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United Kingdom1153 Posts
This is a total vent.
I know the average person is worth less than crap and their words are worth even less, but sometimes you meet nice people and you forget that valuable lesson until something happens that bites you in the arse.
Like today. So here's the story; joined the gym 3 months back or so, knowing that I would likely move to a town with another FitnessFirst however nothing being certain I obviously asked the manager that in the event of moving to a town without a gym, could I cancel with no strings attached. Obviously he said "yes". Now my spidey-sense were tingling at this point, the guy looked like a slimy bastard, and I should have made him write it out, sign it etc. but the fact that I was having an awesome week made me overlook that point.
Fast forwards to today, moving to a new town due to work, and the FitnessFIrst there closed down 1 week ago. Call them up and turns out that he talked utter testicles and I'm not £130 down. I know it's not much in the long run, but the principle hurts and it reminds me that unless you consider humans to be dirt, you will get burned.
What it has done to my mindset is realise:
*People are scum until proven otherwise
*Protect your own arse at all times. Always.
*If I make a mistake in work and someone gets hurt, it's ok, so long as I tried my best, which is already more than what most people do
However I'll still give things my best whether it's work or play and for now not resort to screwing people over in the same way since I'd like to think I'm above that although I will probably escalate things as high as possible within the company just because swearing and shouting at people feels good when you're mad.
The day I meet an honest sales person is the day I meet a humble surgeon.
 
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Lol, is this how you live your life, you should be more optimistic bro, seriously.
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As a surgeon I feel highly offended by this plebian.
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lol don't go on life hatred tilt because of the representative of a fitness company. fitness companies are up there with used car salesmen for the likelihood that you'll get fucked. it's just a common sense thing that you should teach your kids. no reason to go on tilt against humanity
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Hmm... good thing you vented it out =)
But yeah just know there are genuinely honest people out there and because you got burned I think you might be overreacting a tad bit. I've met honest sales people before where they gave me information for products XYZ at another shop that was much much cheaper and it wasn't worth buying at their own.
The guy probably wasn't doing his job properly lolol by not closing the sale with me, but it was nice to know there are people who aren't always out to "get" you, he went out of his way to save me some cash.
Don't let your minor experience change you and your mindset - just vent it out and move on. People aren't generally dirt and it would be a real shame if you think like that =(
GL
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There actually are honest people out there. Just be very cautious about trusting people until they've given you significant evidence that they're trustworthy. Even still, the people you trust most can surprise you in the worst ways.
The best way to go about things is to be cautious but somewhat trusting until people give you a reason to either trust them more completely or not trust them at all. Sure you might get burned once or twice, but to put up walls that would otherwise prevent healthy interpersonal relationships from growing might do more damage in the long run than the few times you get burned.
I know this has little to do with your situation, but it still applies. Salesmen are only interested in themselves though, so be more cautious about that in the future.
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The one thing you should have taken from this is that people who want your money tend to be less trustworthy than others. But that's the only thing. Don't lose faith in humanity...
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On July 12 2011 22:59 prplhz wrote:
As a surgeon I feel highly offended by this plebian.
5/5'ing this blog because of your response ahahahaha
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I think OPs entitled to feel that way, he hasn't lost faith in humanity or what ever (maybe he did with that last line but i doubt it.) People are like that, just watch your ass. Always remeber "If it's too good to be true it probably isn't"
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There are actually very few misanthrophes, just naive and optimistic people who are disappointed every day. I fucking love people, but there's no way to live with them on this Earth.
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(this assumes that UK law is relatively the same meaning and wording as in the USA)
I had something like this happen to me about 2 yrs ago where I made a verbal contract with a roommate and they essentially gave me the finger when shit hit the fan (utility payments) even though she was legally obliged to adhere to the contract.
Basically whenever you get into a situation that involves capital, or money, or possessions, or the like, get somene to sign a document, then they can be held %100 accountable and have zero room to get out in the eyes of the law. I have a hunch that if you walked into the gym with a piece of paper stating that, he wouldn't be so amenable to the situation.
With verbal contracts, the involved parties are required to honor the agreement, especially when in faith payments are involved, but proving that to be the case in a court of law would be very hard, as someone could just be a dick and lie about it.
Familiarize yourself with the Satute of Frauds and the "partial performance" or "promissory estoppel" section.
Any people familiar with UK law and law in general feel free to correct me, this is from personal experience.
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Maybe he had a similar experience earlier in his life that made him feel like people are dirt. Since you are dirt to him, it's no big deal scamming you. Try looking at the situation from their point of view.
You signed a contract which you hopefully read, otherwise it would be a pretty stupid move. The manager just probably wanted to close the deal by saying yes and he didn't probably expect you to move, because it wasn't certain. Sadly salesmen do this kind of stuff in relatively small deals all the time, since like 95% of the time the customer doesn't even care and just pays the bills. It was even encouraged, when I worked in sales.
In the end you can really only blame yourself. I can't think of many long time subscriptions that can be cancelled at will and gyms are notorious for their bullshit membership fees.
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You should read your cellphone bills every month just to make sure... I've had "unlimited wireless network use" charge me like $200 extra for network usage. Of course I called them, and after painful half an hour of confirming who I am and digging up the contract details, they refunded the overcharge amount (towards my next couple bills). If you don't ask and chase and argue, you'll be losing money and you won't even know it.
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Hahaha, rather than go overboard and become a complete douchebag, you should just take each life lesson for what its worth. It is wide-spread knowledge that gyms do this type of fraudulent sales. They are notorious for it. You could sue them and win for fraud or warranty if you can prove he said that - but its never worth the legal cost for a gym membership.
So what should you take away from this?
a) Read the contracts you sign.
b) Remember that if you sign a written contract, take it seriously. If you want something to be said in the contract, make them put it in. That's the whole point of contracts.
No need to go all crazy on humanity, haha.
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United Kingdom1153 Posts
On July 13 2011 01:46 Sotamursu wrote:
Maybe he had a similar experience earlier in his life that made him feel like people are dirt. Since you are dirt to him, it's no big deal scamming you. Try looking at the situation from their point of view.
You signed a contract which you hopefully read, otherwise it would be a pretty stupid move. The manager just probably wanted to close the deal by saying yes and he didn't probably expect you to move, because it wasn't certain. Sadly salesmen do this kind of stuff in relatively small deals all the time, since like 95% of the time the customer doesn't even care and just pays the bills. It was even encouraged, when I worked in sales.
In the end you can really only blame yourself. I can't think of many long time subscriptions that can be cancelled at will and gyms are notorious for their bullshit membership fees.
Yeah the contract was 4 pages long, so skimmed through it, I knew I was moving, 90% to a town with another branch of the gym. Which as I said then closed down 7 days ago. I don't blame anyone except myself, and as I said, I wasn't totally there that week. I actually don't give a crap about his life, if he can't rise above it and not scam people then to me hes trash.
It's easy to scam people with those small amounts of money as well, everywhere does it, still makes me a bit sad that that is how people in certain jobs tend to roll.
Anyways vented and getting on with everything I'd like to think I won't have to resort to outright scamming people that way in the future and 100 bucks isn't that much in the grand scheme of things and definately not worth brooding over.
In closing, I haven't actually lost my faith in humanity 
Also half take back the surgeon thing (that comment from the Danish guy was pure gold though ) was just thinking of the next biggest group of people that tended to be easily stereotyped by something other than dishonesty
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Or you could just get it in writing. Learn to read a contract before you sign binding legal and financial agreements. BeingAnAdult101
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Most people only look out for their own asses, but you'll occasionally find people on the way that truly respect the well-being of others.
Obviously you should be cautious when listening to what sale representatives have to say; after all, their job is to sell you shit, not be your friend. But just because you got gypped by a sales person doesn't mean all people are dirt ;_;
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EPT
