LA Fitness - Advertising Standards

JQ.

LA Fitness are currently advertising 4 months membership for £99, both on their website and on a board outside their gym. It transpires that once you try to sign up that cost increases to £129 becasue they charge a £30 admin fee. You only find this out when you come to pay. It is impossible to get 4 months membership for £99.

Is this legal? I'm not very conversant with consumer law but it just seems a complete con, they're advertising a price that's not available. I can understand it (to a degree) for an ongoing contract where you may be a member for 2 months or 10 years and they need to set up Direct Debits and they advertise the monthly cost, but this is a fixed price fixed term offer - surely the price they advertise should factor in all costs and be the price you actually pay?

iclayt

I can only see a 3 months for £99 offer online.
It's in the T&C's which I imagine you have to confirm reading at some point prior to signing/clicking on the dotted line? http://www.lafitness.co.uk/terms/

fluffnutter

Dunno. I'd have to see the advert to see whether it's misleading or not. It's not unusual to have a one-off administration fee for this sort of thing. It depends on how visible this is. Does the membership deal say 'From £99..' or something like that? Is there an asterisk next to the price with some small print saying 'Plus a £30 admin fee'.

It's a bit like sales posters. A huge '50% OFF!' with a tiny 'Up to' above it. There's a line beyond which canny advertising becomes misleading, and hence contravenes consumer law but without seeing this particular ad, I couldn't comment.

The admin fee will be clearly mentioned in the T&Cs too one assumes. Even so, advertising can still be misleading but most people are savvy enough to treat 'Brilliant Deals!' with a little healthy scepticism.

George_Michael

iclayt wrote: »

I can only see a 3 months for £99 offer online.

There is a * next to the "3 months" offer, and to the left of this is states*"Amount of months will vary per club", so it could be that the club near to the OP is offering 4 months membership for the same price.

ThumbRemote

This article suggests that compulsary charges must be quoted up front, so the advert would be in breach of the ASA guidelines.

http://www.cap.org.uk/News-reports/Media-Centre/2013/Compulsory-charges.aspx

JQ.

Advert looks like this :






There's no asterix, no "from" price and the reality is it's not possible to get 4 months membership for £99.

As I said I can understand an admin fee on an ongoing membership where they quote a monthly fee, but this is a fixed price deal and should therefore be a fixed price.