Gym studio on Tower Bridge Road

To Davies,

You said:

"You do know that we know that all those one post wonders above singing the praises of your gym are actually either you or your mates?"

Which in my eyes is trying to give them a bad name as WE do not know that for sure.

But what you can be sure of is that I took Harry up on his offer of a free trial and will be using them regularly. I thought they were superb.

And if you wish to question the validity of my independence, please feel free to check with James Hatts.

I'm delighted you are happy.

There has been a lot of form on this forum, and others, of people posting as happy customers to promote their own businesses. James is pretty good at spotting them as a rule. So are the rest of us.

Next time. Get to know a forum before singing the praises of someones business in your first post. It can worry people.

Have fun at the gym!

Hi

Davies I feel your posts are aggressive and I don't see why someone who has began to use this forum can't start it by praising someone else be it an individual or company.

You are clearly not happy with anyone let alone a new user from singing the praises of a "rival".

These guys are genuine, hardworking and kind hearted and I think you should be a bit more charitable when it comes to other people using this forum.

I have had Harry training me for 8 mths and I look seriously fit!! Yes, I am middle aged but am told frequently by people I look good. I had no confidence before but now feel really good. Of course, I'm going to sing their praises.

They are GOOD!!!

Hi Davies- You would benefit from not jumping to the wrong conclusions. If you'd bothered to check its not my first post and I'm well aware of how the forum works. I'm surprised that you, as 'seasoned' user of this site, are finding it difficult to distinguish between genuine and non-genuine posts.

If I was the cynical sort, I would say that you were deliberately trying to put down this new business, whilst promoting another. But, unlike some, I see people as being innocent until proven guilty.

Enjoy your weekend.

Well, obviously I've touched a nerve.

By "One post wonders" I was actually just referring to those who made this thread their first and so far only post such as khowardsmith, knippyinlondon, Honeybee, Chris Webbe and AmyNee.

Also, to be perfectly honest rash1, I can't see any post on this thread by yourself prior to your outburst at Thursday 26 November 2009 8.32am complaining I've maligned you.

Can you point it out?

Thanks.

Anyhow, if all these people are genuine and happy customers I apologise unreserved to you all.

Try the Waterloo Brasserie thread Davies, or the Bermondsay Food marrket, or the parking one in SE1....

Apology accepted.

Eeep, didn't mean to get tempers flaring with my initial question ;)

Thanks to those who gave their opinions about the gym though - its nice to see new business opening up in the area at any rate.

OK - a few points.

Firstly, experience has shown - sadly - that many businesses flagrantly disregard any ethical considerations when trying to promote themselves on forums like this.

We've had a series of incidents where people's trust in the opinions offered by others has been abused.

This has, perfectly understandably, made some people wary and suspicious of anyone who seems to be endorsing uncritically the products or services of a business.

However - I would urge people in the first instance to flag up messages they feel to be dodgy using the 'Report to moderator' button which is visible to logged-in users below each and every message.

Please avoid voicing your suspicions publicly where possible, as that too often creates unnecessary ill-will.

In the case of this particular thread, it seems fairly obvious that the owners of the business have asked some of their customers to put in a good word for them here.

Nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but the volume of messages from new users that appeared in such a short space of time makes it look like a concerted campaign rather than spontaneous endorsement, which is always going to get people's backs up.

As I hinted earlier in the thread, I'm reasonably certain that one of the recommendations was posted by a relative of the co-proprietor of the business. That is a breach of our rules.

I think the lesson for businesses is that it is seldom worth trying to manipulate the discussion. Just join the conversation, answer people's questions and concerns with good humour and take part in a natural way.

People can spot a concerted campaign a mile off.

This will be our last post on this subject as for some reason it has gone from asking a simple question about what we offer and whether the windows are a problem to certain opinions of whether we have done this as a campaign or even our service in general. Please Note WE replied to this thread.

I apologise to James, and again Davies if anything we have actually done has somehow offended you, I will just mention that we offer a professional service and when coming and working on your fitness goals we wont be asking you to go straight home and post on here.

Again, if you do want to see how we can help then the offer for a complimentary session is still open through this forum. It would be great to get feedback for us.

I hope all have a great December and christmas period.

No1 Fitness team