I find this very out of charicter for RAC. I was taking my OW lessons from them at the same time as this post and I bought my boots, mask, and snorkel, but I was unsure about fins. They let me try two different fins (cheap ones and $$ ones). After trying both of them on my first two classes, I purchased the $$ ones. It seems like the price and quality is similar to leasure pro and I have seen more complaints about them. They also told me they give you a discount on the service if you buy the gear from them.
In any case it is kind of odd that they did that, I am planning on buying a dive package from them. If after spending close to $3k at the store if they want to charge me for trying on a wetsuit, I would give them a piece of my mind. If I am going to cheap out, I will buy the cheap stuff that I don't care about i.e. slate, weights, etc.
I took my class around the same time as this post (last two weeks of June)
Have you done stuff with them before or purchased before? Maybe since I paid for the class, masks, boots, and snorkle they didn't charge me for trying out their fins.