Brandon S.'s review of Total Body Experts

Total Body Experts

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Customer Reviews & Ratings
Complaint Posted 1/19/2019
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(UPDATED) LYING, UNTRUSTWORTHY SCAM ARTISTS WHO TAKE YOUR MONEY & STRING YOU ALONG FOR WEEKS
I unknowingly purchased a used treadmill from this company (their secret "alias" on eBay is "healthylivingfitness" & another alias is "Studio-Cycles"). Had I known which company I was actually purchasing from & had I read all of the bad reviews on here/elsewhere in advance, I would NEVER have wasted my time or money (hence the likely reason why their "alias" account on eBay makes no mention of the company you're actually purchasing from [you only find this out upon reviewing your Paypal transaction receipt AFTER you have already paid for the item]). On 11/27/18, I paid nearly $3K on what was supposed to be a "rebuilt" treadmill (ebay item #122916125153, Total Body Experts Invoice #EBAY452). I was promised a "3-4 week" lead time, communication all but ceased once I paid, & I had to constantly hound the company rep for updates on the progress/etc. as the company continued to string me along right past the "4 week" mark. After being lied to several times (in regards to parts that were supposed to be ordered way back when I first sent payment/etc.), the treadmill didn't ship out until 1/11/19 (6 weeks/3 days after I paid). From there, it arrived to some undisclosed local hub on 1/14/19, & on 1/16/19 I had to personally hunt for the contact number for the freight shipping company (in order to call the company directly rather than experience what was actually promised [aka-the freight shipping company calling ME to schedule delivery once my treadmill reached the hub]). After taking time out of my day to PERSONALLY schedule the delivery for the following evening (on a RECORDED LINE), the freight shipping company stood me up on the scheduled delivery date (1/17/19), lied claiming that they had nothing scheduled for delivery to my address on that date, tried to push my delivery off to the NEXT day (a day that, at that point, was unavailable as I already had plans), refused to make the delivery on the actual scheduled date, & after making a last ditch effort to call a contact number that I was given for Total Body's "Logistics Coordinator" by the name of "Pedro" (who doesn't answer his phone & doesn't have his voicemail set up), I was forced to open a case in order to avoid missing the deadline for opening an eBay case for the transaction. After continuously failing to own up to his own obnoxious mistakes, broken promises & unprofessionalism, the company rep who runs the alias eBay account ("Kevin Anders") became defensive, acting as if he had no clue why the case was even opened (as he CONTINUED to string me along as a means of buying the company more & more time following receipt of my payment WEEKS ago). From there, he promised a phone call from the freight company to reschedule delivery for that following week, I never received ONE call from them by close of business that day (despite Kevin LYING within the case details as he suggested that the freight company tried to call me & wasn't able to leave me a voicemail [my phone works just fine as does my voicemail]), & in the end I still did not have the item I paid nearly $3,000 dollars for after exactly 7 weeks/3 days from the day I submitted my payment. After giving this company one chance, after the next, after the next, after the next to TAKE OWNERSHIP & successfully complete this transaction, promises continued to be broken, lies CONTINUED to be told, I continuously had to do THEIR LEGWORK just to ensure that the treadmill even shipped out, & I had to do ADDITIONAL legwork once the treadmill finally arrived to some undisclosed hub in my area. I cannot believe all of the time/energy I have had to invest into this transaction just to complete it, & after all my efforts (efforts that the COMPANY should have been making on MY BEHALF/after getting nearly $3,000 of MY MONEY) I am just emotionally & mentally drained beyond words. At the time of this review, I have come to the conclusion that I am dealing with a SCAM ARTIST company & I am escalating the eBay case for a full refund. When it comes down to "Total Body Experts" or "healthylivingfitness", all I can say is this; NEVER AGAIN. 7 weeks & 3 days of my life that I can NEVER get back. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Goodluck. =============================================================================UPDATE 1/22/2019 (REGARDING COMPANY ATTEMPT TO "BRIBE" ME INTO REMOVING/MODIFYING THIS REVIEW);========================================================================== A hectic work schedule pretty much prevents me from wasting any more time on this transaction, but i'm going to go ahead & post an update related to this experience (after someone from the company reached out to me [unprovoked] earlier today). On the afternoon of 1/22/2019, a representative from "Total Body Experts" texted me (on my personal cellphone) stating that they saw my review of this experience with "Kevin" (a.k.a. one of their employees, "representatives", eBay "re-sellers", "contractors" or whatever the heck they want to call the guy). The rep went on to say that the company would like to "leave me better than they found me" (whatever that's supposed to mean). From there, he asked me if this would be a good time to talk or if I would rather stick to texting. Upon noticing the text, I responded advising that I was now off work & would be free to talk for the next hour or so. I received a call from the rep shortly after, & I don't have the energy to get into all of what made the conversation so odd (including but not limited to how the rep gave off this weird vibe as if he somehow expected ME to be the one leading the conversation [when in reality, HE contacted ME, I have already said EVERYTHING that needs to be said & i'm really done with the entire experience at this point]). All I can say is that by the end of the conversation, "leaving me better than they found me" would involve them offering me a $50 Amazon Gift Card (or something of similar pettiness) in exchange for the removal/modification of my review/s... Yes, ladies & gents; After everything I went through, this company really had the nerve to try & BRIBE me into removing/modifying my HONEST review (which outlines the absolute worst purchasing experience of my life [EVER]), totally disregarding the fact that i've had 7 weeks+3 days of my time wasted (lost time that I can NEVER get back)... It wasn't just the fact that they expected that I could be bribed, but the flippant & dismissive attitude/tone presented during the call came off as if they somehow felt ENTITLED to having the review removed/modified (once again, after EVERYTHING I went through); That right there says a lot about the company & the integrity of their employees (far above & beyond the first idiot that I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with directly)... Despite me suggesting that they put themselves in MY shoes & despite me advising that my wasted time is something I can NEVER get back, they still had the nerve to try & "purchase" the removal/modification of this review, & the rep all but mocked me & laughed when I offered what I felt would be a far more reasonable option (an option that would cause me little hesitation if I was the owner of a company who TRULY cared about my reputation/customers & had a first-time customer who had a purchasing experience that was even REMOTELY close to the experience I just went through). If I wasn't already disgusted with this company & their unethical/non-customer focused practices, I can assure you that I am beyond disgusted now (& the owner should be ashamed of himself &/or the people he has working under/alongside him). Think about it; I paid for this treadmill on 11/27/18, I was strung along for SEVEN WEEKS, I bought all these additional parts in preparation (floor mat, extension cable for the 20AMP power connection, etcetcetc) MONTHS in advance, I re-configured my entire fuse box at my residence... I made all these preparations nearly TWO months ago, saved & sacrificed for MONTHS prior to that, yet now (because of the incompetence of THIS COMPANY) I still have no treadmill... I basically have been forced to start all over again from scratch (in the midst of EVERYTHING else I have going on at this point), & the best these guys can do is try to toss me a $50 dollar Amazon gift card as a tacky means of making all of this go away & making their company look better??? Wow... Again, I would suggest to just to save yourself the headache & don't waste your time dealing with "Total Body Experts" or any of their eBay "representatives" who re-sell their re-manufactured fitness equipment under fictitious eBay usernames, of which there are SEVERAL (even beyond "healthylivingfitness", based on the information I received during this call [truly FRIGHTENING information, considering the fact that you really won't know whether or not you're purchasing your item from THIS very company until AFTER you have already paid several thousand dollars for the item in question]). If you finally make the big decision to purchase certain/specific fitness equipment in order to reach your fitness goals in your home/on your time, just be patient, save a little more & go with a more reputable company who A. knows how to treat their customers & B. doesn't attempt to BRIBE you into removing/modifying your review of that company (whenever the said review happens to display that company in a less-than-favorable light). Funny how you can have a terrible experience with a company who is so quick to take your money, yet you don't hear from anyone at the company until you hit em where it hurts (nobody cared until now). Sad to see. I know this update is quite long, but I want to make this 100% clear to anyone & EVERYONE who happens to come across this review; This review is HONEST, it outlines EVERYTHING I went through & it is here as a means of warning OTHER PEOPLE about the type of experience that they just might have if they take a chance on dealing with this company (as I did back in November, 2018). As I explained to the rep, had I seen an HONEST review like this & known which company I was REALLY purchasing from (PRIOR TO making the purchase), you can rest assured that I would have run the opposite direction; This sadly was not my experience... I had no warning whatsoever, & as a result I got screwed & strung along for OVER 7 weeks. An honest review like this sadly did not help me to avoid this experience in MY case, but hopefully MY attempt to "pay it forward" will help someone else to not end up going through the same thing I went through. This review is here for a reason, it will STAY here & maybe the people from the company can look back at it & think twice the next time they make decisions in regards to the type of unprofessional/unethical/incompetent/RUDE employees they choose to hire as representatives for their company (be it direct, OR 3rd party, or whatever the heck other titles they choose to give them). Wow, now that I think about it, I didn't even go into the rude/flippant/condescending reply I received from "Kevin" in my eBay messages once eBay finally refunded me for this transaction, but the level of ugliness in that message alone showed me all of the reasons why I needed to stay as FAR away from this company (&/or anyone who represents them) as possible. MY ADVICE TO THE COMPANY; At this point, I know that you all have some hard-headed people working for you, but instead of dedicating so much time/effort towards BRIBING people into removing/modifying their HONEST reviews of your company, maybe you should try investing that time/energy into trimming the "fat" & hiring better people who make your company look GOOD instead of terrible... Start there, then teach your people how to keep their word & give them a lesson on how to treat your new customers the way they should be treated (especially when most people wouldn't DARE spend this kind of money for an online item, sight unseen). TAKE NOTE (for anyone who happens to read this update); This is the update before the company "rebuttal" (which i'm sure is already in progress, if not already posted), so act accordingly if any "rebuttals" happen to show up below this. I'm sure someone from the company will get on here *or elsewhere) claiming that they tried to "offer me another option" or something to that nature, & this update should help you to realize exactly what type of "option" they offered. Either way, I will not be updating any further as I have already said all that needs to be said at this point, i'm sick & tired of these people & i'm just so glad to be finished in my dealings with them. You have been warned & my work here is done. GOOD LUCK & GODSPEED.... ===================================================================================== UPDATE 1/30/2019 (IN RESPONSE TO "MARCS" RIDICULOUS RECENT 1/23/19 RESPONSE [WHICH IS FULL OF EVEN MORE LIES]): Oh wow, look who decided to show up late to the party... What a joke lol. For the record, "Marc" is only continuing his company-wide practice of lies & fabrication (as SEVERAL other reviews are already confirming both on here AND elsewhere). Bear in mind, these are only the most RECENT lies (& the LAST ones that I will waste any more of my time addressing as he has already shown his character just by this response alone)... LIE #1: "Once his negative review was removed by eBay on the sellers account, he then contacted our company (eBay removed the review due to the offensive language and demands made that are recorded in their messaging system)". The TRUTH in response to LIE #1 (since you clearly won't get the TRUTH from "Marc" or ANY of his employees who blindly represent everything he stands for); For starters, I didn't contact Marc's sleazy company at all once I realized what type of company I was dealing with... HIS company contacted ME (on my PERSONAL cellphone) begging me to remove this review both here & elsewhere... There was no "offensive language" either, & this is a perfect example of what desperate people do once someone calls them out on their foolishness, so rest assured that this lie (in addition to the next one) is to be expected in Marc's case.... In regards to the eBay Feedback review being "removed", Ebay removed the review because it is THEIR undisclosed policy (as stupid as it may be) to not allow the posting of any Feedback that includes the name of an alternate company (other than the company that the SELLER represents). Again, the seller WORKS FOR "TOTAL BODY EXPERTS" & the company has TERRIBLE reviews all over the internet, but he is able to sell items on eBay under a fictitious name which prevents people from knowing what company they are buying their large/expensive item from. This is EXACTLY how this seller (in addition to every other Total Body Experts "plant" hidden/spread across eBay.com) is getting away with this fraudulent/misleading practice of selling various HIGH-dollar/fitness-related items for this company without ANYONE knowing who they are actually purchasing the item from until AFTER they have already paid (which only shows on the Paypal transaction receipt). If you're a reputable company, you don't have to hire people who hide under other fictitious names just to sell your products... You put your company name RIGHT OUT FRONT for all to see, because you know what your REPUTABLE company stands for & you have nothing to hide (less-than-favorable [yet HONEST] reviews included)... That right there speaks for itself, ladies & gentlemen... Either way, some nerve "Marc" has to come on here & fix his mouth to lie about the reasoning behind the eBay feedback being removed. The comedy is that he somehow finds time to get on here to try & make himself &/or his "company" look better, yet he can't find the time to take ownership, do HIS job & actually correct the problems that HIS irresponsible employees created. Ridiculous lol. A true LEADER takes OWNERSHIP & doesn't hesitate to resolve any/ALL issues that his/her customers (especially NEW customers) come across when dealing with his/her company. Not ONCE has "Marc" done this after having SEVERAL opportunities, so to say that he is not cut out for owning a company like this would be an understatement. Regardless, if you want the facts, you can contact me DIRECTLY on eBay, or better yet just contact the eBay "trust & safety"/"high value items" departments DIRECTLY (by phone) & they will confirm EXACTLY what I have stated in that any review that includes the name of a company (even in cases like this where the customer is simply trying to WARN others that they are not purchasing from who they think they're purchasing from) is against policy. In this case, eBay has an ongoing investigation on Kevin (a.k.a "healthylivingfitness"/a.k.a. "Total Body Experts") as it is ALSO against eBay policy for any eBay seller to fictitiously sell items for one company under the guise of another name without ANY indication of the company they actually work for being disclosed ANYWHERE on the listing page OR the user account page. Again, you don't find out who you're purchasing your "high dollar" item from until AFTER you have already paid, which is FRAUDULENT (period). Last but not least, lets move on to LIE #2: "He asked us to give him a free treadmill or he would leave us a negative review"... The TRUTH in response to LIE #2; As already stated, one of Marc's employees texted me (on my PERSONAL cellphone) begging me to reach out to him (which I did not have to do). The "negative review" was already in place, & any idiot who compares the timestamps on the text message (which I still have) & the review will be able to see this. There was no "do this or else i'll do that" ultimatum as the review was already present (both here & ANYWHERE else where it might help some other unsuspecting customer to avoid going through what I went through). Again, this is yet ANOTHER lie from the owner of this company (yes ladies & gents, the "OWNER"), but this should serve as yet ANOTHER red flag to show you guys exactly what you're dealing with here.... & YEA, his rep harassed me & tried to bribe me into removing my review (as stated), & when he asked me what he could do to make that happen, I told him to ship back the treadmill (that I have been waiting SEVEN WEEKS for) free-of-charge. Any idiot knows I wasn't expecting that to actually be done, but when you present me with a resolution as idiotic as a $50 Amazon gift card to make all of this "go away" after wasting nearly $3,000 worth of my cash (+ over SEVEN weeks worth of my time that I cannot get back), i'm naturally going to respond with a comparable resolution that should help you to realize just how stupid your offer really was. Do better Marc, you "own" the company & you really should be alot smarter than this. With all of that being said, YOU (yes, i'm talking to YOU, "MARC") should be ashamed of yourself (& while you're at it, you should probably just go ahead & close shop at this point before someone else comes along & closes it for you). Either way, i'm done with you & everyone who has the misfortune of working with non-customer focused people like you. I can't believe you hire irresponsible/unprofessional individuals like "Kevin" & whoever else who put 1st-time customers through 7+ weeks of HELL, & then you have the nerve to appear out of nowhere (WEEKS after the initial sale) & treat the customer as if THEY were the problem? I feel sorry for you, but in the end it will all come back to you in due time (as always). Again, i'm done with this experience & done talking about it. To ANYONE who reads all of this; If you take the time to read all of this & somehow STILL decide to take your chances with this foolishness (& the "owner" who allows/creates/stands behind ALL of it), then THAT'S ON YOU because I did my part in warning as MANY people as I could (just like I did MY part when I paid for this item PROMPTLY only to endure 7+ weeks of nothing but lies, broken promises & fraudulent business practices). I've said all that needs to be said here & don't have time to go back & forth with some idiot who clearly hasn't had ANY interest in taking ownership/responsibility for the situation that HIS people created until AFTER someone called him out on his foolishness. Goodbye & good riddance.
 
 
Business's response - by Marc E.on 1/23/2019
We are sorry to hear about this issue. Brandon ordered a machine from an eBay seller we supply. Once his negative review was removed by eBay on the sellers account he then contacted our company (eBay removed the review due to the offensive language and demands made that are recorded in their messaging system). Nonetheless we offered to do something as a sign of good will for him. He asked us to give him a free treadmill or he would leave us a negative review. Unfortunately this is the result. We are open to doing anything fair and reasonable as always.
 
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Additional Business Information
Hours   Customer Service Open Monday-Friday 9am to 5pm PST Phone   (866) 203-5770 Address   12909 Cerise Ave
Hawthorne, CA 90250
Website   http://www.totalbodyexperts.com Email   marc@totalbodyexperts.com
Contact   Marc Erickson Other  
 
 
 
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