Thanks for getting this blog going. I am the commenter "The Law" on the YDN blog. I am a former employee. My paycheck, which was available for me last Friday, already had the letter attached about the employee meeting to "discuss changes at Leader." On Saturday I was in the gym and saw Tiffany moving as fast as she could to sign-up new members. Showing off the facility and talking about how great the pool is on these hot Summer days. She signed up 36 new members last weekend, and I hope they got to the pool, because as so many have said on the other blog, she had to know (since she sleeps with Steve) that they were going to announce the closing to us on Monday morning. What she did was absolutely fraudulent, and she has been doing it for weeks/months. No one knows exactly when she knew the place was closing, but you know she knew on Saturday, so she and the owners should be brought up on charges, civil and criminal.
Moving on from that bitterness, as I said on the other blog, since the Athletic Club of York is not going to play along with this fiasco any longer, we now clearly have a right to demand that our contracts be voided. I will be writing to them tomorrow. I encourage all of you to do the same.
I would like to thank everyone for the great support you have given the instructors. We really care about you and your well being, and we are heart-broken by the totally unprofessional way this situation was handled. We will still be there for you as we get through this tough period. We have family memberships too (yes, they made us pay too), and we want out of our contracts as much as you do. What a disappointment after pouring our hearts into that place for over three years, with almost no support from management for improvements or even operational equipment half the time. More to come...
I am glad that this blog is up. We need to stay in touch to share info until we can get resolution to this situation. I was "angry member" on ydr, but changed my name b/c I am not angry now, I am rather confused by this whole situation. I am a 25 year pool member. My family joined when I was 7 and it was the Wynfield Club. I lifeguarded there in high school. I fought for the township to keep the pool/ sell to someone who would keep the pool. I have spent all of my summer free time at the pool for most of my life and it has sentimental value to me. I joined another pool yesterday, but have created a lot of memories at the one at 2500 George St. I also have been a gym member since day one of the Leader Ownership. I will be calling my bank and the Corbett's office today and will report back with any new findings...
Is it possible that Checkfree works as a finance company that prepays memberships to LHF for a fee for service. In exchange they get the contracts and the rite to extract funds from you payment source?? This would explain their reluctance to void any contracts. Otherwise why would they care ??
Okay so who do I need to write in order to get out of my contract? I paid in full for a two year contract in August. ACY will not take me. I'm really starting to freak out because I counted on the classes. Loved the classes and the instructors. Does anyone know how I can get a copy of the power and step classes? If I can't go to a gym then I'll need to workout somehow.
Since you have a 2-year contract, it is completely voidable, and you can sign up at any gym you want. Because of the Leader closing, many are offering special deals. I know a number of Leader instructors, including Katrina and Jill are going to Yorktowne Fitness, which is a BTS gym, with two BTS National Trainers (the people who train the instructors) on staff. They are offering a special to Leader members (not sure of exact terms). Other gyms, like the JCC, ACY, and Gold's are also offering specials to new members coming from Leader.
Katrina is also working out with some of her former students informally or at Yorktowne (as guests) on certain days until those folks make a transition. If you want more information on that, let me know, and I will contact her and find out how she intends to put that out to the public.
Unfortunately, you will not be able to obtain legal copies of the BTS material, as only certified BTS instructors are allowed to purchase those, and BTS is very strict about its copyrights. Hope this helps.
Should we be concerned that no one seems to know where our contracts are - the ones that have our personal information including CC numbers on. ACY says that they have not received them and seeing the the owners of Leader are not the most ethical and moral people, I am worried where my information is floating around at.
I was also concerned about the wherabouts of a contract that has my debit card number on it. So I called my bank today and had the card cancelled, and a new one issued. This way, the info on the contract is no longer valid, and the info that Check-free has is no longer valid either, in case they decide to attempt further withdrawals in the future. It is an inconvenience, yes, because now I have to wait for a new debit card to arrive, as well as get that new card number to the other billers that regularly debit this account. But it's not like I haven't already been inconvenienced! I just saw Jill on Fox 43 news at 10 p.m.!!! They interviewed her at Yorktowne, and she said that they are trying to get something together there for summer campers. I hope that the parents know that she can be contacted at Yorktowne!
Sorry to hear about what happened at Leader. That's wrong on many different levels and gives all gyms a bad name.
We are Ultimate Gym and Fitness in New Freedom. We are a locally owned and operated gym. We don't have all the bells and whistles you see in the huge clubs and franchises but you will get a great work out in an uncrowded gym with great members. We have Cybex, Icarian, Hammer Strength and Free Weight equipment as well as various cardio equipment.
We have Daily, Monthly or Quarterly rates with specials for Police, Fire, EMS, Military and Students. No contracts just pay as you go.
Stop out and see us. We'd love to see you.
Ultimate Gym and Fitness 62 East High Street (behind Cresenct Industries) New Freedom, PA 17349 717 235 4514
Personally, I would prefer if this blog stays free of gyms trying to recruit Leader members. I am still very upset about the whole thing and I am not very happy about other gyms using this time to recruit us. I am sure many of them mean well, however I just think they should not be posting on our blogs. We are trying to figure things out and I would appreciate a little time and space from other's trying to sell their gym.
We're not trying to "recruit" anyone. You can make your own choices and decisions but it helps if you have complete information.
If you read the YDR articles, blogs and listen to the TV news stories, many of the Leader people wanted to know "where can we go now"? There are several very good gyms in this area (including us)which offer different services on different levels with different prices without the shell or smoke and mirrors game which you guys apparently were a victim of.
By the way if this was a private blog it should be posted a such and not a public forum.
Either way I hope you get your refund back for whatever you paid in.
The blogosphere is all about free speech, and I'm in favor of that. I understand how you feel, bream. We are still very upset about the lousy way the owners handled the Leader closing. I think some relevant commercial speech on this blog fine, if it helps us find a new decent new gym. An above-board "ad" like the one posted by newfreedomgym does not offend me. What I don't like are those who pretend to be "one of us," but are actually shilling for their own businesses. Some of that appears to be going on at the YDN blogs. However, I think some debate over the merits of other gyms (and their offers to us) is generally a good thing. Some of the folks at other gyms have been offering deals to former Leader members, and I don't see anything wrong with that either. Better to have more choices and more information. Finding a new place is a priority for many of us. Of course, we still want to see justice for the former Leader members who are owed money, want out of contracts, and want to see the AG hold the Leader owners fully accountable.
I finally got a letter in the mail today. It was basically the same as the letter that they distributed at the club on the day that they closed. It sure took long enough to get to us!
12 comments:
Thanks for getting this blog going. I am the commenter "The Law" on the YDN blog. I am a former employee. My paycheck, which was available for me last Friday, already had the letter attached about the employee meeting to "discuss changes at Leader." On Saturday I was in the gym and saw Tiffany moving as fast as she could to sign-up new members. Showing off the facility and talking about how great the pool is on these hot Summer days. She signed up 36 new members last weekend, and I hope they got to the pool, because as so many have said on the other blog, she had to know (since she sleeps with Steve) that they were going to announce the closing to us on Monday morning. What she did was absolutely fraudulent, and she has been doing it for weeks/months. No one knows exactly when she knew the place was closing, but you know she knew on Saturday, so she and the owners should be brought up on charges, civil and criminal.
Moving on from that bitterness, as I said on the other blog, since the Athletic Club of York is not going to play along with this fiasco any longer, we now clearly have a right to demand that our contracts be voided. I will be writing to them tomorrow. I encourage all of you to do the same.
I would like to thank everyone for the great support you have given the instructors. We really care about you and your well being, and we are heart-broken by the totally unprofessional way this situation was handled. We will still be there for you as we get through this tough period. We have family memberships too (yes, they made us pay too), and we want out of our contracts as much as you do. What a disappointment after pouring our hearts into that place for over three years, with almost no support from management for improvements or even operational equipment half the time. More to come...
I am glad that this blog is up. We need to stay in touch to share info until we can get resolution to this situation. I was "angry member" on ydr, but changed my name b/c I am not angry now, I am rather confused by this whole situation. I am a 25 year pool member. My family joined when I was 7 and it was the Wynfield Club. I lifeguarded there in high school. I fought for the township to keep the pool/ sell to someone who would keep the pool. I have spent all of my summer free time at the pool for most of my life and it has sentimental value to me. I joined another pool yesterday, but have created a lot of memories at the one at 2500 George St. I also have been a gym member since day one of the Leader Ownership. I will be calling my bank and the Corbett's office today and will report back with any new findings...
Is it possible that Checkfree works as a finance company that prepays memberships to LHF for a fee for service. In exchange they get the contracts and the rite to extract funds from you payment source?? This would explain their reluctance to void any contracts. Otherwise why would they care ??
Okay so who do I need to write in order to get out of my contract? I paid in full for a two year contract in August. ACY will not take me. I'm really starting to freak out because I counted on the classes. Loved the classes and the instructors. Does anyone know how I can get a copy of the power and step classes? If I can't go to a gym then I'll need to workout somehow.
Michelle,
Since you have a 2-year contract, it is completely voidable, and you can sign up at any gym you want. Because of the Leader closing, many are offering special deals. I know a number of Leader instructors, including Katrina and Jill are going to Yorktowne Fitness, which is a BTS gym, with two BTS National Trainers (the people who train the instructors) on staff. They are offering a special to Leader members (not sure of exact terms). Other gyms, like the JCC, ACY, and Gold's are also offering specials to new members coming from Leader.
Katrina is also working out with some of her former students informally or at Yorktowne (as guests) on certain days until those folks make a transition. If you want more information on that, let me know, and I will contact her and find out how she intends to put that out to the public.
Unfortunately, you will not be able to obtain legal copies of the BTS material, as only certified BTS instructors are allowed to purchase those, and BTS is very strict about its copyrights. Hope this helps.
Should we be concerned that no one seems to know where our contracts are - the ones that have our personal information including CC numbers on. ACY says that they have not received them and seeing the the owners of Leader are not the most ethical and moral people, I am worried where my information is floating around at.
I was also concerned about the wherabouts of a contract that has my debit card number on it. So I called my bank today and had the card cancelled, and a new one issued. This way, the info on the contract is no longer valid, and the info that Check-free has is no longer valid either, in case they decide to attempt further withdrawals in the future. It is an inconvenience, yes, because now I have to wait for a new debit card to arrive, as well as get that new card number to the other billers that regularly debit this account. But it's not like I haven't already been inconvenienced!
I just saw Jill on Fox 43 news at 10 p.m.!!! They interviewed her at Yorktowne, and she said that they are trying to get something together there for summer campers. I hope that the parents know that she can be contacted at Yorktowne!
Hi all,
Sorry to hear about what happened at Leader. That's wrong on many different levels and gives all gyms a bad name.
We are Ultimate Gym and Fitness in New Freedom. We are a locally owned and operated gym. We don't have all the bells and whistles you see in the huge clubs and franchises but you will get a great work out in an uncrowded gym with great members. We have Cybex, Icarian, Hammer Strength and Free Weight equipment as well as various cardio equipment.
We have Daily, Monthly or Quarterly rates with specials for Police, Fire, EMS, Military and Students. No contracts just pay as you go.
Stop out and see us. We'd love to see you.
Ultimate Gym and Fitness
62 East High Street
(behind Cresenct Industries)
New Freedom, PA 17349
717 235 4514
Personally, I would prefer if this blog stays free of gyms trying to recruit Leader members. I am still very upset about the whole thing and I am not very happy about other gyms using this time to recruit us. I am sure many of them mean well, however I just think they should not be posting on our blogs. We are trying to figure things out and I would appreciate a little time and space from other's trying to sell their gym.
We're not trying to "recruit" anyone. You can make your own choices and decisions but it helps if you have complete information.
If you read the YDR articles, blogs and listen to the TV news stories, many of the Leader people wanted to know "where can we go now"? There are several very good gyms in this area (including us)which offer different services on different levels with different prices without the shell or smoke and mirrors game which you guys apparently were a victim of.
By the way if this was a private blog it should be posted a such and not a public forum.
Either way I hope you get your refund back for whatever you paid in.
The blogosphere is all about free speech, and I'm in favor of that. I understand how you feel, bream. We are still very upset about the lousy way the owners handled the Leader closing. I think some relevant commercial speech on this blog fine, if it helps us find a new decent new gym. An above-board "ad" like the one posted by newfreedomgym does not offend me. What I don't like are those who pretend to be "one of us," but are actually shilling for their own businesses. Some of that appears to be going on at the YDN blogs. However, I think some debate over the merits of other gyms (and their offers to us) is generally a good thing. Some of the folks at other gyms have been offering deals to former Leader members, and I don't see anything wrong with that either. Better to have more choices and more information. Finding a new place is a priority for many of us. Of course, we still want to see justice for the former Leader members who are owed money, want out of contracts, and want to see the AG hold the Leader owners fully accountable.
I finally got a letter in the mail today. It was basically the same as the letter that they distributed at the club on the day that they closed. It sure took long enough to get to us!
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