TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE SERVICE AT LA FITNESS BURNHAM

“TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE SERVICE AT LA FITNESS BURNHAM”

Written on: 21/05/2012

I had been thinking about joining LA Fitness for months, and finally decided to join on a 3 month contract I was told about via email from one of the club managers at £35 per month. I thought this was a great deal, as I hate the long term contracts that you can't cancel, so I went along to the Burnham club and signed up for this deal which actually worked out at £82.00 for 3 months provided I cancel on April 25th. I was told by the girl who signed me up for the membership that as long as I cancelled on April 25th I wouldn't be charged any further charges. I did ask why everyone didn't sign up for this cheaper deal, for which she said because not everyone can afford to pay upfront. Happy with what the girl had told me, and after asking her I was definately not going to be charged any further I signed up for this 3 month contract via their online system at the club.

I proceeded to use the club which I was enjoying thoroughly, when the 25th April rolled around, I rang up headoffice as instructed and cancelled the membership, which I was told had been done. After cancelling, I was told that I still had 2 months to use as part of this special deal.
On the 28th April I noticed on my bank statement that LA Fitness had charge me £67.00 (the monthly rolling contract fee), from which I again called the headoffice to be put through to a very dismissive man who told me I would not get a refund as I cancelled too close to the end of the month (this is NOT what the membership girl had told me).

I was at this point furious that headoffice had out-right refused me a refund, so I contacted the manager at the Burnham club who apologised and agreed that a mistake had been made and that he would sort this out and refund me as soon as possible, he said this would take 3-4 days.

A week later, still no refund. By this point I am wondering why I joined this club in the first place. I called the club and got told the manager I had spoken to was now on long-term sick leave, and I was put through to the deputy manager. The deputy manager had claimed he knew nothing about my problem, and that it was highly unlikely that I would get a refund because I had signed a contract (it says no-where on the contract that I was going to be charged the extra £67.00 amount). However, the deputy manager said he would look into it, and get back to me first thing Monday.

Monday morning came around, and not a peep from LA Fitness. By then I had decided to go into the club itself and speak to the deputy manager face to face. Well, I have never met a person with such a rude and bad attitude, we discussed the situation for a good 20 minutes, and he didn't seem to want to help me at all. I can't believe how little help he was considering he is working within a service industry. He told me, because he wasn't there to hear what the membership girl had told me, he had nothing to go by. He asked me to send the initial email from the manager which sold me the £35 per month deal, and in a very rude and accusing tone told me the reason he can't speak to the previous manager who was on long-term sick, was because he had cancer and was under going radio-therapy. I was disgusted that this was brought up, not only because he is discussing somebodies personal problems, but because he was using it as a way to excuse what had happened to me. This man was so unprofessional, and I still haven't heard anything since from him, dispite forwarding him the inital email. I hope anyone that thinks about joing LA Fitness Burnham thinks twice after reading this. It really is a shame that some of the staff let this club down.