Well, this is a piece of fitness equipment that will. Many people feel that the warranty alone is worth purchasing this treadmill. When people complain about the treadmill being boring, it is probably because they do the same workout over and over.
Home GYMIt is perfectly designed for all kind of body weight and can sustain more heavy duty exercises without any problems. We recommend changing your routine every two weeks. They are quite cheap! You can pick up a new one for under 0 easily. commercial treadmillToday, the fitness treadmill is an affordable piece of exercise equipment. If you've been running for a while you already know that outdoor running is not always possible due to weather and other unforeseen circumstances, that's when your treadmill becomes your best friend. Any of the above mentioned treadmills can make a great choice if you are serious about either walking or running your way to fitness. Before you make a treadmill purchase, there are some things that should be taken into consideration.There have been a lot of advancements in technology and durability over the past couple of decades. There are all types of treadmill exercise equipment out there.
I was talking with an island dweller who recently rode out a major hurricane. The Island took a big hit with a 14 foot storm surge, 120mph winds, and torrential rain. In the aftermath of a storm of this magnitude, a significant amount of the residents' possessions were destroyed. Large piles of rubbish, that only days before had been coveted items of ownership, were now stacked into curbside shrines by the awesome power of Mother Nature - or more appropriately, monuments to our insatiable appetite for mindless consumer spending.
Household items were scattered everywhere, removed from houses in their owners' futile attempt to salvage what they could by drying out what the mold and humidity had not yet claimed. My friend remarked in amazement at the sheer quantity of "stuff" everyone owned. It seemed unimaginable that people could squeeze so many things into their living spaces, once you saw the entire inventory on display. Everyone on his block had a treadmill! Most looked brand new. Everyone was armed, and spray-painted signs on fences that warned of the dangers of thinking this was a self-service yard sale. Possessions are possessions, even if they are worthless.
But it is not just disasters that bring this clutter loving consciousness to the surface. How many times have you moved and asked yourself, "Where did I get all this crap?" In some insidious manner these physical objects gradually take over of our lives. Do we own our possessions or do they own us?
My first summer between college years, I moved to a beach community. There was a man there I encountered frequently who I thought was homeless. I'd see him on bus benches always wearing the same clothes. Leaves stuck in his hair gave him the appearance that he had just awakened from sleeping on the ground in a park. Sometimes I would see him wandering around town. Clearly he had no job. One of the locals branded him a casualty of the 60s who took too much LSD and never came down. His brother, who lived in town, took care of him, making sure he had food and clothes.
One morning as I was running along the beach, I saw this semi-homeless man. He had dug a large hole that cut him off at the knees when he stood in it. The locals had assured me that the man was harmless, and there was no need to be afraid of him. I noticed he had a long stick, and he was drawing something in the sand. My curiosity got the best of me. I decided to stop by and see what he was so busy creating. Upon approaching I introduced myself. The man looked up and smiled warmly. He had been absorbed in the task of drawing stick figures with the greatest of concentration. I did not wish to appear rude, so I pointed at one of the stick figures and complimented him on how realistic his drawing looked. The man proudly smiled and informed me this was a portrait of his brother. Then the smile slowly faded and the man shook his head sadly and said, "It's too bad about my brother."
"What happened to him?" I inquired gently.
"He has a house" came the simple answer.
"He has a house?" I repeated, not sure I was following the line of tragedy.
"Yes," the man replied thoughtfully. "My brother and I used to do things together and go places. Then he got a house, and now the house needs him to do things. He does not do things with me anymore, because he has to do things for the house, and he cannot go anywhere with me because the house has him." The man continued to shake his head sadly. "I will not go into houses," he said with resolve. "Because once you go inside... that's it... the house has you! It will always need something, and that's how 'it' gets you."
I never had the opportunity to talk with the beach artist again, but thirty years later, I still cannot forget our conversation. Through what many might label a distorted perspective, this man conveyed a clear message with gravity and insight.
I have reflected back many times on that brief encounter on the beach and wondered where I was allowing the possessions in my life to own me. It has occurred to me over the years how interesting and revealing our use of the word "possession" is. How many of us allow our lives to be possessed by our homes, cars, or boats? God knows the women from Sex In The City were clearly possessed by their shoe collections. But this is a human issue, not a gender issue. I have seen men possessed by everything from their baseball card collections, to their garages full of tools, to the love of their life - their car.
Perhaps there is a blessing within catastrophes such as floods, earthquakes, and fires that force an involuntary purging of possessions. Thoreau offers words of wisdom for those who may find themselves unwillingly separated from a lifetime of property that they have worked hard to amass: "As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness."
Another unexpected gift of finding oneself materialistically stripped naked is the opportunity to revaluate what is truly important and valuable to us. To consciously update what we want to surround ourselves with and to reconsider what is authentically worth our investment. As the great Oscar Wilde once said, "We know the price of everything and the value of nothing."
For those readers who may be piecing their lives back together after an unexpected loss, may I leave you with one more priceless non-material gift from Thoreau: "There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself"... and to my semi-homeless beach buddy out there, wherever you are, may you continue to be as free as the day you were born.
After purchasing a large piece of fitness equipment from Amazon, do not move. Ever. This apparently confuses the customer service representatives and sends you on a two-month odyssey of buck-passing, missed connections, confusion, and consumer mayhem. Vu writes that he has learned this lesson the hard way. He would like Amazon to come pick the damn thing up so he can get his refund.
I ordered a treadmill from Amazon on 11.29.09. It was delivered on 12.9.09, and a week after the delivery I moved to a new place. That's when I assembled the treadmill and realized it was not working. The display was OK, the timer was counting down, but the belt was not moving. So here's what I've been doing the last couple of months..
Dec 29, 09:
I call Amazon and talk to but am told that I cannot have it replaced because I've changed my address since the delivery. I should call the manufacturer and try to get it fixed. I call Merit Fitness about 3 times but due to the high number of calls, I am asked to leave a message and am reassured that I will be contacted within 24hrs. I am not.
Late Dec - early Jan:
I keep calling.
Early Jan:
Someone finally answers. One hour on the phone explaining what is working and what's not. The representative says that they will send me some parts and have a technician in my region contact me within a week.
A couple of weeks later:
I get the parts.
Mid Jan:
I call again and get the number of the technician. I call them and we schedule an appointment.
Late Jan:
I file for half a day off work and stay at home, waiting. Nothing. I call again and am told the technician should have already stopped by. I go to the door and see a note that they were there but the bell was not working. The bell *is* working but even if it weren't, why didn't they knock? Or call? I call again and they tell me that the technician will be back later. File for another half day off work. The technician comes about an hour later and after looking at the treadmill informs me that I don't have the necessary parts. He will have Merit Fitness ship the parts and schedule a new appointment within a week.
Two weeks later:
No parts, no call. I call Merit Fitness again. They apologize but the defect is so expensive to fix that I am better off replacing it. They tell me I can just keep or throw away the old unit, and I should call Amazon to get a new one. They don't know why I wasn't informed about that earlier and had to call myself.
Feb 10, 2010:
I call Amazon and talk to I tell her I want my money back and I don't care for a replacement unit anymore. No problem, we will pick the unit up, and you will get refunded as soon as we get it. What's your new address? I give her my new address and she tells me somebody will call me back to schedule a pickup. No one ever calls me back.
Feb 15, 2010:
I call Amazon again and talk to We schedule an appointment for Sunday so I don't miss any more time from work, just ruin a weekend.
Sunday Feb 21, 2010:
I get a call from the shipping company to come out because they are at the address. I get out, but nobody's there. Call them back, turns out they went to the old address. They will give me a call back in 5 minutes. One hour later, no call. I call them and they tell me that's the address they got from Amazon. Nothing they can do about it, I should call Amazon. At this point I am pretty frustrated. I call Amazon and talk to She apologizes, it was their mistake. But still, they can't give me a refund without the item. And I cannot have the treadmill picked up the same day, so we have to reschedule.
So what's it gonna be - do I want to miss another day from work, or stay home one more weekend? I tell them it's been two months and I want my money back, I don't care how they will pick up the treadmill. Not my problem anymore. I get to talk to the manager. Then the manager's manager. Then the manager's manager's manager whose name is I tell him what I told the rest - I will leave the treadmill in front of the house. I live in the Seattle area so it rains pretty often, but it's not like it can get any more broken than it already is. So come pick it up whenever you want, then send me my money back. Doesn't sound like the manager cares too much about the item. He's OK with me just leaving it outside. I will be refunded as soon as they get it, in whatever condition it might be. So there it is now, waiting to be picked up in front of my house. It's been sunny the last couple of days so they might get lucky. I don't really care either way - just want it out of my sight at this point.
Tuesday Feb 23, 2010:
Three different people from [a local shipping company] l call me to confirm the pickup date for Wednesday between 1 and 4 pm. I explain to each of them that I will leave the item at my front door. They tell me it is fine as long as I provide a note with the item number, order number and my signature.
9 am Wednesday:
I leave the treadmill with the note attached to it (see photo) in front of my house and leave for work.
1:19 pm:
I receive a call from Amazon and they tell me that the driver couldn't pick up the item because nobody was home to sign for it. I tell her what happened. She counters back saying that the driver didn't find a note (see photo). She sounds very upset like I am trying to blame her. She asks me if I want to schedule another appointment since they can't come and pick it up the same day. I say no and end the conversation.
1:45 pm:
I take another half day off work to go home and try to handle this. I call Amazon and talk to who is supposed to transfer me to , but I get disconnected. I call again and talk to who basically tells me that it is my problem and I have to call the shipping company myself. I ask her to transfer me to She snaps at me and tells me that we are not going anywhere with this, but agrees to transfer my call.
2:00 pm:
I finally get to talk to who still remembers me from our conversation last Sunday. He tells me that I was supposed to leave the item outside, but in a dry area, where the driver can pick it up. It sounds like he wants me to build a little house for the treadmill or leave the key for my house. I tell him that we've never agreed on that. At that point he tells me to call [the local shipping company] again and schedule another pickup. I call and talk to who tells me that I can't contact them directly. They will have to call me back after Amazon enters the order to schedule the pickup. So now I am waiting to see what happens next. It's so ridiculous that it's almost entertaining.
Just to give you more background information: I have been shopping at Amazon for years and have never had any complaint before. In fact, I have never filed a complaint for anything in my life. But this is ridiculous. What do you suggest I should do?
At this point, I probably would have long ago hired my own shipping company to dump the treadmill in front of Amazon's headquarters. Otherwise, I'm fresh out of ideas. Any suggestions for Vu, Consumerist hive mind?
http://www.biofusiondesign.com/archive/have-you-ever-tried-to-get-a-refund-from-amazoncom [Biofusion Design]
Do you wish to have your own treadmill at home but you worry that it may not compliment the style of your home? You will be able to run indoors which is very safe rather you are at a gym or at home. That treadmill we're talking about is the Sole F80 motorized treadmill.If you're not a new comer to the treadmill arena, then you'll love the more advanced features found on this machine. It also features a wide range of upgrades over the traditional treadmill like a powerful 3.0 HP motor, a good set of large rollers, a cushion flex running surface and presets that will make any workout you choose fun and challenging. walking treadmillThe Amazon price of this treadmill is 99.00When looking for a higher end 'commercial grade' treadmill for your home gym, consider a 'lighter' version of a commercial treadmill model or a home fitness equipment brand that is known for higher end machines. First of all, the frame of a commercial treadmill is made of a high alloy steel or aluminum, and is welded, as opposed to put together with nuts and bolts, like consumer grade equipment. This treadmill is also used in schools, heavy traffic gyms, hospitals and health clubs as this can cater all fitness levels and ages.
