Update on slimming - not for the faint hearted

After some more research, I found complaints dating back several years which were totally consistent with what was being reported in the press, and echoed by callers on radio phone-in shows. I was only surprised there weren't more.

Janice Vidal fronting the 'Janice' therapy

This report published in Apple Daily (蘋果日報) in February 2008 revealed that Perfect Shape (必瘦站), Dr. Louis, and the now defunct So Easy (瘦得起) are all controlled by the same individuals. Easy Fit (纖得掂), endorsed by Miss Hong Kong Pageant, and Royal Body Perfect (皇室纖形) fronted by Carina Lau, are in fact group companies; further proof is that both websites feature the same 'Fit Fit Club', and the same two customer testimonials!

So Easy was once endorsed by "Twin" Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐). After being out of the limelight for the best part of the year following appearance of the Edison Chen photos, Gill is back with several lucrative endorsement contracts. There are posters of her everywhere, and she looks stunning! However, unlike her fellow "ambassadors" (see previous entry), it was disclosed that she would get a 7-figure sum for the endorsement of Botox treatment clinic. I am wondering if she will get a free supply of botox...

The allegations of wrongdoing I read about at one of these chains are quite serious, and the other chain doesn't seem much better. The practices occur because they are either not strictly illegal, or are difficult to prove. Sometimes, the sales reps manage to intimidate and bully the client, who may not relish the court fight over a few thousand dollars. I'd also guess that many Chinese would hate to admit publicly that they had been cheated. The Apple Daily exposed practices at one such chain:

• Baiting and switching - the widely advertised 'Janice Vidal promotion' was denounced by sales staff as 'too cheap to be any good', the punter is persuaded to take a more expensive plan
• upselling - once on board, sales rep proposes enhancements or more treatments
• badgering/harassment - constant attempts to calls and harry, messages aimed at increasing spend.
• fraud and deception - attempts to sell expensive but ineffective or medically unproven products; consultant tells client her lymphatic system is blocked, and needs lymph drainage
• financing - applying for financing of tens of thousands on behalf of clients to pay for treatments
• overcharging - personal hygiene products (e.g. Nioxin shampoo) sold at twice the going rate compared with other shops.

Apple's stable-mate Next Magazine recently ran an exposé which accused the chain of

• illegally cold-calling - people have been called on their mobile phone, telling them they had been selected to be ambassadors - it's often clear the caller knows not who is on the other line.
• misrepresentation - advertisements and sales reps verbally guaranteeing weight loss, while the small print of the contract stipulates "療程不保證任何成效" (results not guaranteed); disclaiming any verbal warranties given ("無任何口頭協議").
• intimidatation - refusal to sign up results in scoldings and insults
• unsustainability - their dietitians propose short-term and potentially dangerous crash-diets

Another complaint alleges:

• refusing to give customer copy of contract signed, claiming confidentiality
• confidence trickery - "Trust me...", "We are a big reputable company...", "The contract is there to protect you..."
• using inaccurate scales which overstate weight loss

This complaint alleges a variant of the bait and switch:

• Customer is lured to the salon through advertising for "limited special offer"
• Sales rep tells client special offer quota is filled
• client proposed a contract with "special offer" $380 treatment (supposedly 90% discount); client asked to pay $380 before treatment
• demands payment for $3,800 (full price) after treatment
• explains breakdown is $380 for treatment, $1,500 for body fat analysis， $1,500 for consultant's fee，$420 for contract admin fee
• on refusing to pay, client was told she was in breach of contract, therefore no refund would be given. Client told to 'get the hell out of here.'

Perfect Shape, which claims to be the #1 slimming centre in the territory, was the subject of controversy in May 2008 when the undeclared controlled anorectic drug Sibutramine was detected in samples of its product 'More Slim', which the chain was selling without prescriptions in violation of the law. Four months later, as a result of customer complaint, authorities found 'Ener Day', another product containing the same compound had been routinely given to clients as part of their slimming regime.

Slimming

Hong Kong Consumer Council warned last week about sharp business practices by slimming salons. There had been complaints of slimming centres offering free sessions, endorsement contracts to lure the woman hopeful of shedding a few pounds in an effortless and costless way. To get something for nothing has an obvious appeal. We are told that endorsement contracts had too many unfair strings attached...

In Hong Kong's famously free-wheeling economy (once described as "positive non-intervention"), consumer protection is not up to European levels. People conduct their everyday lives in a rather naive belief (perpetuated by the government, in my view) that the level of transparency of our economic system is sufficient protection. What is more, concepts like 'false advertising' do not seem to exist. When incidents like this come to light, it becomes apparent where the balance of economic power in Hong Kong lies. The prevailing [sympathetic] view in the city is that the government is fearful of upsetting the powerful cartel of property developers, who are incidentally the biggest deceptive advertisers of them all; the unsympathetic view is that the government is actually in cahoots with big business – "官商鉤結" (collusion) is a very commonly used term. Unsatisfied customers are often simply reminded of the caveat emptor principle. If they make enough fuss, complainants may get a refund from the offending company subject to no admission of guilt and total confidentiality.

The director of a digital-imaging agency I met once told me that most of his revenues are generated from the beauty and property sectors. Celebrity endorsement is considered highly effective in Asia, and the public is quite accustomed to seeing Miss Universe and French chateaux marketing the latest condominiums repeatedly on prime time. The pervasive advertising featuring glamour girls, singers and film stars corroborates the 'bigness' of the "beauty" business in Hong Kong. All salons' advertising jostle for the public's attention. Ubiquitous posters featuring images of a busty Chrissie Chau offer bust enhancements, those of a svelte forty-something actress Carina Lau clad in bikini offer slimming solutions all around town. The website for Lau's boutique even streams a video of the bikini-babe writhing about like some soft porn actress. Another chain has a cross-promotion deal with The Miss Hong Kong Pageant, which offers paid endorsement contracts to pageant winners as one of its prizes. There is also one targeted at recent mothers, proposing treatment which will shed them 20 pounds (compared with their gestating weight)!

I understand that those seduced into becoming "spokeswomen" must put down a deposit of tens of thousands of HK dollars that can only be reclaimed after sustained weight loss of the agreed order is demonstrated. My wife went for a free session a while back, and discovered some of the practices which were also mirrored in the complaints: once the punter is secreted away in a treatment booth, and the "therapist" has hooked up the treatment apparatus, sales staff go to work on the [often naked] victim. During the 60-90 minutes of therapy, in which the client more or less immobilised on the apparatus (肉在針板), they have your undivided attention. Here, if asked, she may disclose the carrot-stick nature of her remuneration. In general, the carrot is the strong variable component in her package; the stick is that she has ambitious performance targets each month, which she fails to meet at her peril. If warning bells in your head start ringing at that stage, you may raise your guard in time. For the immobilised client, committing to a course of treatment worth HK$10,000 (US$1,300) might seem an acceptable ransom for your freedom, your clothes and other belongings; the contract may bring the sales girl up to $4,000.

I googled these two testimonials which pre-dated the Consumer Council warnings:

"At first, they said I need 80 treatments which would cost HK$ 38,000 but I could pay it in installment of $ 1000 which is fine. So they immediately got my bank card and input that amount which I didnt have and which I didnt know. Then I said I have no money, then after negotiating for such a long time, $ 8000 so I gave in and they deduct the money, after getting a free trial, they said Sorry the manager does not allow so I felt so frustrated and I said I cannot afford it, lets cancell it and then she said ok ok $ 16000. Then yesterday, the messager said I need lymp drainage and I was convinced so I paid $1000. I ask how many times I shud do it, she said 20 times which I said I cannot afford it, she said its ok have cheaper plan and the story goes that all they talk about is Money. I did not get the plan."

"I had the same story but i usually reply harshly to them and tell them to get out of my way and stop selling these things to me again and again. They are disgusting, 2 woman will enter your treatment room and start to tell you that you're fat here and there and you need so and so. I had about 6 treatments and i quitted. But i only paid about HK$5000."

The testimonials strongly suggest that the hungry money-grabbing tactics are common within the beautician profession. I had suspicions that other service sector professions had similar cultures, which my visit to a yoga studio in Tsim Sha Tsui confirmed. The staff were obviously on commission. There, I endured very highly pressured sell which lasted from 8:30 p.m. (after the free class) until 11 p.m, during which they insisted I signed up on the spot. The negotiations reminded me of the expression - "marchand de tapis" (carpet trader). The positive outcome from my not succumbing to their hard sell, was finding out actually how much below their first offer the merchant was prepared to sell his carpet to me for. When the sales rep finds you too difficult, and you start negotiating face-to-face with the head carpet-seller, that's when it starts to feel like you are riding on a magic carpet.