CURVES FOR WOMEN: Is McCord Brokers Required for Resales?

At the popular Franchise Pick post on the pros and cons of the Curves For Women franchise , there’s a disagreement over whether Curves requires franchisees to use McCord Business Brokers for all resales of existing Curves for Women franchises.
According to ACurrentCurvesOwner, franchisees are not required to use McCord and may sell their own club if they wish:

…struggling franchisees can only sell through their broker,—this is not true at all, you can sell your club to whomever you choose(assuming they pass the financials), there is no requirement that McCord handle the transaction, they are just one approved broker(I assume because they are the brokers to sell franchises). How I “know” I contacted McCord to evaluate my Curves to sale it and asked, secondly, a Curves in our area recently sold without McCord’s involvement(or any broker).

However, according to a comment on Curves franchising by franchise owner Dorothy, that’s a bunch of hogwash:

In response to a current Curves owner HOGWASH! I was forced into a sale by John McCord’s office after I had decided to close July 31. A buyer came to the table and was coerced by Curves to not come back to me to complete the sale for $10k. They forced the buyer into McCord’s office and was told that they could handle it for her. Unbeknownst to her they were taking $5k of the $10k for thier fee.

I did not list with them. Curves automatically forwarded everything between the closing dept and McCord’s. They forced me into this sale, with the promise of release from my agreement. After the dust settled, and fees were paid, ( $1k for transfer fee and $1800 escrow), and still I had not filled out any paperwork, on my end I was told that they did not need it, and processed the sale without my signature.

So I decided to stick with my original plan to close on the 31st. I moved EVERYTHING out including machines and locked everything up. I paid for everything and they expected me to walk away from EVERYTHING, computers, programs etc for a paltry $5k NO WAY!

They found out what I did and provided her with machines last week and she reopened Monday. Is that fair to all the rest of us that paid our money, and she got it for $5k.

Curves is desperate to keep the income coming in. I was down to 125 members, so now they have her sucked in for 5 years. So don’t tell me that they won’t do this, they have. I won’t give back the machines, I’ve paid for them, and will eventually sell them off. And they are coming after me for over $42k in royalties and advertising fees, so they think. They can’t pursue it, they have already sold the franchise.

I loved Curves while I was in the family, but events from the last two years have turned me off to the franchise. I will seek legal remedy, fortunately I did not get to the point of bankruptcy and made a sound business decision to close before it was really too late. I have other stories, but will limit my response for now.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? ARE YOU A FRANCHISEE OR FORMER FRANCHISEE WHO SOLD A CURVES? DID YOU USE CURVES DESIGNATED BROKER? WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE?