news-record.com

Peak Fitness, which has 28 health clubs across North Carolina including several in Forsyth County, will make substantial changes to customer service, contracts and billing practices, N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper said today.

Peak Fitness will also pay the Attorney General's Office $30,000 for consumer education and investigative costs. The office has received about 300 complaints about Peak Fitness during the past five years, according to a news release.

The judgment today requires Peak Fitness to:

• Designate a single point of contact to handle all consumer complaints, concerns and questions and post contact information clearly in all Peak Fitness clubs, Web sites and on all customers'
  contracts. The company must also post contact information for Peak's billing company, ABC Financial.
• Purchase and maintain appropriate bonds for each health club it operates in North Carolina. Bonds can be used to pay refunds to members if the club shuts down.
• Not sell memberships to any club more than 180 days before it will open.
• Notify the Attorney General's Office before entering membership contracts for clubs that have yet to open, purchase a bond of at least $10,000 for the club and give consumers written notice of their extended three-day right to cancel their contracts.
• Give advance notice to gym members and the Attorney General's Office when a health club will be closed or when members will be transferred to another location.

More details about the settlement is online here