Advice - LA Fitness cancellation charge

lolabella · 19 January 2008 at 12:50PM

Hi,

I joined an LA Fitness gym in Purley four months ago, and at the time of joining, the manager said that if you moved to somewher more than 40 miles from an LA Fitness gym, then you could cancel.

I recently moved to somewhere where there was no LA Fitness gym, and so called up Head Office to cancel, and they checked my address and said that was fine and I just had to send in confirmation, which I did. However, a week later, I received a letter stating I owed a £145 cancellation fee.

I called to complain, and told them that I had not been told of any cancellation fee when I joined or cancelled, and it got escalated to the manager (although I had to call them back as they did not call me as they had said they would) and he said "Rachel is one our most senior customer service assistants, I find it unlikely that she would not have mentioned this" - I argued the point, but they refused to budge, and he was increasingly rude and aggressive saying I had to pay it.

They are now charging me a late payment fee of £40 in addition, but I wanted to see if anyone knew whether any of these charges were legitimate, or if I should continue to argue the point - it seems a ridiculous charge, especially considering I was mislead? Also, if I refused to pay it (I cancelled my direct debit at the time of cancelling) what would they be able to do?

Hope someone can help!

snowkaz · 30 January 2008 at 11:49AM

but i joined LA Fitness in Purley too (formerly Dragons), and when I tried to cancel because was movign to France last June, they tried to charge £145 aswell.... so the guy said it was cheaper to see out the last 3 months of my contract... I asked if it would stop automatically in September because I wasn't in the country to be able to do anything and didn't want any problems... he said "yes as long as you don't renew it, it will stop in september" - low and behold, it didn't, and ARC have charged me £76 including 'late payment' fees because they had "no recollection" of my phonecall.

I need a contact email address for head office to complain but online there seems to be hundreds of similar complaints, and there seems to be nothing we can do about it. Sorry it's no help.

helios_2 · 10 May 2008 at 1:56PM

Here is my situation:

I've been a member of West India Quay - London LA Fitness Club from April last year. For the first few months I've been really enjoying the club. Some time before Christmas it became a bit overcrowded I stopped visiting it but continued paying my membership for the rest of the time of my contract. At the beginning of March this year I sent a cancellation letter to LA Fitness HQ. I tried to cancel by phone as well but while waiting in the callers queue I was going up the queue instead of going down. Initially I was fourth and after 10 minutes of waiting I was sixth. Ridiculous. Anyway I thought the letter should be enough. What happened in mid April is I received a letter from LA fitness demanding my membership fee for month 13. Received a phone call from the HQ and they told me they haven't received the letter. Today I received a letter from a debt collecting company demanding the fee + another penalty fee. I think I'll need a consumer rights organisation.
Can you advise me of a good one?

Thank you,
Nick

Savvy_Sue · 12 May 2008 at 12:42AM

MOVING THREADS FOR BETTER RESPONSES

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to The Vent board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

KILL_BILL · 12 May 2008 at 12:54PM

la fitness are dreadfull in respect of fitness/gyms imo

you pay an extorinate rate for very limited facilities and they are not the most cleaniest of gym- used towles left on the changing room floor for hours, flooded showeres etc etc etc

i would never pay to go there even if someone offered to pay for it

pinkshoes · 12 May 2008 at 1:29PM

ALWAYS send gym cancellation letters by recorded delivery, as gyms (particularly LA Fitness) have an amazing ability of not receiving them! It's almost like they DO receive them, and because they're not recorded delivery, they perhaps bin them...

I think £145 cancellation fee if you move out the area is disgusting! And so is expecting people to travel 40 miles to use the gym! And £50 to transfer it onto a friend or family member? In what way does it cost £50 to print a membership card and send a piece of paper in the post???

squizz_2 · 12 May 2008 at 2:03PM

I cancelled my LA Fitness membership after being a member for 14 months, about 2 months later I got a letter from a debt collection agency saying I owed £83 which is just what I need when I am trying to rebuild my credit score... they could have contacted me to ask for the money (they had my correct address and phone number) but never did, which I think is really unfair. :mad:

Iamthesmartestmanalive · 13 May 2008 at 6:21PM

The Level of illiteracy in this country is what annoys me

You get given a contract, read it

Dont ignore it then cry when the terms dont suit you

Its funny how people tend to know their gets outs, but not the related fees

You owe this money under a legally binding contract, pay up

mute_posting · 13 May 2008 at 7:53PM

LAFitnessCSA wrote: »

For instance, did you know you can transfer your membership to a friend or family membr (or even advertise it) for £50.00?

We allow these options as a good will gesture, and we have the right to withdraw them at any point as they are not stated in your contract.

If they are not stated in the contract, how would people know about them

?

It seems some of your people aren't 100% up-front when explaining things that are in the contract (or even it may seem, contradicting the contract) so what hope is there of them explaining these "good will gestures"?

MP

kwanza · 2 October 2008 at 10:41PM

My recent problem:

Prior to signing up for a 12-month membership, I asked the sales advisor if the gym had access to Sky Sports and Setanta Sports (as my sole reason for joining was so that I could use cardio machines whilst watching football). He assured me that it did, so I signed up. I made it clear to him that the only reason that I was signing up is that he had confirmed that my required facilities would be available.

A month later, I learned that the advisor had been mistaken and that the gym did not have the facilities that he had promised. I have been unable to cancel my membership (members services took over a month to respond and then just refused to help me).

scam_3 · 6 October 2008 at 3:10PM

I joined LA fitness Holborn, London last year (2007sept) for a minimum 3 month contract. Was all pretty good till sometimes they didn't have towels or hot water!
now end of July 2008 needed to cancel my membership because of my back problem. reception gave me a business card where to call for cancellation. I called and a female there confirmed its cancelled but also said something about someone to give me a call back for some reason ( didn't think it was important really) and no one called me back either! 2 months later I get a letter that I have outstanding payment of £50 (was my monthly fee) and will ave penalty charge if I dont pay now. I was amazed!! how careless and rubbish is their service.

what happened next is unbelievable... see my letter below. And to say their customer care email is not even working and bounces back!

and they tagline says WE'RE ON YOUR SIDE - hilarious!

I received 2 copies of same letter on a same day from you on 25th september 2008 (please note: date on the letter 18th september 2008) starting:

"We wrote to you recently asking you to contact us to discuss settlement of the £50.00 outstanding on your account".... And saying we have to cancel your membership...

my notes:
1. I have cancelled my membership end of July 2008 by calling to your cancellation department (spoke to a women, who's name I unfortunately did not ask) but she assured my cancellation is confirmed.
2. I have never received any letter before this letter..
3.when called your member services advisor today I was told that there is no record of my cancellation and I should of had a ref no for my cancellation, which the women who cancelled it did not give me and I had no idea I would need that.
4. I have not used the gym about 2 months since I cancelled it (end of Juy) and it would be very rude to charge me for that. As far as I'm concerned I have cancelled my membership and this shouldnt be my problem.

I sent 2 emails which were not replied not to mention calling you member services on 0844 770 7700 twice a today (26th of September 2008)

First call I made in the morning I was told that there is no notes about my canceling the membership which I knew I had done at the end of July 2008. The guy I spoke to said he will make notes now and gave me the email [EMAIL="member.relations@lafitness.co.uk"]member.relations@lafitness.co.uk[/EMAIL] to write a complaint. As this email bounced back saying it has technical problems (???) I needed to get in touch again and called your member services again. And again the person at your end says there’s no notes regarding a complaint of cancellation. Nice surprise again, could not believe it! This has been very time taking and annoying for me and unbelievable how things are ignored by your customer service staff. Or is this done on purpose in intentions to get more money out of your members. It’s sad.
However the last person I spoke to was trying to help me out and told me I had to pay up the outstanding amount to cancel my membership (again). So I paid for nothing to cancel my membership...again.

Regarding to all of this hassle I believe I’m entitled to at least refund of £50 I paid as this fault has come from your (LA fitness) end and is nothing to do me not paying on purpose.

STILL WAITING FOR A REPLY from LA fitness... even the local manager if LA holborn has not been in touch as went to complain there after no reply for my email... its very sad company i would say.

Any one else with similar experience? lets make an official complain as this has really disturbed my everyday life...

Advice - LA Fitness cancellation charge

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