Editors Note: Marc Cohen’s article touches directly on the articles we posted “15 Things You Should Avoid When Social Media Marketing”
Since its first airing in 2004, “The Biggest Loser” a reality TV show featuring obese contestants who are challenged to change their lifestyles to lose the weight, has been extremely successful for the host network and the team that developed this long running series.
Planet Fitness is a sponsor of show and when I received a special offer in the mail to join for a low rate of $10.00 per month, I felt I had now run out of excuses of returning to the gym.
I was just about to head out the door and sign up when I realized that I had not checked the reviews.
To my surprise I found 265 reviews and more concerning was the amount of very negative reviews. Many of the negative reviews revolved around the customer service and policies of Planet Fitness, not the actual gym itself. One after the other the complaints revolved around the automatic billing which could not be turned off, the hidden fees and cancellation charges.
I have been down that road once before (with another fitness chain) where they automatically billed my credit card and continued billing even after submitting a certified letter of cancellation.
Nothing stops me faster in my tracks than a cluster of bad reviews. I know you can’t please everyone, but if you can’t please anyone enough to say something nice about you, then the deal is off.
In this digital age which we live I am hard pressed to imagine what is going on in the minds of the leaders at Planet Fitness. To spend the millions in sponsoring a highly watched T.V. show and not even address the fury of complaints about their policies is both confusing and troublesome.
The Biggest Loser is indeed one who cannot look at its own performance and take positive action to correct it!