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

AllStar Fitness - West Seattle - Bankrupt - Sold to Sam Adams

It's official, multiple news outlets are reporting that the last remaining Allstar Fitness location, in West Seattle, owned by Bob Padgett, is bankrupt. After a federal bankruptcy court hearing in late March 2013, the West Seattle AllStar Fitness location has been sold to a company called Oregon Athletic Clubs. The announcement was made officially in a notice posted at the door fo the West Seattle AllStar Fitness club on March 22, 2013. At least temporarily the facility was closed and no members were allowed access. The West Seattle facility will apparently be renamed West Seattle Athletic Club, under the Oregon Athletic Clubs ownership. 

Click to enlarge and read.

It turns out that the owner of Oregon Athletic Clubs is none other than Sam Adams. If that name sounds familiar, its because Sam Adams is the same former Seahawk player who started Epicenter Fitness with Merle Gregg in Seattle sometime during 2004 or 2005. Early in its history, Epicenter Fitness grew into a multiple location company, and then shrank back into its single downtown Seattle location until Epicenter bought the two downtown Seattle AllStar Fitness locations from Bob Padgett and transformed them into Epicenter Fitness. Within a few months of that buyout some sort of disagreement occurred between Merle Gregg and Sam Adams that ended with Merle Gregg buying out Sam Adams. Merle Gregg then reincorporated the two downtown Seattle facilities into what is currently the two Seattle Executive Fitness in downtown Seattle. 

Meanwhile, there are various news media reports about the details of what will happen at the location that will now become West Seattle Athletic Club. Apparently the new owners are going to honor long term prepaid memberships from the club's previous members. According to various news reports, the company has been under the control of a Chapter 10 bankruptcy trustee since August 2012. That is Chapter 10, not Chapter 11, bankruptcy. In a Chapter 10 bankruptcy, a trustee takes over control of the company and negotiates its final disposition with creditors. Apparently federal bankruptcy judge Karen Overstreet is also ordering further investigation of Bob Padgett by the U.S. Attorney's Office (the federal prosecutor), regarding Padgett's activities and handling of his business and its bankruptcy. 

Although the bankruptcy sale was approved, numerous creditors made a variety of objections. The company that is apparently the owner of the Medical Dental building at 509 Olive Way, where one of the current Seattle Executive Fitness locations exists, filed one of the most adamant objections. Apparently, West Seattle Fitness, LLC, the real corporate owner of the West Seattle AllStar Fitness location, owes the Olive Way company $2.5 million dollars! The writers at westseattleblog.com have been following this story and publishing minute details about the proceedings on their blog (follow this link).

One can only hope that members of what will become West Seattle Athletic Club will have a reasonable experience under the new owners. It seems like there should be some doubt, since the new owner Sam Adams, is part of the same long history of dubious gym ownership in Washington State that is central to numerous related gym ownership changes and gym closures.

Precor 556i Bookrack Left Without Repair for Two Years!

The contents of the photograph below requires some subtle observation to understand its importance and relevance to this article about Seattle Executive Fitness. If one looks closely at the control panel on this Precor 556i elliptical trainer, about two thirds of the way down the panel, there are three horizontal shaped holes. Where those holes appear, there should be a horizontal rack/shelf where a book, magazine, or tablet computer, can be placed for reading while getting a cardiovascular workout on the machine. Many Seattle Executive Fitness members bring their iPads, Amazon Kindles, and Google Nexus tablets, to the gym with them for use while getting their cardiovascular workout. Those members however, can't use their tablets on this elliptical, because the book rack has been broken for two years without repair, two whole years.

Despite repeated complaints made by hundreds, if not thousands, of gym members over the course of two years, there is equipment at Seattle Executive Fitness, like the Precor machine below, that has gone without repair for that entire time! Multiple members report watching staff enter repair information they have requested into the written equipment log at the front desk repeatedly, without ever seeing a response to their requests in the form of repaired equipment. It is this sort of systematic neglect, which over time has transformed from negligence into a more pernicious callousness toward this gymn's paying customers by its owner and managers. On the surface, failure to repair/replace the book rack on an elliptical trainer may seem like a small thing, but when it represents one of hundreds of problems throughout the Seattle Executive Fitness gyms, it implies a complete lack of concern by the gym's management for the experiences of gym members trying to get workouts at their facilities. 

It has become apparent over time that the owner, Merle Gregg, not only doesn't care, his behavior and responses vary from denial to belligerence and retaliation against the very members who provide financial sustenance for his business! That the owner of such a service business is so willing to bite the very hands that financially feed his business's existence generates a level of concern that it seems like anyone and everyone in the Seattle general public should be seriously concerned about if they are a member of his gyms, or are considering become a member of them. 

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. 

Watching Snowy Television While Doing Cardio at Seattle "Executive" Fitness

The following analog television snow is what members often see when they try to watch a little television as you work hard to get in a few thousand strides of cardio training at Seattle Executive Fitness. The skimpy owner doesn't exactly provide an Executive number of television channels to watch anyway. There are only about a dozen basic cable television channels provided on the cardio theater televisions at Seattle Executive Fitness. Sometimes the management seems to rotate a few of the channels, but most often, they don't even have all the major broadcast channels available.  This is the lack of quality that Seattle Executive Fitness seems to believe it can pass off as "Executive". 

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.

Seattle Executive Fitness - Olive Way - Drastic Size Reduction!

It seems that with every passing week and month there are signs that Merle Gregg and his Seattle Executive Fitness gyms are in deep financial trouble. In an apparently desperate attempt to save monthly rental expenses, Merle Gregg is reducing the size of the third floor workout area at the Olive Way Seattle Executive Fitness location. There are also rumors that the current ground floor entrance area is going to become a separate retail business of some sort, forcing members to enter the gym through the medical/dental building main entrance, which would also eliminate the gym's separate 511 Olive Way street level presence. 

Below is a photo of what was once the stretching and calisthenics area on the third floor of the Olive Way Seattle Executive Fitness gym.  Currently that section of the gym's workout area, possibly as much as a thousand square feet, has been partitioned off and covered with drywall in preparation for painting. The portion of the gym that is currently the upper floor lounge and rock climbing wall, on the other side of the construction area is apparently going to be become a publicly accessible area that will no longer be part of the gym's workout facilities. That space is expected to house the florist shop that is currently a street precense florist shop. How the florist shop will ever survive without sidewalk visibility is a mystery, but instead of having a gym with a lounge and rock climb wall, the area of the gym that was once the rock climbing wall will soon be open to the public with a florist, a cafe, and without direct access to the rock climbing area for gym members.

Seattle Executive Fitness reducing size of workout area.

A large portion of the circuit training equipment has been crammed into the remaining half of what was once the stretching and calisthenics area. Meanwhile, the personal trainers have been left to work with clients alongside people stretching, in a reduced size area where both the stretching and calisthenics activities will occur and where the personal trainers will have to work with their clients. The photograph below shows part of the new reduced size stretching area, across from the stairwell and the personal trainers' scheduling station on the third floor of the gym, the gym's primary workout spaces.

The reduced size stretching and calisthenics area at Seattle Executive Fitness on Olive Way

The photograph below shows the jumbled mess of crammed in, worn out, outdated second tier, mostly Sybex brand, selectorized circuit training equipment that now fills what was once the stretching, toning, calisthenics area of the gym. It seems like it should be obvious to existing members, and to any prospective customer taking a tour of the gym, that anyone who would cram circuit training equipment into a room in such a haphazard way dozen have one ounce of concern for providing gym memberships with a quality workout experience. There just isn't anything about the mess pictured below that any reasonable person would characterize as "Executive" by any stretch of a normal person's imagination.

Aging Cybex and LifeFitness brand selectorized circuit training machines crammed into previous stretching area.

If the owner of Seattle Executive Fitness, Merle Gregg, would have spent more time focusing on making and keeping his gym a quality, friendly, well equpped, well maintained, place to workout, he would probably more customers, more long term dependable revenue, and no desperate need to find ways to to scrimp on monthly overhead just to survive. With some attention paid to maintaining equipment, doing things like providing an adequate number of cardio theater television channels, honest billing with customers, instead of getting of having rightfully disgruntled customers who describe all disastrous state of affairs at his gyms on web review sites like yelp.com, he would probably have customers ready and will to tell their friends his gyms are a great place to workout. Instead Merle Gregg has been lying in comments on yelp.com that somehow the drastic reduction in the size of the Olive Way gym is somehow an expansion. Working on building and maintaining a good place to workout doesn't seem to be what is on Merle Gregg's mind at all. Merle Gregg's unequivocally desperate changes at Seattle Executive Fitness, and his lack of action and attention to maintaining a quality gym, imply that he has everything on his mind except finding ways to make his gyms excellent workout facilities that keep members happy. The fact is that Seattle Executive Fitness members are very unhappy about the obvious signs of deterioration they see as they workout at the Olive Way gym.

Seattle Executive Fitness Isn't "Executive" Enough for Professional Quality Signage

Apparently, Merle Gregg, the owner of Seattle Executive Fitness, is too cheap to install professional signage at his establishment. The signage at his "Executive" club doesn't seem very "Executive".

Update: The Seattle Executive Fitness location on Olive Way in Seattle doesn't even have its own external entrance anymore! Currently, Seattle Executive Fitness members must enter through the lobby of the Medical Dental Building. Merle Gregg appears to be in such deep financial trouble that he has given up portions of the space he rents from the company's landlord as a last ditch effort to cut back on costs and expenses before the complete collapse of his gyms. Be forewarned before you join this gym. The experience at this gym is beyond one's worst nightmares of the extent to which gyms can be predatory, unscrupulous, businesses.