Fitness First runs into an olympic-size PR disaster
Fitness First (an international chain of gyms) has invested a lot of money in its Olympic sponsorship but its
efforts have been undercut by an own-goal PR disaster:
smh.com.au has been inundated with emails from readers complaining about their experiences with Fitness First.
About 70 per cent were from Fitness First customers who had difficulties cancelling their memberships, or those of a loved one.
The readers often cited injuries, health concerns, or death as the reason for cancelling, but often found their accounts continued to be debited by Fitness First.
About 20 per cent complained about the pushiness of staff when they inquired about joining the gym and the harsh terms and conditions of the contracts.
The remaining customers complained about a range of other issues, including the cost of memberships and the facilities.
Oh dear, not good. And what prompted this avalanche of bad PR - they successfully sued a sick woman for 200 bucks. This sort of heavy-handed stuff makes sense to lawyers but in PR terms, it's insane.
That's great to hear - there are very few brands that I place in the 'hate' category and Fitness First is in that category.
Good to see a bad company be recognised for it's lack of respect for the customer.
Posted by: Mike Hickinbotham | 08 August 2008 at 08:39 AM
FYI Dan Warne also blogged on this too yesterday: http://tinyurl.com/5tmw68.
Personally, I'd like to hear from Fitness First -- on the surface I doubt this strategy would make sense to their lawyers either.
But nothing I've read to-date has a comment from them. Is there another side to the story? We don't know ...
Judging by the comments on the news stories I've seen the story seems to have tapped a vein of ill feeling toward Fitness First.
This could be a wake-up call for a chain that's become almost as ubiquitious as Starbucks. Let's hope they take the opportunity to listen to their customers.
Posted by: Paul McKeon | 08 August 2008 at 10:39 AM
Compare the fear and loathing inspired by Fitness First with an experience I had today with Woolworths - another corporate behemoth that is always popular with the punters for a good whack over petrol and grocery prices. I recently joined their Everyday rewards program to get some cheap fuel as they've replaced the paper fuel discount vouchers. A couple of weeks ago I got a registered post letter which I never got to the post office to claim before it was returned to sender. Turns out it was prize gift card from Woolies. They rang today to check my address and find out why I didn't pick up the letter. They said they would send it out again, via registered post and to look out for it. They are handing out dozens of these things each week but the few minutes it took them to call me has left a very positive impression with me. It's telling that this kind of attention to detail and proactive customer service is so unusual that it left quite an impression on me. I am sure Woolworths intended it to be that way, as I for one won't be hopping into them over grocery prices, for at least the next week or so!
Posted by: Matt | 08 August 2008 at 03:53 PM
I hear that TV sensationalists A Current Affair or Today Tonight are conducting their investigations into Fit First, ensuring some more TV spin to this PR Disaster, Trevor.
Posted by: Gerry | 12 August 2008 at 11:31 AM
Just so everyone knows Fitness First did NOT sue the member in this case and had actually refunded the member $200. Fitness First actually took the CTTT to court over the decision that someone could pull out of a contract just by saying they didn't understand it. In taking the CTTT to court the CTTT decided to call the member to the stand as a witness in the case. So at no stage did FF bring the member into this they were only protecting the integrity of a legal contract.
Posted by: Real Story | 30 August 2008 at 12:02 AM