Advice - LA Fitness cancellation charge

Paul_Rochdale

Like many of you on here, I'm also having problems with LA Fitness. I was also a former employee of theirs when it was Dragons.

I think it was in May this year that I cancelled my direct debit (OK, I should have cancelled my membership at the same time) and soon got the first of a series of letters and messages left on my ansaphone. In short, they say I had signed a contract for a year and had to continue paying it. Now I joined last November and don't recall seeing the contract, or receiving the contract and conditions via email. I cannot believe as a pensioner I would have committed myself to a contract in excess of £400 when the possibility of not reaching the end was high. I don't recall any of this being explained to me.

I found I frankly don't enjoy the gym any longer. My arthritis is playing me up and the place is not a clean as it was when I was an employee.

Yesterday I received the first letter from ARC (Europe) Ltd but I have written (I keep copies of all letters) back to say I will not deal with a third party as my beef is with LAF and not them.

If necessary I will contact Trading Standards and even go to court if that has to happen. I have asked for copies of my contact and conditions to be sent to me, and all letters to LAF are sent recorded delivery. I am curious as to how this works out.

brettcta

i imagine it'll work out 'not well', as if you've signed up for the year and stopped paying, they're entitled to the rest of the contractual payments you signed to make. just because you don't recall seeing a contract, doesn't mean there was one in place. la fitness may state that you attending the fitness club and using their facilities was your acceptance of the contract.

also, you not believing that as a pensioner you would have signed up for a 12 month contract is no defence either i'm afraid

but, best of luck

lady_ellabella

I'm also having issues with LA Fitness.

I spoke to customer services and after several requests sent me a copy of my contract. When i signed for my contract i was taken to a computer and i had to read terms about my health and fitness. Once agreed that i was in good health i signed on the computer screen.

On closer inspection on my contract. This signiture has been used to sign everything else, incuding given them permission to issue me with fixed penalties and also agreeing to paying the whole sum of the contract to be released from my contract. AND agreeing to the credit agreement.

I am disgusted with LA Fitness. I have called trading standards and supplied them with all my evidence. I have to given them 14 days to reply. I have also emailed the details to the customer service team and also to the directer Martin Long email dress. I just hope it works.

martin2011

Like many of the people on this site I would like to cancel my membership with the club in Liverpool as I feel the gym is just too crowded and small for the amount of members that use it and therefore I can never get a good training session as I have to wait for equipment etc.. Its starting to affect my motivation now also because I just have no heart in going to the club anymore. My problem is that my 12 month contract isnt up until the end of february so I still have about 5 months of the 12 month contract remaining. I'm just wondering if anyone knows of any way of getting out of this contract early as the £33.00 I pay each month just isnt worth it. I'm also a student so the fee is a considerable amount of money to me. When I signed up I used the computerised system and I have no recollection of recieving a contract agreement in hard copy so therefore I have been unable to read over the contract or terms & conditions. Any help would be great!!

x_nat_x

I received an online voucher for a free day trail at La Fitness Sale Manchester which I used. As soon as I walked out the door I was bombarded with sales calls asking me to sign up for a 12month membership. I felt backed into a corner with the high pressure selling so I paid a joining fee but NO contract was signed as this was over the telephone.
After a night’s sleep I knew I had made a mistake so I called the following morning to explain I did not want to become a member and would like the joining fee refunded back on to my debit card. I was told I would receive a call back from the manager to deal with the matter so I waited....and waited but no call back. After waiting several hours I called back and the manager this time was available to talk to me. I explained the situation but he advised he would need to contact his area manager about this as I had gone into the contract side of things. I was well aware of my rights and explained with any contract, you get a cooling off period but bearing in mind, it was less than 24 hours notice and no contract had been signed by me. The manager agreed with me but he still had to email his area manager to sanction this and was told I would receive a call back.
Surprise, surprise I received no call back from the manager so I called the following afternoon. There was excuse after excuse about why it was taking so long so I asked to speak to someone higher in position and he gave me headquarters telephone number. The lady I spoke to was really nice and she explained that there was nothing she could do and that the manager of the sale branch should never have passed the buck on to them, he could deal with it direct and it’s a straight forward matter as there was no contract signed. I decided this time instead of phoning as this got me nowhere, I went into the gym with my partner to speak to the manager face to face. He explained his area manager declined my right to cancel and in his own words he was “the good guy” trying to get the matter resolved for me. I asked why it had been declined as there was no contract, less than 24 hours notice etc and he shrugged his shoulders and said “don’t know but it could be down to keeping the sale”. I was so angry at this as this all goes back to the high pressure selling and not good customer service. Once again I was back to square one waiting for a response!
Four days had passed and I was still waiting! I went to seek further advice on the matter from a family member who is well experienced in this field and I asked if he could call the manager on my behalf as I felt like he was palming me off and taking advantage. After a lengthily heated conversation, the decision was made to refund the joining fee back on to my debit card and the membership cancelled.
Due to this I will not recommend anyone to join LA Fitness in Sale, Manchester and I will be telling everyone I know about my bad experience as I would hate for anyone else to go through what I did. They are more concerned about pushy selling tactics to get the sale by any means necessary instead of what best meets the customer’s needs. The manager was very condescending to me and the customer service I received from him was appalling. :mad:

Miss_Julia

:(Im having really bad trouble with LA fitness. I cancelled my membership 6 months ago due to a medical condition,7 months short of the 18 month contract, ( a contract I never saw and was conpletly done online without me seeing any T&C) i went into the club and spoke to the manager who could see my medical condition and explained to me that he would deal with my membership personally and i should cancel my direct debt. Hence this is what i did.
i heard nothing from LA fitness for the past 6 months and then yesterday i recieved a very distress phone call from ARC Ltd stating i owe LA fitness money. I gave then my new address when i cancellled the membership inhouse and left it at that.

yesterday i also spoke to LA fitness membership team who on the first phone call the lady hung up on me, so i phoned again only to be verbally abused and told i had to pay or else. she was not interested in listerning to anythin i had to say.

i felt very upset and distressed over how rude she had been.

I now have contacted trading Standards and will be writing to Consumer watchdog.

Miss_Julia

HI I was just wondering how did you get on with LA fitness? Im Having the same problem

MELLA_2

Hi. Will be brief cause thinking of it does my head in. Basically took out a contract with LA Fitness, Did the thing about 2 months before to make sure they knew it was stopping and that the direct debit would be stopped appropriately. Sent via Special Delivery Post. Anyhow when time came stopped direct debit. Then get letter stating need to pay and start it up again. Contacted 0844 770 7700 to talk to people, three different ones who said the letter which was sent via Special Delivery Post was rejected as a cancellation letter. Therefore I had to pay up. IT IS LIKE TALKING TO A BRICK WALL. IT IS POINTLESS CONTACTING THE NUMBER - these people are trained to come up with any excuse. Anyhow I basically found out who chief exec is and that is martin.long at LAFitness.co.uk and he got mark.stevenson at LAFitness.co.uk to sort it out.

It was done immediately.

Make sure you send original letters, proof of postage and anything else you may have. Also request in writing on their letter head paper confirmation that the 'issues' have been dropped.

hope this helps

Mel

FlowerPower99

I too am having problems communicating to LA fitness both in their membership section and credit control, who dont like to talk to each other and wont pass on information, having started my quest to cancel my membership with the branch themselves then being referred to ring a phone number back in early august and being assured it would be cancelled and I could even still use the branch for the next 4 weeks. To cover myself I took this persons name and extension. 4 weeks later I confirmed with my bank the DD had been cancelled, yet sure enough as many of you have also posted I got a letter from the membership section say I owed a monthly amount. i rang and explained and again took name and number, was re-assured it would be dealt with and she would "put notes on the system". 4 weeks later a letter from their credit control section arrived saying I must pay this now or face a £40 late fee. I rang them and was told she would put a note on the system, and that she could see the previous notes but I needed to tell them membership section again. Ive worked in a call centre environment in the past and I took ownership of my calls I didnt leave it for someone else to sort out. This is very poor service and I wonder if the company founder even knows his staff operate in the way people have posted. Perhaps he should go on the Undercover boss program and try to redeem LA Fitnesses name. I am going to write to them too although I dont have much faith at all.

Paul_Rochdale

The latest news in this saga is as follows -

I went to the local Citizens Advice Bureau and the woman I spoke to there was not surprised about the behaviour of gyms. She telephoned LAFs head office and asked about my contract. A contract I claim I never received or signed. She was surpised to be told that there never was a 'paper' contract as it was carried out on a laptop. 'My' lady insisted that a copy of my contract be forwarded ASAP. That was four weeks ago and no such contract has been received by me.

I now have a letter from my doctor stating that my arthritis makes it painful and difficult to continue in the gym.

I have now received a letter from Trevor Munn Solicitors full of threats about my future credit rating and demanding payment within 14 days or the matter will be put before the Northampton County Court. I have written again and explained fully and at length what has been happening so I'm curious to see how it pans out. If I have to I shall attend court and put my side of the story to them. I will not be badgered (bullied) into paying them.