Clients hoping for a refund appear to be in for a long wait.

AUBURN – Diane Woods visited LA Weight Loss Center last Friday to get weighed, just like normal.

On Monday, her next check-in day, the Center Street shop was gone.

She prepaid for a year’s services in January. Woods and several former customers are wondering where their money went.

Gail Nowak, who owned three diet centers in Auburn, Manchester and South Portland, closed them early this week without notice.

The corporate office in Pennsylvania is giving out the franchisee’s number and the name of her attorney. Calls to Nowak went unanswered. A receptionist for attorney Barry Schklair said he would not be giving interviews.

Woods used to duck over to the weight loss center on her lunch hour. She had a co-worker join and pay in full last month.

“You know I’ve tried many diets and this is the first one to work for me,” she said.

The center offered nutritional counseling and weigh-ins three times a week. It sold videos and snacks.

Membership fees were based on how much a person had to lose, said Kathleen Cyr, another former member. It worked out to about $10 a week.

“They had really wonderful people working there,” said Cyr, of Lewiston. “We had no indication of any problems before the doors closed.”

The Attorney General’s Office has recieved 16 complaints, according to Linda Conti, assistant attorney general.

Questionnaires have gone out and interviews will be done to see how much people paid, she said. “We’ll try to get them their money back. If we can’t, we’ll see what we can do.”

In a statement through its public relations firm, LA Weight Loss said it would look for another buyer to reopen the shops. Corporate policy in these cases is to have the franchisee refund clients’ money or transfer memberships to the nearest shop.

There are no other LA Weight Loss Centers in Maine.

“There’s nothing worse than a woman on a diet than an angry woman on a diet,” said Eva Frank, a client of the diet center in Portland. She’s trying to gather names and numbers of other members, believing they may have more clout to get their money back if they work together.

She spoke to a woman Thursday who’d prepaid $300 for nutritional bars just last week. Frank figured the Portland franchise had 125 members, the other two centers less.

Frank can be reached at 712-5337.

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