I purchased a used treadmill (Precor) from DSI fitness on November 14, 2015 for $992.87 via pay pal. The equipment was delivered to my home and used approximately 10 times. While there was no warrenty on the treadmill the owner said the treadmill was in working order and only 3 years old and he believed it was a good machine.
After using the treadmill 10 times the electrical panel died and the treadmill was not usable. I called Joel Babcock the owner to report the problem after I informed Pay Pal of the issue. Joel initially said he would come repair the treadmill but when he heard that I had contacted Paypal he stated that he had no obligation towards me and that he would not assist me in repairing the treadmill.
I did receive a quote to repair the treadmill and it was upwards of $2000. I have a copy of this quote. The electrical module and belt need to be repaired. The technician believes the owner knew the treadmill was about to die but did not disclose that information.
DSI fitness is a company that runs similar scams on customers. They resale dirty fitness equipment that hotels no longer want and advertise the equipment as operational on craigslist. I unfortunately fell for the scam.
DSI Fitness
Chamblee,#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Thu, November 03, 2016
Your description of this purchase is limited and has false information. I am glad to have this opportunity to dispute this claim against my small business.
1 - You wanted to purchase an "AS IS" treadmill. I offered my service of refurbishing the treadmill, but you stated you wanted to spend as little as possible wanted to purchase a commercial treadmill "AS IS". You shared with me you were starting your own business and had a limited budget. When we met in person to look at the treadmill options available AS IS, you made the statement that you understand that this purchase was a "buyer beware" purchase with no warranty since you were purchasing in an "AS IS" condition. While you were looking at the treadmills, I explained to you how my business works, where we purchased the equipment from and how we cleaned and tested the treadmills you were chosing from. You ran on one treadmill you liked long enough to agree to purchase the treadmill in its "AS IS" condition. You told me that you were going to use this treadmill a lot for your new at home business. I suggested you get the treadmill refurbished on the front end to avoid costly problems in the future. You declined this opportunity and told me you wanted to purchase this treadmill as cheap as possible.
2 - You did not mention how I provided you a free bike in this purchase. Since you were starting your own business, I wanted to try to help a fellow small business owner succeed and gave you a FREE Expresso Bike. I was selling for more than the cost of your treadmill. But as a gesture of goodwill, I gave you the bike for FREE. No additional charge. Not even a charge for delivery. You never even said thank you for doing that for you.
3 - After you agreed to purchase the treadmill, you would not pay until it was delivered. We delivered the product to you on a Friday, however, the delivery company made a mistake and left the adapter plug at my warehouse. You texted me telling me you would not pay for the treadmill until you get the adapter. The next day, I arrived to your home business with the adapter plug. We plugged in your treadmill and your circuit tripped. I explained to you that you were supposed to have a dedicated circuit since commercial treadmill require it. So I moved your treadmill to the other side of the room to a different electrical circuit, plugged in your treadmill and tested it to make sure it was fully functional. It performed fine while you did a test run. When you were satisfied, you paid me via Paypal from your laptop in your kitchen.
7-8 weeks later, I get a notification from Paypal that a payment I received from you had a claim. The claim was that I illegally withdrawn" the money from your account. I immediately contacted Paypal to get more details of this claim to have a better understanding. After I spoke with Paypal, I immediately call you. This is the first conversation you and I had since I left your house that Saturday. You told me that you could not find my information so you went ahead and made this claim with Paypal since I had scammed you.
IN YOUR STATEMENT ON THIS RIPOFF REPORT AGAINST MY BUSINESS, YOU CLAIM THAT YOU CALLED ME. YOU NEVER CALLED ME. YOU NEVER EMAILED ME. YOU NEVER TEXTED ME. EVEN THOUGH WE HAD SPOKE ON THE PHONE, TEXTED EACH OTHER THROUGHOUT THE SALE AND EMAILED EACH OTHER SEVERAL TIMES INCLUDING ME SENDING YOU AN INVOICE FOR THE SALE.
When you treadmill broke down, you chose to handle the situation in the following manner…
You contacted Paypal with three separate false claims against my business.
1 - You reported to Paypal that I "illegally withdrew" the money from your account. Which was found not true by Paypal since they saw that you signed into Paypal and made the purchase from your computer. That claim was denied.
2 - You reported to Paypal that you never received the product. I disputed that claim as well with evidence of a picture of the treadmill at your home business when I came over that Saturday. I also provided the paperwork from the delivery company to your house. That claim was denied.
3 - You reported a third claim with Paypal telling them that we did not deliver the right product. Basically, a bait and switch situation. I provided Paypal the picture of the serial number that I sent to you of the treadmill you agreed to purchase so you would have for your records upon delivery. They already had a picture of the treadmill at your location and could see it was the same treadmill. I also spoke with a manager in your claims department and explained what you were doing wth these false claims, so they denied that claim as well.
BECAUSE OF THE FALSE INFORMATION IN YOUR REVIEW AND YOUR FALSE CLAIMS WITH PAYPAL, I SUGGEST YOU MAKE THIS SITUATION RIGHT AND REMOVE THIS CLAIM. IN THE MEAN TIME, MY ATTORNEY WILL BE IN CONTACT WITH YOU ABOUT THESE ACTIONS FOR DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER.
DSI Fitness sells affordable quality refurbished commercial equipment to both residential and commercial customers. We have sold thousands of pieces since we started our business in 2008 with repeated customers with the majority of our customer coming from referrals. As a small business owner selling to another start up small business owner, I understand you had a limited budget. That is why I offered you the free bike to help you get started. I was taking a loss on the deal, but I was having a good year so I wanted to pass along the opportunity to you. You made the decision to get a “as cheap as possible” treadmill. But I don’t understand your actions from when the treadmill broke down. Fitness equipment will eventually be out of order. Anyone business owner in the fitness industry understands that fact. You never communicated to me when the treadmill broke down or gave me the opportunity to make it right. Instead, you went to Paypal with false claims and when all else failed, you used this website as a gesture to seek revenge against my company.
Finally, I do not scam. If I did, I would have more claims against my business. I do not sell dirty equipment. As explained to you that we would be meeting at my overflow warehouse that I use for when I cannot fit product in my showroom.
Honestly, in my opinion, paying 2K for the repairs is what you should be reporting on this website. That is a rip off. If I did that repair, I would have charged much less.