LA fitness Reviews

I never signed up for two years contract or anything like that. It was month to month and I could cancel my membership at any time. Well, I would think if you quit paying, you would be cancelled. Well, I received a call from a collection company telling me I owed them for the past seven months one week after I received a phone call and an e-mail asking if I would like to renew my membership for the same terms of $30.00 a month and only $60.00 fee. I declined then I get this call from collections. What is my recourse? They threatened to send this to the credit agencies, for a month to month that I wasn't even using.

After signing, we went to the locker room and there is a sign plain as day on the wall reading "free initiation for this week." I immediately went back to the same salesperson and he told me that because he signed up under my account he could not receive the free initiation. I got very upset and asked for the manager. I told her what had happened and after a workout's length worth of arguing, she said to call corporate and there was nothing she could do. Nothing she could do? I signed up with them less than five minutes before! I called corporate and they just referred me back to the gym. My brother then told me to just forget about it and he would pay the amount and it didn't really affect me anyway. I found out that it would definitely affect me soon.

About four months later, my brother was going off to college so we went to the desk and asked to cancel his name from my account. They said that they couldn't do this in person and printed me a form to send to corporate. I asked them if the form had any specific information trying to find a reason why I had to mail a form to corporate. They said no and my next question was obviously, "Why do I have to send in a form? Here is my ID do it now because I don't want to be charged for another month." They then said to call corporate and they will hold my brother's payment until the form is received. I called and the customer service rep said she would do just that. Guess what, it didn't happen.

Four months, three forms and numerous calls to corporate later and I have still not had my brother cancelled from my account or reimbursed for the four months of payments. I spoke to the manager at the gym and she told me that there is no record of my brother scanning in since he left in September and he has proof that he is a member of a gym near his college. My next step (other than just complaining) is to file a fraud report with my bank. They will reimburse me for the amount and investigate LA fitness. I have ample proof to assist with this. I recommend this course of action to anyone who uses credit or debit to pay for their membership (especially automatic payment). I do not understand how companies can get away with this sort of thing. It is obvious they only have you send out the form to squeeze that extra month out of you (or in my case, several).

There is absolutely no reason we cannot cancel at the same place we signed up. The funny thing is I don't just blame LA Fitness, I blame the U.S. government. There are millions of complaints on thousands of businesses about this very type of issue. Companies squeezing little bits of money here and there from patrons which doesn't seem like much but adds up to millions. From 0 - $2000, almost no lawyer will take your case. So this window of money is perfect for any company to screw people out of. I am tired of complaining and absolutely nothing being done by anyone. All it is is complaining at this point.

I have always been blown off and basically have gotten the impression that it is just my problem and there was nothing that I could do. It may take forever to get into each individual story, but the biggest complaint is that you cannot get a hold of anyone. Does the corporate office even have an email address? Does the corporate office even exist? Of course, when I get frustrated and decide that I do not want to deal with this club any longer, they make it almost impossible to quit. Someone really needs to start overseeing these clubs, because they have got to have the worst customer service that I have ever experienced.

I will explain briefly my most recent situation. I had frozen my account for a short period of time at the gym. About 2 months later, I started getting emails from La Fitness saying that they wanted me back. I was confused because I hadn't quit, so I ignored the emails. I kept getting them, so I opened it. It said that if I re-sign up, I will get my membership and half the fee and no sign-up fees. So I thought great. I rejoined and figured that since they were sending me these emails, that it would somehow cancel my old account.

They charged for 2 months, first and last month's. I then saw that online I was getting charged for the frozen account too. I tried to log onto my account, but it kept saying that it was invalid. I called up there and talked to a young girl who had no idea what to do. She said that I can cancel online. I told her that I could not even access my account. She said she would unfreeze it and that should help.

As soon as she unfroze it, I got another email stating that I was charged a full month's service for unfreezing the account. This is 3 times I am being charged. I called the next day for a manager, and she told me that there was nothing that she can do. Until I properly cancel the accounts, I was just going to keep getting charged for both accounts. She did not even try to listen to the mix up of the situation.

There was no one willing to work with me or apologies or anything. She just told me that until I send in the forms and canceled, there was nothing that they could do and they were going to continue to charge me. Also, I had signed my mother up too, so now I am being charged for 3 accounts. My mistake, so now I have to eat it, and there is nothing they are planning to do to get this resolved for me. It is absolute horrible customer service.

So, on January 28, 2009, I spoke to Ronald at LA Fitness and he then, over the phone, cancelled my membership but, he put my daughter's account "on-hold" again. So, without any notice other than the confirmation email sent to me on January 28, 2009, they started to debit my account again in August 2009. The real kicker to this is my bank was bought out and credit/debit card number changed completely and yet LA Fitness was able to charge my account for 6 additional months, another $180.

My first complaint is that LA Fitness does not feel that they need to notify a person that they are going to begin debiting their account again before they do it and somehow they were able to obtain credit/debit card information that I never provided to them. My second complaint is that there is no one at a corporate level that can assist with resolution to these issues and the only person you can talk to is at the facility level and they don't seem to have supervisors. What is this, a corporate stone wall?

I said that doesn't make any sense. Why would I need child care when I am no longer a member? I asked to speak to her manager, as it is unlikely that a true "manager" would be answering the phones at the front desk. I am still waiting to hear from "Tim" but if he strikes the same tone, they will see me in small claims.

I was denied access for some lame excuse that because I was a past member, I could not attend the class. If I wanted to attend, I must come up with $15.00 right there and then. I had only come in with my I.D. because I am a "guest." There really is no back up or truth behind his reason. You have records of guests as well as visitors so you can see if someone is abusing a pass.

Look, we all know how a business is run and that sure is not the way. If you want to continue bringing in new and recent members, let me advise you that is sure not the way to do it. Not only myself, but my friends and boyfriend whom I couldn't work out with were totally disgusted with the manager, Phil **'s actions and excuse. LA Fitness has put a bad taste in business etiquette for me and my friends and anyone else who has heard the story. Way to go LA Fitness!

On the back it was stamped by Tonya who is apparently one of the salespersons. I contacted Tonya, Mike, the manager, Jenna, another manager,and Tammy and I left several messages and would not return my phone calls. They were extremely rude and uncooperative and would not give me any information. Now I need to bring my car to the Dealership to get out the card that was unlawfully put in my car to avoid future problems. I have already sent a letter to the corporate office in Irvine, California. I should not be responsible to pay for someone else's idiotic actions and lose one day of work to take care of it.

I didn't have to hurry through and make a decision right away and could work out anytime during a 1 week period. I took the coupon and exited. I was there less than 1/2 hr. I could still catch a bus and get to where I was going in plenty of time. Okay, a few days after I walked through the gym, I received a call from Jay asking me if I'm going to join. I told him Ryan let me take a look and then told him about the coupon and he told me fine. All I need to do is bring my license and I'll get a 7 day pass. I even set up an appointment time for me to start. It was today, (1/18).

I told him, "I was told to come here and use my 7 day pass by the guy who let me have that 1/2 hr access (Ryan). Not only him but another guy told me the same thing (Jay). I let them both aware that I was there that 1 day. Ryan, in fact was the guy that let me do it and he never said a word about this. In fact, he told me to come on down to the gym".

Chris, then went to get Ryan and Ryan told me the same thing. He said, that 1 day was it! I have to join right now, or go home. The attitude was very different now. I told him, "You told me to come and do the 7 day trial yourself. Why didn't you tell me I had to join, or else?. Instead you told me to come." He said that he didn't realize I had that 1 day access.(What?). Either he was stupid or lying (I'm sure it was the latter), because it was made clear to me on the phone that he knew. He also knew I was just there for a walk around and not a workout and that I was only there for less than a half hr. He goes, "Well, what else do you need to know? You saw what we had. So now, you know. Join or go home". (in so many words. In fact his last words were, "Go find another gym that will let you work out for free").

There are so many things wrong on so many levels with that kind of treatment..I don't even know where to start. First of all, why wasn't I told there was such a thing (apparently, standard and normal procedure), as a 7 day trial period when I arrived that 1st day? Do you know the only way one could get that coupon was by going into the locker room on a visit? How the heck is a person off the street supposed to know? Only, when into the gym lockers would one know.

Secondly, I'm okay if I knew that the1 time was it. I would have spent more time looking around, asking questions, etc. Ryan goes, "You've seen everything so what do you need 7 days for?" Why do they even have those passes then? My questions and things I would have sought out were things like "I hear you can't get a treadmill at night because it is too crowded, how is the shower pressure, is the tiny sauna always full, as it was the day I was there, when is the best time to come, etc." I would have checked out those (especially going at night since that would be when I could go), and many other things that I'd want to know during the 7 day trial, before plunking down a $400 commitment.

This is unprofessional and I was lied to. What a great advertisement Ryan is for the class of LA Fitness. I was disgusted. Anyway, that's my story. Now, there is so much. But do you know what Ryan, said to me, about all the ** I had to go through? He said, "Well, you're wasting our time." The rest of the event was mostly emotional. No one likes to be insulted, especially by the guy who invited you to the party, so to speak, then yanks away the invitation with an insult to boot.

I immediately called on 13 Nov 2009 when I found out my membership was never cancelled. I have been in the USAF for almost 17 years, deployed five times out of country (twice to Iraq) and I've never gotten the runaround or had this much trouble cancelling a service as I've had with cancelling my L.A. Fitness membership. I was told by a L.A. Fitness representative, Michelle, on 13 Nov 2009 at 08:30 a.m. Arizona time that I would be refunded $299.90 for 10 months and that the month or two I was now behind would be charged off. She said I would get a refund check for $299.90 in 5-6 weeks.

I called Jan 13, 2010 to check up on the status of the refund because I never got it. I got a customer service rep named Cindy. She informed me that $74.97 was refunded back to the checking account that it came out of. I told her that 1.) This account was closed in August of 2009 and 2.) I was told I would get refunded $299.90. Cindy explained that they can only refund three months (not what I was originally told) and to call my bank and see what happened to the money. I called my bank and they said that the account is closed and there are no transactions that have occurred since the account was closed. (Exactly what I figured. How can they credit an account that no longer exists?) When I called Cindy back, she said the money was refunded and there is nothing L.A Fitness can do. I need to take it up with the bank! So here I am, out for a one year membership I didn't use and not even a three-month (or 10 month!) refund as promised! Help!

Would someone please help us? LA Fitness's business practices are unfair and they are taking advantage of consumers! I am due a refund of $162.38. If someone does not step in and stop them; they surely will continue to rip people off!

I’m sick of the obvious cat and mouse game. I told her I just wanted to cancel his membership. She told me I could come in and get a form or type a letter. I decided to type a letter because I also wanted to let them know about this situation. I send 2 letters to them with no response. I steadily call in. Finally, I got someone "cool" enough at LA Fitness to let me in on the corporate scheme. He told me they don’t look at any envelopes sent or read anything. All they do is scan their form. Their cancellation form is a print out that you're supposed to fold and has a bar code on it. I understand that is just hearsay, but I find their cancellation policy absurd and almost to the point of fraudulent. I can walk in and start a membership in 30 minutes but to cancel it takes weeks and they continue to bill you.

I contacted the corporate office first on 1/5/2010 and was told that the club should be able to print out a blank contract, but he would email me one anyway. The email never came, so I called back on 1/6/2010. After two hung ups on their end, a lady told me that they were not allowed to send out Terms and Conditions in advance, because I "might change them" and that it wasn't a "contract, it is a monthly agreement."

I think she needs to go take a basic business law class. She said that I could go to the club and read the Terms and Conditions, but they couldn't leave the club. Are you kidding me? At this point, I want an attorney to read over them, as I don't trust a business that operates this way. As I told her, I'm glad I found out how they operate before I signed up. Beware, this is not the type of business I want to work with.

He said that when I'm out of town, I would not pay the monthly fees by putting a hold on the account until I come back, then they will reactivate the account. He said that there would be no fees for putting the account on hold and reactivating it. He said that there is also no need to have contracts because LA Fitness is very ecological.

Well, it is full of **, when I left California, I called Travis to put my account on hold and reminding him that there should be no fees. Well, I came back to France and I see that my account is being debited every month for 434.99. I called them five times already, and now they tell me that Travis has been promoted as a manager in LaVerne office and that Peter is the new manager. I explained it to Peter and he told me he would take care of everything.

However, I am still being debited every month and I still have not been refunded for those amounts. They keep promising to refund me the monthly fees unused, but up to know, nothing is done and they keep debiting my account for $34.99. I've called them, Travis and Peter, several times but I was only given false promises.

I immediately called LA Fitness and told them that I did not sign up for this! I also told them that my plan was ending on November 23rd 2009. And I told them I also wanted my membership for the 29th to end in November. I asked if I should put something in writing, but they said, I didn't have to. I got them to look me up online and confirm. And they told me I did not need to do anything else.

In December they took out the $29 from my credit card, but they also charged $168 which they were not authorized to do. I talked to my local LA Fitness and the manager, Andrew, told me I was right and that he would send an email to Corporate Office. That was December 16th 2009. They over drafted my bank account and in doing this, that cost me $35!

On December 24th, 2009 they took out $312 from my account. I came back from my holiday and went straight to my local LA Fitness to ask what would be done! The Manager, Andrew, sent a new email and told me to close my credit card, so that it wouldn't happen again! And then he told me to try and call the Corporate Office, but he didn't give me any number. I left and called 411, and got a number for another branch. I called them and spoke to a very nice girl, who told me her manager would like to try and solve this before I call Corporate Office. The manager was busy and she would just call me back. She never did.

It has cost me $168 + $29 + $312+ $35 by now. But the story is not over! I'll let you know how it goes! As I know, here in the US, when companies advertise on TV, they're allowed to say bad things about their competition. So, we should take our stories to one of LA Fitness competitors and let them use our stories in their advertising! Usually, I'm not about trashing others, but this is not right!

On 12/1/09, I paid them for two-month memberships, a first and last month, in case I cancelled. At the time of payment, I found they did charge me $84.98, but the person I signed up with stated it was start-up fees for the difference. I called them on 12/30/09 and told them to cancel my membership, as I had been trying for the last few weeks. At that time, they told me I had to print off a form and mail it. The website told me when I printed the form that I would have to pay for an extra month.

So they billed me on 12/30, took the money out of my account, which I told them I did not want. I paid an extra month of membership to allow for the notice of cancellation. I should not have to pay an extra month of membership. I have not used the membership at all, as I have wanted them to cancel from the beginning. (I never used their facilities.) All correspondence sent to me through my email came from this address, but they never responded. I realize I should not be refunded for the first and last payments, but I should not be billed an extra month.

She told me they could not take cash. So I told her that as soon I got my new card and new checking, I will go to the club and give them my new info. She said yes and told me that she would put a note to let the others in accounting know what happened to me and they would not call me anymore. But they did after an hour. I spoke to this person and they were calling me again. It just looks to me like they don’t have anything else to do. I work from 10 to 8pm, 6 days a week and I never answer my phone. We are not allowed to answer personal phone calls, and I could not call them back. But that was nothing since they could not get in contact with me on the phone. They started asking every single person whose last names are the same as mine, if they knew me to let me know that they have an issue with my account. They will give my name. They asked two persons that I know and they’re pretty close to me. They have the same last names but they are not related to me. They asked my sister-in-law so she can call me and let me know. I got mad because it was not the first time.

I spoke to the manager on duty who professionally studies in management and not working at all. He called me a liar. He made me madder than I already was. This guy is not professional at all. He was screaming at me. Instead of trying to get things better, he got them worse. He was disrespectful, and instead of dealing with the problem himself, he put the girl who was responsible for all this mistake to deal with me because he could not do it. She doesn’t know what to say. She said that she missed to say somebody else’s name and she said mine and she also said the others person’s name. This person is irresponsible. What it is a client privacy? They don’t do that. They try to get their money no matter how. They are worst than the banks creditors. And even maybe you owe more money to them, they are not looking for you like this persons was. I would say after this experience with LA Fitness, I would give them a zero star and they don’t even have enough machines to workout. You have to wait in line to use them. The service and the gym itself suck. I would not recommend this gym to anybody who likes good customer services, friendly and confident.

LA Fitness does not respond to letter, does not return most phone calls, and stonewalls at all levels. They are woefully inefficient, uncaring, uncooperative, and unprofessional. They are ethically bankrupt and most likely dishonest and corrupt. We have lost the opportunity for many physical trainer sessions and have a large backlog of sessions already paid for. To drop LA Fitness we would lose several hundred dollars of sessions. Because my wife and I need motivation to exercise, our loss of our trainer caused our decline of physical activity and interest in exercise (I have gained about 10 pounds). Hopefully, we can regain our enthusiasm, but LA Fitness's intractability has caused us much duress.

This happened 18 times. I was never allowed to work out at any time. The last time I tried was the first week of September, and I was taken crying from the club of my choice. I went back to the original club, and the other men who said they were the managers and that they were going to take care of it were mouthing “I'm sorry” behind some new man who said he's the manager and I will not ever be allowed in and it's up to him. My contract doesn't say I am a member and it doesn't say I'm not a member so get out. I took cancellation papers there and sent them in at the post office 5 minutes later. I had paid first, last and 8 months to never be allowed in any gym, and they are sending me threatening letters for more money.

I called back, and instead of addressing my issue, the manager tried to sell me on a new training and membership. She would not address my complaint. She also said that any cancellation needs to be in certified mail. I explained to her that this was not cancellation but new charges that are not related to the previous contract. She referred me to the corporate office without giving me the number.

I googled the number in Irvine and got hold of Chris, who said that he will credit my credit back for the last two months. He did not explain why the charges took place in the first place. I asked him to confirm this by email, and he said he would do that. So far, I still don't have confirmation. We'll see. By the way, they are still charging $34.99 per month, though when I log in, the LA Fitness website tells me under my account tab that the current status is cancelled.

LA Fitness went ahead and deducted the $34.99 dues from my account in December. They were not authorized to do this. Then this caused three transactions to bounce in my checking account. When I called LA Fitness, upon which they had already refunded the $34.99 to my checking, I was told that I was lucky to have gotten the refund that they gave me. I was told that they would not refund me the fees that I was charged at my bank because of their mistake.

They faxed me one page, which did not include the majority of the details we discussed. I wrote an addendum to the contract with my specifics based on the conversation I had with the individual who was helping me. LA Fitness would not sign this page even though it outlined our discussions clearly and specifically. Then they faxed me another contract to sign; this one was three pages rather than one page. I was able to add in the details of our conversation in my handwriting to the first page. Then I crossed out the indemnity clause on a second page due to the fact that LA Fitness disclaims all liability regarding you or your children on the premises (whether on the equipment or in kid's care).

They specifically disclaim all liability "Whether caused by the active or passive negligence of LA Fitness or otherwise." I crossed out this entire section for waiver of liability and indemnity because I don't believe if they are negligent, they should require a potential customer or customer to sign away any right to recourse. The general manager of the LA Fitness called me and said that I must sign that section for the contract to be valid. I explained to him that I was uncomfortable signing that LA Fitness has no liability even if LA Fitness is negligent. I asked if he or his corporate legal department could modify the agreement to something more reasonable and then I would sign the section. I was told that was not possible and I would need to sign the section as presented.

As I was unwilling to do this, the manager said he was going to shred my contract. I am extremely frustrated at the effort on their part to not provide your rights as provided in conversation in their contract unless you go through hoops to put it in yourself. Then you can't even use their service unless you are willing to sign something completely unreasonable. Are they even allowed to disclaim liability from negligence by law even if in their contract? This is ridiculous.

We spoke to the Livonia, MI manager whose name is **. Apparently his nickname is **, but his name is **. He told me that the offer I had received via email was expired and no longer valid. I asked him to allow me to pull up my email and show him. He said he couldn’t do that. He went on to say that the offer I was referring to would only allow my fiance and I to work out together. He also wanted to charge us well over $200 to sign up. We repeatedly told him that didn’t make sense and he started his sales pitch about what a great deal I had on my account, that I had access to all signature clubs (although there were none in Michigan at the time) and bragged about the upcoming club in Royal Oak and how it was going to be a signature club. He called one of his co-workers over to look at the screen and was gushing about what a great deal I had, how he had never seen anything like that before, etc. ** or ** seemed shady and we weren’t willing to spend the money to sign up.

We decided we would visit the Troy location, which I had been familiar with. I also decided to take advantage of my free personal trainer session and made an appointment. The Friday after Thanksgiving (11/27), we went to the gym and checked in. We told the lady at the desk that my fiance was interested in joining and I was there for my appointment. She was busy and said she would tell the trainer I was there and told us to go ahead and work out and check in with her before we left to register. I was waiting for the trainer and decided to go back to the front desk to make sure he knew I was there. She told me he was with someone, but was finishing up. I told her I would be on the treadmill and she said ** would come get me as soon as he was ready. ** never came.

As we were leaving, we spoke to ** about a membership for my fiance. I told him I was disappointed about my session, but things happen, right? He started reviewing enrollment options, which were much more reasonable that **. We started telling him about what we were told and he involved the manager **. She was flabbergasted and could not believe **. She went on with her own monologue about how some of these people think LA Fitness is Bally’s. She provided us with an email address for the district manager **. My fiance signed up about the same time the trainer that I had the appointment with walked in. He said the lady at the front desk never told him I was there and offered to set up another appointment. So, I set up an appointment for the following weekend with him. That week my fiance sent an email to the district manager ** expressing his dissatisfaction. To date, he has not received any type of response at all.

I went in for my session the next weekend (Saturday, 12/5) and was provided with pricing options. After thinking about it on Sunday and discussing the options with my fiance, I decided I couldn’t really afford it. I called on Monday morning and spoke with ** again. He asked if I would be willing to continue with the training if he reduced the price from $320/month to $240/month. I said that I would. He said he would call his manager and confirmed my appointment that night at 5:00. Might I add that my session on Saturday left me extremely sore for days to the point in which I could not even lift my arms high enough to put on makeup or put on a shirt.

After work on Monday, 12/7, I went to LA Fitness to get the paperwork in order and go to my first official session. I stopped and talked with ** who was having difficulty with the system. He told me to go ahead with my session and check in with him afterward. I followed the direction and met back with **. I had been charged $419.99, which was the sign up fee for the original deal and the first month payment. The new deal was only for $339, so ** said I would receive an $80 credit to my account. He was having problems with the system and had to hand-write the contract, which stated I would receive an $80 credit. Some other manager ** was there and said he would handle everything. Happy days?

Nope, on Wednesday, 12/9, I had two charges in my bank account: $419.99 and $379.00. I called ** right away and he said he would look into it and make sure my account was handled. In the meantime, I transferred money from my savings account into my checking account to cover the pending checks I had written. He never called back Wednesday or Thursday. I called him again on Friday (12/11). He said the credit had been processed and I should receive my credit any day. I asked about the $40 discrepancy it appears the friendly manager ** decided to charge me for the personal training session that took place before I had signed the contract, even though it was their system problem that caused it to happen. At no point did I ever agree to pay the $40. ** apologized and said he would give me a free session. Fine.

On Saturday, 12/12, there was no credit in my account. I called first thing in the morning and the lady who answered the phone told me ** was with a customer and he would call me back. He didn’t. So, I called back on Saturday evening and spoke with the weekend manager **. He told me the credit would be in my account by Wednesday. I told him I wanted to cancel my gym membership and my personal trainer membership. He told me I had to wait until I received my credit and then I could cancel. ** called me on Monday and I couldn’t bring myself to talk to him at this point.

On Monday night, 12/14, Shemean from corporate left me a message to confirm my training and left her number if I had any questions. I called her right back and left a message saying I had questions and would like a call back. I have not yet received a call back. On Tuesday, 12/15, I called **. He said the credits sometimes took a week, so it should be in my account by Friday, 12/18. By Friday, 12/18, there’s no credit to my account. I decided to stop in at lunch and make a personal visit. ** assured me that he was doing everything on his end to process the credit and that it sometimes took longer because everything had to be approved by corporate in LA. I told him that I was extremely dissatisfied with LA Fitness and wanted to cancel my membership.

He told me if I cancelled, I would be charged half of the contract total because the three days had passed. I told him I had been expressing my desire to cancel since 12/9, but kept being brushed off had to wait for my credit, etc. He pretty much said that was the way it was. At this point, another manager ** was at the gym. He told me he would approve my credit that afternoon and corporate would receive it Monday. Evidently, corporate processes refunds on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I assume ** is the same manager my fiance emailed a month prior and still had not received a response. At this point, I realize I am totally screwed. I tried to make the most of it, which only resulted in getting walked on more. I made an appointment for a personal training session the next day in Livonia with **.

On Saturday, 12/19, I went to the gym for training session. The only problem was there was some kind of breakdown in communication between the person who answered the phone and the trainer and my name was not on the schedule. Some other trainer said he was sorry and offered to make another appointment. No thanks. As I was leaving, I asked the person at the front desk to document in my account that I came in for a training session and the person wasn’t there. Evidently, this was ridiculous in her mind as she had already written someone somewhere a note. I finally became very agitated 2 weeks and $460 later and nada.

I decided to appeal to LA Fitness' sense of decency, which it turns out, they do not have. It quickly became obvious to me their business is run on pressure sales and total lack of customer service, not to mention lack of ethics or morals. They refuse to give out the corporate office number and I could not even find it on the internet. This, to me, is a huge red flag as to how they run their business, and that if it were not for pressure sales or binding unsuspecting targets to long-term contracts, they could not stay in business.

Is this still America? Do we not try to protect our citizens from these types of business practices? Then I logged onto the internet and saw that, sadly, my daughter is not alone. It is disgusting to see all the people who have had terrible experiences with this company and nothing is done about it.

Are you thinking of joining an LA Fitness gym? Here are some details of our own recent experience to help you to decide one way or another. During my son's brief involvement with LA Fitness staff at our local branch, they lied to my son over the terms of contract, specifically terms of cancellation. They continually provided different answers to fob him off when he tried to cancel his membership, produced a version of the contract that they claim he signed which did not match the original version of which he had kept a copy. They refused to accept responsibility for comments and promises made (and the staff who made them) when he was persuaded to sign up.

They passed the matter of the further payments over to a debt management company (with a vile and aggressive manner) within 5 days of the next payment apparently being due (it was later cancelled) and without any attempt at all to contact my son to ask why his direct debit arrangement had failed to pay out (he had been shrewd enough to cancel it). They promised to respond to my son's complaint within 14 days but took over 2 months to provide only a partial response.

I cannot, of course, prove that any or all of the above represents LA Fitness' normal methods of doing business but a quick and easy internet search (try something like LA Fitness+complaints) will enable you to see the general pattern of their dealings with various other less-than-satisfied customers. My own advice, given without prejudice, would be to join a different gym.

Even so, I kept my membership until I had an injury and could not go. Then I tried to cancel. As with others, I called first, and was told I had to go into the club to cancel membership. So then I went in to the club and got their cancellation form. I also went online and tried to cancel my membership there, which I thought I successfully did, just in case. Instead, I have been hounded and billed for two months now. I have had two overdraft fees ($35.00 each) and again my membership still has not been cancelled after all of that. If there is a class action law suit, count me in. It should be just as easy to cancel membership as it was to sign up.

I'm contacting local media about this issue and hope to get my money back. I'll tell everyone not to join. Shame on this company for being so greedy. Karma will prevail. I'm out $140+ that I could use to pay bills. The economy has affected me negatively as it has so many and I can really use the money. Heck, that's the reason I cancelled my membership in the first place.

I called back and left a message on a Hispanic man's voice mail. A lady (Erin) called back. When I told her what happened she said that I signed an agreement (contract) and that there was nothing she could do. I was like, "Even though I was tricked and misled by one of the workers?" She said, "You still signed," and hung up in my face. I called back talked to another. She said she was going to contact the VP in my area and send email but I haven't heard a response yet and that has been almost a week. And I was told I can cancel or stop anytime I want.

We called the Wilmot branch where they signed up originally and the staff told us they could do nothing without us coming in. When we got there and requested to immediately cancel the memberships, they said they can't do that. We had to send in forms via certified mail to cancel memberships. After discussing this issue with the operations manager Victoria ** for 30 minutes, I received cancellation forms for both memberships. The forms need to be received at least 10 days prior to close of the next billing cycle. This policy changed from when we signed up, with no written notice, which they admitted to. Long story short, I paid the one month "past due" amount of $25.49 for my daughter and mailed certified mail the cancellation notices on October 8, 2009.

On Nov. 1, 2009, LA Fitness debited my account $25.49 for prepaid dues for November 2009! First, the membership had been cancelled and second, I did not authorize them to debit my account. After disputing this bill for weeks, they sent me an electronically generated email receipt dated October 7, 2009 (no signature) that says "This confirms your authorization today for the one time charge on or after 10/8/2009 to the account ending (**) in the amount of $25.49." Then the form says, "In addition, you authorized the continuation of your regular monthly dues of $24.99 to be billed to your account resuming on 11/1/09." They did not disclose this to me at the gym and I did not sign anything authorizing them to debit my account other than a one time charge. I did not receive a receipt other than the visa slip and they told me "We are a paperless company"?

I admit, I was stupid to pay with my debit card, but by debiting my account without authorization after the membership was cancelled is check card fraud. Any legitimate business issues receipts and written invoices when requested. I have filed a complaint with the Tucson Police Department Check Fraud Division, the AZ Attorney General's office, Bank of America Check Fraud Division. Is there an attorney willing to file a class action lawsuit against LA Fitness for fraudulent business practices? At the very least, they should lose their Visa privileges.

I would very much appreciate any help your forum can provide to stop LA Fitness's criminal business practices. They must use this scam dozens or hundreds of times each week to extort money from consumers. They need to be held accountable. Good luck trying to pin them down or get anyone on the phone more than once.

My husband returned for his second session, Keith was not available. Another trainer was going to work with him, but there was no hand off communication and the new trainer knew nothing of his medical conditions. I spoke with Matt, who assured me this would be addressed. After several sessions, to cut to the chase, my husband now has a herniated lumbar disk and is going to have surgery on 11/18/2009. We did cancel the personal trainer sessions, but that took several physician letters. Ultimately, we cancelled our membership. Not one person responded to my calls and I did stop by and Matt was not available. I hold them responsible for the pain my husband is in. How many others are there?

Look on the internet before you buy. This organization has more bad, disreputable stuff written about it than any health club I have belonged to in the past 20 years. I spoke with Shannon on the phone at corporate, and she was the typical recording and completely unwilling to further my call or help me out. She also told me at first there were no signature clubs in 06/2009. Then after she found out I told the manager I was travelling, she backed up and said there were no signature clubs in my area. More "big corporate" lies and extortion. It's typical. They do not care about the individual as long as they get a few more dollars. I will be cancelling my membership. And if you are smart, you will not join this lying bunch of thieves!

As time went on, LA Fitness kept on charging my AmEx card $130 each month. Each month, I called up the manager and even went back to see him about the situation, hoping he would be taking care of it as he promised. He lied and did not stop the billing. I called AmEx and disputed all the charges. AmEx then contacted LA Fitness, and they submitted a signed copy of my contract.

I contacted the local Tucker, GA club again and spoke to Amy, who submitted my doctor's note to corporate office. Then I called the corporate office to obtain my refund of $650. Now, they are only refunding $260 out of $650. LA Fitness Pro Results Training is a complete scam. They just know how to steal people's hard-earned money. I have also filed for a complaint with BBB. These people deserve to be sued and shut down!

Since LA Fitness’s lack of respect for the cancellation, another payment was taken from my account. When I spoke to a representative at the corporate office, I was told that the transaction was canceled by my bank and would be returned in a couple of days. The representative misled me and the payment posted to my account. I don't believe LA Fitness has any intention on canceling my membership and I don't intend letting them get another dime from me.

Since LA Fitness didn't honor their cancellation policy, my account was debited and therefore affecting my accounting for the month. LA Fitness is making tons of money from this non logical cancellation policy. Throughout the time of my membership, I barely use it so LA Fitness had months of payments on me for nothing. I want my payment for the month of November to be refunded and my membership canceled.

Due to the situation, I asked if I might be able to obtain a refund for 25 paid sessions at $1,000.00 which have been paid for and not used due to my bad back on and off, and now this incident. I have been dealing with Mr. Joe **, Pro Results, gave him copies of the letter from the surgeon at the facility for over 2 weeks, with a response that came finally today after I had to call him numerous times. He told me that the regional person Esperanza ** for the area said no refund at all, no discussion no nothing. It is my understanding that you cannot use the training sessions if you do not belong to the gym. What am I to do? I am no longer a member and will not be returning to the gym due to money issues as well as doctor bills up the yin yang and Pro Results has $1,000.00 of my money. I am hoping that the powers that be will have a shred of mercy and find it in their hearts to refund me the money. Any questions please do not hesitate to contact me. Once again I really appreciate your time and consideration regarding the above. No one could give a damn! It is oh well you are out of the money!

When I went to my bank, they gave me a printout of several transactions made by LA Fitness. The first swipe of my Visa card was not for $160, which they told me, but for $689. And they took an additional $500 twice in the month of June. In August, they deducted another $645. I went to my local LA Fitness, so they could fix this. There had to be some kind of mistake. The girls at the counter told me that I had a contract and I would need to talk to the person whom I signed up with. I told the "girls" at the counter that I didn't have a contract and I needed to speak with Josh. At this point, LA Fitness had $2,334.00 of my money.

I would like to reiterate that I turned 18 a month prior, so this money was all I had. I work part-time and go to school. I waited 2 hours in LA Fitness that day for Josh. The date was August 17, 2009. He was in, but he was busy. I had to be at work, so I left. My mom called me to find out how I made out and did LA Fitness credit my account. When I told her what happened, she told me to be late for work and to meet her at LA Fitness.

I went back to LA Fitness. My mom and I went up to the counter and asked to speak with Josh. My mom told the counter girls "We are not waiting 2 hours." We still waited about 30 minutes. Josh finally came out and took us to his desk. We asked to see a copy of the "so-called contract." He printed it out, and there was my signature - the signature that I made in the little black box the day I swiped my Visa card. This was the first I saw of this contract and of the amount of money LA Fitness was going to charge me per month. If I had seen the contract or been told of the actual facts in the contract, I no way would have signed it. This trainer had me sign a contract for training for $645.00 a month. I would never had been able to afford that, and if I could, I would never spend that amount for a trainer.

I informed Josh at that time that he never gave me this contract. This was the first time I was able to read it. He informed us that he has 400 clients and gives everyone a copy of the contract. He explained he gave it to me when he gave me my trainer guide. I informed Josh that he did not give me the trainer guide. Nick, another trainer, gave it to me. Well, he then told my mom that he didn't give it to me the day I signed it but that he knew he gave it to me a few days later, which he did not. However, Josh still had a responsibility to present me with a copy at the time of signing and allow me to review the contract prior to signing, which was impossible because he wasn't even explaining that there was a contract.

The buyer's right to cancel in the contract reads that you have three (3) days to cancel from the date of receiving a copy of the contract. At that time, I wanted to exercise my right to cancel it, because I received it on August 17, 2009. I told Josh this, and he informed me that it wasn't that easy and that I was 18 and bound by the contract. He would see what he could do. My mom asked to speak with his boss, and he informed us that he was his own boss and the general manager. He told my mom that he would see what he could do and call her back later that day. Josh never called back.

I wrote a letter to corporate office to cancel the contract based on the buyer's right to cancel. I did it via certified mail, as it is stated in the contract. I told them they were no longer authorized to deduct money from my account. I also dropped a copy of the letter at the local LA Fitness, as the contract also suggested to do. When I did this, the local LA Fitness refused to accept the copy of the letter of cancellation.

Keep in mind that I still have my monthly membership with LA Fitness that I have not cancelled at this time. A few days later, I entered LA Fitness to work out (not to use a trainer) with a friend of mine. The "counter girls" swiped my membership card, looked up at me, and told me "Oh, you aren't allowed in here. You are negative energy." So now, I am also paying for a membership I can't use.

I received the certified card back, which was signed by the corporate office, and I gave them an additional ten (10) days to do what they need to do on their end. A follow-up phone call was made to a member service manager on September 2 to find out if they cancelled my contract and to find out about a refund, to no avail. The response was "Well, the computer says that you signed a contract." "Well, the computer says that Josh did give you a copy of a contract."

My mom is now taking over this battle with them. Even during the dispute, they still continued to get money from my account. Josh knows that he didn't give me a contract nor tell me. As of this date from the month of June 2009 to October 2009, LA Fitness has $3084.00 of my money. Josh had a professional responsibility to explain the contents of the contract and provide me with a copy of the contract the day I supposedly signed it. If he would have done that, I would never had all these deductions made from my account.

I filed a complaint with Visa to see if I could get my money back. So I have to wait and see, but my fight with LA Fitness is not over yet. I think I was taken advantage of, because I was young but yet old enough to be bound by a contract. And I'm even paying for something I can't even use. Even if they let me into the facility, I will never work out there ever again. I am now also trying to cancel by monthly membership, too.

I do want to mention that I have not been in LA Fitness, since they told me I wasn't allowed in, and that has been since August 21, 2009. Yet, they keep trying to get my money. LA Fitness should be investigating how their trainers are signing people up. I believe there is a huge scam there. I also live in the state of Pennsylvania, and on the back of the contract under PA Health Club Act, if a client is not given a copy of the agreement, they can cancel it at any time. They ignore this right, too.

One final note regarding this so-called professional general manager/trainer at my local LA Fitness: He was also my trainer, but after a few sessions with him, I switched trainers because he made me feel very uncomfortable. For lack of a better word, he was creeping on me. And he took my phone number from my file and kept texting me to hang out. That's not very professional.

Corporate was made aware of this too. That was the only thing they were concerned about, not my contract nor my money. I have kept the texts just in case I have a chance to prove my case, and I hope that it will lessen Josh's credibility because I guess this is his word against mine. I have completely closed my bank account, so they will not be able to get another dime from there. But now, my credit is at risk and I'm only starting out in life.

I called the manager, Johnny, and voiced my opinion. I told him that I wanted to cancel the rest of the sessions, and I thought because of the problems we had, I wouldn't be charged for 50% of the remaining months, which were eleven. He informed me that there's nothing he could do but terminate it for the 50% penalty. He never tried to work with me. My account was charged $660, which was 50% of the remaining balance. I feel we were highly pressured and they don't care anything about the customer but just make a sale and make their numbers!

However, the next month, $100 showed up on the Chase card. I immediately went to the gym to speak with Travis (he was not with LAF anymore). Mike ** kept talking about Fitness and did not want to hear about the money situation. I instructed Chase to reverse charges. By now they have charged my account $300. Irvine sent Chase the contract that I signed for the 4 sessions but made it look like I approved 11 session thus I was owing $1100. The fraud was this: Travis pushed the electronic pad for me to sign. I signed. He then added to the second paragraph, "11 payments at $100 ea." I did not see what he entered. He printed the contract and folded it as he walked back from the printer and immediately stapled it to the inside back of a booklet.

I have been charged nearly a year of dues as a result of LA Fitness changing the interpretation of this policy. Multiple calls and visits to the local and corporate clubs are useless, and the cancellation policy is conveniently only by mail and requires "sufficient time before next billing - typically ten days" to actually stop the stealing of funds from checking accounts!

So how do I cancel? No one will let me cancel after I already cancelled in March! John's response to this was, "You're wasting my time. I don't have time to deal with this." He refused to refund me my money, and kept handing the phone to a different person. So every time I talked to someone, I had to re-explain the problem, and then they would say I have to talk to John, the manager.

Issue #2: My husband started his LA Fitness membership on April 22, 2009. We were charged $150 enroll fee & 1st & last month membership fee for a total of $350, but there are no 1-yr. contracts. It's month to month. So that makes no sense to charge 1st and last month. Second, my husband's father signed up to LA Fitness on "4/15/2009" & was not charged an enrollment fee. Then, my sister-in-law went into LA Fitness the day after I signed Shane up with a friend & 1 of the sales associates offered her a promo. She said she wasn't interested. Then the sales associate told her that if she signed up, she'd get a promo for $0 enrollment fees. She said she would but lives out of state.

When I called to find out why everyone else got a $0 enrollment fee but me, John, the manager (who signed us up) apologized and stated that he would call me back to take care of the refund for me. He never called back. When I called back 2 weeks later, the receptionist said she would forward the message. I called 3 more times during the succeeding months until October and he never returned my call. When I finally spoke with him in October after cancelling my membership, he claimed that my father-in-law signed up a week after my husband in May, when they had the $0 enrollment fee going on. I said, "No, he didn't. He signed up only a couple days before us." He said, "I am looking at the account now, and he signed up 1 week after you, in May "

I said, "If you are looking at the his account, then what's Shane's father's name?" He didn't know, he asked for the name, looked up the account, and said that Shane's father signed up on 4/15/09 (which I am pretty sure is not true, I am almost positive that he signed up 2 days before Shane) and that there probably was a promo going on 1 week before we signed up. Then I asked him why was there a $0 enrollment promo going on 1 wk before Shane enrolled and 1 day after Shane signed up when you (John), especially when you (John) just said that in May there was a $0 enrollment fee promo going on? He said that was irrelevant and there was no way to prove that anyone offered my friend that promo and to "stop wasting his time". Then he put me on hold without saying anything to me and transferred me to someone else who could not do anything to address this situation. On top of that, I cancelled in October and they still charged me for October's fee.

I want a refund for the enrollment fee, last month's membership charge, and for the charges made while my account was supposed to be frozen in Oct., Nov, Dec, Jan., Feb. and March of 2008. Also, I want the account to be cancelled immediately.

LA Fitness then sent these receipts to my email:

Receipt for Membership Cancellation: "The following members are also cancelled: **. This confirms cancellation of your monthly dues membership. Your membership will expire on 12/24/2009 and includes application of your last month's prepaid dues. Please enjoy use of the club through that date. If you have a balance due, it will automatically be charged to your account on file with us, on or after your next regular scheduled billing date, pursuant to the authorization you previously provided. Thank you for choosing LA Fitness."

Receipt for Membership Cancellation: "This confirms cancellation of your monthly dues membership. Your membership will expire on 12/19/2009 and includes application of your last month's prepaid dues. Please enjoy use of the club through that date. If you have a balance due, it will automatically be charged to your account on file with us, on or after your next regular scheduled billing date, pursuant to the authorization you previously provided. Thank you for choosing LA Fitness."

I cancelled this membership in October and LA Fitness intends on continuing to charge me for November and then using my last month's deposit to pay for December when I do not want this service at all! I cancelled in October and they are still trying to scam me out of more money. I want my last month's payment paid back in full for both accounts. I was already charged for my last month for Shane, which is October. And I was incorrectly charged for my account from March-October when I cancelled in March and was frozen since October of 2008. The only fee they were entitled to was $25 every 3 months for the account being frozen from Oct 2008-March 2009.

A few months passed by and then I was ordered to be reactivated to come back to the marine corps for training. I told the LA Fitness rep that I will be in 29 Palms doing training for approximately 4-5 months, so I don't want to cancel my account but simply put it on hold. Being that it is a military-friendly community, he said they get that all the time so that should be no problem. Putting my account on freeze or on hold helped with all the administrative paperwork that was involved. Now I'm back from 29 Palms on 30 days vacation and now I have so much problems because of LA Fitness.

They never placed my account on hold! I was being charged $312, plus the gym membership fee of $34.99 for those 4-5 months. Not only that, those charges that were unexpected put me negative with that Wells Fargo account each month and I was charged an overdraft fee each time of $35.00 because of LA Fitness. I tried calling my local gym after going online to only find out over $2,000 in charges was deducted (periodically each month totaling the $2,000). I was told that the LA rep no longer works for the company so maybe I might want to call the headquarters. I tried calling that number several times, then finally, after the 3rd day of trying to call, I got someone by the name of Forrest.

I explained to him what had happened and he told me he would look into it and give me a call back a few days later. He never called back! So me being me, I thought he was just overwhelmed with work and that it totally slipped his mind (but in fact, they make little notes in their computer to track complaints or avoid them). I spoke to Forest and he told me that the LA Fitness rep took the wrong procedures in handling my case and that he's going to talk to his supervisor about the situation. In the meantime, send my military orders. I sent it to Forest at his fax. A week went by, nothing happened. I tried calling him again, no luck. I decided to call back Irvine headquarters.

This time, I spoke with a guy by the name of Alex, which I was later told is the manager. He seemed like a guy who gives a ** about what was happening. I told him I wanted my refund back because this is just wrong. He claimed that there is nothing he can do for me; however, I do still have 87 sessions of personal training time with a trainer, being that they are paid sessions. I explained to him that things have changed for me and I'm on vacation for the time being because I just received orders deploying me to Iraq for 8 months in a couple of months. This conversation took place on 10/7/09. I asked him if I can give those personal training sessions to my girlfriend and he said sure.

I told him I wanted to cancel my account for the gym and the personal trainer, that I sent Forest that fax with all my info which was on 10/1/09. He said that he sees in the system when I spoke to Forrest and that he was investigating the agreement with me at the local gym. I told him I was told to fax in the necessary paperwork so I don't get charged again before the next billing cycle, yet I was still charged $34.99 plus $322 (which was $10 more than I normally paid and those charges were deducted 16 days ahead of the normal time that LA Fitness would take funds from my account). He said it looks like it was late for something, which seems strange to me because they took the funds as they pleased, so how could I ever be late?

After playing tennis (going back and forth), it was evident to me that a refund was out of the questions. According to Alex, he would have to wait until Monday to see if the payments were in fact deducted from my account because he can't see any charges coming from my account. I was told if I cancel my gym membership, I would no longer have access to the gym which would void my 87 sessions, which means my girlfriend might not be able to use them. But he will get back with me and find out if that's the case. Oh, my girl is a 24 Hour member so she would have to become a member to use those 87 sessions. Monday has passed, today is 10/14/09 Wednesday and I can't even get a hold of Alex.

I've called him yesterday several times, giving him the benefit of doubt, and I've heard many excuses for reasons he can't make it to the phone. Oh, he is at lunch. Then he's with a client and the famous line of all, "What's your number? We'll have him call you back." I get nothing but runarounds! I would love to get pointed in the right direction to put a stop to such white collar crimes that LA Fitness has been doing to innocent people. So now, not only do I feel the military is screwing me over by trying to recall me back to go to Iraq to play bang bang shoot em up, but now I got to deal with something as simple as a gym membership that has turned into a complex process of cancellation. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

There have been numerous issues that have come up in the past years. Members are allowed to workout and lift weights in flip-flops, allowed to bring their 9-year-old kids to spin class, allowed to wear inappropriate gym attire. Men and boys are allowed to wear shorts and pants that expose their underwear and buttocks; members do not rack their weights, and the staff does not rack the weights that are left on equipment. I am a 36-year-old woman, and I had to take down 180 pounds of weight from the Smith Machine. While training in the free weight area, one must continuously step over dumbbells, barbells, and plates. The trainers walk around talking to each other, and if they are approached about any of these issues, they are reluctant to address them.

I have asked three trainers in the past to please ask some boy/man to pull his pants up because they were so low his underwear/buttocks were showing. Three times, I was told no, that it's not their job, or that they didn't want to upset anyone. I was told I should say something to the person myself if I wanted. Well, I did just that and very nicely asked a man to please pull up his pants because his butt was showing. He did and apologized, and then his friend started calling me derogatory names and making threatening body motions towards me. My husband, who was nearby, stepped in and told him to stop. I was told by the gym manager that it was my fault. I should not have said anything to the man wearing his pants inappropriately. I should have told one of the staff members to tell him for me. When I told him of my past experiences in doing just that, he did not seem inclined to believe me. I believe that members should have to adhere to the dress code. It should not take another member to address either the staff or another member about dress code. That is the responsibility of the manager and staff to take up with members prior to it becoming an issue.

My husband and I enjoy the spin classes offered at LA Fitness. The classes have become another point of contention. There are no posted rules about using iPods during class. Some of the instructors do not allow them but will allow cell phone use, texting, and earplugs. Also, there is no clear and hard rule about signing in for a spin class. Again, some classes people do, some classes they don't. There have been arguments over bikes when the classes are full. Again, there is nothing posted stating that members must sign in to take a spin class. Fortunately, this has not been an issue for me, it is simply an observation. I have to admit, I do not know the rules about children in the gym or in spin class, but there have been at least three children under the age of 10 in spin classes on a regular basis. I have seen a 10- or 11-year old boy on a spin bike during a period where there was not a class, wearing flip-flops with no parent in sight. After spinning for about 10 minutes, this child continued to wander around the gym, trying out various equipment, wearing flip-flops, with no parental supervision.

For the last few months, I have only been attending the Sunday morning spin class. On today's date, my husband and I attended the 9:15 am class. We actually arrived at the spin room and started our workout at 8:45, so we could spin for 90 minutes. The class started, and there were two men on the bikes directly behind me and my husband. During the class, these two men were talking to each other and laughing, and playfully hitting each other. Although it was distracting, I did not say anything. The workout was intensifying, and the music was loud, and the instructor, since she was on the mike, was loud as well. Despite this, the two men behind me continued to talk and began talking so loud they were shouting above the music. The instructor said, "Hey, if you can talk, you're not working hard enough." I know this instructor, and particularly enjoy her classes. I knew this was her way of telling them to be quiet. Because they were talking so loud, they did not hear her. I turned around and said, "Ssh," and turned back around. The man directly behind me raised his hand up and extended his middle finger to my back which was seen in the mirror.

My husband got off his bike and walked over to the man and said, "Don't flip off my wife." The man apologized to my husband and we continued our workout. After the class, quite a few of the people in the class made a comment that the two men in the back were ** and that they were being very loud. A gentleman in the front row stated that he could hear them talking and laughing from where he was spinning. The friend of the man who flipped me off came over to me and told me that my husband threatened his friend, and that it was a liability. I asked what my husband said to threaten anyone, and he could not answer. He admitted that my husband did not say anything to threaten him, but that because he got off his bike and walked over to his friend, that was a threat. I stated that when a man, considerably larger than I, makes an obscene gesture such as flipping me off, I perceive that to be threatening, therefore I would expect that my husband would defend me.

We all ended up speaking to the assistant manager. The man who flipped me off admitted that he has a criminal history, and because of that, if he were to hit anyone, he would go to prison. Despite this and despite the fact that he admitted to flipping me off when I shushed him (after the instructor tried to), the assistant manager told me that I could have been nicer when I asked them to be quiet, or asked the instructor to tell them to be quiet. I was dumbfounded.

Once again, someone else displays bad behavior and I am told I am the cause of it. I cannot understand how it is that since the gym staff does not address behavior that is disruptive to the rest of the members, a member who dares to address it themselves is labeled as a troublemaker when another person displays bad manners and vulgar behavior. I have been a member of 24-Hour-Fitness for 14 years and have never had these issues there. I have spoken with friends and co-workers who attend the LA Fitness in Valencia, and they all stated that they do not see behavior like this there. I have continued to attend LA Fitness due to its convenient location. Unfortunately, due to these two incidents and LA Fitness staff reactions to these, I will no longer be a member.

The above is the letter that I am today sending to their corporate headquarters on PO Box 55088, Irving, CA 92619; and I'm sending a second copy by certified mail to LA Fitness on 2950 West Ina Road, Tucson, AZ 85741.

All five of us were talking at home one day and discovered we were having the same problems. So we went in and spoke to the gym manager (picture 1980's Jersey girl with big hair, tight clothes, and her breasts almost hanging out). This girl sat there and didn't address a single concern. Eventually, I had to cancel my membership after being out of work for more than six months. What a pain that was. I went to the gym. They said call corporate; they can't do cancellations. Why not? They signed me up. Why can't they un-sign me? The corporate customer service reps were terrible. The half that can speak English were clueless, and they all suggested I go back to my club to cancel. Then there is the 20-day notice policy. Twenty days for what? In this day and age, this can be done within a matter of seconds. What do they need 20 days for? To bill you for one more month, that's why.

So, I finally changed my bank account information, as I am moving back to the West Coast. Now I am getting calls 10-15 times a week to collect on dues that should have been cancelled, according to their own policies, several months ago. I actually have to change my cell number. I was a member of 24-Hour Fitness in CA, AZ, and NV for 8 years. I never had a single issue with them ever about anything. I cannot wait to go back there.

I questioned a few things in the contract, that I admittedly did not read all that well, and he kept assuring me not to worry about it. Like an idiot, I trusted him. I had put on some weight and had fallen off my workout routine. I was feeling flabby and out of shape, and must have appeared as vulnerable as I felt. This personal training "manager" did give me a few "free" sessions and I also got the lame half hour, one I supposedly paid for. I never really felt my needs were being met, but figured this will come in time. After the first month, I realized I was better off physically and financially on my own and went to him for guidance as he instructed. He rather callously handed me a piece of paper and told me to send it in and everything would be okay. Again, I believed him.

A few days later, I received what appeared to be an email confirmation, so I felt okay. What I did not see, because my trusting nature refused to see it, was that the effective date was almost a year later! Imagine my surprise, anger, frustration and fear when I saw that another $39.00 had been debited from my seriously depleted bank account! After several persistent calls and some rather rude comments from the operations manager of the club, I was told that the VP agreed to cancel my contract, effective immediately, but that I would not receive any refunds.

As of today, August 31, 2009, I have not received the promised email confirmation and am in the process of writing to this operations manager, the VP and the president of LA Fitness. I also canceled my debit card so hopefully, that will keep these sharks out of my bank account. I have expert legal advice from some very good friends, who happen to specialize in class actions. One of them just settled a huge consumer case and is looking for another cause to champion. Maybe this will be the one!

I did not pull a muscle or get too lazy to work out. I have the MRI for proof, and yet, they just billed me after I hung up the phone and got an email. Another $25.00 has been taken from my credit card. I asked for a manager to call me back. I was the victim of a DUI accident, and my injury is severe. LA Fitness has unethical practices, and why you need to freeze your account should be done in a fair manner. Bally's used to freeze your membership for as long as you needed. They never continued billing you for something you are not using nor was there a $170.00 start-up fee. I may go to small claims court with my contract and my surgery notes and recent MRI and see what the judge says.

You have to go through a procedure by which you have to put your name and bar code and write cancel on a piece of paper and send it into a P.O. Box in Irvine, CA. If you want to be really official, there is a form that you have to get at your local LA Fitness where you basically put that information and send it in. Yes, you have to get it at the local LA Fitness. They won't even fax it to you! And if you do go there to pick it up, they won't let you fill it out and hand it to them so they can either mail it or fax it to corporate. You have to do it.

I thought it was such a ridiculous procedure that I called the corporate customer service number. When I eventually got someone on the line, they verified that I didn't have to necessarily get the form but that I did have to sent in the letter in the mail with my very simple information on it. He said he would note my account to not bill any further and then recommended that I send it in ASAP, which I did. He said I had plenty of time to not be billed on the 17th as I always did as it was over 2 weeks away.

As I describe this, keep in mind why their procedure might be like this. Multiply how many people they do this to on any given day that will not bother going through all I am going through to get satisfaction because of the relatively small amount of money this is. Do this to enough people, it adds up! If you had a simple and logical cancellation procedure, God forbid, you couldn't get the extra $30-$40 a month times however many people trying to cancel at any given time.

After realizing there was no easy and logical way to quit LA Fitness, I followed their ridiculous procedure as mentioned earlier. Even though I did this, my monthly withdrawal was taken out anyways almost 2 weeks later. So, I tried to call corporate about it, because that was where I sent the envelope. It makes sense, right? Remember, the local club wants you to come in and pick up a form and fill out, but you can't give it to them; you have to mail it to corporate. You would think corporate would handle the situation. But they don't. It takes forever to get someone on the phone, and all they will tell you is that they didn't receive the envelope and they in fact did not notate the account as they said they did from the call 2 weeks earlier. And if you prod them to help you by escalating the situation, they will refer you back to your local club, who pawned you off on corporate in the first place.

Well, I dealt with Mike at the Sorrento Valley Branch in San Diego, and like all other so-called "managers," he is probably in his 20s and could care less about anything, except getting the next member signed up. Still, he acted like he cared and would "see what he could do," since he believed me when I said I followed the procedure because I knew exactly what it was and I had dates and times. Well, he said he would get back to me the next day. I heard nothing. So, I called him the day after and asked him what was up. He said he hadn't called me, because he was working on it and hadn't got the answer he was looking for yet. I said, "What is that supposed to mean?"

He basically said he talked to some regional manager named Derek, and Derek so far wasn't looking to cooperate. Mike literally said though that he would keep working on it. I asked him "What does that mean, you will keep on working on it?" What will you do differently than what you have done already to get a different result? He said he will keep talking to Derek and see what he can do.

Now, to those readers out there, I ask you, does that make any sense? I have a short story as to my plight. Mike tells the plight to his regional manager Derek, and Derek couldn't make a decision to help me. And Mike's plan is to keep telling him the same thing over and over day after day in the hope Derek changes his mind. I asked Mike if I was mistaken or whether this was in fact his plan, and Mike said yes, that was basically his plan. That is a true story as this all is of course!

I told him that didn't sound like much of a plan, and I asked him for Derek's number. He wouldn't give it to me. I asked him for a number of anyone who had the power to help me, and he said it was Derek, whose number he would not give me. And he reminded me he would keep trying. He said that I might try the customer service number again. Yes, He actually said that

So what the heck. I don't know if I am just a ** or what, but I did. After being on hold forever, Erin answered the phone and I explained to her my plight. She literally asked, "Did you send your envelope in "certified mail?" Yes. She asked that. To try to quit LA Fitness, I not only can't do it right at my local club, or any branch club, which seems incredibly logical and rational. But now, she is asking if I sent my cancellation in via certified mail! Notice that in all my conversations previously in trying to cancel, that was never recommended.

Obviously, since I am not exactly trying to broker a peace deal for the Middle East, it is beyond ridiculous to even consider having to use certified mail. But apparently, they have in their policies and procedures manual under "Pissed off customer trying to cancel and followed procedures already." Ask the customer if they sent in the cancellation via certified mail! See how they respond to that! If they get more pissed off, refer them back to the local branch.

Truly beyond reproach at this point. I ask her if I can speak to a manager. She said she was a manager. Mind you, she sounds like she is 22 years old and acts like it too. I ask her if I can speak to someone above her who can help me, and she said there is no one like that whom I can speak to. She desperately tried to refer me back to my local club again. Yes. This is the loop I am in. Welcome to the LA Fitness cancellation process. Good luck with it. This is for a lousy $33 but for me, it is about the principle of the matter. I don't care if it is $5.

After what I was going through, I KNEW there had to be massive complaints just like mine online, and sure enough, there is and after reading them, I realize there are many of you like me that just want to live in a world of decent morals and principles and when it is not happening, we have to do what we can to stop it.

Shame on LA Fitness for screwing people!

Anyways, it turns out that they didn't give me a written contract, because they said, “It wasn't necessary,” and now I'm getting charged $156 every month. I called to get the issue resolved, and the same manager talked to me as I was some sort of useless bug, telling me that he can't cancel anything because it is a contract and now I'm stuck with 12 months of $156 a month for practically no services at all. And that's in addition to the $29.99 monthly payments I have. I am now waiting for a call from their California VP Mr. John Hall which I did today, by calling 949-255-7200 and which I'm guessing I will never get. I feel used, tricked and I'm very mad.

The same guy that was all flowery talking that day has now turned into a major jerk brushing me off as a fly, when he was the one that misled me into this contract, which I didn't get a copy of, and was never really explained that it was a monthly charge. I asked him twice about the charge being a one-time fee and he said, "Yeah, no worries buddy," and now he tells me the contract is $156 a month. I can't afford that, and I'm going to have a negative report in my credit report if I can't get rid of that charge. Attorneys, is there anything I can do? I can't believe citizens can get tricked and lured into these things, and there is nothing us consumers can do against them. I don't blame the institution, but the people that work there. They are all crooks, and unhelpful and after they get your credit card, they treat you as trash.

During the course of these six months, I was extremely dissatisfied with the service at LA Fitness. Several trainers caused me extreme pain and discomfort. The trainers that did not, were overbooked. Given this difficulty in scheduling, my training sessions continued to accumulate. Moreover, early in July, I noticed additional sessions beyond the total of 12 I had signed for. At that time, I had a total of 8 remaining sessions. However, according to my calculations, if the agreement were to have properly expired on June 2nd, 2008, I should only have 6 remaining sessions.

When I inquired into this, I was informed that my fixed agreement had converted to a month-to-month. When I reviewed my agreement, it included two (2) clauses that referred to the duration of the agreement being 6 months. The program fees table described above that specified 12 total sessions; the service type table that specified 0 additional sessions; a payment schedule clause that specified “5 payments of $88.00 (plus tax) are due on the 1 of each month beginning 01/01/09”.

However, the agreement did include one (1) sentence stating that the agreement would turn into a month- to-month in the absence of 30 day notice of cancellation. My attention was not brought to this sentence at the signing of the agreement. Given the information provided, I fully believed that the agreement would expire at the end of the six month term with 12 total sessions purchased. Once my attention was brought to this term, I submitted the notice of cancellation for both the training sessions and club membership during the second week of July.

However, LA Fitness informed me that because my cancellation was received after the billing date, I owed $88.00 for two additional training sessions. Although I expressed my dissatisfaction, LA Fitness refused to accommodate my concerns and demanded payment. I provided a check for the amount due on July 19th. On August 3rd, I received a phone call that because my club membership cancellation was also processed on the billing date of July 16th, I owed $39.99 for an additional month of membership. Given my aggravation with LA Fitness, I refuse to pay this remaining amount, relinquishing my privileges to membership.

Given the information described above, I strongly feel the training agreement was misrepresented to me. I am seeking a reimbursement for all training sessions paid for but not redeemed beyond the fixed 12 sessions I signed up for. This amount being $176.00 for four (4) sessions billed the month of July and August. Currently, I have nine (9) sessions left to redeem. Should my request be met, this will leave a total of five (5) sessions to redeem.

However, I am unable to redeem these sessions without clearing the outstanding $39.99 due for my membership. I am concerned that even if I pay the fee, I will be unable to redeem all of these sessions before the expiration of my membership on September 16, 2009. For this reason, I am also requesting permission to redeem any outstanding sessions after the expiration of my membership on September 16, 2009; to use LA Fitness’ facilities strictly for the purpose of redeeming those sessions after the expiration of my membership. Consequences: 9 outstanding training sessions that I may be unable to redeem. Extreme aggravation plus loss of time.

I signed up for training sessions at LA Fitness in February so that I would be ready for a beach vacation in May. I signed a contract for 6 months, only six months, was told it was 6 months - period, the end. The company is now continuing to charge me $160 per month because, as I've now been told, my contract "changed" to month-to-month without my knowledge, despite the promise that it would be terminated in July. I've told many people at the gym who hassled me to sign for more sessions that, "No, I cannot, will not." I work weekends only and my last paycheck wasn't even $160 (My bank account has now been overdrawn by more than $50, and the money I have in savings for school is being used to cover my charges).

Unfortunately, I was rushed to sign my contract and the guy "explained everything on it" in 20 seconds. No exaggeration. I have noticed, over my time working out there, that the "black-shirts" - the people in charge of signing up new people - literally prey on the same kinds of people, people who are a just little overweight, who always do the same workout, people who might be "desperate" to look good. I was just really wanting to get in shape for the beach, and I approached them. I told them I couldn't pay the $60 per session, so "Poof," they magically gave it to me for $40/session. Then, I was told there wouldn't be any "specials" on training for 6 months, and I'd be allowed to completely cancel my sessions within 3 days.

Well, 4 days later, they ran a "no start up fee" special which would have saved me $160. I couldn't get that money back. When any of the "black-shirts" approached me later, I would tell them, "Oh, I've already got a trainer," and they would immediately walk off, despite how excited and happy they appeared to talk to me only moments before. The guy who signed me up never spoke to me again and acted like he didn't know me. I'd like to mention that he is actually no longer working at the Keller LA Fitness. I am also in their system under 2 last names. ** is my boyfriend's last name, and I have told them monthly that my last name is **, yet they keep "forgetting" to change it, and the people at the corporate office seem to think it is a huge problem that someone with the same ID tag for the club can have two different last names.

When writing to the DFW BBB, I noticed every other complaint (probably 50-75 complaints for the Keller, TX gym alone!) was for exactly what I am writing over. I literally feel like I have had my credit card stolen and there is nothing I can do about it. Of course, I've learned my lesson now, but I think others need to hear about these false advertisements and dirty schemes before more people end up hurt by their lies. The trainers there aren't even good - I got an injury in my back one week before my vacation because my trainer told me I could lift more weight than I could.

I am planning on reporting to my bank what I feel is an "illegal" charge to my credit card first thing Monday morning. Like I said, I am a college student. Had it not been for my gracious parents allowing me to live at home for a while, I probably wouldn't be able to eat for 2 weeks until I got my next check. In fact, after I've spent these $1300 on training, I'd rather have spent it on $1300 of chocolate. It would have made me happier.

When I called in, they said I can buy it out for $735. My mother, Harriet **, was lending me money for buy out, but every time I called, they said the charged on credit card did not reject. Another week went by and then buy out went to $850. My mom called corporate office and talked to Alicia at 425-379-9703 and she charged my mom's credit card $850 and my mom was told it was ended. The next day, another $210 was charged. I called again and they said I still did not pay up, even though Alicia emailed that I was paid. In total, $1,060 was charged to my mother's card, which I paid back to her since. This is deceptive trade practices, not full disclosure, electronic box signed. I never saw the contract. I did not want to be sent to a collection agency, so my mom paid it. I would like to get refund on the $1060. We have all documentation on credit cards and threatening collection letters and copy of contract with electronic signature. I hope you can help.

I spoke with cuter service in my location, a week later with the assistant manager, then with the manager, then with the national number, all tell you what you want to hear and absolutely nothing was done to mediate the problem. I can’t understand this. It will eventually bite them back when more and more people find out that they are not what they try to sell. They surely don’t fulfill their promises to their customers during registration. “Oh, any problem you have, don’t worry, come to me and all will be taken care of, after all we are happy when you are happy.” And when you do actually need them, forget it, they are so busy into fooling new customers to join, that they totally don’t care if the place rat. With all the complains against LA Fitness, a good and vigorous lawyer will be able to pull here a very hefty class action lawsuit for misrepresentation and perhaps even fraud. Please be careful, they are very smooth in pulling you in and all somehow looks good when you are eager to join, but then you find out the truth. Be careful!

He informed me that they would not be able to honor the rate given to me on 7/22/2009, even though I have a contract executed by both parties for the aforementioned rate. They informed me that the rate that they offered "did not get approved,” even though they offered it to me, put it in a contact, and accepted my credit card information. The manager at this location did not offer any remedy when I said that I would not accept a higher rate. I called the corporate office and spoke to Nina who offered little to no assistance. She informed me that even though I had a contract, they would not honor that rate. In summary, I requested that they honor the contract and they refused to. They wanted more money for the membership.

From the very beginning, this place was a scam. I can't believe I got suckered. Now I had to cancel my account because they overdrafted my account 2 times. They continuously put holds then return money without regard. I have my statements to prove it. I had to call the state Attorney General and put this place on blast! Please don't sign up. Stay away!

Today, I received a letter with no signature saying invoice statement ** with outstanding balance of $42.44. This is crazy. I don't have hours or money to pay this people for a service that I cancelled a while ago and that I haven't used in 12 months. I am really stressed about this because I did everything and more, but these people plays with collections and my credit is the only thing I have. They need to honor their commitment of 30 days notice to CXL policy with no more charges. I feel not being able to fight back because they put you on hold and don't even sign the letters that they sent you.

I am really stressed about this situation. I don't have more money to pay and makes me angry to see these people trying to collect money when they don't provide service, and they can check their system to see I haven't used them in a long time.

So be careful of what you are signing and by no means trust them when they say to you "Trust me, I was given permission by my boss to give you this great deal today, but it’s only for today so you have to jump on it quickly.” It’s all a lie and you will be screwed!

The trainers are inexperienced and their turnover rate is high. So if you've purchased a personal training package, don't expect to see the same trainer much of the time. Don't expect that the personal training package you purchased will be tailored to your needs so if you have any kind of special circumstances that need some attention (injury for e.g.), don't expect your trainer to care.

The trainers, who do have some experience, do not show up for scheduled sessions that are already paid for. And don't, I repeat, don't even try to express any of your concerns to the management team because you will be ignored and if you pursue it further, you will be called a ** and will be threatened to have the police called on you. You may even be threatened to be punched in the face by that manager. And he may enlist other members to do so if he realizes that he cannot do so himself.

Take for example, this past Friday May 29, 2009, my trainer didn't show up for my scheduled session at the York, PA LA Fitness. I didn't even get a phone call or any message saying that my session was cancelled. I showed up and my trainer is nowhere to be found. The other staff paged and paged him with no response. After a while, I became impatient and asked the staff to page the manager. The manager came and started giving me dirty looks, hissed and stormed off calling me a **. I have to reiterate this; I went to talk to the manager about my missing trainer and I was called a ** for bothering him with my concerns.

I went to another staff person who identified himself as the new "general manager" and told him about the disrespectful way I was treated by the other manager. The new GM completely ignored me. He walked away to talk to other people, I'm now ** because I've already paid for the service that I'm currently not receiving. I am the paying customer and I'm being treated like a freeloader. Like any other paying customer, I confronted him about the way I was being treated and he threatened to punch me in the face.

Trying to get out of the contract was a nightmare as others have explained. The 20 days before your last billing date is totally bogus and having to send in a letter by certified mail when any other gym would just take the info at the desk. Everything about the place is designed to get your money and give you nothing in return. I ended up absolutely hating the place and all the people there.

However, we were both approached by David ** on Wednesday, May 6, 2009, and he stated that I was clearly being trained by Michelle. We explained to him that she was not training. She, in fact, is my friend and we were trading off on the balance ball because there was only one ball by the mat. He explained to Michelle that if he sees her training at this location again he would have to take the next step. We continued with our routine that same day and left the facility without realizing that Michelle's record/file was now in jeopardy.

At this point, we are both aware of the rules and regulations that LA Fitness abides by and we weren't thinking we were breaking any of the rules because she and I were just gym buddies. We went back together the following week and, once again, we were approached by David and he once again made false allegations and not only did we feel embarrassed, and humiliated but we also felt harassed. Mr. David ** was very unprofessional when cornering the two of us when, in fact, there were multiple twosomes throughout the facility (some were obviously training whereas others were like Michelle and I, and they were just friends working out together). Michelle and I were trading off on the balance ball because the other one was in use and we had no choice but to do 3 set increments while trading off with one another. Once again, it is not difficult to tell the difference in our physique simply for the fact that Michelle does look fit to be a trainer. I can assure you that she does not train me and there is no difference in what the other sets of individuals are doing and what we were doing.

Once we pointed out that there were other people doing exactly what we were doing, he chose to ignore our justifications and in a condescending tone, he then revoked Michelle's membership. I am appalled by the ethics this facility conducts. Perhaps the Code of Ethics are not only trained but not exercised as a manager. Michelle and I are very close friends and there are many people who have gym buddies and for David to make assumptions and harass us is completely uncalled for and unprofessional. When Michelle made a phone call to Corporate, she was brushed off again and was told she couldn't return to the Van Nuys facility but they would make the accommodations for her so she can continue having a membership with other facilities. We find this offensive and we feel that we are being treated unfairly.

After the tour he said, “So, do you want to give it a try?” I was thinking, I get to try for 3 days and if I don't cancel, I get charged. So he took my card and the next thing I knew, he's asking me to sign for $79.95. I said, “That is not what we discussed” and told him to cancel it and he said, "Well, you might as well sign it because it's already gone through.” Without my signature on it yet! He then said, "Just come try a class and later if you don't like it, I'll cancel it for you," telling me I'd get a refund in 3-5 days. I left, pissed and upset because I didn't have that amount in my account. I came back less than 5 min. later telling AnnMarie, the operating manager, to cancel it. She did. The next day, when the overdraft was on my account, my financial advisor as well as a friend of mine (who owns a gym) told me to demand reimbursement for the overdraft fee because it was their fault.

I went in to the gym the next day and Dominic ** told me I needed to speak with AnnMarie. I went in the day after that and AnnMarie told me it was Dominic that I was supposed to speak with. She told us that the company never reimburses those kinds of fees and there was nothing she could do at her level. So I called corporate. James **, a customer service member, told me he would not give me the district or regional manager's number and that they would contact me in 24 hrs. The director’s name was Rene **. Sean came in, spoke down to me and tried to make it seem like he did nothing wrong, that I knew I was getting charged, and that he was trying to save money. Yeah. Right. He then tried to dismiss me by saying, "Fine, I'll give her, her $25 fee out of my own pocket."

But it's not just about the money. They are tricking people into memberships, telling one thing and doing another and he shouldn't have done it to me or be allowed to do that to someone else. So I called the customer service number again, told the woman to have a director call me ASAP. That was at 4 pm central time. Still no word. And they didn't call me after the initial complaint. It's been 4 days. They are not taking me seriously and trying to sweep the matter under the rug.

Bottom line is all financial terms are not true. Never pay anything close to their beginning price and always buy at the end of the month, when they drop their pants! Registration fees are a joke and will be waived in a heartbeat. Never pay them no matter what. Monthly dues should never be more than $34.99 per month for a multi-club membership, period! Never deal with the slim ball managers. They use worse than used car salesmen techniques, "How can I earn your business?" Please! They are all liars and thieves. They actually just fired Rob (manager) who claimed to be a missionary for stealing money! Bottom line is, avoid at all cost. If you are in need, just make sure you take it for what it is, a membership-driven ** house, and always buy at the end of the month. Nothing more than a newer Bally's for twice the money.

Lori told me that there have been many complaints by other women there about him bothering them. She, herself, has had many talks with him about his behavior. She had said that if they get one more complaint about Brett, they would revoke his membership. He harassed my friend, Sarah, who is also a member there so much so that the management told him to leave her alone and to not talk to her anymore. She said his response was, "You need to hear my side of this." This shows that he doesn't think he is doing anything wrong. On March 26, 2009, the same manager I spoke with said that the problem was taken care of that morning. I wasn't given the details of what was said, only that the issue was dealt with. I was at the gym the next day and he was there. He walked by the treadmill I was on and waved and said, "Hi!" I ignored him.

Brett sits on the machine next to where I am working out and just stares at me waiting for an opportunity to talk to me. I have to run away to get away from him. Brett, according to the manager, has been given several warnings about his behavior. He obviously does not understand the situation. I am very disappointed at LA Fitness for not having a Zero Tolerance policy for this type of behavior. I am also disappointed that the gym is putting Brett's feelings above the safety of the women members. His actions are harassing and do make me feel very uncomfortable. I hate having to keep an eye out for where he is in the gym so I do not have to have contact with him. What has to happen for the gym and its managers to say, "Enough is enough!" I am appalled at the gym and managements lack of respect for its women members.

See email comments: “I hope you are well. I would like to assist you with your remaining products. I have reviewed your records and show that you have 36 boxes of products remaining which I can have shipped to you. Please respond directly to this email with phone number and the Credit Card number and expiration that you would like your shipping charges applied to. The total shipping charges for your products will be $20 and will be applied to your card the week your products ship. In regards to your rebate, in order for a rebate to be processed, you must qualify for your rebate."

"This qualification includes 52 weeks of maintenance with weekly visits to the center. I do not see in the system I am looking that you have completed your 52 weekly visits. You may continue your maintenance to achieve your rebate through our LA On-the-Go office. I will request that they contact you to assist you with completing your maintenance. Thank you and have a wonderful day.”

I have two jobs and struggled to maintain both of them while wheelchair-bound and recovering, which took many months. In April, I noticed that I was still being charged for personal training sessions and called them. On 5/2/06, I talked to a Ron ** (949) 255-7200 ext. ** and requested a complete listing of all the sessions I had been charged for. I demanded that they quit charging me for personal sessions and refund the charges for unused sessions. It took many letters and many phone calls, but I finally got a list of all the sessions I had been charged for in July 2006. I keep a detailed calendar (to survive 2 jobs, it is a must) and I quickly found that I was charged for many sessions I had not attended or even made appointments for. There is even one charge with a trainer I never even met.

They did stop charging me for sessions at that point, the last one (at that time) being for April 15th - while I was still in a wheelchair. I began arguing for a refund but they just stalled, and then sent me a note stating that I had cancelled my membership - which I had not done - just the personal training sessions. I never complained about paying the monthly membership fee during the months I did not use the gym. Their contract says that they cannot cancel the membership, so I pointed that out and told them that if they would reimburse me for the unused sessions I had been fraudulently charged for ($1,716.00) plus the unused months of membership dues ($209.94) for a total of $1,925.94 - that I would gladly leave as they clearly wanted me gone.

They told me that they would not reimburse me for the sessions but that I could use them up. Since I needed to work out anyway, I agreed. I started meeting with a personal trainer on 8/22/06 at the Upland location. I used 14 sessions (of the 55 due me) between 8/22/06 and 10/10/06. When I went to the gym on 10/12/06, I was denied access. I was then told that they had only given me 60 days to use all of my unused sessions and the 60 days had passed. I was not quite accurate as I should have had another 10 days even under this bogus scenario. I tried to find someone at LA Fitness who would talk to me and no one would.

At this point, I was swamped with work, the holidays were coming, and I just gave up for a while. I spent some time in early 2007 trying to find out what my legal options were, but it seemed the effort was insurmountable. I calculate that they still owe me somewhere between $1,279.20 and $1,489.14 - depending on whether the 6 months of membership dues is included or not. Can you help me?

Bottom line, my things were donated to Goodwill without my permission. I was not contacted and there was nothing to prove to me that my things were actually donated, no record of any donation. I believe someone inside kept it. So, basically, my things were stolen from me. It was a very expensive Harley-Davidson bag leather given to me by a dear friend plus two racquets and racquet balls and gloves, clothes, i.e., my warm-up suit and my business cards and money and jewelry.

I am a heart patient and a diabetic, and I am so upset over this. I joined the gym along with my fiance to release stress and help with my health. I am so upset over this. I feel like I have no help or recourse. All I was told by Jessica ** at corporate was "too bad" and she was very rude and she hung up on me. What kind of customer service is this? If my payments are late, they certainly will come after me. I would like to be able to continue going without worry over some kind of abuse by managers because I want some explanation or compensation. Wouldn't anybody? I could not and cannot sleep over this.

It didn't go well. I was very calm, and the supposed manager was verbally abusive to me. I have called the corporate offices 6 times with no return call and one hung up. Jason ** was to call me on Friday, April 3, but still no call. On April 8, I called bank and they reversed charges from the last 30 days. I was told by Jason ** that I will be sued by LA Fitness for breaking the contract when in fact, they broke the contract by not providing services. How can someone on a fixed income go against corporate attorneys of LA Fitness, with all the money they are ripping people off they have.

At that moment, I cancelled my credit card in order for LA Fitness to stop taking money from it. Until today, they keep harassing me to pay them the monthly fee. Of course, by now, it is not only one month - it is over $100 due to the late fees. I have contacted LA Fitness by phone and in person at the Tempe facilities. They don't care other than collecting money. At this moment, I am refusing to pay; they already took like three months. I would like for LA Fitness to stop harassing me. Like I have said earlier, it was a pleasure to join them and now, it is the biggest hassle of my life.

Well, at the LA Mirada gym, I was told that they couldn't do anything and that I had to call corporate. That evening, I got a call from one of their billing people. I told the guy my situation, and these are the words that came out of his mouth: “Well, I understand that you probably had cancer, but the way I see it, you're still gonna have to pay this $35.” I was disgusted by the guy. The next day, I called corporate and figured I would surely find someone there who would help. I essentially spoke to debt collectors, who were hell bent on collecting $35 from me. I spoke to one guy who told me that he would waive the current month’s fee, but since they wouldn't receive the cancellation form 20 days before March that I would still be billed for March. I wasn't satisfied, obviously. All the guy told me I could do was to send in a cancellation form with a letter to try to get them to drop the whole thing.

I hate to see companies like these continue to succeed. Everything about this corporation is set up to take advantage of people. It's almost like a legal scam. Their policies and practices are all needless, like the 20-day notice of cancellation thing. In this day and age, it's as simple as a click of a button. This is set in place to surprise people, and to get them for one more monthly dues before they can quit. Please, please, please continue to speak out against LA Fitness. Their practices are unethical, and they should not be allowed to continue to take advantage of people, and scam them out of their hard earned money.

The guy who was signing up asked me about the equipment there, and I said they don’t follow up with it. Then the salesperson started to tell me he is going to cancel my membership for that, give him my name, and leave if I am not happy - telling me to get out and being so ignorant that I said we can go outside because he was just belittling me in front of the other people. But nothing happened. So I had to go in the sauna which is packed now, and everyone is complaining about the steam room and the whirlpool not working.

While I am in there, the salesman and the manager are looking for me. So after I am done and ready to leave, I stopped by the salesman and he said that they were looking for me for me to sit down so he can cancel my membership, just give him my name. Then I flipped out again. Then the girl at the front desk started to yell at me to leave. She started calling me immature and to leave and go someplace else to grow up because I am an idiot. Still, all this going on - still no manager. I wind up leaving. I looked at my rear window, there is the salesman, the manager and someone else standing there writing my license plate down.

I contacted the company, but no one had an explanation as to why this happened. Now, at the time the money was taken out of my account, I had a vacation scheduled three days later and was dependent on this money. I have a deployment to Iraq in one month, and this was the last vacation I was able to take with my fiancee. Edwin ** (a member service manager) refused to issue an immediate refund and stated it would take at least seven days to process it. After remaining on the phone for over 25 minutes, he then hung up on me. My bank required a written request as to why this occurred and that the funds were reversed, but LA Fitness refused to provide that. Because of this, my vacation (the last one I will be taking prior to my deployment in Iraq) has to be put on hold. I had overdraft fees and was advised by my bank to close out the account so it didn't happen again.

After calling back several times, I got told several different stories from numerous people, but nobody knew what was going on. I was inconvenienced and upset about the treatment of these people. I also went to my bank when I found out about this, and requested a letter in writing from LA Fitness that this charge would be reversed and not taken out of my account. I received it signed and dated. The funds were taken out two days later. The transaction is currently "in transit", and the money won't be here until late next week. I feel that there was a fraudulent withdrawal on my account, being that I have two forms in writing that this would not occur. I had to cancel my last vacation prior to Iraq and lost several days, as well as a lot of money, trying to figure this out. I would like some sort of compensation.

I lost several days going back and forth to my local LA Fitness location (I was told I had to do this by "corporate"). I drove several times to my bank, sometimes spending over an-hour-and-a-half each time there. I spent countless hours (documentation can be provided) on my cell phone, causing my minutes to decline. I got hit with over-the-limit fees from other transactions that came out. I got a bounced check and returned check fee. I had to cancel my ATM card and get issued a new one. That, then, required me to contact all my bills linked to this card and freeze everything.

My vacation, which cost well over $2,400.00, had to be cancelled because I was dependent on this money, as it was the last payment required to pay for the vacation, and I did not receive a paycheck until two weeks later. This is the last vacation I was able to go on prior to my deployment to Iraq. Due to this, my fiance was extremely upset and was hurt because it meant a lot to her as well as myself. I want compensation for all the losses I have faced during this time.

I never used the training sessions! I was only with the program for one month, and you would think that they would offer some help? No! "Sorry, you signed a full-year contract" was the only thing I heard! Oh, and "If you decide not to pay, we'll send the contract to collections and they take care of it!" Whatever you do, DON'T trust the kids having you sign on the dotted line! I made a $400 mistake, one I wish someone else doesn't have to go through.

My husband called their corporate office and ended up having an argument with the Customer Service Rep about whose fault this was. I was tired of it and went to speak with Barry myself, that is after he did not return the message that I left for him a week prior to this time. Regardless, I spoke with him and he SIGNED a statement saying that the accounts should have been switched and that it was their error. The bank, unfortunately, did not accept this so I called corporate office. Initially, I was connected to Josh who hung up on me. Then I was connected to Laura who made me feel like I was talking to a wall because she never listened!

After a month of this, I had had enough and did a conference call with my bank and LA Fitness. Still, LA Fitness argued that they were never paid - even though the bank manager was telling them that payment to a merchant is not required to give a customer NSF charges. And they continually refused to accept responsibility. Laura said, and I quote, “LA Fitness is not confirming fault, but as a courtesy, we will refund one month's membership fees to cover one NSF fee.” Again though, they erroneously charged me 4 times which resulted in 4 NSF fees of over $120 but as a courtesy, they are giving me $33. Seriously!?!? I put a call into Mr. **, Laura's manager. If he does not resolve this issue, we will be forced to take legal action. We are out of pocket for $140 worth of NSF fees for an admitted LA Fitness error. This does not include time and aggravation.

Upon calling both my former local LA Fitness gym, I was told the cancellation must not have been received and I should have mailed it through USPS-certified mail (this screams to me that they tear up any cancellation notices that are not sent certified). After calling the corporate number from their website and speaking with a "Member Service Manager", I was told they cannot cancel my account unless I repeat exactly what I did two months prior, but this time send the cancellation notice through certified mail.

After a LONG time explaining to the rep that this was not an option, she said she COULD cancel my membership but only if I paid for the additional month I was charged, despite my request to cancel my membership two months earlier. I resisted this effort for LA Fitness to get even more money from me for a month I was not even aware I would be charged for. I suggested to the customer service rep that I view my only options as small claims court and/or looking into a class action lawsuit. At that point, the customer service rep said that now she CAN cancel my account and (supposedly) did so over the phone. Now, I'll just have to wait until next month to see if it was actually canceled.

In addition, I still have to fight LA Fitness for the fees of an additional month which I did not agree to pay... small claims? Assuming my account was truly canceled and no further monthly fees will be added in the future: ~$80 (one month unauthorized fees for myself and my wife). If I was lied to and my account has not been canceled: ~$80 is not resolved.

Jay called me back on January 26th and informed me that his regional manager was willing to put a four month freeze on my personal training fitness program to ease my financial problem. I greatly appreciate the time and effort Jay took in, seeing this issue through to a satisfactory resolution on my part. I want to point out that Jay made the move to resolve this issue before he was aware of my BBB complaint. I want to emphasize that my complaint has always been against the LA Fitness Sports Clubs main office in Irvine, California and not, repeat, not against the Sterling Club.

Once again, LA Fitness charged my credit card on January 20th. I filed another complaint with Capital One and mailed a third letter. This one via registered mail to LA Fitness to debit my account for the December and January charges. Per the LA Fitness contract, client may request LA Fitness to terminate this agreement at any time by giving LA Fitness 30-days written notice of cancellation to be sent by registered mail, return receipt requested? I have honored my contract by sending them three registered letters requesting that they cancel my personal training program.

Upon reviewing my statements, I noticed the charges were still being posted to my account; when I called I was informed that you had not received a cancellation request. When I tried to explain to your rep that a request was mailed in, they insisted that it was not received. When I requested reimbursement for the charge, they would not oblige, instead instructing me again to mail in the cancellation request; they would not allow me to cancel in person at the gym or online or on the phone.

I cannot believe how difficult it is to cancel a membership, when all it took was a credit card to sign up at the local office. As for my son's membership, this was a gift of two years ago. Several months ago, I cancelled the membership. In September of 2008, he reactivated the membership, and without my authorization, my credit card was once again being charged.

I am disputing your charges for December 2008 and January 2009; I expect to be reimbursed 100% for these unlawful charges to my account. My two contracts with you ended the day I cancelled my son's membership in 2007 and when I cancelled my daughter's on December 1, 2008. Once again, you have no authorization to charge my account on behalf of Gabriel's membership because I cancelled that membership early in 2008. And authorization for my daughter was terminated on 12/1/08. It should have sufficed that I went to the local office in Melville to cancel the membership.

Also, I was promised a free training session with my membership. I scheduled the time and on 4 different occasions, nobody showed up. Finally, they have an open spa where men and women can use, with showers, which are mandatory. Seldom are the showers used. The spa is filthy. In fact, the lockers and showers are too.

They refused my cancellation request! They say $480 to Body of Change (personal training company handled through L A Fitness). Why would I pay for June, July and August, when I paid for the first and last month up front, and I cancelled in June. The last month should have already been paid for. They will not close out any of my accounts until they receive updated billing information and/or I pay the fill remaining balance on both accounts.

I already paid over the regular monthly amount for the last month ($40). Collections from L A Fitness (Body of Change) has sent me a bill for $71. I refuse to pay any more. I want both the regular account and the personal training account closed. This company is practicing dishonestly and charging for services I cancelled months ago. I was told I'd have the same trainer every time I went for training, that the nutritionalist would always as needed, and there'd be trainers on site at the time of training if my trainer could not make it. I always had someone new, ( I was very disappointed at this) I was waiting over 20 minutes for trainers to be available when I came in on time, and the nutritionalist was never available to me.

They refuse to cancel my membership! They keep harassing me with bills. They won't even cancel my regular membership. I even tried to just pay the remaining balance on my regular account even though I haven't been since May! One of them even admitted they they told me the wrong thing. They told me they'd call me later on my cell. I called them back 2 days later and they had no idea what I was talking about.

I cancelled my credit card, however I am concerned this will effect my credit report. I have contacted each agency and requested to file any claims they have made as disputed. I was misinformed by both L A Fitness and Body of Change. Instead of rectifying the situation, they pass me off and refuse to cancel my account.

Even if they do eventually cancel the membership I have been/will be billed for at least 2 months of membership.

The next month we still had a payment come out of our account! We went back up to the LA Fitness and my husband used his card to get in so he could make sure he got everything out of his locker. They would not let him past the desk without using his card to get past. This was July 12th 2008, we requested papers again to cancel our membership. We went home and did the whole process again! We mailed them out that next day which was July 13th 2008.

They call me AT LEAST 4 times a day trying to get us to pay them for July, Aug., and Sept. We canceled the credit card that they has access to and that is why they are calling the house all day. I just talked to a manager on the phone and explained to her what all has happened and that we did exactly what the contract said to do about canceling. All they can tell me is that I should have mailed it certified and I need to get paid up. They also said that if I pay half of one payment right now they will cancel our membership for good. CATCH: I have to do it today because there are 2 payments pending. I told her that the credit card is no longer active, that we have canceled that credit card when they would not stop taking money out of it and when my husband lost his job. She said I understand but you still have to pay. I don't know what else to do with these people.

On 9/1/08, I spoke with Tamara and Jimmy from Alsip,IL location, Kellyn from Corporate, and Joe T from the Lansing, IL location and they said it will be cancelled when 1 year is up. They said the only terms to cancel the agreement was 1.) have a note from doctor saying that you can't ever work out in your life 2.) find someone (friend or family) to transfer your contract to 3.) pay 50% of the remaining of your contract. I looked the checklist provided on day 1 and it said i may voluntarily cancel my agreement at anytime during the initial term by providing written notice of cancellation 30 days prior to my next scheduled payment and paying a termination fee equal to 50% of my remaining balance at the time of notice.

I'm paying $320/mo so I thought I would only pay $160 for 50%, but they meant 50% of the entire remaining contract. This was not clear and explained correctly to me initially. My father was there at the time of signing and he understood it the same way. They're saying it's not a contract but an agreement. But there are only 3 reasons which you can get out of the agreement which was not clear.

I still got billed $640 AFTER I told them that I need to cancel which he agreed to. PLUS I would have to pay additional 50% of my agreement which is $1380.

I was out 340.00 dollars and the fear of going back to the gym. I am upset to know that so many women go to this gym which does not have any form of security.

This year i opted to freeze my membership and they said all i needed to do was give them my phone number and it would be taken care of. They also said they would make sure the manager of the trainers Anthony would freeze my training membership for that time. Of course, I am not going to just give them my number and take their word for it, so about mid june i went in there when it was time for them to freeze everything and my membership was accidetnally canceled becuase i sent in a letter to their corporate office requesting cancelation of the training membership alone. (these are two separate withdralws that come out of my account about the 15th of every month- 37.44 and 116.00)

This accidental cancelation happened in May, and everytime i went into the gym and they scanned my tag, noone caught onto it until i asked them again about the status of the freeze. Well, they took the funds out, unauthorized to do so, in June and in July and now i have so many fees from Commerece bank they opened a new account for me today 8-3-08 and i have to call Allstate, the bank for my car loan, and capital one and explain why these checks bounced. Im lucky if they didnt drop me on my insurance. i will find out monday morning tomorow when customer service is open.

exactly 315.00 in fees from Commerce bank from checks returned because La fitness kept attemptimg to take funds out that werent there. Commerce bank wrote a letter to la fitness and i am going there tomrow to hopefully get this settled with the Gerneal or Operations Manager.

Is that legal? How would they have gotten my bank information? Bank account information should be confidential and protected, not just given out to anyone.

Second I tell her "You know that's a load of crap, because I just discussed this with several reps and..." Call Ended. "The Manager" hung up on me. My brother was mislead twice, to confirm this the last rep I spoke after being hung up by the manager, by the name of Susan, 6/26/08 at around 7 pm confirmed that in her notes no manager spoke with me, and that they do not cancel accounts over the phone. Here's a funny note and you can add this to your record. This account was frozen for about 2 or more months, yet they still charge the standard fee? When you freeze the account you can only charge $10.00. My brother went ahead and closed his bank account. As a result this was no inconvenience, but be warned that if anyone asks for any feedback ...we will be honest.

The personal training contract auto-renewed at the end of the 1 year term and so I needed to provide 30 days notice of cancellation. In February 2008, I provided LA Fitness with notice of cancellation for the personal training contract to be effective after the mid-May 2008 billing. At that time, I also notified LA Fitness that I wanted the three month-to-month accounts cancelled in coorindation with the training contract. All of that was accepted at the time in Feburary 2008.

Now, over the span of two days, I've received at least five phone calls from LA Fitness representatives asking for payment on these accounts again. I've talked with three different people to get this resolved and all deny they've received any notification.

Asside from the personal interruptions during my work day, the direct economic impact is over $400 USD.

I have been billed 5 months in gym membership fees of $35.99 each. I haven't used the gym because I thought the membership was canceled. I've had $128 in NSF fees for one month and $198 another. I spent 8 hours while the local Lawrenceville, GA manager sent emails requesting refunds with the NSF fees. I've spent 3 hours on my cell phone's peak time; it is the only phone that I have.

In January 2007 I wanted to cancel my account with la fitness and I couldnt ever get through to them over the phone, so I went down to the fitness center on January 14th 2007 to get the cancellation form and I was told it would be 30 days before the letter would be received / processed and then 30 days after that the account would be closed (60 days) very deceiving and unethical since I was told I could cancel ANYTIME.

Also since I have already prepaid for the first and last month when will I get that money back? And why am I paying for 2 extra months for which I am clearly not using? I have addressed all of these issues many times on the phone and in the fitness center but I got nowhere. Very deceptive business practices, obviously they are there to rob the consumer purely out of a technicality.

November came and I was charged..I called and spoke Brian and questioned him as to why I was charged..when I was told that I would no longer be charged..He explained that there is a cancellation form..the other gentleman I spoke with never told me of such a thing...Brian faxed us the form..we had it sent in..December again I was charged...I again called Brian explaining to him that there is no signed contract between us for them to continue hitting my account..He told me since there was a verbal agreement that they can..Well I had a verbal agreement the beginning of October that my account would not be hit anymore.. Brian told me he would take care of things and see that I get a refund back.. I called to check back with Brian three days later and he's no longer at that location.. I spoke to another female employee there..she told me that Andy took over for Brian..she would definately have Andy call me back within 2 hours.. That phone call never happened..

A couple days later a Tiffany called me wanting a payment for January...I went off on her..she put me in touch with a Hanna.. I told Hanna what all was going on.. She was pleasant telling me she's going to do all to help me.. She told me she was deleting my phone number from their record..so nobody would be contacting me for payment..she would get things cancelled..That never happened today I received a phone call from Tiffany again requesting payment... Again I went off...I finally got the number to their 800# and spoke to a Stephanie and she told me my account was never cancelled..She would get it cancelled but they won't reimburse me back anything.

Additional expense of $5.00/month. This amount although minimal is being unknowlingly charged to hundreds of customers.

I was looking to go to another gym because this one is overcrowded beyond belief - they do not limit thier membership. There were also other items promised in the contract (e.g. towel service) that they do not provide. I provided the Corporate Office Adderess because this is a company-wide change in policy. All members should have been notified. If they gave me 2 weeks notice before changing this policy, I would have done it then.

Just came back from this location after Jason Ayala, Weekend General Manager, refuses to let my guest in for a workout. I was told in numerous occasions that I can bring a guest AT ANYTIME by Victoria. Therefore, I was dumbfounded when Mr. Ayala insists on telling me that I did not read the fine print. Not only was he not apologetic, but he insists to make his point. Can someone remind him that he is working in a service oriented business? It is obvious that his title has gone to his head.

As a corporate officer and an experienced negotiator, I found Mr. Ayala to be rude, confrontational and downright nasty. Who ever promoted Mr. Ayala shows very poor judgment. In fact, having someone so inexperienced for this position shows the lack of foresight which truly reflects the company.

No one should accept this type of treatment. I am glad that my membership will end soon. You can bet I will take my business elsewhere.