Hello Everyone, A little new here so please bare with me... On the 11th of October 2018 I started a gym membership with trugym (no obligation/no contract monthly payments) In the first 14 days, I visited ONCE. and once only. After that period I cancelled my direct debit with them as i did not like the gym or the hostile staff after only my first visit with an online form and accordingly then called my bank and did the same. The gym later called me and informed me I had not done it within the 14 days that was required so the direct debit would still be taken out...now my bank were not aware of this as i assumed i had cancelled with the gym so it made sense to cancel with my bank too (there have been instances where i've cancelled direct debits with companies but still they have managed to keep taking money out and its taken months!!! to get refunds with 10 phonecalls average) Anyway, straightaway Harlands emailed me a couple of days later and said they had charged me a admin fee of 25 pounds and i would have to pay 39.99 to clear my arrears. (During this period I went away as i am a FULL TIME student for my dissertation and was unable to respond) Next, I got the letter attached from the CRS saying I owe (167 POUNDS!!!) how on earth can i afford that being a student. I called them and asked what the charges were for and they stated it was tracing (for what?! they already had my address - I hadnt moved!) for admin charges and etc. what should i do! Id be happy to pay the 14.99, even the crazy 39.99 but 167 is ridiculous!!!!!!! PLEASE help - they wont stop texting at silly times like 11pm and telling me to call them! Much Appreciated, Sosa. CRS LETTER..pdf Harlands letter..pdf

Harlands/CRS/Trugym claim I owe £86 from a gym membership from around 2013. The account was with Zinc from 2014 to 2016 and now back with Harlands/CRS. On 30th August I received a letter (via email) of possible 'legal action' or 'outsourced to external agents'. What is my next move? I am not about to phone then and CRS don't have a website as they are Harlands. I go away on holiday on 19th September and don't want any nasty letters on my return. I hear that no gym has ever taken anyone to court so what can they really do to me for £86!

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.

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

Hello! At the beginning of 2012, I joined my local Fitness First. Later in the year, I moved house away from the area and to somewhere without a Fitness First nearby to which I could transfer my membership. I contacted the gym to give them my new address and to discuss terminating my membership. I was told I couldn't get out of it as I'd signed for a year and we agreed that I would continue making the payments until the year was up and then my membership wouldn't renew. Fast forward to July 2013. Having moved house again, I was checking my list of Direct Debits a nd noticed that nothing had been collected by Fitness First since April 2013. Assuming the membership had now expired, I cancelled the Direct Debit. Yesterday I came home to a letter from CRS stating: We've been employed by Trugym for Women - Crouch End as your membership remains in arrears d espite previous letters being sent to you. As a result of this, our fees totalling £125.86 have being (sic.) added. Therefore your account balance now stands at £375.46 It turns out that the Fitness First I was a member of turned into Trugym in April. I never had any correspondence to inform me of this and I have not had any previous correspondence to inform me of any arrears. Annoyingly, all my dealings with Fitness First (telling them my change of address etc) were on the 'phone. What do I do now?