Complaint Review: Fitness Blowout - Los Angeles California

Fitnessblowout's lack of professionalism and poor customer service should not be rewarded. They were so nice and enthusiastic when it came to making the sale, but once there was a problem it was like rats fleeing when the lights come on and I couldn't find a single person from fitnessblowout to help me. I wish I had seen the other reports on here prior to making my purchase, because I definitely would have spent my money elsewhere.

I purchased a Cybex 610A Arc Trainer on 14 Dec 12 and specifically requested upgraded delivery and installation (cost $299) after I was told standard delivery did not include bringing it inside the residence. The shipping company fitnessblowout used (UPS Freight) left me a message on Fri, 4 Jan 13 indicating the item had arrived and to call them to arrange delivery. I called them on Mon, 7 Jan to set up delivery and installation and was told that they did not do inside delivery/installation and only had instructions from fitnessblowout to deliver to the garage door.

I called fitnessblowout on Mon, 7 Jan and was able to speak with a rep (which turned out to be a fluke b/c I was never able to get anyone on the phone after that) who said she would have a certified technician call me. I followed up on 8 Jan and left a message. I also sent two e-mails, one to the rep who made the sale and another to another rep after I got her voicemail providing her e-mail address and indicating it was the most efficient and fastest way of contacting fitnessblowout.  I left another voicemail and sent another email on 10 Jan.  I also filed a complaint with the BBB on 10 Jan in an effort to get a response from fitnessblowout, as the shipping company had already kept my item there beyond their normal hold policy pending resolution of the delivery issue with fitnessblowout.

Fitnessblowout submitted a rebuttal to my BBB complaint on 17 Jan and, instead of taking responsibilty for failing to make the correct arrangements to have it delivered and installed from the outset, they apologized for the delay but blamed the delay on third party vendors and challenges with the availability of technicians in my area to assemble units and then went on to talk about their pride in their good customer service.

I responded to their rebuttal by pointing out that, to this day, no one from their company ever responded to the voicemail messages I left or the e-mails I sent to either apologize for the mistake or to let me know they were working to fix it, which is not my or any reasonable person's idea of good customer service.  I also pointed out that this would have been a non-issue if they had made proper arrangements from the outset.  

Fitnessblowout submitted a rebuttal to my rebuttal that said my statements were "not accurate" (aka the polite way of calling me a liar) and that it was the fault of the installation company that did not perform up to expectation.  Now, if they had initially arranged for a company other than UPS to deliver the Arc Trainer to me, maybe I'd buy their claim that it was the fault of the installation company. However, I've never known UPS delivery service to include installation of anything, but maybe that's just me.  As far as apologies go, fitnessblowout indicated that they apologized in their initial rebuttal to my BBB complaint.  

The Arc Trainer was delivered on 22 Jan, which is great.  However, the only reason I even found out that was happening was because the UPS Freight rep let me know that fitnessblowout was arranging for another delivery company to pick up the Arc Trainer from them and then deliver and install it for me and then someone from the new delivery company called me to set up a date/time. 

It would have been good customer service if someone from fitnessblowout had taken the time to contact me to keep me informed, but I guess they were too busy focusing their "good" customer service on making the sale to a new customer/victim to worry about the customer whose money they had already taken to the bank.