LA Fitness allows you to either mail in the cancellation form or submit it in person. I was also cancelling due to a move, so I printed out the form and trekked out to the nearest location for a final workout and the piece of mind that my cancellation was complete.
Lo and behold, you cannot submit your cancellation form without a Manager present. Okay, when does the Manager arrive? _Usually_ around 9:00AM is the response I got. I have to get home for a meeting at 8:30AM, so is there a mailbox I can drop this in? No. Can I leave it with you (the staff member attending the front desk) to hand to the Manager? No. Will the Manager be here around 5:00PM if I come back after work? No.
Please note that I bear no ill will towards the pleasant staff member that was helping me.
There was a class action lawsuit against LA Fitness about sending letters to cancel. I guess they finally allowed it to be done in person but had you jump through hoops to find a manager. They “lost” my letter a couple times until I sent it certified.
There's a business to be had in generating and mailing those letters certified for someone. For $10, you can have it printed and mailed by Lob certified and still have a few bucks margin, without the customer having to leave their home. They’d then have the certified tracking number to demonstrate it was delivered.
This should absolutely not be necessary, but is a shim until a regulator kicks gyms in the shorts over their predatory practices.
FWIW, https://www.mailaletter.com can do certified w/ return receipt, and there's also a service called Trim (https://www.asktrim.com) that can do cancellations for you. In my experience, some companies have explicit policy to not accept cancellation requests on your behalf from Trim, but it works for many.
Lo and behold, you cannot submit your cancellation form without a Manager present. Okay, when does the Manager arrive? _Usually_ around 9:00AM is the response I got. I have to get home for a meeting at 8:30AM, so is there a mailbox I can drop this in? No. Can I leave it with you (the staff member attending the front desk) to hand to the Manager? No. Will the Manager be here around 5:00PM if I come back after work? No.
Please note that I bear no ill will towards the pleasant staff member that was helping me.