LA FITNESS, PRO RESULTS, BODY OF CHANGE HOW TO CANCEL LA FITNESS PERSONAL TRAINING - BEWARE OF DECEPTION UPON SIGNING IRVINE California

To cancel your La Fitness Pro Results personal training simply write a letter to the Better Business Bureau, and wait. Having an attorney send a letter to their corporate office. These are almost always guaranteed to work if your problems are legitimately concerning (and referencing) trainer no shows, being switched trainers numerous time, harassment, stolen sessions, or misrepresentation at the point of sale (the time of signing up), such as being told you can cacel your contract at any time with no penalty or not being told effectively and directly that your contract will automatically convert to a month to month program upon completion, both of which I'll discuss next.

Very often La Fitness Pro Results sales reps will mislead you by telling you that you may cancel your personal training contract at any time with no penalty, which is completely false, (in some states) such cancellation usually requires a buy-out fee/penalty of 50% of the remaining balance and can total many hundreds of dollars. Some are in excess of a thousand. Also La Fitness Pro Results sales reps will mislead you about your contract automatically renewing. One of their 'gimmicks' in this regard is to use 'fast talk' and refer to this as your "Rate for Life Guarantee", when in effect all of their personal training contracts are set to auto-matically renew after their initial term (month to month).

In April 2008 (or approximate to that time) La Fitness mysteriously cancelled numerous contracts (and stopped billing) those which had entered auto-matic renewal, in which members checking and credit cards accounts were being billed for MANY months after their initial term, some for over a year, with payments ranging $100-$400 monthly. These contracts (payments/drafts) were mysteriously cancelled yet to my knowledge none of the funds were ever returned to the clients. This was done company wide, and was not mentioned to upper management/club management company wide. This was a one time thing. They did not cancel all auto-new contracts. It appears they only cancelled those who had been in auto renew for quite some time, as they let many in auto-renew at taht time continue, and they still continue to automatically renew contracts on a daily basis. It may also be possible they've decided to let all contracts auto-renew, yet set a pre-determined amount of time they would allow such contracts to continue to be billed (for example an additional 12 months), then cancel future drafts at such a pre-set time.

It was suggested to the owners of the company and their corporate brass to provide a list of ALL clients not using their personal training. This was suggested as a way of increasing customer service. This was rejected. Why? They feared that if 'non using clients' (but who were still being billed/drafted) were contacted, they would immediately become aware they were still being drafted for a contract they thought was completed and not using, resulting in people contacting their banks in order to stop electronic billing, and this could cost the company millions! As a result, the only list provide to the club is a much shorter (safe) list of members whose accounts were active recently, but who have not used their personal training in the past 30 days. Anyone outside of that time frame, is not put on that list due to the reasons I just explained.

I've been told directly by the owner and "La Fitness Top Brass" their fear is having an attorney/attorney general shut down their abililty to auto-renew contracts which would cost the company millions of dollars yearly.

Also their clients have had thousands upon thousands of sessions stolen by trainers, resulting in trainers fraudulently getting paid at the loss of sessions to the clients, very often with neither the client nor La Fitness even being made aware, and sessions never being restored. La Fitness is aware of the loopholes which allow their clients sessions to be stolen, but have done little to correct the problem due to cost and inconvenience. Such solutions could include a finger print system, or a signature verification system, or simply locking down accounts which are not being used.

Also all La Fitness gym members need to be made aware that their billing information (while safely hidden) has the potential to used by the personal training department to bill ongoing services for personal training without the main members knowledge/authorized signature. This has also happened numerous times, to unwitting spouses and often by underage children, using their parents accounts even with the sales reps knowledge the child is underage and doesnt have their parents approval. Sales reps have also fraudulently and intentionally charged accounts of members for personal training services without the members knowledge.

If you have had problems in these areas above, you may choose to contact an attorney, the Better Business Bureau and your State Attorney General.

The owner of the company is Louis Welch (LouisW@LaFitness.com)
The owners personal 'right hand person' is Suzzie Horton cell 949-633-8072 (suzzieh@lafitness.com)
The head of human resources is Mindy Stokesberry 949-255-7236 (mindys@lafitness.com)

Rob Bryant heads the legal department. (I'm not sure but his email may be robb@lafitness.com, robertb@lafitness.com)

Some other top brass contact info:

Mike Ulliberry 'Super Duper' Regional VP
cell 480-824-3826 (mikeu@lafitness.com)

Todd McSeveny 'Super Duper' Regional VP cell 954-650-1325

someone who knows
Irvine, California
U.S.A.