California Wow: Customers, Staff To Sue Failing Fitness Centre

[webfact]

CALIFORNIA WOW

Customers, staff to sue failing fitness centre

THAMMARAT KITCHALONG

THE NATION

A press conference yesterday an official from the Foundation for Consumers delivers a statement about the complaints filed by clients of the California Wow fitness centre, which is only operating its Siam Paragon branch at present.

BANGKOK: -- A consumer protection foundation yesterday encouraged customers of once-popular California WOW to register complaints with it so that lawsuits could be filed against the firm for the return of membership fees.

Thirty California WOW fitness centres registered their complaints with the Foundation for Consumers yesterday, seeking help for the refund of the fees.

Saowanee Chamchaliew, a staff member of the foundation, said it would receive complaints until the end of this month before making joint legal efforts against California WOW. She said customers should call 02-248-3737 to file their complaints.

The foundation would gather the complaints and inform the Office of the Consumers Protection Board, asking it to sue the firm.

California WOW started its fitness centre business in Bangkok to much fanfare 12 years ago. The firm reportedly suffered from a liquidity crunch early this year.

Earlier, Bangkok Bank filed a lawsuit with the Bankruptcy Court against California WOW, seeking a court order to force the firm to repay its loan of Bt71.90 million plus Bt3.97 million in interest.

California WOW has shut down seven of its eight fitness centres, leaving only the centre at Siam Paragon open, prompting many customers to complain as they could not travel to the heart of the capital to use the service.

Saowanee said the Office of the Consumers Protection Board had told her that California WOW was instructed by a court to resume services at all branches and it was not allowed to change its contracts with customers.

A 48-year-old housewife, who identified herself as Sa, said she applied to be a member of the Ratchayothin branch after a salesperson called her and encouraged her to exercise. She ended up paying more than Bt150,000 during her time with the centre.

She paid an annual membership fee of Bt17,599, and Bt55,242 for hiring trainers plus Bt3,200 a year for renting a locker. She also paid Bt888 a year as a membership-keeping fee. She paid another Bt40,000 to join a weight-reduction course.

A 63-year-old woman, calling herself Tik, said she applied as a member at the Pinklao branch just two days before it closed. She lost over Bt28,000.

On Monday, 20 laid-off trainers of California WOW represented nearly 1,000 employees of eight branches of the fitness firm to file a complaint with the Labour Protection and Welfare Department.

The trainers led by Chayungkorn Taptimthong, 36, submitted their complaint to Manote Saengkaew, director of the labour protection and problem solving division.

Chayungkorn told reporters that California WOW allegedly owed salaries to nearly 1,000 employees of all eight branches. He said the employees were forced to resign without receiving severance pay and they were earlier forced to withdraw their contribution money from the provident fund so the company would not have to pay its contributions to the fund.

Chayunkorn said the employees were not sure whether the firm had paid the money deducted from the workers' salaries to the Social Security Fund or not.

Arthit Isamo, director-general of the labour protection department, said his department had summoned executives of California WOW to testify twice - but no executives turned up so the department would consider the case based on information from the workers only.

Arthit said his department would summon the employer to testify again and wrap up the investigation in about 60 days.

-- The Nation 2012-08-22

[Thai at Heart]

The fitness centers registered their complaints?

This paper gets worse every day.

[Notstupid30]

Now that's WOW California WOW

[noitom]

"Customers and staff to sue." Fat chance. If you are an attorney, don't take this on contingency, take a flat rate. Like the film "The Sting."

[ratcatcher]

They should be sued for all the racket they created at their fatness centres. Wow! Good thing if they close the lot.

[PattayaPhom]

Any members should move on. Surely, they scammed you once with 'lifetime' membership whats to stop them doing it again if they ever open the doors in the future.

[tinfoilhat]

i wonder how many of the "end of days" memberships went directly into staff pockets?

given that the Bank is into them for 80 odd million, the staff and customers are going to have quite a wait ahead of them.

On another note, i cannot understand why, for the life of me, anyone would want to work out at Paragon. It seems neither convenient nor appealing to me in any way.

Edited August 22, 2012 by tinfoilhat

[Misterwhisper]

"She paid another Bt40,000 to join a weight-reduction course."

It probably must be considered a 'partial success'. At least her bank account got slimmer.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Misterwhisper

[zakk9]

How it's possible to go bankrupt with the prices they charged is beyond me. The whole setup looks like it was a giant scam from day one.

[robblok]

How it's possible to go bankrupt with the prices they charged is beyond me. The whole setup looks like it was a giant scam from day one.

Quite easy sell lifetime memberships at 11k. Everyone who stays longer as a year means a loss to the company. Rent is high and you have employees too. Its better to have a fixed monthly fee at least then you got good cashflow.

[noitom]

Anytime a business like that starts offering 11K "lifetime" memberships to already regular members and new people, it's a big red flag. The guy who cuts my hair was raving to me the day he signed up for this "lifetime." He was saying "what a great deal" and I told him to go everyday and get your 11K 's worth before the door is locked suddenly.

[zakk9]

There's lifetime and there's lifetime. My impression is that even with "lifetime" membership, there were fees to be paid, and when I checked prices a few years ago, I found them totally unacceptable compared to the competition.

[FOODLOVER]

Glad i took my own advice and stayed on the couch.

[robblok]

There's lifetime and there's lifetime. My impression is that even with "lifetime" membership, there were fees to be paid, and when I checked prices a few years ago, I found them totally unacceptable compared to the competition.

The fee i had to pay was 100bt a year for renewal... I mean its impossible that a company can still make money on me after a few years.

[villagefarang]

Did anyone actually think “lifetime” meant until the end of your life?

[zakk9]

There's lifetime and there's lifetime. My impression is that even with "lifetime" membership, there were fees to be paid, and when I checked prices a few years ago, I found them totally unacceptable compared to the competition.

The fee i had to pay was 100bt a year for renewal... I mean its impossible that a company can still make money on me after a few years.

Sounds like a good deal... if they had stayed afloat that is. Tony's in Pattaya charges 25,000 for lifetime, but has a sale occasionally, selling for 15,000. Judging from the stack of membership cards after their last sale, they must have sold a couple of thousand, and considering the fact that many of their members aren't in Pattaya all year, it's probably a healthier business.

[zakk9]

Did anyone actually think “lifetime” meant until the end of your life?

That's what it's supposed to mean. I have lifetime membership in an association given to me during the fifties which was bought for $30 at the time. Still valid.

[robblok]

There's lifetime and there's lifetime. My impression is that even with "lifetime" membership, there were fees to be paid, and when I checked prices a few years ago, I found them totally unacceptable compared to the competition.

The fee i had to pay was 100bt a year for renewal... I mean its impossible that a company can still make money on me after a few years.

Sounds like a good deal... if they had stayed afloat that is. Tony's in Pattaya charges 25,000 for lifetime, but has a sale occasionally, selling for 15,000. Judging from the stack of membership cards after their last sale, they must have sold a couple of thousand, and considering the fact that many of their members aren't in Pattaya all year, it's probably a healthier business.

Ah i had the membership for a few years, but i actually used it not enough. I have a homegym too and i equiped that better and better. So in the end the trip to the gym 30-40min was not worth it anymore. But for a good home gym you need a house and you need to invest more as a lifetime membership.

[RisqEM]

They did the same thing in Korea as well. They accept lifetime membership fees, collect a bunch of cash, then take off to the next country. It's a total scam. There's no way they can sustain business operations without a revenues stream. 11K at one time is good, but 100 baht a year for renewal, 3,000 a year for a locker, it's unsustainable. A scam from day one! I don't know the attendance in the classes, but those were probably the only revenue generators.

In Korea, nothing came of their lawsuit.......

[villagefarang]

Did anyone actually think “lifetime” meant until the end of your life?

More realistically it means their lifetime, not yours, and they can close their doors or file for bankruptcy at any time. Lifetime memberships in health clubs are notoriously bad investments.

[Berkshire]

The Wow in Chiang Mai is still going strong. Wonder how long that's going to last...

[Sateev]

How it's possible to go bankrupt with the prices they charged is beyond me. The whole setup looks like it was a giant scam from day one.

All multi-location fitness centers like Cal WOW are scams. Some are just better managed than others. They all rely on overselling, and people's tendencies to get all motivated about fitness, and then fade away back to eating chocolate bars in a month (week?) or two, albeit with a long-term contract to pay, or a big one-time membershipfee gone. Hence the high-pressure to 'Sign today'. They know if you have a chance to cool off, you won't pay the price.

For them to stay in business, they need to carefully balance new sucker customer acquisition against overhead and upkeep, which is why the places are so often in disrepair...

Find a good locally owned community gym, pay monthly, and do your best to stay motivated. Better (and WAY cheaper) in the long run.

[zakk9]

Did anyone actually think “lifetime” meant until the end of your life?

More realistically it means their lifetime, not yours, and they can close their doors or file for bankruptcy at any time. Lifetime memberships in health clubs are notoriously bad investments.

It's a calculated risk. As long as the lifetime membership costs less than two years of membership and it's a local firm that has been around for a few years (ref. Tony's), there's little to lose. California always looked like a scam to me. The first time I visited (at Silom) to have a look, they wanted my credit card before they showed me around and before they were willing to tell me the price, so that they could prepare the formalities. That kind of did it for me.

[asdecas]

I was a lifetime member of the Regent Hotel health club twenty-five years ago. That lasted until the hotel changed hands about six years later, after which, whistle for it.

In Western countries you have some recourse in law. Try it in Thailand and see how far you get.

[SNGLIFE]

Sheesh! It's about time they closed their doors! The Mrs. bought a lifetime membership for 10k back in 2008. She actually went maybe 10 times. Service sucked almost every time she went. We built a bigger home and now have a much better equipped fitness room. Bite me, Wow!

[zakk9]

Find a good locally owned community gym, pay monthly, and do your best to stay motivated. Better (and WAY cheaper) in the long run.

I found one in Battambang, Cambodia. A little worn down but still nice, and they charge $1 per visit, $2 if I wanted to use the pool as well

Maybe a place for retirement...

[Searat7]

Most of the people with lifetime memberships (90% of members) already received a very good value for the money paid as lifetime memberships have not been sold in quite a while. The members who should receive something back are the ones who paid in advance on a regular membership. I have a friend who joined Ekamai a month before they closed and lost about 20,000B...they refuse to let him work out at Paragon which is very unreasonable. Employees should be first in line....I'm sure many of them are hurting after receiving no pay for months.

[ronthai]

A year ago I was shopping around for a gym and search TV for topics and even open a topic.

My search pulled many postings that WOW was about to close and not really functioning anymore.

Other people really adviced WOW to me.

I ended up signing up for a year membership (4999 Baht) at Castra gym.

Good, clean and no real bodybuilders, so good for fatties/ex-fatties like me to do their workout.

http://www.thecastra.com/index.html

[Colabamumbai]

Lesson...Never buy a membership to any fitness club, pay as you go. This scenario is too common worldwide.

[bonobo]

How it's possible to go bankrupt with the prices they charged is beyond me. The whole setup looks like it was a giant scam from day one.

All multi-location fitness centers like Cal WOW are scams. Some are just better managed than others. They all rely on overselling, and people's tendencies to get all motivated about fitness, and then fade away back to eating chocolate bars in a month (week?) or two, albeit with a long-term contract to pay, or a big one-time membershipfee gone. Hence the high-pressure to 'Sign today'. They know if you have a chance to cool off, you won't pay the price.

For them to stay in business, they need to carefully balance new sucker customer acquisition against overhead and upkeep, which is why the places are so often in disrepair...

Find a good locally owned community gym, pay monthly, and do your best to stay motivated. Better (and WAY cheaper) in the long run.

Not cheaper, depending on when you join.

I bought a lifetime membership in 2007 for 9,000 baht. Each year since then, I paid 100 baht for my renewal fee. I don't know of any local gym where I could have paid what turned out to be 1,900 baht per year.

Sure it was unsustainable, as we see now. But I used the gym three times a week for over 5 years, so I got my money's worth.

I am searching for a new gym now, and the prices are quite a bit higher.