Complaint Review: Ladies Workout Express Lady Of America National Fitness - Fort Lauderdale Florida

I joined Ladies Workout Express in May 2005 and due to a family crisis I was considering cancelling my membership. I spoke to Sandy/Sherry(Not sure which as they were sisters that I didn't know well enough to tell them apart.) regarding my family issue and we made an agreement to put my account on freeze so I wouldn't be debited until further notice.

I kept track of my next two bank statements until November 2005. In November I contacted them to tell them of my decision to cancel my commitment. I spoke to one of the sisters, she told me I would have to pay a cancellation fee of $125 which I agreed to knowing that I wasn't going to finish out my contract.

I stopped by on my way to work to pay the cancellation fee and wrote a check to them personally, if I remember correctly, for $125. I didn't think anything of it being written to them and not the company as it being a small business it seemed okay. The sister working that day assured me that the account would be cancelled and that the bank drafts would stop.

I watched my bank account for the next two months to be sure that the drafts were no longer happening. I thought I was finished with this company until... December 2006, over a year later I noticed they were charging me. This brought me to checking my past statements to find how long this had been going on and when it started.

I found that it had been started up in July of 2006 which was 9 months after the month of cancellation. I contacted my local club to find out was going on considering I had paid to cancel and had a verbal cancellation with the owner. I come to find out that the club is under new ownership.

The new owner Barb had no record of my cancellation or of me as a member until she looked at the hard copy of files to find that I was a member. She informed me that she would contact the previous owners regarding my account.

She contacted me 24 hours later to tell me that she had gotten a hold of Sherry who had no idea who I was and Bard told me that Sandy had not returned the call and that Sherry could not believe that something like this had been done by her sister without her knowledge. Barb was very helpful with my issue and gave me the number to contact National Fitness/Ladies of America to get my money back.

I called them and spoke to Raquel. They began an investigation and I told them about the cancellation fee I paid and they have no record of cancellation only of the freeze on my account. Raquel called me four days later, wow!, after the investigation was complete to advise me that they still had no record of my cancellation and that no refund was going to be issued. She also took care of finally cancelling my account during this phone call.

After reviewing some of the other reports on this website I will be contacting the parent company to get this resolved. I am out $185 in membership dues and $125 in cancellation fee until I can get ahold of someone who is willing to see how shady this whole situation is.

I will never recommend this company to anyone and will be quick to tell my story to all the people I can. I am disappointed in the fact that there is a company out there that can rip off so many consumers and especially with the fact that they started taking my money 9 months later, which as I found out was still under the owners Sherry and Sandy.

I will also be reporting this company to the Attorney General. I hope my story helps others sway away from any fitness center affiliated with the parent company National Fitness/Ladies of America.

Ashley

Lakeville, Minnesota
U.S.A.