I contracted pubic lice from the locker room at 24 Hour Fitness in Downtown Seattle.
I want search engines to link their search results with this entry, thus I made a clear, concise statement about the gym. The club, to date, will not refund my entire prepaid membership and will not take any responsibility for its lack of hygiene in the locker rooms. I have no intention of taking a partial credit for my membership, 24 Hour Fitness is negligible for its unsanitary practices and placing their members at risk for exposure to pubic lice. I have already begun a widespread campaign to bring down the facility until my demand is met: online reviews of 24 Hour Fitness.
Taking search engine optimization one step further, I am linking this entry to my review of 24 Hour Fitness in Downtown Seattle on Yelp. I also posted reviews of 24 Hour Fitness in Downtown Seattle on NWSource, Yahoo! Local and Google. Within the past few days, two of my reviews are within the top 10 search results for “pubic lice locker rooms” and “pubic lice from my gym”.
24 Hour Fitness, as a brand and a service, cannot afford to lose consumer trust. Any slip in a company’s brand allows its competition a market advantage: money must be invested in public relations and increased advertising to win back the consumer.
My prepaid membership totaled $391.82.
24 Hour Fitness will easily spend that amount, and much more, within an hour in hopes of reversing the PR damage done.
Lesson for any brand: do not ignore or abuse the consumer’s trust. Especially in the electronic age.