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When i got my Kia-Ora magazine through yesterday i thought ...great!!.. now i can sort dates etc... out for my next 1/4ly in september.. What a suprise to find that not only can i not attend the SQW in Dagenham because the timings are so bad that for those of us who do 5 programs you have to miss one out!!! BUT Fitpro have also put their prices up..... NOT only for the 1/4lies themselves BUT NOW we have to PAY for our DVD's which we have never had to do before... In total that makes every 1/4 £50 - £60 MORE EXSPENSIVE for me as i teach 5 programs..

What do you guys think about this???? 

I'm not an instructor, but from what I've heard of FitPro, it doesn't reflect well at all on LMI that they continue to use them as their UK agents. I wonder why they do. It doesn't seem fair that you guys do the same work as instructors across the world, but that they don't bother to support you as well as they do the others and expect you to pay extra for the privelage.

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I've been invisible for a while - profile got deleted, so I'm back and 'friendless' with a post-count of about zero - so hello again everyone.

But this is a hell of a price hike.

£26.00 for a combined CD/DVD package and full colour notes.
£21.00 for the first QW and lower ( £14.00) thereafter.

So for your first programme the cost is £47.00 - as opposed to £33.50 as before - quite a hike.

As I said above the quality of the CDs and DVDs better have improved for this price hike - otherwise this is just another example for Rip Off Britain at its worst.

And another hidden cost......I noticed that all the "educational" sessions at the QW are just an extra 1/4 hour - so time for a master trainer to give a demo of the moves and for everyone to a quick practice.

So the price of the QW goes up - and the amount of true education reduces.

I recently emailed Rach about some of the Edinburgh Instructors not teaching the Ginga - and she replied saying that it is up to the National Trainers through the QWs to inspire and to get us motivated etc. With the best will in the world they can't do this in 1/4 hour. For BC33 there is supposed to be an educational focus on ESK and the JRK - how can they do that justice in 1/4 for 60+ people. It needs to be at least an hour of drills, individual coaching and more. We used to do this back in the days around BC23 - I remember the education was an hour and a half.

Fitpro say we have to go to 2 out of 4 QW to remain certified - but with these price hikes - and also the fact that the Educational sessions are limited to 1/4 - people are going to start questioning the value of going to the QWs - for many it will be cheaper to just get the DVD and to watch a properly delivered educational session on the DVD given the time and detail it deserves.

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I'm damned, I'm hot and I just can't stop

i totally agree with you....the education sessions HAVE dramatically reduced over the last 12 months and i do not think that this is justified with them saying...."well its on the dvd anyway". There is nothin better than learning in a practical settin... after all that is how e learn to do the new releases each 1/4.

This is now how much it will cost me per 1/4... i teach 5 programs.

1st prog - 1/4ly - £20.56 + £25.99 for cd and dvd = £46.55

2nd/3rd/4th and 5th prog - £14.69 for each 1/4ly place + 25.99 for cd/dvd = £40.68 x 4 = £162.72

 In total = £209.27 each 1/4

The difference from what we use to pay

1st prog = £17.50 for 1/4ly place

any prog thereafter would be £12.50 fr 1/4ly place

total = £67.50

plus then 5 x cd's @ £16.50 each = £82.50

WHAT I USE TO PAY EACH 1/4 = £150.00 exact

MY 1/4LY spendage has inacreased by £59.27.

In my opinion that is a HUGE increase to happen all at once...

So how do they justify this increase? Other than full colour notes what else is improving to cover the costs. From what I see the standard of service seems to drop each quarterly with far more instances of late delivery of DVD's or not enough to go round at workshops these days...

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Until the last moment...

In my experience the quarterlys have no value.

 Of course it is nice to go and attend a class in participant mode and be instructed by a national trainer but there is no educational benefit. just a 15 minute version of whats on the dvd anyway.

No way is the session worth 20 quid especially if you have to pay for DVD as extra...

Is FitPro exploiting their monopoly?

So far as a company I have not been impressed by their service

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There's more than one way to skin a cat

on an another forum an australian instructor said that they pay $20.00 dollars for the 1/4ly which is around £8.50 in Pound sterling and also that there cd/dvd pachs were $50.00 dollars which is around £21.00.....

So why is there such a HUGE difference between everywhere else in the world and the UK. Surely we are all delivering the same package!!!! So why are we paying so much more t do our jobs in the UK???................

I think it's out of order! 36% increase is a rip off, I don't want the damn colour manuals! You can keep 'em!

 

angiebabe78:

So why is there such a HUGE difference between everywhere else in the world and the UK. Surely we are all delivering the same package!!!! So why are we paying so much more t do our jobs in the UK???................

typical rip off britain - assume FitPro would say due higher costs involved with doing business in UK blah blah blah

i'm quite happy with status quo...the current DVD/CDs with minimal packaging and dodgy photo copies (as long as we have all the pages and the CDs don't skip!!! ;)

 i dont need more "added value" packaging.

 so maybe we should start charging 20 quid a class? ...wonder how long we would stay in business!

getting bit fed up with BC and certification process since Fitness UnProfressionals lost my re-sub video at the moment and thinking of taking a break...hmm this could be another factor...

i only team teach (for free) and cover the few odd classes at the moment so really only a hobby. if the cost of maintaining certification gets too high i might as well go back to being a participant...

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There's more than one way to skin a cat

oh yeah and don't forget chest waxes fake tans and funky hair cuts are expensive

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There's more than one way to skin a cat

rich:

oh yeah and don't forget chest waxes fake tans and funky hair cuts are expensive

Meeeeoooooww!! 

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I'm damned, I'm hot and I just can't stop

This is gonna kill!!  I'm looking now at paying £100 a quarter and I only teach 2 programmes!  Yes I'll earn it back before the next quarter but that's not the point!  For me this is a part time job that I do because I love it and the QW's are something we HAVE to do in order to teach these classes.  I am one of the (rapidly diminishing!!) group of instructors who wants to do things properly but it's getting harder when it costs so much!

£100 not sure where you got that from for two programs I get £88, which is a £25 increase over what I use to pay for 2 programs and that is just a joke.

Great to have an improvement in notes etc, but hey we should have had that ages ago when everyone else did, why should we pay so much for it, to me its the only thing thats changed.

One thing for sure The idea of doing a third program is gone, can't afford the extra each quarterly especially when it will only be cover now and again. So ultimately Fitpro looses out, and so does the gyms, sure Im not the only one rethinking their future module training plans

It is getting somewhat serious in my humble opinion. I'd like to state a few facts about what I've had to deal with over the past 6 months......

 1. Fitpro have managed to mess up my last two QW bookings. First they said places were available and payment is taken, then I get a call to say that the places are no longer available, then 24hrs later I get an email of confirmation of my place at the QW!!

2. I pre-ordered the CDs for BC31 and BP61. So they send 2 CDs uder seperate cover at the appointed date. This would have been fine except both CDs were for BP!

3. The final page of the chorey notes detailing the cooldown for BC31 (need to double check the release) was only half printed. It took 3 months for Fitpro to issue the correction.

4. The CDs for BC32 and BP62 do not work properly (they constantly stick and stop abruptly) in any of the gyms I teach in and alternative methods of playing the music have had to be found. I know this has affected many instructors and Fitpro have yet to solve the problem.

As you can see the track record of Fitpro is somewhat questionable at this time....and now they add a 36% rise in the cost to the instructor!!

 Lets put this into real terms........lets say the average instructor teaches 2 programmes which means that under the new pricing band it would cost approx £100 per quarter. Thats £400 per year plus the £70+ for the PPL. Given that the instructor has to travel to each QW I reckon it would be a conservative estimate to put the cost at £500 per year to teach in the spirit of the programme (thats approx $1000 USD).

Lets say that the average instructor gets £20 per hourly class. On this basis the instructor would have to do 25 classes before they made any money whatsoever (and I'm ignoring the travel to and from a gym).

 I'd be interested to know what our international brethren pay for their QWs etc.Does an instructor in the US pay $1000 USD a year to teach 2 programmes? If they do then the price rise is consistant....if not then Fitpro and LMI have some questions to answer.

 As a final note LMI may consider that how Fitpro operate has nothing to do with them. Well you couldn't be more wrong!! Time and time again we're told to live within the spirit of the programme and to support LMI in their bid to fight global obesity......well its time for LMI to step up to the plate and support the instructor by making it affordable for us to do so!!

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“The only thing which comes without effort is old age” “Courage is never letting your actions be influenced by your fears”

Well the more i think about it the more it es me off..

Its gonna cost me stupid amounts to go £25.99 for each set of dvd/cds thats £50 on its own then £20.56 and 14.95 for 1/4 ilies on top of that insurance,ppl ,fitpro membership and travel..
Its the dvd thats getting to me the most its gone from free to £11 how can they do that, so now i get my cd on ppl but still have to pay £22 for my dvds?? im so angry but a) i cant learn w/out the dvd and its the best bit and b) i so enjoy 1/4 its soo not fair..

I also like Gazzer was gonna do Balance but not anymore, i also wanted to do the pro instructor module but not anymore soon its gonna get too much for me too.

I think if there was more competion in the uk ie Radical ,turbo this would put people off it stinks..

Also to be honest im peeed off also that we are getting a second rate super ,swedens is much better with more peeps going and you pay a flat rate and get to do the whole day with awesome instructors..

Here they have advertised you can do any programme even if ur not certified but gues what you have to pay £20 each i said to the lady good luck with that youve got people ed already cant see them paying for that...

I think we need to make a stand in some way defo , as its daylight robbery i wouldnt mind if it was a couple of quid but they have put the prices up on everything all at the same time.. No offence to Dan obviously but we want decent stuff as well especially as we are paying soo much

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The More You Sweat In Practice The Less You Bleed In Battle..