Transcript of Video Titled “Massage Chair Industry Update – February 14, 2017”

[SCREEN TEXT: SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube Channel and be Notified of Each New Massage Chair Video!]

Alan: Hi, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com’ and today is our biweekly massage chair industry update for Tuesday, February 14th, 2017.

[SCREEN TEXT: Happy Valentine’s Day!!]

Alan: Happy Valentine’s to you and your loved ones. Let’s get on with it right away.

[SCREEN TEXT: Stock Status]

Alan: We have, as far as stock goes, the Novo XT has been – we’ve seen, we just had problems with getting that shipment in – they were supposed to be having a shipment come in two weeks ago, and then it was last week, and now this week, and last I’ve heard, they’re coming in on the 20th, so which is gee, I think that’s the beginning of next week. So, anyway, the Novo XT is back-ordered. We’re also back-ordered on the Titan Executive, which we have been for a while. The Titan Executive is a fairly popular chair because of its low price point, and having the 3D massage, but that chair should be in within the next week or two.

[SCREEN TEXT: Human Touch Navitas Sleep Discontinued]

Alan: And also, I might mention that the Human Touch Navitas Sleep has been discontinued, so they’re selling out their existing stock, and then they are going to be done with that chair altogether. I’m a little disappointed, I really like that chair, I love the calf massage, you know, the rollers on both sides of the calves. I liked the 36 programs it has, it was really, I thought it was a great chair, but anyway, that chair has been discontinued. So, existing stock aside, that chair will not be available farther.

[SCREEN TEXT: Ogawa Sale Ends 2/15/17]

Alan: OK, the Ogawa sale, Ogawa extended their sale, or began a new sale on February 2nd, and it goes until tomorrow, kind of late notice, and I’m sorry, it’s been on the website. But you get $500 off on the Ogawa Smart 3D, you also get, I think, $400 off on the Ogawa Active, and $300 off, or $200 or something, off on the Ogawa Refresh, but that is until tomorrow only.

[SCREEN TEXT: Pre-Owned Chairs Listing]

Alan: And speaking of Ogawa Smart 3D, on my pre-owned directory – we haven’t had a lot of chairs up there, and when the chairs go up, they sell pretty quick – I just put up two new ones yesterday, we have an Ogawa Smart 3D in ‘Black’ that’s not even three months old, and we’re selling that one for $4999, regularly $6999. It’s in great, perfect shape, it was a local sale in our California showroom, and that chair has been returned, and is packaged up and ready to go. It’s ‘Black,’ and that includes free shipping, and of course, the remainder of the three-year, parts-and-labor warranty, which the Ogawa Smart 3D comes with, a three-year, parts-and-labor, in-home warranty. Also on our pre-owned directory, we have a ‘Brown’ Luraco iRobotics 7, which is, again, under three months old. It is, again, also in perfect condition, ready to ship, free shipping, free curbside delivery with that chair, and of course, the remainder of the warranty, so that is, that covers those things. Now, we don’t have any new models coming out right now. I hear rumblings of other models from Osaki. I know that Infinity has changed some things around over there, and we may be able to finally get a 3D L-track from Infinity. I love Infinity’s chairs, and they have a few models that are just, that we consistently sell quite a few of, the IT-8500, the IT-8500X3, and the Iyashi have been consistent sellers for years, we just don’t have a 3D L-track from them. They do have a 3D L-track in the RiageX3, which you can get at Brookstone, or go take a look at it anyway, but hopefully we’ll be getting something from Infinity. And then of course, the Luraco Legend, people are calling about that chair, because I mentioned, from my visit to the Consumer Electronics Show in January, that chair will not be available until third quarter, and so I would, you know, be very, very conservative on a guess, and suggest that maybe end of third quarter, beginning of fourth quarter. I hope to visit Dallas, and see Luraco over the next couple months sometime, and kind of get an update on that chair. And then if you also remember, when I was at CES, they had another chair there, I can’t even remember what it was called. I don’t even think I got the name, but it’s like a home-theater chair, lesser-priced chair, but they’ve introduced that model too, and I don’t know anything about that one. So, I’ll learn more about that chair with you.

[SCREEN TEXT: Article: Massage Chair Warranty Coverage in Hawaii]

Alan: On my blog, I’ve recently a couple of articles, one that talks about warranty, chair warranty coverage in Hawaii, and this became an issue because we always understood that the massage chair companies would cover their extended warranty in Hawaii, as well as they would in the continental US, because I figured they had techs in Hawaii. But as it turns out, they don’t all have coverage, or at least the same coverage, in Hawaii. Some just have parts, some have parts and labor within a circumference, or a radius of distance around Honolulu. Another company doesn’t cover at all, another company does have coverage on all the islands. So, anyway, you can read that blog post on my blog about the Hawaiian warranty stuff.

[SCREEN TEXT: Article: Massage Chairs that Fit 6′ 3″ or Taller]

Alan: And I just posted a blog post yesterday chairs that are fit for people that are 6′ 3″ or taller. And the gist of the blog post is that a lot of chair companies say that their chairs will fit someone that’s 6′ 3″, or 6′ 4″, or 6′ 5″, and in fact they will fit their bodies, but the roller will not come high enough to give them a good neck massage. So, a good example would be the Osaki Summit, the Osaki Summit says it’ll fit up to 6′ 4″, but my experience is that it will only really do a good neck – and it will fit someone that’s 6′ 4″, but the head goes up so high that the rollers don’t come all the way up the, and so you don’t get – you only get massage maybe at the top of the, well, at the top of the shoulders for someone who’s 6′ 3″, you don’t get a full neck massage. Well, there are chairs that do massage the neck for taller bodies, and I think I mention six of them in the article, six of our most popular ones right now. So, take a look at that article if you’re 6′ 3″ or taller, or you’re buying a chair for your home, and one of the folks in your home is 6′ 3” or taller.

[SCREEN TEXT: Buyer Beware: No-Name-Brand Chairs Warranty and Support]

Alan: OK, now, I just kind of want to, that’s it for news and whatnot, but I want to talk a little bit about warranties of no-name brands. I get called a lot, and I always have, and I’ve talked about this before in this industry update, I’ve talked about it on my blog, but there are what we consider no-name brands out in the marketplace, and I won’t mention names. But there’s brands that they only sell through their own website, or through their own, you know, they go to, either they do trade shows, or they have a website. They don’t have an actual channel, a channel of distribution that’s more typical for the brand-name chairs, like they don’t have many online retailers, if any. They don’t promote their chairs through online retailers, or through a distribution network. But anyway, and I’ve got no problem with the chairs, unless – well, I take that back – some of them are pretty cheaply made. There’s maybe three, four, or five factories in China that are considered, you know, kind of the top factories in China, and like chairs like Osaki, and Ogawa, and Cozzia, and Infinity, and Human Touch are made in those factories, but there’s a lot of chairs that come out of lesser-known factories. Smaller factories, factories that may not have the quality control perfected, like some – or not that anybody’s got it perfected – but the quality control as elaborate as these bigger factories. And so, some people can import chairs from these little factories, but we see, we find that a lot of these lesser, these chairs that come from lesser factories, or smaller factories, or lesser-known factories have a higher failure rate.

[SCREEN TEXT: 7-Day Return Policy??]

Alan: But anyway, there’s something that I just kind of wanted to warn people about. Number one is the return policies. So, the two, OK, two things that you should always investigate when you’re looking at a massage chair is the return policy, and the warranty. Now, I’ll talk about return policy quickly, because I notice one website says that you have seven days to return your chair, from the time that you receive it. Well, my experience in getting chairs packed up and shipped, is that it takes a lot longer than a week. The shipment from the house, back to the company, may take a week, but the chances of you having your chair packed up, boxed up, strapped up, ready for delivery, is – that’s going to take you probably a day – then you got to make arrangements with the shipping company to come pick it up, and then have it delivered to where you’re going to send it back to, and that’s going to take a week. So, as soon as the chair arrives, that gives you virtually no time, or maybe a few hours the first day, to try out the chair, and a lot of people don’t really know if they like a chair the first little while. They want to sit on the bloody thing for maybe a few weeks. So, if you’ve got a massage chair company that’s offering you a seven-day return policy, like you have to have the chair back to them, within seven days of you receiving it, well, that’s almost impossible. Unless you can drive it yourself there, or you live in the next state, and the shipping company can get it to them, you know, in a couple, three days. Even if you live in the same state, like sometimes when we ship a chair from Los Angeles to San Francisco, sometimes that takes a week, and it’s a six-hour drive. So, anyway, be very leery of return policies like that.

[SCREEN TEXT: 10-Year Warranty!?!?!]

Alan: Secondly, these warranties, some of these warranties are very non-descript. It’ll say something like ‘Oh, we have a five-year warranty,’ or ‘We have a 10-year warranty.’ Well, what does that mean, and then you read the fine print, and some of the fine print is very, very I don’t know, it’s not really detailed, and so you don’t know what exactly is covered, you don’t know if – like make sure – OK, is it an in-home warranty, or do you have to ship the chair back if there’s a problem? If you have to ship the chair back, is that at your expense, or does the massage chair company pay for that? If it’s an in-home warranty, do they really come to your home, or do they just send parts to your home, and you have to do it yourself, or if they do have an in-home warranty, and they do send a tech to you, are you responsible for paying for part of that in the factory warranty? Also, if a company tells you they have a 10-year warranty, that to me is a red flag right away, a 10-year warranty on a $2000 chair, or a $2500 chair, there’s got to be something to it, and usually there is. Usually, it’s something like 10 years frame, and 10 years frame coverage, I mean, I could offer 20 years frame coverage. The frame hardly ever, there’s hardly anything that ever goes wrong with a frame of a chair. I think in my 12 years of business, I’ve seen one frame that has not been right, and that was a Panasonic chair had been damaged in production, and there was no damage to the frame from like, I mean, it just didn’t wear down, it was damaged from production, so it came damaged. But if someone’s leading off with a frame warranty, dig deeper, make sure that you understand what the warranty is, for parts, labor, what you have to do if that chair has to be returned, or if they have to replace it. Or I mean, are they going to send you parts, and then expect you to pay for the parts back, when it’s their parts that are the problem? They should be taking the parts back. Anyway, so there’s all this stuff that come on with warranties, and you don’t think about these things because all you see is the deal. ‘Wow, I can get this amazing chair, with all these features, for $2500, and I can compare it to another chair that’s $3500.’ Well, number one, is it coming from a good factory, or is it coming from a cheap factory, or a not-so-good factory? Two, is the warranty great, or is the warranty kind of, something’s not right with the warranty? Make sure that you understand what the warranty coverage is. And also, what is the return policy? Do you have seven days to try the chair out, and pack it up, and ship it back? Very few people, if any, will get a chair back within seven days, and have enough time to try it out, and really know if they like it. So, we have a 90-day money-back guarantee, duh, for that very reason, because sometimes it takes people two months to know if they really want to get a chair or not, or want that chair or not. But anyway, I’m just telling you this stuff because I’ve run in to many, many situations where people have disappointed, or let down, or angry, or wanting to file lawsuits, because they didn’t understand what they were getting in to. And ultimately, you have to be the one responsible for knowing what you’re getting yourself in to. Call the company, check reviews online, read the fine print in their warranties, and if something’s not clear, call them up, yeah, just be careful. That’s all I’m saying, buyer beware, and if you have any questions, give me a call. I mean, I certainly will not tell you if one chair’s crappy or not, because a lot of these chairs I don’t know, I’ve never sat in them. But I can tell you if the warranty’s a bit goofy, I can tell you if their return policy’s a little bit too restrictive. Anyway, I’d be happy to help you out. Anyway, but that’s about it, I just wanted to, that’s my soapbox for this week. I hope you don’t mind, but hopefully it’ll save somebody some trouble, that’s listening to this, and watching this video.

[SCREEN TEXT: Please “Thumbs Up” Like This Video!!]

Alan: Well, that should just about do it. I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com.’ If you found this video helpful, please feel free to thumbs up ‘Like’ us on our YouTube channel, and of course, share this video on your social media platforms, whether it’s Twitter, or Facebook, or Google Plus, or LinkedIn. We appreciate you helping us spread the word about massage chairs. Have a fantastic day, and I will see you again in two weeks. Bye bye.

Click on the following link to watch this Massage Chair Industry Update on our YouTube channel.