Help!! Being chased for a debt I don't owe!

happybunny86

Hi everyone,



I need a bit of help about what to do on a debt collector chasing me for a debt a don’t owe. I sent the letter below to both xercise 4 less and CRS 3 weeks ago. I’ve had no response from either but CRS rang me today and I imagine will chase for money now. Can anyone help me to understand where I stand and what I should say to them.



So the story is….



I feel I have been put in a terrible position to justify something which I ultimately shouldn’t have to as I have done nothing wrong. It’s been extremely distressing for me to be asked for such a large sum of money which I don’t owe. I would also like to thank CRS for being so unbelievably kind, understand and helpful when in reality they have been put in a difficult position chasing me for money I don’t owe. I have heard in the media that some people have very bad experiences with debt collection companies however in my opinion it is Xercise 4 less who in this case are being completely unreasonable and have been very rude to me. The exception to this being Hafeez who I’ve spoken to tonight who has been very helpful.



To explain my situation I joined exercise 4 less ~October 2013. In August 2014 I moved house out of Doncaster, I did not phone Exercise 4 less at this point to cancel my membership as I believed it had another couple of months left on it.



On 30th October 2014 I rang the Doncaster branch of exercise 4 less and asked them if my membership was now up and could I cancel. I was told by the lady on reception that I was actually on a rolling monthly contract and had been able to cancel at any time with 30 days’ notice. She said I just needed to bring a letter in to the club saying I wanted to leave. As I’ve moved away from Doncaster I asked if it was possible to post that letter in to the club rather than to physically bring it in. She said that was absolutely no problem. I wrote a letter that evening on the computer to say I wanted to leave the club, printed it out at work the next day and popped it in the post. You can find a copy of this letter attached.



My final payment came out on 24th November and I subsequently removed the direct debit from my online banking account as I like to know what’s coming out when and how much.



In March this year I was doing my finances online and noticed something really strange. There was a payment of £29.99 taken from Harlands on my account on 19th January 2015. This didn’t seem to make sense to me as my membership was only ever £14.99 a month. I filled out the contact form on the Xercise 4 less website detailing the above and asking why you had taken additional money from my account and please could it be refunded. I have NEVER had a response on this from Xercise 4 less to date and have not been refunded the extra money they took from my account.

Mid April I then received a letter from CRS saying that I owed Exercise 4 less money for unpaid membership, which as you can imagine came as quite a surprise to me as I’d contacted them the month before to tell them they owed me money! On the letter I received it specifically mentioned that if I believed I had cancelled my membership to phone CRS and let them know. The fact that this is actually written on the letter leads me to believe that the data Xercise 4 less are passing on to CRS is not very accurate and this must be happening to more than just me.



I phoned CRS as it said on the letter and explained that I had left Xercise for less the previous year. They asked me to phone Xercise 4 less to gain verification of this and sent it to them.



I rang the Doncaster branch of exercise 4 less and they said that the matter would need to be dealt with by head office.



I rang head office who said the matter was being dealt with by CRS. I explained to head office that I needed proof I had left the gym. Head office said the branch would be to provide this for me.



I rang the branch back who said they had no evidence that I had cancelled my membership. I explained all the above and they said there was no evidence they couldn’t help any further and I needed to contact head office.



I contacted head office and asked if they at least had a copy of the website form I’d completed as that proved that I believed I had terminated my contract. I don’t really believe this has been looked in to properly and ive never really had a proper response on that one. Please could you investigate this further as it proves I had cancelled my contract.



I finally called the branch back one more time and asked to speak to the manager of the branch. I was told the manager of the branch didn’t deal with finances. I said could he call me back anyway. He never did.



I called back 2 days later and asked to speak to him. He said it was nothing to do with him and was no help either.



Anyway after speaking to a lot of very rude and unhelpful Xercise 4 less staff I phoned CRS back rather distressed that I was getting no help. CRS were very kind and said they would speak to Xercise for less on my behalf.



I received a text from CRS today asking if I could phone them. I phoned them back straight away and they said Exercise 4 less were still saying they had no cancellation evidence which I find unbelievable as they have had a letter and I have contacted them through the website contact form. CRS therefore have asked me to send any evidence I have cancelled my membership.



I rang EE straight away to ask for a copy of my phone records to say I rang EE in October. Unfortunately unless you specifically have requested an itemised bill EE bills only contain calls to numbers outside your tariff. I have attached a copy of this to prove this. EE have now turned on itemised billing so any calls I make to exercise 4 less or CRS from now on I will be able to prove, however the bill cannot be backdated for last October.

I have also attached the letter I originally sent cancelling my membership.

I believe the easiest way to prove what has happened here is for Xercise 4 less to gain a copy of the contact I sent through to their website from my email address and investigating this weird £30 charge.



Tonight I have rung exercise 4 less Doncaster to ask if I can send this to head office via email or post. I spoke to Emma at the branch who told me she did not know where the head office was and was unable to give me an email address or postal address which wasn’t very helpful. She was however able to give me the phone number.



I rang head office and spoke to Fazeeb who I have to say was lovely and appears to be the only member of Xercise 4 less who has any kind of customer service skills. After my previous conversation with Doncaster tonight you can imagine I was at my wits end and I have some confidence that this will be picked up Monday and we can draw a line underneath it.



I understand there is currently no record that I cancelled but if you can find my web support contact from March it explains it then. I don’t feel you can hold me to account to pay for your admin issues.

Marktheshark

happybunny86 wrote: »

they said YOU HAVE no evidence they couldn’t help any further and I needed to contact head office.

In other words you can not prove you posted the letter as you did not use recorded delivery or obtain a free certificate of postage, so the threw it in the bin and carried on charging you.

happybunny86

Sounds like it but this seems totally unfair. I didn't think to send it recorded delivery and obviously they didn't ask me too. They didn't keep charging me as I cancelled the direct debit after my last months payment as I like to keep my internet banking clean so I know what's due out when.

Why would I have contacted them about this weird £29.99 if I was avoiding paying and I referenced then I was no longer a member!!