LA Fitness Cancellation rip off Pembroke Pines Florida
When you sign up for LA fitness they pride themselves at advertising how flexible your membership is. If you want to stop coming all you have to do is say so, we will freeze your account and it will be there for you when you are ready to return. The membership is on a month by month basis and you can cancel anytime. Yada, yada, yada. I am sure many current or past members can confirm this. BUT. When you try to cancel they will not let you. They tell you that you must print out a form, fill it out, and mail it. Provide them 30 days notice, and then your account will be cancelled. This is a TOTAL scam to get 1 or 2 additional months out of you at a minumum. Multiply that by the number of people in your family, say 4 @ $37 per month and that is a rip off of at least 2x4x37=$296. That is if you get off with just that. I am in the process of cancelling the credit card they have on file with the hopes that they don't charge my other accounts as some other reports here indicate that they will go after your other accounts. IT IS A TOTAL SCAM. With gas prices today and the current economy why would anyone "kill a tree", "pay for postage", "pay a postal worker", "burn fossil fuel", then "pay for postage processing" in order to cancel an account? THE ANSWER IS ........... ... .. .. drum roll -> TO RIP YOU OFF. Before you consider joining an LA Fitness make sure you have at least 6 months extra dues because that is resonable reserve and what it takes to cancel your membership.
Hank
Pembroke Pines, Florida
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Richard Lewis
Sugar Land,Texas,
U.S.A.
Cancellation
#3Consumer Comment
Tue, July 22, 2008
The contract clearly states "written notice of cancellation is required". Problem is, my own experience is that LA Fitness employees in the corporate office will tell you that they have accepted your verbal request and cancelled when they in fact have not. I know this because I called back a day later and asked if I still had a valid membership or if it was in the process of being cancelled. Second employee confirmed that the first had in fact done nothing and then stated that he could cancel it. Luckily I did not "bite" and followed up with a certified letter. Guess what -- Even after the certified letter I get invoiced for another month after the 30 day pre-paid last month !! Invoiced rather than billed to my card because I've cancelled the credit card and they can no longer charge to it !
I'd like to believe this is a string of honest mistakes, but read the other ripoff reports and judge for yourself. I usually like to give the benefit of the doubt, but I'm an Engineer and there is a lot of raw data here to the contrary.
DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT EMPLOYEES TELL YOU !! Read the contract and follow it explicitly. Pay the money to send the cancellation in by certified mail and keep a copy. Then, inform your credit card company that you are not accepting future charges and dispute anything they try to bill you. Better yet, do what I did, cancel the credit card, and get a new one. I think this is less hassle than continuing to have to deal with them.
Ms. Faith
Roseville,Minnesota,
U.S.A.
It's not exactly like that.
#3UPDATE Employee
Mon, July 07, 2008
The cancellation process goes like this.
There is a 20 day cancellation or freeze notice we ask for; not so we can steal your money, but so that there will be sufficient time enough for the corporate office to receive the cancellation form by mail and enough time to STOP the electronic funds transfer.
Most LA Fitnesses do not ask for a bill payment everyment and work through electronic funds transfers because it is cheaper, easier, and more convenient for most customers.
And yes, so our bills get paid.
But the thing is that employees at any given location do not have the ability to cancel right there in the club; and a standard cancel requires the mailed in letter. It is cancelled from the post-marked date so it doesn't really matter when they receive the letter it will be cancelled from the date you mail it.
It's snail mail and we can't account for lost mail- so certifying it only makes sure that you get it cancelled from the day you send it.
If an LA Fitness staff person claims to cancel over the phone or does not give you a receipt it is NOT cancelled- all cancellations are processed through corporate so MAKE SURE you cancel.
And I'm sorry, but it is a month to month membership and 20 days cancellation notice is not that much to ask for- most customers do fine- it's just the EFT cut off date that you need to make. If you're going to cancel and you do it the day before your billing date then HECK YEAH you're going to get billed. Let's be logical here.