Boots/Virgin Active offer

esio_trot

to the OP....

from T&Cs

The Offer is non-transferable, non-exchangeable, cannot be redeemed for cash and may be withdrawn or amended at any time.

there's your hint is it not? Offers always have that line attached.

starving_artist

esio_trot wrote: »

to the OP....

there's your hint is it not? Offers always have that line attached.

See section 30.2 of the ASA advertising code of practice I already quoted above which was, note dmg24, drawn up as a result of the Hoover fiasco.

dmg24 wrote: »

Still waiting for you to come up with someone that has suffered any detriment!

See Skint mummy's post above. Unfortunately I don't have access to Boots' customer database but at least this thread can stand as a warning to all those who paid for the goods and haven't yet tried to take out the membership. It is the Praise, Vent and Warnings board after all.

willd

I just had a tour around my VA club and when I got to the end I asked about the Boots offer. I had not seen the posts above so what I was told was new to me. They told me that Boots and a healthcare company had been running the promotion but it had reached 1000 people and they shut it down.
They (VA) had received an email over the weekend saying it was off. VA said they had lots of really annoyed people emailing and calling them now - thanks to Boots and it made VA look bad too.

I was all set to come back to work, spend the money at Boots and sign up to VA.

This is crazy how can Boots think that no more than 1000 people nationally were going to sign up to this?

If Virgin are clever they should contact all the clubs and tell the managers to contact all those people who have come in on the back of Boots and honour the deal. Then they (VA) get the good will factor and the 12 months membership which many will maintain at the end of this term at the full price.

I will now probably join another Gym (even at a higher cost) and avoid Boots at all costs.

Skint_mummy

Hi All,

Good News. Virgin have honoured the deal and we have joined at £34.50 a month full flexi membership!!!! They were great about it. Their opinion is that Boots are contracted to them until the end of September so it is Boots' problem. In any case Virgin have honoured it and signed a contract to confirm it!

Virgin great, boots rubbish!!!

willd

Well done that' great.

I am waiting for a call back from VA to see if I can bring the £'s down.

Maybe after a few days the people at VA head office may see the potential upside this Boots let down has for them? We can only hope.

I do know that one of the other Gyms around here (Central London) lost 1000 members from 7000 in a period of 3 months this year. With the recession one would think the Gyms want to sign up now for reward later?

We will see.

burnley219

The official word

"Thank you for contacting us about our recent promotion for 12 months half price membership for the Virgin Active gym when you spend ?75 or more on Boots.com.

I have looked into this issue and I'm afraid this promotion has had to be withdrawn due to the offer been far more popular than expected by Virgin and ourselves. This promotion was subject to availability and unfortunately has indeed been over subscribed. Due to this our technical team had to discontinue the offer from the end of Friday 11/09/09, as Virgin Active would not be able to fulfil any more subscriptions."

Given that without this offer the Student discount is still available... I will still be £19 pm out of pocket because I was a day late

willd

They still have the link working today.

They have wound me up now on principal.

This promotion looked too good to be true last week but I did not think they would limit it to only 1000 people!

willd

Virgin came through and gave me the 50% discount. They said they had decided to honour the Boots promotion for today only. My Club said 16 people signed up today on the back of the promotion.

rozzymoneysaver

Hi all, I have run some big sales promotions in the past. This looks like a big !!!! up from Boots perspective, very bad PR for them. As the link still seems to be up just type "boots virgin active offer" into google. Sorry I could not put the link into this message. I would think that anyone who wants to take this up still can and Boots will have to honour this. I can't immediately see on the Boots site where they have said they have suspended the offer just the terms and conditions for the promotion. Certainly anyone who has already spent £75 on the basis of this offer and can prove it should just give the link to their local gym and insist on the offer being honoured. The other promotion which springs to mind is the Times Eurostar offer where you had to collect lots of vouchers in exchange for free tickets. The forecasts around how many people would take it up were vastly under predicted but Eurostar honoured everyone.

starving_artist

Credit where it's due...... Boots and Virgin Active for making good on the disappointed.