The suit, filed by Delray Beach, Florida, resident Harvey Sultzer in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, claims that Intuitive Surgical Inc. failed to warn his wife, Sandra Sultzer, of issues that would have caused her to forego use of the company’s da Vinci surgical robot for her procedure in September 2021.

The company also failed to safely design its product “so that stray electrical energy would not burn the insides of patients without the knowledge or control of the operating surgeons,” and failed to properly train surgeons how to use the device, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit notes that the da Vinci robot is a multi-armed surgical device, introduced in 1999, that’s controlled remotely by surgeons with help of an onboard camera. The instruments include forceps, scissors, scalpels and other surgical tools.

Intuitve Surgical did not immediately respond to an email sent to its corporate communications department seeking comment about the lawsuit. Because the lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, no defense attorney is listed.

The company’s financial reports, filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission, mention an undisclosed number of pending lawsuits and state that the company disputes the allegations.

The Sultzer lawsuit alleges Intuitive Surgical sells the instruments to hospitals that have no experience in robotic surgery but relies on the company to train its surgeons how to use them.

Most of the instruments that the robot uses are disposable or can only be used for a limited number of procedures before they have to be replaced, the suit says. As a result, the company relies on volume of surgeries to make much of its income, it says.

When Sandra Sultzer underwent surgery to treat her colon cancer at Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital, she experienced “thermal injury (to her) small intestine, causing a perforation which required subsequent medical intervention and caused physical and emotional injury, and ultimately her death,” the lawsuit claims.

The suit says that Sandra Sultzer’s injury and death was not an isolated incident involving the da Vinci device. Currently, Intuitive Surgical is named as a defendant in about 93 product liability lawsuits, the suit says.

Among “thousands of injury and defect reports” received by the company about the device, “the most dangerous injuries arose from burns to internal organs caused by the discharge of electricity, caused by the robot’s instruments inside the patient,” the lawsuit says.

In 2013, the Food and Drug Administration conducted an investigation into injury reports and sent a warning letter to the manufacturer concluding that it had “concealed information from the FDA, secretly recalled defective parts, and ignored known injuries to patients in its design process of critical da Vinci instruments,” the lawsuit cited.

The FDA requires manufacturers, distributors and user facilities to report adverse events involving medical devices to a database it calls MAUDE, for About Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience.

In March 2013, Intuitive Surgical issued a statement saying it revised its reporting practices to the database, and the change would increase the number of events in the serious injury category. It also noted that the most common type of malfunction report involved broken instrument cables that could be easily replaced.

Of hundreds of complaints received between July 2009 and December 2011, the “vast majority” concerned a rubber sleeve placed on the end of certain da Vinci instruments that were designed as an insulating device to prevent electricity from radiating out, the suit says.

But the sleeves had cracks or slits that prevented the sleeves from properly insulating the metal instruments and allowed electricity or sparks to escape — or arc, the suit says.

“Because the arcing usually occurred outside of the surgeon’s camera field of vision, blood vessels and organs were burned without the medical team’s knowledge,” the complaint states.

Intuitive Surgical’s most recent annual report filed with the SEC describes a global operation that has developed and improved a large offering of products since introducing the da Vinci surgical system in 1999.

A long list of clinical applications stem from the company’s focus on five specialties — general surgery, urologic surgery, gynecologic surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and head and neck surgery. Key procedures include hernia repair, colon and rectal procedures, cholecystectomy, bariatric surgery, hysterectomy, and lobectomy, among others.

The company also focuses on minimal invasive biopsies in the lung.

Through Dec. 31, the company was providing service for 8,606 da Vinci surgical systems, including 5,111 in the United States, which were used to perform 2,286,000 surgical procedures in 2023, according to Intuitive Surgical’s 2023 financial report, filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The financial report describes “a number of” product liability lawsuits filed in various state and federal courts.

“The plaintiffs generally allege that they or a family member underwent surgical procedures that utilized the da Vinci surgical system and sustained a variety of personal injuries and, in some cases, death as a result of such surgery,” the company said.

Allegations in the lawsuits include that plaintiffs’ injuries resulted from purported defects in the system and/or failure of the company to provide adequate training resources to surgeons, the financial report said. “The cases further allege that the company failed to adequately disclose and/or misrepresented the potential risks and/or benefits” of the system, the report said.

“The company disputes these allegations and is defending against these claims,” the SEC filing says.

In 2018, NBC News posted a report about Intuitive Surgical and the da Vinci device.

The story focused on an Iowa woman who said she sustained a burn to her ureter and damage to her colon during hysterectomy procedure involving a da Vinci device in 2015 and said her prognosis called for a permanent colostomy. The report noted that the woman sued Intuitive Surgical in 2017 but later voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit.

NBC News said it spoke to more than a dozen patients who say they were burned or otherwise injured during surgery involving the device.

In a statement to NBC News in 2018, Intuitive Surgical said its mission “is to help surgeons safely and effectively improve patient outcomes and decrease surgical variability.” It added, “While any surgery regardless of modality carries risk, the best evidence of the safety and efficacy of robotic-assisted surgery can be found in the more than 15,000 peer-reviewed scientific publications that are fully grounded in scientific method and that, in aggregate, support the safety and efficacy of our systems.”

The NBC News story said that more than 20,000 adverse events had been filed to the FDA’s MAUDE database over the past 10 years related to the da Vinci robot.

Of those, nearly 17,000 were classified as device malfunctions. More than 2,000 involved injuries and 274 were categorized as deaths, the network reported.

In 2023, the number of adverse events related to the da Vinci device filed in the database totaled 3,098, the South Florida Sun Sentinel found.

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.

“The Government of The Bahamas is alert, attentive, and proactive to ensure that the Bahamas remains a safe and welcoming destination,” insists a statement dated Tuesday from the Office of the Prime Minister.

The first warning, called a “security alert,” was issued on Jan. 24 by the U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas. It urged travelers to “exercise extreme caution” when in Nassau in the wake of 18 murders in the city since Jan. 1.

The alert said that murders have occurred “at all hours including in broad daylight on the streets,” primarily because of “retaliatory gang violence.”

Davis’ statement on Tuesday said the government is implementing a “robust and innovative crime prevention strategy” involving “rigorous steps to maintain our well-earned reputation.”

Those steps include an enhanced police presence, additional police resources including facial recognition closed-circuit television surveillance technology, training, and a zero-tolerance policy for firearm possession.

On Sunday, Chrislyn Skippings, chief superintendent of the Royal Bahamas Police Force said nine firearms and 1,500 rounds of ammunition were seized in crime roundups last week, according to the Bahamian outlet OurNews.bs.

In his statement, Prime Minister Philip Davis said that the murders “do not reflect general safety in The Bahamas, a country of 16 tourism destinations and many more islands.”

Two days after the embassy posted its security alert, the U.S. State Department updated a travel advisory on its website urging visitors to exercise “increased caution due to crime” in the Bahamas.

The advisory identified two areas of Nassau where gang violence has resulted in a high homicide rate “primarily affecting the local population.” It also warned that “violent crime, such as burglaries, armed robberies and sexual assaults, occur in both tourist and non-tourist areas,” including short-term vacation rental properties without private security.

According to a story by the Nassau Guardian, some U.S. news sources incorrectly reported that the State Department increased its advisory status on Friday from Level 1 to Level 2, which means travelers are urged to “exercise increased caution.”

The Bahamas had been at Level 2 status since 2022 and was first assigned the level in 2018, according to online archives of the Overseas Security Advisory Council, a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and security professionals from U.S. organizations operating abroad.

From 2020 to 2022, the nation was at various times assigned Level 3 (“rethink travel”) and Level 4 (“do not travel”) status due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Warnings about crime in the Bahamas go back further. In October 2005, the U.S. Embassy in Nassau warned of an increase in armed robberies in the nation.

The State Department’s Jan. 26 advisory, while citing crime as the reason travelers should exercise increased caution, contained much of the same language as advisories dating to 2018. Additional language was added to reflect water safety concerns due to recent fatal and non-fatal shark attacks, the Nassau Guardian reported.

The Bahamas shares Level 2 status with 71 countries, including several other island nations popular among Western tourists, including the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Philippines, Turks and Caicos Islands, Sri Lanka, and Solomon Islands.

According to the department’s website, 93 of 211 countries enjoy the most lenient advisory status — Level 1, in which travelers are advised to “exercise normal precautions.”

Twenty-four nations are at Level 3, which means tourists should “reconsider travel” to them. They include Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Saudi Arabia, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Jamaica’s status was upgraded to Level 3 last week amid a travel advisory stating that violent crimes are common in the nation and sexual assaults occur “frequently, including at all-inclusive resorts.”  Law enforcement is often ineffective and the homicide rate has for several years been among the highest in the Western Hemisphere, the advisory said.

Just 19 nations are assigned Level 4 — “Do Not Travel” — status. Among them are Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela.

On Monday, spokespersons for Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruise lines, which run frequent trips to the Bahamas from Florida ports, said they are closely monitoring situations on the islands. But neither cruise line announced any itinerary changes.

Christopher Caulfield, owner of CruiseOne.com, a cruise planning site based in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, said he hasn’t experienced any guest cancellations or concerns from clients since the embassy’s posting.

“I advise clients to take caution (in the Bahamas), as I do with any destination,” Caulfield said by email. “I remind them that cruise lines do everything they can to ensure the safety of their passengers and their ships, and cruising remains a very safe way to travel. If violence escalates and cruise lines feel it is unsafe to travel, they will change the itinerary.”

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.

“Murders have occurred in all hours including in broad daylight on the streets,” according to a security alert that was posted on Jan. 24 by the U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas.

Retaliatory gang violence has been the primary motive, the alert said.

The embassy urged travelers to:

• Exercise extreme caution in the eastern part of New Providence Island (Nassau).
• Use caution when walking or driving at night.
• Keep a low profile.
• Be aware of your surroundings.
• Do not physically resist any robbery attempt.
• Review your personal security plans.

On Friday, the U.S. State Department posted a travel advisory with additional information, specifying that the majority of crime occurs on New Providence (Nassau) and Grand Bahama (Freeport) islands.

“In Nassau, practice increased vigilance in the “Over the Hill” area (south of Shirley Street) where gang-on-gang violence has resulted in a high homicide rate primarily affecting the local population,” the advisory said. “Violent crime, such as burglaries, armed robberies, and sexual assaults, occur in both tourist and non-tourist areas. Be vigilant when staying at short-term vacation rental properties where private security companies do not have a presence.”

Prior to the warnings by the U.S. government, Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis pledged that his administration will respond to the uptick in murders with “more intrusive policing” that will likely affect residents, according to The Nassau Guardian website.

“We will not violate anyone’s civil liberties, but you are likely to be impacted by more roadblocks and unannounced police action.

“This may make you late for your appointments, or delay plans you have, but this is a small price to pay for the collective benefit of having our streets made safer, and our lives less blighted by murder and other violent crimes.”

On Monday, the website quoted Davis as insisting The Bahamas remains a safe place for visitors.

It noted that none of the murders involved any visitor to the Bahamas and that the islands remain at a Level 2 alert status, which it has been for a long time. There are four alert levels issued by the State Department: Level 1 (exercise normal precautions); Level 2 (exercise increased caution); Level 3 (reconsider travel) and Level 4 (do not travel).

Other destinations with Level 2 status — because of crime or threats of terrorism — include Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Denmark, India, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Panama, Italy, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

U.S. tourists regularly visit the Bahamas from Florida, including by air, cruise ships and charter boats. Cruise lines operating out of Fort Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach and Port Canaveral travel to the islands numerous times a week.

Two of those cruise lines, Royal Caribbean and Carnival, have not announced any itinerary changes in response to the advisories.

“The safety of our guests and crew is our top priority,” a Royal Caribbean spokesperson said. “Our global security teams are closely monitoring the situation in the area. At all times, we remind guests to remain aware of their surroundings while ashore and follow all State Department guidelines. Should any changes be required, guests will be notified directly.”

A Carnival Cruise Lines spokesperson issued a similar statement, saying that the cruise line routinely monitors its destinations and keeps in close contact with government and law enforcement officials.

“We continue to consult with embassy officials and our security team has determined we can continue with our planned visits to Nassau, which has enhanced policing of tourist areas,” the Carnival spokesperson said. “The safety of our guests and crew is our priority, and when any adjustments to itineraries are deemed necessary, we will react quickly.”

This is not the first travel advisory that the State Department has issued for the Bahamas.

In April 2022, the embassy issued a similar warning after four armed robberies in a month were reported in Nassau, including on or near a site with short-term vacation rental properties without private security. That report also noted an increase in gang-related homicides in areas “generally not frequented by tourists.”

In August 2019, the State Department warned that “violent crime such as burglaries, armed robberies and sexual assault is common, even during the day and in tourist areas” of Grand Bahama and New Providence islands.

Specifically, it warned that activities involving commercial recreational watercraft, including water tours, are not consistently regulated and said personal-watercraft operators “have been known to commit sexual assaults against tourists.”

That alert also urged tourists to exercise extreme caution in areas that included “Over the Hill” and the “Fish Fry” at Arawak Cay in Nassau. It cited numerous reports of tourists being robbed at gunpoint or knifepoint.

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.

Its counterpart Freddie Mac, meanwhile, will roll out new guidelines by early 2024 that will enable condos ineligible for financing to appeal their status.

The guarantors provide financing for 70% of home loans in the country. Typically, lenders write home loans and sell them to one of the two guarantors while continuing to collect mortgage and escrow payments.

In April, the Orange County (Calif.) Register revealed the existence of a spreadsheet that Fannie Mae distributed to lenders called “Condo Unavailable Projects and Phases Report” that lists hundreds of condominiums that do not qualify for financing from the agency.

The list is not meant to be distributed to third parties and is headed by the term, “Fannie Mae Confidential and Proprietary — Subject to Non-Disclosure Obligations.”

The list has become longer over the year, as Fannie Mae amassed information from condominiums about the status of needed structural repairs, reserves, lawsuits, special assessments and other issues. Between April and October, the list grew from about 1,700 to 2,306 properties, and 34% are located in Florida, according to the law firm Allcock & Marcus, headquartered in Massachusetts with an office in Florida, which says it obtained the list from a third party who got it from a lender.

Associations and unit owners typically only learn that their properties are on the list after identifying potential buyers and submitting mortgage loan applications to lenders, who check to see if their property is on the list. If the guarantors won’t finance a mortgage, the seller is left to find an alternative lender or another buyer who will pay cash.

Unlike Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac does not distribute a “blacklist” but designates properties that are ineligible for financing on a web app used by lenders. The two guarantors don’t use the same data but likely assign similar criteria, said Orest Tomaselli, president of CondoTek, a Philadelphia-based company that provides technology services to lenders.

Fannie and Freddie faced “a lot of pressure to be transparent,” Tomaselli said. “Homeowners and condo associations did not know what to do when they found out they were on the list. No financing means property values plummet.”

After learning of Fannie Mae’s list, Allcock & Marcus and other entities, including the trade group Community Associations Institute, began asking Fannie Mae to make the list public. They argued that condo associations deserved to know whether they were on the list so they could figure out how to be removed.

Last week, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said they plan to introduce tools next year that will enable associations to easily find out whether their properties meet the guarantors’ criteria for financing, and if not, why.

Fannie Mae’s tool, a searchable database to be made available to associations and condo owners, will be online in the third quarter of 2024, according to an email from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which controls the two guarantors.

Freddie Mac will introduce enhancements late this year and in early 2024 that provide “greater certainty” as to whether a loan to finance a condo unit meets Freddie Mac’s guidelines, the email said. The enhancements “will also allow homeowners associations greater clarity with respect to their project’s eligibility process, as well as introduce a new appeal process when projects are determined to be ineligible,” it added.

According to guidelines published last week on Freddie Mac’s website, information on how authorized condo association representatives can inquire about their condominium’s status will be posted by Feb. 26.

The FHFA, the email said, “supports a transparent process that provides visibility for loan originators and the homeowners associations responsible for managing and maintaining condo projects.”

Tomaselli said in an interview that he was “blown away” by Freddie Mac’s announcement. A closer look at new guidelines by the guarantor indicate that beginning in February it will warn condominium associations before they become ineligible, then work with them to correct problems, he said.

While the June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside is credited as leading to tougher lending standards by the guarantors, Tomaselli said the closer looks have been “a long time coming.”

“There are real problems in a lot of condo buildings,” he said. “Whether they haven’t maintained reserves properly or they haven’t done needed repairs, that’s impacting Joe and Mary Homeowner.”

Allcock & Marcus declined the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s request for a copy of the latest Fannie Mae blacklist it obtained, saying if such a list is published, it would likely reduce the value of impacted condominiums.

For that reason, executives of the law firm said they supported Fannie’s and Freddie’s plan to provide information to condominiums on a case-by-case basis rather than release lists of ineligible condos to the public.

The law firm currently operates a webpage — amcondolaw.com/resources/fannie-mae-blacklist/ — where condominiums and unit owners can submit their information to find out whether their property has been designated ineligible for financing by Fannie Mae.

“We don’t want to use the blacklist as an opportunity to smear condos and devalue them,” managing partner Edmund Allcock said by email. “The idea is for them to find out and take action.”

Among the actions condominium associations can take is hiring Allcock & Marcus to help them resolve identified issues and petition Fannie Mae to be removed from the list, said partner Jake Marcus.

Here are several of the issues that Fannie Mae uses to identify a condominium as ineligible for financing, according to Allcock & Marcus:

• Inadequate reserves
• Inadequate insurance
• Too many delinquencies
• Too much commercial space
• Structural or construction issues
• Outstanding special assessments
• Too many rentals

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.

Gordon, 77, had accompanied Chappelear to the chain’s Delray Beach location last spring after signing up for a free membership through the Medicare-sponsored SilverSneakers program.

But club employees had other ideas for Gordon, Chappelear said in an interview.

“Within an hour of entering the gym, they had funneled us to a personal trainer sales rep who attempted to sell us a one-year personal training program,” Chappelear said.

Gordon asked if he could sign up for just a month so he could learn how to use the equipment, Chappelear said.

After the men resisted a lengthy sales pitch, they got up to leave, he said. That’s when the trainer “looked us in the eyes and said, “OK, I’m going to make an exception and give you a 30-day contract,’” Chappelear said.

Gordon had left his wallet in the car and Chappelear, 80, agreed to put the $440 cost on his credit card.

A month later, Chappelear said he noticed a charge for a second month of personal training.

That’s when he realized that despite the trainer’s assurances, Gordon had been signed up to the yearlong contract the two men had repeatedly rejected, Chappelear said.

Chappelear is one of a long line of consumers who have leveled complaints that trainers working for the fitness giant mislead customers into thinking that they are signing up for short-term personal training programs, then tell them that their hands are tied after the customers discover that they were signed up for contracts lasting six months or a year.

If they fail to cancel within a three-day recision period required by state law, getting out of the contract requires paying half of the cost of the unused months. In Gordon’s case, half the cost of his 11 remaining months at $440 a month would have totaled $2,420.

Similar tales are recounted in news reports across parts of the United States and Canada, in complaints to the Better Business Bureau, to the Florida Attorney General and to the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which regulates fitness clubs.

The complaints do not reflect how a majority of LA Fitness members attending more than 100 Florida clubs feel about their enrollments, says Rob Bryant, senior vice president of the legal department of Fitness International LLC, the company that owns LA Fitness and its sister brand Esporta Fitness.

Bryant declined to address all but one of the individual complaints shared by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, but said by email, “Of course, with more than 100 locations in Florida alone and many customers, LA Fitness receives consumer complaints.”

Still, he said, “We believe the vast majority of our customers are happy, and, when we receive a complaint, we make sure a regional or corporate manager personally calls the customer to try to address their concern.”

Bryant submitted a list of “protections we have in place to help make sure our customers ‘do’ understand the terms of their (personal training) programs.”

The protections include giving patrons a printed copy of a written agreement and a separate checklist that they sign and initial in several places attesting they understand terms of the contract, including that they have three days to cancel and get a refund and, if they want to cancel later, the opt-out clause requiring members to pay half the cost of their unused contract term.

Contracts prompt similar complaints to state agencies

Kylie Mason, spokeswoman for the Florida Attorney General’s Office, says consumers have filed 50 complaints about LA Fitness since September 2020 about subjects ranging from “membership issues and cancellation requests to complaints about closing times.”

“When appropriate,” the office reaches out to fitness clubs for response and resolution, she said.

West Palm Beach resident Michael Walters wrote in January that he asked about a sign offering “complimentary assessments” at the chain’s Wellington branch.

He said he was offered a deal that provided four sessions for $195 and gave his credit card to pay for it. “Then in February, I was surprised to see another payment to LA Fitness for $195,” he said. He said when the company tried to make a withdrawal again in March, he reported it to his credit card company.

The salesperson who sold him the contract, who identified himself as the “director of personal training,” never mentioned that the contract was for a full year or that he would be billed every month, Walters wrote.

Walters wrote that he returned to the club and was told that the only way he could get out of the contract was to pay half of the $2,340 full-year charge.

LA Fitness canceled his contract “with no further billing or obligations,” after the Attorney General’s Office “escalated the conflict to the company,” Mason said.

Bryant said each complaint submitted to the Florida Attorney General, the Florida Department of Consumer Services, and the Better Business Bureau is “automatically received by our corporate office” and reviewed.

“In each case, we look into the complaint, we attempt to contact the customer, we try to resolve the matter, and we respond to the referring agency (without any need for the agency to ‘escalate’ the matter),” Bryant said.

“In the rare situation where our investigation reveals any failures by our employees to follow our policies, such conduct is not rewarded, but rather could lead to discipline or termination,” he said.

Bryant did not address four of the five consumer complaints, including Chappelear’s, sent to him by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

But he shared results of the company’s investigation into one of the complaints — Walter’s — to explain that “there are always two sides to every story.”

Walters, “although he said he was surprised when he was billed in February,” continued his personal training sessions through March and early April — well beyond the single month he said he signed up for, Bryant said.

Walters did not respond to an email seeking comment about his complaint.

The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services received 83 complaints about Fitness International clubs in Florida in the three years since Oct. 5, 2020, according to data provided by department spokeswoman Jessica Kelleher.

Complaint categories include contract breach disputes (9), billing and refund disputes (15), cancellations not honored (7), misrepresentation (6), and complaints involving personal trainers (10).

Among those who complained about personal trainer contracts, Sttefani Vanessa Danh said she signed up for six months of weightlifting sessions for $600 a month at a Miami LA Fitness and was told she could cancel at any time. She said she later found out that she signed a 12-month agreement and would have to pay half of the $7,200 cost if she wanted to cancel.

Club managers, who were “super nice” before she signed up, “started treating me rude” when she came back with questions, she said in an interview.

The trainer who enrolled her into the personal training contract “told me I was lying (and) that she didn’t tell me anything I was saying,” Danh said. “She said I signed a contract. I went home and felt horrible.”

After submitting complaints to the state and Better Business Bureau, she received a call from LA Fitness’ California office, she said.

Eventually, she was allowed to quit by paying $1,000, she said. Along with the initial $600 she paid when she signed up for her classes and a second $600 that was charged to her credit card a month later, “I paid $2,200 for three training sessions,” she said.

In November, Destiny Henry signed up for a complimentary fitness assessment at an LA Fitness in Wellington, according to her complaint to the department.

The “director of personal training” told her he needed to have her credit card number on file “in case I did want to proceed with training,” her complaint stated, adding, “He explained as long as I called within 14 days to cancel, I was under no obligation to use these personal training services.”

She said the following day, she called and said she did not want any personal training and asked to have her credit card number removed from the company’s files. She called multiple times, she said, “only to be told I had to come in and train first before canceling.”

Finally, the trainer told her he was unable to cancel the service and only “corporate” could do it, her complaint stated.

In his complaint to the department, Kevin Perez said he agreed to pay $440 per month for personal training at a Tampa LA Fitness club last November but was unaware he was signing a yearlong contract “and instead thought I was simply signing liability release waivers.”

When he decided to stop training two months later, he said, “I confronted the training manager about this and he said there was nothing he could do about it.”

Perez contacted LA Fitness’ customer service line, “and they said I would have to perform a ‘buyout’ from my contract.”

The department has not responded to questions about how Henry’s and Perez’s complaints were resolved, and Henry and Perez couldn’t be reached to describe how the matter was concluded.

‘His printer was not working’

The protections outlined by LA Fitness’ Bryant include requiring each customer enrolling in a personal training program to review a written agreement and sign or initial in several paces “to acknowledge their understanding, including an acknowledgement of the length of the initial term.”

Chappelear said he wasn’t provided a printed copy of the contract to take home and read. The trainer who signed him and Gordon up “told us his printer was not working,” Chappelear said.

Then the trainer said he had the contract on his computer and directed Gordon to “simply click at the places he pointed to,” Chappelear said.

“The clicking went on and on over numerous boxes with only a small portion of the contract visible on the computer screen at any one time,” he said.

Another protection cited by Bryant is an “easy-to-read checklist summarizing key terms (including, among other things, the duration, payment, renewal and cancellation terms).” Each customer is required to initial each item and sign at the bottom, he said.

Chappelear said he remembered Gordon being shown sections of the agreement on the computer screen and being told to initial or sign them.

“I don’t deny that they have tons of paperwork they tell you to sign, and then put all the stuff on the screen and say, ‘Sign here and sign there,’” Chappelear said. “I guarantee he didn’t say, ‘Initial here that says you’re signing up for a year.’”

Chappelear says that after he saw the second month’s charge on his credit card account, he returned to the Delray Beach LA Fitness and talked to the personal trainer who signed Gordon to the contract. “He said, ‘Oh no, you signed a one-year contract.’”

He says he next called the company’s headquarters in California. “They said there was nothing they could do,” he said.

It wasn’t until they visited the club a third time after signing up that they were able to get a printed copy of the contract, Chappelear said.

Enacting consumer protections

In 1990, Florida enacted the Health Studio Act, which required gyms to register with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and gave patrons some extra protections, including letting them quit a gym membership if no club was available within five miles from their home.

Other protections enacted under Florida’s Health Studio Act included a three-year cap on contract terms and a requirement to allow cancellation if a patron dies or becomes physically unable to use the facilities.

There’s no provision barring clubs from requiring customers who want to quit to pay half the cost of their remaining contract term.

In 2003, the first franchised Planet Fitness location opened in Florida. Offering easily cancelable $10 monthly memberships, the chain spawned imitators like YouFit and grew to around 2,400 clubs in seven countries.

LA Fitness, founded in 1984, gradually expanded to more than 700 locations in the U.S. and Canada by purchasing other brands, including Bally Total Fitness, and offering monthly memberships with no penalty for canceling.

But while loosening requirements for regular memberships, LA Fitness and some other chains set up personal training contracts that some consumers complained were difficult to escape.

In 2016, Boston’s CBS affiliate, WBZ-TV, documented complaints from members of an LA Fitness club in Stoughton, Massachusetts, who said they were assured they were signing contracts for limited periods, then found that monthly charges continued beyond the amount of time to which they had agreed.

The station reported finding nine complaints to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office alleging “nearly identical deceptive practices” at the Stoughton location.

Chain officials denied that the company conducts business as the story described and said they found no evidence of deception at the Stoughton club, the station reported. But they agreed to refund money paid by a Milton woman who said she was assured she was signing up for just a month of personal training, the story said.

A Tempe, Arizona, college student sued LA Fitness in 2012 claiming he accepted a free fitness assessment and was asked to sign a waiver, then later found out his signature was copied to the company’s form for personal training services, according to a news article in the Arizona Republic newspaper. LA Fitness’ attorney denied the claims, the story said.

His case was later settled, Maricopa County, Arizona, court records show.

In a 2019 undercover investigation, Los Angeles-area TV station KCAL sent a reporter into three area LA Fitness clubs after several viewers complained that they were signed up for yearlong training contracts they didn’t expect. Sales representatives at two of the locations would not allow the reporter to take home contracts to review, the station said.

Bryant said that LA Fitness’ additional protections include equipping sales desks with secondary, customer-facing monitors “to afford customers the best opportunity to review their agreements directly as they sign and initial it.”

“We ask customers to sign by way of a signature pad that explicitly advises customers to review their agreements before signing,” he said.

Also, he said, “It’s our policy and practice to provide every member with a hard copy of their (personal training) agreement at the time of sale and to offer a version by email if the member provides an email address.”

Walters, the West Palm Beach resident, wrote to the Florida Attorney General’s Office that “I have never received a paper or electronic copy of the personal training contract.”

Gordon did not receive a copy of the contract, Chappelear said, because the trainer who signed him up on his computer said the club’s printer was down.

Bryant said, “It’s conceivable, of course, that a printer could temporarily go out in one of our 100+ Florida clubs. However, we have not heard from members that this is a frequent or recurring problem or anything else to indicate this happens regularly.”

While Walters said he wasn’t provided a copy of the personal trainer agreement, Bryant said “our records confirm that, at a minimum, he was sent a copy of his PT (personal training) agreement to the email address he provided at enrollment.”

LA Fitness not only health club fending off complaints

Other gyms are also subjects of complaints to state consumer protection agencies and the Better Business Bureau.

Long lists of unhappy customers in Florida have filed reports about billing and collection practices. Most say their gyms make it difficult to quit memberships, while gyms counter that members were notified of cancellation terms when they joined.

Multiple members complained that they were charged monthly membership or personal training fees after they canceled, or that their canceled accounts showed up on their credit reports as past due. Gyms responded that the members didn’t closely read the terms of their contracts, which typically require 30 days’ notice of cancellation.

Some complaining members contrasted the efficiency of the sign-up process with nonchalance that greets their requests to cancel.

In a complaint to the Better Business Bureau about an LA Fitness competitor, one member said, “This gym is all about trying to make money and get people to sign up for things and charging ridiculous amounts but when it comes to canceling/freezing memberships, that same urgency is not executed.”

Canceling a membership

LA Fitness offers a termination fee that “is not a penalty.” Rather, Bryant said, “it is an option” that allows a member to cancel their personal training agreement “without having to pay the full amount the member agreed, in writing, to pay,” while also “encouraging the member to stick with their PT agreement — and see the results of the training.”

Members who express an interest in personal training are given a choice to purchase “a small set of individual sessions, a six-month term or a 12-month term,” Bryant said.

“But like many products/services, by purchasing a plan with a longer term, the client is able to lock in a reduced monthly price,” he said. “Plus, they are guaranteed to keep that lower rate if they decide to continue after the initial term (when they can cancel at any time without any additional fee).”

Bryant said that the chain’s “best advertisement for our personal training services is for our client to have great results from their program and recommend it to their family and friends.”

But to get those best results normally involves commitment to a program “over time, not just for a few sessions.”

“For that reason, we do recommend that clients purchase the six-month or 12-month package at the lower monthly rate, rather than buy just a few sessions at a time,” he said.

“Also, PT is much more than simply showing people how to use equipment. It’s about guiding people through workouts, varying those workouts, and keeping them engaged and motivated among other things.”

Walk away if printed contract unavailable, attorney says

Miami attorney Claudia Cobreiro said she has helped friends get out of onerous fitness club contracts, but acknowledges that few hire attorneys or file lawsuits over the contracts, because those fees would quickly exceed the amount of money in dispute.

Cobreiro says the most important way to avoid getting into a contract they will later regret is to demand a paper copy of anything they’re being asked to sign — and read it carefully before putting their name on it.

“If you’re not allowed to read it, that’s a red flag,” she said.

She said corporations that run gyms don’t necessarily support misleading customers into signing up for contracts. Instead, employees responsible for selling training packages “are not as educated as they need to be.”

Consumers, she said, aren’t as educated either about their need to understand contract terms before signing. Don’t take anyone’s word for anything, she says.

“If you don’t see it in black and white, then you shouldn’t sign,” she said.

For those who feel they were misled into signing up for long-term personal training contracts at LA Fitness or Esporta Fitness, submitting written complaints to state authorities or Better Business Bureau’s website can be an effective way to get results.

Complaints visible on Better Business Bureau’s site are typically followed with statements from the company that they allowed the customer to cancel.

After Chappelear contacted the South Florida Sun Sentinel with his complaint about Gordon’s long-term contract, Gordon received a letter from the chain stating that his request to cancel his yearlong personal training contract had been granted.

Chappelear said he wasn’t sure what prompted the turnabout. “Maybe it was the nicely worded letter I sent to the company’s general counsel,” he said.

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.

Despite continued momentum in the U.S. toward decriminalizing the drug or making it legal for medical and/or recreational use, Carnival has recently taken a sharp turn in the opposite direction by deploying drug detection dogs to deter passengers from bringing weed aboard its “fun ships.”

Dogs are routinely brought on board to inspect embarking passengers and their carry-on luggage, according to social media posts by recent cruisers.

It’s part of a new crackdown not just on weed, but on “people behaving badly” aboard cruises, Carnival CEO Christine Duffy explained in a video distributed to passengers in late February, just as spring break sailings were getting underway.

“It’s happening at stores, restaurants, sporting events, at schools, on airplanes, at theme parks, and yes, on cruise ships too,” Duffy said in the video.

Measures include adding security personnel to all of the cruise line’s ships, “and we’ve introduced narcotics-sniffing dogs at home ports to screen luggage on both a routine and random basis,” she said. “So our guests shouldn’t be surprised if they see guests come on board at both our home ports and our destination out-ports to make random searches.

“Illegal drugs, including marijuana, on cruise ships and at cruise terminals, is prohibited,” she said. While marijuana may be legal in some states, “We are required to follow federal law, irrespective of the law in the state where you may be boarding your ship,” she said.

Guests who use medical marijuana should “consult with your physician about an alternative therapy during your cruise,” she said.

“Consequences” for not complying with Carnival’s code of behavior include fines, being confined to cabins, or being removed from the ship and banned from future sailings, she said.

Other measures to deter misbehavior include a 1 a.m. youth curfew for passengers 17 and under unless with adults 21 or over and a $500 fine for fighting, unwanted touching or pushing, she said.

In addition to alerting future passengers about the heightened enforcement measures, Carnival is reinforcing the message onboard it ships in videos featuring Shaquille O’Neal, the cruise line’s “chief fun officer.”

Carnival spokesman Matt Lupoli declined to answer specific questions about the frequency of drug dog deployment, or whether specific complaints or incidents prompted the new policies.

“I can’t go into further detail because it’s part of our security operations,” Lupoli said by phone.

The drug detection dogs, first deployed last fall, are owned by Carnival, he said, and not by law enforcement agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection or the Transportation Safety Administration. Headquartered in Doral, Carnival Cruise Line currently sails from Florida ports in Miami, Brevard County, Jacksonville, and Tampa.

Though disclosed in videos this year, attention to Carnival’s use of the dogs was amplified in a recent Facebook post by John Heald, the company’s “Fun Ambassador.”

Heald disclosed that the policy was working and would continue. “Let me say that they have, along with our no-tolerance rules and enforcement, made a massive difference to the problem of people thinking it is legal and [that they are] allowed to use marijuana on their cruise. It isn’t.”

Heald continued, “These uber-intelligent and highly trained dogs are used at embarkation and occasionally, not every cruise on every ship, will sail as well with their handlers.” Passengers who are allergic to dogs need not be concerned, he said. The ships “are large enough for this not (to) be a concern.”

Responses from Heald’s Facebook followers was overwhelmingly positive.

One follower said that “the smell of weed was so strong on our balcony, on our last few cruises, that it made me nauseous to set out there.”

Another follower said, “We sailed on New Years Eve, and the smell of pot was everywhere, it was bad. We sailed again in March and the dog was there, and no smell of pot on board.”

Marijuana has always been illegal onboard ships operated by every cruise line that sails from the U.S., and likely, everywhere else in the world.

Yet on a three-night cruise to Bimini in June 2022, the smell of marijuana flower was pervasive even in Carnival Conquest’s pre-cruise check-in area, and onboard, the smell of burning weed was unmistakable from private balconies and around the ship’s outdoor smoking area.

Other major cruise lines, including Norwegian, MSC, Royal Caribbean and Virgin, did not respond to emails asking whether they also are deploying drug detection dogs. Carnival’s ticket contract, similar to other cruise lines’, states that marijuana and other controlled substances are prohibited and may not be brought on board any Carnival ship.

Guests agree that Carnival can search their cabins, luggage and personal effects “at all times and without notice” to ensure compliance. Guests who refuse such screenings or are caught with such items “may be denied boarding or disembarked” with no refund, the policy states.

Despite Carnival’s enhanced enforcement, weed users who cruise have some options.

Some states that have legalized recreational use have allowed dispensaries to open near cruise ports. Port states that allow recreational use by adults include New York, California and Alaska. A handful of international cruise destinations have also legalized weed, including Canada and Uruguay.

In January, the U.S. Virgin Islands authorized recreational and sacramental use of marijuana for anyone 21 and older.

Other nations that show up on lists of “pot-friendly” locations have varying laws that users should learn about ahead of time. In The Netherlands, for example, long famous for its tolerance to marijuana use, residents are allowed to buy and use it in certain coffee shops, but tourists legally are not.

While many Caribbean nations have begun decriminalizing marijuana, it remains illegal throughout much of the region.

Meanwhile, there’s no shortage of sellers converging on disembarked cruisers in island nations where it remains illegal, including in The Bahamas, the closest island destination for cruise lines with home ports in Florida. Would-be buyers should be extremely careful, however, as the internet is full of stories of undercover police targeting American tourists looking for weed.

Jim Walker, a Miami-based maritime attorney, scoffed at Carnival’s new drug-detection policy, noting that the cruise line, like most cruise lines, heavily promote alcohol sales. “It’s obviously geared toward making certain that the only depressants used by cruise guests is booze sold by Carnival,” Walker said in an email.

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.

What’s bad for the economy is sometimes good for motorists.

High-profile bank failures sent stock market and crude oil prices plunging last week amid renewed concerns that a global recession could be taking shape.

U.S. crude oil prices dropped about 13% over the past week, from $74.43 a barrel on March 14 to $64.54 in early morning trading on Monday. By mid-afternoon Monday, the price was hovering around $66.15.

Oil prices fell 17% over the past two weeks and oil futures were trading on Monday at their lowest prices since December 2021.

That’s a deep enough slide to put downward pressure on gas prices. According to travel club AAA’s weekly Gas Price Brief, on Monday a gallon of unleaded regular cost $3.44 nationwide, AAA statistics showed.

“There were significant losses in the oil market last week, which should enable gas prices to move lower again,” said AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins. “The failure of two U.S. banks raised concerns of a global recession that could eventually hamper fuel demand.”

As oil prices fell last week, gas prices increased in some parts of the country, including Florida, because of annual refinery maintenance and high springtime demand, AAA said. But gasoline futures — which reflect what traders believe gas will be selling for in the weeks to come — dropped 24 cents over the past two weeks.

That’s an indicator “that pump prices should move lower,” unless traders suddenly turn optimistic about the economy again, Jenkins said.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at the price-comparison website GasBuddy.com, warned that the reprieve could be short-lived. Or not.

“Should the outlook for the banking sector improve, we could again see gasoline prices race higher, while continued or additional distress could raise the possibility of a broader economic slowdown, keeping gasoline prices in check,” De Haan said in his weekly blog. “Overall, there are a lot of possibilities.”

Either way, motorists are paying less for gas right now compared to a year ago, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked fears of global oil shortages. Prices climbed rapidly after the invasion began in February, hitting $4.26 on average nationwide this time last year, then hitting a record high of $5.02 by June 14.

©2023 South Florida Sun Sentinel. Visit at sun-sentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The popular Puerto Rican rapper, singer, songwriter, actor and producer says Hialeah-based Unbranded Brewing Company is illegally using his name, image and likeness to market one of its brews.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami, Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, said the company named one of its beer products San Benito — the trademark that Ocasio uses to provide producer services.

The beer can’s design portrays a man resembling Ocasio surrounded by imagery “well known by Ocasio’s fan base as closely associated with Ocasio,” including a bunny and “third eye” symbol, the suit states.

On Tuesday, the brewery’s founder, Zachary Swanson, acknowledged that the image on the beer can resembles Ocasio and said sales of the San Benito brand has been stopped until a new design can be developed.

“So basically we have a character that looks similar to him,” said Swanson in an interview. “We’ve agreed to stop using the iconography or imagery that looks anything like Bad Bunny.”

However, Swanson said the company will continue to use the name San Benito because Ocasio has not trademarked the name in association with alcoholic beverage sales. The term refers to St. Benedict and the beer brewing tradition of the Benedictine monks, Swanson said.

Ocasio’s attorney, Karen Stetson of the law firm Gray Robinson, P.A., did not immediately respond to a request to discuss the lawsuit.

Unbranded Brewing Company’s website continued on Tuesday to display images targeted in the suit, which were also sold by the brewery on t-shirts and stickers.

Swanson said the San Benito brand was sold at its Hialeah taproom and in retail stores across Florida, including Whole Foods and Total Wine & More. The company had intended San Benito to help it break into the Puerto Rico market, where Ocasio rose to fame, Swanson said.

The brewery “never sought or obtained permission to utilize Ocasio’s name, trademark or image for any purpose,” the suit states, adding, “Moreover, [the company] never responded to [Ocasio’s] cease and desist letter.”

Swanson said his team decided to stop selling beers with Ocasio’s imagery after the lawsuit was filed on Monday. But it’s not true that the company “never responded” to the cease and desist letter sent a few weeks ago, he said.

“I asked our trademark attorney to respond and say that we needed a couple of weeks to discuss it in-house,” he said. “I don’t know why they’re claiming they did not receive that.”

According to Allmusic.com, a website chronicling the history of popular music, Bad Bunny, 27, released his first single in 2016 and gained fame collaborating with such artists as Cardi B, Drake and Daddy Yankee.

His style is described as a mixture of reggaeton and Latin trap blended with rock, soul and hip-hop.

With 35.8 million Instagram followers, Ocasio has a huge global fan base and was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, the lawsuit noted. Last December, his album “El Último Tour del Mundo” became the first album sung entirely in Spanish to reach the top of the Billboard Top 200.

He also already has a beer endorsement deal with Corona Extra. Since August 2020, he has appeared in Corona Extra commercials by himself and alongside rapper Snoop Dogg.

Ocasio was himself accused of copyright infringement in a lawsuit filed in September by BM Records. That suit claims that Ocasio, his collaborators and their business partners failed to license three samples of tracks by artist DJ Playero that appeared on the Bad Bunny single “Safaera” in 2020.