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Comments:
I recently cancelled my membership with the Copthorne LA Fitness club over the phone and gave one months notice.
Since doing this i have had letter after letter saying i owe them one months cost of 42.50!!
I spoke with the head office ( note we are paying for the phone call) and they said they had tried to phone me to discuss although i have no records of this which they couldn't give a reason for. I asked to speak to a manager who free but they would phone me back, but guess what, know one has and now i have a letter telling me they will be contacting their external debt collectors.
Is there any one i can talk to about this as the customer service is shocking as they say 'one bad customer experience tells 10 of his friends'
Well, if only I had read this before joining.
The staff at the gym are fine....and only too happy to sign you up.
My issue came when I said that I had to travel for work approx 6 times per year and that would mean I would have to suspend my membership each time.
I was told by 2 separate staff members, including the then manager (March 2012) that this wasn't a problem but there would be a 5 pound fee for the month I was away. I could understand that, so I signed up.
In the next week, I found I had to travel in the next 2 weeks, so I approached the gym staff and they just gave me a number to call....they couldn't handle it.
Mmmm, I should have seen the warning signs.
Well, after speaking with a lady at their Membership area (Head Office) she said she ahd to call the branch (Sth Ken) to get their confirmation on what I had said. Helloooooo !!!
This is appalling.
Well, to cut to the chase, no, there was no provision to do this. I couldn't cancel as I was just over the 10 days cooling off period.
These people will do anything to sign you up...promise you anything.
It IS purely a money making operation.
Customer service: zero
Credibility: zero
DON'T BELIEVE WHAT THEY TELL YOU.
I've just had one of the worst experiences of my life at your LA fitness at Victoria. I'm back home now after spending over 30minutes getting stressed and annoyed with the deputy manager at the club. I was appalled by the way the situation was dealt with as I have worked in customer related roles throughout my career.
I'll start with the staff member on the welcome desk that was all but welcoming. This was my 2nd visit after initially signing up for 10 guest passes to try out LA Fitness via Groupon. I was told in an abrupt way that I need to pay £1 to use a towel which is when the painful experience started.
Firstly I was not charged on my 1st visit after filling in the forms and using the gym so I questioned why this has changed. I was told it's club policy that Groupon users must pay £1 for towel use but full members don't.
I wanted to see where this was stated as i found this wrong in principle, but instead I was told that it's in the induction email. I checked my guest passes which didn't show this and also the Groupon deal which didn't state this. The company website also doesn't state this.
The deputy club manager Trevor then took over and didn't even acknowledge the fact that this was already becoming an unwelcome situation for myself and the running of that club. He sat me down and said it's in the email and my responsibility to show it's written there. I didn't have the email and he was reluctant to help, until after I demanded that I need to see where it is written in writing whether via a hard copy email or on any paper or terms & conditions on site.
His exact words were ' if u want me to waste my time to prove it and show you before you accept the charge then ok' !! Absolutely appalling if treating guests and potential members concerns/queries are a waste of time!
He then spent a further 5 minutes searching for papers but had no luck, finally got a copy on an email which stated the words at the end 'don't forget to bring your towel'. Now if your website says 1 fresh towel is provided then why would I bring a towel? It did not specify guests will be charged or that a fee is required to use a towel anywhere on the website, email, Groupon deal itself or displayed on the premises of club. I was also not told this on my induction visit or charged. To me this is a hidden charge and although small, it's principle that people don't like being taken advantages with hidden charges.
Over 30minutes later Trevor still refused to acknowledge that there was not clear and concise print anywhere to say that Groupon users will be charged for towels. Whether it be misleading or a mistake that this wasn't made clear before, the manager should've just used his discretion on this occasion and next time I would either hire a towel or bring my own. Sadly I was in constant frustration and going around in circles as there was still nothing showing this proposed charge. Isn't it a trading standards requirement to be clear about all club charges?
Finally some progress, he offered to pay the £1 out of his own pocket for a towel but I refused as it was the principle and clarity which was being questioned, not the irrelevant £1 charge. Also 40minutes had elapsed and I had other things to do so wasted an hour including travelling and didn't even use the gym. After expressing that I will complain and probably post warnings to Groupon and review websites that I got an apology from Trevor. By that time that damage has already been done and he asked when I'm next coming back, well after that experience it'll definitely be never again. Judging by other people's comments here it seems like it's just a badly run company which I'll definitely be advising everyone to avoid.
I've also reported both LA Fitness and Groupon to the OFT and the ASA adertising watchdogs will also look into the way they advertise promotions or the omission of any material information. The gym at Victoria wasn't very modern and very standard with equipment like treadmills and rowing machines that were old, tired and dated
My family and I have had memberships at LA Fitness for the past 8 years and it has been a great gym, so long as I was a compliant member. But, when we had to move away to an area that did not have an LA Fitness (out of country) they put up every obstacle possible, from needing to go into the gym in person to cancel to sending a stop order by snail mail, to still taking money out of our account after I snail mailed the stop orders. Even when I call their corporate office, it goes directy to an apparent abyss of voicemails, seeing as how I have not heard from them. It shows a sickening amount of unprofessionalism to the extent that we will do our small part in not becoming members of LA Fitness again when we move back to the US.
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.
Hi there, i am currently having huge concerns with this ARC debt company. Basically my boyfriend worked at la fitness, i was entitled to a complimentry pass so i wouldnt have to pay for the gym. whilst i was waiting to receive this back, they were struggling for heads and his boss asked if i would sign up and it woouldnt be a problem once my complimentry pass arrived. A contract was set out for me however i never signed anything. Anyways he is now working for fitness first, so i cancelled my direct debit, phoned them and explained. i have been in to speak to manager who is also trying to cancel it as she said i never signed anything either, it isnt working ! please help. will they actually take me to court ?
I need to cancel my membership due to illness - recovering from meningitis. I went in to the gym initially yesterday (28th July 2011) to have a discussion with someone. They handed me a small square of paper saying "Membership Services" and a telephone number, saying I had to call them to cancel! Anyway, I spoke to Catherine Rushby yesterday and explained my situation and that I had a doctor's note. She said that I should email the note to her and I had to give a month's notice and that my last payment would be on 29th July 2011. I have emailed her twice with the note to ensure my month's notice gets activated but no acknowledgment or reply. I don't want them to start saying they never received my emails etc as I will be cancelling my direct debit today. I am concerned as I can see the various posts in forums about them not processing cancellations and then sending debt collection letters in order to collect monies they believe to be unpaid :/ I put read receipts on the emails but my emails do not appear to be being read? Has anyone else had problems with getting responses to emails? Can they say "we never received your email" and therefore deny knowledge I have given the required notice?
I thought I would also vent my frustration with LA Fitness. I cant really describe them as anything else other than money grabbing sales people who care nothing about customer satisfaction.
I unfortunately signed up to a 12 month contract at the Warwick site as some other work colleagues of mine had done the same. I was hurried around some areas of the site by a very pushy salesman. I admittedly signed up on the spot even though I had only seen limited parts of the club and I did read the T&Cs.(I still have received no paperwork at all even thought it has been 3 weeks from signing)
I visited the club the next day and was extremely disappointed with the facility. After being there a few minutes I quickly realised how dirty and ill maintained the whole complex was, it also smelled extremely bad and the air conditioning was not working. I thought on the off chance it maybe a fluke and returned a few days later to the same situation. I therefore sent a letter straight to head office which you can see below. After this letter I waited for a call.... and nothing. I waited over a week and decided to cancel my direct debit. ( I had already been billed a joining fee and paid a months membership which I wasn't trying to reclaim.) Roughly 1 or 2 days after cancelling the Direct Debit I received a letter and a call from the credit team who unfortunately couldn't help with anything apart from taking some more money and reinstating my direct debits. I will add I tried three times a day for the last week to contact the membership helpline which was constantly ringing and ringing.
Finally I was called back by a lady from the membership team who went through my concerns and said how I was basically lying and all the problems I listed would have been fixed! I actually have no intention of returning to the club aside from checking to see if they have fixed any of the problems. I have been informed this will go to court so I will keep you all updated. I have plenty of images to take as evidence and will no way be settling the 11 months balance which I apparently owe them. Here is my letter to them...sent Special Delivery. I have also had a very pleasant experience joining Nuffiled Health, I signed up with no pressure and no contract, shouldn't that be how a gym is run? I look forward to speaking to another manager tomorrow. Cheers Tom
Letter to LA Fitness -
"Dear Sir/Madam
I recently became a member at LA Fitness Warwick branch because it is very close to where I work. It has now been 10 days since I took out the membership plan on the Friday 1st July 2011. After being briefly shown around the complex by a sales advisor I believed the location had the equipment that I required for weight training, it was not apparent until my first actual session that the location has many problems that I will detail.
I had my induction when my height and weight were taken by one of the LA Fitness team, he also took my body fat percentage and BMI. I was quite concerned when I was told my body fat was over 20%, I know this is not true as I recently had previous tests at my last gym which showed a lower percentage. I asked why this might be so high and was told “It’s probably because your previous gym had a better machine to measure your body fat”. From the outset this didn’t fill me with confidence. I was then led around the gym and had a demonstration of the machines and weights. I told the instructor I was interested in a weight training programme, so he demonstrated some free weight exercises.
After asking him to demonstrate the technique for performing a deadlift I was told to load the bar with as much weight as I could lift, this was before any warm up. This worried me as I have been lifting weights for some time at my previous gym and know you should always warm up with lighter weights. Overall the member of staff did not seem knowledgeable or competent to demonstrate equipment to anyone.
However my doubts with the member of staff were not my greatest concern, there were many other things I noticed at the complex that caused me to write this letter. Firstly the whole weight lifting/resistance training area looked extremely dirty as did many other areas of the site. The white machines were black with dirt and the floors were also unclean. This may have been why the gym had such a bad smell which again was very off putting. The machines also seemed very worn and ill maintained with several requiring repair. Whilst I was using the machines I was approached several times by a member of staff trying to sell me protein supplements, this was very distracting and potentially dangerous whilst I was mid-way through a set of bench press.
When I looked round the site I noticed the air-conditioning units attached to the wall as mentioned about on the website, what I didn’t see was that they were not operational. Everyone looked extremely hot in the gym and I was uncomfortably hot. I asked a member of staff why the air-conditioning wasn’t working and was greeted with the response “We never use it and just open the windows”. The changing rooms also seemed to smell and were unclean. Several of the lockers I tried to use were broken, and again no signs to inform the users that they were going to be repaired.
These reasons listed above are why I will no longer be continuing my membership at LA Fitness. I am not asking for a refund of the joining fee or the month that I have just been billed for but I wish for my membership to stop immediately and monthly payments to cease.
I have only visited the club on two occasions, I regret returning to the club on the second occasion but thought the problems may have been temporary so visited later in the week to see if any cleaning and maintenance had been carried out, alas it hadn’t. I would also like to mention that I have received no contract or paper work from yourselves. I have tried several times in the last week to contact the membership phone number but no one has answered my call.
I have been to several gyms previously and realise machines will inevitably be out of operation on some occasions. I do however expect a gym to be cleaned regularly, have working air conditioning and have staff that are knowledgeable in their job.
Please contact me on my mobile number if you feel the need to discuss this matter further, if not I will assume my membership has been terminated.
Hi guys, I have transferred membership from an ex- work colleague to myself. During the transfer process (over the phone) LA-F did not inform me that i'm signing a 2 year contract, after this I did not receive any contracts nor did I sign any documents. I want to leave LA-F, but customer service department have told me that I'm still liable to pay it in full, even if I have not signed a single piece of paper. Is it correct, or can I just cancel my direct debit?
My fiancee and I recently tried to cancel our memberships with LA Fitness, over the recent Royal Wedding Bank Holidays - now as their headoffice's were closed we went into the gym to inform them that we needed to cancel our membership. They took our details and asked us to call their headoffice at the first available opportunity to ensure that the cancellation had taken place.
We called their headoffice on Wednesday only to find out that our details had not been passed on and headoffice were insisting that we had not provided them with a full months notice of cancellation therefore we would have to pay an additional months membership. They were insisting that we should have called them on the 1st of May - the member of staff and her supervisor didn't seem to understand that the 1st of May was a Sunday and they were closed for the bank holiday weekend - but this was obviously our problem and not theirs.
After over a month of sending letters and e-mails and making phone calls to LA Fitness, my fiancee and I finally sent an e-mail to their head of customer relations Neil Hodgon (neil.hodgon@lafitness.co.uk) copying in the BBC WatchDog and Trading Standards and it was amazing how quickly we got a response saying that our contracts had been terminated and we did not have to pay LA Fitness any money.
I cannot believe companies like this can get away with this kind of behaviour in this day and age - I would never recommend LA Fitness to anyone, in fact if I could afford it I would pay people not to use LA Fitness
Had a great experience with LA Fitness in Anaheim Hills. I've joined many gyms in my life time but this was the best. While in the club I had the opportunity to meet the district manager Lance Yates and he was amazing. He inspired my daughter to start taking her health serious and even enrolled her. It's nice to see upper management take pride in the customers. He's a keeper!
My daughter joined LA Fitness and during the membership meeting she was categorially told by the sales advisor that she was not locked into a contract and could cancel the membership with one months notice. She tried to cancel after 3 months and was then told she had signed up for a 12 month contract! We cancelled the direct debit and wrote letters to the head office then we started to receive letters from ARC. We found BLAGGER.COM and followed the advice of another Blagger. We emailed Martin Long and the branch manager, wrote letters of complaint to a local trading standards office, LA Fitness head office, ARC and copied in the branch manager. The very next day we received a phone call from LA Fitness telling us the membership was cancelled. (This is cutting short a very long story!). I would like to thank everybody who takes the time to give advice on this website - it really helped us.
Hi, I had problems cancelling my membership, ended up with ARC, Trevor Munn etc. on my back, to cut the usual story short. Anyway I eventually wrote to encourage them to take me to court as they were threatenting to do for about £00 odd pounds - what a joke.I'd got in touch with someone on facebook who used to work for LAF retentions department, (FB group "I hate LA fitness")he emailed back to say the staff were incentivised not to process cancellations - they are given bonuses for "retaining" cuastomers, so of course letters go in the bin. I told Trevor Munn "solicitors" this in a letter and told them LA fitness had breached the contract by not providing me with a cancelation number, as their terms and conditions state they should do. Eventually they wrote back and told me my account had been passed back to LA fitness.
That was about 2 years ago and not heard a peep since.
Fight these lot, they are chancers out to claw as much as as possible off you without a leg to stand on.
Are you an ex-employee of LA Fitness who has recently been given notice and your job been taken over by an "in house" trainer? if so, they acting against the law and you can take them to an industrial tribunal. Even if you are a part time studio instructor (like me) they are not within their rights to dismiss you. Go to www.employmenttribunal.gov.uk, go to forms and download ET1. They are breaking the law and you will win. Good luck!
Similar experience recently in leaving LAF Manchester. I satisfied the minimum term of my contract and gave 6 weeks' notice. This resulted in RCS being instructed to claim £407 from me without providing any detail of the alleged debt.
I followed advice found on this forum and emailed the CEO, Martin Long. I reecived the following today:
Thank you for contacting LA Fitness Member Relations. I write in reference to your recent correspondence.
I am sorry to hear you are unhappy with the service you have received from LA Fitness. I assure you that we endeavour to provide the best possible service for all our members and apologise if you feel this has not been achieved.
I have spoken to my manager who has agreed to cancel and waive the outstanding amount on the membership. I have instructed ARC to cease contact immediately.
I apologise for any inconvenience that this may have caused.
Kind Regards
So the matter is closed, but not without some effort.
I too have been in discussion with intransient LA Head office staff. The gym staff are very nice, the instructors excellent. If it wasnt for the brilliant classes held by the brilliant staff then I would have left ages ago. Speaking with others in the changing rooms the discussion is often about the different fees charged for the same contract, and the difficulty in leaving. Gyms generally have a bad reputation and LA fitness is no differnet. Remember you are just a source of income to head office.It is the gym instructors locally that keeps the head office in credit. If we had to deal with head office we would have all left years ago. Warning to LA fitness CEO treat your exisiting customers well and they will stay, treat them badly and they will let everyone know about it. Seems like they prefer everyone to know about it.
I too have been trying to cancel my contract with LA Fitness. However the gym manager at the LA Fitness Burnham was not willing to discuss the issues, neither were LA Fitness Member Relations.
LA Fitness are not willing to accept the contracts have been breached by by the consumer credit act and goods and services acts and hence have referred the case to RCS (LA Fitness debt collection agents).
They also seem to think that allowing minors of the opposite sex to shower along with grown ups is acceptable in open communal showers. Personally I think it's wrong that a 9 year old girl is allowed to shower with grown men. This is just one of the reasons we're trying to leave!!
I have sympathy with anyone else dealing with this company!!
I have tried leaving LA Fitness, as I have no longer need of a gym due to injury. I contacted the local branch, who said they couldnt help, but referred me to a members phone number. This never gets answered, so I wrote. What LA Fitness now effectively asking, is for a further 2 months membership, although I have been a member there for over a year. They have taken umbridge over my cancelling my Direct Debit, and requestes for copies of documentation that backs up their claims are being ignored.
My opinion - avoid. This company are worse than a mobile phone company when you come to cancel their services.
An acquaintance of mine has had his Direct Debit increased without notice, and is currently sueing LA Fitness ( I understand).
After reading all the "blags" about LAF i felt the need to post my opinion. I love this company and have never had ANY issues with them. Mind, unlike the majority of the comments, everyone failed to read the Terms and Conditions of the contract you are obligating yourself into. If you all read these, there would be no need what-so-ever to "blag", moan and threaten action agains't the company. It is your responsability to read what your signing. For example, signing a mortgage contract i'm guessing you'd all read that, as in charges for missed payments? repossesion?? Thought so. Honestly, read everything so you know what's what. Yeah, i'm not saying some Sales Advisor's do tell the odd white lie so you'll join but when you sign away you sign to agree that you have read, understood and agree with the contractual length, fee's and also the terms and conditions. Lies or no lies, it is your responsibility to abide by the contract in which is signed. All the passing the blame and bad reviews on here about LA Fitness is giving a great Fitness chain a bad reputation for those who do read, understand and sign correctly. I assure you, it's a brill club to be a part of!! OK, opinion said!!
Please sign my petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/betterlondongyms/ to try and force London gyms to improve their service and re-think their pricing models.
I have been a member of most of the big gym chains in London (including LA Fitness, Fitness First and Virgin) and they continue to amaze me with how appalling the service is and what a bad service experience they provide.
The service is dire and they truly do not care about their customers - I know of no other business which could offer such poor customer service and stay in business.
The facilities aren't normally that good however that isn't my major gripe as they are generally clean. If you do compare them to facilities in the US though they are a lot busier and have less facilities and equipment available per member.
The worst thing however with gyms in London is the sales staff. Unbelievable people. They will literally tell you anything in order to get you to sign up. Will I get a free massage every day, of course sir; Will I be able to get a free burger and chips with each sesssion, why of course madam. The worse thing is there is no come back to these guys and there are very few alternatives, so the customer has very little power in the relationship. The number of stories I have heard where people have been mis-lead into signing a long term contract are most worrying.
For this service we have the privillege of paying somewhere between £30 - £100 per month! Have you ever actually worked out how much that costs per session? If you compare that to gym memberships in the US which average at c.$30 a month even in big cities we can be paying up to 3 to 4 times more than our transatlantic friends!
I have left all gyms behind me and am now enjoying sport at a new sports and social club called 'Come Play Sport' which is more fun, sociable and much cheaper! Until London gym's start concentrating on the customer, re-think their pricing models and invest in modern facilities I won't be going back soon. Hopefully this petition will encourage more people to do the same and force the gym chains to take some action.
Roger, If you have the time and legal/technical skills, of course you would do it yourself. All I would say in my case is that their help and fairly minimal costs have far outweighed the aggro and potential costs we were looking at from LA Fitness and ARC. Good luck.
I'm having a complete nightmare with La Fitness and am just absolutely exhausted from it all. I'm 6 months pregnant and back in October (so over 3 months ago) I asked the membership services team to provide me with a copy of my contract. I wanted to cancel my membership as not using the gym because of pregnancy. The state of the swimming pool at my club is disgusting and used it once and once only. Anyway, membership services couldn't find my contract and asked via email what i wanted to do. I emailed and said cancel my membership - if they didn't have a contract then technically i have no terms and conditions. Gave them one months notice on the email and heard nothing more. Until the rampage of texts and letters. I returned every text and letter asking for the person who had signed the letter, left numerous messages but never got a call back. I finally got a call first week of Jan from ARC debt company... I didn't understand at first who they were but they are hideous. The way they speak to me is just disgusting. I've explained i am 6 months pregnant and don't need the threat of solicitors and baliffs. They are chasing 1x month missing payment and suddenly they are saying i owe £281!!! I am so scared by all this as just don't know how to get them to go away. They are now saying that i agreed to a 'verbal' contract back in June 09 so i am still in contract and there are only 3 ways out of a contract - redundancy, dr note or die!! I've spoken to Consumer Direct who have been helpful but they keep telling me to send recorded delivery letters, to which i get absolutely no response. They have also said i don't need a dr note by law and to send them the t&c's. La Fitness say they don't have any cancellation t&c's they can email me as its all verbally honoured! My last resort is to get a dr note to prove i am pregnant and not really up to using the gym equipment. I'm just cross that i have to go to the hassle of getting a dr appt for something soooooo stupid, i really feel as if i am wasting my time and the dr's time. I just hope this works and gets them off my back. My advice is to never get involved with La Fitness. Following reading other posts they are just cowboys and con-artists. What else can i do to stop their bullying behaviour? I'm not sure who is the worst - La Fitness or ARC credit management! Will this affect my credit ratings?
Sorry for the long rant but any words of advice would be greatly appreciated.
I used AdviceLine as well and they helped my son to issue a claim against LA Fitness and their debt-collectors (ARC Europe). ARC sent in a defence but LA Fitness didn't bother before the stipulated date so my son and AdviceLine have now been able to ask the court to make an award against LA Fitness for costs. On top of that, as soon as the court papers were issued, the phone calls stopped! Get legal help as it is the only way to sort out these people. www.1stadviceline.co.uk.
Good luck to everyone who has to deal with LA Fitness.
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Comments:
Since doing this i have had letter after letter saying i owe them one months cost of 42.50!!
I spoke with the head office ( note we are paying for the phone call) and they said they had tried to phone me to discuss although i have no records of this which they couldn't give a reason for. I asked to speak to a manager who free but they would phone me back, but guess what, know one has and now i have a letter telling me they will be contacting their external debt collectors.
Is there any one i can talk to about this as the customer service is shocking as they say 'one bad customer experience tells 10 of his friends'
Graham
The staff at the gym are fine....and only too happy to sign you up.
My issue came when I said that I had to travel for work approx 6 times per year and that would mean I would have to suspend my membership each time.
I was told by 2 separate staff members, including the then manager (March 2012) that this wasn't a problem but there would be a 5 pound fee for the month I was away. I could understand that, so I signed up.
In the next week, I found I had to travel in the next 2 weeks, so I approached the gym staff and they just gave me a number to call....they couldn't handle it.
Mmmm, I should have seen the warning signs.
Well, after speaking with a lady at their Membership area (Head Office) she said she ahd to call the branch (Sth Ken) to get their confirmation on what I had said. Helloooooo !!!
This is appalling.
Well, to cut to the chase, no, there was no provision to do this. I couldn't cancel as I was just over the 10 days cooling off period.
These people will do anything to sign you up...promise you anything.
It IS purely a money making operation.
Customer service: zero
Credibility: zero
DON'T BELIEVE WHAT THEY TELL YOU.
I'll start with the staff member on the welcome desk that was all but welcoming. This was my 2nd visit after initially signing up for 10 guest passes to try out LA Fitness via Groupon. I was told in an abrupt way that I need to pay £1 to use a towel which is when the painful experience started.
Firstly I was not charged on my 1st visit after filling in the forms and using the gym so I questioned why this has changed. I was told it's club policy that Groupon users must pay £1 for towel use but full members don't.
I wanted to see where this was stated as i found this wrong in principle, but instead I was told that it's in the induction email. I checked my guest passes which didn't show this and also the Groupon deal which didn't state this. The company website also doesn't state this.
The deputy club manager Trevor then took over and didn't even acknowledge the fact that this was already becoming an unwelcome situation for myself and the running of that club. He sat me down and said it's in the email and my responsibility to show it's written there. I didn't have the email and he was reluctant to help, until after I demanded that I need to see where it is written in writing whether via a hard copy email or on any paper or terms & conditions on site.
His exact words were ' if u want me to waste my time to prove it and show you before you accept the charge then ok' !! Absolutely appalling if treating guests and potential members concerns/queries are a waste of time!
He then spent a further 5 minutes searching for papers but had no luck, finally got a copy on an email which stated the words at the end 'don't forget to bring your towel'. Now if your website says 1 fresh towel is provided then why would I bring a towel? It did not specify guests will be charged or that a fee is required to use a towel anywhere on the website, email, Groupon deal itself or displayed on the premises of club. I was also not told this on my induction visit or charged. To me this is a hidden charge and although small, it's principle that people don't like being taken advantages with hidden charges.
Over 30minutes later Trevor still refused to acknowledge that there was not clear and concise print anywhere to say that Groupon users will be charged for towels. Whether it be misleading or a mistake that this wasn't made clear before, the manager should've just used his discretion on this occasion and next time I would either hire a towel or bring my own. Sadly I was in constant frustration and going around in circles as there was still nothing showing this proposed charge. Isn't it a trading standards requirement to be clear about all club charges?
Finally some progress, he offered to pay the £1 out of his own pocket for a towel but I refused as it was the principle and clarity which was being questioned, not the irrelevant £1 charge. Also 40minutes had elapsed and I had other things to do so wasted an hour including travelling and didn't even use the gym. After expressing that I will complain and probably post warnings to Groupon and review websites that I got an apology from Trevor. By that time that damage has already been done and he asked when I'm next coming back, well after that experience it'll definitely be never again. Judging by other people's comments here it seems like it's just a badly run company which I'll definitely be advising everyone to avoid.
I've also reported both LA Fitness and Groupon to the OFT and the ASA adertising watchdogs will also look into the way they advertise promotions or the omission of any material information. The gym at Victoria wasn't very modern and very standard with equipment like treadmills and rowing machines that were old, tired and dated
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.
I thought I would also vent my frustration with LA Fitness. I cant really describe them as anything else other than money grabbing sales people who care nothing about customer satisfaction.
I unfortunately signed up to a 12 month contract at the Warwick site as some other work colleagues of mine had done the same. I was hurried around some areas of the site by a very pushy salesman. I admittedly signed up on the spot even though I had only seen limited parts of the club and I did read the T&Cs.(I still have received no paperwork at all even thought it has been 3 weeks from signing)
I visited the club the next day and was extremely disappointed with the facility. After being there a few minutes I quickly realised how dirty and ill maintained the whole complex was, it also smelled extremely bad and the air conditioning was not working. I thought on the off chance it maybe a fluke and returned a few days later to the same situation. I therefore sent a letter straight to head office which you can see below. After this letter I waited for a call.... and nothing. I waited over a week and decided to cancel my direct debit. ( I had already been billed a joining fee and paid a months membership which I wasn't trying to reclaim.) Roughly 1 or 2 days after cancelling the Direct Debit I received a letter and a call from the credit team who unfortunately couldn't help with anything apart from taking some more money and reinstating my direct debits. I will add I tried three times a day for the last week to contact the membership helpline which was constantly ringing and ringing.
Finally I was called back by a lady from the membership team who went through my concerns and said how I was basically lying and all the problems I listed would have been fixed! I actually have no intention of returning to the club aside from checking to see if they have fixed any of the problems. I have been informed this will go to court so I will keep you all updated. I have plenty of images to take as evidence and will no way be settling the 11 months balance which I apparently owe them. Here is my letter to them...sent Special Delivery. I have also had a very pleasant experience joining Nuffiled Health, I signed up with no pressure and no contract, shouldn't that be how a gym is run? I look forward to speaking to another manager tomorrow. Cheers Tom
Letter to LA Fitness -
"Dear Sir/Madam
I recently became a member at LA Fitness Warwick branch because it is very close to where I work. It has now been 10 days since I took out the membership plan on the Friday 1st July 2011. After being briefly shown around the complex by a sales advisor I believed the location had the equipment that I required for weight training, it was not apparent until my first actual session that the location has many problems that I will detail.
I had my induction when my height and weight were taken by one of the LA Fitness team, he also took my body fat percentage and BMI. I was quite concerned when I was told my body fat was over 20%, I know this is not true as I recently had previous tests at my last gym which showed a lower percentage. I asked why this might be so high and was told “It’s probably because your previous gym had a better machine to measure your body fat”. From the outset this didn’t fill me with confidence. I was then led around the gym and had a demonstration of the machines and weights. I told the instructor I was interested in a weight training programme, so he demonstrated some free weight exercises.
After asking him to demonstrate the technique for performing a deadlift I was told to load the bar with as much weight as I could lift, this was before any warm up. This worried me as I have been lifting weights for some time at my previous gym and know you should always warm up with lighter weights. Overall the member of staff did not seem knowledgeable or competent to demonstrate equipment to anyone.
However my doubts with the member of staff were not my greatest concern, there were many other things I noticed at the complex that caused me to write this letter. Firstly the whole weight lifting/resistance training area looked extremely dirty as did many other areas of the site. The white machines were black with dirt and the floors were also unclean. This may have been why the gym had such a bad smell which again was very off putting. The machines also seemed very worn and ill maintained with several requiring repair. Whilst I was using the machines I was approached several times by a member of staff trying to sell me protein supplements, this was very distracting and potentially dangerous whilst I was mid-way through a set of bench press.
When I looked round the site I noticed the air-conditioning units attached to the wall as mentioned about on the website, what I didn’t see was that they were not operational. Everyone looked extremely hot in the gym and I was uncomfortably hot. I asked a member of staff why the air-conditioning wasn’t working and was greeted with the response “We never use it and just open the windows”. The changing rooms also seemed to smell and were unclean. Several of the lockers I tried to use were broken, and again no signs to inform the users that they were going to be repaired.
These reasons listed above are why I will no longer be continuing my membership at LA Fitness. I am not asking for a refund of the joining fee or the month that I have just been billed for but I wish for my membership to stop immediately and monthly payments to cease.
I have only visited the club on two occasions, I regret returning to the club on the second occasion but thought the problems may have been temporary so visited later in the week to see if any cleaning and maintenance had been carried out, alas it hadn’t. I would also like to mention that I have received no contract or paper work from yourselves. I have tried several times in the last week to contact the membership phone number but no one has answered my call.
I have been to several gyms previously and realise machines will inevitably be out of operation on some occasions. I do however expect a gym to be cleaned regularly, have working air conditioning and have staff that are knowledgeable in their job.
Please contact me on my mobile number if you feel the need to discuss this matter further, if not I will assume my membership has been terminated.
Yours Sincerely
"
We called their headoffice on Wednesday only to find out that our details had not been passed on and headoffice were insisting that we had not provided them with a full months notice of cancellation therefore we would have to pay an additional months membership. They were insisting that we should have called them on the 1st of May - the member of staff and her supervisor didn't seem to understand that the 1st of May was a Sunday and they were closed for the bank holiday weekend - but this was obviously our problem and not theirs.
After over a month of sending letters and e-mails and making phone calls to LA Fitness, my fiancee and I finally sent an e-mail to their head of customer relations Neil Hodgon (neil.hodgon@lafitness.co.uk) copying in the BBC WatchDog and Trading Standards and it was amazing how quickly we got a response saying that our contracts had been terminated and we did not have to pay LA Fitness any money.
I cannot believe companies like this can get away with this kind of behaviour in this day and age - I would never recommend LA Fitness to anyone, in fact if I could afford it I would pay people not to use LA Fitness
That was about 2 years ago and not heard a peep since.
Fight these lot, they are chancers out to claw as much as as possible off you without a leg to stand on.
I followed advice found on this forum and emailed the CEO, Martin Long. I reecived the following today:
Thank you for contacting LA Fitness Member Relations. I write in reference to your recent correspondence.
I am sorry to hear you are unhappy with the service you have received from LA Fitness. I assure you that we endeavour to provide the best possible service for all our members and apologise if you feel this has not been achieved.
I have spoken to my manager who has agreed to cancel and waive the outstanding amount on the membership. I have instructed ARC to cease contact immediately.
I apologise for any inconvenience that this may have caused.
Kind Regards
So the matter is closed, but not without some effort.
LA Fitness are not willing to accept the contracts have been breached by by the consumer credit act and goods and services acts and hence have referred the case to RCS (LA Fitness debt collection agents).
They also seem to think that allowing minors of the opposite sex to shower along with grown ups is acceptable in open communal showers. Personally I think it's wrong that a 9 year old girl is allowed to shower with grown men. This is just one of the reasons we're trying to leave!!
I have sympathy with anyone else dealing with this company!!
My opinion - avoid. This company are worse than a mobile phone company when you come to cancel their services.
An acquaintance of mine has had his Direct Debit increased without notice, and is currently sueing LA Fitness ( I understand).
I have been a member of most of the big gym chains in London (including LA Fitness, Fitness First and Virgin) and they continue to amaze me with how appalling the service is and what a bad service experience they provide.
The service is dire and they truly do not care about their customers - I know of no other business which could offer such poor customer service and stay in business.
The facilities aren't normally that good however that isn't my major gripe as they are generally clean. If you do compare them to facilities in the US though they are a lot busier and have less facilities and equipment available per member.
The worst thing however with gyms in London is the sales staff. Unbelievable people. They will literally tell you anything in order to get you to sign up. Will I get a free massage every day, of course sir; Will I be able to get a free burger and chips with each sesssion, why of course madam. The worse thing is there is no come back to these guys and there are very few alternatives, so the customer has very little power in the relationship. The number of stories I have heard where people have been mis-lead into signing a long term contract are most worrying.
For this service we have the privillege of paying somewhere between £30 - £100 per month! Have you ever actually worked out how much that costs per session? If you compare that to gym memberships in the US which average at c.$30 a month even in big cities we can be paying up to 3 to 4 times more than our transatlantic friends!
I have left all gyms behind me and am now enjoying sport at a new sports and social club called 'Come Play Sport' which is more fun, sociable and much cheaper! Until London gym's start concentrating on the customer, re-think their pricing models and invest in modern facilities I won't be going back soon. Hopefully this petition will encourage more people to do the same and force the gym chains to take some action.
Sorry for the long rant but any words of advice would be greatly appreciated.
I'll take on LAF on my own thanks!
Roger McRogerson at 21st Jan 2010, 10:34AM
Good luck to everyone who has to deal with LA Fitness.
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