LA Fitness — Attraction in Irvine

I joined LA fitness on July 2nd of this year. My first visit was on July 7th for water aerobics. This was the only reason I joined the gym because I needed water therapy for my knee. After attending the class, I realized there were no offerings for evening classes as had been offered in the past. When I asked about the possibility of evening classes, I was advised to contact corporate to see if there is something that could be done. I was told at the gym they did not make the decisions. I called corporate immediately and inquired about additional classes being offered at the gym. I was advised at that time that it was up to the gym manager to schedule those classes, but was offered to change my membership to a different location that offered classes in the evening. Because this did not fit my schedule and the fact the alternate gym wasn’t close to me, I made the decision to cancel my membership on July 14th. I only attended the gym once. When I canceled the membership I was advised that everything was done and I wouldn’t be charged anything additional. I was also advised that I could actually use my membership until August 1st. I only went once and didn’t use the gym any more. On July 28th I was charging an annual fee. I immediately called the gym to inquire about the fee and asked why was I charged. The young man who answered the phone advised me that I should not have been charged because I canceled my membership. He however, couldn’t credit my account but for me to call corporate and corporate could do it for me. I spoke with Michael in corporate, who advised me that my money would not be returned as I signed a contract at the gym. If I wanted my money back, I could dispute it with my bank. I was very upset to hear this and I asked to speak to a manager. I was advised that there was nobody else that I could talk to and advised to dispute it with my bank. I asked again to speak with someone else again I was refused and was directed yet again to dispute it with my bank. Not only could nothing be done for me. I was advised that I should’ve read the contract. That is absolutely correct. I should have read the contract, but who does that?? I called a second time to speak to an agent name Javier who advised me that there was nothing he could do. At that time I asked for the corporate office number, a corporate address or a corporate email. I was advised there was nothing they could be given to me in that nature. I asked for Javier’s manager once again, saying that he was the manager and he had nobody over him. I explained that I have been in customer service for over 30 years. Everybody has a manager unless you are the owner. I went through all of this for $63.87. I asked again to let me speak to someone else. Instead he hung up on me and I was presented with a one question survey Rating them on a scale of 1-3; 3 being the worst. I gave it a 3 and my call was disconnected. I had my friend on the line who witnessed the entire conversation and we were both shocked at the type of service we were provided. I called the local gym and spoke to the manager, who although he was not able to credit my account as he would have liked to. He did provide me with the corporate address that I had asked Javier for. If you are thinking about joining LA fitness don’t do it. There are many other gyms out there that don’t require a contract for membership. LA fitness is also one of the higher price gyms but I didn’t mind because I needed water therapy. How can you be charged for a service that you don’t have, only used one time and only had for less than two weeks? Customer service at a corporate level is horrendous! I’m going on every social media platform, giving horrible reviews and contacting the better business bureau. I just want my...

Well, after reading the horrific reviews involving getting any form of refund after unknowingly being charged after cancellation or freezing, I had little hope & big plans to be furious. Further reading reports of long wait times, harrasment, taking advantage of people during Covid, no response to emails, and being hung up on etc...My heart was sinking as I waited on hold, for less than 10 minutes. Not bad. I must say I had a completely opposite experience.

I was in an accident causing multiple trauma injuries last March, needed several surgeries, and sadly would not be able to workout for at least a year or two. I called on March 20, 2020, in the midst of the peak of the start of the Covid insanity and spoke with Steven S. to let him know this happened and I needed to cancel my membership. He was very understanding and told me I usually needed to come in person to cancel, but in this case with the gym shutting down he would make an exception, cancel my membership, and my account would no longer be charged. I checked in the following months and there were no charges. Easy? Well, not so fast.

It is over a year later and after having fraudulent activity on my bank account, I was combing through it to find LA Firness started charging me 33.02 this month(May 2021), then seeing they had been charging me since January! I was livid, partly because I am on disability now and can't afford this mistake, and in the past have had bad luck with past gyms hustling me out of my money.

I first called my rep at my gym in Kent, Wa. Eric, in the face of my rage and swearing, was calm and professional. He calmed me down as much as possible, and gave me the information I needed to call corporate. As I was on hold with corporate, I read these reviews and felt sick. HOWEVER, I was helped right away by Kiara Morg*n. I explained what happened. She put me on a brief hold to talk to a manager. I didn't have to wait long, but was expecting the worst. I was shocked to hear that she had refunded me for every month back to Jan except for May, which was still pending and she would refund it when it posted. She also cancelled my account and gave me her direct phone number if there were any problems getting my refunds and sent me confirmation emails to my inbox.

I hope this excellent customer service is what the rest of you get when trying to resolve the clusterf#%k of what was the financial fallout of 2020. I still am so pleasantly surprised. I will change the review if my refunds don't post of course, but here is to hoping that doesn't happen. Good luck out there guys, we are living in the age of THE HUSTLE and we gotta keep...

My sister and I signed up for a family membership and paid $900 for a 3 year membership. We were supposed to be allowed to bring guests with us too. Everything was great and exactly what was stated in our contract for the first year. Then all of a sudden, a new manager started working and they said our membership was incorrect!!! They would not let my sister bring a guest and they would not let me use it at all saying it was supposed to be a single membership! The guy Like at the Princeton Ed. Hamilton, Ohio location also quit. So apparently he was signing people up incorrectly and now the company want to break our contract. It was not our fault THEIR employee did things incorrectly!! I have been going back and forth with this Justin Steelman where he just basically said he couldn’t fix our account because there aren’t family memberships. So he tried to break ours up and now tried to make me pay an additional $270 for what?? We paid upfront and then he is trying to make us pay triple upon renewal! Also we have not been able to use the membership for 6+’months and they will not extend the contract! Now that I refused to pay and also I took a picture of yes, FAMILY memberships offered at another location!!! So he lied AGAIN by saying there aren’t family memberships! I have a written contract with both of our names that this company will not abide by. Now I am going to have to retain counsel to sue this company. I think all of us should file a Class Action lawsuit! Maybe then they will listen! Justin is now not responding and I even went to a location in Hollywood, California that said that it was wrong how they did me and would have a higher up person contact me...of course I have heard nothing!! This was at the end of December 2019. So now this company is just ignoring me. I have filed BBB complaints and with the Attorney General’s office. Anyone else...I suggest you do the same! If you want to contact me...my email address is crank.7@wright.edu. I guaranteed a Judge would fine them and make them abide by our contracts. With the unsanitary conditions that we all have noted as well with the jacuzzi tubs and pools...I have pictures. Start documented and recording people! If we file a Class Action lawsuit, they are screwed! This Justin tried to strong arm me and lie to make me pay more than what our contract stated! They have no right in increase our fees or bill us for services we can not fulfill! Enough is enough with this company and...