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.
Are you guys saying that you should be classified as employees?
One minute you’re complaining there’s no support, you never see a rep, blah blah blah the next you’re saying they exert employer-like control?
Which is it?
Whatever puts the blame on someone else. LOL
here is the link to the article all curves owners past and present should read!!!!!
http://www.nixonpeabody.com/publications_detail3.asp?ID=3226
My wife and I closed our Curves 2 weeks ago. Our 5 year franchise agreement finally expired. My wife was directed to this site by another Curves owner from our area that was forced to close her Curves. We loved our Curves and our members. We poured our lives into it, but it’s quite a relief to know it is almost over. We want to reopen as a fitness club with a card scanner door sytem, I don’t know what you call it, we will not be open 24/7.Our members want to keep coming and I feel we can get the support to sucsesfully run a new fitness club.
Dealing with CI has been the worst experience of our lives. Many of you on this site can relate. I have spent the last couple of days reading all the posts on this site, from the beginning. I had found it to be very theraputic. I did not realize that we were not alone in how we were being dealt with. No return calls or emails. CI would not renew with us, instead they are trying to sell a new Curves to a former emplyee. After coming across this site I feel very blessed that they would not renew us. They were told about our door card readers that we had installed. I feel somewhat bad for this person trying to buy it, she will fail, and fail fast. I am very disapointed with how this site transformed from being helpfull to me, to how I started skimming through it instead the last few months, skipping certain posts when seeing who posted it. This site is great, don’t get me wrong, it most certainly helped my wife and I cope with our struggle, group therapy of sorts. I just feel bad that some of you have lowered your standards, allowing some of the people posting here to get you fired up when they have obviously not had the experience the rest of us have, and have no right defending CI. I almost find myself now getting very upset, I just am in shock over the way CI has dealt with our situation (I have not even begun to tell my whole story), and cannot imagine anyone realistically supporting CI. This is my first post, hope I can provide more later. My wife has contacted unhappy and we are awaiting his return call to help us. Thanks
Small town,
Don’t let the posters here that are pro Howie get to you as we all can tell that they obviously work for CI. I was glad that the site helped you get through what we all know was tough days and mental anguish. I would hope you will post your story here as we all would love to here your stories of how CI screwed you and good luck to your new club.
On July 13, 2010, I will have completed my 5 year agreement. I received a touchy feely e-mail from CI congratulating me on 5 years and telling me to download some documents if I wanted to apply to renew for another 5 years. I live in an extremly small town and pay the minimum royalties and advertising because of the small member count. The documents states that I will have to pay the maximum royalties and advertising for everymonth if I renew and do not fulfill the next five years up to 40 some thousand dollars! I e-mailed them and asked if I was understanding this correctly. They e-mailed me back and said yes you will pay the maximum royalties and advertising fee if you do not complete the full 5 year agreement. Since this is such a small town, CI will never get the maximum royalties and advertising fee from this territory so this is just greed. They would make more off of me if I fail then if I don’t! I have lost all respect for them. I can not sign something so ludicrous so I am not renewing. I am moving out of my home this weekend because as you all can relate, I am drowning in debt. It does help to read the other stories.
I can’t wait to have my say. I will be flying soon to Miami to be deposed by CI Attorney’s. I can’t tell you how many sleepless nights I have spent going over the “Shoulda, Coulda, woulda’s.” Please say a prayer for me so I don’t lose my cool, or say more than I should. Please let me refrain from telling these greedy vulchers what a worthless piece of lying garbage I think Howie and his crew are. Give me the strength to hold my head high, look them in the eyes and not fall to their intimidation tactics. Amen. Wish me luck.
We all wish you luck and please keep us informed as to how it goes.
Close in 07,
I also had to close my club in October of 09. I tried everything to get CI to help me stay open. Their only suggertion was I could go on a percentage rate basis IF I would sign a new 5 year contract. My business was failing so how could I do that. I would not settle with them and refused to destroy MY equipment so I got my letter of abandonment and now thay want over $27,000 instead of the $2,500 they were willing to settle for. (future royaly and advertising fees) I had no furure and as far as abandoment they abandoned ME. Did it take 3 years for them to contact you? I figure in another 3 years there will be no more Curves. Why Miami? I thought that if it came down to a law suit we would have to go to Texas. I wish you all the luck in the world. Stand tall, keep your head up and stand your ground. You have many of us praying for you that everything will turn out right.
Small Town,
My Curves was in a very small town also. I had to close my doors. I miss my girls a lot but do get to still see some of them when we happen to run in to each other in the grocery store. A few I have lunch with now and then. I meet a lot of new people and made a lot of new friends and I miss them. Don’t give in to any of their demands. All they want is every penny thaey can squeeze from us. I gave them 7 years of my life as I believed in them. As long as they got what they wanted every month (MONEY) they were happy. I never heard from anyone from corporate in the 7 years I was open. When I asked for HELP, NONE was given. Good luck in your new venture. Are you using YOUR equipment to open something else. I’ve been thinking about it.
We are opening with all our same equipment. My wife stopped at our club to start removing Curves stuff and got nothing done because all the members were so excited to see someone there. I believe she misses the girls as much as they miss her. It is easier to want to be there now that we know we are no longer getting screwed by Curves. Hopefully Curves stays consistant with not calling us and doesn’t bother calling us to see who owns our new club.
tickedoff,
It took about 3 months for them to contact me after I closed my doors. They had the nerve to demand that I pay to freight the equipment that I paid for back to them. They also demanded an enormous amount of money to settle my contract. I told them I would get out my cutting torch and send it to them in hundreds of pieces, no problem where would you like me to send it and as for the money, I gave them Zarco’s phone number and told them to have a “blessed day”. I never got an answer. Since then I have given most of the pieces away to other clubs that could use it. Why Miami? We all had to fly to Waco for mediation, that was over 2 years ago. It was the biggest waste of time and money. CI tried to have us all deposed in Texas, but our attorney’s petitioned the court to have it here in Florida at our attorney’s office. If CI wanted the information they can come and get it. We have won 90% of all motions. So far I am really pleased with the results. As little as I can afford to hire attorneys, expert witnesses and pay for flights and hotels, I am not giving up, I’m fighting for all of us who were scammed and taken advantage of. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes.
Holy Shiva! Curves is opening 250 franchises in India.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blnus/19151991.htm
I see that this plague dbiraetsya in all countries. We had a club. We thank God it was closed. Now it poyavmlos Bulgaria Romania Ukraine Kazakhstan, people want more shopping-muck in Poland. The fact that we have come to this club, it’s just a bad dream and the nightmare that the glory of God is already behind us it was closed.
250 more sad stories about to unfold in India over the coming months.
I am currently in the process of possibly purchasing a curves franchise, after reading everyone’s comments and complaints this makes me second guess my decision.
Julie
DON’T DO IT IF YOU DO IT WILL BE THE WORST DECISION YOU HAVE EVER MADE!!!!!!! 98% OF THE CLUBS ARE GOING BROKE BECAUSE OF THE CORRUPT, ILLEGAL , UNETHICAL AND LIES FROM THE OWNER OF THE FRANCHISE HOWIE HEAVIN
Julie, please consider this: Curves International/Gary Heavin has determined that they can make more money off the clubs that fail than those that succeed. From the clubs that close, he wants a $10,000 failure fee, plus maximum royalties and ad fees for the duration of the contract. That’s a lot more $$$ than he can make from an average club still in business. So, where do you suppose his focus and priorities are? Supporting the operating clubs is a nuisance. When my club was open, I got NO support from corporate. No return calls, no reply to e-mails.
Now, CI is putting all of these “closing costs” in their franchise agreement. (These costs were NOT in my agreement, but CI is going after them anyway.) Be sure to read your franchise agreement very carefully, then ask yourself if you can really afford to do this.
If my club’s failure was my “fault,” why isn’t Curves trying to find a new and better owner for my old territory? Instead, they are opening 250 clubs in India! I guess Heavin’s reputation hasn’t caught up to him there yet.
I also would advise anyone not to purchase a Curves Franchise. I don’t go along with all of the name calling on here, but rather believe what I’ve read in trade magazines that women are always wanting something different, ie…hairstyle, hair color, diet plan, shoes and exercise. I have 2 years left on my
Curves agreement, but doubt very much that I can make it that long. Check into purchasing your own own equipment and opening under your own name if you are set on doing it. You will at least save yourself almost $600 a month by not getting tied up with Curves. Good luck.
I am a former Curves owner, (closed Jan of this year), and I just wanted to report our experience so far. We never received to the $10000 closing fee letter, however we did receive the abandonment letter with claim to owe for royalty and advertising fees. We did receive a letter from the Illinois law firm claiming a lawsuit would ensue if the fees were not paid in full. We ignored the letter, and just recently started receiving phone calls from these people. When we did talk to the collector, or should I say lawyer, at the very end of the conversation they claimed we would not need to pay the entire amount. Anyway, I just wanted to pass this info along as this site has been helpful in dealing with this situation. We are in debt from the initial purchase, and I was willing to treat this as a note and pay off, however once they started claiming these future royalty and advertising fees, my attitude has changed in regards to CI…
Just Say No! wrote that “From the clubs that close, he wants a $10,000 failure fee, plus maximum royalties and ad fees for the duration of the contract.”
Can somebody please clarify. I thought the $10,000 failure fee was INSTEAD OF the future royalties and ad fees, not in addition to. Which is right?
Judy wrote “Check into purchasing your own equipment and opening under your own name if you are set on doing it. You will at least save yourself almost $600 a month by not getting tied up with Curves.”
There are programs for starting your own club that provide equipment and training like this one:
http://www.franbest.com/2010/01/15/pace/
anon-
It was in addition to the future royalty and advertising fees!
So, I’m sitting in downtown Miami waiting to be deposed pondering the lack of justice in our legal system. The only word I can come up with to some up this entire ordeal with my lawsuit against Curves and Howie is “UnFingbelieveable”.
How can our Florida lawsuit go from 170 clubs to less than 50 and still shrinking practically overnight? Texas Federal Court.
Every state has their own Franchise laws Florida has about 6 biggies and CI broke every single one of them. Based on that we have a good case right? Wrong, thanks to a magistrate and a Texas Federal Judge that ruled Texas law trumped out of state statutory claims. Florida Plantiffs (Us) contended that CI Fraudulently induced us to enter agreements to open a Curves, and oversaturated the market in breach of the Franchise Agreement.
The district court concluded that since the injury from fraud occurred in Texas (where we signed our agreements), the laws of the plantiffs home state are inapplicable. This ruling however wrong, effectively cut our case off at the knees.
Read for yourself at:
http://www.haynesboone.com/files/Publication/9d6259b1-357f-4a92-8823-0391c371fe6b/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/7c00f7e5-8c26-4b11-9ead-1114e670ba9e/Franchise_Law_SMU.pdf .
So what exactly does this mean to a plantiff? Those of us that were lied to?
It means yes, you were lied to and yes you will win a fraud case. Yeah! Wait not so fast. Let me explain how the fraud process is going to go down with a Texas judge.
The judge will agree that you were a victim of fraud. Yes it was a lie when they said you could be profitable with 150 members, yes they also lied about the cost to run a club, oh and sure they didn’t spend half of the advertising they promised, sorry about that. I understand you never saw an area rep. and you received no support. Yes, all that was indeed bogus. So let’s get you back solvent again. Your like ok, solvent would be good. The judge is going to tell CI give you back all the money that you invested opening your curves. $19,900.00 plus whatever receipts you can come up with. Let’s go with $35K. Now the judge is going to tell CI to give you your money back. We are going pretend that you never bought a Curves and CI never heard of you. Sounds great! Right up until the judge tells you to return to Curves all the profits you made for every year you were in business. What? I win a fraud case and I have to end up paying CI? Yes, you win the case but you lose in the end. What kind of justice is that? Now this doesn’t apply to resales I’m sure.
I’m an original owner that made a profit the first three years I was open. It doesn’t matter that in 06 I made only $6,000.00. A profit is still a profit. Let’s not even talk about the $37,000.00 loss I took in ’07. And CI has the nerve to ask why I closed.
So some might say, well hang in there Curves may settle at the last second. There is zero chance of CI settling. If they settle, every club in the world will sue. They will haul every owner individually into court and hammer them relentlessly. To quote our Govenor, Welcome to the NFL.
So what is happening to all the people who are involved in the Fla suit? All of us are trying to find a way to resolve our disputes. Most of which are called
“Walkaways”. As those of you know who closed your club already, CI is suing you for royalties and lost fees. Well a Walkaway is just that, CI is offering the deal. Stop litigation and we will drop the suit and both of us will walk away. Most of us are taking the deal. It sucks doesn’t it.
Incredible. Infuriating. And discouraging.
Thanks for giving us the FIRST update I’ve heard on the case in years. We didn’t take part in the suit. Now I’m glad we didn’t. The stress from losing so much already was bad enough.
If only Texas law applies, maybe a Texas Curves will win big and split the settlement with the other remainng clubs.
Admin, I thought you might get a chuckle from this:
http://franchising.doodig.com/2010/04/23/all-about-buying-a-curves-franchise/
Thanks, Fitdude. The writer obviously has a deep understanding of the Curves franchise opportunity:
“Keep in mind that Curves only allows one Curves shop in any given area… This regulation is what makes each Curves shop profitable. The market doesn’t become saturated with too many shops that are located too close together.”
“…buying a Curves franchise is something that will give you years of fulfilling work experience and a chance to improve your own body as well!”
After reading that, I seriously don’t know what you franchisees are whining about. This sounds pretty good to me!
Curves SBA franchise loan failure rate is posted here:
Failure Rates of the 10 Most Popular Franchises
Comments welcome
We closed in mid-April after having our Curves for more than 8 years — thank goodness that’s over. We took a bath, with 3 Curves opened within 2 miles of us. Now we’re all closed! We almost had this Curves sold, except when the prospective buyer started to look at the Curves franchise, and especially Howie — he said “no way.” Not only is the business bad — Howie offered us nothing and infact prohibited us from doing other things in Curves, i.e. Pilates, etc. when our competitors were all doing that! He also came out with Smart equipment, which was an endless problem (I’ve only heard from friends who have had it). There is nothing good written about Curves on line, and all terrible things about Howie that discourage people from getting involved in this organization.
OMG! 59 failed loans over a 10 year period! Thank you for the news flash! My lord, that’s almost 6 per year! Oh wait, when you look into it more, even a tiny little bit more, you see that it’s not so bad after all. Especially when you look at the individual loan amount (“average loan” amount posted in article) and TOTAL VALUE of the defaults (based on the “total amount distributed” X the “failure rate”):
Subway $27,426,000
Quiznos $72,925,000
The UPS Store $19,128,000
Cold Stone Creamery $56,079,000
Dairy Queen $12,560,000
Dunkin Donuts $21,632,000
Super 8 $16,608,000
Days Inn $23,952,000
Curves $5,824,000
Matco Tools $10,404,000
So going by the WHOLE story, of the top ten most popular franchises, not only were Curves loans the second LOWEST in BOTH number of failed loans and individual loan value, but the total value of failed Curves loans was absolutely THE lowest by a WIDE margin at about half the amount of the next closest in the list (“winners” or “losers”). BTW This is the original ordering that the article had them in. The author didn’t list them “from worst to best” as you later did in your article. Perhaps because the % of failures doesn’t tell the whole story? For example, the “winner” with the lowest value of failed loans is still well over TWICE the value of failed Curves SBA backed loans, the average amongst the “winners” is FOUR times as much, and the “worst of the best” being FIVE times the value at $27,426,000 in failed loans. Thank you for your unbiased “reporting”.
we’re gone,
“There is nothing good written about Curves on line, and all terrible things about Howie that discourage people from getting involved in this organization.”
Even though many of us have had issues with CI, myself included, there is plenty of good still out there. Unfortunately you are 100% correct. The internet has enabled one-sided sites like this to flourish (just look what happens when anyone disagrees with the dogma here). How’s that saying go? It takes hearing 20 good things to counter each bad thing? Something like that. Anyway, the misinformation put out here has irreparably harmed and devalued ALL our clubs so they could promote their law suit. I’m sorry that you were so detrimentally effected too. Good luck.
Good Luck, I’m not involved in any lawsuit. But I expect to be since Curves insists on trying to get blood money out of this moneyless former owner. Gary Heavin’s relentless and heartless pursuit of people who had no choice but to close their doors — THAT is what is hurting Curves. And THAT is what is hurting you, too. This is not “misinformation” — it’s the facts.
You know Curves is a bad investment when banks won’t loan money in order for anyone to buy one!!! It isn’t sites like this that has done the damage to Curves but how Howie conducts his business. Just look at the closure rate, all the lawsuits, and what the general public is saying about curves. You can’t even give them away and its not just here in the states its a world wide problem. BUYERS BEWARE DON’T FALL FOR CURVES LIES, LIES ,AND MORE LIES FROM HOWIE.
Hi,
I opened my club in June 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey and for the first few months my club seemed like it would be doing well but by November my membership numbers dropped to 0!!! At the time of my opening my club there were 5 Curves clubs in my city and now there is only 1 left; all the others had to close down including mine…I have been chasing CI since beginning of December, telling them I was having a tough time and that I would most likely end up having to close down. I haven’t been contacted by anyone offering any support, guidance or help so in the end I gave up trying and had to close down in March.
Funny enough 4 months after my various emails I receive an email from their re-sale department telling me; and I quote, that so-and-so from Curves tried contacting me various times but was unsuccessful in her attempts reaching me…total load of crap! yes there was a lady at re-sale who emailed me and said she would contact but never ever did even though I chased her many times! So I reply back asking for proof as to when and how they tried to reach me as per their claims and the answer was ’sorry for your frustration but we promise that we will be in contact from now on.now tell us are you still open or closed?’ and I told them that after 4 months I couldn’t afford to wait for them to come back to me any longer and eventually I did have to close down…
Now they sent me an email, using a very intimidating tone of voice as I expected of course, and told me that I abandoned my club which is a breach of contract ( A.K.A THE CARDINAL SIN – OH FOR GOD’S SAKE, GIVE ME A BREAK!) and that I owe them all the future royalty fees as well as the advertising fees, which come to a total of around 40K Dollars…Hahahahaaaa, really funny! I cannot believe that they actually have the nerves to ask me for the future advertising fees as CI have been telling all the Curves clubs in my country from the beginning that there would be no advertising done (whether local or national) in Turkey because there just wasn’t enough number of clubs to support just yet; so each club had to pay for their own advertising until now. It’s obvious that those half-wits that send franchisees like me those scary-sounding-emails have a template email that they copy and paste and they are not even smart enough to check their policies for individual countries.
Anyways, I will not pay them a single penny and don’t care how many silly emails they will send me. It already cost me 150K Dollars so far and I had to sell my flat to pay off my loans to the bank. It makes me sick to think of the amount of money I threw away, we have a 7 month-old-baby and my husband, quite rightly, says that it could be her life-time education money had I not got into this business; how very stupid of me! I don’t even want to think about it because it makes me want to literally throw up!
Does anyone know if they can sue me in Turkey? I know they claim that it was breach of contract from my part but I have been reading the contract thoroughly and it appears that the franchisee does infact have the right to terminate the agreement should CI not support them, offer them advise etc etc and I wonder if I would be OK to go down that route and refuse any payment
I do feel for everyone that went/goes through the same nightmare but lets all look at the bright side; at least we’ve been there, done that : )))
I forgot to mention that on their last email, they sent 2 forms for me to fill in, sign and send back within 2 working days (why 2 working days, God knows!) : Club worksheet and Intend to Close Facility Form. But I won’t send them back until I am 100% sure that they OK to sign and send back. What did the other franchisees here do?
Elif,
Do not send or sign anything until you talk to me…… send email to admin. at this site with your phone number and I will contact you asap.
Howie loses another motion in court………..of course if you listen to him he has never lost one yet Ha Ha Ha what a con and dishonest lier lier lier pants on fire and I hoe he burns in hell.
Loislaw Federal District Court Opinions
GO FIGURE, INC. v. CURVES INTERNATIONAL, INC. (S.D.Tex. 4-8-2010)
CIVIL ACTION NO. H-09-2930.
April 8, 2010
Pending before the Court is the declaratory defendant, Curves International, Inc.’s (“Curves”) motion to dismiss under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(3) or, in the alternative, to transfer venue under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) (Docket Entry No. 5). The declaratory plaintiff, Go Figure, Inc. (“Go Figure”) submitted a response to this motion (Docket Entry No. 7) and Curves filed a reply in support of its motion (Docket Entry No. 11). Having carefully reviewed the parties’ submissions, the record and the applicable law, the Court hereby denies Curves’ motion.
as per your advice I sent an email to unhappyfranchisee@gmail.com
I look forward to receiving your call
thanks a lot!
I just spoke with an owner who is closing. She said that Curves, if they go after you for the closing fees, could go after your retirement. What are your thoughts on that? We have put everything we have in an LLC. Does this make a difference. Obviously, we jumped into something we had no clue about. This is a mess and we are only 9 months into our 5 year contract. Help!
I had to close after 7 months into my 5 year contract and am now being chased to pay something like 40,000 USD in 2 weeks (I have 10 days left! ) . I ignored their email, which was sent last week asking me to sign and send some papers (intend to close form etc) and today I received another email saying that if I don’t sign and send them back in 2 days my case will be sent to their legal department. I replied asking them to show me where exactly in the contract I was obliged to respond their inquiries in 2 days!!! Should I start worrying though about this legal department thing??? I did email my phone number to unhappyfranchisee@gmail.com and am so desperate to hear any advice anybody can give!
Jan – best of luck to you too!
We were lied to by the former owners. Lied about the amount of members, lied about the expenses, lied about fee etc. We were given a two day window to make a decision about closing. I was told I would have to pay a nominal fee but they would not say what that was. Two questions. how would filing bankruptcy affect a LLC with Curves…would that make more sense or just go thru Cruves and do as they say to close it. Also has anyone thought about suing the people who sold the Curves to them based on their lies and not fully disclosing everything?
jan,
Do not pay curves anything as unless you have signed the new contract that came out in March of 09. There is nothing in either the 5 or 10 year contract that before that time about th closing fee and further it is illegal for curves to go after franchise and advertising fees once you have closed your club. curves International and Howie use intimidation to get you to pay them more money knowing that you are going broke. Your LLC will not protect you as you signed the agreement using your personal name but don’t worry or lose sleep over it as there is basically nothing CI can do to you although you may have to fight them in court which does cost lawyers fees but wouldn’t you rather pay a lawyer than Howie? What you need to do is file complaints with the following agencies:
TO ALL OVER SEAS CLUBS HERE ARE THE SITES YOU NEED TO GO TO TO FILE COMPLAINTS AGAINST CURVES INTERNATIONAL AND HOWIE.
http://www.bbb.org/
http://waco.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=40&id=ab5100aa-4c5a-4314-8e1b-f5996973f10c
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/index.shtml
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/index.shtml
Jan,
If you would like to talk to me send an email to admin@unhappyfranchisee@gmail.com with you phone number and I will contact you .I have helped hundreds upon hundreds of owners go through the process and I’m sure we can help you too.
Unhappy,
Just so others in our shoes will know, we did sign a contract after March. Ours was in August of 09. So, what now? We have talked to two Texas lawyers, one for the franchisee and one the franchisor….one said filing bankruptcy AFTER CI goes after us for the money will stop it, but it cost about $3000 for filing fees. It is so frightening. My husband does have a full time job, but we are not able to make our rent payment for Curves, barely able to pay payroll each month and cannot make our personal credit card payments at the moment. He is actually working one full time and 2 part time jobs. Trust me, I know we are not the only ones either struggling like this. I will forward my husband’s as well as my contact info to you. We appreciate all you out there is Curves Crazy Land who have helped us and each other. Something has got to give eventually. Oh, by the way, I may be doing wrong, but I am avoiding even talking to our DM as I feel they are full of BS Curves trash. All we hear from her is “get BR’s, put out lead boxes, advertise….yada yada yada”….. Is she or Curves going to front that advertising money. BRs are a joke as are lead boxes in our community.
J
Jan,
I know what you mean and it won’t do any good to talk to the DM as you are so right they are full of shit. Don’t worry about having to file bankruptcy just yet but it is an option. Do not sign anything that curves sends you as they will try to trick you into signing a so called mutual release which only prevents you from suing them but they can still sue you. If need be I can put you in touch with the best lawyer in Waco who is familiar with all the lawsuits against curves and he may even take you lawsuit on contingency. Your husband sounds like a great guy so be sure to give him all the support you can and give him a big kiss for supporting you in this nightmare. Take care and God Bless.
Julie,
Please don’t purchase. It will be the biggest mistake of your life.
J
Elizabeth.
You may have a case against both the previous owner and curves if you have proof they sold it to you deceptively. Do not follow curves closing procedures as they will lie to you and try to get you to sing the so called mutual release. Send an email to admin at unhappyfranchisee@gmail.com with your phone number, it will be forward to me and I will be happy to give you advice on how to proceed.
Listen to unhappy:
“You may have a case against both the previous owner and curves…
“Do not follow curves closing procedures as they will lie to you and try to get you to sing the so called mutual release…
“Don’t worry about having to file bankruptcy just yet but it is an option.
“I will be happy to give you advice on how to proceed.”
This guy is not an attorney. He did not go to law school. I doubt he’s read a law book much less any serious legal articles. He pretends he’s qualified to give legal advice but he is not. (Making a poor business decision, failing and getting sued are NOT qualifications.) Don’t you people think there’s a reason lawyers have years of study and have to pass a bar exam before they can dispense legal advice? Hello?
Seriously, most of you failing Curves franchisees are now reading your agreements for the first time. Back when you still had money, you were too stupid or cheap to hire a franchise attorney. Now you are in trouble because of that stupidity and you are taking advice from a guy with a grudge and people from 3rd world countries with unintelligible english.
Anybody stupid enough to get their legal advice from anonymous commenters on the internet deserve whatever they get. Wise up and hire an actual attorney.
Well “Guest”, I suppose you are too embarrassed by you ignorant comment to give a name. I am a college educated woman who did read the agreement. BUT when the previous owners lied about everything including member numbers, fees associated with the club etc. its a little hard to make ends meet when you are in the hole every month $1300.00. We received no back up from CI. We just want out and CI wants $40,000.00 to get out when our royalty fees have only been $195.00 per month. As for advice yes we have been reading everyone’s advice because I can not believe CI. As for an attorney yes they are expensive and perhaps we will have to go that route in the end, but for now it helps to get some advice from people who have been thru it.
Elizabeth states:
‘We were lied to by the former owners. Lied about the amount of members, lied about the expenses, lied about fee etc. We were given a two day window to make a decision about closing. I was told I would have to pay a nominal fee but they would not say what that was.’
Okay, let’s look at this statement and think about the due diligence that was done:
‘Lied about the amount of members’ – Okay, when you are buying an existing store, wouldn’t it be prudent to get the company’s previous financials, look at their bank account to see how much money was going into the account (tells you how many members they had).
‘Lied about the expenses, lied about the fees, etc’ – Again, did you not look at bank statements, checks written for the last year to determine what their expenses were?? How about looking at leases and other items that you would be on the hook for?
‘We were given a two day window to make a decision about closing’ – This is what i would call a ‘red flag’, and probably should’ve been an indication to you walk away.
‘ I was told I would have to pay a nominal fee but they would not say what that was’ – Huge ‘red flag’, why would you sign when you don’t know what that nominal fee was?
Of course, you could take unhappy’s advice and sue Curves (if you feel they sold it to you deceptively), but if you didn’t do those basic things of due diligence, an attorney will make you look very stupid up on a witness stand.
We examined every bank statement they gave us and yes they had money going in… come to find out they were putting their own money in the cover expenses. As for the members, now that I have owned a Curves, there are ways to change the amount of members you have. We did everything we knew to check this out. I will say that we did not know enough to ask certain questions. When I speak of “two days to make a decision” that is from Wendy Law. When I notified CI that we had put our Club up for sale she then started to email me about closing. She gave me the two days.. she said a nominal fee. I have no desire to sue Curves I just want out without having to pay a ridiculous amount of money.