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Review 12/27/2010
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DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM Fitness Blowout/FreeMotion UNLESS YOU ENJOY LIVING THROUGH A NIGHTMARE!!!! Has anyone noticed that although the complaints below date back to 2007, the company responses are all dated 11/18/2010??!! 3 years to respond should be an indication of their incredibly horrible customer service!! Or maybe it's just a coincidence that the BBB posted this on 11/21/2010 - "As of: 11/21/2010, BBB Business Review: Fitness Blowout, BBB Accredited Business ... accordance with ethical business practices and to respond to customer complaints." Coincidence? NOT!! They knew they were facing a deadline with the BBB to provide some type of lame responses to the complaints. What's funny is that most of their responses below begin with, "Without knowing who this is......." I know from experience that I called EVERY SINGLE MANAGER several times and left messages about my problem, BUT NONE of the managers EVER returned my calls!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm absolutely sure that Fitness Blowouts knows every single one of the complaintants below! Their sales staff is exceptionally well-trained in deception, but DO NOT EXPECT ANYTHING BEYOND YOUR PURCHASE!!!!!
Save yourself tremendous grief and purchase your exercise equipment from a reputable company. AND, don't let the "Lifetime Warranty" entice you. I was told the warranty covered EVERYTHING, and fortunately have screenprints of the website from when I purchased this treadmill, and it's exceptionally deceiving. The link that supposedly led to the "warranty details" led to a page that only showed a "fatal error" (I have a screenprint of that also in case this ends up in court - I learned a LONG time ago that documentation is EVERYTHING!) When I questioned 2 different salespeople about the warranty, I was assured that the warranty covered EVERYTHING, including all the electronic components. It was shortly after my purchase that I learned it was all a lie, but it was too late to cancel my order (although I tried desperately!).
I purchased a FreeMotion t5.6 treadmill from Fitness Blowout (first mistake!!) with a TV in the console for home use which shorted out after 1 year of light usage, due to faulty assembly. The Fitness Blowout guys couldn't assemble it (after 4 hours of trying - they were useless, and trying to get this all resolved afterwards with Fitness Blowouts was a NIGHTMARE)! After several weeks of phone calls to every manager at Fitness Blowout, and never receiving a call back from ANY of them, I received an email from Augustine telling me that a FreeMotion Service Manager would call me, which she did. Katie was quite nice then, and acknowledged that her worst complaints come from Fitness Blowout customers, and she didn't understand (like me) how a company like that could stay in business. I thought then that my 5-week nightmare had ended and I was relieved.
It was temporary... She sent Jason/Gymaster to assemble my treadmill. He was also pleasant at first, agreeing again that Fitness Blowout was the worst. But, he couldn't assemble my treadmill either. He told me the previous crew stripped the bolts and he had to order new ones. OK, that took about another week. Well, the new bolts didn't work so now he needed to order new uprights. That took forever and my patience was gone. I purchased this treadmill in late March and for 3 months I was living with parts scattered all over my floor. Finally, it was assembled in late June! My daughter and I used it a few times a week, mostly me since she ran mostly outside.
One year later the treadmill died. I started it up to get ready to run and heard a popping noise from the console. Some of the console lights stayed on, but nothing worked. I emailed Jason to find out what to do, and after several emails playing "20 questions" with Katie (who kept falling back on "you're out of warranty," which apparently means she's not required to be helpful anymore), Jason came out to look at it. He disassembled it and fortunately I was watching because as he unbolted the console from the uprights, I saw that the plug connecting all the power wires was completely smashed between the 2 steel plates. It should have been fed down into the cavity of the upright when it was originally assembled.
He instantly said, "I guess I'm responsible for that!" I stayed quiet as he went on to tell me what parts might need replacing, and that he'd have to order something. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him come back 3 more times over the next several weeks with different parts to get it working. The last time he came with a used console he happened to have at home just to see if it worked, and it did. He told me that he wasn’t using it at the moment, and he’d install it temporarily until I could find out about a permanent fix with a console like the one I originally purchased (with a TV).
I was just sick about this whole thing, but thanked him for the offer. Once he was done, he said, “OK, that’s it, that’s all the time I’m going to spend on this!” I was stunned, and when I challenged him on his previous offer, his demeanor changed instantly, told me what a great deal I was getting on his labor because he had been out 4 times, and this was why he doesn’t do home visits because nobody is ever happy. I was home alone at the time, and my gut instinct told me to just get this guy out of my house, so I gave him the check he asked for.
After he left, I went upstairs to look at the treadmill. He left my original console next to the treadmill, and I looked at the smashed plug (that he was responsible for when he assembled it) and saw that 2 of the 8 wires were completely severed from the plug! It doesn’t take an electrical contractor to realize the console actually shorted out due to the smashed plug. I also learned that he broke one of my fans during this last “fix.”
I emailed Jason that I was placing a stop payment on the check, and asked him to replace my console since he was responsible for it shorting out. In turn I received a foul, vile email from him that included the "F" word and an all-out assault on my Christianity, ending with "You are truly a disgusting and disgraceful individual and you will burn in hell..." (I guess my earlier gut instinct to just get him out of my house was pretty reliable!)
I copied Katie Williamson/FreeMotion in on the email exchange because I am holding FreeMotion just as responsible since they originally sent Jason to assemble my treadmill. The pathetic FreeMotion response was basically 'You're out of warranty - if you're not happy with Jason's service, look in the yellow pages for another service tech...' Fitness Blowout is also partially responsible because their guys couldn’t even assemble this treadmill properly to begin with, and their customer service beyond the sale is abysmal! They should be considering themselves quite lucky that the only thing that shorted out was a console. If my daughter, me or my home was damaged due to this electrical short, they’d be facing a MUCH bigger issue.
Ideally I would like to have this treadmill completely removed from my home and a refund issued. It has just been a nightmare from day 1. If not, anyone with any amount of customer service integrity would replace my console with the same type I originally purchased, and not a used rusted one without the TV and WITH a broken fan. As an added note, the replacement console was making a hissing noise, so I turned off the treadmill and unplugged it, at which time it sparked. Per Jason, this console had been kept outside for over a year. Consequently it’s all rusted inside and out. Hmmm, rust is caused by moisture on certain metals. Anyone think some remaining moisture could be leading this console to short out, beginning with the hissing noises? How much liability are you all willing to risk by adhering to your horrible customer service practices?
(NOTE: I have all of my original notes and emails for anyone to review if necessary. I began reconstructing this series of events including all the specific dates/details, but it was becoming way too long – MUCH longer than my summary above!)
In the meantime, STAY AWAY FROM FITNESS BLOWOUTS, FREEMOTION AND GYMASTER!!! As one of the other complainants below stated, even a one star rating is too many, but that's as low as this site will go!
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Business's response - by JimRon 5/16/2011
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We apologize for any inconvenience. We painstaking hand pick each product on our and only select the top brands in the industry. As with all things mechanical, occasionally a unit may require service or a component may need to be replaced. In our experience, if any problems occur, they typically do within the first few months or ownership. After the defective components are replaced, rarely does the machine need service thereafter. In our customer's situation outlined above, service was needed after a year of ownership. The unit was damaged by the delivery company we contract adn for this we are deeply apologetic. Unfortunately when relying on third party carriers and vendors to deliver per our terms of contract, occasionally situations may arise creating unforeseeable delays in delivery. We are retailer and we are at the mercy of our vendors and when they fail to perform up to par, we unfortunately take the fall. We do all that we can do manage as many factors as we can but from time to time, circumstances arise that are beyond our control. In effort to satisfy our customers we do exercise control over the factors we do have control over. We are committed to our valued customers, and are taking immediate corrective steps to regain confidence in us. We have begun putting a comprehensive plan in place to provide better and more-timely information to you, more tools and resources for our team members and improved procedures for handling operational difficulties in the future. We are confident that, as a result of these actions, Fitness Blowout will emerge as a more reliable and even more customer responsive company than ever before. Our customer was upgrded to a better machine. She has recieved this new machine and is now satisfied/ Again, we apologize for any inconveince. We take feedback and input from our customers seriously because we care what you have to say. We continually strive to improve and streamline our processes and we have learned a grea
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