In the summer of I signed up for LA Fitness' regular service, which requires a voided check and your bank info so that they can deduct your monthly dues via EFT (electronic funds transfer).
At the same time, a company called pro-results (an affiliate, I was told, of LA Fitness), which had set up operations inside the gym facilities, caught my eye. They are offering a short period of personal training through LA Fitness for a pre-paid amount. I pay with my debit card and am told that I will get X sessions, and have no further obligations.
Shortly thereafter, word has it that due to personality and business conflicts, the above mentioned personal training company fragments, the 2 older managers are let go, and an ex trainer is brought back in, along with some other ex staff members. This happens before I have completed the sessions I paid for in advance. The new manager, David, calls me and offers to make good on these sessions, and I accept.
A few weeks later, he informs me that I can get another pre-paid series of sessions, to which I agree, and again pre-pay with my debit card. After that, I decide I can afford no more signups, and tell him that I do not intend to do any more. He says that's fine, I'm under no further obligation.
Fast forward 18 months.in monitoring my bank account, I could not understand how I was coming up short for months on end, despite a lack of extravagant purchases. So I get my online statements and look much closer. Lo and behold, LA fitness has been taking $156 out of my checking account every two weeks, on top of my $35 monthly fee. For personal training, which I have not been getting, and for which I did not authorize any EFT. Grand total for 18 months? $5616, excluding my monthly membership fees. I call my bank to rectify it, but am told I have to take the matter up with LA Fitness directly.
So I call. It takes me several days to actually speak with the branch manager (she's very busy). She refers me to a member account exec, whom I call. I tell him the story, and he says that since the deductions happened, there should be paperwork in their storage facility to back it up. I tell him I never signed a voided check authorization for direct deductions for personal training. LA fitness has effectively been taking money out of my account without my permission for 18 months, and I demand a full refund. He notes that their sign-in records did indeed show that I did NOT attend a single personal training session during the time the EFT deductions were being made, and says they have to look for my paperwork, please allow 2 weeks.
2 and a half weeks later, I call back. No paperwork has been found. But they're willing to offer me a (stressed) one-time $1800 refund for the last 6 months' worth of deductions. I say no, I want my full refund. Please allow 2 more weeks, he says. So I wait again.
2 weeks later, I call again. (Keep in mind that it predictably takes upwards of 24 hours for the member account exec to get back to me each time I have called). Again, no paperowrk has been found. But he's been authorized to make me the same offer. Again. So much for one-time.
During this conversation, he lets slip that the paperwork for the entire month of Sept which is when they first started withdrawing the money from my account, has al come up missing. Conveniently enough, huh? I turn it down once more, refusing to effectively pay a penalty of $3800 for letting them rob me. He says he cannot authorize a refund. He does, however, ask me that before he does any further investigation, I am required to fax over a sample of my signature.
Cautious, I decline. And hear nothing further from them, even after 2 formal letters sent to their Irvine, CA offices demanding a full refund of the money they withdrew from my account using information from my original health club signup.
In the meantime, several of the people working with Pro Results, whom I have come to know, inform me that I am not the only person this administrative error has screwed over.
All I wanted from them is the money they were never authorized to deduct in the first place. Now I am owed over 5 grand of MY OWN MONEY, and they refuse to admit their error. I have the names of everyone I have spoken to, but have left them out for the sake of this online report.
Socal
Wolverhampton, California
U.S.A.
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