last year they opened a new LA fitness near our house. so in an impulsive gesture to be like my hot sisters i got a membership for myself, my husband and child care for our child. the sales lady said, there is no contract cancel whenever you want. EASY RIGHT?
bawwhaaaaaa! easy if you don't mind jumping through burning hoops! i went down to the gym last October, "i want to cancel my membership".
overpaid gym card swiper "Oh, we can't do that here, do you have a computer?"
me breathing evenly "yes, but i signed up here, you took my money here?"
blonde swiping robot "yes but that all has to be done through corporate. haha sorry"
ok, go home cancel our memberships after a painful online experience. hu? this isn't immediate?
call down to the gym (since corporate has NO WAY IN HELL TO GET AHOLD OF THEM) "hi, i just went online and canceled my membership and it says my account is still active till the end of the year."
another fitness robot "oh well yes, you already been billed for November and when you signed up you paid for your last months dues, so you actually still have access till the end of December."
pulling my hair "i don't want access till the end of december, i haven't been there in over three months already."
stupid phone girl "i'm sorry, that's just how it works".
so it is now obvious this corporation make things as difficult as possible.
noticed still being billed for "kid care" in Jan, Feb, March.... ok these people are freakin leaches. I call down to the gym.
sales guy with no control because corporate has his balls "oh, sorry, you should be able to cancel that online."
me "are you kidding me, i have NO ACCOUNT with you and you are billing me for child care?"
ball-less wonder "well can you just try to go online, I can't do anything here."
me "of course, i would love to spend more time on this".
i try. being that i am no longer a member the online services are useless to me, can't login.
call back the gym guy "i didn't work"
idiot "oh i was afraid of that, you will have to come down here and get a form to fill out"
me, very frustrated "are you kidding, you guys create hassel at every step, now i need to come down there and get a form because you are charging me every month?"
corporate idiot "ya, sorry".
go down and get the form. Start to fill it out and ask "i can just give this back to you and you will send it in right?"
new swiper robot girl "no, sorry you have to MAIL it into corporate"
me "with a stamp and envelope?"
swiper "ya"
me "is this company's goal to suck you in like a cult and assume you will die or give up trying?"
robot "um"
door closes behind me as i walk out.
(it's now march) go home, fill out their stupid form, mail it with a stamp.
today: check my bank account. i just paid a bunch of bills and knew it was going to be close, but to my surprise LA freakin Fitness billed my account for kids care it overdrew my account and now i have a $34 overdraft fee.
OH IT'S ON!!! i hate this company. i want to write it on my car and park in their parking lot.
LA FITNESS SUCKS! tell a friend!!!!!
LA FITNESS=CULT (but hey, "there is no contract, hee hee")
ps. Rhonda, you still think i sounded angry and bitter about the princesses?
pps. last mother's day i just wanted to get out of the house and do something for myself by myself so Dave said he would watch jojo and i could go to the gym. when i get there i see there is a nice wet sweat sheen on every machine i go to use.... ewwwww!
i go tell one of the sales guys. he tells me that there are paper towels if i would like to wipe them down. MY FACE MUST HAVE BEEN PRICELESS, "if i wanted to clean up after others on mother's day i would have stayed home!".
on my way out i saw him and his handy squirt bottle and papertowels hard at work.
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25 comments:
Your mother's day comment gets an A-plus! Brilliant!
Most gyms/clubs are that way...they suck..the best way to handle is to contact the attorney generals office and file a complaint. I had to a few years ago..and after a few months it did work and I was refunded all of my money. Good luck..
yes angry but I thought it was hot!!!
LA fitness sucks!
girl you are on a roll. health club memberships are a racket!!!! for 99.9% of us who think paying money will motivate out fat butts to work out. It doesn't and then we are stuck in their H-E-L-L!
Did you see the episode of friends where Ross is trying to cancel his gym membership - Hysterical !! You should check it out.
I had an really good time with the YMCA, joining and canceling. But don't get me started on canceling cell phones - Alltel was the WORST, second to that was Sprint. They are leeches!!!
I am pretty sure my friend had to sue LA Fitness once. They are AWFUL! We belong to Gold's Gym but I can't cancel because hubby signed a contract for a few years. They tricked us into signing up again. THE JERKS!!!!!!!!!!!!1
that sounds like a very frustrating experience. they only want our money. past that, they don't really care.
I just went through something very similar. I too would like to get the word out to everyone that LA Fitness is a sham, a fraud, and a pathetic joke of a business. They are stuck in the era of "dupe the customer and get their penny at any cost." They would do well to get with the "quality customer service for return business" program.
Hi! Your story is hilarious! I have to tell you I am having a similar situation dealing with LA Fakers. I did that free trainer thing, when you 1st sign up. Well, somehow they started billing my card for PT when I only ever had that one session. Right now my bill is up to 1500.00... I refuse to pay it. I never signed up or signed a contract this happened back in September, and I am STILL receiving phone calls and threatening emails about further action they're planning on taking.... I even had to change my bank account info because they told me they were gunna take the money out of my account....
They're A-HOLES!
It's great to know I am not insane. I don't even want to post everything that has happened with this company. Joel is right. I just don't get how they can run a business whose main mission is to trick people into giving them money. In my case, it all started when they signed me up for a free week while visiting California, and said, sure I can join in New York City. Well, b4 the end of the week, I checked into it & found out that, yes, they have one in New York City. That's right. One. In Staten Island. Oh, then they didn't
cancel my membership of course. That's just the beginning of a long, long, horrid tale. I can't even think about it, it makes me want to vomit. A sucker is created, by the extortionist LA Fitness, one day at a time. How can their employees even work there without having a seriously guilty conscience? For SHAME!!!!
this was wonderfully funny! anyways, i go to la fitness too, and have been researching how to cancel my membership.
It sounds funny, I admit, but you will be crying soon. the only way to get out is to fill out a form, if you can actually download it and send it to them. You have to certify it or they will not be responsible for never getting it (and they won't), and then they will still send out a letter billing you for another month. So whatever your payment credit card is on, cancel it temporarily so they don't charge you. Btw, for some reason I like the floral background of this blog. lol
Like others have said, LA Fitness is run in a very unethical manner. There are worse gyms, but not many. Consumer reports has 2 that are rated lower. I joined an incredible gym just down the road from the LA Fitness at which I was a member (Lifetime). I had problems getting LA Fitness to honor my cancelations as others have reported. So, I told the manager that if they think it is good business practice to invite a member that is canceling their membership back into the club for another couple month, then I will be glad to use the facility. I went in each week for 2 months (4-5 days a week) and did not leave until I had talked to at least 8 other members about my experience at LA Fitness and the other options in the area that they should consider. I also left Consumer Reports reviews, adds for competitors, comments from other review sites, etc. laying around for the reading pleasure of the members. I had a number of, now former members, who thanked me the next time they saw me and said that they were also canceling at LA Fitness. I also looked for those that were with a sales person or looked like they were using the “free trial” and made a point to educate them. There was also a wide range of fees that members were paying, depending on how well they were able to negotiate. I was able to share with members that were paying $35 and more a month that I had talked to other members who were only paying $18 for their membership. While it cost me a good bit of money to get out of LA Fitness, I feel like I was able to do some good things for the gym going community in the process :)
does anyone know if the contract states you can not sue L.A. Fitness as in the dispute will be settled through arbitration? I was a member there for over 2 years. I ended up never going once bc of a health issue that prevented me from going. When I called to cancel they told me I had to do it in writing a month in advance. I told them I wanted to cancel right then bc I knew I would not be able to use the gym and that I did not feel I should have to pay for an extra month. I was not even asking for any money back for the time I did not use the gym. They gave me hell. This issue has angered me so much bc it is so unethical that I do want to take them to court. I know someone doing a documentary about such things and it would be great to get this company in it.
I just got off the phone with billing because (apparently) I was just charged again for another month of membership when I have been trying to cancel it!
See, they have this policy where, if you want to cancel, you have to LOG into your account online, PRINT out a cancellation form, STAMP it, and MAIL it in. You must do this 10-20 days before you want to cancel!! It's not even like you have to fill out anything on the form. They just do this so that they can keep charging you while this form gets lost in the mail.
So naturally, I decide that I want to cancel my membership, but have to pay for another month because my billing cycle was coming up and I didn't "mail" the form in yet. Then I mail it in and see that I am charged AGAIN the next month! When I called them, I explained that I sent the cancellation form weeks ago. They asked if I had "proof of mailing"? As if I'd send a piece of paper certified mail.
They refused to refund the charges, even though I haven' been there in months. As a courtesy (more like a sl-p in the face) the guy said he'd cancel it over the phone (wow, they can do that???) but he wouldn't refund my charges.
This gym simply does not give a d-mn about people. And they have the policies in place to prove it.
I was involved in an argument with a fellow gym member and during the confrontation the guy drops the N bomb and challenges me to a fight. This did not surprise me since I’m a realist and I understand that people say such things to evoke a stereotypical reaction. What surprised me was the operations manager’s response when I explained the situation to her, she smirked and said…”maybe you should cancel your membership”
My interpretation is, “we do not want your kind here”
To be fair LA Fitness is a good facility, but what is up with management?
The review by Ken above was an excellent idea! After reading what he wrote, I did something similar. I had problems canceling my membership (just like others have said), so everyday when I went to the club, I would talk to everyone that I came in contact with about how poorly the club had treated me and how much of a better deal I was getting down the street. I found the Consumer Reports article and left copies of them everywhere. I printed out some of the pages from my3cents.com and left them around the gym also. Good places to leave things like this are in the sauna, locker room or lockers. I even went in the club a few times with their competitor’s T-shirt. I paid special attention to people that looked like they were there to join and made sure that I warned them so that they did not get conned into joining like I did.
They finally told me that I did not have to pay them any more money if I would stop comming in. Of course, I got that in writing.
If we would all be aggressive in letting others know about how bad LA Fitness is, they would no longer be able to treat their customers this way. Other clubs that are better managed would put them out of business and make the world a better place.
I Hate LA Fitness!!! We had a dispute with a bill so we comtatced AMEX about it. Little did we know that as soon as you dispute a bill LA Fitness cancels your account. When I asked the robot about this he said "we are independant of LA Fitness corp but have to do everything they say and we have no control here."
I found your post doing a search for LA Fitness but I had almost the exact same experience from LA Fitness!
The worst thing was I cancelled in store and the person said they would take care of it, but then I got billed again and again and call after call to "Yes we're showing your account is inactive..." Next month: "That's not possible you need to cancel your account through corporate..." GAH!
My membership just got terminated because I was speaking to a manager regarding an issue of gym hygiene. I was at my university campus (which is very old and sometimes my calls drop) and my line disconnected. I called her back immediately when I got reception again and she said "oh, I thought you hung up on me so I cancelled your membership, haha"
What a power trip. Just because she can...! Now I have to either a) deal with them to get my membership reinstated or b) find another gym.
I am a Senior Citizen (68 yrs.) and I joined to keep healthy. I was coaxed into getting personal training package at $72/mo. Through my Medicare Humana Advantage, I was given a free membership to 24-hr. Fitness. I was told by the Fitness Manager at the Marquee LA Fitness that I could still come and do my training although I cancelled my monthly membership and to just keep on paying my $72/mo. Well, the manager of the store said I cannot come into the club PERIOD. I have called the corporate office and they say I have to buy out my contract at $270. I am contacting the U.S. Attorney General's office. I hate being lied to.
Janice Hays-Cavada
La fitness is absolutely horrible. From being pressured into signing up to all the hassles of cancelling, a complete failure. Service and gyms are horrible, stay far away.
Boycott LA Fitness...they trip over their own red tape, freakin' ridiculous
I worked for Golds Gym for 8 years. Gold's is franchised not corporately owned however all gyms do this. It says everything they tell you in the contract. You sign agreeing it. They require 30 day cancellation for billing. Usually the gym itself does not handle billing they source that out. I am not saying it is not a ploy but rather an agreement from the buyer to the seller. You could have still used the membership. If you have a complaint about the gym itself take it up with corporate. LA Fitness handles their memberships and child are differently. They are not linked to an account but handled on a separate contract like a membership for a child. I understand it is frustrating but it is just how it works and exactly what you signed up for. The fine print was just overlooked!!
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