Larry Paul Tanning Spa review: Larry Paul won't give refunds for fraudulent charges 1

I signed up for a membership in June of 2010 for about $19.99 (automatically withdrawn from my bank account at the beginning of every month I had an open account), including unlimited tanning in a basic tanning bed only (which I thought was less than many other tanning companies offered in the first place) and used my "membership" about 5-7 times during that month. In July, I "froze" my account so that Larry Paul wouldn't take the $20 out of my bank account for the month, as I was sure I wouldn't be using the services. In August, I "froze" my account again. I didn't cancel my account for these months just in case I wanted to use it for a prorated amount. In September, I went to their branch and asked the employee to cancel my account. The employee did something on the computer and told me my account was canceled and I wouldn't need to worry about further charges. By the time December of 2010 came, I noticed that Larry Paul had been taking the approximate $20 from my bank account around the first of the month since September. I went to my bank to confirm this and get a bank statement highlighting the charges and brought it to the local branch in attempts to get a refund. The branch manager told me she would forward my bank statements and explain the situation to "corporate". It was at least a week before I heard anything from "corporate" about my billing issue.

When I finally got a hold of (who I assume was) the corporate office manager Sandy she was nasty to me on the phone and expressed that I signed a contract authorizing the charges as long as my account was open and I would not be getting a refund of my near $80. I tried to tell her that I thought my account was canceled by the branches apparently incompetent employee and she continued to be nasty in saying that unless I had written proof that my account was canceled before the charges that I was disputing I would not get a refund. I told her "I don't care what your faulty contract is, it's not my fault that your employee didn't do their job correctly and I'm not paying for services that I didn't not use". Sandy just continued to repeat herself that I would not be getting a refund due to the contract I signed (which by the way, the Larry Paul website states that there are no contracts, which is a blatant lie) so I just told her that I could tell that I would not get anywhere with her and that I was not finished dealing with the company in trying to get my refund. She said "Fine." and ended the call.

I called the local branch manager, who was and has been to this point much nicer to deal with and has expressed her apologies and hopes that I can be satisfied. I asked her if there was anyone higher up in the corporation and unfortunately she didn't know. She said that Sandy was the highest person she had ever dealt with and she also told me that the company is run by a board of directors. I asked her if she knew anyone else who was on Sandy's level and she didn't know that either.

I plan on taking every action necessary to get a refund and I find it very petty of such a large and successful company to have such an issue with refunding less than $80 to a college student with very low finances. I can't express how disappointed I am with this company and its customer care. I want everyone to know what kind of experience Larry Paul Tanning Spa will provide should you have any billing issues and that "Corporation" has not, does not and probably wont care about satisfying a client with billing issues because they seem to only care about making as much money as possible through faulty contracts, incompetent workers and nasty corporate managers.