Complaint Review: Stretch U - Jake Horton - San Diego California

I was FRAUDULENTLY billed 4 separate charges of $225.00 over a 4 month period for a total of $900.00. Jake (Joe) Horton is running a SCAM at Stretch U and is FRAUDULENTLY signing customers up on RECURRING MONTHLY MEMBERSHIPS WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT. Furthermore, he writes CONTRACTS in the name of MINOR’S (my 14 year old son), and then THREATENS AND BULLYS the customer into not disputing the credit card charges. The complete details of the Stretch U scam is below:

On a training session at PROTEUS/Velocity in 4S Ranch, my son was approached by Sophia, a salesperson/therapist of Stretch U and she offered him a “10 session stretching package”. (To the best of my knowledge, Stretch U rents space within the Proteus/Velocity gym facility and is a separate business from Proteus/Velocity). Sophia as well gave me a one page flyer that advertised an introductory 10 session stretch offer. I agreed to a 10 stretch session, not a recurring monthly billing and in fact confirmed with Sophia that:

1. This would be 10 sessions only (including a couple of free sessions for signing up that day), and
2. That the sessions did not expire in 30 days

Sophia held HER COMPANY (iPad type) computer tablet and “went through” several sections of the Stretch U agreement, apparently clicking and acknowledging items unbeknownst to me or my son. At all times Sophia held her COMPANY COMPUTER TABLET and completed all the acknowledgements on that TABLET (neither I nor my son utilized our smart phones during this process to acknowledge or sign any agreement). Stretch U would have record of the IP Address used to sign their agreement, and that IP Address will show that it was their device that was used to sign, not mine nor my sons. Neither I nor my 14 year old son ever agreed to a recurring membership, never signed for a recurring membership, and was never told it was a recurring membership – it was sold to us as a finite number of stretching sessions.

A copy of the “agreement” provided as proof by Jake (Joe), should be considered invalid as that contract was made out to a MINOR, my 14 year old son. My 14 year old son never signed the agreement, so he never consented to any agreement nor a membership (of the 10+ sessions, my son only used 5). And I, never did sign or agree to a recurring membership.

Moreover, nowhere in that agreement is there language that asks the parent to attest to the fact that they authorize and agree to the contract, which would allow a minor to enter into and sign, the contract. My 14 year old son never signed the contract and I never consented to allow my son to enter into a contract.

And to be clear, that “agreement page” on Sophia’s “tablet” was never shown to me nor to my son, and the “scribble” that is below the invalid contract was not signed by me nor by my son, the only other explanation is that the holder/user/owner of the computer tablet, (Sophia) signed “with her finger, on the tablet screen” that section (the IP address is PROOF that it was HER tablet that was used).

We NEVER received any receipt for any of the sessions. No monthly email was ever sent alerting us to the upcoming recurring monthly payment from this “internet” based transaction, so we had no knowledge that charges continued to occur. The only emails we received were emails from Stretch U inviting us back in for a stretch- that’s it.

So, the “Modus Operandi” of Stretch U is to lie to prospects about a recurring membership (they do not say anything about a recurring membership and the subsequent charges) while the salesperson holds the “Stretch U company tablet” and goes through the pages, concealing aspects of their membership scam. When you complete your full investigation you will see that there are multiple “pages” that are concealed to the consumer and if a page exists about a recurring membership you will find that it is HIDDEN from the consumer and acknowledged/signed by not the consumer but by the salesperson.

Jake Horton’s LIES AND THREATS made to me apparently is an old trick, as he has been, and is, the threatening individual. It took a quick search in Google “Stretch U complaints” to see a previous complaint on Ripoff Report from 2014 confirming Jake Horton’s threatening behavior, that user wrote “My attempts to amicably resolve this issue with the alleged owner have been met by bizarre threats and unprofessional behavior.” (Report: #1176220). My experience was very similar to the person that wrote that complaint titled “Stretch U Bait and Switch San Diego California”.

Desired Outcome:

Jake (Joe) Horton of "Stretch U" needs to refund me the $900.00 he fraudulently billed me. He needs to STOP ripping off people in our community. If he signs up people on a recurring monthly plan, he needs to verbally explain what he is attempting to do and then get the customers approval IN WRITING, CLEARLY STATING IN EASY TO READ LANGUAGE AND LARGE FONT that he will be charging them monthly on a membership. Stretch U needs to STOP writing contracts to minors as he did to my son.