Lifestyle Family Fitness

I was illegally debited by "LFF" from 1/09 thru 5/10. I have never heard of or stepped foot in their establishment. I contacted the home office about the charges and they gave me a run around and refuse to refund me the money. The only possible explanation they give is that they must have purchased contracts from a gym in which I was a member and they had the right to charge me per their acquired contract. I explained to them that although I may have once had a membership agreement with another club (Golds gym in Naples, FL), I feel there was an oversight on their part due to my membership was no longer active at time of their acquisition and no charges should have ever took place.

I have asked for proof of this supposed contract they purchased and they will not or cannot provide such documents. In reality I believe they made their purchase and simply entered in to their billing every name and all account info received from their purchase with complete disregard to an agreement being active or not. Since they cannot provide a contract because in short there is not one, I feel their actions are illegal and no different than if I was to find someone's bank info and start deducting money monthly. I would certainly be held accountable as should they. I suffered overdraft fees and return item fees from my bank in excess of $300. In all, LFF stole and cost me over $1000 causing severe hardship on myself and my family.

I joined a fitness club to rehab my medical condition, MS. I agreed to a month to month contract with a first and last month in advance on June 29th 2009 and I was to be billed each month. Lifestyles never billed me. They just continued to make monthly draws on my checking account. I contacted them in July telling them my condition was getting worse and that I could not continue using their equipment without accommodations. I would require the straps that were supposed to be on the equipment and I also could not open the doors and get into the building.

They continued to make draws against my account even after I notified them in writing as well as the corporate office. Their reply was for me to walk in. I found this a real insult. If I could walk, I would. I asked them seven additional times to cancel. Finally, in January 2010, I had to cancel the card to stop the monthly draws. I asked for a refund of all charges and I have not heard back again. It is approximately 600 dollars worth of charges.

I signed for the gym service and told them I was gonna use the service for 60 days only. The LFF emplyee was almost in tears and was going to pay me back $5 of the setup fee because he said he was almost to the point he would lose his job if he did not sign anybody up.

I noticed the gym had a 60 day cancellation policy, I mentioned it to the LFF representative and he said not to worry about it. However, I wrote a letter of cancellation where I also asked for a refund of the first 12 days of June because their billing cylcle goes from 12 of the month to 12 of the following month and had him acknowledge receipt, I still have the proof that I cancelled on April 4th.

Not only have I not gotten a refund for the first 12 days of June but also they billed me for June 12th - July 12th.

I have tried to call them and this person even laughed on the phone and hung up on me.

Dear Sirs,

In September, October 2005 when I was visiting Venice FL, I visited the Venice location of Lifestyle Family Fitness.

Now, I see my credit card statements with monthly charges for every month thereafter.

I called with Lifstyle and I asked for a refund of the period charged after I stopped visiting them..
They told me that I signed a contract for a permanent membership.

A Lifestyle lady advised me to go backin person to Venice and to ask to be removed from their files.

I asked her why had I been advised in such a way. Without giving ant answer on my question, she replied that since they have my signature, they will continue to charge me for as long as I do not go to Venice FL to cancel the contract.

I complained that I was wrongly advised. I explainden that I, as a foreginer, do not understand the US English at the level of knwoing what a contract fully means. I also trust that, as a client, I should be advised in my own interest. I explained about my visit and my intentions to use their place for a month. I said that the advice when I signed the contract proved to be one of the worst. So, I requested her to correct this. Instead she advised me to go back to Venice. Now I asked this lady at the 800 phone: why should I cross the Atlantic for this. Couldn't they, there in Venice, fix this? No, she said, she has a piece of paper and she will keep using it (charging me) indefinitely..