CURVES franchise owners don’t get a helping hand when they fail. No thank you card or best wishes. Just legal threats and a demand for tens of thousands of dollars.
Curves has new ownership, but not much has changed in the lack-of-compassion department.
Curves franchise owners who are unable to save their failing clubs (more than half of Curves clubs have failed) still should not expect a helping hand from Curves International.
They shouldn’t expect a nice letter thanking them for building the Curves brand, for paying years of royalties, for enabling Gary Heavin to strut like an altruistic peacock on national TV and cash out with an untold fortune.
What they can expect is a legal demand for the future royalties they would have had to pay if they hadn’t run out of money and could stay open to the end of their contract.
And they can expect Curves International to tell them they don’t actually own the equipment they paid for, and they should return it.
aussie z wrote:
Well I closed my club at the end of June, 4 years prior to the end of my agreement.
I did everything that CI wanted me to do in regards to closing.
I did not give them my equipment or CS [Curves Smart]I figured that I paid good money for it so I will do what I want with it.
I received a letter of demand for $64,000 to be paid within 7 days (what a joke).
I asked them to review this amount as I had no money, I then got another email telling me the figure was now $17,000, again I explained that I had no money and then a month later I got a letter delivered to my home signed by a person I have never heard of in the 6 years I have been dealing with Curves (must be from the new people who have taken over) telling me that I owe $64,000 again.
I sent an email to this person and have not heard anything since, it has now been a month since I received that letter.
I know that this will not be the last I hear from them but they will not be getting a red cent out of me. The restraints they put on you regarding getting rid of the equipment is ridiculous, there is no brand name on the equipment so what right do they have?
If they want my CS they can pay me the $12,000 I paid for it. I will not let CI bully me into anything and I will help anyone else who is being bullied by them. They need to be stopped.
In Australia we have gone from over 400 clubs in 2006 to 283 in 2012 with still many in the process of closing. I think that Curves has run its course over here and I would encourage any owner who has a profitable club to try and get rid of it before its too late. CI are putting to much emphasis on Curves Complete, I personally think it is a rip off. None of the members I had would have been able to afford the $199-$299.
I am so stressless since closing my club BUT I do miss my incredible members everyday.
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Does anybody know if anything came out of the group law suits mr Gardner? My heart breaks when i read all the stories. They're my story. aAthough some have had the luck of experiencing peak moments with the club and the memberships. Unfortunately with me that never happend. after two years i am still struggling with a very high attrition rate. Of course Curves points at me - we do not follow the system. yeah right. But almost every member that cancells tells us 'it is not you - we love you guys!'. They just don't want to prioritize excercise. (Most of my women are quite young, working full time, with kids from 1 to 11 or so) And if I would leave them alone, they would just pay their dues for years on end. But my fantastic Curves system tells me to contact them. And I do. Knowing that somewhere in the next days I will receive a letter or a mail cancelling the membership. Believe me, I do feel it's still the right thing to do. Life is expensive enough as it is. But with such a high attrition rate it's undoable to reach a healthy membership level. Especially considering the organization cost. Curves approved a location that was way too expensive. They knew. I did not. I am heading for bankruptcy. Even though I have been doing everything in my power to improve the results. It's devastating. I love my club. I love my members. But I know I will going to have to say goodbeye to them soon. That's why I am really interested to know if anything came out of the law suits. Does anybody know?
Dear flabergasted, I know that one club is currently using
attorney gardner right now. It is still in process and there hasnt been any final outcome yet. This is the first case of dealing with the new company so it is a different ball game. If you want to contact admin on this site and get my email I can keep you informed as to how this is going. I know what you are going through, i bought in at a bad time, and like you I havent enjoyed any good times either...also I feel I wasnt given an accurate picture regarding the memberships on the books or curves demands and expectations, if I had been given the facts I would not have purchased it!! It is heartbreaking to see all the devastation that continues to go on for years in the lives of these owners.
Hi everyone, have been reading your stories and thought you should hear mine. I bought 4 curves right at the beginning and enjoyed about max 3 years of profits and great times, after about that long things started to go bad. I started to get loans to pay curves what they demanded then I had to start selling my properties to try to keep up with it all. I tried very hard to sell 3 of them and couldnt. I then started to beg curves to let me shut down 2 of them (as I managed to sell one in the end.) the 2 clubs were bleeding my dry and also my club which was doing well. I think for 3 years I beg them to let me shut down but I just got the same old letter if I pay xxx amount I could. I also told them I was a single mother and had lost everything, that didnt matter at all. Last year I had to sell my home of 30 years to pay the leases which I had to renew as I couldnt shut down. The best is yet to come because I havent been able to pay the royalties, they, last week cut off my ezidebit and ezdebit allowed them to do it, woke up one morning and all the members had been cancelled out of my system, I hadnt been informed at all that this was going to happen, I was on holiday when my manager had to call and let me know. My one club has over 300members and is my life line but that was to be shut down IMMEDIATELY not in one month or 2 weeks immediately!!!!.
I now had to borrow more money from a friend to get the good club up and running so that I might have a chance to sell it and get some money, even if I wanted to keep it Im not allowed as I MUST sell in 3 months or they will shut me down again through ezidebit.
I have also written to Ronald the lawyer and I hoping he will take on my case and sue them. I got a letter from Amy telling me to pay out a member and when I do I have to cc her so she knows what I wrote. Of course I laughed as I said "HOW you cut off my ezidebit" !
So has anyone else been cut off from ezidebit also Today tonite has contacted me and wants to a story on franchises if anyone wants their story to be told please email me. The devastation will continue in my life forever.
Hi Hope ezidebit is a company here in australia which members send the money to and they process it and then put into my account. Its the best way to do direct debit here through this company. They work for me and I pay them for what they do.
They have nothing to do with curves at all. Im off to a lwayer on monday to see what can be done about them. I dont know your payment system but if its anyhting like this and curves knows it change companies now. I owed 6000$ and thats what they have done. One club pays all my bills, rent, wages and mortgage etc and it was shut down over 6000$ hhhhmmm yes Hope its only going to get worse. try and hang in there, its funny but its a great job if we only didnt have curves attached
Hi Sharon, wow, it just goes on and on this nightmare!! You are soooo right about it would be a great business if it werent for curves corporate. No matter what country we are in its the same story! I am so sorry for the stress you are under, and I am wishing you the best with your meeting with the lawyer. Keep us informed! I hope you have peace and help soon!!
Does anyone know why Diana Petrovich-Tao, Pres. of US franchise operations is no longer workin for Curves? She seemed like she was going to be a little more helpful with the franchise owners, maybe i just answered my question??,but then again she worked for Corporate!!!
Honestly, I dont think any of them in corporate can be trusted. It does make me wonder what is going on.....she wasnt with us very long, and it doesnt look good.
We were not visited by a secret spy/shopper but received a 95% score! We have not painted, we have decor on the walls that is not Curves, we do not wear Curves shirts in the winter, and we do not stand in the center and coach. We feel that the spy is either one of our members or a stranger that decided not to be bothered with this nonsence. We received a congratulatory letter from our AD and from Diana. Lucky us!
We learned today that a club in another state received a 0% score. She has not heard from Curves. I will be anxious to know what they do to clubs that do not meet their demands. Does any one know?
With the sudden step down(?) or removal of Diana, it sure makes me wonder what is next. All I know is that many had been banking on this new way of doing things to torn clubs around...and now this.. What does this mean? What is next? Was all the painting and such in vain?? Ouch.
Dear Lucked out, wow thats interesting!! I thought the process was biased! I received a 68% and I painted, and did most of the changes, however a few things like, posters and logos I was waiting on delivery, they came 3 days after the first of Jan. and they were 3 days after my spy. So I was dinged 20 points, which a few days later I had completed!!! So because I scored with 68 and knew I was compliant by the time I was told my score, I explained to my AD that I had completed it all and that my score was in the high 80s at the least. I told her I was waiting for my delivery and that I had it all completed. I was first told I would have to pay 250 dollars to have another spy come and re-score me!!!!! I was furious! I spent a lot of time with emails and phone calls fighting this! Bottom line they said they would send someone and not charge 250. However I question the whole thing, why isnt my word good enough? Why do I need another spy? The hard work I did, the time, the money all to be harrassed and threatened. My understanding is there are potential fines for not doing what they want, and also they remove clubs from the curves locations site as a penalty...I havent heard of anything else yet. I also know of another club that hadnt painted and they were not in any trouble, no issues for them, I knew then that favortism or something was going on...I knew it wasnt all fair...which your story confirms. For your sake I hope you continue to luck out, be beware!