Closed Gym Announces Membership Reimbursements

Closed Gym Announces Membership Reimbursements

http://www.iclubs.com/news/closed-gym-announces-some-membership-reimbursements.html

A fitness club in Michigan that closed last Friday said it will reimburse members who had bought memberships since Black Friday.

Total Fitness Center/Michigan Barbell in Genoa Township, Mich., said on its Facebook page that it will reimburse members who signed up with the club from Nov. 27, which was Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, to Dec. 8.

“Total Fitness Center/Michigan Barbell operated within the letter of the law but I feel it is unfair to the newly signed members,” gym owner Carl Jackson wrote on Facebook.

After listing steps for members to receive their reimbursements, Jackson added: “We are sorry for the stress and inconvenience this transition has caused.”

Jackson told Detroit TV station WXYZ that in the 10 months since taking over the gym, “financial problems left him with the weight of the world.”

Jackson has not spoken to the Livingston (Mich.) Daily, which reported one member went to the local sheriff’s department to file a criminal complaint against the gym. Brian Mowers, a three-year member, paid $600 in cash in June for one-year memberships for him and his wife.

“I think I’ve been ripped off,” Mowers told the newspaper. “I think the perfect crime would be to open a club and get all these annual memberships and then close it because the court and the sheriff don’t consider that a criminal proceeding.”

The newspaper also reported most of the gym’s equipment was taken to an undisclosed storage location over the weekend, and workers were still removing more equipment Monday morning.

Last Friday, in a Facebook post that has since been taken down, Total Fitness Center explained its closing, hinting at a Monday court appearance that reportedly did not take place.

“Yes, Total Fitness Center as you know it is closed permanently; what happens to (it) from this point will be decided in court Monday Dec. 14 and (results announced after Mondays court date),” the post stated, as reported by the Livingston Daily. “Obviously the hopeful outcome would be open at a new location sooner rather than later, but those are no longer in TR. Fitness Center LLC control, it has lost all rights to the equipment.

“TR. Fitness did not operate in anyway to deceive any one; we operated in good faith to keep the doors open up until the point it was realized we were no longer going to be in that location. Everyone from TR. Fitness management and staff believed … we would remain open, liabilities were paid, payroll, taxes, etc. and our records will show that no one did anything inappropriate with its funds and that it all (was) used to keep the doors open.”