Complaint Review: A-1 Treadmill Repair-Paul Rangel

My experience with "Paul Rangel at A-1 Treadmill” was by far the worst experience I have ever had working with a company……ever. I spoke to Paul for the first time back in December 2020 when I found his company online. We set an appointment for him to come out and look at our treadmill. He never showed up. Red flag for sure and I should have moved on from there but gave him another chance and we rescheduled.

When he arrived, I explained the issue that we were having with the belt not working properly. He stated confidently that it was the control board on the treadmill that needed to be repaired. He charged me $395.00 up-front, and he removed and took the board with him. After he took my money and parts I basically heard nothing from him for weeks and began to reach out via text. He told me that he dropped the board off to another 3rd party company and they do not update him, and we just have to wait until they decide to contact him.

It was really bizarre dealing with Paul. When he told me this, he made it sound like I was a burden on him simply trying to find out when we would get him back out there with the board repaired. Finally on February 16th he informed me he was picking up the board and would reinstall it. He came out and installed it and the treadmill still did not work. The treadmill still had the same issue so he then said it must be the motor and told me he wanted to get the motor worked on. Paul then took the motor and also wanted to take the control board again.

After he took the parts, the same thing happened. He was unreachable with no updates. He would simply snap at me in a hostile way when I reached out for an update. He then claimed that this it is not his fault it is the other company, and I should call them? He seemed really emotional and quick to shift blame. I asked why I would call another company that I do not know or never dealt with since I had never contracted out with anyone other than him. I asked who they are and why am I calling them when I explicitly signed on to use Paul at A-1 Treadmill.

He then told me he did not really want me contacting them and bothering them either. Finally, he reluctantly gave me the name National Gym Supply and was told I could google them to contact them. No specific person, phone number, or reference number at all. That is how this whole process went the entire time. It was really unprofessional and quite odd. Fast forward to early July when he finally tells me they are ready to install after I texted numerous times.

Keep in mind it has now been "7 months” since we started with Paul all the while not having a working treadmill. He then comes out and installs the motor and control board and the treadmill still does NOT work. 7 months later and a ton of my time and it is the same as when Paul started! To make matters worse there was a new issue with the treadmill in that the display was no longer working after he installed the board. Paul then told me the company he took our parts to decide to swap out my original control board for another one which is probably why the display no longer works.

He then told me that he can’t help us any longer and could not do anything more and we are on our own? So now I have a bad control board thanks to Paul and a non-working treadmill. Paul then said he would at least refund us back what we paid. That was the least he could do given he gave me a non-working board and I was in a worse position than when I started Of course, he never refunded us. I reached out numerous times and he never responded. In the interim time I reached out to LifeFitness who came out and inspected the treadmill.

They said it the belt was an easy fix. I just needed to replace the belt and deck for about $200.00. Sure enough they were correct and after doing so it worked great with the exception of the display unit not working as a result of Paul and the bad board he swapped out that he gave me. Now in order to make this work I have to get a new control board for $814.00 to replace the one Paul took from me and had swapped out. The LifeFitness rep told me that Paul’s diagnosis of the control board being the issue was "pure incompetence and that the Paul should probably find a new line of work.” Finally, I gave Paul an ultimatum.

Return my check and pay me back or I would be forced to post the truth about his business. His response back to me in writing and this is no joke was "Your issue is with National gym supply, NOT ME.” He refused to pay us the $395.00 and instead wrote. Bottom line is if you somehow come across this post and read it then beware of Paul Rangel and A-1 Treadmill. Find someone else. Anyone else!