Members of the embattled health Club California Wow (CAWOW) on Sunday filed fraud charges against the bankrupt fitness operator for allegedly failing to provide the services agreed upon and to refund their membership fees.
The charges were filed with the Consumer Protection Police Division by about 50 members of the financially troubled health club accompanied by Saree Ongsomwang, secretary-general of Foundation for Consumers.
Ms Saree said her foundation had received complaints from 587 affected members under life-long, yearly and monthly membership contracts demanding a total of more than 30 million baht in compensation from the company.
CAWOW went into bankruptcy earlier this year and closed most of its club branches. Now It only has three facilities operating – two located in Siam Paragon and Esplanade shopping centres in Bangkok and the other in Chiang Mai province.
The complainants living in Bangkok said it was inconvenient to travel to the two remaining facilities after the club branches near their residences had been closed down and they wanted to cancel their memberships. However, the company did not give any response when they demanded their membership fees be refunded.
They also said the company was still recruiting new members even though it was facing financial problems and was now under a business rehabilitation plan. As a result, the members saw this as fraud, Ms Saree added.
The Foundation for Consumers chief believed many affected people have not filed complaints yet because the fitness operator had more than 100,000 members nationwide.