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Post by snaplongtimer on Nov 29, 2016 23:44:15 GMT
To begin with they should be using the bottom 80% average earnings not dazzle us with the top 20% performing clubs. That's so annoying. Actually, I want to see the bottom 20% of performers and what it would do to their clubs. I believe corp must foresee troubles coming with the club modernization costs and trying to boost our bottom line so we can pay for it. Remember...everything corp does is to boost their bottom line and enhance their brand no matter what it may do to us. I suppose my next question is can I send them a bill for the members that will be leaving my gym? It's not in existing contracts to pay this so this must be new members only? They say everyone.
Charged in April? Isn't that approximately when the runners leave the gym to run outside? I think they would be more inclined to pay this fee Jan/Feb.
I guess I better buy some poster board and list some new improvements I'll be making with this money I'm taking in...
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Post by cheryl on Nov 30, 2016 13:56:59 GMT
Does anyone have Petie Tauton or Fat tub o' lard's direct number? We'll be providing these to our members to call and let them know their thoughts.
Aren't there several different options available? What if you go into every membership and create a credit for $35. I can think of a multitude of ways to equalize this.
Our membership agreement has stated since day 1 that there will NEVER be any annual fees and that the price they sign up at will always be their price as long as their a member in good standing. This short sighted action would quickly open us up to a class action lawsuit.
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Post by determined1 on Nov 30, 2016 15:25:18 GMT
I agree this is extremely short sighted. Let's take snap's numbers, using 820 memberships. If you collect $35 from each one that's an additional $28,700 in the short term. Now let's say that 10% of your members tell you to go F yourself and cancel. That's 82 members. Now, let's use Snap's numbers for advertising justification. They state that each membership is worth $500. If 82 members bail that's a loss in the long run of $41,000. So in the short term you're pulling in $28,700 and in the long run losing $41,000 for a net loss over time of $12,300.
To make matters worse they're recommending only giving your members a 30 or 45 day notice. Are you kidding me? This is a company with absolutely zero business sense. I like the idea of crediting each account $35, but it'll be time consuming. However, not as time consuming as calling 10% of our members every month to get new billing info.
We've asked for ways to improve the member experience and they come up with a $35 annual fee per membership? This is a company with no added value to franchisees and no long term vision. They've touted no classes, no locker rooms and no showers and have done a 180 on all of these. Should we start planning on adding a pool, spa and sauna next?
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Post by snaplongtimer on Nov 30, 2016 15:38:14 GMT
Your membership agreement states that? I looked over mine again and didn't see annual fees mentioned. Maybe I am using old copies. I never talk about annual fees at the table, but do state the membership fee will never change.
I used to think I had his personal line when Petie involved himself in my personal business many years ago, but it always went to his secretary anyway. Having on hand small slips of paper with corporate's inquiry email address or phone # for unhappy customers is probably the best bet. Let corp field those complaints.
My club, I am sure, doesn't sit in the top 20% nor is it in the lower 20%, but somewhere in the middle. I am thinking to ride this annual fee out, let the charge happen and when the smoke clears see who's cool with it. I think all club owners could use the extra $$ for upgrading in one form or another. If it's damaging to my membership level and I start getting cc charge-backs, I may do something drastic like issue refunds. I plan on telling members, if they ask, I am not pocketing that money, but rather spending it on upgrades for their club.
So I may ask if a member cancels on March 27 and starts up again on April 2, will they still be charged the annual fee?
I believe the key to having people accept this charge for the first time is to have a nicely laid out plan posted in the club of what types of upgrades are coming.
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Post by determined1 on Nov 30, 2016 15:41:40 GMT
So I guess ike, aka jon fatfuck, thought he'd come into the forum, post his short sighted idea and get a bunch of people cheering for it. Instead, like what's normal with these idiots, they rollout an ill conceived idea. Don't vet it with the field, and are then surprised that it's not anything anyone wants. Instead we've been screaming for the auto update and it gets put on the back burner. I'll be so glad when we peel away from these idiots.
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Post by snaplongtimer on Nov 30, 2016 15:45:28 GMT
Somehow I think that franchisees resistance to cough up the club modernization cost of 23k+ might be a driving force behind this annual fee. Once we collect that, they probably think we'll have the money to complete their mods in short time.
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Post by determined1 on Nov 30, 2016 16:15:37 GMT
One of the major problems with their modernization is that it requires you to close your doors for a period of time while you do things like install new flooring. We had a local club do this several years ago. It caused their members to venture out and find new places to work out for that week. We wound up picking up a large number of their members. It was enough that they wound up closing their doors almost a year later. At that point we picked up a bunch more of their members. We also picked up their lease, with the clause that we could sublet it. We sublet it to a karate studio for $200/month less than what we were paying. After 5 years we'll collect an extra $100/month and after 5 years they can negotiate directly with the landlord.
The moral of the story is that if you shut your doors your members venture out and you put their memberships at risk. If it's YOUR business that can be devastating. If you're the franchisor you just say, oops, our bad. Actually snap would never admit that. They'd stick with their standard corporate stance and point their finger at the franchisees. It must be their fault!! They're bad operators.
Additionally, we put in new equipment all the time. Our newest is about 6 weeks old. On our tours we brag that we INVEST in our club and point out the clubs who charge annual fees.
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Post by fishstyxx on Dec 1, 2016 3:32:05 GMT
Because we are a company that encourages and listens to franchisee feedback, we would like to appease both sides of this new initiative.
We have a bridge in Brooklyn we're selling at a bargain price
Can I interest you in this crappy pyramid scheme? It's completely on the up and up. You can tell because we call it a multi-level marketing plan
We're from the government, we're here to help
I guess cheryl's comment of one way to bypass this stupidity led them to change their mind and make it opt-in. The $8.95 one month pre-pay membership and refusal to enable auto updates are 2 obvious examples that they don't care that owners know what's best for their club.
Additionally, any sort of modernization we do won't be done by anyone within any of the Snap divisions. We've already experienced the half assed job they do, and have spent years redoing the shoddy work they did. A perfect example are the stripe decals that go around the club. No attention to detail, a rushed job, and all had to be redone. If it was a private contractor we would have had them come out to redo everything, credit us back everything or taken them to court. Bring it up to Snap and what sort of response do you get? Tough crap, live with it. Obviously not a company that cares about the quality of their work.
Also, I thought I remembered reading in an FDD a while back that their top club had 800 or so members, not that's an average of the top 20. Of course we all know from any reports they provide that they haven't mastered 2nd grade math yet.
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