LA Fitness - Personal Training Scam help?

I signed up for LA Fitness years ago and I changed my mind within the allotted time. Might have been three days but I can't remember specifics. I do remember that to get out of the contract I had to drive to their corporate office to do it and I was in a waiting room with a ton of unhappy people in the same or similar situations. I was able to get out of the contract with no loss but my time but it taught me a valuable lesson. I've been a member of 24 for about 13 years. They take my money out of a account that is only set up for auto withdrawals from 24 and a couple other entities and I keep just enough in there for those purposes in case a billing error, etc., none of these companies have access to screw up my primary account.

I once dated a person who worked at a gym signing people. His tactic was to talk fast and throw out a ton of information. He said people were more likely to sign up cause they don't know what hit them.

Good luck.

You're screwed.

6 months and you are unhappy?
And again- 6 months? I call BS- you should have known better.
And the trainers who don't care about you? really? you're going to blame them for you bad decisions? You could have switched trainers- you are not locked into ONE trainer.

So I was tricked into signing up for a 12 month contract with LA Fitness for personal training

what did they say- here sign this it's for the smoothie bar? They cannot TRICK you into signing up for 12 months of personal training.

It's your money you should have backed out sooner- and you absolutely could have. This is your fault.

If you have paid for sessions- use them and cancel the sales. They can't charge you for a service you aren't using.

LA has some shady buisness for sure- but you can request a new trainer- or go to a different gym. I have no sympathy what so ever- Personal Training is elective- you are not in a high pressure evniornment- you can just say no thanks any time- they are selling you what you want to hear- but the reality is you have to show up and do the work- Ultimately you purchased the sessions- you knew what you were signing up for- this is like buying a truck and driving it for 6 months then realizing you pay 80$ a tank to fill it up- then get mad that the dealership sold you a gas guzzling car and now you're bank doesn't want to give you your money back.

Nope- no sympathy. none.

^few hundred? Personal training at LA Fitness would run $600 per month, so 6 months left would be several thousand dollars. That's why it seems so unlikely.

well- depends on how many sessions a week you book I suppose- but it's easily that or more. There is flexibility with what they charge you.

do you work for LA fitness or something? why are you being such an *kitten*? and did you even read the post? she clearly said that she was told she could cancel at 6 months- and now she suddenly can't. definitely shady **** happening there. if there's a contract where they mentioned that she would have to pay to cancel yeah that's her problem, and it sucks, but there's no need to be so rude.

For what it's worth, a personal trainer at my gym tried to do this, too. I go to Blast! Fitness, which is advertised as $10/month (it's really around $15-20 when you add in the multiple gym fee, the yearly fee, and the sign up fee) for the basic membership. I was by myself and she came around asking if I'd like some pointers. So, I said yes. With my membership came a free personal training session, which I cashed in about a week later. It was a good thing I already knew that they were a little bit sketchy from my sign up experience and that I had some knowledge about fitness from MFP before I went to this session because from the start to the finish, the trainer was trying to pry on insecurities. If I hadn't gone in knowing that this was likely where it was going to end (thanks class on persuasion and manipulation in college!), I could easily see feeling forced into signing up, which, yes, still would have been my fault, but psychological factors do play a role in decisions and psychology is a strange thing. I feel for you, OP, I really do. I've seen a lot of people, women especially, put into the same situation and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that many of them sign up without knowing how they're going to pay for it.

The session started with her "measuring" my BF% and then telling me how dangerous it was. Next was the actual training session; I was sore from that 20 minutes for an embarrassing amount of time. It was clear that the end was supposed to be me signing up. I started by looking through all of the things I couldn't afford and politely saying just that. However, this wasn't an acceptable answer. Next, I was offered a payment plan, which I politely declined. At this point, it was clear that the trainer was becoming agitated. I said I might consider it closer to September, which was when I would have a job (this was June and I'm an adjunct) but right now it was out of the question. I went through all of the motions, like saying I'd have to talk to my husband about it. Yet, this wasn't enough, either. At this point, she schedules an appointment for me with her supervisor a couple of days later to see if he can "make me a deal." I told him the same thing I had told her. He told me that their DM was in the gym today so there wasn't anything he could do for me. I said that I understood and that was fine. He gave it one last half-hearted attempted before handing me a Post-It note with the options available to me. I thanked him for his time and went to do my workout. On my way out of his office-cubicle, the original trainer woman saw me and told me, "Well, when you want to get serious about your weight loss, come see me." I gave her a very non-committal, "Will do," while trying to keep my snarky comments down (at this point, I had already lost 30lbs) and was on my way. It was a seriously high-pressure situation, using a lot of the same things other salesmen do to close a sale, because that's what they are. It's hard to take that away from an online post, so I suppose you'll just have to take my word for it. I'm honestly surprised that I wasn't contacted about this in September, since that was information that they took down as well.

I hope you're able to work this out, because it's a terrible situation to be in. I do know that ignoring it and hoping it goes away is probably not the best plan, but I think that's become apparent.

TL;DR: I've been in a similar high-pressure situation as the OP, but was able to say "no" to the pushy trainer because I was expecting it and hope you can work it out.

I'm still trying to figure out what the scam is

^This

I just have no patience for the internet today. I should have gone home to go work out

I think the internet would've thanked you, based on some of the stuff you've posted today.

"I bought some kettlebells! I'm excited to work out!"
"Nobody needs kettlebells, idiot, I don't use them."

"I trusted a gym salesman, now LA Fitness gets thousands!"
"So? Wise up, dumbass."

"Anyone got links to show my mother about why women should lift?"
"Tell her to just google it herself, the lazy *kitten*."

:laugh:

So I was tricked into signing up for a 12 month contract with LA Fitness for personal training. One really good salesman talks to you about changing your life and all the things he's going to do for you- he even does a practice session with you to show you how great it's going to be. Once you sign on the dotted line, he passes you off to other trainers who don't know you and don't care about you.

Oh, and the ONLY reason I signed up for the 12 month contract was because they expressly told me that, if I wasn't happy, I could cancel after 6 months with no penalties. Of course now that I'm at 6 months and am completely unhappy with the "personal" training, this suddenly isn't true? I even called the corporate "customer service" and she just kept giving me the same line. The only option is for me to do a "buyout" for 50% of the remaining contract which is over $500! I don't have $500 lying around... I'm a student who recently moved to LA.

Anyway... I went ahead and canceled my cards in a panic because I'm going dead broke and can't afford this ****ty fake training anymore.

My question is... has anyone battled this? Could I get in serious legal trouble if they start calling for updated payment information and I ignore it? I just don't have money to pay them and certainly don't have money for a lawyer... I just don't know what to do.

My friend got screwed over in a contract with a gym once, and he just said "I'm not paying anything, bye." They called him over and over again until finally they gave up.

Gave up calling him or transferred it over to a collections agency?

I cancelled my cell phone many years ago because they automatically renewed the contract on me. I refused to pay the cancellation fee because I never told them to renew it. They just did it (and no, they never sent me anything in the mail stating they were doing this). It got transferred over to a collections agency where I was constantly harassed for the $120 I owed (that's right .They paid a collections agency to collect a whopping $120). They reduced it in half and I paid it to get them off my back but if I didn't it would have gone on my credit report for ten years and it's not something you can just have removed. It stays on it and it does lower your credit score and can keep you from getting loans.

I'm still trying to figure out what the scam is

^This

seconded.

they are not some fly-by-night operation.
whatever they did, i'm sure it was legal. theyre in the business of making money, just like any company.
something tells me you didnt read all the fine print of the contract that you signed (which is legally binding).

theres a difference in being scammed and not reading the fine print.

sorry this happened to you, but take this as an expensive (though it could be much MUCH worse) lesson.

keep us posted. :flowerforyou:

Gave up calling him or transferred it over to a collections agency?

I cancelled my cell phone many years ago because they automatically renewed the contract on me. I refused to pay the cancellation fee because I never told them to renew it. They just did it (and no, they never sent me anything in the mail stating they were doing this). It got transferred over to a collections agency where I was constantly harassed for the $120 I owed (that's right .They paid a collections agency to collect a whopping $120). They reduced it in half and I paid it to get them off my back but if I didn't it would have gone on my credit report for ten years and it's not something you can just have removed. It stays on it and it does lower your credit score and can keep you from getting loans.

sort of related to the thread and a good reason to always read the fine print - a collection actually stays on your credit report until it is closed (balance is settled or paid off). for the most part, it will be very difficult or even impossible to open new credit if you have an open/revolving collection on your credit report. once the collection is closed it does eventually "age out", but until then you are stuck.

as previously mentioned, the collections agencies "buy" the debt from the company it originates from. servicing debt collection would generally cost the phone company (or gym) far more than you owe, so they instead sell it off. I have worked with several collections agencies before and, trust me, it is very wise to avoid them at all costs.