This blog little different to my regular ones – its not specifically about Vibration Training and Vibration Machines -
Its a simple, gentle encouragement to everyone to ask questions and even complain, if a product or service you have paid for does not meet your expectations or is faulty in some way.
Those who are a little older, especially women, can have a tendancy to stay quiet, get all riled up internally (not good for you), but not often verbalise what is annoying or upsetting them. Younger people, like my 20′s kids, do sometimes question poor quality or bad service but equally, they just overlook it, buy something else; get someone new to fix the service problem.
Marketers and sales people can get away with false claims and downright lies in their advertising and promotion of goods and services (if consumers don’t question or complain) – well they can in some industries; not so in the Vibration Training industry where I work as we hold the brands and companies to their claims 100%, but anyway;
The point of this post is a gentle encouragement to say No, to return faulty goods, to question if not completely satisfied with items purchased, or with a service or repair (to your car, your refrigerator, your home, your clothing alteration, even).
I learnt long ago to return lukewarm coffee and stale buns but when I buy items of much higher value I’m usually slow to complain. A recent experience taught me how silly that is and how simple it can be to put things right -
It started when I admired a large, black, leather handbag in a shoes and bag shop. The price tag of $160NZ ($135US) was just too high but I vowed to buy it when the sales came around, at which time it might be half price. Sales time came and the bag wasn’t available but a similar style was, price tag $99. I had to have it – I like top quality shoes and bags, clothes I don’t mind buying less expensive. So I happily bought my new bag, the largest I’d had for some time, big enough to carry; well, everything!
Arriving home I admired my new bag then transfered all my bits and bobs; wallet, bus card, makeup, tissues and the many pieces of paper and coupons, tiny torch (you never know when you might need it), hair brush, and so much more, consigning my older bag to the top shelf in the wardrobe. That’s when it hit me, the new bag smelt funny; it smelt “fishy”, just like it had been next to dead fish. I’m serious, it was a very fish like smell. This was on one side of the bag only and as it had been on display with a spotlight shining onto it (sales stock so it didn’t come bagged from the back of the store), well I thought the smell might have been from the lighting and would disipate if I hung it up to “air”. Nope, that didn’t work, my bag still smelt bad the next day and so I changed back to my old bag, the new one unused.
Later that day I asked others in my family if they thought my new bag had a funny smell and my husband and daughter both said, yes, it smells like dead fish. Oh dear, what was I to do? - they had confirmed by worst fears, that my nice new bag would be too embarrasing to actually use. I had decided the smell would go away in a few days if I used the bag but now I couldn’t, I just could bring myself to use it – a horrible, “people will thing I am unwashed” feeling spread over me. So the bag sat or rather hung on a hook all week and each night I smelt it – a video of this would be very funny!
At work, in the Vibra-Train studio, I encourage customers to ask questions and to tell me if they aren’t happy in any way. There are some poses on the machines that some people find very difficult and we can check that their positioning is totally correct; we can use a machine with side handlebars if they need added support. We can use small variations to the positions to make the workout harder for those who ask for more. Communication is essential in every part of our lives yet I was hesitant to complain about my ” fishy” smelling bag, which is something most women will relate to, I wondered what the shop assiatants would think and would they even take me seriously or if they might laugh. I wondered if they’d think I had damaged the bag and jso wanted to return it.
A week went by and all I could do was admire my new bag, I was not going to use it so I plucked up courage to take it back. In the store I explained to the sales assistant and while she seemed not to take me very seriously she said she would get the shop manager. After just a minutes wait the lady manager came to talk with me. She apologised profusely, saying that some stock had been damaged in a sea shipment some months earlier and, yes, the bags definitely smelt fishy. She thought all the damaged stock had been returned; it seemed by bag has missed that recall. She went on to explain that the damaged crate was deck cargo and had seawater damage during a storm. The bags themsleves are individually wrapped in plastic bags but some got wet.
What a relief I felt! I could never have guessed the cause and would not have known if I had not gone back to the store and complained. There were no bags the same but one could be got in from another store. I couldn’t face this though, I would have bad thoughts of my fishy smelling bag so I chose another, quite a glitzy one with extra buckles and bling. I went home very happy. I’ve since cut the eight, extra metal buckles and sparkly bits off my bag as they added weight and poked into my thigh as I walked but I’ve kept the extra straps and glitzy look and I’m happy.
Lesson learnt – it really is okay to question or complain, even if you think you might be laughed at or misunderstood!
The Vibration Training benefit I appreciate the most when I travel is that of increased circulation. I try to train immediately before I travel, at least the afternoon before. Then I can sit for long periods of time without discomfort in my legs and my risk of 
