CALGARY – Popular diet centre LA Weight Loss is closing its doors across Alberta.
The franchise is going out of business due to financial problems.
Members would pay fees in exchange for nutrition bars and counselling. Now they’re worried they’ll be out of the money they’ve already paid.
Two dozen people showed up to one of the company’s Northeast Calgary locations Wednesday morning looking to purchase more nutrition bars. They found only locked doors.
One woman tells Global News just last week she paid the company over $1,000 for services and nutritional bars only to be left hanging.
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“I paid over $1,169 for this program and then I found out its gone.”
Another customer we spoke with says she could tell something was up with the company in recent weeks.
“I think they were struggling, I think I felt that the mood was, um, the girls they seemed a little stressed.”
The company is directing its customers to its website www.LAtoyourdoor.com to order their nutritional bars online. They can also sign up for over the phone nutritional counselling from a centre in North Dakota.
Those with more questions can email Lawlho@telus.net.
The closure has prompted the Alberta government to look into the issue; customers who paid for services in the last week have filed complaints under the Alberta Fair Trading Act. It is illegal under the act for a business to sell a service or a good to consumers knowing that they cannot provide them.
Customers who paid for memberships or products recently can file a complaint at www.servicealberta.ca.
The LA Weight Loss franchise was opened in Calgary in 2004 by Steve McDonough and dietician Anne Marie Vaillancourt. Global News’ attempts to contact them were unsuccessful.
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