Comments on: CURVES: Complaints of Unauthorized Membership Charges http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-complaints-of-unauthorized-membership-charges/ The uncensored truth about franchises... from those who own them. Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:04:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Carol http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-complaints-of-unauthorized-membership-charges/comment-page-1/#comment-17270 Carol Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:50:10 +0000 http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-complaints-of-unauthorized-membership-charges/#comment-17270 Wow! It is amazing how everyone seems to have their own explanation of the 12 month agreement. We do "read" to our customers the clause about the membership continuing on until a 30 day written notice, but at no time did I see that this was a 2 yr. agreement. We have members who are working out that have been here since we opened in 2003 and they have never even questioned what or when their membership was over. But, on the other side of the coin, we do have members who have come once and awhile and some who haven't been here for some time and are still being drafted. Members receive a bank statement just as I do. Who doesn't look at their statement? It amazes me!!! Ocassionally, we archieve some of the ladies who aren't showing up without them cancelling. We do, however, put a note on their file screen that they did not cancel just incase they return so that they can be kept at the $29.00 fee. By the way.........We always followed Curves policy of $29 and $39. When Curves Smart came we went to $34 and $44 and, of course, those not doing Curves Smart stayed at the grandfather payment of $29. Wow! It is amazing how everyone seems to have their own explanation of the 12 month agreement. We do “read” to our customers the clause about the membership continuing on until a 30 day written notice, but at no time did I see that this was a 2 yr. agreement. We have members who are working out that have been here since we opened in 2003 and they have never even questioned what or when their membership was over. But, on the other side of the coin, we do have members who have come once and awhile and some who haven’t been here for some time and are still being drafted. Members receive a bank statement just as I do. Who doesn’t look at their statement? It amazes me!!! Ocassionally, we archieve some of the ladies who aren’t showing up without them cancelling. We do, however, put a note on their file screen that they did not cancel just incase they return so that they can be kept at the $29.00 fee. By the way………We always followed Curves policy of $29 and $39. When Curves Smart came we went to $34 and $44 and, of course, those not doing Curves Smart stayed at the grandfather payment of $29.

]]> By: unhappy http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-complaints-of-unauthorized-membership-charges/comment-page-1/#comment-16592 unhappy Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:09:19 +0000 http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-complaints-of-unauthorized-membership-charges/#comment-16592 Believe it or not that is how all health clubs work. Most of the clubs have you sign a contract which is binding and you are not allowed to quit. Even if you quit coming you are still obligated to pay and most will take you to collections if your automatic draft is returned. Most of the abuses with curves comes when a member sends in a written notice to cancel and the owner doesn't cancel the draft. It does happen but to what degree I don't know but it is not policy. No Curves does not recommend that you call attention to the actual terms of the agreement but as an owner most do or I should say we always did and we insisted that all trainers when signing up a member had the member initial the clauses in the contract where it states that the cancellation must be in writing and the buy out fee. Not all owners do that and Curves International does not instruct owners to do that which they should. Believe it or not that is how all health clubs work. Most of the clubs have you sign a contract which is binding and you are not allowed to quit. Even if you quit coming you are still obligated to pay and most will take you to collections if your automatic draft is returned. Most of the abuses with curves comes when a member sends in a written notice to cancel and the owner doesn’t cancel the draft. It does happen but to what degree I don’t know but it is not policy. No Curves does not recommend that you call attention to the actual terms of the agreement but as an owner most do or I should say we always did and we insisted that all trainers when signing up a member had the member initial the clauses in the contract where it states that the cancellation must be in writing and the buy out fee. Not all owners do that and Curves International does not instruct owners to do that which they should.

]]> By: guest http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-complaints-of-unauthorized-membership-charges/comment-page-1/#comment-16582 guest Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:26:32 +0000 http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-complaints-of-unauthorized-membership-charges/#comment-16582 "With Curves the member signs what they believe is a one year membership agreement but in reality it is automatically renewed each year unless the member sends in a written notice. Other wise the automatic draft from their account (PAC) continues for two years." Does Curves encourage franchisees not to do anything that would call attention to the actual terms of the agreement? At what point do club owners realize that part of their revenue is going to be fees members don't know they're paying or are obligated to pay? This sounds like a classic scam where the victims are complicit in some shady dealings. “With Curves the member signs what they believe is a one year membership agreement but in reality it is automatically renewed each year unless the member sends in a written notice. Other wise the automatic draft from their account (PAC) continues for two years.”

Does Curves encourage franchisees not to do anything that would call attention to the actual terms of the agreement? At what point do club owners realize that part of their revenue is going to be fees members don’t know they’re paying or are obligated to pay?

This sounds like a classic scam where the victims are complicit in some shady dealings.

]]> By: unhappy http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-complaints-of-unauthorized-membership-charges/comment-page-1/#comment-16576 unhappy Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:18:20 +0000 http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-complaints-of-unauthorized-membership-charges/#comment-16576 There are a lot of curves owners now days that don't follow what use to curves policy of not trying to collect bad checks or accounts with a past due balance from members who have quit coming in to work out. They are even bragging and posting on the other site about charging 25 dollars for returned checks plus a bank fee which only hurts all curves owners as the members tend to talk to other women and word of mouth is of course the best form of advertising when its positive not negative. He uses the excuse that its a business and his money and that the members that do that are dead beats and can't talk and chew gum at the same time. But in reality all he is doing hurting all of then Curves reputation and acting like Howie. There are a lot of curves owners now days that don’t follow what use to curves policy of not trying to collect bad checks or accounts with a past due balance from members who have quit coming in to work out. They are even bragging and posting on the other site about charging 25 dollars for returned checks plus a bank fee which only hurts all curves owners as the members tend to talk to other women and word of mouth is of course the best form of advertising when its positive not negative. He uses the excuse that its a business and his money and that the members that do that are dead beats and can’t talk and chew gum at the same time. But in reality all he is doing hurting all of then Curves reputation and acting like Howie.

]]> By: unhappy http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-complaints-of-unauthorized-membership-charges/comment-page-1/#comment-16575 unhappy Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:08:42 +0000 http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/curves-complaints-of-unauthorized-membership-charges/#comment-16575 I can tell you from experience that the practice that is mentioned in the last paragraph is what I believe to be a common practice in all health and fitness clubs where a contract is signed and not a month to month membership. With Curves the member signs what they believe is a one year membership agreement but in reality it is automatically renewed each year unless the member sends in a written notice. Other wise the automatic draft from their account (PAC) continues for two years. While Curves contract is a binding agreement the same as most health clubs for the two year term it has always been the rule that the member can quit but must pay a cancellation fee of ten dollars per month up to fifty dollars for the months that they were members. I don't believe that many owners charge after the member has officially quit by handing in a written notice but I'm sure it does happen. I do know from our experience with closing a club that some laddies are unaware of how the billing cycle goes as we had one women complain about paying for a month that she has stated she didn't get the service as we closed right after her fees were deducted from her account. She stated that she had put a stop payment on the account at her bank. I don't believe that was the case as we had no returned charges the last month that the club was open and we haven't heard anything about it since. We did explain to all our members that the payment deducted from their accounts that last month was for that month even though it was drawn on the 20th of the month. We always did billing on the 5th and the 20th of each month for the month that it was drawn on. I would be more concerned about the membership prepays that each owner has that closed and if they were refunded or transferred to another club and if the prepay was honored at the club the member transferred too. I can tell you from experience that the practice that is mentioned in the last paragraph is what I believe to be a common practice in all health and fitness clubs where a contract is signed and not a month to month membership. With Curves the member signs what they believe is a one year membership agreement but in reality it is automatically renewed each year unless the member sends in a written notice. Other wise the automatic draft from their account (PAC) continues for two years. While Curves contract is a binding agreement the same as most health clubs for the two year term it has always been the rule that the member can quit but must pay a cancellation fee of ten dollars per month up to fifty dollars for the months that they were members. I don’t believe that many owners charge after the member has officially quit by handing in a written notice but I’m sure it does happen. I do know from our experience with closing a club that some laddies are unaware of how the billing cycle goes as we had one women complain about paying for a month that she has stated she didn’t get the service as we closed right after her fees were deducted from her account. She stated that she had put a stop payment on the account at her bank. I don’t believe that was the case as we had no returned charges the last month that the club was open and we haven’t heard anything about it since. We did explain to all our members that the payment deducted from their accounts that last month was for that month even though it was drawn on the 20th of the month. We always did billing on the 5th and the 20th of each month for the month that it was drawn on. I would be more concerned about the membership prepays that each owner has that closed and if they were refunded or transferred to another club and if the prepay was honored at the club the member transferred too.

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