CURVES AUSTRALIA Franchise Complaints
February 22, 2012
Are you familiar with the Curves franchise program in Australia?
Please share what you know with a comment below.
In the past, UnhappyFranchisee.com has focused its reporting on the troubles of U.S. Curves franchisees.
(Read CURVES: Robert Lay’s Story – 1000+ comments – Or CURVES: Curves Posts on Unhappy Franchisee for a complete list of posts)
Frankly, we don’t know how exactly the Curves franchise operates in Australia.
We have heard that more than 52 Curves franchises have closed since 2010.
We do know that more than 60 Curves in Australia are for sale on the BuyCurves.com resale website.
And we know one more thing: We get lots of emails from Curves franchisees in Australia that mirror the complaints of Curves everywhere else:
- Complete lack of support.
- Corporate indifference to the plight of franchisees struggling to survive.
- Cold calculated legal demands forcing clubs to close and pay damages and future royalties, even from franchisees who have lost everything.
Aussie Z wrote:
I wish I never heard of Curves and Gary Heavin… Things were going great for the first 18 months then things started going down hill, repeatedly emailed CI for some sort of help got nothing. Then Curves Smart came and I borrowed more money as Curves said this would really make my club profitable. What a crock. Just meant I am in more debt.
Cornered Gary at Convention and he promised that when he got back to America he would get in touch with me to see what he could do to help. LIAR he never did. I am now on the verge of having to bankrupt myself so I hope Gary and CI are proud of themselves. So much for the god fearing person he portrays himself to be. Made me sick to see him on “Secret Millionaire” giving away thousands of dollars to strangers and wont do anything to help the people who made him rich in the first place.
When I started my curves up there was over 400 in Australia now there are 273 clubs left. One regional club couldn’t even give her club away for $1 so she just closed down as well. Very very sad.
Dont get sucked in by the hype. Certainly don’t help Gary get any richer.
A rural Australian Curves owner complains of the lack of support and threat of termination:
I bought a Curves resale in rural Australia. it wasn’t doing well mainly due to the owner at the time, she did a lot of damage and I’ve been trying to rebuild it. I have continually asked Curves for support during this time but NOTHING. So my issue is mainly with the royalty / ad fee repayments. Some months go through others don’t from lack of members (financials). So they now issued me with a pay $8000 you owe us on 10 days or your agreement will be terminated.
Another Australian Curves owner emailed us:
… I am in the same situation as everyone else who has purchased Curves, and has encountered their unprofessionalism…
I live in Australia, and I have been forced to terminate my franchisees, and havebeen sent a letter from a Law Firm in Melbourne, Australia.
Last year we were forced to be closed for some time due to a natural disaster, and since then we have fallen behind in royalty fees etc….
I have just received a letterlast Friday (27th August) from a Law firm in Melbourne, Victoria, stating that I need to close my clubs ASAP, and also pay then a huge amount of money, including future royalty fees.
I cannot offer any money as I am broke..
“A Desperate Aussie” wrote:
I am from Australia and things are not good here.
Tried to get assistance from CI to consolidate 2 clubs into a single club that may have a chance of surviving. 2 clubs will certainly both fail and very soon, so we are closing one immediately.
We have paid royalties for 3 years from the closing club and 2 years for the one that may survive BUT CI (Jim J and Gary H have both said that population is large enough to support 2 clubs and will not allow us to consolidate. They just say sell one and concentrate on the other. If the closed club were to be resold then the 2 clubs would fail quickly.
We need support and asked for their help and had the door slammed in our face. The population figures they use to justify a viable club is so out of date and does not in any way reflect the environment clubs operate in these days.
We are frightened that CI will access all our funds and force us into Bankruptsy.
I know of several other clubs that are in big trouble also and will have to close sooner that later. CI just does not care. When you no longer supply funds to them they just want you to sell your franchise. It is all about keeping the cash rolling in and to hell with the damaged lives that lay in the wake of the failed businesses.
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE CURVES FRANCHISE IN AUSTRALIA? PLEASE SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS, OPINIONS OR INFORMATION BELOW.
Comments
34 Responses to “CURVES AUSTRALIA Franchise Complaints”
Have just had my tax return done and recorded a loss of $19000 for the last financial year. Its great to be at Curves.
Whats the deal with Curves wanting all the curves smart equipment back if you close your club. We all paid good money for that and some of us took out loans, and when we bought our franchises didn’t we pay for the 8 pieces of equipment, and then have to purchase the rest out of our own pocket, Over my dead body will they get it back for nothing, so they can sell it again to someone else. Is this even legal.
After reading these comments I am ashamed to even be associated with Curves. We are told that WE ARE NICE PEOPLE well its about time Gary showed some compassion and treated his franchisees with some respect. If clubs are closing down it is because they DONT have the money to continue, which means they DONTt have the money to repay huge royatlies bills and exit fees. Why would Gary want to see us go into bankruptcy, he must remember what it was like when he didnt have a penny to rub together. Why doesn’t he take the money owed out of our Advertising royalties which we have paid. Where does that money go I have seen any advertising in my area for a long time. I think it is about time we aussies stuck together remember WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER and started a class action here. ANybody know a good lawyer that would want to take it on?
Dear Desperate Aussie, get as many of the other clubs as you can to speak their mind on this forum. The more we can get the more ammunition we will have against the might Gary (Howie) Heavin.
Is there anyone out there who is prepared to go on Today Tonight and speak on behalf of all the franchisees that have been burnt by Gary (Howie) Heavin.
[...] CURVES AUSTRALIA Franchise Complaints February 22, 2012 [...]
Well the time has come for me to make that decision do I stay open or do I close down. What a hard decision but I can’t keep running at a loss. No hope of selling a business that doesn’t make a profit. So I am stuck with a hefty bank loan to repay plus whatever CI decide to charge me. Oh joy its so great to be at Curves.
Who is Chip Baird? Does he think that he is going to save Curves, Nothing is going to change, the hole that has been dug is to big to fix. So Gary and Diane are taking a step back well it seems to me it is like a rat deserting a sinking ship, he’s been burned a couple of times I am sure he doesn’t want to go there again. But where does that leaves all of us owners who are scraping the bottom of the barrell financially. I will soon be out of the Curves web and feel like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Financially screwed but I will now have a life.
Does this new company thats taken over Curves really think that they can fix the problems. They say they want to make the clubs more proftiable for the franchisees, the only way a club can be profitable is to have more members. If they put the monthly fee up that will only cause members to leave so how are they going to do this. Gary and Diane still on the board (heaven help us). Another 6 clubs in Western Australia disappeared off the curves location website since 30th July 2012. Australia is now down to 279 clubs was at 400. Seems to me that Curves is the fastest failing franchise in the world.
To the administrator:- I emailed you with comments for your website regarding Australian franchisees of Curves as well as a request regarding the contact details of aussie z. I spoke to my accountant yesterday and hope to see my solicitor again next week so we can start to make a plan to shut down. Please email me as above ASAP.
Thanks.
I am a Curves Franchisee in Australia and like so many, I am seriously thinking of closing the doors and walking away. I would like to contact some of the other franchisees in Australia who are in a similar situation to see how I might best get out of it. I understand that privacy is a priority but are you able to request that they contact me? I would particularly like to hear from aussie z because she seems to have gone through the process fairly recently and so would have up to date info for me.
If you would like to be put in touch with another commenter, please email me at unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com. Thanks – ADMIN
I have just had a letter couried to my home from CI telling me that I owe $65,000, back on the 18th July it was only $17,000 (go figure). I have sent off my franchise agreement and all relevant paperwork pertaining to the closure of my club to a franchise lawyer if anyone out there wishes to get in touch with the same laywer please get in touch with me.
I’ve lost everything – I had a Curves in New Zealand and Heaving sold me a turkey – God help all Franchise owners
Waynetta you are not alone. Most of us have lost everything. But hopefully we can legally get back something. Feel free to contact me via the admin of this website.
Please is there anyone out there who would like to join me in suing Curves. I have lost over a million $ to them (home I owned for 25 years, apartment, block of land and inheritance money) their bullying made me keep my clubs open with threats to take legal action . They are nasty and so out of touch with today.
I’m a single mother with a 3 year daughter, we now live in a derelict house. I told Curves all this as I begged them to let me close 2 of my clubs “of course you can if you $50.000 for each one” I didnt even get a reply when I told them about my situation just send the money.
I’ve tried for the last 3 month to give my clubs away but no-one wants a Curves and I’m stuck with the leases I cant pay and Curves couldn’t careless. It’s lack of duty of care.
I would be more than happy to go on today tonite any of the shows I could get on and expose them for what they really are. The new people can’t change Curves is to outdated and we will be the ones to pay for anything new. There is so much more I could write.
We are closing our club the end of this year. Would anyone that donated their equipment to a non-profit let me know how you got CI to approve., ASAP.
We have a non-profit adult day care we would like to donate too and they would sure like the equipment.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you
Teejay pls contact me via the admin of this site. I can help you.
Aussie z. would like to know who your franchise lawyer is. Were contacted by debt collector in Western Australia. They had no success negiotiating with CI so they closed our case. Now we are being harrassed directly from some legal mob in America
Cheers
Deborah pls contact me thru the admin of this website. Have a lot to share.
Aussie z I’m glad to see you found a good lawyer I did also. Hope all goes well for you. I lost your email but I didn’t get any response from you on the last 2 emails
More club in Oz have closed down and lots more up for sale. I haven’t heard from CI since August last year I know that they will eventually catch up with me BUT at the moment I am trying not to think about Curves at all. I am still offering advice to other club owners who are at a loss to know what to do next. I have ONE big piece of advice for you DO NOT let CI bully you into doing anything. If well all stick together and DO NOT give into them we will come out on top because after all we are nice people, and we have done nothing wrong.
To all the clubs that have been affected by the dreadful flooding in Qld and NSW I hope that CI offer you some relief in regards to your royalties. As one owner mentioned on this forum that they fell behind in their royalties due to the time that they were closed due to a natural disaster in 2011-2012. CI didn’t care or have any empathy for that club.
In Holland the situation is as bad as everywhere else. One club closing after the other. But what strikes me most is: club owners rat each other out to Curves constantly. Unbelievable! Why?! In stead of supporting each other we ruin each other. And Curves Europe laughs. It saves them a lot of trouble.
Hi everyone has anyone else been shut down by ezidebit. Last week my manager got to work and found all my members from 3 clubs had been cancelled out of my ezidebit system. I called ezidebit and they said that curves told them to cancel all my members and they did!!!!!. I have managed to get one club back but only to be told that I MUST sell it in 3 months I not allowed to keep it even if I wanted to. The clubs were to close IMMEDIATELY not one month not 2 weeks but that day.
Amy wrote to me and told me to pay a member who had written to her and also cc her when I write to the member I, of course wrote back stating, “HOW you have cut off my ezidebit”!
So beware owners as it seems ezidebit is on curves side.
Sharon, in the united states we are not familiar with ezidebit…..why is curves shutting that down, why are your members cancelled? Why are you told to sell in 3 months? Are they doing this because you didnt comply with their requirements? Im wondering what is happening, and I wish you all the best!
Sharon, What the !!!, Is ezi debit now a subsidiary of CI. What right does CI have to contact ezidebit and have them cancel all of your direct debits I thought ezi debit worked for us. When I closed down ezi debit wouldn’t do anything I had to cancel all the members direct debits myself. I wonder what the hell they are playing at. The club that you managed to get back belongs to you, if CI is forcing you to sell then I would be asking CI for the any monies that you might be out of pocket if you are unable to sell within that 3 month period and CI then force you to close down. What a crock. Just a bit of trivial information there are 674 clubs worldwide on the buy curves website, that doesn’t include ones that aren’t on it or the ones that have closed down already. I would be really interested to find out if anyone knows of territories being resold once a club in that territory has closed down.
Hi Aussie Z good to hear from you. CI or ezidedebit has no right to what they did and everyone ive told here is dumbfounded. Im off to a lawyer monday with my ezidebit contract which has nothing in there about letting curves cancel my ezidebit. At this moment im going after ezidebit and moving all my members to another company. Ive already written to a lawyer in the states. Will keep you posted.
Whilst I was going thru the closing bullshit with CI I became very angry with all the procedures that CI wanted me to do especially the part relating to the equipment. As I have said before we all paid thousands of dollars for them so I didn’t just want to dump them, for a brief moment I thought about opening up another gym and calling it something else, so I got in touch with Mytrak to see if I could purchase the equipment that made up “CS” to use in another gym. Imagine my surprise when the quote came thru and it was only $3123.80 for exactly the same thing minus the “Curves Smart” written on them. So that is a huge profit for CI as they probably negotiated a price with Mytrak for buying so many. Like probably many of you I had to get a loan to purchase my CS equipment as it cost me $15,000.00. Once again we have all been sucked in and ripped off by CI.
Hi aussiez . We closed our club down last Feb 2012 and in the beginning of this year we have been getting letters from a debt collection office in Perth telling us we have to pay the money we owe. When we informed them we can’t as we have no jobs they told us to get a loan what the !!!! WHO will lend us money without out a job. Have read you have gotten advice from a lawyer can you share that advice. We really can’t afford to see a lawyer.
Hi Vicki can u get my email address off the admin for this site and I will gladly share with you.
I don’t know what is going on with the Curves locations website but according to it, as of today there has been another 29 clubs close down in Australia since the 7th Feb 2013. Thats huge.
Just found out that another club owner has had to file for bankruptcy WHAT A SHAME. How can CI live with themselves. Bankruptcy seems to be the road a lot of ex owners or even current owners that are going thru hard times seem to be taking. Not only have we all lost lots of money from our experience with CI now some of us have to have bankruptcy hanging over our heads for the next 5 years or more. Its a very sad place to be in. If anyone would like to get in touch with me I have the name of a lawyer in Australia that is willing to take CI on.
Just wondering if I could get a direct email address for monty sharma or Charles Baird ? I want to send a letter with a petition and letters from my members for change. I can’t get it on their site but if anyone in America has this opportunity to call north castle partners and get an email address this would be greatly appreciated. We need to the changes that the plan for curves to happen now not a year down the track .
Well just heard that CI have brought out Mytrak. I wonder what that will mean for curves franchisees. Whether the monthly fee that was paid to mytrak now being paid to CI will go up or down. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
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