Recently, the Municipal Consumer Protection Commission and the Municipal Sports Bureau jointly released the "Shanghai Sports and Fitness Industry Complaint Analysis Report" for the first half of 2021. Statistics show that the number of complaints in the sports and fitness industry has decreased for the first time in nearly three years, compared with 2020, down 23.46% year-on-year and 29.64% month-on-month. The "Model Contract Text of Membership Service Contracts in Shanghai Sports and Fitness Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Model Contract Text") implemented this year has achieved initial results, and in the first half of the year, 15 fitness brands in the city signed a total of 174,770 copies of the "Model Contract Text", and 2135 consumers used the "seven-day cooling-off period" clause to obtain a full refund.
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Complaint brands are relatively concentrated
In the first half of 2021, the Municipal Consumer Protection Commission and the Municipal Sports Administrative Department accepted a total of 10,451 complaints from the sports and fitness industry, mainly based on prepaid consumption-related complaints such as membership cards and personal training courses, and the fitness brands complained about were relatively concentrated. In addition to the 4 operators involved in the irregular suspension of business, 10 normally operating chain fitness brands were complained about more than 50 cases. Among them, the well-known brand "Comfort Fort Fitness" stores ranked first in the number of complaints, and many of its stores involved more than 10 consumer complaints about personal training services.
According to the analysis of complaint data, the most prominent problem is still the difficulty of prepaid refund, including the operator's normal operation can not return the card or the return card fee is high, the operator can not pay or return the card when the store is closed, the two types of complaints account for a total of 95.09% of the total, which is closely related to the traditional fitness industry's high dependence on pre-received funds to maintain daily operation and maintenance of the bad business model. In contrast, some short-term cards such as monthly cards, or new head chain fitness brands that promote single-time charges, have not appeared on the top ten lists of complaints.
Marketing new words to be careful
Some centralized complaint cases show that the sales teams of some well-known brand gyms use information asymmetry to implement new routine marketing: "killing" old members, inducing consumers to re-renew their cards in stores on the grounds of "encroaching on the rights and interests of high-quality members", etc., and consumers find that there is no preferential treatment after purchasing cards; "fishing" for new members, using marketing means such as online shopping platforms to transfer cards at low prices, anniversary celebrations, and corporate employee cards to attract consumers, and consumers are required to add large fees after payment to use them normally. When consumers find out that they have been tricked and propose a refund, they will be asked for a high handling fee, which eventually evolves into a complaint dispute of "no return card or high refund fee".
In this regard, the Municipal Consumer Protection Commission and the Municipal Sports Bureau recently held a sports and fitness complaint data industry briefing meeting, requiring enterprises to actively promote the use of the "Contract Model Text", further standardize the service links, strengthen store management training, and the Municipal Fitness and Bodybuilding Association should promote industry self-discipline and promote the healthy and orderly development of the fitness industry. The 17 fitness companies participating in the meeting actively responded to the problems reflected in the complaints and physical inspections, and promised to rectify and implement.
Fitness consumption "four tips"
In recent years, sports and fitness have gradually become a new way of healthy life advocated by consumers, and fitness consumption has also become the daily demand of consumers. Here, the Municipal Consumer Protection Commission and the Municipal Sports Bureau remind consumers that fitness consumption should pay attention to the following four points:
The first is to experience before purchasing a card. Different gyms have differences in the level of coaches, equipment equipment, service quality, supporting facilities, etc., consumers should not blindly follow the trend when choosing a gym, it is recommended to visit the fitness place on the spot, and choose a gym card for consumption suitable for themselves after signing up for the experience course. For fitness beginners, it is recommended to apply for a secondary card and a monthly card in order to assess their own needs, avoid not using the long-term card, and return the card to bear liquidated damages. In addition, some gyms have not yet officially opened to pre-sale fitness cards, and there is uncertainty about whether they can provide services as agreed, and consumers are not recommended to purchase such fitness cards.
The second is to handle the super long-term annual card cautiously. Some salespeople will induce consumers to apply for ultra-long-term cards for more than 5 years, or even more than 10 years, through routines such as "low-cost cards". The time span of the ultra-long-term card is large, and whether the relevant services can be honored is affected by many uncontrollable factors such as the lease period of the leased venue and labor costs, and consumers are also prone to problems such as difficulty in returning the card and refunding the card. For super-long annual passes of more than 10 years, consumers are reminded to handle them with caution. At the same time, it also reminds old users who have already applied for a card but the validity period is far from expiring, do not impulsively consume and superimpose the purchase of cards. After the superposition of the purchase of cards, the validity period of the new card must wait for the expiration of the old card to start, and there is a risk of capital security in advance prepayment.
The third is to ask about the price knowledge rules. Some gyms sell membership cards, and the corresponding services in the card may not involve swimming, personal training sparring and other items. That is to say, after applying for a membership card, consumers also need to pay separately to participate in other services. When applying for a card, consumers should ask about the service items covered by the membership card, applicable stores, use period, refund rules, etc., especially to understand whether the enterprise uses the "Model Contract Text", and the enterprise that uses the model contract, the "seven-day cooling-off period" refund clause of the landing membership card, that is, the consumer can unilaterally terminate the contract and obtain a full refund within 7 days after signing the contract, in the case of unopened card use. At the same time, consumers who purchase personal training courses are also reminded to learn more about "whether the coach is fixed" and "whether the effect is promised" in order to clearly understand the consumption.
The fourth is to sign the contract and leave a good certificate. Consumers should sign a written contract with the gym, carefully read the relevant terms and conditions, and confirm that they are consistent with the staff's promotional commitments before signing. For example, if the gym has publicity content such as "no reason refund" and "coach fixed" in the sales process, it should be paid attention to implementing it into the contract. When making payments, do not transfer money to the personal accounts of staff members or others, and do not forget to ask for invoice receipts, so as to better protect your legitimate rights and interests in the event of consumption disputes.
Photo: Li Mingyan, Zhang Long