Gym Closes Shop Without Telling Members

Tuesday, September 4th 2007, 9:00 pm

By: News On 6

A midtown Tulsa gym closed down over the weekend without any notice to the members who have paid their dues. Sources say the owner has moved out of town and that the landlord was told several weeks in advance. In a Consumer 6 Report, The News On 6â€™s Emory Bryan tracked down some information about what happened.
He reports the club members were left out of the loop, and several told us they were still taking in new club members and taking advance payments as late as last week.

For the last several days, members have been pulling up to Global Fitness, located at 3055 S. Sheridan in Tulsa, and wondering what happened. Ricky Floyd and his friend Alan worked out here last week.

"We been coming here for the past two or three years now and it was a pretty nice gym,â€ said Global Fitness member Ricky Floyd. â€œAnd you get to know folks and all of a sudden, blam, it's closed."

Employees of the landlord were told to paint over the signs, but all they knew was that Global Fitness closed sometime Friday and the equipment was moved out Saturday. That's left many people with memberships that aren't any good, and some of them are new members. Several people told us the club was still taking memberships and money last week.

"A week ago, Monday night, I saw a man sign up for a membership here then go change and work out, it's interesting," Global Fitness member David Foster said.

Foster and all of the other members appear to have lost whatever they've paid in advance.

"In my case, five months of a good contract are just not there," Foster said.

Global Fitness already had a record with the Better Business Bureau, and it wasn't a good one, 16 complaints in the last two years that went unanswered. That earned the club the distinction of an unsatisfactory record.

Floyd says he talked with the owner last week and noticed she had taken down some pictures.

"And that was the cue I knew something was going on, but I didn't know because they didn't say anything and she was here Thursday and didn't say anything, but I knew something might be going on sooner or later," he said.

The people joining the club could have done some homework and found an indication of problems by checking the Better Business Bureau or just checking online. The News On 6 found several negative reviews of Global Fitness on the web.

We made several attempts to contact the owner, but could not reach them.

Watch the video: Gym Closes Without Warning