Gym owner and retired U.S. Marine colonel, Lou Puleo responded today to Mark Wahlberg‘s unnecessary social media post about his business when Mark scolded his gym for not being open at 3am on Sunday morning.
The Instagram post that Wahlberg made over the weekend showed him in front Puleo’s gym in Aiken, South Carolina, called Workout Anytime Aiken, saying, “We are here at 3:05 in the morning at Anytime Fitness. It’s supposed to be 24/7. We called to arrange to get a workout today. This is not anytime fitness, this is part-time, no-time.”
One must wonder why Wahlberg resorted to making such a video without considering the possibility of a misunderstanding. He also mistook the advertisement on the window for the gym’s name and pointed out the 24/7 sticker on the window that the gym’s hours contradict. You can view the Instagram post here.
Wahlberg’s post received a high number of responses, mostly of people joining in on the fun of slamming a small business, though some defended them expressing how low it is of someone like Wahlberg to make such a video that will likely do harm to said business.
Today, Puleo responded by speaking to the Augusta Chronicle, expressing shock and that, unlike Wahlberg’s claims, no one ever made an appointment with them.
Puleo explained that the employees do not generally work on weekends and that the weekend workouts are by appointment. From there, the story is almost comical, because upon seeing the post, the manager checked back at their voicemails and had one from Saturday who said he and some others wanted to come for a late-night workout. The person was not Wahlberg.
Since the gym was closed, and the 24/7 ad refers to the fact that you can work out at any time by making appointments on weekends, he decided to then call the number back and spoke to the man from the message who said he was a part of Wahlberg’s team.
The unnamed person claimed to have talked to someone named Ashley, but Ashley is simply the name of the voice on the automated pre-recorded greeting that allows you to leave a message. Ashley is not an employee at the company and is actually not a real person.
Upon learning this, the representative of Mark’s team hung up.
Thus, it seems likely that someone from Wahlberg’s team called, left a message, told Mark they have an appointment, and Mark got annoyed that no one was at the gym at 3am. Do you think that guy on Mark’s team wants to admit wrongdoing? He likely forgot to tell Mark that he simply left a message.
Puleo stated how disappointing this all has been, stating, “We’ve worked hard to build a good reputation and in 3 seconds he tries to destroy it. That’s just not right.”
Published: Oct 25, 2022 02:33 pm