Functional Lifestyles, Palo Alto CA

Great place. Mountain View groups are small for now, so good time to sign up.

Functional Lifestyles fraudulently billed me for >$1000 while refusing repeated requests to stop.

When I started at Functional Lifestyles I enjoyed their novel approach to working out through fitness. But when I tried to quit, their customer service turned into a bureaucratic nightmare. They would stop my billing temporarily and the re-start it without my consent. Then they would refuse to give me a refund for charges for dozens of classes which I never attended.

Do not trust them with your payment information.

Edit:
The owner has responded, which compels me to respond with more detail: On Friday, August 28th, 2020, I asked their billing to "Please stop billing until I restart it. " in an email telling them that I was leaving the state. In stead of stopping my billing, they put it on pause for 3 months, and then *automatically restarted it*.

These charges continued for 3-4 months until I caught them charging me on March 2,2021 and requested a refund, shocked. They refused the refund because they told me that I needed to tell them not to bill me repeatedly, months later, if I didn't want billing to be turned on again. This was in direct contradiction to my request, which was to *cancel* billing, not to pause billing, and is the basis of my complaint here.

They told me that I needed to have messaged them 3 days prior to my bill date (after 3 months of not being billed and with no direct notification of the automatic unfreezing of my account) in order to not bee charged. They tell me that the contract I signed says no refunds and so there are no conditions under which I will get a refund.

The response from the owner claims that I was under a 12 week commitment and so was not billed wrongfully. I moved away in week 10, requested they cancel ("Cancel billing until I turn it back on") in week 10, and discovered that billing had been restarted automatically from week ~22 to week ~38 without my knowledge or presence. If the owner had only charged me for the 12 week commitment I would not have complained - they charged me for *28* weeks and then refused to refund me.
I felt betrayed, dismayed, and cheated, and then they fine-printed me on the the non-refund policy in the original 12 week contract.

Stay safe.
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I have probably tried every gym in town and this is the first one that has stuck… for several years now! It just has that perfect balance of challenging you while keeping it fun. An hour seriously flies by there and it always includes some great jams, some laughs, some cheering, sweating and friendly competition. The format of 2 trainers for every small group works perfectly for me. It provides just the right amount of attention to make me feel safe and confident in trying new challenging exercises and it keeps me accountable (i.e. Makes it hard to cheat). All the trainers are fab but my favs are Corey (the owner), Cisco & Evan. Don’t join if you want showers, spa, a pool etc. Do join if you want a place where everyone knows your name, keeps track of your progress and makes you feel like they give a damn. Oh and if you want to get stronger, leaner, faster, hotter

What a great gym. I love that they have a 12 week starting commitment to help people like me build the gym going habit