Xercise4less Hull and Harlands

[Niteworlok]

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 ?

[dx100uk]

not been on those freeman of the land websites have you?

 

 

that tactic is very akin to the advise they carry.

 

 

anyhow, no matter.

 

 

pers i'd ignore them now.

 

 

you cancelled by the correct method

you've nailed you colours to your flagpole

you owe them nowt.

 

 

if you should wish to further communicate with them

i'd be using ROYAL MAIL

and one of slick132 replies

but you've said what those do already in a way.

 

 

dx

[Niteworlok]

No, I just thought sod it, if they want to try and charge me, then I will levy charges against them for my time in trying to sort this mess out.

 

You think I should just leave it and keep posting on Xercise4less Facebook page at how unhappy I am with them?

[slick132]

Hi Nite and welcome to CAG

 

I fully get what you're trying to do in charging Harlands for wasting your time but your attempts will come to nothing. Unless you're prepared to take court action (not likely to succeed), your demands will be ignored.

 

Long letters to Harlands are a waste of time. You will change little or nothing in the way they operate.

 

Let's just make sure you've done what was required :-

 

1. What date did YW call the gym to cancel by phone.

 

2. What date did you cancel the DD mandate.

 

3. When was the DD normally taken each month.

 

4. What date was the last DD taken by Harlands.

 

When you respond, we can decide if you have paid less, all, or more than you should. If you've paid more than necessary due to them taking further DD's, we may suggest you reclaim using the DD Guarantee Scheme. If you ask the bank to do this, they should refund without question.

 

We can also suggest how best to deal with Harlands and/or X4Less, and whether to use Facebook or Twitter to embarrass the gym.

 

[Niteworlok]

Hiya,

 

Many thanks, yeah, with Harlands I am trying to prove a point that if they think they can charge me, then I will levy charges against them. I have no urge to try taking them to court, this is just to take a stand against them.

 

Hi Nite and welcome to CAG

 

I fully get what you're trying to do in charging Harlands for wasting your time but your attempts will come to nothing. Unless you're prepared to take court action (not likely to succeed), your demands will be ignored.

 

Long letters to Harlands are a waste of time. You will change little or nothing in the way they operate.

 

Let's just make sure you've done what was required :-

 

1. What date did YW call the gym to cancel by phone. She called them either Thursday 3rd December, or Friday 4th December, and was told to cancel online, which she states she did the same day she made the call to the gym.

 

2. What date did you cancel the DD mandate. She cancelled the DD mandate beginning of this month, she can't remember the exact date.

 

3. When was the DD normally taken each month. The DD was normally taken (both of them) on the 29th of every month.

 

4. What date was the last DD taken by Harlands. January 29th

 

When you respond, we can decide if you have paid less, all, or more than you should. If you've paid more than necessary due to them taking further DD's, we may suggest you reclaim using the DD Guarantee Scheme. If you ask the bank to do this, they should refund without question.

 

We can also suggest how best to deal with Harlands and/or X4Less, and whether to use Facebook or Twitter to embarrass the gym.

 

 

I have also been in contact with them on Facebook, and they still expect me to call in and reinstate the DD - I have asked the person who was contacting me for their name, their position within the company, their line managers details, and also their line managers superiors details, and then heard nothing back.

[slick132]

Hi Nite,

 

Don't bother telling Harlands you'll charge them as it's a waste of your time and effort.

 

Who did you contact on Facebook - the gym or Harlands ?

 

By my reckoning, if you cancelled by phone and/or online on 4th Dec'r, your last payment should have been taken on 29th Dec'r.

 

So I would now contact the bank and seek an immediate refund of the 29th Jan fee quoting the DD Guarantee Scheme.

 

Let us know when you've received the refund.

 

[Niteworlok]

Well the wife set things in motion today with the bank (or I bloody hope she did!), but Harland's have again emailed me:

 

Dear Mr ********

 

We thank you for your email.

 

There appears to be some confusion over the charges that has been applied.

 

If you were to send us an email confirming your charges, and we respond to that email stating we do not accept your charges, this doesnt actually means we accept the charges.

 

Your charges have been applied as you have accepted the terms and conditions which very clearly state charges will be applied to missed payments. We have accepted no terms and conditions nor have we come to any agreement allowing you to apply charges to us.

 

You have assumed on how to cancel your account, and assumed incorrectly. This is no fault of ours nor the gyms if you are not willing to honor your contractual obligations and cancel following the correct procedure.

 

Ultimately, the account will be passed to debt recovery. This of course is not ideal. We advise you contact the number below to pay your outstanding debt and to set up your account to cancel in the correct manner.

 

We trust you find this to be in order and look forward to hearing from you shortly.

 

For all Enquiries Call Harlands : 01444 44903301444 44903301444 449033 () Quote Reference : 2209753 / DM

 

Office hours: Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Harlands

 

 

How bloody rude are they for stating 'You have assumed on how to cancel your account, and assumed incorrectly. This is no fault of ours nor the gyms if you are not willing to honor your contractual obligations and cancel following the correct procedure.'

 

Bloody riled me up that did!

 

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[slick132]

Hi Nite,

 

Stop contacting Harlands by email, or any other means - it'll get you nowhere. And you shouldn't give a damn what they say as it's basically irrelevant.

 

Just let us know when the bank has refunded the DD that you need to reclaim.

 

We'll take it from there although best option is probably to ignore Harlands until they come whinging that the bank has made the DD refund ...........

 

........... and then ignore them some more !!

 

[Niteworlok]

Update,

Well,

the bank got our refunds for the DD,

 

 

today we received more letters from CRS now,

stating that as we have put in an indemnity claim, we have incurred a £25 admin charge.

 

Should they not hear from me in the next 10 days they have no alternative but to take further action.

[dx100uk]

oh no..more scary letters.....

[slick132]

Hi Nite.

 

Glad to hear you got the DD back.

 

Ignore this rubbish from CRS for now but keep us posted.

 

[Niteworlok]

Well, I finally have an update, after emailing someone called Joe Hall, he passed my details onto a lady called Esther, who is Xercise4less Head of Customer Enquiries.

 

I replied to her with all the same info as I have put on earlier, and also I found the CEO's email address.

I forwarded the email that I sent to Esther, to his email address, and today I got a nice reply back (well nice as in the outcome!);

 

Good afternoon Simon

 

Thank you for your email

Your memberships have now been recalled from CRS and cancelled, and they will no longer pursue for outstanding arrears.

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience this matter has caused you. --

Healthy Regards

 

Esther

 

Head Office Enquiries

 

Head Office

Xercise 4 Less

Unit 1, Kirkstall Industrial Estate

Kirkstall Road

Leeds

LS4 2AZ

Finally, after nearly 8 months we get a result!!

[slick132]

Hi Nite,

 

We have seen Esther close down a Harlands problem case before but they really need to address the main issue - Harlands are a bunch of bullying chancers.

 

Delighted you have got your case ended successfully though.