This is a guest post by PinkElle of PinkElle Reviews who puts her self-esteem on the line and takes us on a first hand view into the shady world of slimming salons.
If you ever intend to go for a slimming trial at a slimming salon, be prepared to go with very high self-esteem as the slimming consultants will absolutely rip your esteem apart and leave you feeling obese with cellulite and saggy butts… even if you have the body of a runway model.
That was my experience when I took advantage of a free trial I won at Bizzy Body.
Be prepared for insults at a slimming salon
I was registered at the entrance by a slim beauty consultant (all slimming consultants are thin – I think it is a pre requisite!) who then proceeded to take my height and weight with a high-tech weighing machine that calculates your body fat percentage. I was then led to a small room to be briefed prior to starting the treatment. It was a small dimly lit room that felt like an interrogation cell. Be prepared for this is where the insults start and where your self-esteem and pride are shot down into many pieces by the beauty salon firing squad.
Another consultant came in after a short while and asked a few standard questions about allergies and age. She then took a look at my results and proceeded to exclaim how high my body fat percentage was and how I could stand to lose at least another 3 kgs for my height. I found this quite an interesting observation as doctors have told me I’m underweight before! She also said that normal people have a body fat of 18% to 20% which I later found out is only what athletes have, not normal people. In general, women require a higher body fat percentage compared to men due to their childbearing requirements.
PB Notes: Do be warned that consultants at slimming salons are not medically trained.
Be prepared for criticism of your physique
I was then asked to follow her to a fitting room with harsh lighting where she requested for me to remove my clothes so she could show me my problem areas in the mirror. She proceeded to happily point out cellulite and that my “butt was starting to sag”. For the record my butt is perfectly pert and fine thankyewverymuch! 😛 Under that harsh flourescent lighting, anyone will have cellulite!
She then hinted again that there wasn’t any point in me doing the free trial if I did not sign up for their package as I will not see any effect after the first time and she did not want me to blame Bizzy Body for not having any results to show. The constant reminders of how much I had to lose and how I could benefit from their “Guaranteed Inches Lost” programme continued! Argh!
According to her, Bizzy Body is the only slimming centre in Malaysia to offer guaranteed inch loss and would actually continue to provide treatments for free if your treatment package does not give you the promised results! I feigned ignorance and asked her if there was any strict diet to follow to which she smiled and said of course. I thought “The Guaranteed Inches Loss” programme is was a bit of a ridiculous claim as any loss in weight or inches can only be achieved by following a proper diet as well and it provides them an avenue to shoot you down further for not following their diet if you do not reach your desired measurements.
Slimming salons are all about hard-sell of packages
She asked about my problem areas and it provided a great opening for her to start sharing their wonderful package “available only today and only for first-time customers” which will give me 10 free spot treatments on top of the existing ones for a rock-bottom price.
I was not keen to sign up and I absolutely did not like how her attitude changed after that. She kept harping on the fact that my body fat percentage was high and even went on to suggest that I do not try the free trial as it will have no benefits whatsoever. When I asked her point-blank as to whether I should even do the trial, she quickly smiled and said it was entirely up to me and she did not want to imply that I could not have the trial even though I did not sign up for the package.
I thought this was a rather silly sales tactic as a good trial and treating your potential customers well might actually persuade them to join whatever programme you are suggesting!
There Was No Separate Female-only Changing Area
I insisted on the trial (I deserved something after all that image bashing!) and was led to a fitting room to change into a loose robe. Their fitting room area resembles a gym locker area with lockers provided for your items and a tiny fitting room in which my cellulite was harshly pointed out. To my shock, a male customer walked into the locker area to calmly wash his face at the sink while I was placing my stuff in the locker. The fitting room is only secured with a thin curtain and with all the recent hype around women safety, I couldn’t believe that a slimming centre where women have to be in a state of undress at some point of time does not have a women only changing area! In any event, what was a MAN doing in a slimming salon targeted at WOMEN?!
The “treatment” was by way of machine
I was then led to a small dim room to start the treatment. Small round pads with cold gel which was hooked up to a machine was placed on my “problem areas” for a 30 min treatment. Imagine tiny bursts of vibrations and what felt like small currents of electricity on your body and that was exactly what the treatment was like! That was it! The hardsell and critique took way longer than the actual “treatment”!
My “treatment” ended with a tiny cup of water. Will I sign up with Bizzy Body or any slimming centre?
Definitely no…not if every visit is going to be marked by insults or hard selling by their consultants who are not even medically trained!
Slimming centres should definitely look into better ways to market their services instead of telling a woman outright that she’s fat! It’s the most taboo word in a woman’s dictionary and can really destroy a woman’s self-esteem and perception of her own body. It might however be what they want to do so you’d sign up for their “miracle packages” that cost a small fortune!
PinkElle views restaurants, hotels, products and services with a critical eye and blogs at PinkElle Reviews a blog that is chockfull of reviews about mostly anything at all!
So tell me. Have you ever been to a slimming salon? Would you like to share your experiences or have you thought about going to one?
Stay beautiful,
Paris B
Dear
Recently, I went to giant near my house just for a window shopping. One pretty lady approached me and offered an attractive package that cost only RM388. As I was also looking for a place to pamper myself…I said “yes, I’ll take this one” RM388 is not that much for myself…hoping to have a wonderful time there. The pretty girl smiled and said “no one will push you to buy other things mem”. What a relief I thought. After a few days, I went to the nearest outlet…..everythg still so perfect….no pushing…no offend. I was approached by the outlet manager….she then explained on the anatomy of the body system….I just listened. After a few minutes….. the pushing game started. I guess she just cannot resist herself to sell me another programme when she looked at my overweight body. From one programme to another. I got fed up and bought another programme which cost me an extra of RM1000, hoping no more recommendation from them. I was wrong….during my first session that day…after the pushing game from the manager….the therapist was also selling another product….how am I going to enjoy myself????? Since I have paid more than RM1000, I went to the second session after 3 days…they asked me to eat egg and eggs and more eggs but I dont even bother to follow…crazy….they tried to sell more promotion package…but I said “please dear, let me just enjoy your machine”….they laughed and walk away…..on the third session…..still trying to sell another ampoules…..silly…but I took it anyway…another RM630 gone….I got 4 bottles of ampoules…..I am about to have another session tomorrow…so…what do you think…should I proceed?……..should I stop?….altogether I have paid RM1630…….
I’m Apple ([email protected]), came back with a hard feeling from a free trial session at Penang Gurney Plaza London Weight Management on 24 Jan 2011 and started surveying feedback on slimming centres in forums.
I can now conclude that every slimming centre hires probably saleswomen and those so-called consultant applies the same process to their every customer who got lured with free trial –
the consultant (saleswoman’s disguise)
1 ends up almost-naked body check with statements that your everywhere is fat
2 claims that free trial is not any effective (does it mean that your slimming treatments are not effective?), so you must upgrade your free trial to most probably the detox package, with a only-for-you-now special promotional price
3 prompts you to pay upfront, in my case, starting from rm600 whole payment, then becomes half payment, then becomes rm50 from your atm, finally even becomes rm10 from your pocket after you tell her you’re really broke till no a single of rm50 in any of your atm account (my case: she first doubts me and insults me, “i don’t believe you don’t have rm50 in your bank”)
4 shows you black face and simply pushes you to undergo the steam treatment and ems treatment for free trial obligation, after you resist to not giving them a cent but to have the free trial only (my case: a young-looking consultant in white uniform even scolded me during her setup for my ems treatment, “i really don’t understand how you think – you say you don’t have money, so you should pay upfront to reserve the special promotional package!” i was so silly, i wanted to divert her attention so that she won’t scold me further, so i praise her, “are you 20 years old? you look so young!” can you guess what she reacted? she scolded me even worse,”are you insulting me or what? I’m 28 years old!” i apologized and seriously felt depressed)
5 won’t even bother to measure again your weight and straight chase you out of their centre after your free session
my advice is, you can go for their free trials and end up not signing any package, if you
1 are determined that “you’re coming for a FREE TRIAL”, you’re not supposed spending a single cent on them, even though they lure you by claiming that only first-time customer can have this promotional price (so what? there are lots of slimming centres to have me as their first-time customer, and i don’t believe the particular slimming centre won’t offer greater promotion in the future), and
2 are courageous enough to protect yourself by fighting back their insulting and misleading speeches.
hey guys i went to bizzy body too. but it seems like i got different experience from dear pinkelle . the first time i went to bizzy body was at midvalley outlet and they greet me with a warm welcome.so far la…i found tat they’re giving me a good service laa~..i took a package of 1380k..but seriously i loose quite a lot p/s : they stated me as a water retention kinda person…hahaha..they gave me lyphm scrub n heat blanket steaming me like a chicken…LOLX…hmm…and with a horrifying sound machine like vacuumm suction…OMG…1st time was reli pain but after that i’m feeling more relaxing..BUT the result after 1 time is MIRACLEE~~..so far <3 <3…yup they given me some diets too but as i know nowadays slimming saloon o facial saloon is very strict on hiring staff de..my friend told me dat without a uk diploma aesthetician cert they cannot got hired…( cz she took dat course too ) she told me dat during those academy days they were teaches by CIBTAC / CIDESCO ..sumtin like a basic course of human anatomy n physiology..sumtin like dat if i'm not wrong…so somehow i followed da so called diet..dey explained very details to me y i should follow as it a corrective meal plan for a short week to stable down my metabolism…wakakak..my memory is gud for remembering evry words dey said( haha)…so far my treatment had ended for about 3 mths…so far ntg yet happen la…nything happen will to be discuss again~!!!…hehe…they said i'm fat n having many cellulite aso…but i asked dem a lot of question n dey gimme a very gud explanation..so i take it..hahahah..
Hi guys, I went to Bizzy Body (Sunway Pyramid and Damansara Utama branch) and I would say from my personal experience, if you were to go to Sunway Pyramid branch, the consultants there are not friendly at all. There was a consultant (not sure whether she is still there) who kept on bugging me to buy a product and when I repeatedly refuse, she showed me a sour face and said “well, its your body.. bla bla bla bla bla…”. After that I decided to change to Damansara Utama branch. The consultants and therapists there are very nice people (unsure whether they are sincere) but so far I have good results. So I am happy with it. The only annoying thing that is common among these two centres is the constant bugging from the consultants to buy their new product. The only way to stop spending so much is to repeatly say “NO” to them. I dont favour slimming centres too much, so if anyone who is reading this post, please try other ways before you resort to slimming centres. In my case, I really need someone to constantly monitor my progress, otherwise, I would not do anything at all. If you really wish to join slimming centres, be prepared for all the insults as it can really demotivate you.
i will not trust singaporean company, i had a bad experience in Dorra as well. i bought a voucher with RM18 and go for trial. As usual, they will say how fat are you etc.. then start selling their package. The consultants was so rude, when i told her i have no budget to sign up a package, then the consultants said, then why are you here? i pay RM18 for RM18 value treatment and it doesn’t means that i must sign up the package!!
Gosh, I wished I had read this blog prior to going to one of their slimming centre branch in Midvalley. They did the same exact thing to me except that I comment the author of this blog did manage to have a very strong personality to say no. I wasn\’t lucky. I felt so conscious that I agreed to let them swiped my card 🙁 and luckily my card already hit the max and they managed to swiped only 3kRM But still 3K!!! supposedly the amount they wanted to charged my card is 10k rm!!! now im finding ways on how to cancell my transaction … sigggh hard earned money .. im sharing this experience so people will learn. It taught me tosay NO to anything that is hard sell 🙁
I once signed a Bizzy Body slimming package.. At Midvalley outlet.. But my experience is different than yours.. (Should i say thank god???) i went 1st trial as i got my voucher from birthday gift.. They consulted me & gave me some friendly advice and started treatment.. In first visit i alreadt loss 2cm on my tummy.. So i signed one 5,000 package.. In the end, i loss 10kg.. In 7 months… They will keep mention their new product but i always say no as i just wan to lose more before i am able to exercise (i was 85kg.. Height 162).. Now i no more sign w them but i do some basic classes like yoga & pilate to maintain.. Although is painful to my wallet but i think i wont be able to loss 10kg by my own effort!! Haha.. But this is my personal experience… Not sure about others
I was bizzy body customer few years ago. When i came for the 1st time,i keep my stuff in their locker. After finish my treatment and check my wallet, there you go, my rm500 cash was gone. O suspect the bizzy body maid had open my locker and took my money. End up, the supervisor offer me free treatment to cover my loss. Over all, im quite happy with my body and get good result with bloody expensive treatment