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Post by ScrewedEnough on Aug 27, 2018 15:54:18 GMT
Has anyone contacted the FTC yet to find out if it's even legal for corporate to require us to give away our services and wear and tear on our equipment AND, at the same time, expose ourselves legally without at the very least an opt-out option? I suspect corporate cannot do this legally since they are giving away our own independent services and assets without our authorization. In every ad I have ever seen from any corporate franchisor, there is always the disclaimer of "at participating locations" which makes me suspect franchisors must follow this procedure.
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Post by cheryl on Aug 28, 2018 2:17:10 GMT
As I've said before this is a felony charge of theft of services. They're stealing your services and selling them so someone else.
Until they're convicted they'll continue and then say, oh sorry, we didn't know.
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Post by greenergrass on Aug 30, 2018 19:40:11 GMT
They really can't claim they didn't know because we all know they read the posts on this site (they have responded). We have brought up the question of legality. They need to do their due diligence to confirm if it is or if it is not. To not check on this doesn't give them the right to claim ignorance. They can't be ignorant of something that has been brought to their attention.
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Post by ScrewedEnough on Aug 31, 2018 18:59:09 GMT
It makes them legally liable.
I am going to pursue this and discuss damages.
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Post by determined1 on Sept 10, 2018 13:38:40 GMT
"Hi, I was going to come in and sign up, but then I saw I could get 30 days for free so I did that. Can I get a temporary card to get in while I wait for mine to come in the mail?"
Corporate first!!! |
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Post by thatkidfromjersey on Sept 10, 2018 15:26:15 GMT
"Hi, I was going to come in and sign up, but then I saw I could get 30 days for free so I did that. Can I get a temporary card to get in while I wait for mine to come in the mail?"
Corporate first!!! If I had a buck for every time I heard that I could be retired right now. |
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Post by determined1 on Sept 18, 2018 18:57:53 GMT
Customer: Hi, my membership thing ends tomorrow and I cancelled it right after I signed up, but I'm thinking about signing up and continuing on. How much is it per month?
Franchisee: It's $X and $Y for the program fee.
C: Oh, that's over my budget. Can I just do the $8.95 per month thing?
F: Sorry, that's just corporate's thing for 1 month
C: Yeah, but if you guys can do that rate for 1 month I don't understand why you can't continue my membership at that rate.
F: Well, we consider our club to provide more than $8.95 in value per month.
C: I think $8.95 is a fair price
F: Ok, what kind of car do you drive?
C: A 2014 Honda Civic
F: Ok, I'll give you $1000 for your car.
C: Well, for one I'm not selling it and it's worth more than $1,000
F: I only value it at $1000. There are a bunch of other cars out there I could buy for $1000, so you should sell me yours for $1000.
C: Well, your price is out of my budget range.
Meanwhile he's used my club, my paper towels, my hand sanitizer and my equipment for 1 month at $0 to me.
Explain to me again why this isn't corporate theft?
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Post by cheryl on Sept 19, 2018 12:08:58 GMT
Lady calls us up today looking to make an appointment to sign up. Also wants to meet with the personal trainer right after signing up. Told her we could sign her up right away, but the personal trainer doesn't have availability until tomorrow. Also explain to her that she can start working out right away, she doesn't have to wait. She makes an appointment to come in and sign up. 2 hours before her appointment she leaves a voice mail that she has to cancel. No reason. Call her back in order to reschedule.
About 4 hours later get an email that we should welcome a new fitpass member. Guess who?
So now we're out a month which we didn't have to give away.
We have to work much harder to obtain the program fee, because corporate wants to simply give that away for free
and the kicker?
Corporate will point at this as a great grogram because someone on a fitpass converted to a membership.
THIS is how their numbers are invalid.
I think they fully understand this, but they get an additional $8.95 even though the franchisee gets fucked.
Agreed corporate first!! (Franchisee - to the back of the line)
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Post by ScrewedEnough on Sept 22, 2018 3:01:12 GMT
The thought just crossed my mind the other day -- it's not about this paltry $8.95 corporate steals from us -- it's about numbers. The more numbers of members on their books at any one time, the more valuable they are to a buyer. I'd bet that that is the real reason this strong-arm theft of our services is not stopping.
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Post by somethingelse on Sept 22, 2018 15:41:02 GMT
I never thought of it this way, but those people show up as active members, inflating the numbers, even if for a short period.
I know that in my clubs they barely convert, and most of them never show up. Now that they roll into monthly paying memberships when people are not paying attention, the active membership would be up again.
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