscription £9.99 Cancellation period £25.00 Default fee (first of all they call this an "administration fee" The next part mentioned if i do not call them by 21 May 15 they will charge me a further £25.00 administration fee. I mentioned to Harlands and Xercise4less that this was done by accident and they still wanted me to pay their fees. I have no intentions of paying them any Cancellation fee or Default fee. I am willing to pay any outstanding subscription but not prepared to return to the gym after all this. If anyone could advise me on this matter that would be brilliant.

I joined in Aug 2014 on the Bank Holiday Special. Sent them a notice of cancellation to the Gym branch I joined in (Stockton South) on 21st Aug 2015 as I had fulfilled my 12 month contract. As soon as the August Payment went out I cancelled my DD with the Bank. This morning I received a letter from Harlands requesting money with admin fees, I had already followed their cancellation steps. and fulfilled my 12 months as per agreement. Ive rang my branch and I was asked had I been into the gym to sign a cancellation, I stated I hadnt as per their own website it just says written notice. Which i sent. Please any guidance would be very helpful. I didnt see any threads that were slightly similar in how to deal with this issue. The gym said they would ring head office and get back to me but i highly doubt they will after reading any of the threads here

Hi all, New here. My partner cancelled a direct debit to Xercise4less on the 11th Month, thinking that the 12 months had passed. She still has an active DD with them for herself but the payment cancelled was for her father who no longer is able to go. She has now started receiving letters from Harlands about recovery of the installments and admin charges. I have read through some of the threads here and the admin charges appear to be unlawful and unenforceable. Is there a template letter that I can sent them at all? My partner is willing to pay the last month owing but nothing more and I can't blame her. Harlands appear to use bully tactics in their letters. Thanks.

Hi, ill give a brief summary of the problem here. Essentially i joined my old local gym Xercise4less back in May on the assumption i had joined on a 1 month contract as i was due to move away in Julyish time. As i found out later once i cancelled my direct debit with Harlands is that it was a 12 month contract I had been applied for. Now i had explicitly said to the team member i didnt not want this as i would be moving very shortly and 12 months would be pointless for me to have. I received a letter through the door from harlands saying i had to pay the amount due for the remaining period, and an admin fee would be applied if i did not do it by a certain time. This letter was actually sent to my old address as i did move out in July so didnt give me much time to call harlands back. I called them on the day it was due and spoke to a lovely girl who confirmed there would be no charge as i had contacted them and explained my situation and she said to try dealing with the gym directly. So i went ahead on done this and after a lengthy escapade and several talks with a manager the cancellation was processed and the admin team were emailed to reflect this (I now get emails saying to join xercise4less so i assume they must have processed this correctly). Yet another letter was sent to my old house so i phoned again, waited 30 mins to speak to someone before deciding to just email them well before the deadline they gave on this letter. I have still not received a response to this email back on the 20th of August. All was quiet till I was told another letter had been sent to the old address with mention of debt collectors and a bill of £66.98 in arrears along with the remaining membership charge. I am pretty sure this is bordering on harrassment as i have spoken to them and had it confirmed there would be no charge (pretty sure it also says calls are recorded) and emailed with no response. I will be phoning first thing on Monday morning to speak with them, having worked in customer services myself for John Lewis i dread customers complaining, but I have been pretty level-headed with them since this whole escapade started and made trips out my own pocket to get it sorted because no action was being taken. Any help before i phone them in regards to the admin fees etc.? Many thanks, Lewis.

Hello, I joined the JD Sports Gym in Liverpool on a flexible, rolling contract, with no minimum contract. It can be seen on their website (I can't post the link) Now this was in January. However, a few months ago (July or so) I wanted to cancel, due to lack of use, so I consulted their website and found this in the FAQ page: Which is exactly what I did. I got a few letters from them regarding missed payments, and administration fees. I (naively) thought this may be a mistake, and left it. After that I got this letter through at the end of last week stating this: I did what the website said. As far as I'm aware, I don't owe them anything. It wasn't a fixed contract. Am I liable to pay them anything? I just want them to leave me alone. Any help would be fantastic. Best regards, Steven

Hi there, I signed up for a 12 month contract in December with a £15 pay nothing else till February, I moved out of the area in January and told the gym (who said it was fine) I sent them a confirmation email later reiterating my cancellation and they replied saying just let harlands know and it will be sorted. I didn't hear anything from harlands for a while so i assumed cancellation had gone through, I later checked my spam box (a once a month phenomenon) and found an email requesting evidence, which I sent them straight away (although admittedly 20 days after they sent the email). They rejected my evidence because my full name wasn't on all 3 pages (only 2 of the 3) and asked me send them something else, because I was renting and not lead tenant I had to request a letter from the council which took 3 weeks to arrive. I sent it over and they said I owed them £100. Considering I cancelled 14 days before my first direct debit was due, I don't think I owe them anything. They've been harassing my parents (at their address) and me, despite telling them I've sought advice from CAB. They've now referred me to CRS who have been harassing me every other day and want me to pay over £500. Can someone please help? The anxiety their harassment is causing me and my family is just not acceptable. Every letter I've sent them (including numerous copies of those posted by Slick in other threads) have come back with saying 'no, pay us'. I'm at the end of my tether! Thanks in advance Satin

Hi sorry that it's another Harlands related thread. I've just been reading through a lot of them and it's got me worried about ending the contract. So I'm tied into a minimum contract of 6 months and I don't wish my payments and my membership to continue after the minimum 6 month period. My minimum 6 month period ends on 17th January 2016. I've just sent them this email: To whom it may concern, My name is Jonny Jones I am contracted to a minimum period of six months payment of £90.00 to Harlands Group for membership to London Fight Factory, my reference number to quote is: 33048214 / JW. I would like to make it known that I do not wish my contract to automatically renew after the end of the minimum period on 17th January 2016. I wish my membership to be cancelled once the minimum period is over and for no further payments to be made. Therefore I expect that January 17th 2016 is the last time any money is to be taken out of my account from this group and I will be cancelling my DD with my bank as soon as I see this payment has been taken. Please give confirmation that you have received this email and that 17th January 2016 will be my final payment. Kind Regards Jonny Will this be enough to end things with them and make sure that I don't pay any more after the 17th January payment has been taken? Thanks in advance, you're giving great advice to lots of people Jonny