MILWAUKEE — It's been nearly two months since several Xperience Fitnesses across Wisconsin shut their doors abruptly. The closure came as a surprise to both employees and customers.
We're now learning some customers are still being charged and their personal information is being shared. Many customers contacted TMJ4 with questions over the legality of their personal and financial information being transferred over to Planet Fitness locations.
"I was in there multiple times that week leading right up until the day that they closed. There was nothing, no signs, no emails, no texts, no nothing," former Xperience member, Luke Sherwin, said.
It's a familiar story for many Xperience Fitness customers.
"I actually saw it on Facebook, someone posting about it being closed, that was the first I heard about it," another former member, Eddie Lemke, said.
Lemke and Sherwin both went to Xperience Fitness for more than a year. They said since its closure, they're still being charged for a gym they didn't sign up for.
"It's Planet Fitness charging me now," Lemke said.
"Planet Fitness just somehow got my new card information and started charging me $60 a month," Sherwin echoed.
According to Planet Fitness' website, none of their memberships cost that much.
We tried calling Planet Fitness and Xperience for answers, for several weeks and never heard back.
"I think this is a common problem with fitness centers, which is what they're referred to in Wisconsin, and it's anticipated that these types of things happen," Bob Welcenbach said.
Welcenbach's a consumer, class action, and personal injury attorney. He said Wisconsin law lays out specific things gyms must include in their contracts. One, in particular, is clear language stating that they can send your personal and financial information to another gym.
"Typically the contract would have an assignment provision saying that they can assign the contract to someone. It does raise questions about the privacy of your own information and that's the problem," Welcenbach explained.
Customers we talked to said they no longer have access to their Xperience contracts.
Welcenbach said there are red flags to look out for in gym membership contracts.
"I would advise you try and go month-to-month, try to limit what you pay upfront, if there's anything in the contract that looks kind of strange or that gives them the right to assign things or sell your information, that's obviously a big red flag," Welcenbach said.
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