Pure Weight Loss Centers May Have Broken Law
January 22, 2008 by Sean Kelly
Filed under Business
(FranchisePick.com) According to the story on CBS4 in Miami, Pure Weight Loss Centers may have broken the law when they left Florida dieters stranded by abruptly closing their weight loss centers. Their investigation continues.
Source: CBS4.com
Defunct Weight Loss Centers May Have Broken Law
MIAMI (CBS4) ― When one of the state’s biggest diet companies shut it’s doors after the beginning of the year, it left hundreds of South Florida customers not only wondering if they’d ever get their money back but also what happened to all the private medical information the centers kept on file.
State prosecutors, wondering the same thing, have widened their investigation into LA Weight Loss Centers and Pure Weight Loss Centers to see if they broke any laws.
“All girls want to look nice and I got a couple of pounds extra,” said Yaumary Rodriguez who originally signed up with an LA Weight Loss Center several years ago. Rodriguez said by staying on the plan she lost 24 pounds in the past year.
“My goal was 30 pounds but when I got down to 24,” said Rodriguez, “I decided not to keep losing more”
At the beginning of the year, Rodriguez said she decided she needed to go back on the LA Weight Loss Center plan to help her drop a couple of pounds she picked up over the holidays. When she went to her local LA Weight Loss Center in Cutler Bay on January 4th to pick up her next shipment of weight loss bars, she said she was stunned to find that it had changed it’s name to Pure Weight Loss.
She received her second shock when she was informed that the store, which was still filled with LA Weight Loss products, was closing down.
“The companies were closing,” Rodriguez said she was told, “it was the last date of work for the whole company. They just closed and they never sent a notice to the people they never say anything.”
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The disconnect here is that many businesses choose to run based on what’s LEGAL, while their customers and clients assume that the basis is ETHICAL—in spite of dozens of well-publicized examples to the contrary.
Closing shop may not be against any law, but closing shop without notice is patently bad faith.
The reasons for closing shop do not happen overnight. The shop’s owners / principals had plenty of time to inform their customers about the possibility. The information could have included that they were going to meet obligations to the customers and what they were doing to save the company. Of course, this would have caused the closure earlier, but this would have shown concern for their customers. If the owners / principals were planning on a rehab or a comeback, their customers & the general public will remember their act of business responsibility and accountability and might be willing give them another chance. As has happened, their reputation is all shot.
Thanks for the warning! It’s great that your blog investigates franchises.