Sunday, October 18, 2009

Why saving $10 can be a REALLY BAD thing...

Why saving $10 can be a REALLY BAD thing...

Every year, so-called "repair techs" come out of the woodwork and put up a free listing on craigslist and attempt to play the part of exercise equipment repair techs, or even worse, treadmill repair techs, take deposits, fix about 50% of the problems treadmills have, and declare the rest "unfixable" or too expensive to fix.
are one of the lucky 50%, but not so great if you had some doofus who happens to own a toolbox come scam you out your money.

We fix about 75%-85% of the treadmills we encounter on the first visit, even if another professional company would have only repaired it by ordering the broken part.

Part of the reason for this high percentage is that we advise people on a regular basis (sometimes over the phone, unpaid, before we've ever come to inspect the treadmill, just based on a few simple questions that tell us the likelihood of being able to successfully fix something) NOT to repair their treadmill for various reasons, which brings us to another vital component in a repair tech worth hiring; HONESTY.

An honest tech is going to cost you less in the long run than a liar who just wants to bleed whatever he can get out of your wallet.

And in addition to just being honest people to begin with, we believe in treating people how we would like to be treated, and also understand that honesty is also a good long-term strategy for us as well.

We sleep better at night, knowing we're helping people and doing a good job for a fair price.

We also enjoy more referrals because of our honesty.

A DISHONEST AND knowledgeable repair tech is arguably less desirable than the doofus who doesn't even know how to fix it. At least then you're only out $50 or whatever.

The dishonest and knowledgeable repair tech can convince you that repairing an older machine is a good idea, (which it sometimes is, there are a lot of variables) get it working while charging you hundreds of dollars in the process, knowing that it won't work long enough to have made the cost of that repair worthwhile.

We'll tell you when it makes more sense to repair it or just buy a new treadmill. We're happy to earn the money repairing it if that is what you prefer or if that's all your budget will allow, but we feel it's only fair to give you the opportunity to make an informed decision.

Maybe worst of all is the fake repair tech that attempts to fix something and actually makes it worse or unrepairable in the process.

Or takes a deposit and then disappears back into the wilds of the internet.

Or takes the documentation with him that should stay with your equipment.

Or takes a part with him and never returns. Sometimes on an older machine, these parts are not available and thus are IRREPLACEABLE. Which means your machine is now junk. But call us before you toss it out, we specialize in tough to fix older equipment.

Real, professional companies can get this documentation directly from the manufacturer.

Don't get cheated, even by a well-meaning amateur. If you need something fixed or serviced, call us for a quote, or at least some advice.

Treadmills and other gym equipment can be somewhat counter-intuitive in their operation (and thus repair as well) and should only be serviced by trained personnel.

Faulty service or repair work can and does result in dangerous conditions and serious injury to those using the equipment.

Even when it doesn't, it makes it more difficult to repair or diagnose a problem if someone has tried to fix it before calling us.

Either they've broken something else in the process of attempting to repair the original problem, or they've changed the initial conditions of the system which makes it harder (though not impossible, it will just take longer) to determine the malfunction.

You can save yourself a lot of time and frustration by calling us to service or repair your equipment.

Best, Eric

2 comments:

George Mozes said...

Absolutely true. You hit the nail on the head! I picked one of those "doofuses" from Craigslist.
He advertises as "treadmillguy@yahoo.com phone (619) 793-6425 in San Diego area. He came to my house to repair my Reebok recumbent bike RBEX59020
After spending about 40 minutes he said he cannot fix it because one of the flange screws was broken and he couldn't extract it from the Axle. So he took the axle and the right crank arm "to have a friend extract it." Two months later I still don't have the two pieces even though I emailed and called many times. I told him "forget fixing it, just give me back my pieces" but to no avail.
George
George Mozes
(760)941-5175
georgemozes@sbcglobal.net

ExeRepair said...

Sorry to hear that George! I do my best to warn people about these guys that come out of the woodwork every year, and I even had a guy try and sell me his (supposedly professional) gym maintenance contract business which he had bought these contracts from another guy, didn't make the payments on time so the seller stopped training him and he was doing dangerously shoddy work on the equipment, to the point that some of his "maintenance" was actually causing malfunctions. I actually saw him spraying lubrication on a clutch- in an effort to make it work better, not to intentionally speed up breakdowns. He just had no idea what the heck he was doing.

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply, I've had problems with my internet connection (naturally, as it used to be provided by Sprint. Add that to the joke about the list of indicators of things that will give you problems; if it says "Sprint" on it, it WILL give you problems).

We make regular runs to San Diego and service an area including Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, etc., so I'll contact you to see if we can help you with your problem.

Oh, and if you had hired us to fix it, it would be fixed now- and on the spot at the time of the first service call without us having to take parts with us and return, we carry screw extractors, tap and dies, dremels, everything needed to extract problem screws, broken bolts, etc., even though they don't get used but once in a blue moon, when you need them nothing else will do.

And that's the difference between a pro and a wanna-be, the pro charges a little more because he knows what tools he'll need to do the job (and more importantly what he may need if there are problems in addition to the first problem, the breakdown itself), and carries a proper toolset despite the fact that he knows he'll be using only a small fraction of them 95% of the time.

A good repairman also uses good tools that don't mess up a screw head necessitating time-consuming and costly removal.

It's also a good rule thumb that if you (the reader in general, not you specifically) tries to repair it first, often as not, you're going to cause some damage I will have to repair first before being able to fix the original problem you were trying to correct...

Sorry, just couldn't resist throwing that in there, especially since we're talking about stripped screws...

Best, Eric

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