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Jeffrey of Houston TX (06/18/08)
I signed up for a 1 year term on personal training and also three month-to-month accounts for me, my wife, and kids club. These were all setup in June 2007 with monthly auto-bill (the only option they would support).
The personal training contract auto-renewed at the end of the 1 year term and so I needed to provide 30 days notice of cancellation. In February 2008, I provided LA Fitness with notice of cancellation for the personal training contract to be effective after the mid-May 2008 billing. At that time, I also notified LA Fitness that I wanted the three month-to-month accounts cancelled in coorindation with the training contract. All of that was accepted at the time in Feburary 2008.
Now, over the span of two days, I've received at least five phone calls from LA Fitness representatives asking for payment on these accounts again. I've talked with three different people to get this resolved and all deny they've received any notification.
Asside from the personal interruptions during my work day, the direct economic impact is over $400 USD.
Terre of Lawerenceville GA (12/06/07)
I mailed letter to cancel with form provided by local LA Fitness in July 2007; as of December 2007 they were still auto drafting my account for membership fees even after a second request to cancel using same form was mailed certified mail. I kept getting NSF fees, so I went to my bank to review my account and discovered in about September, L A fitness had been stealing from me. The local office was no help; at the time they stated they didn't handle cancellations and were in between management. This was the story at two locations. On December 4, 2007, new management faxed over bank statements, the certified mail receipt, doctor's statement, and I was told I would be refunded for December only. They would not locate the original contract or the certified letter requesting to cancel that stated on the letter this isn't my first request.
I have been billed 5 months in gym membership fees of $35.99 each. I haven't used the gym because I thought the membership was canceled. I've had $128 in NSF fees for one month and $198 another. I spent 8 hours while the local Lawrenceville, GA manager sent emails requesting refunds with the NSF fees. I've spent 3 hours on my cell phone's peak time; it is the only phone that I have.
Joseph of Hollywood FL (04/06/07)
On 10-13-2006 I signed up with la fitness. I was told I would be billed for the first and last month in advance and that there would be a $150 initiation fee ($233). I was also told I could cancel any time for which the salesmen re-iterated over and over and over. In January 2007 I wanted to cancel my account with la fitness and I couldnt ever get through to them over the phone, so I went down to the fitness center on January 14th 2007 to get the cancellation form and I was told it would be 30 days before the letter would be received / processed and then 30 days after that the account would be closed (60 days) very deceiving and unethical since I was told I could cancel ANYTIME. Also since I have already prepaid for the first and last month when will I get that money back? And why am I paying for 2 extra months for which I am clearly not using? I have addressed all of these issues many times on the phone and in the fitness center but I got nowhere. Very deceptive business practices, obviously they are there to rob the consumer purely out of a technicality.
Janey of Middletown PA (12/28/06)
The manager from La Fitness came to my job in September to sign me up for a membership.. I wasn't sure if I'd really use it or not.. I never signed the contract, he never signed the contract.. I called the first of October to cancel the membership.. I spoke to a gentleman their, I talked very slowly..just to get the point across that I would no longer be getting charged for the membership.. He told me that he would take care of everything..I would no longer be charged... November came and I was charged..I called and spoke Brian and questioned him as to why I was charged..when I was told that I would no longer be charged..He explained that there is a cancellation form..the other gentleman I spoke with never told me of such a thing...Brian faxed us the form..we had it sent in..December again I was charged...I again called Brian explaining to him that there is no signed contract between us for them to continue hitting my account..He told me since there was a verbal agreement that they can..Well I had a verbal agreement the beginning of October that my account would not be hit anymore.. Brian told me he would take care of things and see that I get a refund back.. I called to check back with Brian three days later and he's no longer at that location.. I spoke to another female employee there..she told me that Andy took over for Brian..she would definately have Andy call me back within 2 hours.. That phone call never happened.. A couple days later a Tiffany called me wanting a payment for January...I went off on her..she put me in touch with a Hanna.. I told Hanna what all was going on.. She was pleasant telling me she's going to do all to help me.. She told me she was deleting my phone number from their record..so nobody would be contacting me for payment..she would get things cancelled..That never happened today I received a phone call from Tiffany again requesting payment... Again I went off...I finally got the number to their 800# and spoke to a Stephanie and she told me my account was never cancelled..She would get it cancelled but they won't reimburse me back anything.
Ritesh of Piscataway NJ (10/17/06)
LA FITNESS cheated the consumer by not disclosing the total monthly membership fees for the gym/fitness center. For months, their were no taxes charged to the account and the monthly membership fee disclosed was $34.89. However, starting this month the fee has been bumped to $39.99. I discovered this fee hike in my monthly credit card statement.
Consumers beware of this scam from the employees who do not disclose their full fees during the sign up process.
Additional expense of $5.00/month. This amount although minimal is being unknowlingly charged to hundreds of customers.
Judith of Dix Hills NY (10/14/06)
I was put on disability by my doctor back in March 2006. I gave LA Fitness a copy of the disability letter back in MArch,2006. My account 052922A25C7 was supposed to be freezed until I was taken off disability. Through the last 7 months I have been getting charged $49.99 monthly fee instead of $10.00.
I have been overcharged $40.00 for the last 7 months. My account was never flagged as a disability. Meanshile I have not been able to use the facility.
Charly of Hempstead NY (01/04/06)
My family wanted to inquire about the services and price of what LA Fitness can offer. I accompanied them on a guided tour by the store manager, Joe. The tour was informative and when we sat down to dicuss the price of the membership fee, we decided that we wanted to wait to be able to compare prices with other fitness facilities. When we said that we wanted to wait, Joe became frustrated and rude towards us. He called us names and raised his voice at us. He stood up and was aggressive in his manner.
No damage in the sense of physicality or money lost, but we were degraded by this experience. It is humiliating to be treated so poorly by a store manager in front of other members of the facility.
Cathy of Edison NJ (08/15/05)
Joined a presale health club membership. The sales person stated nothing that was written on the contract. When returning to cancel they refused to cancel the contract. Please contact for many other details.
Humiliated, lied to, no credit given. Manager stated when returning for the contract, I'm the type women he reads about in mens magazines, laughed at me, told me to send for credit through home office and would give no details. Walked away from me. Contact for more details.
Jodi of East Brunswick NJ (04/06/05)
I joined in 5/04 with a month-to-month contract. The salesman Dave said that I could transfer or sell my membership at any time - this was also stated in the contract. Yesterday (4/5/05) I went to transfer the membership to my boyfriend and the girl at the front desk in the North Brunswick, NJ gym, told me that they stopped doing transfers last month and that she couldn't help me. I put almost $350 down and I'm looking to leave the gym and without notice, they change their contract. The girl said that there is a clause that states Subject to change which makes this okay, but how can they do that if they never notified me? I was looking to go to another gym because this one is overcrowded beyond belief - they do not limit thier membership. There were also other items promised in the contract (e.g. towel service) that they do not provide. I provided the Corporate Office Adderess because this is a company-wide change in policy. All members should have been notified. If they gave me 2 weeks notice before changing this policy, I would have done it then.
Keith of Monterey Park CA (02/16/04)
To Everyone Thinking About Joining LA Fitness (Alhambra, California Branch)
Just came back from this location after Jason Ayala, Weekend General Manager, refuses to let my guest in for a workout. I was told in numerous occasions that I can bring a guest AT ANYTIME by Victoria. Therefore, I was dumbfounded when Mr. Ayala insists on telling me that I did not read the fine print. Not only was he not apologetic, but he insists to make his point. Can someone remind him that he is working in a service oriented business? It is obvious that his title has gone to his head.
As a corporate officer and an experienced negotiator, I found Mr. Ayala to be rude, confrontational and downright nasty. Who ever promoted Mr. Ayala shows very poor judgment. In fact, having someone so inexperienced for this position shows the lack of foresight which truly reflects the company.
No one should accept this type of treatment. I am glad that my membership will end soon. You can bet I will take my business elsewhere.
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