CURVES AUSTRALIA Franchise Complaints
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.
New machines now expected in all clubs. How many are going to do this? I can’t justify $20,000 when not making money.
Hey Aussie Z ……. I am hearing you , but I’m pretty comfortable with the plan I have ready to put in place. I was lucky, the CS came with the club I bought so I was not out of pocket when I got the Mytrak guys to come and get it. At the end of the day I would have been happy to stay with Curves as my little club is nice and profitable , but when they started with this lastest rubbish about new machines etc …… well GOODBYE CURVES !!
I emailed my gym to cancel my membership as i felt i would be bullied into staying with them and i wanted to have all conversations documented.
I asked them to email me my contract as i had missplaced mine and to stop my direct debit, which i also asked them to let me know how much a cancelation fee would be as i understood there would be some fee involved.
I have not heard back from them in 3 and a half months now as they continue to debit from my account.
Dear Anon are you talking about a Curves club? If so stop your direct debits yourself with your bank and go into see the manager of the gym with a copy of the email you sent and ask them for a refund of the 3 and a half months worth of direct debits they have taken.
Hi all another 7 clubs have closed in Australia in the last month. Thats a huge number considering that we only have 8 states & territories that leaves them with only 213 clubs left in Aus.
……… Yep Aussie Z , they are dropping like flies now. I am predicting that they will be down to about 180 clubs nationwide by the end of 2014 ??
I have contacted this gym months ago to cancel membership. I am still being charged each month and direct debited out of my account. When I called today the owner said their is no note of that. Misleading when I joined. Advised was for 6 months and could opt out. They do not have open hours I can physically make when working full time in the city. This office is dodgy and unprofessional, rude workers. Would never recommend dandenong or any other curve or that matter. Since they are individually owned you are never going to get a standardized level of customer service they can get away with treating you poorly.
Curves in the UK is just as bad and also in the US. What started as a great concept has become a plane crash. SHAME on Heavin and all those associated at any management level at any time. Greedy self serving liars.
Hello fellow Aussie franchise closers.. I bought my club in July 2009 & closed in October 2012 due to failing membership & rent increases. I tried to stay open but couldn’t take the strain anymore. I hadn’t been paid since I bought the business. I had no help from CI or the area directors. They just said “do more advertising, move to a different location”. Yeah right… I had lots of threatening letters, emails & phone calls. I owe them over $80k in future royalties???? good luck with getting that. I am glad that I am not the only one who struggles everyday with the fact that I dissapointed my members. One of my members did move to another club just as I was closing but then that club closed a few weeks later!!! Is anyone out there making any money from their business? I would love to hear from other owners who had to close at [redacted] Together we can beat them.
Just one more thing, I did a search today & there are only 203 clubs left in Australia. When I bought my club in 2009 there were 272.
I hope all of you ex owners managed to have a stress free christmas just remember we are all here for each other and together we are stronger. You weren’t far wrong Jeff with your prediction there are only 200 as of today in Aus.
Can anyone tell me how long a franchise agreement is in Australia? And the cost of terminating early? I am looking at buying a curves but am not looking to continue with the curves franchise….I just want the gym to start my own.
Thanks in advance.
Leonie, I believe that the agreement has been changed from 10 years to 5 but Im not a 100% as I have been out of Curves for nearly 3 years and my agreement was for 10 years.The cost of terminating early was calculated on the maximum franchise royalties and the maximum advertising royalties for the remainder of your agreement. That is what pushed alot of us over the edge it worked out to be thousands. If you purchase a Curves you are bound by all their rules and regs, if you decide to close down they will demand that the machines are scrapped or disposed of and they will ask for proof so there is no way you can use there equipment under a different name. Trust me if it were possible we would have all done it to recoup some of our lost money.
I like to keep tabs on how fast curves clubs are closing down, checked today and there are only 188 clubs left in Australia. NSW lost the most with 8 clubs closing, then VIC with 3 and QLD, SA & WA 1 each.
I can’t believe that this many Australians have been conned into this so called franchise . I have never heard of it before today but it seems to have scam written all over it…? how can you pay royalties to some American organisation that obviously could not give two hoots about one small business in Australia. Next time try investing in local business & people instead of giving your money away to ass heads. My question is why would you pay for this franchise when you could have set up a independent gym … what made this scam a winner in your eyes…?