Top 10: How to tell a yahoo from a real treadmill technician

1. With Yahoos, no one answers the phone when you call to try and make an appointment- you have to leave a message and wait for some dude to call you back.

2. Yahoos care about getting your money only, and may not even ask what is wrong with your treadmill (or other type of equipment).

When you call us the first time, we ask many questions to determine if you should even make an appointment for a service call and spend money repairing your equipment.

We will tell you honestly on your first call to us (before you've spent any money!) whether you should schedule a service call or not.

3. Since they're not busy with returning customers, they will be able to come to your home the same day (or within a day or two) that you call them, sometimes within hours of your call. Real gym services have a busy schedule and travel all over and will need to schedule you on a day they will be in your area.

4. The Yahoo will not know exactly how to fix many problems unless they are very simple, but can't very well admit that and still charge you, so he will try and make something up that sounds reasonable, even though his explanation doesn't really make sense. That "L.A.treadmillrepair.com" dude (who has been pretending to be a treadmill repairman for less than 6 months) is one of these- I've gone to a few calls after people have had him come out, and he seems to always diagnose the drive motor. Now, obviously I can't say these never fail, but it is VERY rare, i.e., I MIGHT see a drive motor failure once a year, likely less. I always explain it to people this way; the reason why car companies don't want to build electric cars is that they're TOO RELIABLE, and so they don't make enough money on repairs and maintenance.

5.Yahoos take parts of your machine, documentation, etc., with them when they can't fix them onsite. Good luck getting them back. Real technicians can get documentation and service information directly from the manufacturer and carry a battery of specialized tools in order to be prepared to fix any problem they might encounter without having to take parts away and charge you for a 2nd return call.

6. Yahoos try to compete on service call price, since they can't compete in skill level, professionalism, or parts prices, so they will offer "price-matching guarantees", dropping their price to whatever point convinces you to make the appointment with them.

We guarantee that our knowledge, professionalism and customer service ethic are second to none, and charge the lowest price possible for our service that ensures we can earn a living and be around next year to continue to keep your equipment working so you can stay healthy.

You can definitely pay someone $10 less to come to your house and take your money, but that's only a good deal if the problem gets fixed and fixed right. We've been the second call enough times to know that the yahoos have a really bad record of being unable to fix even the simplest of problems.

7. Yahoos stop pretending to be treadmill repairmen after a while, usually this takes about 6 months to a year, due to many causes that inevitably occur sooner or later- some of these include; failing to charge enough to cover unanticipated expenses like insurance, taxes, licensing, training, fuel, injury, inability to deal with administration of business, frustration with having to return for free multiple times to attempt to fix problems they don't understand and don't know how to remedy, simpler to just go work the fryer at McDonald's and earn an hourly wage, and the list goes on.

8. Yahoo's parts prices will generally be higher (and inferior in quality since they don't know where to buy real exercise equipment parts) than an established company that can buy from manufacturers, wholesale parts suppliers, and direct parts suppliers.

They may even try to substitute inferior parts not intended for gym equipment in order to maximize their profit margins.

In treadmills, this will cause them to fail sooner and have a shorter lifespan, in cable-operated strength systems replacing those cables with home depot, lowes, osh, etc., steel cables can cause a dangerous and potentially lethal condition.

I've tried to ascertain what the breaking strength of plastic-sheathed steel cables from Home Depot is, and have gotten various answers from various employees, ranging from 750 lbs to 1500 lbs.

Compare this to the correct cables for strength units, which have a breaking strength of 3300 lbs (lighter duty, apartment building gyms, etc.) to 6600 lbs. (heavier duty, Gyms, etc.).

We could keep this knowledge to ourselves and use it as a selling point only when you contact us, but this is a safety issue, and it's more important that we tell even the yahoos how to do this basic stuff correctly, because people can, and do, get hurt or killed using exercise equipment that breaks or is serviced incorrectly.

Google "Leon Bostick Golds Gym Flex" to see the story of a man who suffered a crippling accident (he's a quadriplegic now- obviously not worth saving a few bucks if that is the result) as a result of broken cables during weight training.

And in case you were wondering why you would need cables that can lift 6600 lbs when the most you ever lift is 200 lbs, there are a couple of answers to this; one, that over the course of time, those cables will stretch as much as one to two inches as they're used, weakening them, and two, jump a little when you weigh yourself to see an example of G force increase, and you will see that you momentarily exert 300 to 400 pounds of force against the scale even though you weigh only 100 to 200 lbs. The same thing is happening as you push and pull on your strength machine.

The warning sign that your cables need to be replaced is when that plastic that covers the steel cable starts to crack off- that plastic sheath is important to the cables function, it keeps the metal cable from bending at too extreme an angle, which weakens the metal with each bend, just like a paper clip and will eventually break.

I've even seen cables in HORRIBLE disrepair in professional gyms serviced by supposedly professional exercise equipment repair services. I saw one cable with MORE THAN A FOOT of the plastic sheath cracked off, (HIGHLY dangerous- usually these cables are replaced when an inch or two has cracked off) on a machine that was right in the front of the room, smack dab in the middle of the doorway when you walk in, you couldn't miss it.

Which means that the dude pretending to be a professional gym service didn't know what he didn't know, and wasn't making any effort to learn, because that cable would have had to have been cracking for YEARS for MORE THAN TWELVE INCHES to be in that condition.

Sorry to get off on a rant about this, it's just so dangerous I tend to go on in an effort to emphasize that.

9. Yahoos break stuff as often as they fix it. Don't feel ashamed to call us back if you have had a yahoo mess up your equipment. We're happy to fix mistakes made by your husband, your yahoo, whoever. Because it usually means we make more money since it means fixing two problems; the yahoo "repair", and the original problem.

10. They don't have any testimonials! Why would you hire that guy!?!

We are insured, bonded, certified and love to help people. I hope this information helps you. We know that the yahoos eventually fail and will simply disappear naturally, but post this as a public service to help you in not geting ripped off.

Best, Eric