UnhappyFranchisee.com is sponsor-supported. Sponsored links:
An anonymous commenter wrote that they were induced to buy an existing Curves for Women franchise club with fraudulent member and sales numbers. She claims that the Go figure software prevents her from checking historical member numbers. Curves clubs have been closing in large numbers around her and they are losing money every month. If she closes her club, Curves International will demand a $10,000 fee. She has an interested buyer, but one that’s only willing to pay less than half what she and her husband paid for the Curves franchise.
Anonymous Curves Owner writes:
We bought our club on false pretenses from a previous owner who lied about member numbers.
Curves did not give us the correct figures either.
Go Figure software makes it impossible to go back and look up member numbers. We paid over $90,000.00 for our club and were possibly selling it for less than half that. We have to incur the rest of the business loan via credit cards.
We cannot sell the business or shut it down while the bank still holds the note cause there is a lien on our business assets. Clubs around us have been shutting down everywhere. When we tried to contact our area director, it has been hard to get a response. I have had to write several emails. Lately, since we have been talking about shutting it down, our area director has been telling us that Gary is now letting people out of their agreement and it will be easy to get rid of the equipment.
But Curves wants to charge us 10,000.00 to close our club! Who the hell has that kind of money just lying around? The last two years have been an absolute nightmare. My husband and I have many times made comments about Gary being this “CHRISTIAN” He tell franchisees it’s all on us and before pointing fingers at him, we should point two fingers at ourselves. We have resorted to putting out own personal monies from our full-time jobs into this albatross.
We are VERY interested in this class action suit and would like to know more. There is a sale pending so we would like to know as soon as possible. If we can get involved, then obviously we would back out of the sale. No paperwork has been signed yet.
We always thought there was a case against Curves but did not know how to go about it. Since we bought Curves two years ago, we have lost over $40,000.00.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? ARE YOU A CURVES FRANCHISE OWNER, EMPLOYEE OR MEMBER? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
UnhappyFranchisee.com is sponsor-supported. Sponsored links:
Gross Law Group P.A. of Panama City, FL, on behalf of franchisor DonutNV Franchising Inc.,…
Part Three in a Series. The DonutNV franchise cautionary tale has officially entered mini-donut meltdown stage. …
JM Family Enterprises' Home Franchise Concepts (HFC) is the franchisor of Aussie Pet Mobile, Bath…
State and Federal government officials are reportedly investigating the franchise practices of JM Family Enterprises and Home Franchise…
Bullies don’t always win. In fact, bullies win less often than you’d think. In my…
In addition to the dozens of DonutNV franchisees who exited the once-promising franchise chain, approximately…
View Comments
Curves Victim of Fraud... before buying ann existing club, you must do an audit before purchasing. You should match up member file, monthly deposit checks, attendance card. If you don't have all 3 records you don't know exactly what the membership is. Also, sometimes when an owner states they have 800 members, you have to ask how many of those are month-to-month and how many of those are prepaid? Subtract those numbers from what the owner states they have as membership 7 that is your true number of members. Also subtract members that may be on hold for medical or any other reason, etc...
I was taken advantage of by so called christians too. The scammers always claim to be christians.
Guest is correct. You must do an audit to make sure you know what you are getting in the purchase.
IS THIS ALL TRUE?
I am about to buy a resale curves location and the owner is asking to be on the new franchise agreement as a co-owner till I have paid off the remaining balance in 4 years. I would like your comments on this so called gaurantee in case I fail he still has a franchise otherwise the curves management will not gaurantee the previous owner that he will get back the franchise. IS THIS ALL TRUE?
Thanks Lou
Tell me more about what happened at the Curves National convention in Orlando Florida last week.
Lou... yes this is true. I've come across several Curves franchisees that were selling their club & telling prospective buyers that they ahd for example 600 members but when I advised one of those prospective buyers to do the audit and verify everything the total number of TRUE membership was about 145 members. The others were prepays & month to month & members on hold for various reasons. So of course that prospective buyer did not purchase the club.
I worked for Curves as a manager, ladies DO get bored with the program, its a lot of money to spend on a business that fails within 3 / 5 yrs .I have left curves the owner has sold the franchise they owned 8 curves franchises ,they have all been sold now, they had to sell the franchises for what they could get !!!!
Diana... I don't know what the owners of the Curves you worked at did re: membership, etc... but the franchise itself was only $20k which included equipment then you may have another $5,000 - $10,000 for deposits, etc.. to get open. I was an owner of 12 Curves back in 96' - 99' and I ALWAYS got my initial investment back within the first 2 months. I kept each club approximately 2-3 years & sold them each for over $275,000. So there is something wrong with what your previous employers were doing in my opinion.
i WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT THIS COMPANY CALLED CURVES IS BEING SUED. tHEY HAVE SCAMMED THEIR FRANCHISEES TO BELIEVES CURVESSMART WOULD HELP THERE CLUB. wHEN IN REALITY IT PUT MORE MONEY IN THEIR POCKETS. iTS JUNK AND DOES NOT WORK PROPERLY. wHEN YOU CALL THE COMPANY YOU NEVER RECIEVE A CALL BACK oN TOP OF THAT THEY WANT YOU TO BUY THEIR PRODUCTS AND GIVR THEM AWAY TO MEMBERS. iT DOENT TAKE A BRAIN SURGEON TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THEY ARE DOING. sTOP THE INSANITY AND CALL THE LAWYER IN FLORIDA HELL GIVE YOU THE FACTS AND GROUNDS FOR ALMOST 1000 SUIT POSTED AGAINST CURVES. THEY ARE THIEVES DONT FALL FOR IT
Important message to all Curves owners.
There is another site that all current owners of a curves franchise needs to be aware of. The site was set up by Curves using our advertising dollars so we all need to use it. It’s intent is to allow owners to converse with other owners and to share ideas. It is a good site if you are looking for ideas on how to save your club or just have questions for other owners. Here is the link http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/curvesowners/?v=1&t=search&ch=web&pub=groups&sec=group&slk=1
Please go there to check it out and voice your opinion on the current posts and voice your concerns. This site is strictly for owners.