Transcript of Video Titled “John Malie – Massage Chair Relief Customer Interview”

Dr. Alan Weidner: Alright, this is Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com‘ and today we’ve got our customer, John Malie, on the line, or on the Skype line, and we’re going to visit a little bit about your experience. I’m just making sure I’ve got everything working right. Does everything look like it’s working at your end there, John?

John Malie: It does.

Alan: OK, good, and it looks like we’re recording, good. Anyway, John, you’re in Florida, I’m in Salt Lake City, thank you so much for being available to help out with this, this is great. These are, these – I know some people are hesitant to do these interviews online, or on video, or whatnot, because it’s a little uncomfortable, I know – but these really help people out. When they’re trying to make a decision, it’s good to hear someone like yourself, who is an objective third party, you know, talk about the chair, and talk about your shopping experience, and you know, what you went through to get the chair, and I think this is really invaluable information for people that are visiting, and shopping. So, thank you very, very kindly.

John: You’re welcome.

Alan: Well, John, now, you got – tell us what model you have – what chair you have.

John: I have the Inada DreamWave.

Alan: And how long have you had it for?

John: Oh, it’s been about month and a half, or so.

Alan: Now, tell me a little bit about your experience of getting the chair, like how did you arrive at the DreamWave?

John: Well, I hate to say it, but it was kind of laziness, a little bit, on my part. I was able to sit in a DreamWave here locally, it’s the only chair I could find locally.

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: And …

Alan: Oh, just a minute. Sorry we lost you there just for a second, go on with your story.

John: Yeah, and then, I started shopping around for chairs.

Alan: Are you there?

John: I am.

Alan: Oh boy, it’s – OK, just a minute – can you hear me OK?

John: [unintelligible]

Alan: It must be the Internet connection, it’s a little fuzzy. You’re breaking up there. So, anyway hopefully …

John: Let me try, let me try one thing, I’ll move closer in to my router.

Alan: OK, that’d be great.

John: And I don’t know if that’ll help.

Alan: Well, you’re sounding clear now. If we can just get that to stay, that’d be great.

John: Yeah, I’m going to go in much closer to the router.

Alan: Alright.

John: And …

Alan: We’re getting a tour of your house, eh?

John: Yes, you are. OK.

Alan: OK, well, that’s – you sound – sounds good …

John: Is that better?

Alan: Yeah, so hopefully it’ll stay that way. So, the last I heard was that you tried the chair locally, and …

John: I tried the chair locally, and then I realized how many chairs there were, and you know, you want to shop, you want to understand all the options available to you.

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: And so, that’s what I did, I started plowing in to that detail, of which there is, unfortunately, sort of an overwhelming amount of detail.

Alan: Yeah.

John: And you narrow it down, there’s certain things, you know, certain chairs you just eliminate, possibly, because you don’t like their looks …

Alan: Right.

John: Or something …

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: And you narrow it down to a selection of chairs. The problem I had was you had a very generous offer for coming out there, and trying all those chairs …

Alan: Yeah.

John: But it really wasn’t practical for me, unfortunately.

Alan: You’re saying it wasn’t practical to fly from Florida to Salt Lake City?

John: It really wasn’t, not from Orlando. I would have had to leave at 7 in the morning, and without staying overnight, I would have got back at like, 6 the next morning.

Alan: Oh, man.

John: I mean, an entire 24 hours of up, and traveling, that was the only flights that there were …

Alan: You would’ve needed a massage chair after that.

John: So, it just was – I would’ve needed several – and so that just wasn’t practical. You know, the Inada chair is rated pretty highly, everybody seems to like it. I found very few complaints online, anybody that questioned it, and so I made the decision to buy that one, because I was familiar with it, and I really didn’t have a chance to try the other ones. So, I’m probably not being much help to your other customers.

Alan: No, sure – that’s probably – you’re probably, that’s probably very much in line with what other people are going through, because it is hard to find places to try the chairs out.

John: It really is.

Alan: As a matter of fact, our store is the only one in the country that has all the major name brands under one roof. So, I’m sure you’re not alone in that experience.

John: Well, I read recently where you were talking about opening another store, where you ought to open that store is in Orlando, Florida, or Ocala, Florida. There are a lot of old people here …

Alan: Yeah.

John: That need massages …

Alan: And who don’t want to fly up to Salt Lake City.

John: That don’t want to fly out to Salt Lake City, but that’s how I got to the chair. I did, though, I spent a lot of time. I made a huge spreadsheet of all the features …

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: I rearranged the spreadsheet to get rid of the superfluous features that I didn’t think were you know, very important …

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: Narrowed it down to the important features, and had all the chairs lined up, from lowest price to highest price, and had all those features, and that got a little confusing for me too, because there are so many features …

Alan: Yeah.

John: And no single chair seems to offer everything.

Alan: Yeah.

John: Even the Inada, you know, it doesn’t have the foot rollers, it doesn’t have the L-track.

Alan: Right.

John: And but, you go to any manufacturer’s line – I think they’re really missing the boat a little bit, Doc – to tell you the truth.

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: They ought to take a base chair, add certain features, and call it another model, add certain features, and call it another model, add certain features, and get up to the maximum – all the features, like a Cadillac versus a Chevrolet – you know, and just keep adding on features, and you would have made it a lot easier to make a decision, but they don’t do that …

Alan: Yeah.

John: They come out with another model, they add this feature, and they take this feature off.

Alan: Yeah.

John: You know, there’s no rhyme or reason to it.

Alan: Yeah, that’s true, I agree, and one of the most common comments I get when people come to the showroom is ‘I like the foot rollers on that chair, I like the design of that chair, I like the zero gravity on that chair, and can’t you just put them – and I like the neck on that chair – can’t you just put them all together?’ And I wish I could …

John: Yeah.

Alan: But nothing like that yet.

John: Yeah, but you know, there’s – I don’t know, somebody’s missing the boat out there – but you know, I made the decision, and I’m not unhappy at all, with my chair. In fact, I’m very, very happy with it, and so maybe it was the path of least resistance. I would have liked to spend a little less money, but you get what you pay for.

Alan: Yeah.

John: It’s easy to see the quality in the Inada chair. I mean, you know, when you have it, and you’re feeling it, and touching it, and then it’s pretty clear that it’s a well-built chair.

Alan: Yeah.

John: You know, so …

Alan: How, from the beginning, from day one of deciding that you were going to get a massage chair, and you started looking at a massage chair, to the time you bought, what kind of a – how big – how long of a time frame was that?

John: It was probably a month.

Alan: Yeah.

John: About a month.

Alan: With a lot of homework.

John: Now, I’ve had in the back of my mind, that I was going to get a massage chair, probably for two years, you know …

Alan: Yeah.

John: A year. But I just never really got motivated, you know, and made up my mind to do it, you know?

Alan: Right.

John: Let’s face it, we’re all kind of in a state of inertia, you know, and you’ve got to get motivated, and pushed, and …

Alan: Yeah.

John: And I’m not really sure what did that for me, but I decided now was the time, and I would say from that point on, it was probably about a month, maybe five weeks.

Alan: Right.

John: Something like that.

Alan: Now, has there – was there a particular visceral – or sorry, not visceral, but musculoskeletal complaint that you had, like did you have back pain, or headaches, or something, that you were looking …

John: No, not really, not really.

Alan: No?

John: I do have – I have what – I have the same thing Phil Mickelson has, psoriatic arthritis …

Alan: Oh, yeah?

John: And it does affect you whole – your whole body – you just get stiff, you know …

Alan: Yeah.

John: Your body gets stiff, although I take medicine for it, it’s not perfect, and you do get stiff. So, there’s stiffness in these joints, and that joints, but no specific pain, I just like massages.

Alan: Yeah, massages are nice, they’re a good thing.

John: Yes, they’re relaxing. My biggest problem I’m having is I keep falling asleep in the chair. I just can’t stay awake.

Alan: Well, there’s nothing more irritating than people snoring when you’re trying to work, and I’m sure – when I am at the showroom, sometimes I’ll be – like, I’ll leave a customer to sit in a chair for a while, while I go to the back, and just let them enjoy the chair, and I can hear a snore coming from the showroom, so I know they’re enjoying the chair.

John: Yeah.

Alan: If they can’t sleep, it’s probably not the right chair for them. Now, have you noticed any health benefits from having the chair, so either, you know, maybe an increase in flexibility if you’re a golfer, or pain relief from any of the arthritic conditions that you have, or have you noticed any kind of symptomatic change at all?

John: You know, I honestly can’t, I can’t say that I have.

Alan: OK.

John: No, I specifically, in fact, would say no, I actually have not.

Alan: Well, you weren’t looking for any symptom relief.

John: I enjoy the chair, and I feel good when I’m in it, and out of it, but I can’t honestly say – I am a golfer – and I don’t think I’m any more flexible, no.

Alan: Now, if you said that your golf game was better, I think I’d probably sell five or six chairs after this.

John: Well, you know, now that I – I can honestly say – I can honestly say …

Alan: Yeah?

John: That I have had a really good run of golf, over the past three, four, five weeks, and that does coincide with the chair, I don’t, I don’t know why that would be.

Alan: We’re going to take the credit, we’re going to take sole credit. I don’t care how much TV you been watching, and how many books you been reading, it’s the chair, I’m telling you, it’s the chair.

John: The chair, well, you know, now that you mention it, I mean, it is amazing.

Alan: Well, good.

John: I’m playing good.

Alan: Now, what about – have you tried the chair, at night, before you go to bed – or have you found that it maybe helps you sleep a little bit better, or anything like that, that you didn’t expect?

John: Well, it does, because I never make it out of the chair, and then that’s my problem. I’ve actually kind of taken to staying away from the chair right before I go to bed, because I fall asleep, and I can’t get out, and you know, by the time I wake up, I’m saying ‘Oh my god, I’ll never fall asleep in bed now, you know, but I use the chair multiple times a day. Whenever I have a chance, in fact, and certainly at night, you know, whether it’s early at night, midnight, or late night. I’m not really, I don’t really stay away from it, just because it’s …

Alan: Right.

John: If I fall asleep, I fall asleep, you know, what are you going to do?

Alan: Yeah, that’s good.

John: But I’ve been sleeping like a baby – I have been – I will say that …

Alan: Well, that’s good.

John: No problem there.

Alan: Good to hear. Now, I suspect that you’ve got family members over there that all sit want to sit on the chair too. Do you – does everybody want to sit on it, because everybody seems to enjoy these things.

John: My son was just down, his wife is a physical therapist …

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: And she seemed to enjoy the chair quite a bit.

Alan: Good.

John: And I know my son did, and you know, I think it’s – he travels out to Southern California every now and then, by the way, Doc – you get that store open, he may want to stop, and try some of those different chairs.

Alan: OK, we’ll get to know him.

John: Yeah.

Alan: He’s always welcome. Now, tell me a little bit about the shopping experience, was, were there – from the time that you bought – or you know, actually made the decision to buy, or were getting close to making the decision to buy, to the time you had it delivered to your home, did everything go OK, were there any blips along the way, or everything go alright?

John: Well, it actually did go very smoothly. There was the one incident where I was a little confused by the communication a little bit …

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: I wasn’t sure, I expected the chair to ship, and then I got sort of a form email from you that said something about, you know, the chair should ship, and unless it’s on back-order, and that confused me a little bit.

Alan: Yeah.

John: But in reality, the process was very smooth.

Alan: Good.

John: It wasn’t, but a few days after that, that in fact, you know, the chair shipped, and you know, delivery arrangements were being made.

Alan: Good.

John: So, the whole process actually was very smooth …

Alan: Good.

John: Even though there was one little blip, and a little confusion on my part.

Alan: Good, good to hear it. Now, do you – is there anything that you want to mention about the chair, or about the whole experience – that I haven’t asked you about, that you might want to mention in closing?

John: No, not really, they, you know, when the chair was delivered, the delivery people here were very good. They said they had assembled numerous ones of these, and they did it very quickly, they knew what they were doing.

Alan: Good.

John: They didn’t have to stop, and look at the directions, and you know, go online, which I’ve read on some reviews, you know, go online for instructions, and this and that. They knew what they were doing.

Alan: Good.

John: The chair went together very, very quickly. It, you know, after using the chair, are there some things I’d like to talk to Inada about a little bit? Yeah, and there always is, you know, I suppose …

Alan: Yeah.

John: Nothing is perfect, but overall, I have very, very few complaints …

Alan: Wonderful.

John: You know, even the things I would tell Inada. I got to admit, I don’t like the remote, with the cord, it sort of gets all tangled up. They need to go wireless, I’m guessing, something like that, and …

Alan: Well, if it’s any consolation, every chair is like that, and I suspect the wireless remote, like a Bluetooth, kind of, connectivity is not too far on the horizon.

John: Right.

Alan: As a matter of fact, it already kind of is here for some models, that have an app, you can download to a phone. It’s not on this model, but some of them, they’re working toward that. So, you’re spot on, I think that’s going to be one of the big innovations in the near future.

John: There are always things you just kind of wonder about, and I know these are all individual decisions somebody made, you know, on the chair, but you go ‘Wow, why would you ever do that?’ But you know, that’s one man’s opinion versus some other man’s opinion, you know?

Alan: Right.

John: But overall, there isn’t anything about the chair that I would say ‘Boy, they missed, you know, this is terrible …

Alan: Yeah.

John: ‘They just didn’t do this right.’ I love the cervical traction unit.

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: I love the squeeze on the, you know, the upper part of the shoulder.

Alan: Yeah.

John: You have the flexibility, with this chair, to you know, flip that up, and do it with just the rollers.

Alan: The rollers, yeah.

John: I can’t imagine anybody wanting a more intense roller experience. The 3D roller option is really useless to me, because anything less than the – anything more than the minimum – roller is too much for me …

Alan: Yeah.

John: So, the fact that I can make it harder, you know, doesn’t really apply for me.

Alan: Right.

John: So …

Alan: Well, you know, a lot of people have said – and I’ve read this comment before, and it always puzzled me – they said that the massage on DreamWave is too gentle.

John: Oh, no.

Alan: Yeah, I don’t agree, if you take …

John: Good luck with that.

Alan: The pads off, and you use the rollers, and put the 3D all the way forward, man, it is an intense massage.

John: Oh, my god, I couldn’t handle that, I would literally be in pain, and so but, everybody’s different, I guess. I don’t have a lot of a cushion layer of fat, you know …

Alan: Yeah.

John: In my back, I don’t – I have it in my front – I don’t have it in my back, you know, so maybe that’s part of it, you know?

Alan: Yeah.

John: I’ve had to, in fact – that’s the one thing, and I do need to call Inada, they have – they give you these pads to put in behind there, to soften …

Alan: Uh huh.

John: But there’s supposed to be Velcro strips in there, to hold …

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: The pads in place. Well, there are no Velcro strips, and they won’t stay in place, you know, they just fall down, basically.

Alan: Huh.

John: Uh huh, so I’ve put a thin pillow up under the back flap of the cervical traction unit, and it turns out that pillow is perfect.

Alan: Wow.

John: I mean, it just makes it perfect for me …

Alan: Great.

John: So, I’m happy there, but …

Alan: So, you’ve had to modify it just a little bit to make it work for you, right?

John: Yeah, just a little bit.

Alan: Again, not uncommon, you know, not – like you were saying earlier – not every chair has everything we want, and that also goes with the fit, not every chair fits every person exactly …

John: Well, that’s it, you know, I laugh every time I put my arms in the arm unit, you know?

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: There is absolutely no way my hands will ever be on that hand pad in there.

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: I can’t reach …

Alan: Right.

John: You know, when it goes back, my hand comes back. But it really doesn’t matter, because you still get a squeeze on the hand, you know, there’s plenty of airbag in there, and plenty to squeeze.

Alan: Right.

John: So, it really doesn’t matter, but yeah, I’m picturing the size person that would be in that chair, and would actually have his hands on it.

Alan: Yeah, his name’s Manute Bol.

John: There you go, a basketball player.

Alan: Well, that’s pretty neat, anything else that pops in to your mind that you want to share with anybody that’s watching this video?

John: Well, I think your program of trying the chairs is great, I wish I could’ve done it.

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: I would suggest that people take advantage of that. I would’ve, I mean, believe me, if those flights would’ve been even halfway reasonable …

Alan: Right.

John: I would’ve done it.

Alan: Yeah.

John: I may have wound up with the same chair …

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: But I would’ve just liked to try a foot roller, I would’ve liked to try the L-track …

Alan: Mm-hmm.

John: I would’ve even liked to try the zero gravity, even though I don’t think that, personally, would be a big issue for me …

Alan: Right.

John: But I would’ve like to have tried all those things.

Alan: Yeah.

John: And I really couldn’t do that, but …

Alan: You kind of had to take what was available to you.

John: I went for the Cadillac, and I figured I would never be sorry.

Alan: Well, and fortunately, you did get the – you know, what’s widely considered the best chair in the world – and so you couldn’t have picked much better, that’s for sure. But I’m glad, John, that the chair is working for you, I’m glad you like it, and of course, I thank you for purchasing it from us, but and thanks for the time on this video. I know it’s – like I said earlier, at the beginning – it’s uncomfortable for some people, but this will serve a purpose for people that are trying to decide, and this will help them make that decision, so …

John: Well that’s …

Alan: Thank you very, very kindly.

John: OK.

Alan: Alright, John, we’ll talk soon. Well, hopefully, we don’t talk too much, that means – if I hear from you – it usually means there’s something wrong with the chair, but …

John: There you go.

Alan: I’m sure we’ll chitchat again.

John: OK.

Alan: Thanks kindly.

John: Thanks.

Alan: See you. Bye bye.

John: Bye.

Click on the following link to watch this Massage Chair Relief Customer Interview on our YouTube channel.