I-Team: LA Fitness Accused Of Using Deceptive Tactics In Mass.
BOSTON (CBS) - This time of year, gyms tend to be packed with all the people looking to make good on their New Year's resolutions. But the I-Team found several gym members who claim a popular fitness club used deceptive tactics to sign them to expensive personal training contracts. In many cases, the members had no idea what they had agreed to.
It happened to Brandon White of Norwood when he joined the LA Fitness club last March. After a complimentary personal training session, he decided he wanted to pay an additional fee for a few more sessions to help motivate him. "That was all it was for, just trying to jump start getting back into shape," he said. According to Brandon, he was very clear that he wanted only 12 sessions and the sales person agreed. "We had that conversation verbally, all of those things so I literally just signed [the contract] thinking it was just those 12 sessions," he said.
But months later, after he moved away and canceled his gym membership, he realized LA Fitness was still charging him $360 a month for personal training sessions he never agreed to and couldn't even use because he was no longer a member. White tells the I-Team he felt scammed by the company. "It was completely dishonest," he said.
The Massachusetts Attorney General's office has received a stack of complaints against LA Fitness, nine of them specifically mention the Stoughton facility and nearly identical deceptive practices involving their personal training program.
One woman wrote: LA Fitness coerced a one-year trainer contract out of my daughter. Another said: We were informed that we had signed up for a whole year without us ever being aware or agreeing to anything beyond the one month.
We also spoke to a Milton woman earlier this year who had a similar experience. "I kept asking, OK this is just for one month. I'm just signing this for just one month," she said. The woman had a verbal agreement for training. She was then led quickly through a contract on a computer screen only to find, she too had signed for a full year. After her interview with the I-Team, LA Fitness agreed to refund her money.
In a statement the company told the I-Team: The actions you have described are not how we conduct our business and nothing we have found to have occurred at the Stoughton club.
But when an I-Team producer went to LA Fitness to inquire about a membership to the gym, they would not allow her to take a copy of the contract home to read it. We asked John Chapman, Undersecretary of the State Office of Consumer Affairs if that's legal. "No, it's not legal," he said. "That's a big red flag."
According to Chapman, the best way to protect yourself against these tactics is to carefully read through a contract before signing anything. But even if you don't, you still may have some recourse through the state consumer protection laws. The law is meant to keep businesses from being deliberately deceptive. Sometimes sending a demand letter citing that law to the company can help (information here on how to write the letter). "In some instances [you can] get up to triple damages if things are found that you've been misrepresented to," Chapman explained.
After the I-Team contacted LA Fitness, White says LA Fitness called him and agreed to refund his money.