Complaint Review: Fitness Blowout - Los Angeles California

  Move very quickly from the Fitness Blowout website.  I had to file a lawsuit to get what I purchased.  The website is slick.  It's easy to use.  The graphics are great.  You can even view the owner's family picture?!  And if these don't hook you, you have Hulk Hogan, Cheryl Crow and Michael J. Fox apparently endorsing the site.  You are drawn in.  You want to trust these people.  What could go wrong?... Most everything.

   Working with Fitness Bowout has undoubtedly been the worst customer experience I have ever had.  I purchased a Precor 576i elliptical in November 2013.  I received the machine in December, but the wrong console was attached, it was not completely functional and it was cracked.  I spent tens of hours on the phone, mostly waiting for someone to pick up, functioning as my own service rep and as go-between between the various departments, but none of the service reps could solve my problem.  I was put in contact with Jarryd, the Assistant Director of Customer Service, who, after weeks of frustration, lost sleep, unanswered emails, complaints to other reps just so Jarryd would respond to me, sent me the top half of the wrong computer console.  It was then that Fitness Blowout realized that they had sent me the wrong machine as well.  

  Meanwhile, I had filed an online complaint with the BBB of Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, but they closed the case as Fitness Blowout did not respond to three attempts at communication.  I refused to accept the lesser machine, which clearly was not the the machine advertised on the website, for which I pain $3700.00.  Many months into this process, Jarryd finally suggested that I be shipped a whole new machine.  Then he stopped communicating with me.  I spent tens of more hours pleading for help and complaining to no avail.  I sent a certified letter to the owner, Mr Jim Rosen, notifying him of my intention to sue if the problem were not resolved, but received no response.  Using an online small claims filing company, I filed a small claims lawsuit at Iglewood Courthouse, Superior Court of California, Court of Los Angeles, Southwest District.  Soon after the court date was set (June 26, 2014), Jarryd emailed me astounded that I was still having provlems?!  I ultimately received the elliptical advertised and the suit was dismissed on June 3, 2014.  

  This was a six-month nightmare, easily confimed at the BBB and Inglewood Courthouse.  It is hard for me to understand how this company stays in business.  They claim that 95% of customer problems are caused by their distributors, but it seems to me that the real problem is in how Fitness Blowout responds to the distributors' mistakes.  No one seems to know what is going on.  No one would take responsibility for my problem.  I believe that without a court date, I would have been left with a $3700.00 useless hulk of metal.  The on-line complaints about Fitness Blowout are maddeningly consistent.  I suspect, based on the many complaints I read, that many customers give up and accept the item shipped to them, even if it was the wrong item or not working properly. Be very careful.  Be wary of the origin of positive reviews, and save all documentation.  Better yet, go somewhere else.