Merle Gregg's Legacy of Scams, Frauds, and Stupidity

All that seems left of the cautionary business tale that was Merle Gregg's litany of gym business scams, frauds, swindles, cheats, and all manner of other business nonsense that were Epicenter Fitness, then Seattle Executive Fitness, and then Go Total Body Fitness, is the epitaph that Merle Gregg continued the gym industry's long history or poorly operated businesses that nearly always turns to deceptive business practices and frauds.

When Merle Gregg took over All-Star fitness in 2011, he acquired a large and useful physical fitness facility. Over the course of just a few years, he and his cohorts incrementally, nearly systematically, ran it into the ground, and destroyed it. Along the way hired henchmen like the obnoxious bullying Todd Dail, who seemed to relish in knowingly conspiring in the operation of a shady business.

During one period there was at least half a dozen gyms competing with each other in downtown Seattle. Today, all that is left of large scale gyms in downtown Seattle in the national chain 24 Hour Fitness, which existed long before the other gyms arrived and are now little more than bad memories.

Since the demise of the Merle's fitness business mess, Merle Gregg seems to have nearly erase every trace of his existence form the internet, save a couple of LinkedIn profiles that reference his ownership of his failed businesses, neither one mentioning the alternate business names used in the other profile.

Seattle Executive Fitness - 700 5th Avenue - Location Closing!

The latest sign that Merle Gregg's Seattle Executive Fitness seems close to bankruptcy has arrived. That sign is that Merle Gregg is closing the 700 5th Avenue 14th Floor Seattle Executive Fitness gym location. A few weeks before the 5th Avenue Seattle Executive Fitness location closed entirely, the staff there closed the swimming pool. In the process of closing the swimming pool, they told members all sorts of lies and made all manner of excuses about why they were closing it, which led people to complain about the problem on yelp.com. The fact is that many Seattle Executive Fitness members only visited the 5th Avenue location to use the pool. The rest of that Seattle Executive Fitness gym location was too small and overcrowded anyway.

In the meantime, members have been quitting the horrible Seattle Executive Fitness in droves. It is just bizarre that the gym's absurd owner Merle Gregg has managed to take two once very serviceable fitness clubs and completely run them into the ground. When Merle Gregg bought out the gyms from All-Star Fitness in the summer of 2011, they are quite nice places to work out. Then, step by step, Merle Gregg and the people who work for him, did everything imaginable to incrementally ruin the places. 

Meanwhile, just trying to quit Seattle Executive Fitness is a project in itself. The management and staff don't even allow members to follow the procedures outlined in their own written contract. Instead they require members to send a written letter by mail to their billing company ABC Financial. The process seems like all part of their many self defeating ripoff schemes, designed to irritate members infinitely while they try in vain to suck every last buck they can out of the people they've suckered into joining their travesty of a gym. 

Most of the people who used to workout at Seattle Executive Fitness have already moved on to other gyms in the area. It seems like every gym in Seattle has its problems and deficiencies, but Seattle Executive Fitness has managed to find ways to top the list of places to avoid at all costs. Since the buck stops at the top, every that has made Seattle Executive Fitness such a nightmare is all Merle Gregg's fault.

Seattle Executive Fitness: Removed - Bicep and Tricep Circuit Training Machines

Since the most recent desperate downsizing and facility downgrade at Seattle Executive Fitness, the gym's management has removed the Cybex Bicep and Tricep circuit training machines. Rumor has it that hundreds of gym members have sent email requests to management asking that these machine be brought back and included in the gym's now decimated circuit training area, but management refuses. Apparently the incompetent management and fitness training staff doesn't think members should want to be able to get a quick and easy bicep and tricep workout during their trips to the Seattle Executive Fitness facility.

Below are photos of the Cybex VR3 Arm Curl machine, for bicep training, and the Cybex VR3 Arm Extension machine, for training triceps, in the gym before two-thirds of the third floor of the Seattle Executive Gym at 509 Olive Way was removed from the facility.

Cybex VR3 Arm Curl machine, before recent gym downsizing.

Cybex VR3 Arm Extension machine, before recent gym downsizing.

Circuit training equipment provides an essential and efficient way to quickly train muscle groups, with decades of proven results. Other training methods are usually more difficult and time consuming to implement. With a turn of a dial or switching of selector, it is possible when using circuit training equipment to adjust weight resistance in seconds. Circuit training machines also provide proven mechanism for isolating and training specific muscle groups. Such equipment is called circuit training, because once setup, it is possible to quickly move between a group of machines continuously working specific muscle groups in succession. Since Seattle Executive Fitness all but annihilated its circuit training and cardiovascular exercise areas, all that is left is less than half the previous amount of equipment at this gym.

The current, cramped, incomplete, insufficient - circuit training area - at Seattle Executive Fitness.

This total failure at Seattle Executive Fitness to provide a reasonably complete set of even the most basic circuit training equipment, is clear evidence of the gym's disregard of its members. The loss of the two pieces of equipment described here, is only the tip of the iceberg of disdain for member service at this gym. Seattle Executive Fitness also appears to be moving toward pay per session group exercise program they call F.L.I.G.H.T. (an acronym), in another desperate attempt to convince members to pay hundreds of additional dollars, in addition to monthly dues, for a group exercise fad that has spawned small boutique gyms offering similar services, but which probably won't take much time to loose its isolated popularity after people realize such programs will cost them thousands of dollars annually for something they can accomplish individually, at their own pace for less money and possibly even in less time with appropriate fitness motivation. This  absurdly expensive group exercise program, that would only appeal to the segment of gym members who like group exercise, has come at the expense of much of the floor space at Seattle Executive Fitness. At this point, it seems like the only reasonable option members have is to begin evaluating other gyms in search of one that at least provides a reasonably decent facility.

The Hours of Operation Have Been Cutback at Seattle Executive Fitness - The Death Spiral Continues

Unfortunately for members who work all day, the Seattle Executive Fitness gym on Olive Way in downtown Seattle has reduced its evening hours. The Olive Way gym now closes at 9:00 PM weeknights. Previously, the gym was open until 11:00 PM, a minimum reasonable hour for a gym that portends to cater to "executives", many of whom work late into the evening and would like to get in a workout on the way home from the office. For the moment, the other location, the tiny gym in the Municipal Tower on Fifth Avenue remains open until 10:00 PM weeknights.

With each passing week there are increasing indications that Seattle Executive Fitness is thrashing about in the throws of what seems like an inevitable death spiral. The signs of doom are everywhere at Seattle Executive Fitness: from the reduced size of the Olive Way gym, loss of the separate Olive Way street level entrance, desperate attempts to diversify into the "Spa" business, defections by trainers and group class instructors, removal of equipment, removal of the Women's Only workout room, the lack of maintenance, and now the reduction in hours of operation.

There are numerous competing gyms with longer hours than Seattle Executive Fitness, including 24 hour Fitness (which obviously is open 24/7), which has a large location just a few blocks east of the Olive Way Seattle Executive Fitness location. Much of what is happening at Seattle Executive Fitness seems like an extreme failure to listen to or to pay attention to customers and customer service. The people who manage Seattle Executive Fitness have failed to understand, internalize, and implement, even the most basic tenants of the Business 101 fundamentals. Anyone who's taken even just a few college business administration courses knows how nearly every such scenario ends.

If only there were indications that Seattle Executive Fitness management might step back from the edge of the cliff where it currently stands, but there don't seem to be any at all. If the history of Merle Gregg's previous gym business ventures is any predictor of the end result for Seattle Executive Fitness, his business track record indicates that he will won't listen to anyone, not even the paying customers he is driving away, until its too late, and the gym's doors are closed forever, not just at 9:00 PM weeknights.

Seattle Executive Fitness, Before and After - Before: Cybex Treadmill Room - After: Cramped Free Weights Room

When the gym at 509 Olive Way was AllStar Fitness, the area depicted in the first photo below was a dedicated treadmill cardio training room, filled with well organized rows of Cybex treadmills. There was an array of HDTVs on the wall, since the older model treadmills at the time didn't come with individual cardio theater systems.

The latest Cybex treadmills, like the console depicted at the left, do have the individual cardio theater systems which have become standard equipment on cardio training machines at nearly every self respecting commercial fitness club in America. Even without the latest innovations and conveniences of the current cardio training equipment that is offered by companies like LifeFitness, Precor, Cybex, and others, the Cybex treadmills that have been at Seattle Executive Fitness could remain serviceable as long as they are well maintained. Over the years though, the Cybex treadmills at Seattle Executive Fitness have became less and less well maintained.

Recently, after most of the third floor gym was downsized into its current decimated condition, this is what the miniscule free weights area looks like, in the room that was once dedicated to Cybex treadmills.

It is extremely difficult to imagine how Seattle Executive Fitness management believes it can stay in business with other gyms in the Seattle area that are fully equipped with vast arrays of the latest fitness equipment, setup neatly in well organized configurations, within spacious, comfortable, facilities.

Seattle Executive Fitness Posts Signs About Reductions in Service that contains LIES, LIES, LIES, AND MORE AND MORE LIES!

The management at Seattle Executive Fitness is just telling, lies, lies, lies, and more and more lies. Recently, signs have been posted around the 509 Olive Way location of Seattle Executive Fitness that attempt in vain to explain away the fact that a huge portion of the gym's floor space is now gone. No reasonable person could possibly be gullible enough to believe the sort of nonsense that these signs attempt to peddle at the gym's members. It is obvious to every intelligent Seattle Executive Fitness member that the gym's shocking size reduction is the product of financial desperation, to reduce the overhead expense of floor space rental. Here's one of the so called FAQ signs posted around the gym:

Click for a larger version with readable text.

#1 The previous free weight area at the northwest corner of the gym's third floor was not only bigger than the new one, it just had better ambiance. The people using it on a regular basis enjoyed it. The "new" free weight area has cannibalized the previous Cybex treadmill room. The entire gym downsizing process is the opposite of what thousands of gym member customers have been trying to tell the gym's management for years, but the gym management has never listened.

#2 This is probably the most egregious of the gym management's lies. Basically, this idiotic gym is all but abandoning strength training equipment. People join gyms because gyms have thousands and thousands and dollars worth of training equipment that only a billionaire with room for a home gym could afford as an individual. Seattle Executive Fitness management has left only a half dozen, token, pieces of Cybex VR3 strength training machines on the third floor, but not enough for anyone to use for a reasonable strength machine oriented workout of any kind. Removal of the strength straining equipment, more than any other ridiculous change at the gym, spells total doom for Seattle Executive Fitness.

#3 What the dedicated personal trainer area is really about, is trying to focus members of paying for expensive private sessions with their staff, because they don't have enough members paying monthly dues to in pay their rent and employee wages.

#4 The floor space reduction not only axed the popular kickboxing studio, that gear is supposedly going to be cluttering up the aerobics studios, getting in the way of people trying to do something different. Obviously, there are going to be same number of group classes competing for the space in the reduced number of group studios.

#5 They are apparently going to remodel the group class studios, creating a smaller spin class room. The members whose primary reason for a gym membership is spin classes are very unhappy about this.

#6 THE WOMEN'S GYM IS GOING BYE-BYE!!!  A huge segment of this gym's membership population is women who use the women's only gym almost exclusively. Most importantly the LifeFitness strength training machines in the Women's gym has a lighter set of weight plates in each machine that the machines on the third floor don't/didn't. Didn't is the opertive word, since most of the strength training machines are now gone from the third floor too!

After years of alienating their gym members one at a time, the people who run Seattle Executive Fitness have finally found a way to alienate everybody else who has remained a member in the naive hope that company management might some day see the light. The light that members are seeing these days is the exit sign, signalling to them that its time to just cancel their memberships, quit, and find another gym, one that at least has gym equipment.

AllStar Fitness, Before Its Destruction Under Ownership by Merle Gregg as Seattle "Executive" Fitness

The photos below show what some of AllStar Fitness looked like three years ago, before Merle Gregg took over, turned it into Seattle "Executive" Fitness, and has step by step destroyed just about everything it once was.

The first three year old photo below provides a view from the cardio fitness section all the way to the west end of the building, which was where the free weights room was until recently. At the far end, the gym used to extend around the corner to the left where there was a kickboxing studio at the southwest corner of the third floor.

Back then, there were three sets of equipment in the circuit training area between the cardio section and the free weights section. One set of strength training equipment was a grouping of Cybex VR3 (second tier of the Cybex line but very functional) circuit training machines. There was also various LifeFitness Signature Series strength training machines intermingled with them. Some of the LifeFitness machines were the newer Signature Series models, but some were also functional, but nearly twenty year old, machines. Both the older and newer LifeFitness strength machines remained until a most of the circuit training area midway down the hall in this photo, was walled off, no longer a part of the gym. In the photo below, at left center, a group of ancient Nautilus brand circuit training was still present before Merle Gregg took over. The old Nautilus brand equipment was removed in the summer of 2011 at the very beginning of the ownership change.

This second photograph shows the once well organized treadmill room at AllStar Fitness, before Merle Gregg got control of it.

When the gym at 509 Olive Way was owned by AllStar Fitness, the portion of the gym that connected the Cybex treadmill room with the main cardio fitness area was occupied by a well organized, large selection of Precor treadmills and Precor elliptical training machines. In this midst of the ownership dispute between Merle Gregg and Sam Adams in late summer 2011, a significant portion of this equipment suddenly disappeared, and it never returned, and was never replaced by any new equipment either. Today what is left of the cardio equipment on the third floor of the gym at 509 Olive Way, are models of old cardio training machines that aren't even manufactured anymore. They appear to range in age from six to as much as ten years old, with many of them in constant need of repair because of their age.

Three years ago, the main cardio fitness area at what used to be AllStar Fitness was well organized, spacious, and adequate room between each piece of equipment, and accessible even for many disabled people.

After over two years of decline, deterioration, and mismanagement, the inadequate space that is left at the gym now known as Seattle "Executive Fitness, is a completely disorganized mess. The name of the place should probably be - Seattle Skid Row Fitness.

As An Indication of the Apparently Desperate Financial Times at Seattle Executive Fitness, Two Thirds of the Third Floor Workout Space is Gone!

The latest sign of financial desperation at Seattle Executive Fitness (SEF), is that the company has reduced the size of its third floor workout out area by nearly two thirds! Most gym members have developed the impression this is a sign that Seattle Executive Fitness may be taking its last desperate gasps before complete financial collapse. This is the third time Seattle Executive Fitness has given floor space back to its landlord at 509 Olive Way in a series of desperate attempts to save on fixed costs such as space rental.

The first wave of space reductions came about a year ago when Seattle Executive Fitness reduced the size of its stretching floor by half. At the same time SEF made part of what was the circuit training area a stretching floor and crammed the circuit training equipment that was there into what was left of the stretching room. The second wave of space reductions, an even more obvious attempt to cut costs, when removal of the formal street level entrance lobby on the first floor. The Seattle Executive Fitness gym at 509 Olive Way no longer has its own separate entrance. Instead, the gym requires members to enter through the main lobby of the building, past a forlorn looking reception desk.

The bottom line is that two thirds of the third floor workout area is now gone! The floor space that Seattle Executive Fitness has given back to its landlord used to include:

• its large free weight workout area
• its hammer strength workout area
• its selectorized weight machine circuit training area
• its previous stretching and calisthenics floor
• its large kickboxing studio at the southwest corner of the third floor

What remains is a cramped, disorganized, shambles that has three sections: a small stretching/toning floor area; a cramped and claustrophic cardio training area, part of which has a few plate selectorized circuit training machines, but not enough to be useful; and a new smaller free weights room which was previously the Cybex treadmill room with HDTVs. Please check back soon for more details about everything that is happening, and what it likely means for SEF members and the what seems like the impending demise of this once palatable gym that only needed minor improvements to be a first class facility. It is just sad, sad, sad, that this gym's management has never listened to its customers, and is instead going in the opposite direction of what the majority of the gym's customers have wanted for years. Unfortunately, this sad turn of events doesn't come as too much of a surprise really, since the gym's owner, Merle Gregg, has run every gym he has managed over the years into the ground, and into one form of ruination or another.

Here's a photo of the wall blocking off what was once two thirds or more of the third floor workout facility at the Olive Way Seattle Executive Fitness location.

The Sound of an aging Cybex Treadmill in need of Serious Maintenance

This is what an aging Cybex brand treadmill sounds like when it hasn't been maintained or serviced for years. The sound of the treadmill in this video seems loud enough to nearly shatter someone's ear drums. Seriously, that isn't a jack hammer being used inside the gym, that astoundingly loud pounding sound is that Cybex treadmill. As with much of the equipment at Seattle Executive Fitness, the Cybex brand treadmills are all an aging discontinued model that is so old the machines don't even include individual cardio theater. But like much of the equipment at Seattle Executive Fitness, treadmills like this one often go months or even years without service or repair. For reference, the current Cybex brand treadmills look like the models at this link. All of them have optional individual cardio theater systems, as well onboard virtual mapping features and full LCD, displays, not the ancient dot matrix style LED displays on the aging treadmills at Seattle Executive Fitness. Meanwhile, Seattle Executive Fitness members are stuck using equipment, some of which is nearly a decade old, completely out of date, and constantly in need of repair. The aging equipment is just part of what makes Merle Gregg's Seattle Executive Fitness a one star gym on yelp.com instead of the five star gym it could be with modern equipment and a reasonable list of other improvements.

Seattle Executive Fitness Entrance Becomes a Weight Watchers

There are indicators everywhere that Seattle Executive Fitness owner Merle Gregg is in dire financial straits and is taking desperate measures to save money as he gradually destroys a workout facility that was once a pretty nice place. When Seattle Executive Fitness opened years ago as AllStar Fitness (now bankrupt), the gym had a street presence with a separate first floor entrance way and member lounge area. Over the course of the past six months or so, Seattle Executive Fitness owner Merle Gregg has allowed the landlord at 509 Olive Way to reclaim multiple portions of the gym's space for lease to other tenants. There doesn't seem to be any reasonable conclusion to reach other than financial desperation by Merle Gregg, trying to reduce his monthly rental expense obligation as his failing business hemorrhages cash each month. Ironically, the more he scrimps and neglects the core of his business, the workout facility and services, the less attractive his gym becomes to its current members and the prospective new members his business needs in order to stay afloat. 

Many months ago, Merle Gregg reduced the size of the main third floor workout area. The space Merle Gregg gave back to the Olive Way landlord used to be half of the stretching and personal training area. That area has now been taken over by a florist shop that also used to have a street level presence on the first floor, but is now only accessible through the third floor atrium area that now seems to be a public part of the building. It is hard to imagine how that florist shop is going to survive without a street level retail presence.

Over the course of the past couple of years, dozens upon dozens of consumer reviews of Seattle Executive Fitness on yelp.com have given Merle Gregg suggestions on how to make his gyms the best they can be. Merle Gregg gives the appearance that he has simply ignored the suggestions provided him by the customers who generate the revenue his business needs to succeed. Instead of staying focused on building and maintaining a quality place to workout, Merle Gregg has either ignored customer suggestions, or done things that seem deliberately self destructive to his business. It is amazing how many members of his gyms over the years have said that if he just put effort into making his gym a good place to workout, with honest business practices, it would go from a place whose customers complain on yelp.com to a thriving fitness center that would be the prime choice of people who work and live in downtown Seattle. 

511 Olive Way will soon be a Weight Watcher's franchise

Slow progress on the Weight Watcher's franchise leasehold improvements.

Seattle Executive Fitness Members: Shoo Shoo, Go Away - We Are A Completely Unfriendly Customer Abusive Establishment

When buddies have finished their workouts and feel like sitting around to chat for a little while after a couple hours of getting their sweat on, the people who operate Seattle Executive Fitness want them to know that their establishment is definitely not the friendly, cozy place to do it. The owner/managers of Seattle Executive Fitness have recently begun posting signs around the sections of the gyms that have seating areas telling members they are not welcome to sit there more than thirty minutes. The sign below is a good example of this sort of member harassment and threats being posted on the walls at Seattle Executive Fitness by its management. Anyone considering a membership with this company, whose reputation as an unscrupulous establishment is already hopefully well known, should probably reconsider.

One of the many reviews of this gym on yelp.com also takes specific notice of the relatively recent appearance of these socially abusive signs at Seattle Executive Fitness. The screen shot of the yelp.com reviewer's thoughts as expressed below probably speaks for itself.  However, in case the screen shot text is too small, the yelp.com member wrote in part that:

... someone on the management team really likes to write passive-aggressive notes and post them all over the gym.  I'm not exaggerating when I say these notes are everywhere--on the walls, in the bathrooms, in the locker rooms, in the stairwells, and on every doorway, patrons are greeted with threats of reduced services and permanent expulsion from the gym for using too many towels, opening the wrong door, or hanging out for too long in the tv area.  We are paying customers, not children, but all the notes make it feel like a kindergarten.  ... because being assaulted with "rules" everywhere we turn pisses off those of us who already follow them.

It should be noted that although there are 46 reviews of this particular Seattle Executive Fitness location displayed by default on yelp.com, there are also a whopping sixty-eight (68) reviews that yelp.com has hidden. However, the hidden reviews contain a wealth of detailed information about what has transpired at Seattle Executive Fitness over the past couple years, one repulsive incident after another, (see this link).

The Rock Climbing Wall at Seattle Executive Fitness Appears to be Off Limits To Members!

Quite recently the following sign appeared on the door that leads to the artificial rock climbing wall area at Seattle Executive Fitness. The sign gives the appearance that the rock climbing wall is no longer accessible to members of the gym. Ironically, the area that includes the rock climbing wall is apparently a publicly accessible area, that can be accessed by anyone who enters the medical dental building from the street, to get to the newly relocated florist shop and the small cafe and restaurant that have always been there.

Sign on door to Rock Climbing Wall Area

This sign seems like another aspect of the ongoing decline of Seattle Executive Fitness into mismanaged oblivion. The text of the sign reads:

This is an emergency exit only 

- Alarm will sound -

If you enter or exit this door for anything other than an emergency you will not be allowed back in this facility at any time in the future!

The sign also provides a purview of the personality of the gym's owner, Merle Gregg, given that the sign makes an ultimate threat of termination from the building, which would surely include termination of employment for staff members and termination of membership for a gym member. Then of course the terminated gym member would likely still be stuck with Seattle Executive Fitness and ABC Financial continuing to debit their credit unlawfully.

Taken altogether, this sign is just another of the dozens upon dozens of indicators to anyone who is either a current member of this gym, or who is considering membership at this gym, that they should be very wary. This gyms's unlawful business practices, and the unlawful and often fraudulent tactics used by this gym's owner seem like clear indications that anyone who joins this gym is in for an extremely negative experience. 

Seattle Executive Fitness Has Just A Dozen Cardio Theater Television Channels, Worse Yet, Some Are Often Blocked

There is nothing "Executive" at all about the selection or quantity of television channels on the Cardio Theater system at Seattle Executive Fitness. To make matters worse, often when flipping through the ten or twelve basic cable channels the chintzy owner provides, the cable/satellite television provider, apparently Dish Network, has blocked a channel because the owner hasn't paid the bill for it. When Seattle Executive Fitness was All Star Fitness, and owned by Bob Padgett, not Merle Gregg, the gym's Cardio Theater system was connected to ComCast cable. Back in the Allstar Fitness days at the Olive Way gym, there were more channels, they had all the broadcast channels, plus a reasonable number of cable channels, and there weren't ever any of the sorts of blocked channel notices that all too often appear on the television screens at Seattle Executive Fitness like the one pictured below does. The less than "Executive" experience gets worse at Seattle Executive Fitness though; all too often the televisions on the cardio equipment just stop working altogther, as though the power isn't on within them or something, and they often stay that way for days or weeks, until dozens or hundreds of people have complained about them.

Seattle Executive Fitness, LLC - Legal Business Information

Any member or former member of Seattle Executive Fitness who decides they need to file a lawsuit against the company, whether in: small claims court, district court, or superior court; should be aware of the company's legal business information and status. The two Seattle Executive Fitness locations actually appear to be two separate legal business entities. The are Washington State limited liability companies, a type of business known as an LLC. The legal business information about Seattle Executive Fitness, and Merle Gregg's ownership of it, can be obtained from a combination of two state operated government web sites. The first web site to check is the Washington State Business Licensing Service Search Portal at the following web address:

http://bls.dor.wa.gov/LicenseSearch/

Once a business is found using the link above, copy and save the details of the business's legal information, especially its state Universal Business Identifier (UBI) number(s). Then use the UBI numbers to search the Washington State Secretary of State Corporation and Limited Liability Company Search Portal at the following web address:

 http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/corps_search.aspx

When filing a lawsuit against Seattle Executive Fitness it may be prudent to include both of the different business entities listed below as defendants to the lawsuit. Plaintiffs who contracted as members of Epicenter Fitness who are now members of Seattle Executive Fitness due to the legal processes of contract assignment and contract succession, may want to include SAMG Holding Company (doing business as Epicenter Fitness) as an additional defendant to their lawsuit. The State of Washington lists Merle Gregg as a business owner of all three of these companies. It may be legally necessary to send notices, such as small claims court process service, and even certified mail copies of the membership cancellation information to the Registered Agent addresses listed by the state of Washington for the businesses. 

For anyone who has been a victim of fraud, theft (called "conversion" in a civil lawsuit), or other Unfair Business Practices committed by Seattle Executive Fitness, Epicenter Fitness, or any other gym, a lawsuit may ultimately be necessary to obtain an appropriate level of financial and legal remedy. Afterward it can be useful to submit copies of the results to both the Better Business Bureau and the Washington State Attorney General's office of Consumer Protection.

EF SEATTLE OLIVE WAY LLC

UBI Number    603143474

Category    LLC

Active/Inactive    Active

State of Incorporation    WA

WA Filing Date    09/13/2011

Expiration Date    09/30/2013

Inactive Date   

Duration    Perpetual

Registered Agent Information

Agent Name    NATIONAL REGISTERED AGENTS INC

Address    505 UNION AVE SE STE 120

City    OLYMPIA

State    WA

ZIP    98501

EF SEATTLE FIFTH AVENUE LLC

UBI Number    603143469

Category    LLC

Active/Inactive    Active

State of Incorporation    WA

WA Filing Date    09/13/2011

Expiration Date    09/30/2013

Inactive Date   

Duration    Perpetual

Registered Agent Information

Agent Name    NATIONAL REGISTERED AGENTS INC

Address    505 UNION AVE SE STE 120

City    OLYMPIA

State    WA

ZIP    98501

EF SEATTLE FIFTH AVENUE LLC - UBI: 603143469

http://bls.dor.wa.gov/LicenseSearch/lqsLicenseDetail.aspx?RefID=2144263

EF SEATTLE OLIVE WAY LLC - UBI: 603143474

http://bls.dor.wa.gov/LicenseSearch/lqsLicenseDetail.aspx?RefID=705398

SAMG HOLDING COMPANY - legal owner of defunct Epicenter Fitness

http://bls.dor.wa.gov/LicenseSearch/lqsLicenseDetail.aspx?RefID=161844

The Seattle Executive Fitness Membership Cancellation Scam

Seattle Executive Fitness, and many other gym businesses, have become well known for their various fraudulent business practices. Dozens of members and former members of Seattle Executive Fitness have described their horrific experiences as victims of such practices using reviews on yelp.com. Instead of owning up to the fact that his corrupt business uses illegal, unfair business practices, Seattle Executive Fitness owner Merle Gregg uses his ability to respond to yelp.com reviews by denying the truth and basically calling such reviewers liars. Merle Gregg doesn't seem to ever apologize for the trouble his busieness creates, and instead uses yelp.com to whine at and berate his former customers. He doesn't appear to be self aware enough to realize that almost all of his posts on yelp.com just reaffirm his well deserved reputation as a retaliating bully. Merle Gregg doesn't seem to understand that for every customer he scams, that former customer will tell a dozen of their friends, who will tell a dozen of their friends, none of whom will ever be customers of his business.

Click to Enlarge!

For example, one highly credible former member named Amy described the process she went through trying to end her membership in a review she posted to yelp.com (see screenshot). In her description on yelp.com, she described a couple of the scam techniques that Seattle Executive Fitness staff members have been known to employ on unsuspecting gym members. In Amy's case, she tried to follow the membership cancellation procedure and instructions provided in the membership contract precisely, by going to the facility to cancel her membership in person. The absolutely ridiculous excuses she was given by the staff member at the counter was that they were all out of cancellation forms, and that they needed to print more of them. Then the Seattle Executive Fitness staff person apparently flat out lied to Amy and told her that she could cancel her membership via billing provider ABC Financial over the telephone. That statement was also clearly a lie, in part because it is not provided for in the membership contract. Obviously, this former gym member later discovered too late that nothing she had done had actually canceled her membership and that the scam companies Seattle Executive Fitness and billing provider ABC Financial continued to defraud her debit/credit account after her attempts to end her membership. The only way she could have protected herself was by following the steps outlined in the paragraphs below. The one truthful thing she was told via an electronic mail from SEF staff member Katherine Pfizenmaier, was that nothing Amy had done actually cancelled her membership. Of course Katherine Pfizenmaier also fraudulently claimed that the front desk had cancellation forms on hand. It seems like every current Seattle Executive Fitness member should ask for and obtain a membership cancellation form to keep on hand long before an occasion for membership cancellation arises. It should be interesting to find out what scams and excuses Seattle Executive Fitness staff has for current members who try to ask for a membership cancellation form just to take home for future use. Members should please to try it, and send a confidential electronic mail to this blog about the experience using the email address in the right column of this blog. Every member of every fitness club should be forewarned that these fraudulent tactics are epidemic throughout the entire health club industry. When cancelling a membership it is absolutely essential to get all the paperwork in writing. It is essential not to be hoodwinked by the various illegal tactics health club staff members will use to stall and avoid performing the membership cancellation process. 

There are additional steps to take after getting all the membership cancellation paperwork in writing, and signed by gym staff. First, make multiple photocopies of the membership cancellation paperwork. Using U.S. Certified Mail with return receipt requested, send the gym a certified mail letter notifying the gym that you have followed their cancellation procedure, that you are ending your membership and that you have included a photocopy of the completed paperwork as an enclosure with the letter. Send a backup copy of the letter just described to the gym, using a little known device called a Postal Service Certificate of Mailing. A Postal Service Certificate of Mailing provides proof of sending a document, but not of its actual receipt. However, courts of law consider a Postal Service Certificate of Mailing complete proof of communication. This is useful in case the gym refuses acceptance of the certified mail letter as another scam way of thwarting efforts by the customer to comply with gym membership contract procedures, Send a similar letter via certified mail to your financial institution notifying the bank, credit union, or credit card provider, that you have canceled your membership, enclosing a photocopy of the cancellation paperwork, and telling the financial institution that you have revoked authorization for the gym and ABC Financial to take money from your account. 

All this paperwork and backup is necessary to create a paper trail of evidence for use in small claims court to sue the gym if they continue to take money from you after you have canceled your membership. Remember that you cannot and should not rely on any verbal promises or assurances you receive from either Seattle Executive Fitness (any other gym) or ABC Financial. The paperwork is essential as evidence. Be sure to make and keep copies of your original gym membership contract and any advertising for special rates and deals to which you may have responded. Winning a lawsuit depends entirely on having evidence to support your claim. Unfortunately for Amy W. she is still discovering that certified mail may seem archaic in the internet age, but a certified mail letter is the only evidence that is likely to be persuasive in small claims court.

If after following all the steps above, you find that Seattle Executive Fitness, or any other gym, unlawfully takes money from your bank account after you have closed your membership, have your bank migrate your account business to a new account number. If your bank charges you fees for this fraud protection service, be sure to keep all the paperwork for the fees. If you take any time off work to deal with these problems, keep a detailed log of the time spent, because that time, and the bank fees, can be added to a claim for monetary damages in court for people in professions where billable hours have been lost dealing with such a problem. All the time you spend updating online accounts whose debit/credit information must be changed, the hours spent doing so may also be part of a damage claim in small claims court. Instructions for filing and litigating a small claims court lawsuit are available here.

Over the course of numerous years, Merle Gregg and Seattle Executive Fitness, and his F Better Business Bureau rated Epicenter Fitness before that, have developed a reputation for the billing and membership cancellation scams described here. However, Seattle Executive Fitness and Merle Gregg aren't the only fitness business that operates this way. The Puget Sound area has suffered through a long history of such unscrupulous businesses, dating back at least to the 1990s when gyms such as Hart's Athletic Club and another called LivingWell Lady were eventually sued by the State Attorney General because of their systematic frauds. The LivingWell Lady chain was even barred entirely from doing business in Washington State.

Seattle Executive Fitness Deterioration Continues

It seems like every aspect of Seattle Executive Fitness continues to deteriorate. Every aspect of the neglect gives the appearance that the gym's owner, Merle Gregg, may be in serious financial trouble, with his gyms on the very of bankruptcy and closure. The list of obvious problems, some that have existed for a long period of time, and others that are new, is long and disturbing. Here are some of the more recent events that should give existing members pause, and should deter any prospective member from joining this disreputable, fraud plagued, establishment. Here is a partial of list of some of the recently noticed problems:

• the Olive Way location no longer has a separate entrance.
• the Olive Way location has been made smaller.
• the Olive Way location no longer provides easy access to the climbing wall area.
• the Olive Way location walls now display numerous threatening and disrespectful signs
• the gyms are dirty and don't seem to ever get cleaned.
• the equipment sets at the gyms are incomplete, and poorly if ever maintained.
• in a desperate attempt to save money, the owner has threatened to stop providing towel service.
• the gym's numerous fraudulent billing practices continue, and continue to be reported.
• the gyms's advertised prepaid plan offers are not honored.

There are many other very problems worth highlighting. This list will be updated in the future. 

Worn Out Cybex Arm Curl (Biceps) Machine

When Merle Gregg first took over the gym at 511 Olive Way, the Cybex Arm Curl, bicep, training machine was in medium shape. The arm pads were showing some wear, but they were still okay. Over the course of the past year, the arm wrests on the Cybex Arm Curl machine have become very worn.

Despite repeated requests from many members about this machine, Merle Gregg and his staff have not repaired it. The first photograph of it below, shows its condition a year ago. The second photograph of it below shows it condition recently, after Merle Gregg and his staff crammed the machine into the area that used to be the stretching room. Notice all the cracks in the arm rest. One really has to wonder why the people who run Seattle Executive Fitness won’t invest in replacing that worn out part of that machine.

Cybex Arm Curl machine a year ago, less worn

Cybex Arm Curl, with very worn arm rest pad

Closeup of worn out arm pad on Cybex Arm Curl (bicep) machine.