LA Fitness Difficult and expensive time canceling membership and personal training Orlando Florida

I recently bought a membership for my wife for her birthday at LA Fitness. We went together and signed her up. They gave us a pretty good deal, (cut the membership fee down and threw in childcare), plus we could cancel anytime and I could go and try out the facilities for a couple of weeks myself. Everthing seemed to be ok. Then the very next day my wife went to try out her new membership and someone talked to her about teaching her how to use the machines to get the maximum benefit out of her routine. They talked her into signing up for personal training. Having just recently come to this country she didn't have an expert knowledge of the language. She really didn't understand what she was signing and because we could cancel our membership anytime she thought we could just cancel the personal training anytime. After we got the credit card statement we talked about it and looked at the paperwork she had and realized we were locked into a contract for 12 months at $160 per month. She immediately called to find out why they didn't explain all this to her. They told her she signed a contract and that she knew what she was signing because they explained it to her. If she didn't like it she had 3 days to cancel it after signing. After going round and round with them she told them she wanted to cancel the personal training and membership. Well they told her she couldn't cancel the personal training because she signed a contract. She could cancel the membership if she came down and got a form, filled it out, and mailed it to the corporate office but it had to reach them a certain number of days before the next billing or they would charge us another month. They finally agreed out of the "kindness of their hearts" to let us pay half of the personal training contract to get out of it. My wife called them and asked them what kind of company they are running and if they could in good consience cheat people like this. I understand that she signed a contract but it appears to me by all of the complaints I see that this isn't an isolated case of someone not understanding how this predatory company operates. There is a definite pattern with this company taking advantage of people. She trusted what they told her. Now she has a bad taste of America and thinks people here are always trying to cheat others. I filed a complaint with the Attoney General's office with the State of Florida but I have not heard back from them yet. I don't know if I ever will with just one complaint. Something has to be done to stop these crooks. I am more than willing to participate or lead some kind of action against them. Please contact me through this website. I am really glad there is a forum were people can expose ripoffs like this and maybe get together and do something about it.

Bob
Orlando, Florida
U.S.A.