CURVES: Negotiating Curves Closing Fees

322 thoughts on “CURVES: Negotiating Curves Closing Fees”

• For those of you who are closing or have already closed, are you being asked to pay the minimum or maximum royalties and ad fees for the remainder of the franchise agreement? Also, while I signed personally on the franchise agreement, I was offered the opportunity to convey/transfer it into my corporate name, which I did. Do you know if this protects my personal assets and credit from being impacted? I suppose these are questions for an attorney, which I may consult, but since I’m in the red, monthly, I’m trying to minimize any further expenses. Thanks.

• Hi Donna! I closed my club more than a year ago, but nothing else I did not get the curves. The only thing that I have received a verbal threat from a master franchise, but no more. If you are from America, you may you have more problems with it. But I live in another country and the curves I have had in the third. When I closed, I knew what happiness and life. I sincerely wish you good luck. Without worrying about all the good will link. Spoke with Lloyd he closed it in your country.

• Thank you, Andres. I wish you good luck as well.

• Hi Donna! How are things? How was your closing and how things are with curves? I hope you are fine and you never hear about the curves. Sincerely, Andres

• Hi Andres, I have not closed. I’m still crunching numbers to decide what I’m going to do. I hope you’re enjoying being “Curves-free”. Thank for asking.

• Hi Donna! In any case, I wish you luck and strength in all that you planned. I know what experience the process of closing, customers, curves, rent and so on. You must make that decision, which will be most advantageous and convenient for you and your family. Good luck.

• My Dear folks,

  My club is doing well due to our effort in advertising door to door, and the high turnover in the apartments here.

  My question is that we offer a lot more than curves workout, and most of our members skip it entirely, so I would like to know, how can I become free of curves and just run my gym. Has anyone ever done this? What about the contracts with the members and the curvessmart equipment. BTW my contract with CI runs out in 2 months.

  Curves has become a liability for me.

  Thanks,
  Dr Dan

• Hello, My wife has two clubs, one of them is about to go bankrupt and the other one, which is not doing taht bad, may have a buyer. I know my wife transfered her franchise agreement to a limited company, the question is: If she were to sell the Limited company does she have to still ask CI permission to do so?
  Thank a million for your comments

• I closed in October of 2011. We were losing about 1K per month and it was getting worse. I called my District Manager (what a joke!) and her suggesstion was to fill out the spreadsheet to show my revenue vs expenses (gee, why didn’t I think of that???insert sacrasm here!) I finally got her to forward my info to corporate and they sent me the intent to close forms. It was not that bad. They allowed me to donate my equipement to a non profit near me that has residental services for the developmentally disabled. I had to send them all my member info via email — fine with me — I hope they market my members to DEATH!!! and refund the pre-pays. They asked for 2K fee and I cried poor and they settled for 1K. All in all it was not that bad and I should have done it 3 months sooner than I did. Opening a Curves was the worst decision of my life, closing it was the smartest thing I ever did with Curves.

• We finally got them to “let” us close. After months of them turning down prospective buyers because they didn’t have enough income or good enough credit (they couldn’t viably sue them).
  They ended up charging us $5,000 in “fees” and required that we donate the equipment to other local Curves. I guess they didn’t “require” that the equipment be donated, we just couldn’t find any other Curves that had enough $$ or interest to BUY any of our equipment. Curves stated that they would not LET us close as long as we had the equipment in our possession so we either had to pay to dispose of it all or give it away, so we gave it away.

  The part that annoyed me is that we had to remove all the “CurveSmart” sensors and wires from everything and stressed that all wires had to be intact, no cut or broken connections.
  Then they insisted that we send them the ENTIRE COMPUTER we had in the place. When we bought the business we were told it was their personal computer and we had been using it for other things besides just the Curvesmart crap but they insisted that they had to have the screen and keyboard/mouse/speakers and would not let us just format the hard drive and continue using the PC. I figures I would pick my battles and just sent it to them and washed my hands of it all. So in the end it was $5,000 plus various cleaning and disposal expenses.

• Can anyone give me a clear answer on whether we have to return our equipment plus our CS equipment for no return. I have been told I am not allowed to place the equipment in storage. What the hell am I supposed to do with it. It is to good to destroy and other clubs have all they need.

• My franchise agreement is up in July and I was told by CI that I had to sell to a Curves owner the equipment or take it to a scrap yard and send them a receipt and had to send the Curves Smart equipment, computer, desk, etc. back to them. I paid for all of this entirely. They should pay me if I have to send it back to them. I was losing money every month for a while now and have a loan I will have to take several years to pay the bank back.

• I lied to them. Told them I donated it when in reality I left it with the people taking over the lease in my building. I lied about everything just to be done with it. We got lucky and someone paid me just for my location. It was a better deal than actually selling it. So lie!!!! Make up a charity to donate all of it.

• When I closed, 8 months prior to the contract end, CI asked for some ridiculous amount of money. An attorney said that he had negotiated settlements where the closing club paid their average monthly franchise and ad fees for the number of months remaining in their contract. CI would not accept this, so I sent a letter and check for that amount. The day my decision was due, they sent an email proposing a $1K settlement. I had sent more than twice that amount. When they received my check, they retracted their offer and accepted mine! If I had held out a little longer, I could have saved over $1K, but I couldn’t play hardball. I gave some machines, bronze bushings and other things to a neighboring club in exchange for her taking my pre-pay members. The remaining machines were scrapped for $118.00. I was not given the option to donate my equipment. Also, in my opinion, I don’t think that transferring the contract to a corporate name would relieve you, personally, of financial responsibility. I don’t think CI would have offered the option if it did.

• Just when I was ready to ask Mr. Russell re: when will we be receiving our Closing Packet, I received this website! So … has any Club Owners fullfilled their franchise agreement? CI already knows my closing will be 11/30/12, but
  who do I ask for the closing procedures–no bites on selling!

  I have done the procedures to sell & notifying members, but what about the machines/CSmart equipment?! I’m still receiving a notice from several different *CI Staff* that my franchise is up for renewal/OS puchase requirement :( Sure like knowing someone cares :)

  Thanks in advance for reading/answering my question!!!

• We are closing soon at the end of our 10 year agreement and following all required procedures. Does anyone know why CI has the right to demand the return of our Smart Equipment which was well paid for? In reality I don’t care because what in the heck will I do with it. I just don’t think it’s fair that they can re-furbish it and sell it for $5000.00.

• Closing Soon, I have just closed my club 4 years shy of my agreement. Your question is what I have been asking everyone. What right does CI have in demanding the CS equipment be sent back at our expense. I paid $15000 for that and if they want it back they can reimburse me. Also the extra pieces of equipment I paid $1250 plus shipping of $500 for each piece and they want me to donate it to a charity of sell it for scrap metal. Be buggered if I will do that. Still waiting for a closing figure from CI. It will be interesting to see what figure they come up with.

• Aussie, I closed another club short of my 10 year agreement & returned Smart Equipment so that they would cut a “deal” on my closure fees. However, I still don’t understand the demand upon completion of agreements. Has anyone tackled this yet?

• Do any of you know how the class action in America against CI went? How many people do you need for a class action to go ahead?

• Closing Soon, I would have returned the CS equipment if they had paid for its return, but no I would have had to return it to America at my own expense. Another expense that I don’t have the money for. I don’t understand if you sell you club for an amount you have to pay CI $10,000, if you close your club down you are intimidated and threatened with outrageous amounts for breaching your agreement. The clubs that are closing down are closing down for a reason, mostly the reason is financial. If you are running an unprofitable club how do they expect you to come up with this outrageous payout figure.

• I do agree that when we purchased our franchises, they couldn’t be nicer. When we are in trouble or even closing at the completion of agreements, if demands aren’t meant in a certain time frame, they resort to threatening tactics. I understand they have deadlines to meet, but these closing requests come out of left field, are last minute, unexpected and are not in franchise agreements. Their clopsing “requirements” also, seem to change every few onths. I think they believe we capitulate to their demands because we know it’s cheaper than hiring an attorney to review our paperwork. One would think that they would want us to leave on good terms to maitain a good memory of Curves. How about thanking us for 10 wonderful years as we would if a member quit? Do they want our archive member list to do internet solicitation or entice a new potential franchise owner? I have no intention of joining Curves to maintain my fitness levels, nor would I recommend anyone to purchase or join. When they grew, did they lose all sense of service? My area director lives 20 miles from my club, yet NEVER has stepped foot inside. She’s very manipulative and does not keep clubs’ confidences. She’s an excellent messenger from CI and that’s about it. Because she tells other clubs private info, I have avoided all meetings for the last year and ceased all contact with her. We always had great relationships with previous ADs.

• Hello, I am looking for Curves smart equipment , please contact me . Thank you

• Miriam please contact us via admin we have curves smart equipment for sale and 14 machines and a big purple front counter.

• Message:
  Curves wants $32,000 because we closed our Curves after we complied with all requests and closing procedure.

  We were told we could donate our equipment so we donated our equipment to a charity that takes care of challenged kids and adults. Anyone having the same problem or know someone who has, or if you can offer any suggestions or help it would be greatly appreciated. I think I will contact our Attorney General for help as well.

  We closed our Curves early due to health wife heart trouble after a year or so renewing our FA they said we had to sign a new FA. Now we calculated it was a year early, never told us they were offering other Franchises shorter FA we had friends in Iowa sign a two year. In our closing documents we completed all requirements, but could not send copy of prepay refund checks because we did not copy them and had to wait until canceled checks came back, and my wife was also in the hospital.

  Information I conveyed to CI but the only response from W. L. was that it would have to be turned over to legal because we did not comply with their conditions of closing deadline, and because we donated our equipment to a non profit charity even after we were told we could donate our equipment. We have friends who donated there equipment to a ladies prison. I guess Curves has the power to amaze, because I am sure amazed.

• We are closing the end of this year. Would someone that was able to donate their equipment to a non-profit let me know how you got CI to approve, ASAP.

  We have an adult day care that we would like to give out equipment too and they would sure like to have it.

  Thanks for any suggestions.

• Is anyone out there who is facing all the new demands from north castle?? I am very concerned about all the new requirements….its really scary, I thought it was bad before but now I feel like its more threatening then ever! Do any of you have an attorney that you can recommend??? This is the beginning of a whole new nightmare! They say its the re-invention of curves, well it is the re-invention of the curves nightmare!! Help!!

• teejay pls contact me via the admin of this website.

• Hope, i am with you about all the “guidelines” being instituted by North Castle. The Curves Complete Diet plan is all they are interested in and throwing those interested as fitness members aside.

• If someone is willing to share the “guidelines” being instituted by North Castle or other changes (confidentially of course) please email the site administrator at unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com

  Thanks,

  ADMIN

• Thank you CMscurves for your comment, I agree with you regarding the change of focus, from one extreme to the other. I know there are other curves owners who are upset and digging their heels in to resist being forced to change everything.I just wish we all could do something….it all seems so hopeless

• I Feel when the curves is not making enough money to do the changes of painting,etc we should not have to do it!!!!! North Castle Partners needs to exercise in their own curves, then they would not have all this free time on there hands. They are bored and have nothing to do?

• Lorraine I agree, they are coming in with all their demands and arent taking into consideration that many of us are in the hole financially. Its even more unreasonable when they give so much all at once with little time to get it all done! All during the holiday season! They havent proven to us that any of this will work, lots of hype, but until we can see real results its just a gamble. But we are expected to pour money and time into their plan and we have no guarantees. They should take some of this big advertising money and use it to upgrade the clubs to their standards and then use some for advertising. Or they should let us be until they advertise and bring in all the new business they say we will have and when the money rolls in as they predict then we can meet their new standard.But no, they would rather demand, threaten and bully owners who are already sinking!

• Miriam, I have all curves smart, the computer and machines basically anything you need or could want, please contact me if you still need anything.

• I called my ad 3 days ago and said I made the decision to close at the end of the year. This is 6 months early. I spoke with another gal who is also closing at the end of the year. She just got her papers. Whats with not being able to collect dues for then last month since we will be open reg hours thru it the entire month? Just confused here. Bills still need to be paid and w/o income how does that happen?

• When you send out your closing letter to your members, notify them that their last membership draft/charge will be “amortized” over remaining days. This will take a small effort on your part to figure out the charges. It won’t be all you need, but it will help some. Good luck.

• aussiez, I do not know how to contact you. If you know how to contact through the website. please contact me.

  I would appreciate the input.

  Thank you.

• It’s amazing that curves charge so much for providing so much. I am a personal trainer in Northern VA and Georgetown Washington DC area. http://myur.com This area’s economy is very strong. Many Curves went out of business and closed their door not because they charge so much. The went out of business because they couldn’t provide a great product for how much membership cost.

• It’s amazing that curves charge so much for providing so little. I am a personal trainer in Northern VA and Georgetown Washington DC area. http://myur.com This area’s economy is very strong. Many Curves went out of business and closed their door not because they charge so much. The went out of business because they couldn’t provide a great product for how much membership cost.

• We rec’d our papers to close and its a 60 day minimum process. I don’t understand what ‘happily closed’ means by telling members their last payment would be amortized. Do you mean to say you are taking the last months payment early? If so how can you do that with the dated drafts? Also you will not recieve anymore Wellness payments that you legally have coming until you close & have followed all their rules. Once everything is done you are suposed to get them.

• I closed my doors and opened another, with no problems I opened a gym called Ozifit it’s very similar to curves BUT better . http://www.ozifitfranchise.com.au

• I emailed CI about having to close at the end of April when my lease is up and they told me I will have to pay out the remaining 30 months of my franchise agreement at the maximum royalties. They gave me the figure of $35,000. I can’t afford that. Does anyone have knowledge if they are holding franchisees to that or are they negiotiating now? Please any help would be appreciated. Please email me at [redacted].

  What will they do if I just close my door?

• I closed my Curves after 2 years and a year of my husband and I supporting the club each month to the tune of approx 1000 a month.

  I did donate my equipment to another club.

  I also spoke with an attorney before closing and my best option is a personal BK…this will end all debt owed related to my business.

  Opening my Curves was a huge mistake, tho I do miss the members. I still love the workout and I personally have benefitted from it over the years. I was sad to have to close, but I truly had no other options. At least I am much, much less stressed.

  From what I can tell, the CC thing isnt going to be the windfall that was suggested. There is increase in traffic at the clubs around my area, but it would have not been nearly enough to have our club survive.

• Adrienne, I hope others can give you some advice…I havent closed, but wish I could, and I have the same questions about what would happen. At this time I am waiting to see what others with attorneys are doing and also what others without attorneys are experiencing….this is such a nightmare. If I hear any updates that others are dealing with good or bad, I will post and let you know. I have thought of selling for nothing in hopes someone would just step in and take it off my back and free me from closing the doors and owing money….I know they dont seem to sell which is no surprise, but I also know there are some who have the personality and might want to have the opporutunity and would like to try and need to get into something that doesnt cost alot upfront. Id be willing to give it away if I could just to be free. Worst decision of my life and more stress than its worth. I hope you find some help, answers…

• I’m sorry for everyone’s problems with Curves. I thought the Man in charge of Curves was a Christian Man. Doesn’t seem to run his business very Christian like.
  I did love the equipment though. I would love to have a few items of the equipment! Anyone want to give me some!? I live in Oregon..

• I’m truely sorry for the heartach and stress that Curves has caused so many. I am getting ready to close and am praying that all goes smooth. My biggest disappointment is that Curves is going down with such a stain and bad taste. It was an exciting adventure for a while. I have been involved with them for over 10 years. But they failed to evolve. Even the American Heart Association says more exercise is needed then what Curves allows. If they could have just evolved, I think they may have been able to keep up. But the ladies would have to get 30 minutes and strength and cardio, and go elsewhere for whatever else they need??? Good luck to you all, be blessed, and remember, If God is for you, who can be against you. No matter how big the comopany. Let the others sin, but keep your eyes and heart on Him.

• Dear Trusting Him, thank you for your thoughts, prayers and words of encouragement. I pray you are blessed with a smooth closing. Are you closing because your contract ended?

• I can’t help myself not to comment here. I can’t believe Curves is charging you to cancel your franchise for $10,000. It maybe time to look into getting a franchise with Jazzercise. They are continuously evolving… I’ve been an instructor since 2006. Jazzercise has been around for 40 years now and going strong…

• I thought this was going to be a wonderful opportunity to own my own business and have time with my family.

  After receiving inaccurate #’s from the person I bought from I just can’t get ahead and make it back. Gym’s around me go for $14.95 and instead of lower prices we added Curves Complete and now it is more expensive.

  I am running in the minus every month and have no choice but to close.

  Please help with any insight you may have, I still have 4 years on my agreement.

• Angela, I am in your shoes…same scenario, inaccurate numbers, and led to believe that I could run the business just the way it was…yet the club wasnt set up the way curves expected and once I came in I found out too late that I had to change everything, which then upset all the longstanding members…no win…Im also losing money every month..I havent closed yet, trying to hang in…but its not looking good. From what I have heard is if you just close Curves comes after you with a vengeance wanting the highest amount of money for abandonment of the business. I have heard that some have had better success with an attorney negotiating the closing with curves and reducing the fees..however it is important that you have a good attorney….there is no sure answer…if I decide its time to close I will get an attorney, I just feel a bit safer that way..there is one that has represented other curves owners that I know about…if you write to ADMIN on this site they can give you my email and I can give you the name if thats what you decide. Take Care

• Hi Hope,

  How do I go about writing to ADMIN?

  I really appreciate your help and responding so quickly.

  How do some that write on this seem to get away with a small amount of money owed?