PRESIDENT, WORKOUT WORLD (WoW)
Names of WoW Staff have been changed in this posting
Dear Mr. Stephen P. Roma;
I am writing to you and your team to detail why I am cancelling my WoW membership. The reason listed on my cancellation request cites: “too many unethical business practices by WoW.” As President, I thought you might be interested in what I mean by "unethical business practices."
Method of Cancellation
Let’s start with the method of cancellation. I have been a member of many gyms and fitness facilities throughout my life. These include lower-end facilities such as Lucille Roberts and Bally’s, to higher-end clubs such as Gold’s Gym, Equinox and New Jersey’s Atlantic Club. None of these organizations require cancellation requests via registered or certified mail “for your own personal protection.” Perhaps I have had to go to the facility and sign a cancellation form. On one occasion when I couldn’t physically get to the facility I was able to sign a cancellation form that they emailed me and I was able to fax it back. Many members I have spoken to at my Middletown location along with former members of WoW find this process ridiculous. It is not only a waste of time and inconvenience to your members but a final kick-in-the-pants on the way out. This certainly does nothing to help your word-of-mouth and credibility in New Jersey – something you are already lacking – but as I continued my membership, unhappily, with WoW I began to realize I don’t feel you fear attrition and instead opt for marketing and advertising campaigns that drive year-long contracts even if your low prices involve a revolving door.
Personal Training Freeze Policy
About halfway through my membership term I experience an injury which prevented me to keep up with my personal training regimen. My doctor advised light cardio 2 times a week but instructed me to stay far away from the demands of strength training. Considering the investment I made with WoW Middletown in Personal Training I chose to freeze my PT sessions because you impose an expiration date on these sessions.
I find it ridiculous that you apply a prompt expiration date on your Personal Training packages. Your clients who purchase personal training are your most loyal clients who spend the most money with you. Does it make sense to employ practices that can degrade their experience with your club?
When I needed to freeze my Personal Training I went to WoW Middletown to speak with my Personal Trainer, Lance and your PT Manager, Al. I told them I would be unable to take full advantage of PT and thus needed to freeze my sessions. I also told them the doctor recommended light cardio. I thought I could freeze my sessions at the Middletown location but instead I was told I needed to do so through your website. My trainer Lance walked me through that process using the on-site computer. It was at that time I realized that freezing my Personal Training sessions meant I was FORCED to freeze my membership. I could no longer access the WoW facility at all! This was very upsetting to me as my recovery was long and painful and without access to cardio per my doctor’s recommendation my recovery was even slower. During this time I was FORCED to join a second gym, at $55 per month, just so I can use their cardio equipment twice per week. Finally I did get up to speed and was able to unfreeze my PT, thus my membership.
Account Freeze Policy
This relates directly to the above. As a PT client who had to freeze her account because she had to freeze her PT I also had to pay your account freeze fee of $10+ per month. Do you realize you offer packages to strangers off the street at this price to access your gym? So you, in essence, are punishing those members who spend the most money with you when they have to freeze their PT.
At the Middletown location you had a Personal Trainer who had to take maternity leave. Most of her clients opted to freeze their sessions and wait for her return. Their memberships were also frozen and they were not allowed access to the gym.
How is this fair to a member like me? How is this fair to the clients of your trainer who took maternity leave? This is a completely unethical practice especially since you have membership packages equivalent to your account freeze monthly rate. Even if you limited access to the gym for these members, it is at least not as stringent a punishment. You have again compromised significantly customer satisfaction among your most loyal, highest paying members.
This relates specifically to your PT clients. Those members who do not engage in PR and choose to freeze their memberships, I cannot speak to that ethical dilemma, but again, if you offer a membership package that is equivalent to your monthly freeze rate, it is cheating your clients to not allow those who freeze to allow them the same accommodations that would be offered to those who are members under that membership package price – even if reduced access.
Management & Staff Handling of Client Concerns
Perhaps the biggest blow concerning the experience I had with my PT freeze and subsequent membership freeze was the conversation I had with Al, a conversation that my personal trainer Lance was extremely aggressive I take part in, where I expressed these concerns. He told me the story about the Personal Trainer who took maternity leave. He also told me he put her clients on a written list by the front desk and allowed those members access to the gym, bypassing WoW policy – he would have been happy to do this for me had I come to him. I would not be telling you this had Al resigned from the organization, but this was completely insulting to me.
I froze my PT sessions in-house. I mentioned to my Personal Trainer that I was disappointed I couldn’t access the facility during this time, particularly given my doctor’s instruction. Why did he not escalate these concerns to his manager? Why did Al not ask Lance, during meetings with his staff, what the status was of his clients in terms of progress, overall satisfaction, upsell opportunities, etc? PERHAPS AL SHOULD HAVE COME TO ME. That would have saved me about $500 on a second gym membership (DUES ONLY).
Certainly both Lance and Al figured out that they were in danger of losing me as a PT client. Lance was so aggressive of getting me to sit down with Al. I had to cancel a session with Lance due to a last minute client meeting. I contacted him offering 23-1/2 hours’ notice. I asked him to please forgive the 30 minutes and not penalize me a session despite the cancellation policy. He told me he would if I could come in later in the day to train AND sit down with Al. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it – also because of the client meeting, but the requests to sit down with Al “because they were working on plans that were better suited to my PT session habits” were so overly aggressive (not bothersome, just aggressive) that I knew, again as a seasoned Marketer and Sales Professional, that something was stirring. During this meeting, before I even got to say anything because I had seen Al earlier in my workout and told him I had some things to discuss with him too, he began a hard sell of the many options I could partake in for my next PT purchase, all which involve a 12-month commitment but I could use them faster than 12 months if I wanted to. I told him considering what I had experienced during my tenure at WoW with the PT Freeze and Account Freeze that I would under no circumstances be committing to a 12 month package. I also learned at that time that I would be auto-Lanceed for PT in 5 days – which I had completely forgotten about due to the PT freeze – I just lost track of time.
Auto-Lance / Renewal of Personal Training
No gym. NO GYM does this. This is the most ridiculous practice of almost all. Honestly, everything I have mentioned so far is stated in your lengthy and confusing contracts. The last I looked at your PT packages, also very confusing. Why do you leave it up to the client to have to keep track of when they will be auto-Lanceed upwards for $400, $600, $800 or more for Personal Training which they may have decided during the course of their previous term they may not want. Perhaps it’s a bad time for them and they’d rather re-up 2 weeks later. I personally had opted out twice and then repurchased only a few weeks later. I am an organized person who lives and dies by my Outlook Calendar. Had I not put a reminder in to cancel auto-Lanceing of my PT I would have forgotten. How many of your clients have forgotten? How much money have you received as a result? How much have you credited in the form of membership dues just to hold these members fiscally hostage for a longer membership term? There are many scenarios in which WoW could have received this money without the full intention of the client and the client either opted not to fight for the money back or found it too difficult to go through your rigid communication channels and short-handed options to get the money back.
Customer Service
I realize good help is hard to come by – but the person most attentive to your clients at your WoW facility is the young lady who owns the shake bar which is completely independent of WoW. Your front door staff is often engaged in conversation with each other. They break long enough to say have a nice workout.
But worse is your Personal Training crew. The Training area, particularly at peak times, has trainers and clients sharing space. More often than not Trainers are engaging in conversation with each other, sharing private jokes, laughing and talking about “what (they) did last night.” This as you are curious to know how many lat pulls you have left. I have often felt isolated on those during workouts due to this lack of attention. I do not know if my form is right, I do not know if I could be going faster though the exercise. I want to be pushed, not left along. If I wanted to work out alone I do not need to pay $1600/2 months for that privilege. My trainer has repeatedly arrived several minutes late to my session and ended several minutes early. Yes, we are only talking about 3 minutes on both sides but that would be 6 out of 30 minutes which over 5 sessions equals a session in and of itself. He strolls over from the shake bar where I notice he spends a lot of his down time, drinking water with zero pep in his step.
This is a huge contrast to my NEW personal trainer at Gold’s Gym, the gym I had to join during my injury when I couldn’t access WOW. He finds me where I am warming up on a cardio machine before my session. He tells me to stay there until he comes to get me – he has all the equipment needed for our workout set up ahead of time, instead of where at Gold’s I have to wait while my trainer strolls to retrieve this equipment. He does the exercise with me – either across from me or next to me, commenting on my form, telling me I don’t have to rush, or telling me to speed it up. He pushes me as I’ve asked to be pushed – as I ask all of my trainers to push me – instead of telling me to stop and then finishing the thought he was sharing with a colleague. He is also always explaining the exercise and telling me why it shouldn’t irritate my injury – he is always checking up on my injury both before, during and after the exercise. If he has the extra time he will stretch me with moves designed to target my pain, if not he will tell me exactly what I should do. And all this with a simple PT package outline, no auto-renewal fees to worry about, no stringent expiration dates on the package and laser-like focus. Oh, and if you’re questioning price-point – PT sessions at Gold’s are less expensive than at WoW.
For the record, I have contacted your organization several times throughout my membership regarding ALL of the above. At any time these issues could have been addressed by your membership team, supervisors and executives. I do not know how many emails you receive like. I don’t know how many you don’t when client still feel this way. In either case I imagine both figures are high considering your attrition rate.
You have the branding and recognition to be one of the most prominent names in New Jersey fitness. It is only once members get inside your door that they realize Keep Jersey Strong is Keeping Jersey Frustrated.
This letter will be posted as an open letter to you on my Blog. The names of my personal trainer and your PT manager will be changed.
Sincerely,
Jennifer L. Pricci
Over 30 days after sending this letter along with cancellation paperwork there was no response from any WoW representative.
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