CURVES: Robert Lay’s Story
The American dream of owning your own successful business seems to be going up in smoke for a lot of the Curves Franchise owners. The story you are about to read may seem like a Steven King horror novel but it is a real story that has happened to my wife and I. To all of the past, present and future owners of a Curves franchise please take the time to read the whole story as at the end we explain what we plan to do and how you as an ex or present owner may want to get involved.
My wife and I had owned and operated our own business for over 20 years and had been very successful at doing so. While we were making a great income from our business there was something missing in our life. Neither us felt that we were contributing to society but just taking and we decided to make a major change in our life. That was when we heard about Curves for Women. It was a new franchise that only had 300 or so clubs and for the first time in years we both became excited at the prospect of actually helping people reach their goals. We bought our first club in 1997 located in a city of thirty thousand. From the first day it opened it was more successful than our wildest dreams. Not only were we making excellent money but the personal rewards helping people better their lives was a truly rewarding feeling. I can still remember as if it was yesterday the first time a Dr. of one of our members came in to check out what we were doing as he couldn’t believe the ch
anges his patient had gone through. She had gotten off her high blood medication and had lost over 40 pounds in 4 months. It was truly amazing and over the years we have seen it happen numerous times over and over.
We sold our first club in 2001 and bought two more franchises. My wife became a mentor for Curves International around this time and I was helping to sell franchise for Curves International as so many of are members wanted to own a club. It was at this time that we started to see problems arising with Curves International but we attributed it to the fast growth that Curves was going through. In 2002 we bought two more franchises but this time they were in what was called a metro-area instead of city under thirty thousand in population.
The first problem we encountered with Curves International was in early 2003. Curves sold a franchise that was a corridor of land between one of our franchise’s and the next city 8 miles from our southern boarder. It was obvious to us that the territory didn’t have the necessary population to support a facility and that Curves International was selling any location just out of greed and the fact that there were so many people who wanted a franchise. The people who bought that franchise tried to open up on our border but it had always been an unwritten but followed rule of Curves International that you open in the middle of your territory so that disputes between owners over stealing members from your territory didn’t arise. We immediately filed a complaint with Curves International and they stopped the new owner from opening at that location. Unfortunately for the new owners there were no other commercial locations between the two cities so they were forced into selling that franchise back to Curves International for a loss.
It was also at this time that Curves International started to change personnel. The employee’s who we had a personal relationship with that had started Curves International with Gary Heavin were leaving the company at an alarming rate. Seven employees that were the top management of Curves left or were forced out because of Gary Heavin’s greed. They ended up filling a law suit against Curves which was later settled out of court. It was at this time that Diane Heavin became involved with Curves and a whole new history was being written about how Curves was started. The original Curves member guide which was written by Gary Heavin and June Manley was taken off the market and the new Curves book authored by of course Gary Heavin was on the top 10 of the Times best seller list.. To make sure it was on the Times best seller list all the clubs had to order at least on case. That is when we as owners realized Heavin was a manipulator and not the born again Christian he portrayed to be. It was also at this time that the price to buy a franchise more than doubled in price. This came as quite a surprise as Heavin had always maintained that he would never ever increase his franchise price and he even swore on the bible in front of a group at club camp that he would never break his word on that. Well as we all know he didn’t keep that promise for long, which just shows his greed.
At this point my wife and I became quite concerned and even considered selling our business but other problems arose concerning Curves International that demanded our full attention. In 2004 another Curves location located on our boarder of one of our metro-areas hired two of our employees and stole around 15 members from our club. Both employees had signed the anti covenant not to compete and in our state those agreements are strictly enforced by the courts. We considered going to court but since it was another Curves facility we decided to file a complaint with Curves International. And to let them handle it. What a mistake that was as they did nothing. We transferred the members files but refused to transfer the money for the members dues until such time that Curves International responded to our complaint. We were told by the area director, which was a new position at Curves International, that we were trouble makers and he refused to send any of are clubs the members appreciation bags. Shortly thereafter Curves International resold the corridor of land that had been sold back to them at a loss from the previous owners and they allowed the new owners to open up in nearly the same location that they had refuse the previous owners only a year and a half before. The new owners advertised in our area and ended up getting 10 or 11 members to transfer to their club. Again we held their monthly dues but did transfer the members files. We immediately filed a complaint but again got the same response nothing. It didn’t take long for most of the members who transferred to come back to our club as the other location was small and in a very run down area and to this day that club has not shown a profit and has been sold numerous times over the years for little to nothing.
Then in 2005 the real problems with Curves International started that we are still contending with today. In one of our metro-areas a competitor by the name of Ladies Workout Express opened up right across the street from our location. Unknown to us they had hired our manager and one other employee from that location and when the employee’s left they had stolen off our computer our member files. They ended up stealing over two thirds of our membership with in a week. The employees had signed the covenant not to compete so we immediately hired a lawyer and prepared for a lawsuit. As I stated before in our state that agreement is strictly enforced but it took four months to get it into court. During this time that location was losing so much money that we decided to move the location next to our other territory so that both clubs could stay open. We sent in the required change of location form to Curves International but never heard anything back from them so we went ahead and relocated in late 05. The owners of the Ladies Workout Express eventually went broke because of the lawsuit and the fact that they would end up owing us monetary damages. They filed for bankruptcy to prevent us from collecting any monetary awards in Dec 05 but we did have the satisfaction knowing that we did what was right
In early 06 we were informed by Curves International that because we abandon that location they were terminating all of our franchise agreements. We immediately requested mediation for all of our clubs which is authorized by our franchise agreements with Curves International. We never heard back from them so we hired a lawyer in Waco, TX to represent us. He proceeded to send them a letter requesting the same mediation process and they did respond to him. They sent him letter stating that it was premature to go through the mediation process at that time as they were in the process of researching our reason for moving. Curves International continued to debit our account for the franchise and advertising fees for all the other clubs we owned but stopped talking the fees for the one territory that they stated we abandoned. The lawyer had us send Curves International a check for the fees and a new authorization form for them to deduct it from our account. Neither our lawyer or ourselves ever heard anything back from Curves International so we all assumed that things were back to normal.
In the spring of 07 we made the decision to start selling off all of our clubs and to completely retire. It didn’t take me long to sell the club we owned that wasn’t in a metro-area and I agreed to stay with the new owner’s to help train them how to run the business. We sent all the documentation into Curves International and the sale was completed by January 08. That freed my wife and I up to concentrate on our metro-area clubs and to get them ready for sale. In Feb of 08 we heard that a Curves club was opening in one of our territories within a mile of our current club. We could not understand how Curves International could do such a thing. We again filed a complaint by phone and e-mail to Curves International and several weeks later we were informed by e-mail that they didn’t know what we were talking about. We were told we didn’t own any franchises and hadn’t since we were terminated in 05. That came as quite a shock to my wife and I as our franchise and advertising fee’s had been deducted all along from our checking account and we had just recently sold a club that they were telling us we never owned. We had a local lawyer send a letter to the new owners explaining the situation and that we would be seeking legal recourse against Curves International and depending on the outcome they were opening themselves up to a potential lawsuit. During this time we had bought and paid in full for the Smart Equipment for Curves International and were waiting for the installation which was scheduled for the June 24th. On June 20th , a Friday we received a phone message telling us that the Curves Smart Installation was canceled and that we had to call Curves legal for an explanation. We left messages both e-mail and phone every 30 minutes on Monday June 23rd and finally late in the afternoon we received an e-mail stating that one of there lawyers would be in touch with us before the end of the day, They never sent an e-mail or a phone call as was promised but by mid day the next day they did respond by e-mail. It stated because of the problems with the members transfers, the fact that we abandoned a franchise, and that we had interfered with the opening of the new franchise located in our territory we weren’t approved for the Curves Smart. Yet in late May they had sent all the promotional ad material for the Curves Smart and of course we had gone to a considerable amount of expense for training the employees, advertising and promotion of the Curves Smart equipment. It was at this point that my wife and I decided that drastic action had to be taken against Heavin and Curves International.
While we still love the concept of Curves we feel that because of the deceptive and we believe fraudulent business practices that Heavin has allowed under his management Curves will eventually end up in the toilet so to speak. After spending many hours on the internet we have found that there are many lawsuits against this man and his company. Just read some of the post’s that are on franchisepick.com from owners concerning the new ten thousand fee if your club goes under and closes to the vitamins that were sold in Feb and March by Ideas in Action at a discount to owners without telling them that they would expire at the end of May. The lack of support and communication from Curves International that all of us owners are going through is intolerable. It is impossible for an owner to get through to them on the phone and good luck if you expect a call back in a timely manor. The fact that we as owners pay a lot of money for our advertising fees and have no accounting of where it is spent and a quite frankly we never see many ads in our area.
I have taken the time to do the necessary research to find several good lawyers who handle franchise law who are more than willing to help Curves owners who are having similar problems with Curves. I for one am going to go after Curves International and Gary Heavin in a court of law. These are not class action but group action lawsuit and if you don’t understand the difference contact me and I will explain it to you. There have been over 200 such lawsuit filed against Curves in the last several years and while some have been settled in mediation others are in the process of going to litigation. If you are a past or present Curves owner who has experienced these problems and want satisfaction whether it be monetary or revenge please contact me. We have several options that we can go and I for one am positive we will win as the other lawsuits have been successful so far and have set a precedent for ours. It is time for the owners of Curves franchises either past or present to stand up together and put a stop to Heavins’s ramped destruction of peoples lives just for monetary greed.
Thanks for reading our post and God Bless you all.
ARE YOU AN CURVES FRANCHISE OWNER OR FORMER CURVES FRANCHISEE?
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE CURVES FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY?
PLEASE SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
Mr Lay:
Thank you for telling your story. I can totally relate. Four years ago, my wife, her niece and I owned a Curves so successful it had 1,100 members and was named franchise of the year for the Southeast US. We wound up owning a total of three Curves. The future seemed incredibly bright,
What happened in between is a long, frustrating story that I’ve told at franchisepick.com, but today, my wife and I are broke, bankrupt and about six weeks away from losing our home to foreclosure, and we’ve still got a child in diapers. I’ve never known such feelings of fear, failure and despair, day in and day out.
Oversaturization killed us, just as it did you. Curves should have capped the number of clubs at 4,000 to 5,000. We started cannibalizing one another to survive, while fighting off knockoffs.
The only group-action lawsuit I’ve heard of is being filed by Zarco and Einhorn in Miami. If you’ve heard of others, I’d like to hear about them. Unfortunately, we were told by Zarco that since we SOLD our clubs – one for full price and two others for a paltry 50 cents each plus debt when things got real bad – and didn’t close them we couldn’t be part of the lawsuit.
Thanks again for your testimony. Perhaps our stories will keep others thinking about buying a resale from experiencing the nightmare we’ve endured for the past few years.
I am in the process of a “sale” for 10k. I originally was going to close on July 31, 2008. A buyer came forward, we met, and she wanted more info and went to CI and when they were through they told her to go through MCord to handle the sale instead of coming back to me. They wanted thier 5k fee. They lied to both of us. They got me to agree under duress. I have been in business four years. They were going to come after me for the remainder of 10 years. Two years ago I put in for a 2-day “tune-up” for July 2006. Before it could happen all of my employees quit. I called CI and asked for a 2 month delay, and they said no. They said that if I did not go through with it, they were going to hit my account for the two months dues forgiveness from the previous 2 months, and take the next month at the same time. So I sat with the trainer for 2 days and did nothing but entertain her, buy her lunch and pay her mileage and fees. I have been furious with CI ever since. I participated with the Powerful Promotions Fitness Study two months later when it was “illegal” with CI. My cards accidentally went into a neighboring territory, she called me and called me everything but white and human for an hour on the phone. Called our AD, and she called me an hour later and said that she would have to turn me over to legal, I told her go ahead, that I was doing whatever it took to keep my doors open. I never heard from legal at all. It was approved shortly thereafter. Of course this was after Gary Heavin was able to get an office inside thier operation, so he could monitor it and make sure he got his share of the money. I was the only one in my area that decided to do the study, and after the other clubs saw my results, they lost thier fear and jumped on the bandwagon. Now nothing works. All of our so called methods are ambiguous. My paper went out of business a few months ago, mailouts are outrageous, telemarketing is out of the question. My territory should be closed and never re-opened. We are rural and people have to drive purposely to get to me. McCord is telling me that I should be “happy” to be selling even though it is at a loss, they call 5k “some money”. They expect me to leave all of my circuit (all 14 pieces) and furniture, computers, everything for this price. They are crazy, since I paid for the other 6 pieces, they are going, along with everything else into storage. I feel sorry for the new owners, since one of them is a member in my club already. They don’t have a clue as to how hard they are going to have to work. They are dealing with my landlord now. She is stupid, she refused to make improvements for me in four years, and they are trying to get her to concede on some things. I have been sorry for the last two years for the decision that I made four yers ago. This was my first business, and it had to be a franchise, and now I have to lose it all. I am totally turned off of franchises now. I almost split my territory three years ago and am so glad that I did not, if I had I would be out double my losses. I am deeply disappointed in Gary Heavin and the way he represented his company and the lies that he spews forth. I am so glad that I did not buy the Smart Equipment, that would have been another loss. We were part of the first roll out last year, here in Texas. They tried to strong arm us into it. I did not bite. I was told yesterday by the new owner, that soon it will be mandatory for every club. I hope this will dissappoint people from jumping off into this company. If you are contemplating buying sit down and talk with the owner in the area you are considering, then make your decision.
I feel for you Dorothy. My sister had to go through mccord as well and they could care less about her all they cared about was getting their money. Gary Heavin has this guy McCord set up in business as an approved vendor to broker resales. Sounds like a conflict of interest to me. Who are they representing the seller or Curves anyway. It’s hard to figure out.
I bought 3 curves franchises a year ago guess what I cant make my rent I bounce my payrolls and now I am at a loss for words…I have 2 kids in college and I am drowning
Hello all. Me and my husband purchased a curves in the ohio area October 2007. I was so excited because I had own a business before. I was off work and I only had my retirement money to live on. My husband was laid off making litle money so we thought that this would be a great investment. Well my story goes like this. I purchased this club from an employee from Curves International. She had only owned the club from July 2008-Oct. 2008. She stated that Curves approached her about the opportunity to buy. (seemed strange) to me but my excitement was over shawdowing any I thought I was getting a good deal with everything included in the package. (equipment, washer/dryer, etc). However this is when my nitemare began. The revenue was not generating , landlord was making me honor a prior lease agreement, they were not responsible for no maitenance of their space. They were not helping to promote to bring more business in the mall. I requested from curves international to relocate and they denied me statin that the new location was within 2 miles from existing location. I tried discussing this matter wih curves but they replied to an e-mail but when I ask for their suggestion on where to locate they never responded back. I tried requesting support from the area director and additional training they stated that they did not do that but other trainings were offered about 45 minutes from me. But they will call me to clear out my curves e-mail account.
Now I am getting further in debt with no support can not move, can not pay my rent nor can I afford an attorney.
The training that was held in Texas was more of promoting their products and you as the owner need to buy, buy buy.
Curves misrepresented themselves and I feel as if I am stuck.
I have been an owner for almost 2 years. I understand that there’s lots to learn when you start a business, and that it’s tough to turn a profit w/in the first few years in business.
What I don’t understand is why the only ‘help’ we are offered is the supposedly ‘proven systems’ that worked amazingly over 10 years ago when Curves was a phenomenon. Where is forward thinking? Strategic planning? Where are the ‘systems’ that assist the owner in day-to-day operations (eg. procedures for all staff members from unlocking in the morning to shutting down at night?) (It’s been an interesting adventure and education putting together those procedures during the past year, but isn’t that what the supposed benefit of purchasing a franchise is to entail?)
I’m hoping to sell my area asap, but in my heart I know it’s highly unlikely. Who willingly buys a broken car?
I don’t know if I have enough ‘fight’ left in me or the capital necessary for legal action. I’d be relieved to be out from under, feeling much smarter about business (and possible mistakes to avoid in the future).
I have been a franchisee of a Handyman business in the past. The one thing anyone getting into a franchise needs to remember…the franchisor is in the business of selling franchises. Once they have your money I find that the franchisor is not very helpful with any problems.
Be careful when buying a franchise, more than likely you can do the idea on your own, have faith in yourself and go for it on your terms, not the franchisor terms.
Hello All I have owned my franchise for three years, I have not been making any money for two years and not getting any help 2 years ago I had a stroke my doctor said it was do to stress I am 46 years old trying to hang on but very hard I would never do this again
I am sad to hear all of these terrible stories but I am glad to know I am not alone. I just closed my business in June. It was a very hard deciosion to make because I dearly love my members but it was a business decision and it had to be done. Other Curves owners that I be-friended told me how they were paying credit with credit, not making the rent and then the economy went south. I saw it was going to happen to me as well. I had considered closing in October of 2007 and called to see what I had to do to close and I was told there would be no closing fees. I decided to tough it out and hang on a little longer and that was a mistake. Luckily I didn’t really go further in debt and my business was able to stay above water but I had not taken a pay check since June of 2006. I called them back earlier this year and I was threatened with the 10K closing fee. I was told to sell it for $1 to avoid paying that fee. I was decreased to running around town offering my Curves for free to anyone who would take it, so when it doesnt sell you look like a fool that you couldn’t even sell it for a $1. They did decrease my fee but it was still too much. I have a $25k loan I still have to pay that I took out to buy the franchise in 2004 and I am unemployed. The funny thing is, when I signed up there had to be a population of 5000. When I did my initial research the 2000 cencus reported my area as having 3,600. I assumed this would prevent me from being able to purchase the club. They told me I had a population of 5800. When I asked them how they come up with that figure they told me they figure populations in towns where I would be pulling members from. After I opened Curves clubs were put in those towns and I was no longer pulling from them. About a month after I opened they raised the bar of the population to 7,500. Do you know still to this day they tell me I have a population of 5800 and I know it is not the truth. I was allowed to buy a franchise that was not going to work for long. We were all set up for failure.
How can I contact Mr. Robert Lay?
Send an email to unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com and I will forward to to him.
How can I have the contact (address, email or fax) of the lawyer filing the class action against Curves International?
I too am closing my doors this coming Wednesday. It is not for lack of effort and putting all of my personal money into the business just to keep the doors open these past 3 1/2 years. What a pattern I see as I read the comments above. We are all in the same boat that has a large hole in the bottom, draining all our money, our time and our energy, all for nothing in the end. I too, loved the concept of Curves and what it has meant to my members these past 3 years. They are so saddened by the closing of a club they dearly loved. My only consolation in these final days are the wonderful cards and notes from them expressing their appreciation for the venture I took on in opening the club. Curves wants $10,000 from me by the end of this week. I just have to laugh. Don’t they realize if I had $10,000, I wouldn’t be closing my doors. I am so glad I did not have the money to invest in the Curves Smart equipment. How much more debt I would have been in if I’d gone down that road. Thanks for everyone’s comments. I definitely feel that I am not alone or as much a failure knowing others like me, have lost it all in this venture. How sad for us all.
Robert, I would love to talk to you, I had to close my curves for breach of contract, The Ad decided to let the clubs in my area know that i was closing and I Never said that or signed an intent to close form. Please contace me with your information so we can talk further into this. Curves has tried to bribe me with waving fees not to say anything/
We are in the same boat and have a lot of ammunition against McCord brokers for elevating numbers in our purchase. We definitely want to be a part of any group action as Mr. Heavin has misrepresented this entity to the fullest. How do we get involved?
Thanks.
This is for all that are interested in the lawsuit, contact [unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com for forwarding], he will be gald to talk with you about your options. He is not the lawyer. I sent my paperwork yesterday and I am so happy I did. Curves sent me a letter saying I owe them in excess of $40k for fees for the next six years. It is ludicrous. They stold my territory from me, and sold it to the buyer for $5k and PROVIDED her with machines. I locked all mine up and everything else, they wanted me to walk away from computers, programs etc and leave for her. Was not about to let her have them. So they cannot collect this money from me. I am happy I did not cave in on the sale. I would have lost all option in the lawsuit for recovery. They have become a corrupt gustapo, and they think that we are going to run scared. After all the duress they put me through, they are going to get the one-two punch from this Texas gal! There are other area Curves near me that will be closing soon. They can’t keep up with the losses, so they are resorting to intimidation and scare tactics. What ever you do don’t give into them. If you can take your losses now, for a larger gain later. You can contact me if you like. The more there are in on the goup suit, we can tap him. It’s about time we started taking back what is ours!
I have very good information to help youe layer with the case, where can I send it, the emails [you gave] do not work.
[Ed.: email unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com and ask for it to be forwarded]
Carrie,
I would love to talk to you. If you send an email to the Ed. note in the above post (unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com] he will forward it to me and I will call you asap.
Also I would like to thank everyone for posting their stories. Please refer all other contacts you know who own a Curves to this site as the media attention will help put a stop to Gary Heavin’s, what I believe corrupt business practices. Thanks again everyone , Robert
I feel terrible for all of you ,
Here in Québec we dont have any support and
even if a major competitor here is just taking away
the members we have because of a better concept (you should see this!!) we just can’t compete, we are all alone
If I was GH I would buy this Swann fitness
so we would be all doing better .
I feel so sorry for all of you. I was a Curves owner and by thre grace of God sold my business in 2007. Even then it was alot of the same stories. I can’t believe that Curves has not learned how to deal with this. For those of you who asked, McCord Business Brokers is run by Bill (i think) McCord, who used to be the Vice President of Resales for Curves. The impression I got, was in late 2006 and early 2007 when the closures of Curves were starting to go thru the roof, McCord started his own business as an expert on Curves resales. I heard thru a mentor Curves set it up that way to take away any liability from them on re-selling Curves franchises that were not worthy of being re-sold. I personally believe it was also away for Curves to make more money on the side without the franchisees knowing it. In the beginning McCord would not even “accept” my club for resale because it wasn’t profitable. They would pick and chose which franchises they wanted to represent so they could get more commission. It was crazy!
I know many people who had to close their doors, lost their homes and are still in debt over thier Curves ownership. While like many, I still love the Curves concept, I hate that I ever bought into Curves and their propaganda. It was the worst mistake of my life! And Curves needs to learn to be a fiscally responsible company if they are going to survive long term. They need to be procative and stop being reactionary to the problems that are causing the Curves clubs to close. I wish all of you the best!
Dear Curves Owners,
We would like to thank all of the owners who have decided to join us in the group action lawsuit against Curves International and Gary Heavin. The amount or response has been overwhelming. We also want to inform all the other owners who are considering joining the lawsuit that they have until Monday September 15th to join the first group. Keep in mind that the Zarco law firm will accept payments over a 6 month period for the 4,000 dollar retainer.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to email Sean at unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com and he will forward your message to me.
I have read and reread all of the comments and stories on this site and the other sites, my question to you all is.. the curves in my area is up for sale..the difference is I am in australia… would I be making a mistake if I buy it here in Australia, I do manage this curves and can see areas that need improving .. I now feel that I could be doing this with my heart and not from a business point.. lately we our membership has been dropping but I am sure it could be improved.. Please I value all opinions .. Thankyou
ARE YOU NUTS— FORGET ABOUT IT —- IT WILL BE THE BIGEST MISTAKE OF YOUR LIFE AND YOU WILL SUBSTAIN LOSSES YOU CAN’T BELIEVE. CURVES WILL BE IN BANKRUP BY THE MIDDLE OF NEXT YEAR IF NOT BEFOR. MANY OF THE AUSTRAlLA HAVE JOINED THE GROUP LAWSUIT AND ARE PROCEEDING TO SUE. WALK AWAY NOW BEFOR ITS TOO LATE FOR GOD SAKE TAKE THE ADVICE RUN DON’T WALK AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!!!!!!!!!!
ready to give it away. When I bought this Curves in May 2006 it was showing a profit. It was owned by our Wisconsin Area Rep who overstated it membership, thus the reason I lose $1,000.00 per month. I know the economy and the new fitness compitition play a role in our loses. But I would love to know where are advertising dollars are going other than popcorn, cereal, and bars. What a rip. I see Nutrisystems, Weight Watchers, etc over and over and nothing for Curves. Even the Diane Magagine has her name Huge, do you see curves, yes very small. To someone new to Curves, which we all hope for, would not have a clue. BR, all I hear is BR. What worked 10 years ago, needs to be updated. Here in Wisconsin 9 out of 10 email are closing my club, giving it away, we can’t even give them away. Where is the CHRISTIAN attitude of lets help our clubs so that they survive this and get back to the actual 30 minutes workout for women that works, forget the food, internet diet all for money. It comes down to its all about money. NOT FOR ME!
I am part of the first group action law suit. Our suit has been going on for almost two years now. Make no mistake, those of you that are choosing to go this route must prepare for the long haul. Curves International (CI) will fight you at each possible juncture and try to wear you down. Nevertheless even knowing this was the path I was about to go down, I felt I no longer had any choice. Fact is CI removed all options for me by not ignoring my complaints and concerns with what happening with my business. By their very actions and lack of actions I was pushed to the financial brink of either accepting the situation the way it was or fight back knowing it would be a long fight. I choose the latter.
My case is still pending. I am not sure when it will finally end. Knowing what I know now my decision to sue would not have changed. If anything, I would have started the process sooner if it was possible. I am confident that when my case comes to fruitarian that I will be satisfied that some justice will be served.
Some might think, if I sue CI will make things worse for me. If that is your thinking, I ask you, “What is CI doing for you now?” I ask that question well aware of the answer. CI is doing nothing for you now, they ignore your complaints, they ignore your questions and they are not protecting your interests. CI is not interested in “business partnership” which is what a true franchise agreement should be. CI is in the business of selling franchises, selling Curves products and product promotions for other companies products though us the franchisee. I ask, ” How can Curves franchisee buy Curves Bars cheaper at the corner grocery store then through CI? Answer is obvious, CI does not see you the franchisee as a business partner. The franchisee is a customer who is obligated by contract to use approved CI vendors. By treating us as a customer CI has maximized its profits by deliberately overselling and allowing the overbuilding of Curves units. To add insult to injury, with all the market data, all of CI research and statistics, CI now blames the franchisee for the failure of their business.
To Howard Heaven (his real first name is Howard and his middle name is Gary. He hates being called Howard which only encourages me to do so), this is all perfectly ok. To Howard, God rewards those who are righteous with riches. This is part of the problem because one cannot logically reason with someone with that arrogant mind set. Even with Howard knowing that I am suing him, CI still has not tried to improve upon its relationship with me, meaning that to this day, my complaints have not been addressed this includes the most basic ones such as obtaining monthly fees due to us by other clubs when a member transfers. If CI cannot or will not address such a basic disagreement with another club how can I expect them to make good on over saturation of the market? The simple answer is we can’t. The only viable option that we have is through legal recourse.
With the number of lives that Howard has ruined, both financially and personally I am amazed that there are not more lawsuits against this man. Howard has bankrupted countless people and families, people have lost their homes, lost their live savings, children removed from collage and there has been one suicide. Howard dismisses this as the price to win the franchise war in the women’s fitness business. I am pleased that freely admits this, the problem is that we the franchisees are the ones who must pay this price.
Meanwhile, as you the reader, contemplate if you choose to take legal action against Howard and CI, consider the fact that Howard owns three jet aircraft and is setting corporate policy in which a closing club now must pay him $10,000 for that privilege.
McCord’s first name is John and he is as greedy as they come, IMO. I spoke with someone that used to work there and McCord stiffed broker’s on their commissions. If he had to help with the resale he wouldn’t pay the people doing the work. He was only paying the 2% of the 8% commission.
Also, the brokers there have many listings and you are just a number. When a club closes now you have to give McCord 30 days to try and sell it and they keep most if not all of the money.
How does a business brokerage firm represent the sell when they are endorsed by the franchisor? It seems to me they would have more interest in the buyer since they are the ones entering the system.
I have not had the same issues with Curves that people here have. I am sorry that people here have had problems. I know one thing, when I sell I won’t be using McCord or any “approved” Curves broker for that matter.
How do I get in contact with Robert Lay??
We have owned a Curves franchise for over a year now… Big mistake.
Mitch
Curves franchisees wanting lawsuit info or who want to correspond with Robert Lay should send an email to unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com with a request to forward it to Robert. He will get in touch with you shortly.
I’m set to close my doors the middle of October. I too have tried to sell my club for $1 to avoid the abandonment fee but can’t even get someone to buy it for that. I have heard that Curves has settled for less than $10,000 with some Curves owners. For those of you who have closed, have they offered you a lower settlement fee? What was it? Also, did you have to donate your basic equipment? I have a buyer that would help me pay back some of my initial investment debt and have contacted a lawyer who says according to my franchise agreement, I own the machines and therefore can sell them for my own monetary gain. When I got the closing paperwork from Curves International it says I have to donate them or destroy them. I also have the problem of my lease to deal with. Curves has been less than helpful. In fact won’t even return my calls or emails promptly but I really don’t have the time, money, or energy to put into a lawsuit.
I am set to close on September 30. Curves also tried to get me to sell my curves to several time wasters. No luck once someone looks at my books and finds out they have to be in a 5 year contract. Now they are wanting they 10,000 settlement fee. They have offered to come to a mutual agreement of 5000. We dont even have that. I have not been paid in forever but have always made sure that Curves got paid. We have put 3000 in the store just to close it. They do not really care. They just want their money. Has anyone else settled? How much did you settle for. Thanks for your stories. Makes me feel a little better.
Has Curves taken legal action against anyone for not paying the settlement fee?
Everything I’ve read is exactly what I am going through here in Michigan. I feel like I’m in a bad dream and hope to wake up soon. I feel like all I can do is pray, pray, pray. I too, don’t have any resources or energy to take legal action. I’m embarassed to admit how much I paid the former owner (an attorney no less) for this nightmare.
i feel we are all living parallel lives. I am an original owner from 7 yrs ago. the first 2.5 yrs were awesome. i could have sold then for 250k, but i loved the concept and was having fun AND making money. it’s been all down hill from then. I am starting the process of trying to close without having to pay them. other club owners have said if you e-mail and tell them you don’t have any money they will negotiate down with you. I agree that with the large amount of closures CI may file bancruptcy sooner than later. To all you smarties out there, what would happen to clubs that are still open at that time? would we be given an opportunity to just walk?? I have 2 yrs 6 months left of a ten year agreement. wonder if i can hang in that long.
How do I get in touch with you regarding the lawsuits. Please email me
I am a college student doing a Senior Project on why Curves are failing and we are trying to help a Curves Owner before she loses everything.
please contact me. thanks
I too am curious what will happen to the remaining owners when this whole thing implodes. Any thoughts on this??
My issue is that my area director stormed into the club and noticed that I had a treadmill as extra cardio for my members. My members are only allowed to use it when they have done their circuit rotuine. Jeff Lehman did not say a word to my two memebers or staff. These ladies had no clue what was going on. He was taking pictures of the treadmill. It is becoming fall to winter and these is just a little extra something I give my ladies. Jeff Lehman said that I should have told my ladies to go to the local Walmart and wall the inside of walmart to get extra cardio. My ladies laughed in my face!!!!! A week later I got a letter from Curves legal. Took it to my lawyer. My lawyer tried calling an entire week and left over 10 messages to get back with him. Only one phone call was returned. We have still heard nothting. I got a email from curves legal saying they would call my lawyer by the end of the day and nothing. I have put so much money into this club it is not funny.
When everyone went to club camp did you notice that when they asked if you were a new club owner or a resale that almost every hand went up for a resale. DId you think that was odd? Did you wonder why? Plus club camp was more of a CULT. The enire time was weird. I also paid that $1000.00 and got nothing. I had to pay for bottles of water and lunch. I thought this was a my business and they are there to help you if you need it. NO SO
Please contact me and let me know what I need to do to participate in this lawsuit.
I closed my club and am waiting to see what my settlement will be. It doesn’t really matter as I don’t have any money to give Curves International. My landlord is suing for the rest of my lease term and I’m going to be claiming bankruptcy. I offered to give Curves all the money to pay for the settlement if I could just be allowed to sell my basic 8 machines. They won’t allow this. I thought because I paid for the machines that I owned them but whatever. They are the corporation and the little guy cannot compete with that.
We are so right there with you! Curves has been a HORRIBLE investment. The territories are way too close and the royalties are a pain. They basically punish you by making a minimum royalty fee. Our club comes no where close to making enough that 3 or 5 % is the 95 or 195 min fee. I am all over learning more about this lawsuit! Also…I heard from another owner, that there is a 10 year contract and you have to pay like 10,000 to curves if you want to close before that is up. Is this true?
to all posts made in Oct.
Please send an e-mail to Sean at this web site [unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com] and he will forward your mail to me so I can send you information on the lawsuit. And yes it is true that curves is trying to charge owners that cloose a 10000 closing fee. They have just stared to actually file lawsuits against owners who refuse to pay. It has gotten to be totally unbeliveable as to the steps that curves international is going through to punish it’s owners who dare to disagree with them. All curves owners need to be aware of their practices and the current group lawsuit and they all need to stand up against curves international so they can’t do this to more unsuspecting new owners who buy an unsuccsessful franchise that closed in the past.
I just got back from curves convention in Orlando. Believe it or not they had a vote to punish clubs who do not follow all of CI`s rules and want to now impose fines.
On top of that they want to charge all clubs a 75 dollar monitoring fee. The shocking thing is a majority of club owners voted for this.
Amazing to me. In these tough economic times the international should be supporting all of us, not trying to hurt the club owner.
Mitch:
This is unreal.
Why would franchisees support this? Was the sales pitch that good?
I was wondering how the convention went. This is the first year that I have not gone in about 5 years. Did they say anything about all of the Curves closing or about the 10,000 fee they are charging curves to close? Thanks
Has anybody paid Curves the 10000 fine
ATTENTION UNHAPPY CURVES OWNERS
Calling on all curves owners who have had problems with [Name withheld] and Curves International. We all know what a crook, unethical, illegal and immoral business person he is but there are some companies who don’t know who the real [Name withheld] is. He is trying to partner with a company called Silver Sneakers Fitness Program for advertising purposes. Silver Sneakers is a replicable business and if you don’t know who they are you can go to their web site by typing in Sliver Sneakers in your search box. As soon as you are done reading this post please either call them, send them a fax or an email telling them what you think of Curves International and [Name withheld]. We need to put a stop to [Name withheld] from taking advantage of the seniors who belong to Silver Sneakers. I can’t stress this enough so all of you who have joined the group lawsuit and those who wanted too but can’t afford to please act on this now before [Name withheld] takes advantage of them also.
Thank you,
Unhappy
SILVER SNEAKER FITNESS PROGRAM
[Del]
http://www.silversneaker.com
In response to refusing to pay the closing fee that Curves is damanding, here is what’s happening to us:
We are another club with the same old story – we finally had to close our doors August 30. Curves will email you their Closing Procedures, an Intent to Close Facilty form, etc. (note the titles–“closing” not “abandonment”) and a demand for $10,000 so that a Mutual Release can be offered to you (their compromise for future royalties/advertising fees). We followed all their instructions to the T – except for the $10,000, which we refused to pay. They then “reconsidered” and dropped it to $8,000–we refused. They again “reconsidered” and dropped it to $6,000 and said since we don’t have the money, we could sign a promisory note with them (yeah, right). I have heard they will go down to about $2,500. However, since we emphatically refused to pay, they stopped there and referred us to the legal department.
Next, the legal department UPS’ed us a letter saying we now owe them $42,480 for future royalties/advertising fees for the remaining 5 1/2 years of our Franchise agreement. We have faxed them back a letter saying we will not pay future royalties/advertising fees for a club which is no longer in existence, addressing the issues of their being unethical, discriminating, intimidating and harassing. We don’t know what good it will do, and the next step is they could serve us with court papers. This is all we know up to this point. If anyone has any experience as to what happens next, please share this with us!
CA Ex-Owner
Speaking as an employee of Curves International, the things you speak of hear are of no great surprise. This is a company run by family and lacking the expertise needed to really run a company correctly. The Heavins did a great job when the company was smaller and they could manage things on their own. I have no complaints about them personally. However, they choose to hire family and friends for positions they are unqualified for and you have all suffered the outcome of this.
It is the most disorganized mess you’ve ever seen. There is no doubt in my mind that you will win in a court of law, if you have the time and money to keep standing up to them. Any good employees that we do get, are soon gone when they realize what a mess this place is. The people at the top are more concerned with coming up with revenue generators for corporate than for the franchisees. Not exactly the best strategy in my mind. Look to the top of the organization, the rest of us are just order takers.
Good Luck.
Former Curves owner — D.C. suburb. One of the “older” large territories. Saturation of market, lack of quality control, lack of support are my major complaints. I was forced to let the Club go when, after years of struggle, I became ill. It would have gone under anyway. So, I would love to here of options.
Deb
ex owner here is what you have in store for you. The Next step that CI will take is to have you served with papers talking you to court for the 42,480 dollares. It has to be served by a legal process server and not through the mail. You will have 28 days to respond in the district court in Waco Tx. If you do not respond you will be held in contemped of court and the award will be automaticly given to CI and they will have a judgemnt against you for that amount plus court costs. At that point they will file a judgement or lien against any personal property you have in the area you live. They can not force you to sell anything to get their lien covered but if you sell anything that is recorded in your state such as a home , car, business or anything else that is registared with the state you reside in their money will be subtracted from that sale. If you have a put up the property for collateral and have a first postion note or encumberance that that will be paid first than their judgment than any 2nd postion note you may have at that time. In most states that judgement is only good for 3 years and CI would have toi refile it at that time. But the reason they are doing this is because once they get the judgement they can write it off as a loss on their taxes. In order for them to take it as a loss on their taxes the IRS rules state that they must try to collect the out standing balance. But knowing what we know about Howard he may try to keep those leins filed every 3 year knowing that sometime in the future when you die and your estate is settled if there is any thing left over that would normally be passed on to your children it would be subject to paying off that judgement first. You do have the option of responding to the summons that was served on you and you need to respond but you will need a lawyer in order to do that. We do have lawyers in Tx that is handling this for the clubs that have gone through this but the retainer is anywhere from 1500 to 3000. At this point CI is willing to drop the case once you hire a lawyer in return for signing the release that prevents you from joining the group action lawsuit. . If you join the group action lawsuit before you are served the summons the law firm that has been representing the group action lawsuit will handle this for you at no charge. You should contact several lawyers in your state for their opinion on how to proceed at that time you are served but I can assure you their advice will be that you have to respond to that notice. If you still have questions please email Sean Kelly at unhappyfranchisee.com and he will forward it to me and I will be more that happy to go over everything with you.