Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
On July 9th, the Curl Fitness in the Lido Village area closed “for remodel” without notice to customers. What they didn’t say, though, is that they weren’t actually remodeling. They were closing their doors for good.
In fact, this seems to have been their plan all along, as the company running the facility dissolved three weeks prior, on June 17th, as shown here in their dissolvement records: https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/Document/RetrievePDF?Id=201010910163-26432966
But it gets worse. The fitness center didn’t even tell their own employees that they were closing until *after* they closed, found here in an email to them, blaming all their problems on the previous owner (who seemed to be loved by all).
And to add icing on this cake of confusion, the owners at this Curl Fitness location even charged everyone’s credit cards. Most people I spoke with were charged on the 2nd of July, for a full-month, in advance, as this image of SaveNewporter Aaron Miner shows: 
To recap, the corporation was dissolved on June 17th,
the credit cards were charged for a full month (in advance) on July 2nd,
The doors closed on July 9th, claiming it was closing for a remodel– but on that same day, they informed their workers via email that they were closed for good.
Most of this just sounds like bad business practice– but charging customers after you’ve dissolved a business for a month in advance when you know the business is closing– that sounds a lot like fraud to us.
There are rumors that the much-loved previous owners were trying to partner up with the current owners, but given that the current owners made the accusations in the email shown above, this sounds like a slim chance, to say the least.
IF YOU WERE CHARGED: Dispute the charge with your credit card company, as the current owners have told many people that they are not available for refunding charges.
Something tells me we haven’t heard the last of this, and we will keep you updated as it continues to unfold.
