**Recap**
Last Tuesday, Mr Lowe called me. During that conversation, he shared that there were a group of potential investors and he hoped that they would take up his offer and thus, rescue the franchise from its doom.
On Friday morning, a staff of Slender Shapes gives me a shocking revelation on the state of affairs. I wrote about the conversation
here.
That same afternoon, I received a call from the same staff and requests to take down the post were made. I gave an account of it
here.
**End recap**
At around 3pm yesterday, Mr Lowe calls me. He said he wanted to achieve the best possible outcome for every member and staff. He hoped that by next Friday, there would be a deal struck with investors that would ensure the survival of the Slender Shapes franchise. He affirmed that I had every
right to post whatever I wanted, however, bad publicity scares investors and blogging about this saga contributes to the bad publicity.
I agree wholeheartedly that the best possible outcome would be if no one loses any money, especially the members.
I have over a thousand dollars invested in this membership and I don't want it to go to waste either.
Now, there is no way that my readership or reporting credibility compares with The New Paper (
read their story about this saga) or Shin Min Daily. I have data to prove how pathetic my little blog is. I am no
mrbrown or
Xiaxue.
Moreover, there would not be bad press if he would just speak to the reporters and tell them his side of the story. A reliable source tells me that they want to get a balanced view but he has been evasive (this is as much as I know at this point of posting). I am not the one who sent out an email at 10.30pm last Saturday, scaring members into a anxious frenzy by unceremoniously stating that
no refunds would be given, full or partial.
Also, there would be no bad press to write about if members didn't feel cheated in the first place. I wasn't the one who called the police last Thursday at the Serangoon Gardens branch. A Shin Min Daily reporter contacted me only because they had been tipped off by other members first. So what led them to feel cheated in the first place? And is he going to call them one by one and ask them not to speak to the press or go to Small Claims Court?
Mr Lowe, if you want members to rally around you and close ranks, you've got to give us something more substantial than the usual platitudes and clichés. Start with giving refunds.
He also said that because I did not know him personally, I would surmise from these past events that he was a crook, a cheat or even a liar. However, he has been visiting the various outlets everyday, showing members that he is not shirking responsibility.
It's gutsy of him to show his face but I think at this point, what will really appease angry members is to actually get their money back.
If it was obvious (
even to the staff) that the clubs were in trouble, why were investors not secured earlier? Then we would have gone on enjoying the clubs and all this mess about non-refunds and closures would not even have come up.
I didn't get to finish the conversation with him because my mobile phone ran out of battery. I left a message with his staff and an alternative phone number to reach me, but he hasn't called me back.
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