I joined L.A. Fitness mid-November of 2005, mostly because my fiancee has a membership there and I figured we could workout together. Great, so I go down there and talk to a sales rep about joining up, Me and my fiancee sit down and go over everything, then we get down to the nitty-gritty, whats the cost? The guy says "there's an initial setup fee of $100 and it will be $35 a month from there on out", to which I say "setup fee? what the hell exactly do you 'setup' anyways?" He mentioned something about paperwork, then proceeded to ask me how much I was willing to spend to get signed up. I said I have $50 with me, if I can get signed up for that, it's a deal, to which he agreed. Just to clarify I asked him point blank, "Okay, so I'll pay $50 now and $35 a month and thats it, right" to which he replied "yeah, thats it, just sign on the dotted line". I was about to when my fiancee chimed in and says, "hey I only pay $25 a month, whats the difference?" The salesman replies, "Oh that's because you don't have the 'towel service' included". I said, "WTF? $10 extra for a ****ing towel? thanks, but take it off, I'll bring my own" So I was down to $50 dollars up front, $25 a month. Not bad right?
I've been pretty happy with the gym for the past 3 months, except some of the machines seem to be out of commission quite regularly, but I would blame that on the guests who dont know what the f*ck theyre doing rather than the staff, still repairing them shouldnt be too much to ask. I'm setup on autopay with the gym, so I pulled up my bank statement online the other day to find two charges from LA Fitness, one for the normal $25 monthly fee, and another for $50!! The reason it was such a big deal is because I didn't have the money in the account to cover the $50 charge, so I got slapped with about $90 in overdraft fees! I was pissed, but figured it must have been a mistake on their part and I would be able to get it easily resolved.
So I go to workout this morning and I ask the guy at the counter who I could talk to about a billing issue. He informs me that the sales manager will be in in about 10 minutes and I could discuss it with her. So I do my workout, and an hour and a half later, approach the front counter which a man and woman are standing behind. I ask "Is the sales manager available?" to which the woman I'm speaking with replies "that would be me". I explain the situation, so she pulls up my account to see if I had missed a payment, which I had not, I had made every payment on time. She then notices that when I signed up for membership that I had only been charged $50 dollars, and the 'setup' fee was $100, so the remaining balance was taken from my account. I was like, no no, the agreement was that it would be $50 down, $25 a month, there was never any mention of any recurring fees. She asked "do you remember who signed you up?" I told her I dont remember his name but I think he was Mexican. She says "the only mexican that works here is ---- (i forgot his name)" to which the guy behind the counter turns around and greets me. I recognize his face and say "yeah, you signed me up, whats up with this additional fee?" He says "the setup fee is $100, you gave me $50 down and agreed to pay the other $50 within 3 months, and that its in the contract". I said I never agreed to pay any extra $50, theres no way I would spend $100 to join a sheitty ass gym like LA fitness! Now hes giving me attitude telling me that he called and left a message with a girl saying they were going to charge the account, and i say "so you called... and left a message. with a girl. Did you talk to me?" "No, but.." "Well then you have absolutely no right to charge my card without my authorization". He starts lying right to my face, saying I agreed to it when I signed up, so I knew I wasn't getting anywhere with this ass clown. I asked for the number to the corporate office, they refuse at first, but I said I would get it one way or another so the sales manager writes a number on a post-it note and hands it to me. The guy has the nerve to say "sorry that there was a misunderstanding" as I'm walking out, so I turn around and say "the only 'misunderstanding' here is caused by shady-ass sales tactics on your part" and not to feel sorry for me, I'll get my money back, and that he better start looking for a new job.
I get home and immediately grab the phone and dial the number the sales manager gave me. It starts ringing, and then I get an earful of loud screeching indicative of a number to a fax machine. At this point I'm outraged. I call down to a different location, ask for the number to the corporate office, and the girl replies "sorry, we don't give that out". I say "look, I just got screwed over by a salesperson working for your company, I was told I would only be charged a $50 sign-up fee BY THE SALESPERSON and received a charge for another $50 dollars". She's like "what? really? thats messed up, I'm going to call down there and speak with the manager (to which I'm thinking yeah, good luck) and straighten this out". I don't know if she did or not, and if she did I'm not sure it would have done much good, but at least someone finally saw where I was coming from. Plus she gave me the number to the corporate office.
So I call up the customer service line, and a dreary, mundane voice picks up on the other end, "LA Fitness customer service, how can I help you." I explain the story in as much detail as I can, including the fact that the sales manager gave me a false phone number and that they basically treated me like a liar", to which the girl responds with the generic "I do apologize blah blah blah" and then asks me if I have a copy of my contract. I told her that I had moved into a new aparment and that everything was still in boxes, I'm sure I have it somewhere but its not in front of me" She says "well your contract states that you were to be charged the full setup fee", I explain that the salesperson gave me the impression that the setup fee would only be $50, and that I had even asked him specifically whether or not there would be any additional charges, to which he replied no. She asks "well do you remember the name of the salesperson?" I replied that I didnt, and she says "so let me get this straight. You dont have a copy of your contract and you dont remember the name of the person who registered you" I blew up, i said "what the f*ck difference does it make whether I remember the name of the assh*le that lied to me, all I want is the UNAUTHORIZED charge dropped, and Im not above filing a report with the BBB and picketing the god damn store!" To which she replies, "well your contract says..." BULLSH*T!! I asked to speak to her manager. She says "I am the manager", so I ask to speak to her supervisor, and she says "well I can have someone give you a call back"... yeah f*ckin right. I leave a callback number, but I realize Im not getting anywhere with this girl either, great 'customer service', she says theres nothing she can do about dropping the charge. So I get stuck with a $50 charge I would have NEVER agreed to, PLUS an extra $90 in bank fees. LA Fitness is a scandelous operation, their salespeople will straight up lie to your face and tell you anything you want to hear as long as they get you to sign the piece of paper. After calming down and telling my fiancee "maybe he did tell me and I just wasnt paying attention", she said "no, I was sitting right there and I heard exactly what he said, and heard me ask him if there were going to be any additional charges, to which he said no", so I know the little weasel is lying. And its not just the money, it was the disrespectful way they treated me like a criminal or like I was trying to pull a fast one on them, like they were annoyed that I was bringing it up.
Anyways, I dont know what to do at this point, I dont know who to talk to that will bring some resolution to this issue, but I can tell you this, I have never DESPISED a company so much before in my entire life, and I'll make sure I let everyone know exactly how manipulative and deceitful that company is.
L.A. FITNESS
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Originally Posted by Cdub
are you serious? 
Mental note to self... get a life.
