Back in May, my husband and I went to the Taste of Durham food festival, in Durham, NC, and while we were there, there was a booth that had a golf cart giveaway contest that you could be entered into if you filled out a card. So we did, for fun, and about a week later, I received a phone call from a lady named Rachel at Kis Golf. She explained that they were a golf academy who had just recently opened up shop at the Northgate Mall in Durham, and as part of the publicity for the opening, they were having a giveaway contest for the golf cart, and that our names had been selected as finalists. All we had to do was to go to the store for some kind of information session, and that we would automatically win a 3-day weekend trip to a variety of destinations. She also mentioned another contest — a week long cruise vacation if we won a "hole in one" putting contest. So my husband and I agreed to go and see what it was all about.
We went to the information session in June. We were greeted and then quickly ushered into a room where we watched a video that talked about golf lessons and custom golf clubs. They were selling a lifetime membership to the golf academy, so that you could get golf lessons whenever you wanted, in addition to having a custom made set of golf clubs that would enable to learn a whole new way to play golf, and only need to learn one type of swing, etc. It seemed pretty interesting. Afterwards, we were brought to a table where a salesperson basically offered us a few different packages — single, family, etc. It seemed like a lot of money, but they were also throwing in a "vacation club" which sounded interesting.
Anyway, we signed up for a family membership — two sets of golf clubs, plus the "lifetime" lessons and the vacation club. I will admit that we had buyers' remorse that very night, but they had told us that once the order was submitted, that it was too late to cancel as the golf clubs were already being produced. So we decided that while we regretted spending the $8,815, that the only choice we really had at that point was to take our new clubs and "make the most" of the membership and learn how to play golf.
Unfortunately, the store in Durham has closed, and now I've done some more research, and it turns out that this is very common. Apparently, the Kis people weren't paying their rent, and got evicted from Northgate and literally vacated without telling a single person. There are no other Kis facilities in the state, so now we've basically paid $8,815 for clubs and a membership that we can't use. The vacation club turned out to be pretty poor quality as well, whenever I tried to search for properties or hotels, nothing would ever come up as available.
According to some comments I've seen out on the internet, other people have had this problem, and have gotten little or no response from the people at Kis corporate. I have sent several emails and left several message, but have not received ANY response. Their website also has ZERO contact information.
I won't even get started on the possible pyramid scheme (i.E. The "member referral" program which you can then use to supposedly pay off the cost of your membership). This seems like classic bait and switch to me, though — I've paid money for a service that was promised, and they are not delivering. I don't know if I'm entitled to get all of my money back, since they did actually produce the clubs. However, I feel that I should absolutely not have to pay for a service that they are not delivering. I would honestly like to just pro-rate the membership for the past 5 months, and get my money back on the rest.
Anyone else who has had to deal with this? According to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx it appears as though SIX facilities have closed already!!!
Fran
Raleigh, North Carolina
U.S.A.
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