Elliptical Wars: My On-going Struggle with Sears

Well, it's been awhile since I've mentioned my elliptical machine, Sears, and how it's going (for background on this issue, see Sears Finally Gets It Right, But Ends Up "Ok" at Best in My Book; Fine with Mrs. FMF; You Decide Who is Right). As such, people following this issue might think that all is well. Well, it's not. I'm going to catch you all up on the situation in this post and also include a few tips I've learned from this whole situation.

I started out the last Sears post saying "it's finally over." But little did I know -- it wasn't over. It wasn't too long before the machine started to knock in the handle section when it was used at even a moderate pace. It got worse over time, so we called the repair service (we bought the service contract) and they came out on April 14. (BTW, when they set a day/time to come, they agree to a time RANGE, not a specific time. So the appointment is set for 8 am through noon instead of 10 am -- which means your whole morning is shot as you have to wait around for them to show up any time from 8 am through noon. Needless to say, my wife isn't crazy about this arrangement.) The diagnosis was that the machine was missing a couple of washers (the Sears guy who put it together missed them or something), so they ordered the washers to be sent to our house so I could put them on. Yep, you read that right -- I was going to do the repair myself. Great "repair" work, huh? Nice customer service. Real nice. (Is the sarcasm getting through?)

So the washers did arrive and when I put them on, I found another problem. When the Sears guy had assembled the unit, he tightened one of the handle bolts too tightly and it was now firmly imbedded in the housing -- there was no way to get it out to put on the washer. I knew this was not good.

But I did get a washer on the other handle's side, and it seemed like the machine did better. So I was hopeful that that was that.But after awhile, the machine started knocking again. I looked and the washer (BTW, I call them "washers" -- which are usually pretty solid -- but they're pretty flimsy/thin and I'm sure the technical term is something else) I put on had broken. They had sent me four of them, so I put another one on. It seemed to do a bit better, but not much. Then the washer broke again. The process repeated. I was getting frustrated to say the least.

Then it really started getting bad. The machine started knocking more. Then the console (the display that posts your rate of exercise as well as controls the difficulty level) would shut off randomly in the middle of a workout. Imagine going at a good pace at resistance level "6" and having the machine reset to "1". Know what that does to your body? It ain't pretty. And this happened several times in a one-hour workout. Very, very frustrating!!!

So we called the service line again. But the technicians were taking vacations (of course!) so when we called on July 25, the earliest appointment we could get was for August 9. Another vote for "great" customer service from Sears. Not!!!!

On August 9, we had a technician come out. He was supposed to come out from 8 am through noon and arrived at 12:10 pm. (Which is close enough to noon, but the point is that my wife had to wait all morning (and skip a special trip for my son at church -- she couldn't drop him off) for the guy to show up. Why couldn't they just say, "We'll be there at noon?" and save her a bunch of waiting.) More good customer service from Sears. Not doubled!!!!!

This time, I wanted to be there when he showed up. My wife called at 11 am and said he wasn't there yet, and I told her I'd leave work at 11:30 and drive home -- hopeful that he'd be there sometime when I was. I got home at 11:50 am and was there 20 minutes later when he showed up. It was good that I was too. Since I had been the "repairer" of the machine, I knew what was going on, what happened at each step of the process, and what I thought the problems could be. The technician agreed with my diagnosis (of both the washers/handles and console) and ordered the parts to repair the machine and replace the console. This time, while the parts will be sent to us, they will come out and fix it themselves. That's the good news. The bad news -- the repairs can't be done until August 23 (2 weeks from the visit).

Here's another bit of information you'll love. If you remember, we paid $400 for this machine and the service agreement. The cost for the parts on this trip alone (what we would have paid for the parts if we did not have the agreement) was $253.81. Add in what the repairmen would have charged for their first trip, this trip, and the upcoming one, and I'm positive that we would have paid well over the initial $400 in extra charges just to make this machine function as it was supposed to (not to mention the cost of the original model they had to replace completely). Unbelievable!

I'll keep you posted on what happens, but here are a few things I've decided based on this experience:

• I will always buy the service agreement when purchasing any exercise equipment. I talked to the technician and he told me that with ellipticals, even the higher-priced models need lots of service and that it's always worth it to get the warranty. As I wondered how Sears can make so much money on warranties (it's reported that the margins on these are very high for all retailer offerings on all sorts of warranties), I'm guessing that it's only a small percentage of people who use them -- not because the machine doesn't need work, but because people never get the chance to get to that point. After all, exercise equipment is notorious for being purchased, used slightly, then retired as a clothes hanger or other basement ornament. It's likely that the machines aren't used very much and thus can at least perform well for a short amount of time. So Sears just pockets the warranty money for the majority of machines sold.

• The quality of the technicians varies significantly. This second guy seemed to know what he was doing (or at least I thought so -- maybe just because he agreed with me!) but my wife said that the first guy was kind of clueless. It certainly doesn't help the situation if you have Barney Fife as your repairman, but I don't know what to do about it.

• The store you buy something from is just as important as what you buy. I'm not buying anything of value from Sears for a long time. The exception might be Craftsman tools, but even that's not likely. I just don't trust them. If they had taken care of us through the problems, I would probably have come out of this liking them MORE than before (because they went the extra mile to make it right). But they messed it up (and continue to do so). So my policy is to do business with a company you trust -- one you know will stand behind their products. Having a company back up what they've sold you is just as important (to me at least) as the item you buy. Hopefully, they'll both be good, but in those cases when you buy a dud product, all you have to fall back on is the reliability of the manufacturer (which will take FOREVER to get resolved -- if you can) and the retailer (who is much more likely to help -- if they are any good -- to keep you coming back).

Update: Here's an update to this post -- and it's not going well.

Comments

[Hawkmoon Nine]

We bought a treadmill (new) from Play It Again Sports in April. Free delivery & set up, 7 year parts and lifetime labor. All that free....can't beat that. I haven't had to deal with any repairs yet (knock on wood), but I would recommend them for buying both new and used equipment.

[Stevek]

I was actually happy with what Sears did for us last year. About two years ago, we bought a Weider Crossbow exercise machine from them. This machine uses motors and a digital display to adjust the resistance. What a piece of junk! The weight adjustment piece broke on us three times, but Sears came out each time to fix it. After the third visit, we went to our Sears store, and they let us exchange it a year after our original purchase with a Bowflex Sport. They even matched the lowest internet price we found (about $150 less than advertised), and delivered it/picked up our old unit for free. We actually got a $100 refund for the whole deal, and a much better machine.

Just another data point....

[FMF]

Steve -- I think they used all of their good service on you!!! ;-)

Wish I had that type of response -- I would be glowing about them instead of crying about my service.

[KrisN]

FMF: Your biggest issue here is that you paid $400 for an elliptical. The brands that Sears sells are just cheap -- plain and simple. If you are a bigger person, like me, or if you use it all the time, you just need a higher quality machine.

Look how much time you have wasted already dealing with them. If (and it is of course an if) you have extra money around, I would step up to the $1500-2000 range. Look for a used Precor or Octane (I have an Octane, and it is great).

[FMF]

Kris -- I know. I'm going to write a "you get what you pay for" post on this issue sometime soon. Our $2,000 treadmill we got six years ago looks and runs like new.

That said, we KNEW we would use a treadmill, and weren't sure about an elliptical. Besides, the $400 we spent included a three-year "anything" warranty, so, in theory, it should be guaranteed to run for three years -- with everything covered. Reality isn't so nice.

[Foobarista]

I don't know how much you weigh, but if you weigh more than a trivial amount, you'll want a real machine that costs $thousands. Anything else is basically meant to be something you use for a week until you get sick of it.

We searched for several months for a good elliptical and finally decided that a gym-type LifeFitness model was the only one that would hold up without shaking, groaning, or wierd hitches that felt cheap. It cost $3500, but it's had no problems with 5x per week, 1 hour each session, use by two people, one 180 and the other 220 lbs, for about 2 1/2 years.

[FMF]

I'm 500 pounds -- is that a problem? ;-)

I'm interested in:

"Anything else is basically meant to be something you use for a week until you get sick of it."

Then why do they sell them -- is it because people buy them and don't use them enough?

[Foobarista]

The dirty little secret in gym machines is that something like 90% of them are used for two or three months - at most - and never used again. They are classic "buy the thing because you're doing something for your health", but you don't use it for whatever reason.

My own feeling is the makers know this, so they make cheap machines for this market. It's sort of a modern version of the pre-Reformation Catholic idea of "indulgences".

But if you spend as much money on a gym machine as you would for a used car, you're gonna use it :)

[FMF]

Ha! I wish mine had worked well for at least 2 or 3 months!!! ;-)

[Foobarista]

I do like the "Elliptical War" title - it sounds like it should involve AK-47s, guys with beards and seriously bad breath, and Kofi Annan...

[Disgruntled Sears Shopper]

I already posted on one of the other threads about our poor service with the Freespirit Elliptical, but I wanted to ad another comment. While I do understand the "you get what you pay for" argument, that is not an excuse for poor customer service. Not to mention that even a cheap elliptical shouldn't crap out with regular use after 6-8 weeks (like ours). If an item comes with a warranty, it should be fixed efficiently and one should expect the item to work for a reasonable length of time after that...no matter what you paid for it in the first place. Frankly, if I could afford $1500-$2000 (or more) for a top quality home elliptical, of course I would buy one!!! Probably, we ALL would. But, those of us with a smaller budget should also be able to get a half assed decent product AND more importantly, we should expect good customer service regardless. To simply say "oh well, you got what you paid for" is an insult to the buyer/customer IMO. The insults should be saved for the manufacturer and the retailer when dealing with these poorly built machines!!!