The Prices Just Went Up

Like many others I used to live and work in NYC. On weekends I lived in Connecticut with hubs and my rescue pup. On those CT weekends I would attend several different local studios for workouts. I found that by attending one such studio on Thursday night, Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning, before returning to the City, and taking classes during weeklong holiday breaks, it was most economically prudent to purchase a yearly membership. Dividing the number of classes per week per month, the annual membership was a bargain.

My membership at one such studio was up in December. Accordingly, on a December morning post-class I let the studio owner know that I was ready to renew.

The studio owner renewed my membership, and I was surprised to see the price was significantly more than what was posted, even with tax. The studio owner’s response, “The prices just went up.”

Here’s the thing. When a business posts pricing, that pricing is what you are to charge the customer. You cannot and should not charge the customer more than what is posted, at least, if you are a business that cares about your customers. I was so shocked by the studio owner’s response. I stood at my cubby retrieving my items, coat, car keys, and shoes, with my mouth agape. Imagine posting one price and charging your loyal customers something entirely different simply because you had not updated the online pricing. Who does that? Someone that does not care about their customers and is only interested in making money. It’s sneaky, stealth, it’s unprofessional and unethical. So, I should not have been surprised when incident number 2 took place.

During COVID I reached out to small business owners to assist them for various reasons. One, I wanted to support small businesses and therefore I continued to shop at local small businesses and two, for those small businesses providing workouts, I offered to review their disclosures and consents. Given the chaos around COVID and peoples’ fears, having a solidly drafted Consent Notice for class participants was essential. I worked closely with several local businesses to draft their Consent Notices.

It took some time to get it right and to ensure the participants knew and understood the risks of returning to in-person workouts given the way COVID spread.

I did all of this because I believe in small businesses and I want small businesses to succeed.

At one studio, in exchange for providing this Consent Notice I was promised a package of classes. What a wonderful gesture. I was not expecting a package of classes. I was not expecting anything, but I thought it was a kind offer. But here’s the catch. I never received a package of classes. Nope, I did not. Not ever. I received nothing.  I received a thank you for the legal guidance via email (which was all that I was expecting) but never received the promised package of classes. Again, who does that?

What is the moral of this story?  I will continue to extend kindness and support small businesses. Duley noted that some small business owners, or at least one that I know of, is disingenuous; with public facing social media posts about community, love, kindness and supporting each other, while behind the scenes, it’s a very different picture. Behind the scenes it’s the antithesis of all the studio claims to be.

Sweet dreams,

Ava  

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