groupon by elements gym at gtower

In a bid to get my lazy butt to exercise, I wanted to sign up for gym. Of course there are several gym available in Kuala Lumpur. To name a few: Celebrity fitness, Myfitness, Truefitness etc etc

I have inquired rates from truefitness and celebrity fitness. To tell the truth I love the environment, classes and the facilites by celebrity fitness. Although the prices are a bit wee high and location inconvenient (parking expensive), I was in fact turn off by the way the salesperson ( could be trainer/manager/consultant also. I forgot the correct term) told me that I need to pay money to the gym so that I will work out. My own hard earned money need to be paid to the gym so that I will exercise in order to get the body shape I wanted. I find it hard to believe and reconfirm with him again. He nodded vigorously and said that even with all the free facilities why did you not exercise? In disbelief, I straight away took my leave and went out. That's bad marketing that leaves the customer unsatisfied and very unhappy. Truefitness did not manage to piss me off but after much consideration, I decided I can do my own exercises without paying anyone.

In the mean time, I went to the park to jog, my own condominium's swimming pool to swim and sometimes I used the stairs to climb to my apartment. If I feel like following classes, I will do Tiffany Rothe workout on youtube. She is an amazing trainer and her steps are easy to follow.

So when I saw groupon promoting unlimited access to elements gym in gtower for 1 month, I asked my friend to join together with me. We wanted to go to classes and workout after work since it is so near to our working place. Bought but did not use straight away due to a bout of illness. After much delaying, I called up to book a place. To my surprise when I print out my groupon I (finally) saw the fine print. This is better explained with a picture.

 See the two red boxes? Aren't they contradicting each other? First it said UNLIMITED ACCESS. Then the second red box said ONLY VALID MON-FRI 9AM-5PM. I called elements gym to straighten the matters out. Obviously they are very experienced in handling groupon customers who called in and complained about their fine print. The person straight away emphasize on the condition not available after 5pm and even have the cheek to say that everyone who was in this situation just accept it as it is. I am pretty certain at this point that every trainers/consultants in gym used too much muscle and definitely not their brain/mouth. What's the point of putting unlimited access in the first place? When I asked that, the person only can reply, "it's like that in fine print" and might be shrugging his shoulders (which I couldn't see since I am calling).

I might be paying lower amount compared to normal paying members but this is not the way to treat a paying customer. What if you want to attract me as your permanent member? I am working near there and won't mind signing up but currently, I am definitely not joining your gym. I wouldn't mind paying rm34 if I know I am buying limited access and might even consider furthering my membership with the gym. Isn't there a law or consumers act in Malaysia that protect the public from blatant misleading advertisment? Even if they put unlimited as the main title and they explained in the short paragraph that introduces elements gym that this groupon is only valid mon-fri from 9am-5pm, I won't even mind so much. Who reads fine print???? Isn't this similar to products that advertises that they are free from msg but in the list of ingredients, monosodium glutamate was listed among them?

I called up groupon as well regarding this to ask for refund and was unfortunately turned down. The person said due to the fine print listed, they can't do anything about it. I would like to retort, 'How about not allowing them to use your services to cheat customers? It is bringing down your name just for the sake of earning a few bucks.' but I bite my tongue. No use making other people unhappy over these little stuffs. Hence I am complaining on my blog. I actually bought this groupon around the same time I bought mydealmates facial HSY beauty. Am stopping groupon/dealmates/mydeals for the time being.

Lesson learned: Never ever buy anything without reading the fine print and definitely not to be cheated by the cheap price on groupon or mydeal or dealmates without reading fine prints. There are clauses or fineprints or additional add-ons by these unscrupulous businessmen just to earn more money.