Hi there been viewing a lot of advice from here with my case and its so far been a great help just looking to share my individual story and see what action I should take next and where I stand. in March of this year I went online and cancelled myself and my partners accounts with xercise4less, we had both made 13 payments and I understood due to the 30 day deal that I would still have a payment to make in april to which I made sure adequate funds were left in both accounts to pay for this amounts of 9.99 for myself and 9.99 for my partner. As those dates came I noticed that no funds had been taken. What I've since realised is I also a few days later cancelled my direct debit with my online banking, which ive now realised it says you aren't meant to do. From reading various forums on here I sent an email saying I accepted that I would pay the amounts of 9.99 each but the admin fees were unlawful and unenforceable, and if not accepted I wouldn't pay them a penny. In the email I sent regarding this I got a reply stating that my account would need to be cancelled, when I sent them a reply stating I had cancelled, they just replied again saying your account still needs cancelled. Since then I have moved onto letters from both harlands and now 2 or 3 from CRS and my partner now received a text from CRS as well threatening court action etc, doing our best to continue to ignore but 1. because I did cancel the direct debit and 2. due to constant threatening letters and increasing amounts due I'm just looking to clarify how my situation really is, my partner is also concerned about our credit rating which I'm sure shouldn't be affected? But any clarity on this would be greatly appreciated aswel. Thanks in advance Andrew

Thank you for the reply Slick and help much appreciated I'm needing a bit of help with regards to Xcercise4less/Harlands. My Husband opened a contract for himself ,me and our 17 year old son. 1.May 2015 2.yearly contract for us both.. and rolling contract for our son and he's still at school. 3. I cancelled mine 27July 16. giving them 30 days notice online form as was advised with their manager. a payment came out 9.99 on 21 Aug 16. therefore my contract should be finished. On the form your advised not to cancel the DD which we haven't done at the moment it remains active. I cancelled ours sons one and they said they couldn't find the cancellation form for that. They took a payment for his on the 2nd Aug. £14.99 After emailing the manager he said we would need to cancel again, so did this on 11th Aug . I received confirmation this time and have kept both confirmations. A payment came out on the 2nd Sept therefore I consider this cancelled. again DD remains active. now the bombshell that hit us yesterday was that they have defaulted the 2 accounts and we will be receiving a letter from Harlands this week with admin charges.. I'm dumbfounded to the reason they can do this? especially no missed payments and active DD still running! I've fully done everything required by X4L! I went into the gym today with My husband and demanded to speak to someone in charge and the Person although not management was really helpful but couldn't explain the default scenario he just says it happens! I explained this has caused a lot of stress and anxiety and frustration. I gave him copies of all the emails ect.. he said he would deal with it all tomorrow through customer support. my question - what do I do from here? just sit and wait ? how can they possibly add an admin charge? he told us when Harlands letter comes in rip it up .. any help much appreciated Guys kind regards otb

Hiya, I would really appreciate some advice on my specific situation. I have been a member of x4less since may 2015 and have paid my membership by direct debit with no problems until my latest payment (may 2016) I didn't leave enough money in my bank account and the direct debit bounced. My bad . Yesterday I received a letter from Harlands saying they are going to take £9.99 (instalment amount) and £25.00 (admin fee) on 2nd June. I have been reading through the forums and know that these admin fees are not enforceable. What is the best way to go now? I am thinking cancel the direct debit asap. I also now want to cancel my membership. Any advice on the best way to go about this would be appreciated. Thank you Emz87 :)

Hi all! Great job what you do here. On February i became a member of Advance Gym, it was a monthly pay membership so i paid the first membership on cash in advance when i started at the gym and i took the introductory session. I didn't like the gym and i cancel the DD and never came back. While after started the letters telling me that i owe 1 month, and after Harlans and CRS, now Spratt Endicott in asking for 156.49. I sent on June a mail to the gym through the web web page and the told me that i breached terms and conditions as i did't gave one month notice. Should i get an agreement and finish this? Or just ignore them? Thanks in advance for your help guys!

Hi I have been reading all this stuff on this site about when it comes to cancelling at X4L and how it becomes extremely hard and I am now extremely worried. I joined with my 2 aunts on 25th July and we are paying £9.99 a month after we paid £9.99 and an extra £20.00 joining fee for the first month. My membership is a 12 month minimum period. I am now planning on cancelling on the 25th May 2017 as this will be the 11th month of the contract and I would've then given them 30 days notice. Would this be okay? I am panicking because I don't want to wait till May 2017 and then have to go through all the Harlands shizzle that I have been reading a lot of people are also going through. I am 18 which is why I may sound so inexperienced and over the top worried about this situation. I appreciate you reading this and any advice anyone might be able to give me.

Hi there, I received a letter from CRS yesterday stating that my Gym membership was in arrears despite previous letters being sent to me. They are adding £102.50 for their fees for getting involved making the balance I owe apparently £251.50!! I took out the gym membership in August 2015 and around 5-6 months ago I cancelled my DD with Energise gym in York due to myself and my partner separating and me moving to the other side of the city. At the time I couldn't get anyone on the phone, though I tried three times over three days so I left a message with my details saying that I wished to cancel my membership and I then cancelled the DD and thought no more of it. After receiving this letter from CRS yesterday I called my ex who had some post for me which turned out to be three letters from Harlands. I don't understand how they can suddenly find the correct address for me when I apparently owe them more money for not paying? The bulk of the letter I received says the following: We've been employed by Oaklands School as your membership remains in arrears despite previous letters being sent to you. As a result of this, our fees totalling £ 102.50 have been added. Therefore, your account balance now stands at £ 251.50. WE WANT TO REACH AN AMICABLE RESOLUTION WITH YOU! In order that we can do this, please ring our non-premium rate number - 01444 449165 WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS? 1. You want to continue your membership - The club want nothing more than for you to get the full benefits of your membership. Providing you can pay your arrears and set up a new direct debit with us for your future payments, then they're happy to welcome you back in. You may also be entitled to a discount if you are able to settle your account balance in one payment. 2. You believe you've cancelled your membership - We understand the numerous reasons why people stop going. We'll listen to your reasons and do everything we can to resolve your account in line with the terms of your membership. 3. You're experiencing financial difficulties - We know times can be tough and therefore have a variety of possible solutions to assist you, including monthly payment plans that you can afford and recommending independent organisations that may be able to assist you in severe circumstances. We'll cease further letters for 7 days, so please call us on 01444 449165 before then. CRS I called the gym and they said it's nothing to do with them and that I should speak with Harlands. I tried calling them yesterday but they were closed. Any ideas as to what I can do about this? Thank you. Jim

hi looking for some advice - my daughter joined gymetc where she enjoyed attending until some unwelcome attention from a personal trainer has made her feel very intimidated. he messaged her and told her things he'd imagined with her when she made it clear she was not interested. He told her that ither people in the gym had mentioned how the two of them were getting along. She is a very naïve and sensitive 18year old girl and now does not want to go to the gym. I asked her to let me contact them but she doesn't want to get the PT into trouble (silly I know but she is a worrier) Her friends redcommended she canx the DD and just ignore till they go away Now we have a letter from Harlands stating she has now incurred a further £25 charge and as such is in £89.98 arrears under your memebership agreement you have promised to pay this debt. if you continue to refuse to honour that commitment we will have no option to take further steps ignoring our letters is only resulting in further charges being added if you do not contact us by 15th august your balance of 229.91 will be passed to a debt recovery company who will add fess to their account. So - do I contact the gym or Harlands? she'll pay for what she owes although I'm not sure how much that is, perhaps £25 but she isn't paying the rest and we need to formally cancel. I'm happy to detail exactly why the inappropriate actions of their employees has led to this thanks in advance

I joined Xercise4less Nottingham around October 2015 on a month by month contract, and when I moved to milton keynes in January, I cancelled my direct debit. Since I was on a month by month contract I did not think this would be an issue. Fast forward to today and someone who lived in the house I used to live in mailed me a bunch of letters, 3 of which were from Harlands group, with the latest saying that if I don't pay 79.98 by the 27th of May then the collection of my fees will be passed to a debt recovery agency. I am unsure what to do at this point, as all correspondence from them is going to my old address and I do not feel like I owe them anything because I was on a month by month contract, it's not like I agreed to a year membership. I've attached a photo of the letter I received.

Hi All Spent sometime reading through a number of posts and get the general gist about Harlands, however I just wanted to add my daughters story to the mix and make sure we are dealing with this correctly. 1. She joined the gym on on the 19-05-2016, at no point in this process was she given a view of the T&C's 2. A welcome email was sent but this did not advise when the DD would be taken out 3. On 02-06-2016 they attempted to take the monthly fee out but the DD failed (She is a student so money is sometimes tight) 4. On 13-06-2016 they attempted to take the monthly fee and an admin fee which also failed. 5. An email was received on the 15-06-2016 advising they would take money out on the 13th (Yes 2 days late) We are now getting letters with the usual Debt collection agency etc.. which so far have been ignored. The DD and the GYM membership have now both been cancelled (today - 1st time I was aware of the situation). I think at worst we would be liable for 3 months membership (19-05-2016 - 19-08-2016) bearing in mind the 30 days notice period.

Hi, I started at exercise for less in July of last year. (2014) They took a payment from me on July 1st of this year. Meaning my year long contract was now complete. I moved out of Nottingham and foolishly, I cancelled my direct debit thinking they would just cancel my membership and allow me to carry on with my life. Today, I received their CRS letter claiming I owe them £207.47. I've read a few other posts, but can't seem to find anything relating to this specific situation. My mind started running at a million miles per hour, like I'm sure most people's do, but a few of the posts mentioned that these guys mostly bullies trying to squeeze money out of people. Any help would be greatly appreciated. - Victor

Good afternoon, I have been browsing complaints about Harlands and Xercise4less cancellations, as my wife and I have ongoing issues with them now. We were both enrolled as members back in 2014, as Corporate members on a rolling contract, due to the nature of our circumstances changing (her working most nights when I am at home, and me needing to be at home for childcare) we decided that we would cancel the gym membership as neither of us had been there for months. My wife called our gym, to cancel our membership with them, for them to tell her she had to do this online. She told me she had cancelled back in December 2015, but she can't remember ever getting an email confirmation from them. We then found out they had taken December payments, which we expected, but they then took another payment out in January, which should never have been taken. She then cancelled the direct debit, as we did not trust them not to take further payments. We received a letter about my membership the other week, demanding admin charges and reinstatement of my direct debit. This letter felt rather rude and abrupt, so me being me decided to reply to it as follows: Good evening, Obviously the direct debit has been cancelled due to the fact that I no longer wish to be a member of the gym chain. Therefore I will NOT be ringing you immediately to reinstate my direct debit. The gym no longer is able to cater to my needs, therefore I cancelled mine and my wife's membership there several weeks ago! Let me make this clear, the standard letter you send out, is in my opinion rude and abrupt, and threatening me with an admin fee - really?? Here it is, I will make my position clear and also advise you that if you feel the need to send me any further correspondence, then you will incur charges from me for my time. I am NOT a member of the gym anymore, and neither is my wife. The charges will be: For responding via letter to one of your letters £50 For having to call in to you £30 for the first 5 minutes, and £5 per minute thereafter (this includes been put on hold), and if one of your operatives hangs up on me then a penalty £100 will be charged For having to email you £25 For having to open correspondence from you £40 per letter Upon your receipt of this email, I expect the matter to be closed, and no further contact to be made by you, to me. They then replied back stating that as they had not entered into any contract with me, my charges would not be paid by them. I replied back stating that by replying to my email they were indeed accepting my Terms and Conditions clearly set out. I also tried to contact Xercise4less by Facebook, and they were not interested at all. My wife then got a letter about her membership, so again I emailed Harlands; Good evening Harlands Representative, Yet again I receive a letter from yourselves demanding money from me. I still have not received my cheque for £25 from an email dated 11 days ago. Therefore as stated in my email, a further £100 has been levied against you. This brings the total that you owe me to £150. By replying to my email, where I stated my terms and conditions of charges I would levy against you, you have accepted those terms and conditions. I suggest that you sort out my cheque for £150, as in 7 days you will be liable for a further £100 late payment fee, and every further week thereafter another £100. My complaint is being dealt with my Xercise4Less, so to incur no further charges, I suggest you do not contact me by email, letter, phone or in any other format. The fact of the matter is that you still owe me for my time that I have charged to you, and also a late payment fee. Sort this out sooner rather than later, or you will find you are charged a lot more... Have a nice day -----Original Message----- From: ICS Customer Service Sent: 12 February 2016 14:58 Subject: RE: RE: Your ref ****** Dear Mr ....... We thank you for your email. As we stated in our previous reply we have not entered in to a contractual agreement with yourself therefore we cannot be held to the charges you are attempting to levy against us. As Xercise 4 Less deal with all cancellations please contact them directly as there is nothing further we can do. For all Enquiries Call Harlands Office hours: Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm Yours sincerely, Justin Harlands These guys really do not want to accept that we cancelled the way we were told to, my question is, where do I go from here as I am expecting further letters etc ?

Sorry, yet another Harlands thread. I joined my local gym back in June 2015 and the first payment was due on 1st July 2015. I was recently diagnosed with Anxiety and I really just couldn't face going anymore. I know it was stupid but I cancelled the DD without informing my gym (think it was in March) Before I cancelled, I moved addresses and updated this onto the gym membership system online. Harlands had sent threatening letters to my old address which is luckily my parents home. By the time I went to collect my post, I had 2 letters from them. The money owed on the second letter was considerably more than before. I don't know how on earth they work it out! I contacted them via email with the following (on 1st June 2016) Hello, I am writing to you in regards to my gym membership. It has come to my attention that you have been sending threatening letters to my old address and that my account is now in arrears of £109.00. I moved from this address in March and I updated this on my online gym account. No one from Harlands or my gym have tried to contact me on the phone to inform me of these letters. If you were to do your job properly you would have noticed this change of address and I would have known about this earlier. Please send all corresponding letters to my current address: ****. I have attached a proof of address. Therefore due to this error, I will not be paying any admin fees in relation to this. If you confirm in writing in 14 days that you are happy to take off any admin charges, I will settle the amount by debit card. If you fail to accept my offer within 14 days or you demand any other payment, I will pay you nothing and my offer will be withdrawn. I do not appreciate being threatened with debt collectors and threatening language. I suffer from severe anxiety which I receive prescribed medication for and this is affecting my health. And this is the reply I got: Dear ****, Further to your recent contact to our offices. We thank you for your email, One of the terms of this agreement, which you have agreed to be bound by, is that “If you fail to pay any monies due under this agreement or if any Direct Debit is returned unpaid or if any cheque is returned unpaid or if any other form of payment is not honored for whatever reason, you shall pay us on demand an administration fee of £25.” £25 is the amount deemed by our directors as representative of our costs in dealing with the administration involved with a missed or returned payment. When we submit for a payment by Direct Debit which is then returned, we are also charged by the bank. The charge also covers the costs we incur to reapply for the payment out of your regular payment dates and sending letters. The administration charge cannot be removed as it has been applied correctly as per the terms and conditions of your membership. For all Enquiries Call Harlands : 01444 449166 () Quote Reference : 32938724 / GH Office hours: Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm Yours sincerely, Harlands I just ignored this and I haven't heard anything back since. Did I have grounds to cancel because of medical reasons and how do I go about proving this? I feel if I go to my doctor, they wont advise against exercise. I have prescribed medication so can provide proof of this. Please let me know your thoughts, thank you

hello, Quick backstory, cancelled direct debit for lifestyle fitness as i moved away to Australia. Received letters at previous address(relatives informed me) from harlands at first saying i owed 1 month membership and admin fees as DD failed, so emailed harlands explaining my address move with proof of current address, to which they replied acknowledging the change of address which according to the lifestyle t&cs online is a valid reason for cancellation. However they wanted me to pay 1 months membership via phone/debitcard. I emailed them referring to my current location and reason for canceling offered to pay 1 months membership with no administration fees and never heard back. that was september 2015. Harlands sent repeated letters to my previous address over the last 9 months with ever increasing amounts that then changed to CRS. I ignored all correspondents due to goggleing harlands and reading numerous websites about there letters and the fact they never responded to my compromise email dated september. Anyway now been informed about a letter from spratts, looks the same format layout and text as others who have received their letters asking for £142.48, from what started as £9.99 debt with £25 "adminfee". should i ignore this letter also or email spratts explaining my email in September where i was happy to pay 9.99 sorry for the long post

I notice that there are quite a few Xercise4Less/Harlands threads here already so I'm sorry for adding yet another one! I took out an 11 month membership with Xercise4Less in February 2015 and fully intended to see the contract out. However, over the last few months I have been facing increasing financial difficulty and have now started a Debt Management Plan with Step Change. I need to make the first payment towards my plan of £488 today (2nd November) and having just switched my current account from NatWest to Halifax it has left me with virtually nothing once the payment has been made until I get paid on 18th November. From then on things should start to get easier now I am on the debt management plan and I can start budgeting and saving. There was no way that I could afford to make the October payment of £9.99 to Xercise4Less so I had no choice but to cancel my Direct Debit. I informed my local Xercise4Less branch of this straight away by post and enquired about cancelling my contract early because of the Debt Management Plan. A girl from the branch rang me and said that while they couldn't cancel my membership for that reason themselves, head office should be able to do so, so I have written to them this week and I am waiting for a response. In the meantime I received a letter from Harlands yesterday saying that I owe them £34.99. Octobers payment of £9.99 + a £25 administration charge. I have written back informing them that my contract is with Xercise4Less and not Harlands and that they they are dealing with my cancellation. I have told them that I will not be paying the £25 charge as it is unfair and unlawful. I agree that I owe October's payment and if Xercise4Less don't agree to cancel my contract early I will be happy to resume paying until January 2016, but I will not be reinstating the Direct Debit until the £25 administration charge is removed. Any advice is appreciated.

For the attention of any members who may be able to help, I was a member of the Renfrew Xercise 4 Less - joined 2nd July 2014 - I have however, since then tried numerous times to cancel my membership (September 2015). I initially spoke over the phone and in person to members of the staff at the gym, where I was told with absolute authority, that I was "no longer a member". Although, I have now been receiving various letters from November to present about the erroneous procedure I apparently followed pertaining to the cancellation. Harlands Group is now attempting to get money from myself as part of their apparent contractual clause in the cancellation process. I was not made aware in any way, shape or form of the "correct" procedure in canceling, therefore I was under the impression I had successfully canceled the membership - which was stopping my Direct Debit. Now as some months have passed since September I have been incurring charges, of which they are compounding on a monthly basis. I have received a letter dated (6th January 2016) stating that I have limited days before my case is being transferred to a "Debt Recovery company". The debt company being CRS, note that I may incur further charges which can then lead to a court action. These charges and actions by the debt recovery company will adversely affect my credit score and future financing ability. This is an absolutely ridiculous situation I find myself in. As I have phoned and chased both Harlands and Xercise 4 Less over the past months (Nov 15 - Jan 16) I find myself in the same position, where I am receiving no help but only heightened charges. As a student I cannot be expected to pay these incredibly high figures, especially when the correct action was not made clear or mentioned by any member of staff. The now frightening part is that I have received a solicitors (Spratt and Endicott) letter stating that I have "7 days to contact" or legal preceding may take place. Thank you guys in anticipation, Connor.

I am a member of Curtis and Staub, paying a monthly direct debit of £19. The very first payment was taken from my account on the 6/62016. The second was due to be taken on 21/06/2016 for another £19. I did not have sufficient funds in my account. I emailed the gym asking for contact details of harlands and how I should deal with the matter - no response. Each time I went to the gym there was no body on the help desk. I then found their number from a previous email and phoned during my lunch break, I was on hold/waiting for an answer for over 30 minutes both times I called. No answer as I was unable to wait any longer and had to return to work. They have now emailed me saying they need to pay £19 for my membership which I will pay however they have also demanded I pay £25 in administration fee's totalling to £44! I cannot afford this! I am aware this fee is not enforceable! Please could someone advise on how I should handle the matter/respond?

Hi there i could really do with some help and advice dealing with xercise4less and harlands. when i moved to university i joined xercise4less gym in Leeds, i signed up online to a rolling monthly plan at £20 per month. This was fine, however as you may know leeds and yorkshire suffered with flooding around christmas time and the gym was hit forcing it to close. when they announced trhe closure they said that the gym would not re open till late feb. i decided to move to a diffreent gym in the city. Before i joined xercise4less i was with pure gym who operate similarly and had the same type of rolling monthly contract. when i left pure gym i cancelled my direct debit and this was enough to cancel my membership. i did the same with xercise4less thinking this would be the same for them. I recently returned to my home address after coming home from university and found letters dating every month from february from Harlands which stated they were unable to collect my membership fee and that they would keep adding a £25 admin charge every month i didnt reinstate my direct debit. I tried to contact xercise4less for over 3 weeks and could never get through to someone to talk about how i was only on a rolling monthly contract and ask about the letters harlands had been sending me. but like i said no answer on the phone for three weeks. I today received a letter from CRS saying that i now have till the 17th of june to pay my debt of just over £130!! I had a look online and apparently with xercise4less i was supposed to fill out an online cancellation form even though i was not on a fixed term contract this is why i have been getting letters from harlands and now debt recover firms. I have been away from home all year at university so this is why i am only just getting these letters. Please can someone help me and i'd be forever grateful! Thankyou so much Aaron

Hi All (hopefully Slick too) I have been reading the forum in regard to my dealings with Harlands and Xercise for less and want to clarify the advice for my situation. I operated a joint bank account with my partner for some time and we both signed up to Xercise for less Glasgow in August 2014 with what I believe to be a 12 month £9.99 membership plan. To cut a long story short, my partner and I separated and the direct debit was cancelled as part of shutting the bank account down in February 2016 which has resulted in all the usual letters that have been documented and now contact from CRS. I hold my hands to the fact that I have not informed them of the cancellation. To this stage I have made absolutely no contact with any company or guise and would appreciate any advice from anyone. I must say - as a 30 year old guy I can be quite bullish, but some of the tactics employed to this stage could seriously frighten someone into paying with language and style of letters! Any help appreciated Thanks Brian

I can see there's a whole bunch of posts here relating to Harlands and i can sort of guess the response but assumptions are never good.. I had a contract with Xercise4less which i full paid from 22/08/2014 till my last payment which was 21 Oct 15. Over the 11 months. I cancelled my membership by cancelling the Direct Debit, thinking that since it's in a rolling month contract...no payment should be sufficient cancellation notice. I've now received 2 letters from harlands, with the most recent letter stating i owe further Administration fees totaling the entire money owed to £69.98. Should i just be emailing Harlands head office explaining that i'd be willing to pay 0.00-9.99 that may have been missing due to the timing of the DD cancellation, the DD cancellation is sufficient cancellation notice and that any subsequent administration penalties are are unlawful. Any help appreciated

I have lurked around this sites before looking for advice relating to my problem and have found it very helpful. My problem is related to my gym and their agency responsible for debiting money Harlands. I see that they are often mentioned here. When signing up for the gym, gym staff signed me up without letting me read through the contract. I knew I would not be there for 12 months, but they assured me I could cancel it provided I prove I have relocated which seemed reasonable. Extra charges were of course not mentioned. I did not actually see terms and conditions as one of the members accepted terms for me in a hurry. They never mailed me the contract either, I had to obtain it from their website. One of the terms does state that upon failing to pay Harlands will charge me an additional £25 for the effort of having to find me. I changed addresses and was not able to view their letters. I did not know why they were overcharging me. I canceled the payment each time as every month they tried to take the increased sum rather than the normal gym fee. So each month was stacked up. Each payment was more than 2x of the gym fee on its own. I emailed them initially thinking I will be dealing with reasonable people, back then I didn't know their business model was ripping people off that don't know any better. I have pointed out to them that under Consumer Protection Law 2015 62 Requirement for contract terms and notices to be fair (1) An unfair term of a consumer contract is not binding on the consumer. PART 2 UNFAIR TERMS SCHEDULE 2 Section 63 CONSUMER CONTRACT TERMS WHICH MAY BE REGARDED AS UNFAIR 6 A term which has the object or effect of requiring a consumer who fails to fulfil his obligations under the contract to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation. By my interpretation requiring me to pay more than double for a “administration charge” would be qualify as disproportionately high and hence that term would not be legally binding. I have emailed them saying that I am more than happy to pay what I owe to the gym, but will not pay the charges. Response was, I am legal bound to pay them. At first I tried reasoning with them that I will pay a single late charge as I do like using that gym. This was refused, had no reply from the gym. I had emailed the gym saying that I am unable to use the gym because of the problem Harlands have with me. I am canceling my contract with them as I can’t pay for service that isn’t provided. Again I said to them that I am willing to send them a cheque for what gym fees I owe them and deal with Harlands separately. Every reply I received since then from Harlands was that I signed contract and every contract is legally binding, ALWAYS. Even if a term in it would require me to fight the queen, sell my blood to them or anything else which can’t be a legal clause. Right now the sum I owe them went up to about £300 pounds, it will increase more once they pass on my case to their in house goons “CRS”. The language almost tries to hint at compound interest. My questions is am on the fair grounds for gym cancellation and what power do CSR/Harlands actually wield? Have they ever actually took anyone to court or not as they know they can not win. I am ok with being harassed with emails for next few years. I just want to know where am I standing was this actually to go to court. Thank you . Sorry if I have misspelled or confused some legal term, this isn’t an area I know much about.

Hi, I did something a bit daft and need to know where I stand. I joined Xercise4Less in August or September 2015, went once and promptly forgot about it things got very tight this month and I was looking at my statements trying to figure out what to cut so nothing would bounce and was all "oh yeah, gym, I should cancel that" Looked around for my member details and couldn't find them. Cancelled the DD anyway since it would either have bounced or caused something priority to bounce. Figured I'd get a letter which would include my membership info and then be able to sort out paying whatever I needed to and cancel the contract. Of course today I got the letter and there's a £25 admin charge and threat of another if I don't payup. Now I know the admin fees are unenforcable but I can see this turning into some sort of circus where they claim I owe them piles of money and refuse to let me cancel. I know I should have cancelled my membership first but it was an emergency (I figured paying my water rates was more important). Part of me is "Meh, ignore them, they don't deserve money for services you don't use and what are they going to do?" and part of me is "But I don't want to be bombarded with threatening letters even if the threats are empty". Any advice on how to deal with this would be appreciated. Thanks, Becky

I recently returned home from University and had received a letter from CRS stating that I owe a total amount of £207.47 after their fees of £102.50 have been added as a result of ignoring previous letters, none of which I have received. They are not at my term time address nor my home address. I did have a 12 month contract with X4L which I believe started in March/April 2014 and was told I could end membership anytime after this 12 month period by cancelling my direct debit payments by the staff member I signed up with. I cancelled the direct debit in approximately November/December 2015 due to inactivity and lack of funds as a student, but this was well after the 12 month period I was told I could cancel after with no penalty. The gym membership itself was only £9.99/pm so even with admin fees on top the amount payable should surely only be around £152. Any advice you can give me here will be greatly received. Carry.

Hello, I'm currently a student from abroad looking for some help here. 2 months ago, I decide to sign up at Trilogy under Student membership (£19.95/month + £20.00 membership fee). However, realising that I got difficulties to get to the gym (No driving license + Bus is only option) and my research/study schedule was quite full at that time, I canceled that registration within 14 days as they said it would be free. I went the bank, asked them to cancel my Direct Debit assumed that would be the end. After 2 months without any letter/information, today I've got a letter from Harlands said that I need to pay them £89.95 and I am required to contact them at 01444 449166 for further information. I called immediately, but no response; few more times and still zero. I have read few topics about Harlands case, I realize that most of you would advise me to ignore Harlands. However, Im still worry about if I have any legal obligation of if Harlands could take me into the courts or something like that. It would heavily affect my study at the moment. Best regards, Steve

Having completed my 12 month membership, I wrote to Xercise4Less St Helens giving them 1 months notice in writing as detailed on their website and paid my last month direct debit. I then cancelled my direct debit with my bank. I Never heard anything back. About a month later received a letter from Harlands saying that I had an unpaid direct debit. I rang the gym who said "oh yeh, but your supposed to fill in a cancellation form not send a letter!! (despite this being detailed on their website ) They then just said its ok we will just cancel your membership while your on the phone. I asked to speak to a manager to discuss the charge from Harlands and got told "There isn't one at the moment and Harlands charges are nothing to do with us". At which point they put the phone down. I emailed Harlands detailing that i had infact fulfilled my agreement, fulfilled all my obligations and therefore did not owe anything, despite my letter of cancellation and abrupt phone call with the gym. I heard nothing back from Harlands. I had a second letter from Harlands stating that there was another direct debit unpaid and more charges on top and could see that I had ignored their first letter!!!! I yet again emailed Harlands detailing some of the advice from here stating that I had no intention of paying their charges which were unreasonable and unenforceable. No Response from Harlands. I today have received a letter from CRS, stating that i now owe Harlands £104.97 to be paid before 1 November 15. Refusal to pay will result in legal steps to collect the outstanding balance. Am i right in thinking that i should just ignore these demands or have a trip down to my local trading standards??? Any advice will be clearly appreciated Thanks in advance for anyone replying. Jue x

Hi folks - any help would be well welcomed me and my now wife signed up to lifestyle on a 12 month deal but in december we found out she was expecting our first child knowing we wouldnt get the use i rang and cancelled the direct debit ( we had paid 10 months each ) silly of me i know! i received a letter or two from harlands and now ive received the one from the crs group - i rang and spoke to someone who said they could help me out buy taking £50 off the total in a panic i said i wouldnt be able to pay because of lack of funds and i thought we would have to go down the bankruptcy route . the guy said he would make that note on my account and hang up the phone im really worried now have i done something really stupid ? can this effect my credit rating that i need to keep in good condition should i just ring and pay ?