Shopping For A Treadmill On The Internet

We hear from people all the time regarding hesitancy when buying a treadmill from a merchant over the Internet. If you will do your homework, buying a treadmill on the Internet can be a great, money saving experience.

One of the major concerns is the warranty. The fact is that if you buy a treadmill, the warranty you are buying is from the manufacturer, not the merchant. Of course, you need to make sure that the merchant is legitimate but your long-term ownership of your treadmill will be greatly affected by the support provided by the manufacturer.

Many Internet merchants provide local support but, according to the warranty, the manufacturer is the only company that is legally bound to provide service unless you get warranty support by the merchant in writing. Your state may have different laws than ours, so seek legal counsel for any questions you may have regarding product warranty liability.

You also will need to make sure that the manufacturer does not specifically cancel the warranty if you buy a treadmill from a store or merchant other than your local dealer. In the recent past, there were several companies that would not honor the warranty on a treadmill sold by a dealer into another dealer's area or by an unauthorized dealer and their warranties were written to this effect and clearly explained these limitations.

The easiest way to find out if the treadmill you are considering has a warranty if purchased over the Internet is to contact the manufacturing company directly. This may take a few minutes to do but it will help you make sure that the treadmill has the intended warranty. If the company says it is perfectly fine to buy it over the Internet, make sure you save a copy of their correspondence for your records.

Another issue of importance is to make sure you buy from an Internet company that has been shipping for some time. Whenever you ship via a truck line, there is always a potential for damage but the companies who have been shipping for some time have learned certain methods of packaging to minimize the possibility of damage.

We have spoken with a few of the Internet companies and the ones that have been doing this the longest have reported that they have very few serious shipping problems. When the merchant understands how to package the treadmill and they do have a serious problem, the complaint can be handled quickly because the freight company is clearly at fault. If you buy from a company that hasn't shipped much, problems handling freight damage claims can be much more serious. More importantly, when a company has a few years of shipping experience, the treadmill does not arrive battered, as they can with inexperienced shipping companies.

These are just the major issues we would consider before buying a treadmill over the Internet. We have received reports from several people on the site that they have saved hundreds of dollars from buying over the Internet. This is proving to be a great way to save! Just make sure you use the appropriate amount of preparation before you take the leap.

Back to Archive Index ...