u/fluffy-koala

We've been using a couple of the big expert networks for a while, booking calls and buying credit packs. Over the past few months, an increasing percentage of the calls are with people reading AI generated answers or just aren't who they say they are. With some of them you can tell within 5 mins. Answers are vague or contradictory, nothing specific about the company they supposedly worked at or doesn't sound credible at all, long pauses, etc. I'm pretty sure at least a handful were outright frauds. We got refunds but still was a waste of our time and made me look incompetent for having booked them.

I've been trying to figure out why this keeps happening and I keep coming back to the money.

Once you work out the credit cost, we're paying $1k+ per call. I'm guessing the expert sees at best $500 of that. Now I think about who we actually want on the phone. If I'm trying to understand a purchasing decision, I need the exec who signs off on it who is on a $400k+ salary so $500 for an hour doesn't move the needle for them at all. It's definitely not worth risking their job over to do it without compliance approval and their job will probably not give them compliance approval if they formally asked for it.

Then there's the hassle. They have a real job. They don't have time for associates blowing up their phone, or for filling out screening questions for 10 different clients when most of those clients never book. They cant be doing the call during work hours since they actually have a busy job to do probably filled with unpredictable schedules.

So who actually bothers? People with a lot of free time who are really good at getting through screeners. These days that means pasting the questions into ChatGPT, or paying a VA in the Philippines to handle all the back and forth. They pass the screen because that's pretty much their whole job. Whether they know anything is another story.

The pay is too low and the process is too annoying the actual people we are paying the expert network to recruit so the 1st year fresh out of college history major sends us the people gaming it. Adverse selection, I guess.

Surveys are even worse. The responses look like AI answered them too and a much higher percentage seem fraudulent since no need to fake a voice accent for a call or have the ability to converse live in English on a particular topic the person probably has no idea about. We stopped wasting our time with surveys at the start of this year.

Curious if others are seeing the same thing and whether anyone has found a way around it. Do you vet experts yourself before booking? Push for specific people? Go with smaller networks? Or have you just given up on the big ones?

About two years ago I was on and off medical freeze at Equinox for a chronic issue, not one long stretch, several shorter periods with a doctor's note each time.

When I requested another one, I was told the medical freeze cap is 6 months total per membership year, I'd already used 5, and the next period would push me over. My options were: no more medical freezes (start paying full dues while unable to use the club) or cancel for free.

I'm not convinced I'd actually used 5 months. My freezes often started mid-month and ran into the next one, and I think closer to 3 months of actual frozen time got counted as 5 because they treated any month touched by a freeze as a full month against the cap.

At the time I was still dealing with the medical issue and needed another freeze anyway, so arguing over how they were counting didn't feel productive, and I took the free cancellation. In hindsight I'd have much rather kept the membership. I knew that once I cancelled I'd lose momentum, and sure enough it's been two years and I haven't set foot in a gym since.

It's been about two years and I'm planning to rejoin, but the condition is ongoing and theres a reasonable possibility I will need medical freezes again. Questions for anyone who's been here:

1. Did you get the same "6 months cumulative per membership year" explanation? Is that still the policy? Did anyone get an exception or extension with additional documentation?

2. When you rejoined after a medical cancellation, were you treated as a brand-new member (i.e. initiation fee again, new 12-month commitment, current market rate)? Did anyone negotiate reinstatement of their old rate or waiver of the initiation fee?

3. This is my biggest concern: after rejoining, did they restrict your medical freezes at all because of the prior history? Waiting period before the first freeze, stricter documentation, or the cap somehow not resetting?

4. Since it's a new 12-month commitment when you rejoin: how did medical freezes work during that first year? I've read that freezes in the commitment period get tacked onto the end rather than pausing billing.

5. Anything you'd get in writing from Concierge or the GM before signing back up?

Appreciate any details.