New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced last week that LA Weight Loss Centers Inc. reached a settlement to pay $275,000 in refunds to thousands of New York state customers who paid for but never received services after LA Weight Loss closed its doors in January 2008.
Read more here: LA Weight Loss to Pay Refunds to New York Members
Also Read:  LA WEIGHT LOSS, PURE WEIGHT LOSS

(Franchise Complaints)  Related posts:  THE INCHES-A-WEIGH “LICENSE”: THE PERFECT BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY?
Inches-A-Weigh Franchise Failure Prompts Fraud Probe, Lawsuits
Lite for Life Offers Help to Members of Closed Inches-A-Weigh
A FranchisePick.com reader writes the following warning about the Inches A Weigh franchise opportunity:
As a former Inches a weigh owner, I would strongly urge anybody thinking of purchasing one to stop dead in your tracks, turn around and run the other way. The organization will make you all kinds of promises they are incapable of fulfilling. They are overworked, underqualified, and their methods are extremely outdated. Ask any corporate representative how many centers have closed …read more

Warning to any current or future LA Weight Loss customers considering prepaying for products or services: rumors abound that certain LA Weight Loss Centers may be closing in the near future. If that happens, you may have a hard time getting a refund or the products you are owed.
According to the LA Weight Loss complaint site, numerous centers are believed to be closing in the near future:
LA WEIGHT LOSS CLOSING LIST
Says KH Poser:
I was an Area Manager for LAWL for the last 2 years. The handwriting is on the wall. …The laweightloss.com website reports that the company …read more

(FranchisePick.Com) IS LA WEIGHT LOSS IN TROUBLE?
Late last year, rumors started appearing on FranchisePick.com a month or two before Pure Weight Loss (formerly LA Weight Loss) suddenly announced it was closing all 400 weight loss facilities nationwide. In fact, one reader posted about the California closings before it hit the news. Shocked Pure Weight Loss employees found themselves suddenly out of work. Thousands of members tried in vain to recover the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars in prepaid services and products they had entrusted to the company. We’ve learned to listen to the …read more

(FranchisePick.Com)  For anyone who lost money, time and patience dealing with Pure Weight Loss (formerly LA Weight Loss, here’s one for the “I thought I had it bad” file.  Pure Weight Loss employee “Angie” left this sad tale as a comment on a recent post:
I was an employee of Pure Weight Loss. This is my story…I was hired in October for a position in the Central Illinois market. I was from St. Louis. My family (husband and daughter) traveled the 150+ miles for the interview and was promised a career that would be very lucrative while helping people achieve their …read more

(FranchisePick.Com)  The bankrupt Pure Weight Loss (formerly LA Weight Loss) chain and owner, Vahan Karian, who left thousands of former members and employees without hundreds of thousands of dollars in services, products, refunds and paychecks is due in court March 14.  FranchisePick.com contributor Sue wrote:
I just received a notice from Bankruptcy Court regarding the case of PWL [Pure Weight Loss]. There will be a “Meeting of Creditors” at 10 am, March 14th at the William J. Green Federal Building in Philadelphia (600 Arch St., 2nd floor conference room, 10:00 am).
I don’t know if I can make it (don’t have to attend if I …read more

(FranchisePick.Com) Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of comments have been posted on FranchisePick.Com by victimized Pure Weight Loss (until recently LA Weight Loss) members, some of whom lost several thousand dollars when the 400 unit chain closed abruptly last month with seemingly little regard for its members or employees. While most media attention focuses on the former group, an article posted today in The Times of Northwest Indiana also describes the plight of the Pure Weight Loss employees who were as surprised as their members at their employer’s abrupt closing.
The Times interviewed Ruth Moton, the former assistant regional manager …read more

(FranchisePick.Com) Background: December, 2007, Pure Weight Loss (formerly LA Weight Loss) announced it was closing all its 400 centers nationwide by Jan. 4., 2008. With no notice and little explanation, Pure Weight Loss left thousands of customers without a weight loss program, without the half-million dollars they’d collectively prepaid for Pure Weight Loss services and products, and with NO information regarding the whereabouts of their confidential financial and health records, which include both credit card data, personal disclosures and blood test results.
In Part One, we asked: Is Pure Weight Loss violating the HIPAA* Federal privacy law?
FranchisePick.com commenters have shared …read more

(FranchisePick.Com) In December, 2007, Pure Weight Loss (formerly LA Weight Loss) announced it was closing all its 400 centers nationwide by Jan. 4., 2008. With no notice and little explanation, Pure Weight Loss left thousands of customers without a weight loss program, without the half-million dollars they’d collectively prepaid for Pure Weight Loss services and products, and with NO information regarding the whereabouts of their confidential financial and health records, which include both credit card data, personal disclosures and blood test results.
The PA Attorney General is suing Pure Weight Loss and PWL CEO Vahan Karian for fraud. …read more

(FranchisePick.com)
A good story by Newsday writer Richard J. Dalton provides an all-too-familiar example of a Central Islip couple who could lose $2,200 in advance payments now that the Pure Weight Loss has closed all its centers nationwide. The article also provides information on state rules requiring bonds from health clubs and other member-based businesses – and how Pure Weight Loss (formerly LA Weight Loss) got around them.
Source: Newsday
Pure Weight Loss customers await refunds January 9, 2008
BY RICHARD J. DALTON JR. |richard.dalton@newsday.com
Nancy and Glen Urban of Central Islip have lost 113 pounds combined through Pure Weight Loss, formerly called …read more