Screwed Over: LA Weight Loss \ Pure Weight Loss

[Matt P]

I just have to vent a bit. My wife joined LA Weight Loss a.k.a. Pure Weight Loss 3 months ago. She paid about $700 up front in start up fees, expenses, etc. Every week at her weigh in sessions she was barraged with sales pressure to but supplements, pills, pre packaged food, etc. Which - thankfully - she didn't buy. She did however have to buy their bars. They try to make you purchase a year's worth at one time. Fortunately, (again), she didn't but that many.

Well..what do you know. Wife shows up for her weeky weight in on Tuesday. The office was closed but had "new", very limited, hours posted on the door. So, my wife returns today during the tiny sliver of new hours. When she arrived the office was closed & empty. There was a note stating the company was going out of business. Nationally, the office managers had been fired 2 days before.

They were still signing new members and taking their money on Monday. Nationally, they closed their doors on Tuesday! WHAT THE...?!

Wife has paid $700+ for 1 year of counseling. Plus has prepaid for 10 boxes of food valued at over $300. These scum bag jack-holes took the money, locked the doors and ran. Their web site states you can come to their offices through Jan 4 2008. Unfortunatley, the offices are closed during their posted hours and NOTHING is left inside - not even a desk. We called other local offices and they said the home office has stopped sending delivery trucks. There is no way to get the ALREADY PURCHASED products and will not give a refund!!! ARRRGHHHHHH!!!!!

I'm so disgusted right now. I went through a similar experience with Bally's gym several years back. They had a huge sales push to get as many members to upgrade to a "life time" membership. After 2 months of this heavy sales pitch the gym conviently burned down. Memberships were not honored and no refunds were given.

Sadly...this will certainly end with a 5 yr class action law suit where my wife will be awarded $15. The corporate scum will go onto their next screw-you gig instead of a federal prison.

[teog]

After calling the police I would dispute the charges on my credit card. And I would call the local news and BBB. Good luck with it all.

[MSilvia]

Sorry to hear about the shafting. I'd recommend Weight Watchers to your wife... they're reputable, effective, and teach healthy eating habits instead of selling you proprietary foods. I lost 30 pounds on their plan in 3 months for somewhere around $150 and I didn't have to buy a single "Weight Watchers" food product... although their diet "turtle" candies are really good.

[thefitfix]

Listen, the thing that clients and employees need to do is contact :

Your state Attorney general - they should have a website with a consumer complaint form to fill out

and

The PA Attorney General...(pure weight loss headquarters are located in Horsham, Pa)

This needs to be done before the 1st of Jan.

Try to do it today....if they gt enough complaints they might place an investigation the ceo Mr. Vahan Karian and the company and possibly freeze assets.

If you paid with a credit card and it has not been longer than 1 year and you did not already finish payin the balance, you may be able to file a chargeback with your credit card company, but I urge you to contact the 2 attorney generals offices even if you do because Pure Weight Loss can still dispute the chargeback.

If you mail out the "refund application" or anything pertaining to the Pure Weight Loss issue- mail it certified with return receipt, keep a copy of your file and any refund application you mail. You will notice that the employees may not want to give you a copy of your file and they will tell you corporate will be getting it and you don't need it, demand a copy, they are being told by corporate offices not to give copies.

Don't give up on your diet, the program works, you can do it on your own minus bars for now. I noticed about 3-4 weeks ago, my center was not getting in certain flavors and an increase of attempts to sell pills.


Why did they really offer a sale in the past few weeks on their inventory? They were liquidating their inventory which leads me to believe that they will not give refunds.
One minute my center is saying they are giving refunds for the unused weeks and lites, now yesterday they are saying it is only for the weeks unused and not the lites.

Please Please Please contact the attorney generals via online form or mail....if you have any questions please PM me

[Matt P]

thanks guys - good advice. I've recommended WW to the wife, had some success with it myself a few yrs back

[Matt P]

FitFix - thanks. We did write a letter to the Attorney General just yesterday. We also managed to get a copy of the rebate forms. An employee advised us that it is not likely to be honored. I don't know if that was just sour grapes on her part but I tend to believe her. Anyway - the wife sent that by certified mail yesterday.

Unfortunately, we paid by debit card which I don't believe has the same backing as our credit cards. Jeez...I try so hard to never use our credit cards. If I do use them I pay them off before we bill arrives. I'm going to start using them again for large purchases and membership/contract purchases.

I'm not going to let this go. This was not an accidental thing or a decision on a whim. The executives knew this months in advance and continued to set people up to be robbed. We work really hard for our money. I wouldn't just roll over if I got robbed on the street and I'm not going to roll over here either.

BTW - Horsham, PA. This is also where NutriSystem is located. I dont think they're in the same corporate park. But, they are close to each other. I wonder what kind of "partnerships" exist there.

[mitsuguy]

With a good bank, you should have the same protection against theft like this even when using a debit card.

However, as noted, they will dispute the chargeback, so go through all the other routes as well...

[mm2002]

Man, sorry to hear this! Those scumbags!
I dunno, mitsuguy, something similar happened to us a few months ago, and our bank said that there isn't any way to file a chargeback if a debit card was used. As far as our bank goes, the debit card gives you ZERO protection, except in the case of identity theft, or if it's stolen. Some may be different though.
Good luck with this!

[mitsuguy]

Originally Posted by mm2002

Man, sorry to hear this! Those scumbags!
I dunno, mitsuguy, something similar happened to us a few months ago, and our bank said that there isn't any way to file a chargeback if a debit card was used. As far as our bank goes, the debit card gives you ZERO protection, except in the case of identity theft, or if it's stolen. Some may be different though.
Good luck with this!

quick story - a bunch of friends and I went to the zoo... total charge was going to be about $70... I decided to take everyones cash and just put it on my debit card... After three attempts to swipe my card, the teller told me it wouldn't work - we paid cash after all... No big deal...

I check my account online every day to ensure no funny business, and low and behold I see two charges for $70 on my debit card from the zoo... A quick call to my bank the next day (I use Wells Fargo) and a hold was placed on those charges, and within a week, they were refunded to my account. Upon talking to the bank, I was told that anything under $25 doesn't even need investigation, they pretty much credit it back immediately, but that they would charge back the charges to zoo if they found them incorrect...

From what I was told, they have the exact same protection as credit cards in most circumstances...

[skippy11]

Wow! This is good info to know. Several of my friends and I were thinking about LA weight loss...I don't think we will be heading down that path now. Thanks for the info.