I joined LA Fitness' Body of Change aka Pro Results in March. I am trying to cancel because the trainers at LA Fitness have breached my contract and they wont let me cancel! I've been given the run around and I want out of the contract, but I'll explain the events and hopefully, someone can hear me out.
First, the amount to be charged per month was incorrectly explained to me. I thought it was going to be half the price I was billed. I thought $149, it was $312. I didnt notice the charges on my account until into the 3rd month of my membership...
At that point (April), I went into the gym and spoke to a trainer who explained to me that the amount was correct, and it was my mistake. $149 is the sign up fee, not the montly rate. Turns out the trainer incorrectly explained the contract amount to me and I am still stuck with this binidng contract?! I sucked it up and asked how do I cancel. The trainer told me to write a letter to home office. That's what they all say, but we know calling corporate or sending a letter doesn't work.
Now on top of that confusion, and this is where it gets GOOD!!!
I learned that this gym had recently fired several trainers, along with the training manager. Trainers were marking they had trained customers, taking sessions away from them, but they really never trained the person and I was one of them! I found this out by creating my online LA Fitness account and saw that there were 5 different trainers listed as having trained me. A few of which repeated on one day, and realistically only 1 of the trainers was the legit trainer I worked with, so I knew there was a problem. Everyone should double check their accounts!
What irks me further is that they were aware of these bad apple employees, but never brought it to the attention of their customers. Rather than being honest (which may have actually made me happy and kept me in the prgoram), they just pretended it didnt happen. Well I noticed, and brought it to their attention, so their concession was to refund to me the stolen sessions. I dont think that's enough.
The training manager was fired because he created an account for a trainer that didnt even exist and was collecting that paycheck on top of the managerial one. Such a shady operation!!!
Now I figured this out because I know a lot of people in my area (the GM openly admitted this to me as well), but I knew it impacted my account because of logging in online. What happens to the little old ladies that dont have a computer and dont have a means to check that their sessions are correct? No one at LA Fitness is going to bring it to their attention. It's such a scam!
So at this point, I get my sessions back, but I am so turned off by the program that I have not scheduled any new sessions since May.
I sent a cancellation letter to home office on June 2nd, but never heard back from anyone and ultimately was billed again.
I finally am able to speak to the GM of the Mount Laurel facilities on 7/1 and explain my situation to him and he tells me that they did not breach the contract; they gave me back my sessions, they fired those bad seeds, brought in new "loyal" trainers, so I should be happy!
This is ridiculous!!! If it happened 5 times, it can happen again at any time. They breached the contract and the GM doesnt care. I am not asking to get my money back, I even offered for them to bill me two more times, so half the membership was paid for and call it a day, but the GM wouldnt buge.
I am now waiting for a call from the District manager, who will have reviewed the report from the GM (which recommends it not be canceled). I have my fingers crossed that this guy is a little more understanding and actually bites the bullet and cancels my contract, but I doubt he has a heart.
I am fully willing to call the Local 10 news, 7 on your side, basically any and all news stations that are interested in hearing this story, along with the local papers. BBB is definitely going to hear from me.
Lastly, I tried the bank thing, but since it's a "contract" they cant help. I may try it again though, since LA Fitness breached our contract and they wont recognize my requests...
Oh I hope this helps, if anyone wants to file a class action suit, you can call me anyday!
Lisa
Mount Laurel, New Jersey
U.S.A.
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