Sunday, November 13
Why are health club memberships so sleazy? My experience at Gold's Gym in Arlington MA this week:
Paul: what are your rates? I didn't see them on your website or at your front desk.
Trainer: you need to speak with a manager...
Manager: here are the rates right now, we are running a special, and these rates are only available if you signup right now.
Paul: can I take a copy of the membership agreement home?
Manager: no, we don't have extra copies.
Paul: can't you just xerox the one in your hand?
Manager: no, but you can read it right now.
Paul: (reads document, asks about a couple sleazy clauses)
Manager: well we can remove those.
Paul: what is your cancellation policy?
Manager: you can cancel at any time by sending us a letter using our form.
Paul: can I get a copy of that form?
Manager: I don't have one.
Paul: so I can cancel at any time, there is no notification period?
Manager: well, actually there is a 30 day notice required.
I then went to Boston Sports Club in Lexington MA and again first met with a trainer.
Paul: what are rates?
Trainer: talk to Jeff in memberships group.
Paul to front desk: is Jeff here?
Desk: no
Paul: can you tell me your rates?
Desk: you need to speak with Jeff.
Later that day Jeff calls me and gives me rates which are way more expensive than my friend Jon pays in Boston.
Why the sleaze? ¶9:19 AM; digg
Paul: what are your rates? I didn't see them on your website or at your front desk.
Trainer: you need to speak with a manager...
Manager: here are the rates right now, we are running a special, and these rates are only available if you signup right now.
Paul: can I take a copy of the membership agreement home?
Manager: no, we don't have extra copies.
Paul: can't you just xerox the one in your hand?
Manager: no, but you can read it right now.
Paul: (reads document, asks about a couple sleazy clauses)
Manager: well we can remove those.
Paul: what is your cancellation policy?
Manager: you can cancel at any time by sending us a letter using our form.
Paul: can I get a copy of that form?
Manager: I don't have one.
Paul: so I can cancel at any time, there is no notification period?
Manager: well, actually there is a 30 day notice required.
I then went to Boston Sports Club in Lexington MA and again first met with a trainer.
Paul: what are rates?
Trainer: talk to Jeff in memberships group.
Paul to front desk: is Jeff here?
Desk: no
Paul: can you tell me your rates?
Desk: you need to speak with Jeff.
Later that day Jeff calls me and gives me rates which are way more expensive than my friend Jon pays in Boston.
Why the sleaze? ¶9:19 AM; digg
Friday, November 11
Blink is a cool new book from the author of Tipping Point. Blink explores the ability of people to make extremely rapid decisions and analyzes what causes some of those decisions to be correct or not. You might have heard about the Harvard study which showed that students made the same assessment of a professor's competency after a 30 second video as when they took a class with him/her for an entire semester; Blink talks about this as one example of rapid decision ability, and points out that this test was able to be narrowed down to a two second video without sound! There are some other fun stories in here as well.
¶7:05 AM;
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Sunday, November 6
Got some press this weekend, including this nice little piece about my IVR wrath, by Bruce Mohl at the Boston Globe; also a cynical story about my company Kayak.com. Hope Mom and Dad saw these...
¶7:33 PM;
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