90-Year-Old With Cancer Said LA Fitness Signed Him Up For $5K In Personal Training: ‘I Feel Like I Have Been Taken Advantage Of’

[hegemony]

https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2019/01/28/90-year-old-cancer-la-fitness-personal-training-sessions/

[PotO]

7 hours ago, hegemony said:

https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2019/01/28/90-year-old-cancer-la-fitness-personal-training-sessions/

 

Scumbags.

 

 

[fthomasjr]

 
Scumbags.
 
 

There’s a brand spanking new LA Fitness opening up 3 blocks from my house. I called in to talk about new membership specials with the gym’s general manager. Rubbed me the wrong way. I put the brakes on joining. Glad I did. I can’t stand crooks or crooked companies. I’ll pass!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PotO]

2 hours ago, fthomasjr said:

There’s a brand spanking new LA Fitness opening up 3 blocks from my house. I called in to talk about new membership specials with the gym’s general manager. Rubbed me the wrong way. I put the brakes on joining. Glad I did. I can’t stand crooks or crooked companies. I’ll pass!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Their whole business model is xxxxxx up   Your average person has no idea what they need or how they need it, coupled with the fact that many -- but not all -- personal trainers are two-bit trigger-pumping morons, you commit yourself to an easy $5,000 only a month later to find out it isn't what you need.  

 

Most people need to start out slow, but LA Fitness discourages low dollar value plans and pressures you into high-value plans and promise you miracles.  There are reputable gyms out there, but you need to search for them.  And ALWAYS pay with a credit card! 

[cv91915]

He is claiming that he didn't know what he signed because he is hard of hearing.  

 

Hassan explains he is hard of hearing and didn’t realize the form they made him sign was a contract locking him into personal training sessions totaling more than $5,000.

[PotO]

17 minutes ago, cv91915 said:

He is claiming that he didn't know what he signed because he is hard of hearing.  

 

Hassan explains he is hard of hearing and didn’t realize the form they made him sign was a contract locking him into personal training sessions totaling more than $5,000.

 

Given the Channel 2 video report, easy to understand.  

[cv91915]

1 hour ago, PotO said:

 

Given the Channel 2 video report, easy to understand.  

Report says (paraphrasing): he didn't know what he was signing, and didn't go back to find out what was in the contract until after he got his first bill.  

 

This approach often ends badly.

[tiggerlgh]

This sounds like a clear case of elder abuse. There are laws against this for a good reason.

[cv91915]

29 minutes ago, tiggerlgh said:

This sounds like a clear case of elder abuse. There are laws against this for a good reason.

I watched most of the video.  Unless they unveiled at the very end that he wasn't legally competent to enter into a contract, this is buyer's remorse.

[PotO]

2 hours ago, cv91915 said:

Report says (paraphrasing): he didn't know what he was signing, and didn't go back to find out what was in the contract until after he got his first bill.  

 

This approach often ends badly.

 

Not everybody is an Einstein.  Some suckers actually believe the salesperson when they say, "This not a contract.  You can cancel at anytime without getting FITA."

 

On my planet it's not ok to screw someone over because they aren't bright or because they are naive or trusting.   Is it different on yours? 

[cv91915]

2 hours ago, PotO said:

 

Not everybody is an Einstein.  Some suckers actually believe the salesperson when they say, "This not a contract.  You can cancel at anytime without getting FITA."

 

On my planet it's not ok to screw someone over because they aren't bright or because they are naive or trusting.   Is it different on yours? 

People get screwed every day.  Of course it's wrong, but it's life.  What if he had purchased a house, and the seller had moved his family 2,000 miles away?

 

One is either competent to enter into a contract or not.  You can't come back later and expect the deal to get unraveled because you didn't read the contract....  DUE TO HEARING LOSS.

[Kat58]

What?

 

 

[PotO]

7 hours ago, cv91915 said:

People get screwed every day.  Of course it's wrong, but it's life.  What if he had purchased a house, and the seller had moved his family 2,000 miles away?

 

One is either competent to enter into a contract or not.  You can't come back later and expect the deal to get unraveled because you didn't read the contract....  DUE TO HEARING LOSS.

 

Wow!  Your planet is really fucked up.

 

On my planet people have lawyers and real estate professionals on our side when purchasing a home.  

 

My condolences.  

[cv91915]

1 hour ago, PotO said:

 

Wow!  Your planet is really fucked up.

 

On my planet people have lawyers and real estate professionals on our side when purchasing a home.  

 

My condolences.  

You are allowed to buy a house without consulting a professional, but for most people it's about as smart as joining a gym when you're 90 and not reading and understanding the contract you are signing...  which you are also allowed to do.

[cv91915]

The headline is also untrue.  

LA Fitness Signed Him Up For $5K In Personal Training

The guy signed himself up.

[PotO]

8 hours ago, Kat58 said:

What?

 

 

 

It's that time of the month for CV.  He will be ok next week.  

[Kat58]

22 minutes ago, PotO said:

 

It's that time of the month for CV.  He will be ok next week.  

Tampons? 

 

 

[MarvBear]

In Florida, elder abuse is outlined in Florida statute 825.102 as abuse, neglect, or aggravated abuse of an elderly individual or disabled adult. It is elder abuse when the victim is older than 60 years old. When the adult is at least 18 years old but under 61 years of age, it is considered abuse of a disabled adult.

 

Financial exploitation occurs when a person misuses or takes the assets of a vulnerable adult for his/her own personal benefit. This frequently occurs without the explicit knowledge or consent of a senior or disabled adult, depriving him/her of vital financial resources for his/her personal needs.

[PotO]

38 minutes ago, MarvBear said:

In Florida, elder abuse is outlined in Florida statute 825.102 as abuse, neglect, or aggravated abuse of an elderly individual or disabled adult. It is elder abuse when the victim is older than 60 years old. When the adult is at least 18 years old but under 61 years of age, it is considered abuse of a disabled adult.

 

Financial exploitation occurs when a person misuses or takes the assets of a vulnerable adult for his/her own personal benefit. This frequently occurs without the explicit knowledge or consent of a senior or disabled adult, depriving him/her of vital financial resources for his/her personal needs.

 

It's clear Marv watched both the main video in the linked article in addition to the KCBS investigative report video linked at the foot of the page. 

[Burgerwars]

I'm not surprised. These health clubs are equal opportunity scammers, regardless of your age. They try to sign you up for as much as possible, even for stuff you may never use. They're happy if you never come, because they already have your money.

Edited January 30 by Burgerwars

[PotO]

1 hour ago, Burgerwars said:

I'm not surprised. These health clubs are equal opportunity scammers, regardless of your age. They try to sign you up for as much as possible, even for stuff you may never use. They're happy if you never come, because they already have your money.

 

When I was stationed at Camp Pendleton we had issues with these POS all the time.  All the time.  It got to the point where we issued first battalion and finally regimental orders placing most of them off limits.

 

To be fair, high-testosterone, 18-year-old, horny jarheads sometimes think with the wrong head and make poor decisions.  Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.  Live and learn.  A not insignificant number of personnel, fitness conscious and in the absence of romantic involvement, would head to Oceanside for the fitness centers and, after that, bars.  The outside fitness centers did usually offer better equipment and if you are going to get drunk and get stupid, it's better done off base.  

 

The problem, though, wasn't so much with the astonishing $6,000 per year contracts you got tied into, but subsequent issues.  Often they would discourage reading the actual contract and lie about the contents.  They were supposed to at least mail a copy within 3 business days and offer a 7-day cooling off period, yet most of the time they wouldn't mail you a contract.  If you wanted to cancel within the cooling-off period, they'd say you had to wait until you received your contract in the mail and then cancel; the cooling-off period, they lied, began the day you receive the contract in the mail.  

 

Often the contract would contain clauses of dubious legality.  For example, at that time Marine Corps regulations changed and an individual's command structure no longer got involved in most personal debt issues.  We would not take calls from debt collectors at all.  We were required to follow local law if it were more stringent that the federal FDCPA.  Many fitness centers would insert insert illegal clauses stating that one gave them explicit permission to contact their command if issues arose with contract completion.  Many would also insert clauses stating you gave up rights to terminate a contract should you be deployed.  

 

There were a myriad of other issues, too.  As you might imagine, fitness centers outside a major military installation would become crowded.  It would often be impossible to find space to work out much less even park your car.  They'd come up with hare-brained concepts like assigning you workout days according to an alphabetical roster.  Or another bright idea they came up with was making you make an appointment in advance to use the gym.  The discord that caused is difficult to describe.  They soon discovered, though, that young wound-up Marines seldom use peaceful methods to solve their grievances.   It was actually quite funny.

 

It was only when these criminal organizations started collections activity against deployed personnel that we clamped down hard and placed them off limits.  In my unit we had a JAG officer come in twice a week to hold seminars on how to use the California version of the FDCPA (Rosenthal Fair Debt Collections Practices Act) to sue them in small claims court.  Being placed off limits, no new customers and lawsuits galore, almost all fitness centers went bankrupt.  The only ones I saw that remained were small, independent centers and most were run by ex-military personnel.  

 

Had I been that 90-year-old guy in Hege's article, I'd have done precisely what I have been trained to do my whole life -- go postal.  It's virtually impossible they'd stick that cancer-ridden, 90-year-old guy in jail for long, much less prison.  And justice for all.   

 

       

Edited January 30 by PotO

[cv91915]

11 hours ago, MarvBear said:

In Florida, elder abuse is outlined in Florida statute 825.102 as abuse, neglect, or aggravated abuse of an elderly individual or disabled adult. It is elder abuse when the victim is older than 60 years old. When the adult is at least 18 years old but under 61 years of age, it is considered abuse of a disabled adult.

 

Financial exploitation occurs when a person misuses or takes the assets of a vulnerable adult for his/her own personal benefit. This frequently occurs without the explicit knowledge or consent of a senior or disabled adult, depriving him/her of vital financial resources for his/her personal needs.

This guy is in Texas.

 

Regardless, the Florida statute defines all three terms (abuse, neglect and aggravated abuse):

 

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0800-0899/0825/0825.html

 

Selling someone gym services isn't remotely close to any of those.

 

Exploitation is defined in Florida 825.103.  

 

This guy walked into a gym with the legal capacity to enter into a contract, intending to buy services from the gym, and he walked out after putting his signature on a contract for services from the gym.  No one cold called him and talked him out of his debit card number over the phone.  

 

Afterward he claimed to not understand what he signed because he's hard of hearing, which he then contradicted with his own words. 

 

“He said, ‘okay we will get you it, but we first need to get you some training’,” Hassan said.

Hassan explains he is hard of hearing and didn’t realize the form they made him sign was a contract locking him into personal training sessions totaling more than $5,000.

 

Did he hear what the gym employee said to him or not?  

 

The article is poorly written.  There may be more to the story, but just because someone is 90 doesn't mean every time they regret buying something they automatically get their money back.

 

My grandfather bought a brand-new car when he was 95.  Now he's in a nursing home.  The dealer should give him his money back, because the dealer should have known that a 95-year-old man won't get much use out of a brand-new minivan.  I think he put 1,200 miles on the van before he could no longer use it. 

Edited January 30 by cv91915

[cv91915]

10 hours ago, PotO said:

 

It's clear Marv watched both the main video in the linked article in addition to the KCBS investigative report video linked at the foot of the page. 

The KCBS report was about a guy who went to a gym in Los Angeles.  

 

Recently a man in San Francisco walked into a McDonald's with a dead raccoon.  

 

https://thetakeout.com/dead-raccoon-san-francisco-mcdonalds-video-1831643994

 

That doesn't mean that I would expect to experience roadkill in fast food restaurants in Miami or Des Moines, or even elsewhere in SF.  Or even the same McDonalds on any other day.

Edited January 30 by cv91915

[PotO]

5 hours ago, cv91915 said:

The KCBS report was about a guy who went to a gym in Los Angeles.  

 

Recently a man in San Francisco walked into a McDonald's with a dead raccoon.  

 

https://thetakeout.com/dead-raccoon-san-francisco-mcdonalds-video-1831643994

 

That doesn't mean that I would expect to experience roadkill in fast food restaurants in Miami or Des Moines, or even elsewhere in SF.  Or even the same McDonalds on any other day.

 

Ok, it's official.  CV is nope nope nope we will not use that word here, PotO.  

 

The only fitness center mentioned in both the article and KCBS video is LA Fitness.  So, yeah, basically, if you get road kill in a Miami McDonald's and also in a NYC McDonald's, I'd keep my eyes open in a Chicago McDonald's, too.  But what about if you get road kill in 4 different McDonald's in Miami and a few in NYC?  You see, the pesky little fact is that the KCBS investigation encompasses at least three different LA Fitness centers.  CVeinstein thinks that's not a pattern and there's no cause for caution, much less alarm.  

 

Mind you, this is the same CV, charter member of the NFCU Whiny Little Bitch Club, that issues a blanket indictment of Navy because of a supposed experience only he had.  

 

My only question now, CV, is ... Is that extra chromosome heavy?

 

 

 

 

Edited January 30 by Pam
removed insulting language

[MarvBear]

I just posted excerpts of Statutes for the State of Florida meant to protect the elderly.  Hopefully, other states have similar statutes.   I'm not an idiot.