Transcript of Video Titled “Massage Chair Relief Industry Update – 8/27/2012”
Alan: Hi, this is Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com‘ for our bi-weekly Massage-Chair-Relief industry update and today is August 27th. I cannot believe how fast summer has come and gone, but we do have some updates for you this week in the massage chair industry.
[SCREEN TEXT: Stock Status]
Alan: First of all, I’d like to let you know about stock. All of the Inada chairs are in stock as of this recording. The HT-9500 from Human Touch is back ordered until late September as is the WholeBody 2.0 and the ‘Espresso’ ZeroG 4.0 chairs from Human Touch. Now, the ZeroG 4.0 is the third of the three new models – the WholeBody 2.0, the ZeroG 2.0, and the WholeBody – or the ZeroG 4.0, and the 4.0 was to come out in fall of this year. The ‘Bone’ and the ‘Black’ color is already out and late September will be the ‘Black’ in stock for us as well. Infinite Therapeutics has canceled, or discontinued, their ‘Berry Red’ color. I guess it’s not a popular color, so those, as of this moment are completely discontinued, I took them off the website this morning. So, that leaves the ‘Black’ and the ‘Taupe’ colors remaining.
[SCREEN TEXT: Chocolate Brown IT-8200 Coming In September 2012]
Alan: They are going to be introducing a ‘Chocolate Brown,’ that will be available in mid-September. The ‘Black’ – by the way – the IT-8200, the ‘Black’ is back ordered until the first week of September and the ‘Taupe’ will be available toward the tail-end of September. So, the IT-8200 has become a popular-selling chair.
[SCREEN TEXT: Inada Sogno #1 Osaki OS-7000 #2 IT-8200 #3]
Alan: Our Sogno, the Inada Sogno, is still the top-selling chair, followed by the Osaki 7000, and now the IT-8200 has come on – and just FYI – those are popular chairs, that’s why we sometimes experience stock issues with them.
[SCREEN TEXT: Massage Chair Comparison Chart Video Tutorial]
Alan: I also thought I’d mention to you that I put up the comparison chart video, so as I’ve mentioned before, we have a comparison chart on our website and you can go on the website and scroll down to about halfway down the ‘Home’ page, and there on the right-hand side it says ‘COMPARISON CHART,’ there with an image of it – and you can click anywhere on that image or on the ‘COMPARISON CHART’ link – and it’ll take you to the page that has our comparison chart. Well, I made a video on how to use that comparison chart, it’s a very popular page, a lot of people use it, a lot of my competitors use it, and so now you can go there and tap in to the knowledge set that’s available. Not everybody can sit on chairs and actually experience them, as a matter of fact, I get phone calls every week by people saying, ‘Where can I try out an Osaki chair? Where can I try out an Infinite Therapeutics chair?’ It seems to be fairly easy to try an Inada Sogno because most of the ‘Relax the Back’ and ‘Healthy Back’ stores have that chair, as do we, in our showroom, but getting an Osaki or an Infinite Therapeutics is very tough. But now, you can – even though you can’t sit on them – now, you can at least experience a comparison chart that will give you over 50 features, I think it’s about 55 features and how they relate to other chairs, and you can start to get a good knowledge base of what’s going on with those chairs, and maybe kind of point you in the right direction of a chair, especially if you can’t sit on one to experience it. Also, what I – oh, by the way, I forgot to mention to you – the ‘Black’ Osaki OS-7000 is back ordered for about another two weeks. As of the 15th of this month, they were back ordered four weeks and that was a couple of weeks ago, so a couple more weeks and you should have ‘Black’ OS-7000 in stock. Also, I should mention the – I get, there’s two things that I kind of wanted to talk about – two points that affect a lot of people that shop massage chairs. Number one is ‘White Glove Delivery.’
[SCREEN TEXT: Chair Problems at Time of Delivery?]
Alan: Now, when it comes to ‘White Glove Delivery’ or any type of delivery, when you get a massage chair, you will expected to sign off on the chair once it’s been delivered to your – either your curbside, your home, or brought inside your home and set up in the case of a ‘White Glove Delivery’ – do not sign that piece of paper unless you are sure that you feel comfortable with the chair. And now, you can’t really tell if it’s a curbside delivery, but if that box is banged up beyond recognition, well, make a note of that on that sheet when you sign for it. If you don’t, then you can – the shipping company cannot be held liable for that – you have to make a mention of it on that form. Now, if it’s a ‘White Glove Delivery,’ and they bring it in your home and you see that there is a bad tear on the chair or something overtly wrong, and maybe even turn the chair on while the delivery guys are still there, and make sure that it at least turns on. If that is the case, mention that. Either call me right away or call the manufacturing company right away, and let them know that there’s a problem or if you can’t get a hold of us or can’t get a hold of somebody, make a note a note on that piece of paper, before you sign it, that says ‘Chair not working’ or ‘Rip in the upholstery’ or ‘Piece missing’ – or who knows what – or ‘Wrong color’ or whatever the case may be. And you never know, with shipping and with parts that come from around the world, you never know what’s going to be wrong. There’s – very little is there something wrong, I don’t mean to frighten you or scare you, but very seldom is there something wrong – but if there is something wrong, make a note of it so that if the company needs to come back to the shipper to make amends, it’s on there documented that there was a problem, by the shippers. So, that’s just good advice for you if you order a massage chair or for anything that you order that’s expensive and comes through the mail. Now, the other thing that I wanted to mention to you is I get a phone call – gee, on the average maybe once a week – from somebody that says ‘Hey, I bought this Brand X massage chair, and it came, you know, I got it on eBay or I bought it from a website and it had a 10-year warranty and it was only $1995, and now I can’t get a hold of anybody. Something’s wrong with the chair, can’t get a hold of the people, the phone is disconnected’ or ‘The website’s not there anymore.’
[SCREEN TEXT: Too Good To Be True? An Offer You Can’t Refuse? RUN!!!]
Alan: Well, duh. I’m just going to warn you, if you get a chair that has got a – that’s a cheap chair with a huge warranty and it’s a no-name brand too – I mean, run, turn and run. We’ve taught our kids that ‘R’ in movies means to run. It’s the same with massage chairs that have very, very low prices and very, very phenomenal-sounding warranties, ‘R’ for run, avoid those because you’re going to run in to problems down the road. Now, we have enough problems with the brand name chairs that have issues with technology or with – something wrong with a part or whatnot – there’s enough of that to go around and the warranties do cover that, and that warranty coverage is fantastic. But, the standard warranty is one year, parts and labor, in home, with two years parts and three years structure, or a three-year-full, parts-and-labor warranty, in home, like Panasonic and Inada have, those are standard. Some companies even have less warranties for some of their chairs, but when you get in to something like a 10-year warranty on a chair that’s $1995, and the reason I’m bringing up this example is because I had a call about this a couple weeks ago. I actually wrote a blog about it, because it just bugs me because I know that something’s going to go with that chair, A, and B, good luck getting support and if you do get a hold of somebody for support, you know what the warranty’s going to be, ‘Well, you just go ahead and ship that chair on back to us over here in, you know, Timbuktu, and we will fix that chair for you, and then you pay for shipping back.’ You know, it’s going to cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars with those types of warranties, if you even can get that warranty activated. So, I’ve been in this business for 10 years – about 10 years, give or take a few months between my chiropractic where we had the chairs, and now my website, and now my showroom – and I have yet to see, yet, not a once seen a chair that had a phenomenal warranty for a dirt bag-cheap price that fulfilled their warranty. And when I talk about a phenomenal warranty, I’m talking like 5 or 10 years, everything covered, so that’s my warranty and my red flag to you, if you see something like that, remember the ‘R,’ run. Or give me a call first, maybe it’s a name brand chair that has a real special warranty and then maybe there’s some extenuating circumstances, but you know what, I bet my bottom dollar it’s all, it’s just malarkey. So anyway, for what it’s worth, take that for what it’s worth. I think that is about it for the massage chair industry this week, or the last couple of weeks. I’m not aware of any new models coming out, the 7200H from Osaki started to gain some traction, I’m getting more and more calls on that. Remember it’s the exact same chair as the 6000, it’s not like the 7000. They had the 6000, then they brought out the 7000, now they got the 7200, which is not the 7000, but like the 6000, but with heat. So, that chair’s starting to gain some traction. If you have any questions about any of those chairs or any other chair, give me a call. Even if it’s a chair we don’t carry, I do usually have some feedback from my own experience or from my customers or people I’ve spoken to on the phone about every model out there. And I can hopefully give you some feedback and help you in your quest for getting the best chair for the best dollar, and you can always reach me. Again, my name is Dr. Alan Weidner, you can reach me on my cell phone at 801-651-2026 or call us toll-free at 888-259-5380. If you enjoyed this video or any of our other videos, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and then you’ll be updated every time I put out a new video. Also, if you like what I have to say and like what we teach on our videos, ‘Like’ us on Facebook, ‘Share’ us on Facebook, share us to your Twitter following, we invite that and we appreciate that very, very much. Again, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from Massage-Chair-Relief and we’ll talk to you in another couple of weeks. We’ll see you. Bye bye.
Here is a link to this Massage Chair Industry Update.
