I joined LA Fitness in July along with my sister. The agreement was that they would automatically deduct the membership fee directly from my bank account (BIG MISTAKE).
Everything went well for the first year.
In October I was advised by my doctor that I shoud not do any form of exercise for at least 4-6 months, preferably.
I contacted the 800 number and asked for them to please cancel the membership, and that I will reinstate once I can go again. The girl advised me that she will place my account of freeze status. No prob.
In April of I physically went to the club to just cancel the whole thing. I was advised by the manager that they are unable to cancel at the club - that I have to call the 800 number. I requested to use one of the phones located within the club. The manager politely agreed. I then walked over to one of the desks and called the 800 number. The membership was cancelled over the phone, and as I recall, I was charged a "last months" fee. I have bank statements to prove this. Anyway, I thanked the manager and left.
I never received any cancellation notice, but since I was absolutely sure that this was cancelled (again proof of last payment on bank statement and no other charges for the rest of the year), I never thought about it again.
In they began charging me $10.70 per month... Again.
I never authorized this charge and so I called my bank to investigate the charges. Apparently, they had just reinstated the account on their own!
I had called LA Fitness on several occasions to let them know that this account was cancelled and to please stop charging me freeze fees.
I was told that I must send something in writing advising them to stop charging - I then advised them that I do not have to do any of that since they did cancel this account in April and charged me the last months fees. I told them this was stealing!!! I felt like I was being taken advantage of and I swear that I will never ever give my bank account number out to any company for any type of automatic withdrawals again because of this. Why should I write a letter cancelling something that I had cancelled 8 months earlier?
Later that same year, I became the victim of identity theft so, needless to say, the account was closed. A couple of years passed without any word from LA Fitness... in the interim, I finally had a baby and have, after a year found just enough time to join a gym again. Last month, I received an offer from Ballys Total Fitness.in an effort to "find the best deal", I went online and also called to see what it would take to reinstate my membership. The girl said, "wow, that was a while ago - If it's been that long, you would probably have to pay the whole start up fee and sign a new agreement."
Naturally, I opted not to join because of this.
Curiously, last Friday, I received a collections notice for $310.70
Now you tell me, does anyone think, when they've had my correct home address and telephone number for all this time, that they would have AT LEAST contacted me prior to this? I wonder why they never sent me anything in the past 2 years. I wonder why they never called me to obtain a new account number. It all just seems too fishy to me.
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