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report scamCountry | United States |
State | California |
City | Los Angeles |
Address | 10780 Santa Monica Blvd #320 |
Phone | 800-348-4537 |
Website | http://www.fitnessblowout.com/ |
FitnessBlowout.com Reviews
I made over $2,000 in payments towards a recumbent exercise bike. When i called to make certain of the amount due and owing, jim rosen Ceo) stated that he would check with the accounting office, and return my call. He never returned my call. After several attempts to reach him i found a site called scamion and read through some complaints filed against this company. After reading these complaints, many of them sounded like my situation. I then tried to reach mr. Rosen through formal written correspondence via my attorney, at his business address in los angeles. The letter was returned to my attorney marked "return to sender -- addressee unknown."
I spoke with a representative at the ftc and i was advised to continue with my complaint and to also contact the state's attorney for california. So now i need to be able to reach him in some way so that i can continue to pursue litigation.
It is hard to start. I ordered equipment on April 22, 2016. Not only was it extremely late (like months) but Fitness warehouse provides no customer service. Once I received one of the pieces of equipment I had to call and ask where is the other one. They said oh...and that took another 6 weeks.
Then when the second piece arrived... it didn't work. I paid for certified tested equipment and there is no way that happened. Of course I had to call them back to get an outside contractor to make it work. The outside contractor that they sent to help us also couldn't get the repair parts from Fitness warehouse. We eventually pulled everything apart and found nothing was plugged in anywhere. (meaning no quality control or certification)
But that is just where the saga begins... so based on this debacle they promised me on July 11, 2016 that they would issue a $200 credit on my credit card for the many, many hours I had to spend... one getting the equipment and two...evenually troubleshooting it myself to making it work.... when it was supposed to be certified.
I have called literally 20 times for the $200 credit. All promise to take care of it. I thought Jesse would be the one to solve it as he put me on hold and called accounting and they said they would take care of it that day... but of course.. nothing happens...
It is now 3 months today (October 11, 2016) and I called again and still no credit. In principle, they promised it and they need to follow through. I should have read the reviews alot more carefully.
I could go on and on about the disreputable business practices of those at Fitness Blowout, but if you are reading this or any of the other hundreds of complaints lodged against them you already know of their sleazy business tactics. So, for the sake of all consumers who like me got caught in their web of deceit, I’d rather focus on how I WAS ABLE TO beat them at their own game, and I hope you will be able to do the same. I believe that if you will all do as I did, and focus your efforts on hitting Jim Rosen and the rest of his crew at Fitness Blowout where it hurts, together we can put this POS out of business once and for all!
As far as I’m concerned there is a special place in Hell for Jim Rosen and Steve Barzilai, and hopefully they will get to experience it sooner rather than later. I hope the information I am providing here will help anyone who reads it to also realize, just as I have, the great sense of satisfaction which goes along with sticking it to Fitness Blowout.
IF YOU DON’T READ ANY OTHER PART OF THIS REVIEW, PLEASE READ THIS PARAGRAPH. In my case, I provided the companies I knew of who ship freight nationally with research I had done on Fitness Blowout and the numerous other aliases they use. This prompted them to do their own research by looking into their accounts and realizing that something untoward was going on with Fitness Blowout, and to my knowledge three of the four companies I contacted have severed all ties with the company. I suggested that they may want to look into how many of Fitness Blowout’s shipments were being redirected; having to touch freight more than once costs the freight company time and money. I also asked them to look into what would happen to the freight if delivery was refused. You may not be aware, but if freight is refused the shipper will be served with a legal notice, 4 (B) of the Bill of Lading Contract. This document serves as notice to the shipper that the freight company is terminating their carrier liability and will thereafter only be liable as a warehouseman. As set forth in the Bill of Lading Contract storage fees will begin to accrue at that time and will continue until the freight company receives written disposition instructions from the shipper. The shipper will have 30 days to guarantee freight, storage, and all other applicable charges be paid, or the freight will be sold at public auction. Guess how often this was the case with freight being shipped from Fitness Blowout. It would stand to reason that if what Fitness Blowout was shipping had any value at all they would most certainly pay the return shipping fees to avoid having “valuable” pieces of equipment being sold at auction for little or nothing. I am proof that sometimes the little guy does win! I am hopeful that my efforts will make it extremely difficult for Fitness Blowout or any other company Jim Rosen, Steve Barzilai, etc. operate under to continue to ship anything anywhere!
Like many of you, I didn’t think to do any research on the company until I’d already placed an order and was having a very difficult time getting anyone at Fitness Blowout to take my calls or address my concerns afterwards. Sadly the days of trusting people to be good and honest are over! Below are the steps I took to avoid being swindled by Fitness blowout after the purchase, and I hope they will help numerous others to have the same positive outcome I did.
STEP 1: Email Fitness Blowout to notify them you wish to cancel your order in writing, and keep a record of the email. Of course there are ridiculous hoops in place which they expect you to jump through, but I emailed the General Manager Steve Barzilai, who also happened to be the person that took my order...talk about a person skilled at the art of deception. Document, document, document, and keep every single shred of evidence handy, because you will likely need it. DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING ANYONE AT FITNESS BLOWOUT TELLS YOU!
STEP 2: As soon as possible contact your credit card company and file a dispute of the purchase, and be prepared to provide them with documentation that you’ve cancelled your order. I not only did this, but I requested that an American Express representative join me on a three-way call so that there would be an undeniable record of what was discussed. LIKE NUMEROUS OTHERS, MY CREDIT CARD WAS COMPROMISED WITHIN WEEKS OF GIVING IT TO FITNESS BLOWOUT (STEVE BARZILAI), SO WATCH YOUR ACCOUNT!
STEP 3: Even though I had cancelled my order in writing and had received assurances from a representative, Tiesha, at Fitness Blowout who supposedly worked in the cancellations department, I was contacted by UPS Freight Worldwide months later, and they wanted to schedule a delivery. Of course I notified the representative that the order had been cancelled less than 24 hours after being placed months before, that I’d filed a dispute with my credit card company, and that the freight certainly should have never been shipped across the country, from California to North Carolina. I refused to take delivery, and i believe that step was vital.
Step 4: I continued to research the company and its unscrupulous business practices, and what I found was disturbing. Most laughable was the copied and pasted mission statement Jim Rosen pulled out year after year to make it appear as if he was trying to turn the company around. “We are committed to our valued customers, and are taking immediate corrective steps to regain confidence in us. We have begun putting a comprehensive plan in place to provide better and more-timely information to you, more tools and resources for our team members and improved procedures for handling operational difficulties in the future. We are confident that, as a result of these actions, Fitness Blowout will emerge as a more reliable and even more customer responsive company than ever before. We take feedback and input from our customers very seriously because we care what you have to say. We continually strive to improve and streamline our processes and we have learned a great deal from this incident. Unfortunately when relying on third party carriers and vendors to deliver per our terms of contract, occasionally situations may arise creating unforeseeable delays or errors. After researching this situation this seems to be an isolated case in that this unit was not properly inspected by our vendor’s quality control.” I submit that if Jim Rosen truly had any intention of making changes with regard to his business practices they would’ve come to fruition long before now. It seems that his go to method is to always lay blame on someone or something other than himself…where there’s smoke there’s fire, and this guy reeks of smoke!
In the end I believe it was crucial that I shared everything I found with my credit card company and with the freight company used in my situation. As I’ve already mentioned, this prompted them to investigate further. I also shared the same information with other national shippers, and to my pleasant surprise I learned that these huge shipping companies take their brands very seriously and will sever ties with companies who would shed a negative light on them by using deceptive business practices. I believe that if other consumers will do as I have done and bring the dishonest practices of Jim Rosen and Fitness Blowout to the attention of freight companies they will have no choice but to take action and refuse to move freight for any business with a connection to Jim Rosen or Fitness Blowout. You see, freight companies don’t like to touch freight more than once, and in the case of Fitness Blowout they’ve had to do so at an alarming rate. Though I believe I’ve been instrumental in making it very difficult for Jim Rosen and Fitness Blowout to continue to use certain freight companies to move their junk, there may be others out there whom I did not know to contact. My best advice to any of you is to contact the freight company being used in your case and insist they look into their account with Jim Rosen, Steve Barzilai, Fitness Blowout, Fitness Club Warehouse, Super Gym’s Fitness Warehouse, Fitness Club Warehouse, Super Gym Rosen, 1800Fit4Less, Exceleration Fitness, Excelerated Fitness. Good luck!
I did ultimately purchase the unit I was interested in from reputable company, Carolina Fitness Equipment, out of Charlotte N.C., and I couldn’t be more pleased with my decision to do business with them. Actually, I ended up with a unit that is two generations newer than the one from Fitness Blowout, and I paid $500 less for it. So, if you are still in the market for top of the line used equipment you might want to have a conversation with David Preble, the owner of Carolina Fitness Equipment~he’s good people!
This company sucks....I will be writing reviews to any and all review companies to help people stay clear of this big scam. They get you to buy their products just to lie to you and cheat you. I have been trying to just get my equipment from them since the end of January and keep getting the run around by the employees of the company. Even after they admit that they made a mistake and did not update their paperwork and ship the item. They tell you they are going to rush the equipment to you and 2 weeks later when you can finally get ahold of someone, they say the shipping company has lost the equipment and they have to resubmitt the order to get it out to you even though they found the lost item. Don't waste your time with this company as they have had over 100 complaints just with the BBB itself. They should be investigated for fraud in my opinion. Well all I can say is I have all the emails that I have sent and all the responses as well as call logs and the next step is to talk to an attorney and go for damages. Hope you all stay clear of the company that has so many names and good luck....
Liars and Thieves, Do not purchase anything from them!
I wanted a very particular item, the Tour De France training bike because of its features and purchased it from www.fitness warehouse4less.com / www.fitnessblowout.com I called because they had the best pricing. I spent 45 min on the phone with Rocky ([email protected]) discussing equipment and telling him I needed it quickly due to some events coming up within 2 weeks and needed to start training immediately.
He said we take 14-21 days for shipping so I asked about a rush. He said I will throw that in and that our standard is 9-10 days but you will get it in 6-7 days. Rocky told me it was in stock at their dealer (as they are a 3rd party middle man) in Utah and could be shipped the next day so we had it on time. This item was ordered and paid for on the 9th of Nov at 4:55 P.M.
I waited 3 full days and called to ask for shipping details so I could make sure we were available on the day it comes so it doesn’t get stolen off the porch. Upon calling the customer service rep said its not being shipped for another 2 or 3 weeks and was being very condescending about it. This went on for another 5 min and then asked to be transferred to the owner. He didn’t do that, he transferred me to Steve who is on his team.
I contacted the sales rep again by VM and Email. Several times we inquired and no response 2 days later from him. I tried contacting sales, customer service, chat and Jim the owner again. Nothing, just crickets and lies for almost 20 minutes and then hung up on.
Following this I spoke to Sonny who promised and guaranteed they had shipped the unit but would not give me a tracking number. She felt waiting a day to get a tracking number was okay. I called back at the end of the day and someone else told me it shipped but they wouldn’t have any tracking info for a week, If it shipped it shipped just give me the info.
Sadly to say when I called back and spoke to Tommy, (who honest and helpful) it wasn’t true, they lied several times again. This was on Friday, Tommy said he put in several requests to rusk the order and shipping, (Almost a week later) I waited till Monday at lunch time and called again. I waited for 40 min on the phone and finally reached Tommy again, he said the dealer just responded and said they don’t even have one and not sure when it will be available. So I paid in advance and waited a week just to hear we are clueless and have no idea when well even have it.
Currently I have left 2 messages for Jim the owner trying to cancel and get my money back. Currently they want to charge me me a restock fee of 25% on something they don’t even have, haven’t touched, haven’t been able to place or drop ship , I will follow up and let you know how this goes.
So days later they finally emerged with a new story of our shipping manager quit (on a side note I would too) and nothing went out. But I promise you I jumped through all the loops and made this happen for you, you’ll have it on Friday the 20th of Nov, only 9 days after the fact, a far cry from you’ll have it in 6 days. So I waited till Monday the 23rd and found out it hasn’t even been shipped till today. Scheduled time off arrival is now Nov 25th by 8 P.M. 2.5 weeks later. Rocky ([email protected]) just lied to me from the beginning and shipped it normal and told me about 10 lies in the meantime. I asked Rocky how he was going to fix this mess and the response I got was sorry we have done what we can now go pound sand.
There are several thing that are seriously wrong with this company and their leadership. Just do what you say your going to do, don’t lie to people, it is completely inappropriate.
These people are incompetent, criminal and crooked. They lie and tell you whatever you want to hear and then you cannot get ahold of them for to get anything taken care of. There is a special place in H*** for people like this, they are extremely dishonest and unethical. Check the bottom of this Yelp page, there are pages of 1 star reviews that are under “Not Currently Recommended" Do yourself a favor and avoid this middle man and go to a retail location or the manufacture directly.
Sold us a used treadmill, sold us a phony warranty, and when the treadmill broke the warranty did not exist. $2500,00 has just gone down the toilet and we don't have the money to fix it . We own a small fitness center and have a lot of dissatisfied customers now. Everything was great until I payed for my equipment, then everyone got really rude. I hope I can save someone from losing their hard earned money.