Thor Buttox

Absolutely. I just bumped into a friend of mine who had just done a park run. She was really down as it saved her last week, but today her points were 100 up again. She does not have the means to buy a HR monitor nor the time to swipe every day at gym - and here's the thing, which is the same as my OH, they do not WANT to have to gyppo. In the same way we enjoy a good KOM, they enjoy their sense of achievement. And through Disco's bungled implementation, I foresee that more will start disengaging. It's really easy for us sporty folk to judge them, but I suspect the vast majority of Disco people don't have the time, means or inclination to push themselves that hard and they will stop. Especially in the circumstances when previously their exercise was having beneficial results, and was being rewarded, even by something as small as a coffee. (Or a free watch...)

You are absolutely correct. For the average person who isn't a sportsperson, who deosn't have a HR monitor, it's a big issue. And if their are time constraints it is worse. Some people do not get it.

But here's the main point: if you spend thousands and then Disco cuts off that upload path, how will you feel? Or if those R000's no longer get you the points you need as their are random alterations of the scale, or because other people are cheating the system.

Haha, bud, so do I. But I have an angry bear (still) to deal with thanks to Disco taking the honey from the hive.

That's the weird thing. Everyone agrees it was working and working well. But people were cheating. Instead of only stopping cheating they babies the bathwater. The only other conceivable reason to change was that Disco was losing present cash in favour of future gains in health. In which case be honest and gently amend the scale, but alas, now trust has gone.

You may be 100% correct, but it still bites my banana. I am beginning to wonder if 'Discovery' sounds like 'DSTV' for a reason (or only cos it doesn't sound like 'Vodacom'.) The only difference being that I always liked Discovery...

That part is totally true. If noone gyppo's and medical bills do come down, costs should come down for everyone if the Company is honest. They will generate more profit and the clients will pay less.

Hmmm... You have a point in terms of the validity of the contract itself and the loan component, but I don't think the soft cap is really the problem in itself. Effectively, they are subsidising/paying you for 'services rendered'. If they deny you the ability to render those services, the contract stipulations must/should have some ability to withdraw. Eg if you are incapacitated like Savage's uncle. Itvs not easy to verbalise it and it's not that clear in my head this late, but I hope you get my drift. Edit: by services rendered I have to specify that per person, that would be very determined by their lofestyle/priorities/time, etc.. It cannot be a generic concept which unfortunately is the cause of all the misery, I think

While I do not agree with fiddling on someone else's behalf, I am forced to ask the question 'What changes to the T&C's would constitute a material alteration?'. If they bumped everyone's points up to 5000 (say) where noone can meet their goals, I am fairly sure that a savvy legal eagle would have a field day arguing that a client had a reasonable expectation of success when entering a contract for an iPhone (again, just say). At some point there would be such a material difference that a revised offer/acceptance would have to take place. Of course, with a little bit of forethought, communication and uncommon sense they might have saved the hassle by only switching off the entry channels causing gyppoing and then doing a bit of data mining against subsequent data to determine the magnitude of the issue. Just all very poorly thought out.

And to be fair, if the expected savings in medical bills from better health are present valued, there should be savings to them in their actuarial calcs when costing. Are they brave enough to move their assumptions though.... (rhetorical font)

Moaning about moaning is double points

Oh, Gees, you got their form letter too?

'V-Tec' Mayhew? Or, God forbid, 'Wankel rotary'...

If I turned into Peter Sagan I'd be thrilled...

From bitter experience, it takes two weeks to lose any material fitness, and is actually massively beneficial to do every 3 months or so. I just can't force myself to, and have itchy feelings after a day or two... #exerciseaddictionisalittlerash

Ah, but for how long with all your power workouts? Soon you will be fit enough to battle, too

Just for giggles, I went all out up the back of Magic Forest the other day for about a 9 minute uphill. My peak rate was 163 or close to 90 %. Within 2 mins of going over the crest it was back at 130, even though I was still pushing the single track. If I had to train like that for a few hours I would be broken. From my good old days of 4-6 hours a day on heart rate training, my max was 180 and within 30s of interval rest it was back down to under 140, which would have been 70%. It's not pushing it to max as u get fitter, it's how quickly it drops if you rest even slightly while moving. So, ya, the methodology fails as far as I can tell.

Yup, I have been doing some investigations the last few days to try help my OH as I was unaware of what she was getting her points for, and I was also a bit confused as to what the problem was. I think Disco doesn't has a friggen clue what actually drives their clients. How changing something as elementary as eliminating 50pts for 5000 steps in lieu of only having 100pts for 10,000 steps. It seems so silly for those of us who will blast 3 hours on the weekend, but it makes a difference to someone who has other priorities and responsibilities. And their friggen obnoxious form letter we got as a reply to our polite query really is a kick in the teeth for a loyal long-term customer. When you have just told someone you basically don't care what they think or don't answer a simple question like 'what will my maximum points be' or 'Why did my points go up this week when last week I didn't make it?' , it really doesn't help to have some spritely drivel like 'Be active, be healthy, get your points'. Very poor form.

Based on that, I am surprised they didn't need serious drugs after the first week of the Tour...

I cannot fathom the depth of her feeling about it, eother. But yes, to her it must be... Never discount the strength of a successful campaign that has a positive effect on your clients. And then 'taking it away' instead of just providing a stiffer challenge on the same 'day-to-day activity' terms. But then I see the results and the joy guys get from their weight-loss after putting in effort and will-power, and their small victories, and it is clear.

With my odd hours I sometimes make do at various places of the city. I must try get Ms Thor to sign on - as of an hour ago she was talking about pulling Discovery entirely. I (and probably, we) don't get the depth of how a non-sporty person views this,especially after how good she has been looking and feeling, and treating her coffee and the watch achievement as a game.

Perfect example of how they make it difficult... I am a National member so I can use gyms wherever am. Only Local members qualify for Gym Booster. If they really cared about people going, why not help people who pay more to go regularly.

Actually, as someone who trains up to 2 hours every day, that's EXACTLY what I thought. When I expressed it as such, I was soundly beaten. The difference is that you or I think, and are incentivised, VERY differently to someone who is not of a sporting nature. She is a creative who at the best of times couldn't give a toss about sport. BUT: those are the folk who aren't normally as healthy or who tend to be, er, (babe, if you ever read this, forgive my poor nuts) not as thin as they may once have been. Think of a step as half a second - 5000s is an hour and a half of walking about. And she, to her credit, was pushing the walking, not just ambling. She has no ambition to ramp up her training to achieve the burn, or to push it to the max. And I'd bet most of the average Joe's will just swipe their cards and do nothing. Which is actually making her peed off, cos she enjoys the feeling of achievement in her own small way.

Yeah, I thought of doing that, too. (Hopefully if enough of us do this, they will get the message, and fix it)

Not the point. The changes they have implemented are not having the desired affect, especially not in her, specifically. She was previously participating exactly as she was this last week. Now she is being affected - by not changing something that was working successfully. We (the fit) are already talking about fiddling the system to keep points artificially low. Purely Savage suggests me recording my rides as hers (which I will if I need to). But I am one of those irritating people who thinks things should be thought through properly. And here is one person - a non-athlete who was previously incentivized successfully through T&C's that were reasonable to participate in an exercise that was, and let's not forget this, to the long-term financial benefit of a Medical Aid/Insurance company in terms of reduced medical expenditure, and they have alienated her. There have been other reasonable scalable suggestions on this thread alone about how to scale the points to keep people interested. Pesky corporate indeed.