I joined Planet Fitness Claremont last year Sept. I was originally going to go for the 3 year monthly payment option, and filled the forms out to that effect, including giving the details of one of my savings accounts for the debit order. I subsequently changed my planet fitnes contract to a year option, paid for in full. I payed the full amount, R2682 or there abouts (I have bank statements to prove it). I was assured by my consultant Kurt, that that was it. I had nothing further to pay. A month went by and I checked my bank statement only to find that they had debited my Account for the sum of R352. I queried this and was told that it would be sorted out. It is now April 2008 and this has happened every month since September last year. plannet fitness have assured me it has been fixed several times. It happened this month again. Effectively they are *** from me, this is theft and I will be instructing my lawyers to start preparing paperwork. planet fitness are now ducking and diving and avoiding my calls. I have left 14 messages both today and yesterday, and have yet to be contacted.Please do not use Planet Fitness. They are crooks and ***http://www.hellopeter.com/the_comment.asp?recid=148514

Rude gets them MORE MONEY!!!my experience has been absolutely horrible with planet fitness. i signed up about 6 months ago but i canceled in about October because i didn't use it anymore.so i went in and talked to one of the rudest people to cancel it but i put up with her and sent in my card with my statement like she told me. well now i'm still getting these crazy bills about how i still owe them and they can't charge me for it because i changed my credit card number because someone stole my card.well i called the company and they said that i have to pay it so i keep trying to call a planet fitness corporate office and i couldn't find the number.I'm a college student, a broke college student who can't pay anything right now so I don't know what they planet fitness expected me to do?if anyone can help me, that would be great.

It's all about the MOney - PLanet fitness contracts!On April 2007, I have contacted Fourways Mega Club to cancelled my membership due to I need to go overseas and never gonna come back to South Africa, the consultant told me that the membership will be cancelled.Then on January 2008, my bank called my family, my account have been overdraft, I checked my statement, realised Planet Fitness did not cancelled my membership but kept debiting my account.I have contacted Rebecca, Dawn, Johann. Rebecca and Dawn, asked me a question then ignore me from then, after a week of waiting, I contacted Johann, he replied after all, he said I must pay for everything that I "OWED" Planet Fitness, well, I supposed to ask for the refund from them because of their empty promises before I left South Africa.What I want to say is that, Planet Fitness never say that they were wrong, the customer always wrong, and as a customer of Planet Fitness, I cannot have my membership cancelled as I am overseas, I have to pay for all mistake made by Planet Fitness, and I have spent over R1000 on international call just to say hi to Planet Fitness.

Anonymous said...
http://www.hellopeter.com/the_comment.asp?recid=150021

I was high pressured into a 3yr contract with Planet Fitness. I was never informed of the small print - that AFTER 3 years, I would go onto a monthly Planet Fitness membership fee. Without any notification to a 'loyal customer' of 3 years, informing me that Planet Fitness would now be debiting R244 per month,Planet Fitness started taking money.

I tried to contact them as I did not understand why they were helping themselves. No luck. I left messages for various Planet Fitness accounts people who never called back. I emailed their contact mail from the website several times. No response.

Finally I went into the Fourways Planet Fitness branch but it was the weekend and they said the manager was the only person who could help. They promised he would call on Monday. He did not. On Tuesday I got hold of him and expressed my extreme unhappiness. He said it was my fault for signing the contract and I could not get back any money. All I could do was cancel the planet fitness contract and stop further deductions. I did this by email as agreed telephonically.

Now their legal department wants to take action against me for arrears on my account. I have mailed 4 senior people regarding this. No response from Planet Fitness. Seems they only call you to extort money for services unrendered.
May 16, 2008 5:54 AM

Planet Fitness Predators

My son took out a Planet Fitness contract in May 2007. He came to me in December 2007 in desperation and told me the story of what had happened and how inflexible and uncompromising the predators at Planet Fitness had been. He had been brought up that if there is a problem, face up to it, explain & discuss with the parties involved and find a way forward that both parties win. He had tried this but had come up against a brick wall.

My Life Partner was horrified and furious at the way the whole situation had been handled! He firstly attmepted to contact the Planet Fitness Manager in Plattekloof to discuss the situation. He left numerous messages & was assured that his call would be returned - STILL WAITING!. He then resorted to contacting the Head Office and attempted to speak to the Sale Manger ( on several occasions), but couldn't get past his PA, who assured Tony that his call would be answered - STILL WAITING!

Watch this space for his account of his experience with the Planet Fitness predators!

April 2008 saw me getting a call from a very distressed G to inform me that he had received an email from the pre legal team at Planet Fitness - which he forwarded to me. Once again , Tony tried to speak to Vinolia and reason with her - AN ABSOLUTE EXERCISE IN FUTILITY! I am sure they sit there with a script that they read from! After a half hour of futile engagement, she advised Tony that the only way was for someone to take the contract over, pay the arrears and a transfer fee & he would be out of the contract. Alternatively, he could "buy" himself out of the contract at over R4000 - Yeah right, this is an option for someone who has, in all honesty, gone to them and told them he can't afford R329 per month. Just where is he supposed to find R4000! Talk about mindless!

I then decided, as a Mom, that the best & cheapest way for me to help him , was to take over the contract! I spoke to Vinolia, told her I would take over the contract & asked how to go about it. Well, that took me 3 - 4 emails to finally find out how to do it! I was then hounded to pay the money, which I did and asked for confirmation of receipt of payment and instructions on how to proceed.

Once again, the predators, once they had the money, "forgot "how to communicate! A month after the money had been paid over, I had still not heard from them. Due to business commitments, I was unable to actively pursue this but a week ago I had a gap & decided to finalise the process - how complicated could that be?? BIG SHOCK!

In the past week I have made in excess of 12 phone calls, LEFT MESSAGES & sent numerous emails - and guess what - LITTLE TO NO RESPONSE! SURPRISE , SURPRISE!!!!

I have subsequently decided that for the sake of my sanity, I will settle the contract and stay with Virgin, where I am very happy!

I have just put down the phone from them AGAIN, trying to get the settlement figure. The string of excuses is a mile long, their business ethic is pathetic and even denials that emails were received from me, after I received read receipts that the emails had been read!!!!!! THE LIES CONTINUE!

Beware of this organization, they have no idea what customer service is all about & only know how to coerice, and pressure unsuspecting clients into contracts that don't suit them.

Watch this space for the next " exciting" episode!

Planet Fitness High Pressure Sale pitch

In May 2007, G went to Planet Fitness to enquire about a gym contract. He was shown around the gym & then taken to the over eager, predatoryPlanet Fitness sales consultant's cubicle. He was shown the Premium Contract FIRST & SOLD all the BENEFITS of such a contract & advised that there were specials running at the time! No other contact types were ever mentioned & as a 23 yr old impressionable Young Man, he signed up! The fine print ( terms & conditions)was not mentioned or discussed & off he went. The following week , after consideration of his current situation, he came to the conclusion that this was not for him and that he would not be able to afford the payments. He went back to the gym to discuss this with them & cancel the contract. He met with the Asst Manager who told him that the cooling period was 7 days - he had missed it by 3 days! - & that THERE WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO ABOUT IT NOW! The "BEST" he could do was to suspend the payments for 3 months. G explained that after the 3 months he would not be able to meet the payments required & wished to find a way to resolve this so that his credit record remained in tact. He knew the value of a good credit record. Boy Oh Boy! once they have your signature on that piece of paper, it is like a noose around your neck! No amount of explaining or discussion could sway this inflexible, uncompromising attitude - in fact he was downright RUDE! How easy it is to hide behind "you should have read the fine print"! If their intentions were honourable & transparent, surely they would have taken the time to explain ALL the options/contracts available & the cooling off period. But NO! they would rather spend the time selling the most expensive contract to an unsuspecting, trusting young person - they saw him coming!!!!!

The contract was suspended for 3 months as promised, during which time G continued trying to get the contract cancelled. After 7-8 phone calls and 4-5 emails, with little to no response, he contacted me ( Mom) for advice. My motto, "THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY".

I still believe in the decency & understanding in business - explain the situation & find a win win solution. WELL, THAT BELIEF WAS EXPLODED WITH PLANET FITNESS .

Where is the business sense in going after a young 23yr old, who has no assets, other accumulated debt & not permanently employed. All that would be gained is that they would destroy a young person's reputation & record, after all, you can't get blood from a stone! However, these unfeeling, uncompromising, inflexible predators at PLanet Fitness stood their ground & wouldn't budge an inch. After all - "You should have read the contract". How cowardly can you get! G is currently unemployed, has closed his bank accounts and the debit orders are bouncing one month after the next.

This is his story - check out the next post for Mom's experience with the Planet Fitness machine.

Please feel free to add to this blog or email me if you have had a bad experience with Planet Fitness. I still believe "there is always a way"

Planet Fitness high pressure sales scam

This blog is about Planet Fitness & their predatory sales tactics. The intention of this blog is to protect unsuspecting potential Planet Fitness clients from being hoodwinked, scammed & pressurised. This story is based on an actual experience with Planet Fitness and their manipulative & devious sales & marketing tactics.

Over the last 8 months we have attempted all reasonable approaches with Planet Fitness Sales, Marketing & Customer Services people to no avail! We have made in excess of 30 - 40 phone calls to Planet Fitness people to try to resolve a high pressure predatory sales contract. This contaract was sold by a Planet Fitness Plattekloof sales predator to my unsuspecting son. Here is his / our story of the abuse, avoidance, bad, attitudes, inflexible of Planet Fitness staff over the last 8 months.

If you have also experienced problems with Planet Fitness, please contribute to this blog.