Planet Fitness

Dear Sir/Madam: The complaint we received was in regards to a cancellation that was never completed for one of our members, [redacted] After further investigation we have noticed...

Mr. [redacted] came in March 26, 2015 to sign up for membership and never was checked in again. After speaking with our billing department they have confirmed monthly charges on the account and will be reversing charges dating back to April 2015.  Mr. [redacted] membership account has been cancelled, confirmation sent via email and a refund of $219.45 will be processed back to the credit card we have on file.  If you require any additional information, please give us a call at [redacted] Thank you! Sincerely,                                         ...⇄                                                                                                                                                                   [redacted]                                         ...⇄ Planet Fitness                                         ...⇄ Chicago Regional Manager

The member did not pay an “annual fee” when she signed up she paid the “enrollment fee.” As far as the billing 17 days after signing up, we are billing for the upcoming month, so she actually received 17 free days. With the enrollment fee changing we do run promotions that can be done at any time....

The member pays whatever the enrollment fee is for the day that they come in. Even if we start a promotion the next day the member was still charged correctly for the day that they came in. The annual fee that the member did pay is clearly outlined and explained in the members agreement, and by the staff member that signs them up. This fee is annual and does happen once a year, but is not another enrollment fee, or a renewal fee. This fee goes toward upkeep of the club, and new equipment, and allows us to make sure we can provide our members with all of the luxuries and new equipment without having to charge the $30 or $40 monthly dues of other clubs. Most health clubs have this annual fee now for this reason. This also guarantees that the members monthly dues will not increase. All of this being said this member was never charged incorrectly, and every fee and charge is clearly outlined in the agreement that the member signed and stated that she fully understood. We also give every member a copy of this agreement so that they have all of this information for reference at any time. I did get a chance to speak with the member today and went over all of this information. She seemed to understand what everything is now, but was still upset about having to pay the annual fee. I do want to point out that the bank information we have in the system for this member is incorrect, so this member has not actually been charged anything yet. After speaking with her and having her tell me her opinion of Planet fitness and myself I decided to waive all fee and charges, even though they were correct and she did owe them, and just cancelled her out. I did this to avoid another possible situation in the club if she had to go back to cancel out the membership.

Ms. [redacted] called our Santa Fe location to inquire about cancelling the memberships for her and her daughter.  The staff informed her that both of them were still in their 12 month commitment, and would have to pay the $58 buyout fee in order to cancel the agreement.  Ms. [redacted] claims...

that no one told her at sign up that she was entering a 12 month commitment, but she signed up online and would have been able to read through the terms before finalizing the membership.   The employee who took her call did let the GM know about her concern, so he did call her as well to ensure that all of her questions were answered.  She is still unhappy with the answer he gave her in regards to the buyout fee however this is clearly outlined in the contract that Ms. [redacted] signed.

Date: Wed, Jun 15, 2016 at 5:30 PMSubject: RE: ID [redacted]To: [redacted] <[redacted]@cleveland.Revdex.com.org>
I have canceled [redacted]'s membership so she will not see any further billing come out of her account. Unfortunately we will be unable to process a refund without documentation of her move. I...

have attached a copy of her cancellation
 
Please let me know if you need any further info
 
Thank you

Revdex.com # [redacted] May 10, 2017 On 10/14/16 [redacted] signed a membership Agreement with Planet Fitness at our [redacted]. CA location. When signing up Ms. [redacted] was made aware of the following policies, as shown in the attached Membership Agreement: • "Your account below will...

be billed on or around the 17th of each month beginning on October 2016 for $19.99 per month until you cancel in accordance with this agreement" • "To cancel your monthly membership and stop the monthly billing, on the 17th of the month, the club requires notification by the 10th of the month delivered to the club in person or via certified mail" • "An Annual Membership Fee of $39.00 will be billed each year of your monthly membership, on or around the first of February, to the account on file. In order to cancel the billing of this annual fee, the club requires written notice and cancellation of your membership on or before the 25th of the previous month," • "A $10 service fee will be applied for each month your monthly due or rate guarantee fee payment is returned Uncollectible" • "If your monthly membership has a minimum commitment, and you wish to cancel your membership early, a $58 Buy out fee is required" The member is disputing the transaction. however as shown by the attached Membership Agreement, Ms. [redacted] provided us with the billing information listed in this dispute, and signed off on the billing policies. Ms [redacted] signed a membership agreement  that she would be a member of our club a pay a minimum of 12 months of membership fees. The Annual fee is clearly stated on the membership agreement that she received at the time she signed up and was also emailed to her. While we apologize for any signature that was placed on a cancellation document, it was required to cancel her membership which was approved by the regional manager. Cancelations can only be done in person or via a certified letter. Thank you, [redacted] Corporate Controller Planet Fitness [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]

Good morning,  As stated in the agreement, cancelations must be processed by that specific date in order to not be billed our annual fee. Each Planet Fitness is individually owned and operated, therefore we are able to help her out on this. We will be refunding the annual fee of $29 in this case as a courtesy to the former member. We are waiting on a call back from the member to confirm information. Please let me know if there is anything else we can assist with. Thank you,  Joel H[redacted]  Regional Manager

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.  Thank you for the response by equipment manager. I accept the apology. His word is reasonable regarding to the agreement on annual fee. However, I am still very unhappy with the attitude of the manager at Planet Fitness Ithaca local office (The Shops at Ithaca Mall, 40 Catherwood Road, Ithaca, NY, 14850). I don't know her name, but I know she is the one who deal with Ithaca Planet Fitness membership, and is in a higher level. She is at her 50s. She was very rude to me at that time when I come to negotiate with her about the annual fee. All I want is just a nice attitude and a "sorry" for not making this clear to her clients. However, she behaved badly and show no respect to us (her customers). She didn't want to explain anything and didn't even want to listen to our explanation. She kept yelling to us at that time. She even asked us to get out of her store.  To a big fitness center as Planet Fitness Center, I don't think you should hire this kind of manager, who would only expel your customers and let them never go to any Planet Fitness center any more (That's the original sentence after I talk with another local Planet fitness center member after she also be treated like this). I hope you could have some punishment on that manager, or just let her write an apology letter to me by herself.  Thank you.  Regards,  [redacted]

I am responding to the complaint filed by [redacted]. I have been in contact with [redacted] and her husband. I have told [redacted] to come in and talk with me and I would waive everything. As of today, I have still not seen her.Thank you,[redacted]

We looked into this issue and found that there is indeed a cancellation form on file for Mr. [redacted] that says he was supposed to be cancelled as of 4/17/13. The cancellation was never completed in the system. We are in error and owe the member a refund. He came in on August 7th and was...

cancelled immediately when he brought it to our attention. We are happy to refund Mr. [redacted] for what he is owed in our error and apologize for any inconvenience. We attempted to contact Mr. [redacted] twice with no response, we have mailed Mr. [redacted] a check for $657.44 (25 months Black Card Membership ($21.32) and 3 Black Card annual fees ($41.48) charged after membership was to be cancelled on 4/24/13).   Thank you, Planet Fitness Connecticut Management

From: mark.c[redacted]l Date: Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 3:35 PMSubject: Re: ID [redacted]To: [redacted]@cleveland.Revdex.com.org>
Hi [redacted], we are going to do a $99 for a year membership for 
[redacted]. She is happy with that and will be in this weekend to join.

We have reviewed [redacted] response and we are going to go ahead and refund for the two months of the payments we did receive this year. A check will be mailed out to the client's address. We hope this solves [redacted] issue.  Tell us why here...

Hello, I have attached [redacted]'s agreement for your records.  Currently, Jennifer's membership is in an inactive state due to having incorrect billing information on file for an extended period of time.  She does not have access due to this reason.  Also, it is clearly...

stated in all of our marketing that our memberships are billed checking only.  My staff and myself have had multiple conversations with Ms. [redacted] informing her of these issues in which she refused to take care of.  [redacted] will have access once she applies current checking information to bring her membership back to active.  A refund will not be given for past payments due to the fact that our memberships are not based on usage.    Please feel free to contact me with any further questions.   Thank you, Randi [redacted]   -- 1750 W Highway 36 Roseville, MN 55113 651.200.3166

Subject: ID: [redacted]To Whom it May ConcernThe Planet Fitness Watertown location received a complaint letter from the BetterBusiness Bureau. The complaint letter was dated Monday, January 25, 2016 and wasgiven the ID of [redacted].After careful review of [redacted]'a complaint we have come to the...

followingsolution. [redacted]'s membership with Planet Fitness Watertown has been canceledeffective today February 9, 2016. We have followed this cancellation up with anemail confirmation of the cancel as well as the general manager placing acourtesy phone call to [redacted]. Based on our records [redacted] is owed a refund of540.10. Attached to this letter you will find the approved refund proposal tohonor that refund. She will receive her refund check within four weeks.If you have any further questions regarding this members case please feel free tocontact me at j[redacted]SincerelyJason K[redacted]Planet Fitness

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # [redacted]. Please add your rejection comments below. 
The cancellation information was definitely not received when this manager states as I had to call the corporate office just to confirm that the memberships were cancelled. . His employee who signed us up indicated that " most people do not read their contacts so let me highlight the most important parts". This was to both my husband and myself. She specifically stated that the fees would come out on or around 12/31/17 and that did not happen. THis is starting to appear as Bait and switch.   The manager even states  in his response to this complaint that this is " a common problem", wouldn't that show that this information  is clearly NOT communicated in a consumer friendly way as it should be and an easy way for Planet Fitness Essex Jct VT to ROB their customers. I have been a member LESS THAN 8 weeks but a refund of our ANNUAL fee has been rejected and not even considered? HORRIBLE HORRIBLE BUSINESS PRACTICE. NO resolution has been offered and we are not accepting this resolution. Thisshould and will  be investigated. I will see to it to take this as far and reach as many people as possible as this is ROBBERY!
Regards,
[redacted]

As the manager of the Manchester Planet Fitness, I have trained my staff to accept only voided checks/starter checks with driver’s licenses, or something from the bank with the member’s name along with routing and account numbers to verify that the billing is theirs. We...

do not accept direct deposit slips, due to the fact that we are withdrawing from accounts and certain banks have a different routing number for that purpose.
Ryan accepted the billing that [redacted] gave him to update her account, but realized after she had left the desk that it was a deposit slip, not a check. Per our policy, he informed [redacted] of his mistake and explained acceptable forms of billing.  We cancelled her in the system immediately on March 2, 2014 when she wanted to depart from us, and she would have been able to write on the cancellation herself; this has been discussed with Ryan.
[redacted] had also sent me a letter to the club regarding this issue, and I had reached out to [redacted] multiple times, one being in the form of an email, which is attached. After leaving voicemails and sending an email, she failed to contact me back to discuss the situation.  We strive to treat all members with courtesy and respect and do our best to accommodate everyone accordingly.
 
 
 
Thank you!
Natalie
 
Admin Assistant
Planet Fitness Connecticut
35 Old Tavern Rd. Ste. 200
Orange, CT 06477
###-###-####

The complaint we received was in regard to the unauthorized continued charges withdrawn from [redacted]'s account. Upon receipt of the complaint, I immediately began to look into the account of [redacted] and I also spoke with the General Manager of the Planet Fitness Roxborough location,...

Alexis O[redacted]. It was discovered that [redacted] did in fact cancel his membership in club on May 21, 2017. However, his account was not cancelled out of our system properly, resulting in the continuation of drafted dues. On Thursday, August 24, 2017, upon the final determination of the situation, I instructed Ms. O[redacted] to make sure that the membership was cancelled and to process a refund in the amount of $60.15. [redacted] does not have to cancel his checking account as now that the membership is cancelled out, he will not receive any additional charges. The refund should be back in [redacted]'s account within 3-7 business days.As for the additional requested refund of $171, we will not be able to honor [redacted]'s request. We advise that if there are ever any billing issues that they are brought to the attention of the club manager right away for a prompt resolution. [redacted] will be refunded for the extra charges that he incurred and nothing more.If you require any additional information, please give me a call at ###-###-####. Thank you,Dan ZRegional Manager

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.  [redacted]6:45 PM (13 hours ago)tomeHello and thank you so much for taking time and consideration of my complaint.. I was contacted by a Planet fitness staff to let me know they waived my membership fees and cancelled my membership in good standing.Thank you,Dorothy Copeland

In reference to complaint ID [redacted] We at...

Planet Fitness understand and are aware of what went on with [redacted] however our files indicate he did not come into our place of business to cancel. We keep all files on hand and we do not have a cancellation for this member. We do apologize for his inconvenience and we granted the cancellation on 10/24/2015. We will not be refunding the money requested. [redacted] signed a contract clearly outlining our cancellation policy. Since we never received the proper cancellation notification from [redacted] those dues were still owed to us. We regretfully informed the member he would not receive a refund. If there is anything else I can provide for you feel free to reach out to me on this matter.

[redacted],we'd be happy to help you out here. First could you please tell me whether you indeed walked in or called in to make the cancellation?

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
Clearly this is a matter of poor customer service on the businesses part. To expect payment for a cancellation fee when the situation is out of the control of the client is disgusting. I don't anticipate that the multi million dollar franchise will wave the $58 fee so I closed the account in which the money was being drawn. I have no intention of returning to this or any other planet fitness, nor paying the fee. Regards,
[redacted]