I was notified last week that the Panasonic 30007 is now available. I talked about this chair a couple of weeks ago on this blog (http://www.massage-chair-relief.com/blog/chair-models/new-panasonic-massage-chair-model-coming-out-in-september/). The funny thing though is that there is very little information available on the chair. If you can believe it, there are not even any pictures or specifications available…not even on the Panasonic website! But here is a list of what I do know about this new chair that Panasonic is so proud of:

1. This chair is proudly manufactured in Japan…they are very excited about this.

2. MSRP:  $5999 (but I can make it available to you for $4999 for the time being).

3. There are units available right now, in black. The first shipment came in last week.

4. Same features as Panasonic 30006, but adds wood design plate on the arms.  There may be more available above and beyond the 30006, but I am not aware of those things yet. If and when I find out about any other differences, I will post them on this blog.

5. Other features include Junetsu (ultra-fine kneading) massage, shiatsu, swedish, and fist massage, 36 airbags throughout the whole chair (sole of feet, calves, seat, arm, hand, waist, shoulder), 460 square inches of total massage, auto-body scanning system, 4/6 person memory, voice guidance system, intensity/speed control, ottoman has a 5 inch extension adjustment.

Hope this helps someone out there who is looking at this massage chair.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

I had another question today from another visitor to our massage chair site. This is from a fellow in Europe, so the topic of shipping massage chairs internationally comes up. I hope his questions  and my answers help you answer some of your massage chair shopping questions.

“Hi great website ! I am going to buy a massage chair for the first time and I want to buy the best chair on the market. Main points include heat, calf massage and general all rounfd body massage. Preferably The chair should be comfortable & stylish enough to use as a recliner. I am interested in the following chairs, PHP2030 OSIM Uspace Inada Sogno Omega Premier Panasonic 3006 Sanyo 7700 I would be grateful for youu advice on these chairs? Final question ,,, I live in Switzerland, do you know how much shipping would be or do you have any local European partners.

Many Thanks,

David”

Here is my response…

“Hi, David
Thank you for your inquiry. It sounds like you have been doing some homework!

We are not familiar with the PHP chairs and I know that the OSIM brand is Brookstones, but I have only sat in one OSIM model and there was nothing remarkable about it relative to the other chairs you mention. However, we are very familiar with the other models you are asking about. Here are answers to your questions:

1. “heat” -  all the chairs have heat, but the Panasonic 30006. The Sanyo has only heat in the legs. The Omega has the most comprehensive heat, in the back, seat, and legs. The Sogno has heat in the low back.

2. “calf massage” - All the chairs you speak of have a calf AND foot massager. They are all of good quality, as well.

3. “general all round body massage” - I love the Sogno PLUS massage personally because it covers more square inches of the body than any other chair in the world. It also has the Dream Wave technology which massages the seat and buttocks more than any other chair. This Dream Wave technology is quite revolutionary.  It is my favorite and since it came to America, it has become our best seller…by far.

4. “comfortable & stylish enough to use as a recliner” - The only chair that looks different than a typical massage chair, which is how most chairs look, is the new Inada Sogno. It is very stylish and contemporary looking, although the ottoman and arm massagers are quite overt and obvious. The Omega Premier has the arm massagers as attachments to the arm rests and does not look aesthetically pleasing if you are looking for a recliner-looking massage chair. 

5. “how much shipping would be or do you have any local European partners” - We will need to have your city, postal code, and model you decide upon to get an accurate shipping quote for you. Yes, we can ship to Switzerland, but we do not have any local European partners. I am told that the price of most massage chairs in Europe is so cost-prohibitive that even with the shipping cost, the combined cost is more than the standard price of a chair in Europe.

I hope this answers some of your questions and helps make your buying decision a little easier. Please email again if you have more questions or inquiries. You can also call our showroom at 1-801-417-8240 to speak to Steffanie or myself.

I await your response with your postal code and city and model you are interested in so that I can get you an accurate shippng quote…

Dr. Alan Weidner”

We are actually creating a green screen in our Massage Chair Relief offices. We will be recording a video clip of me to be put on the home page of the website in place of the the image of me that is there right now with the audio recording. I’ve never liked the quality of the audio recording and I really like the idea of a more interactive Dr. Weidner greeting my visitors. I have a neighbor that is a movie director and he is setting everything up for me. ( If you ever need some video work done, this guy is great and his prices are very reasonable. Contact me or visit him on his website if you have any inquiries. Here is his site: http://jerrycraven.blogspot.com)

On to massage chairs…

The Panasonic 30007 is now available for the public. The only problem is that we have not much info on it yet. Our Panasonic rep said that the first shipment came from Japan on Friday last week, but the data on the chair has not arrived yet. Panasonic doesn’t even have the chair up on it’s site yet!

This much we know…it is an even better chair than the 30006, which was Panasonic’s previous top model.  This chair is made in Japan, not China, and the manufacturer’s suggested retail price is $5999. Call our office for special pricing, since the chair is not up on our website just yet. The Panasonic 30007 massage chair also only comes in black at this time.

The moment I have any info on this chair, we will pass it on to you.

Remember…until the end of this month, I am offering 2-for-1 massage chairs. If you buy an HT-1650 massage chair you get your choice of an iJoy 130, 300, or HT-2720 massage chair absolutely, 100% free!

Have a super day!

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

We are so excited to announce that our massage-chair-relief.com home page redesign is now up and running. We are still working on a few things to make your online experience even better, but for now here is what we have done…

1. added a “Special of the Month” to the top left of the site. Every month we will offer something great to our site visitors. This month, as I mentioned on yesterday’s blog post is a 2-for-1 massage chair special. Buy an HT-1650 massage chair and get your choice of an iJoy 130, 300 or HT-2720 absolutely FREE!!

2. added all our chair manufacturers, including the new Inada and iJoy chairs, to the home page alongside the other 4 manufacturers.

3. added a place for video clips. Today we put up “Yours Truly” demonstrating the HT-1650 on a local television program. We will put up various videos over time, like massage chair reviews, commercials, video blog posts, etc.

4. added my most recent blog post so folks can read the latest without having to navigate to the blog page.

5.  re-arranged some images, i.e. free shipping, 90-day money back guarantee.

6. new drop-down menus under each chair manufacturer to more easily navigate to the model you are looking for.

Things we are working on this week…

1. video greeting from Dr. Weidner, not just a static image with an audio clip like it is now. We will be taping that later this week and plan to have it up at the end of this week or early next week.

2. “Massage Chair Search” feature. We will provide a search field that will allow you to find chairs with the particular features that you want.  This will assist you in narrowing down the model you really want.

I’ve got lots of other things in my head that I’d like to see on the site. As we create them, I will notify you via this blog. Thanks for being such wonderful guests and clients of this site and business. I am grateful for all of you.

Have a wonderful day!

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

I am excited to announce that for the month of September, 2008 I am able to offer a FREE iJoy massage chair with the purchase of the HT-1650 massage chair by Human Touch! Yes, that is right…a free iJoy 130 (any color), a free iJoy 300 (any color), or an iJoy HT-2720 massage chair (eggplant, green, or cashew) when you purchase an HT-1650 massage chair from our website.

You can order the HT-1650 over the phone or directly on this website.  When you call us, just tell us that you are taking us up on the 2-for-1 September Special and tell us which iJoy you want. If you order online, you will have to enter the iJoy model and color that you want in the “Coupon” section of the check out page of the shopping cart. When you get to that field, and let’s say you want an HT-2720 in Eggplant color, just enter those words “HT-2720 Eggplant” in that field and when we get the processed order we will see exactly which free chair you want with your order.

It’s that simple.

A couple of things you need to know about this promotion:

1. it is only good until midnight of Tuesday, September 30, 2008. If it is a smashing success, we may offer it again before Christmas (because the iJoy would make a lovely Christmas gift for someone else in!).

2. free shipping and bonus gifts still apply to all promotional sales.

3. GE Financing is also still available on all purchases, regardless of what the promotion is.

4. You must take the free massage chair. You cannot decline the iJoy massage in lieu of an equivalent dollar discount on the HT-1650 massage chair.

Well, that’s about it. Don’t hesitate one minute to call us if you have any questions or if you want to order your chair today. Our toll free number is 1-888-259-5380.

To Your Health,

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

I just thought you’d like to know that the red color in the HT-125 massage chair and HT-135 massage chair are being discontinued this week. In other words, in 48 hours the red HT-125 and HT-135 massage chair models will not  be available anymore from Human Touch. Human Touch tells me that no other colors at present will replace the red models, but may at some time in the future.

I told you a couple of weeks ago that the dark chocolate color of the HT-7120 massage chair has also been discontinued and will be replaced by the Espresso color.The Espresso is now in stock. It is up on our website, although we don’t have the image up yet (the old dark chocolate image is still up). The price on the HT-7120 is still $2699 for all models.

The colors still available in the HT-125 massage chair are black and cashew. The colors remaining in the HT-135 are black and cappucino.

Unfortunately, there is no price deal for the remaining red HT-125’s and HT-135’s. They are still $2299 and $2399, respectively, although the red is gone in a couple of days.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

Well, our week at the PGA Tour Championship at Willow Creek Golf Course in Sandy, Utah ended in a very interesting way. Saturday night the sprinklers went off in the tent where our massage chairs were stored and they were soaked throughout the night! Steffanie went to turn on the massage chairs Sunday morning and found them absolutely drenched by the water. The home entertainment vendor next to us had water dripping out of the back of his flat screen TV’s when he came in!

Needless to say, we didn’t plug in or turn on any massage chairs on that last day of the Tour. We just dried out the chairs and brought them back to the showroom Monday morning. We had the HT-1650 massage chair, the HT-7450 massage chair, and the Sogno PLUS massage chair in the tent. All I could think about was how good the liability insurance was at the PGA!

Well, as it turned out, everything worked Monday morning and all is well at Massage Chair Relief!

What we get out of this experience is that the massage chairs we carry are durable and can survive a drenching from a golf course sprinkler system (have you ever seen a golf course sprinkler?? They put out a lot of water at a very impressive force!).

By the way, the picture above is a shot of the pro’s at the driving range prior to Saturday’s round.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

When we had our chairs at the Longest Day Golf Tournament in Midway, Utah back in June, one of the higher-ups of the PGA Championship Tour sat in our massage chairs and thought they’d be great to have at their tournament. Well, this week we have our delightful massage chairs at the Tour Championship at Willow Creek Country Club in Sandy, Utah.

We actually have one of our chairs in the player’s lounge and I love peaking in there to see PGA pro’s using our massage chair (the HT-1650 massage chair).

The weather has been quite crisp and cool in the mornings since we had an Alaskan storm hit us and drop temperatures way down, but as the day warms up and the sun comes out, the weather is fantastic and the setting is so beautiful. I have never been a great golfer, but I have always loved the golf course settings…and Willow Creek is one of the most beautiful settings I have seen. You see the course is older so the trees are quite mature and the back drop to this course is the Wasatch mountain range. Oh my, it is so beautiful and serene. I wish you could all see it.

I will submit some more photos tomorrow when I go back to the tournament. I just included a pic of the Tour semi-truck to prove to you that I wasn’t kidding about being at the tour championship.

Have a super day!

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

I just received an email from Cliff Levin, president of FIUS, the US distributor for Inada massage chairs. He tells me that for the month of September, 2008 Inada will offer a FULL 5-year warranty for the Inada Sogno PLUS massage chair!

Yes, that is right…a full, 5-year home coverage warranty that a client typically has to typically purchase in addition to standard warranty coverage.  Here is the text of the email:

Dear Inada Dealer:

The finest massage chair on the market now comes with the best pre-packaged warranty plan!
SOGNO is now the hottest chair with the hottest warranty to back it up! People who have yet to jump in will not want to be left in the dust as this goldmine heats up to Q4. There is no time like the present to get on board with SOGNO.

All SOGNO Plus purchases made between September 1 and September 30, 2008 will AUTOMATICALLY come with a 5 YEAR FULL IN HOME SERVICE & PARTS WARRANTY which includes our standard “repair or replace” promise.   The warranty coverage extends for 5 years from the date of PURCHASE on the register receipt. As far as I know, no other massage chair company has ever offered such a plan! If this plan is popular and successful, INADA will consider extending it for an additional month or more.

I ask that you share this as soon as possible with the entire network. It deals with 3 issues that may come up as objections:

1)      It takes away any risk (real or perceived) of malfunction associated with the purchase;
2)      It addresses price objections by “pegging” the cost over the first 5 years of use. If you buy another chair without such a warranty – especially if it is not of the quality of INADA – costs can increase over time as you spend to keep your chair operational;
3)      It demonstrates the underlying quality of INADA to begin with. We can only afford this because, due to initial product quality, our warranty costs over time are extremely low.

Register receipts must be dated between September 1 and 30, 2008 and we must be asked to ship the order immediately / very soon. This may be advertised as a savings from the regular warranty retail price ($479) or with something like “the only massage chair on the market with a 5 year FULL parts and FULL labor warranty”. Stores may purchase extended warranties for floor model they sell, but they are not free with sale of a floor model.

In a nutshell, here is how the coverage works:
-          Your Sogno PLUS will be serviced in home. If there is no tech within a reasonable distance, we will pay to ship the chair for factory service.
-          The warranty covers all defects for 5 full years from purchase. Parts AND labor are fully covered.
-          If we are unable to repair the chair, it will be replaced with a similarly priced or identical chair at no cost to the consumer.
-          It is good in the USA and Canada.
-          Like all warranties, it does not cover abuse by people or pets or being dropped out a window

At this moment – it will change week to week due to demand - we are shipping all SOGNO colors within 1 week of receiving a P/O.
Let me know if you have any questions and good luck with this exceptional promotion.

Best regards,

Cliff Levin
FIUS Distributors

So, there you go…an extended 5-year warranty on our currently most popular chair.  If you haven’t tried out this chair yet, please do. It will blow you away. Remember that this warranty offer is only applicable to the Sogno PLUS, and not the Standard Sogno.

Please call us at toll-free at 1-888-259-5380 if you have any additional questions or if you would like to purchase this chair. As I have mentioned before on this blog, you can only purchase this massage chair over the phone or in our store. You cannot place the order on our website…so just give us a call.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com