Transcript of Video Titled “Massage Chair Industry Update – November 17, 2015”
Alan: Hi, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com’ and boy, have we got a lot of stuff today on our massage chair industry update for Tuesday, November 17th. I’m just going to get right in to it because we’ve got โ like I say, we’ve got a lot to cover โ a lot of good stuff.
[SCREEN TEXT: Stock Status]
Alan: Anyway, as far as stock status goes, I believe that all the chairs are in stock, for the most part. The only one that was back-ordered was the Ogawa Active before, and I believe that they are now in stock. They were in customs last week, they were in the warehouse yesterday, I believe, and so Ogawa Active, all colors, are in stock.
[SCREEN TEXT: California Store Update!]
Alan: The store, we โ the store is really coming along fast now, we’re hoping โ I’m hoping to have it open Black Friday, maybe not.
[SCREEN TEXT: Open Black Friday!!]
Alan: That’ll be what we might call a soft opening, where the staff will still be training, still be learning, I’ll be down there, but if you want to come on Black Friday, down to the store, I’m pretty sure we’ll have all the chairs there by then. I think we should have most, if not all, of the chairs there by then, and then we will have โ and the staff will be there, but will be training โ so you know, I’ll be there anyway, to help take care of things, and it might be a little confusing as we’re learning, you know, to get all the logistics taken care of, in a new store. However, it is exciting, the drywall has been done, the taping has been done, I think that was completed yesterday. The painting, or the tile, and the carpet, should be going in this week, and so it’s actually getting pretty doggone exciting, and of course, we don’t have a site up yet, because of the landlord’s insurance. Remember all the hassles I went through with the insurance, just to get the right insurance for getting the, for the contractor to be able to do work on the property? Well, that same insurance โ and same, it also took me about a month to get liability insurance for my โ for that store, for me, and now the sign guy is having trouble. It takes a week to make a sign, but it’s taken two weeks to figure out how, what kind of โ what the insurance particulars are, and oh, my heavens, it just drags on and on, but I’ll be glad when this is done, but it’s coming fast. So, I’ll be down there โ I’ll be there tomorrow, and Thursday, interviewing people for another position, for the second position. We will be buying the office supplies tomorrow, and getting the store โ getting all the supplies for the store, getting the computer, and the Internet hooked up, and all that sort of thing, but it’s pretty exciting. But December 1st, I think, is our official hard opening, but I will be there for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, which is the busiest weekend of the month for massage chair retail. So, come on down, we’ll certainly make it worth your while to come down, and visit us, but I will be there on Friday,the 27th, and though that weekend.
[SCREEN TEXT: Lifetime Labor Warranty (residential sales only) – Completely Free!]
Alan: Alright, anyway, oh, and last time I talked, two weeks ago โ and I can’t believe it’s already been two weeks โ I told you we had some exciting things that were coming out, and in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve already put it up on the website, and on the YouTube channel, and we’ve written press releases about it. But here is what we have introduced through Massage-Chair-Relief, and I’m so excited about this, because this just really, you know, nails down our commitment to be the best online retailer that we can be, and the best option in the market for buying a massage chair. We are offering now, a free, what I call the ‘Lifetime Labor Warranty (residential sales only)’ on any chair purchased on our website. So, what that means, is that when you purchase a massage chair from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com,’ or from any of our showrooms, you will get โ after the factory warranty, and any extended warranty that you’ve purchased, after those have expired โ you will have free lifetime coverage on your chair, for as long as you own the chair. Now, it’s not transferable, there are some conditions, and you can go on the website to see what those conditions are. We have a new little slider on the homepage, right next to the main sliders, where all the chair specials are, just to the right of that, to those, is the link to that ‘Lifetime Labor Warranty,’ but it’s pretty doggone exciting. The company that takes care of all the labor warranty work for the major massage chair companies, we’ve contracted with them to take care of our customers, after their factory, and extended warranties, have expired. I would still encourage you to get the extended warranties, especially on the Chinese chairs, because that will cover parts for you, and labor, in home, for you know, one or two additional years. Our ‘Lifetime Labor’ is labor only, not parts. So, if you get the parts, if there’s parts available, of course, after a number of years, sometimes parts aren’t even available, but we will take care of the labor for you. And again, there are some conditions, as far as distance, and zip codes, and whatnot, because there’s a network of technicians around the country that will be servicing the chairs, and it just depends on the proximity of your home, or business, to that technician’s place of employ. So, anyway, I’m so excited about this, and you’ll see it on every product page now, underneath the white glove delivery, the extended warranty options, then you will see free, or ‘Lifetime Labor Warranty (residential sales only),’ with a link to the warranty, but it’s already checked off, we value it at about $695, and it’s crossed out, and ‘free’ is put in there. So, that is with every chair purchased from November 1st on, so I’m so excited to offer that, no one’s ever done anything like this, and I hope we can continue to do it. Who knows, when the warranties expire, the factory warranties expire, maybe I’ll be spending every last penny on ‘Labor Warranty,’ but you know you have my word on it, that it’ll get taken care of.
[SCREEN TEXT: New & Improved Return/Exchange Policy!]
Alan: Also, we also made a different โ a change to our refund policy โ and I’ve got a video on this as well, on YouTube, and I’ve talked about it on my blog. But our refund policy is as follows, you have 90 days, from the date of purchase, to get that chair back to our showroom, within 90 days. That is your trial period, if you will, if you’re not sure you want the chair, you’ve got 90 days to decide. Not 30, like everybody else offers, but 90 full days, and if you don’t like the chair, you pack it up, in the original packing material, I hope, ship it back to us, and then you will get a full refund, minus the credit card fees, that’s it, we don’t charge any restocking fees, no handling fees. Well, up until November 1st, you were responsible for the full payment, or the full cost, of the return freight and shipping. So, if it costs $500, you paid $500, you paid for it, and you had to call the UPS, or the you know, Yellow Freight, or whoever freight company it was, that you were going to get to ship it back, and you had to take care of that expense, and it’s not cheap. For those of you who have ever done this, you know it is not cheap to return a massage chair, because it’s heavy, and depending on where you live โ and if you’re in New York, and you’re shipping to California, or Utah โ it’s a hefty expense. Well, guess what we’re doing? We’re going to pay for half of the shipping cost of a returned chair, and we will take care of it, because we have lower shipping contracted, at freight prices. So, we can ship the chair back, at a cheaper, overall price, and we will split that with you. So, instead of $500 to $1000, you’re looking at maybe $200 to $500, depending on where in the country you are, where you are relative to the local terminal, if you’re out in the boonies somewhere, it’s going to be more money. But let’s say it’s $200, you’re going to pay $100, and if it’s $300, you pay $150, and we will deduct that from your refund as well, but this is a phenomenal advancement for us, in our return policy, and we’re very excited, return and exchange. If you want to exchange a chair, we apply the same thing, but that is so doggone exciting. I tell you, I am so excited about this, and it couldn’t come at a better time of the year, with Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, and the Christmas holidays around the corner. We can give you this as a great incentive to get a massage chair, and of course, in a self-serving way, a greater chance of buying from Massage-Chair-Relief, because we do pride ourselves on being at the forefront of massage chair retailing in the country. Alright, enough of that, I’m pretty excited, bottom line, I’m excited about it.
[SCREEN TEXT: Instant $1000 Rebate – Inada Flex 3s]
Alan: OK, now some other stuff, the Inada Flex 3s has got a $1000 instant rebate until the end of December. So, if want to get a Japanese chair, instead of $5999, it’s $4999 for an Inada Flex 3s, a very nice chair, a very wonderful stretch program, a very gentle chair, this is a great chair. It’s not great if you’re really, really tall, or if you want a really, really aggressive massage, but it’s a great chair for a more gentle massage, a more nuanced massage, and an awesome stretch program.
[SCREEN TEXT: November 25 – December 8 – 18 Month, 0% Interest Financing]
Alan: Synchrony Bank, as you know, in the past, there are certain times of the year when Synchrony Bank will lower our processing fees, so that we can offer 18 months, 0% interest financing, and they’re doing it again on November 25th to December 8th. So, if you want 18 months, 0% interest financing, on your new massage chair, order between November 25th and December 8th, and fill out your application, and we’ll get it, you know, we’ll submit it, and find out what you’re approved for, but you’ll be good to go with 18-month financing. Otherwise, we still have 6 or 12-month financing through Synchrony, or 6 months through PayPal Credit.
[SCREEN TEXT: Inada DreamWave Price Increase $8799 on 02/01/16]
Alan: Now, DreamWave price, remember I told you two weeks ago, there was a rumor, that the price was going up? Well, it’s confirmed. This week, I received a confirmation email from Inada, saying that on February 1st, 2016, the price of the DreamWave, the regular, the synthetic leather DreamWave, is going up from $8499 to $8799, and the leather is going up from $9499 to $9799. And it’s been โ it’s been, they didn’t raise the price this last year, probably because in September last year, they introduced the new model, the DreamWave, and discontinued the Sogno DreamWave, and they jacked the price up, at that time, from $7999 to $8499 โ so this is the first price increase in about a year and a half. Anyway, we’ll see how it sells, you know, I always, every year, I used to say ‘Oh, all the sales are going to stop on this chair, because no one’s going to pay that, no one’s going to pay that,’ and that was back when it was $6799. Now, it’s $8799, $2000 more, and I’m sure people will still pay for it, because they want the best.
[SCREEN TEXT: Competition for High-End DreamWave Chair?]
Alan: And but I will say that, there is competition now for the best, you know, the Inada DreamWave has always been known as a great โ one of the best chairs in the world, which I agree with โ the Panasonic MA73 is comparable, as far as quality goes, and now Luraco has come out with their iRobotics 7, which is an American-made chair, with some Taiwanese-imported components. Taiwanese, better than Chinese, maybe not as good as Japanese, but pretty doggone close, and the Luraco chair will give the DreamWave a run for the money. But there’s other chairs that are coming out in this higher crust, upper echelon level of chairs, and I suspect that, of course, there always has to be competition, and I think it’ll be good.
[SCREEN TEXT: Inada Sogno DreamWave is NOT the Inada DreamWave!!]
Alan: Now, here’s a thing I just want to tell you, I get, this is kind of โ this is kind of a bone I have to pick โ I don’t know whether I have to pick it with Inada, or what, but I get a number of calls from people that go on Amazon, and they see an Inada DreamWave, or an Inada Sogno DreamWave, for $6999, up to $7500, somewhere in that price point. And they email me, and they say ‘Hey, can you match this price? Your price is $8499, and the price on Amazon is $6999.’ What people don’t understand, and which I think Inada has failed to educate the customer base about, is that the Inada Sogno DreamWave, the Sogno, S-O-G-N-O, is an old model. It was discontinued over a year ago, and it is outdated. The new DreamWave is the newer chair, and that’s the one that we sell, the new DreamWave. It has a number of different things, different functions about it, including different programming, different looks of the chair, some different hardware features, the DreamWave is an improved, updated chair. The Sogno DreamWave is old, old school, as far as Inada is concerned So, don’t be confused by that. I don’t know why Inada โ Inada told me earlier this year that they โ well, they discontinued it a year ago, but they have been telling us that the stock’s almost gone, stock’s almost gone. Well, now I ask how much โ what the stock is, and I don’t think they’re โ I think they may even be still importing this Sogno DreamWave, just as a comparable, for people that are confused, that they can get away with selling it for the $6999. I don’t know โ I don’t know what’s going on, but it seems like their stock is โ they’re never out of stock. They discontinued it over a year ago, but the stock still continues to be there. So, I’m not quite sure what it is, but please don’t be confused, between the Sogno DreamWave, and the DreamWave, there is a difference, and that’s that. Let’s see, oh, and as far as the new store goes, I forgot to mention, we have links now on our website. If you go down to the bottom of the page, on the left-hand side, there’s a little blurb about each of our stores, like a picture of the storefront, the address, a little box for Google directions, our phone number, and address, but if you click on the store, it’ll link to a page, unique to that store. So, each store has its own unique website page on our website. So, you can click on there, and read about the store, and what’s going on, and whatnot. There’s not much there right now, just basic information, but as we open the store, and as we have our staff going, we’ll have more information on there for you to look at.
[SCREEN TEXT: Infinity Discontinues IT-8100 – Replacement Coming!]
Alan: Alright, now, Infinity announced that they’ve discontinued the IT-8100, there’s not a โ there’s no surprise there โ I think I’ve only sold a couple of those, in the many years that I’ve had it, but they are coming out with a new model that’ll replace it, in that same price point, the $2000 to $3000 price point. I don’t know what the chair is called, I’m not sure when it’s coming out, but it is a โ it’s going to replace the IT-8100 โ and I remember talking to my contact, Mike, over there at Infinite Therapeutics, and he said it’s definitely going to be a more robust, richer feature set of a chair, than the 8100, which is great, and I’m excited to see that.
[SCREEN TEXT: New L-Track Model from Infinity Coming Next Week – Under $3K]
Alan: But also, Infinite Therapeutics is working on another model, and I’m going to bring up the email on this, they โ I just kind of picked Michael’s brain this morning, and asked him if I could talk about this on my website โ on this massage chair industry update, and he said yes. It is a new L-track chair from Infinite Therapeutics. He won’t tell me the name of it yet, and it should be released on Black Friday, and we should have that chair in our showroom, a week later, because we are getting that chair. But it’s going to be priced at $2995, and this is what Michael tells me about it, he says ‘It’s a L-track chair, it will have rollers, and a thumb-heel massager for heel pain, and plantar fasciitis,’ which is awesome, so many people suffer from plantar fasciitis. ‘It’s unlike anything I have ever felt, heat, space saving, and Infinity’s advanced technology and programs.’ So, that’s what this new chair, I don’t know what the name is, it’s an L-track chair, it’ll be out, it looks like, in another week, the tail end of next week. And but, we won’t have it in the showroom on Black Friday, but we should have it the week after. Anyway, Infinite Therapeutics has got this new chair going, or I guess two new models, I just don’t know when the other one’s coming out, or maybe those are the same ones. I’m not sure what the deal is, if the new model that’s replacing the 8100 is this L-track. I’m not clear on that, and maybe I should’ve found out.
[SCREEN TEXT: List of Chairs to be In Our SoCal Showroom]
Alan: But anyway, and we’re also โ oh, here, and I just, I just want โ before I talk about Black Friday, in a little bit more detail, I want to just tell you, these are the chairs we’re going to have in the California showroom, we’re going to have the Inada DreamWave, the Inada Flex 3s, the Inada YuMe, the Panasonic MA73, the Luraco iRobotics 7, the Infinity IT-9800, which is a Taiwanese-made chair, very good for the price, Taiwanese, or sorry, the Infinity IT-8500, the Infinity Iyashi, with the black on black color, the Infinity, this new one, the new L-track chair. We’re going to have the Osaki JP Premium, which is their Japanese chair, made by Fujiiryoki, a great chair for the money. We’re going to have the Apex Ultra, the Titan 8400, the Titan Executive, which is a new model from Titan, and we’re going to have the Ogawa Active, and the Ogawa Refresh. I’ve never had any of those Ogawa chairs in my Utah showroom. We’re going to have two โ their two models in our showroom here, or in California, and that is – Ogawa is the same company as Cozzia, but there’s a whole new line of chairs. If you remember, the Ogawa Active has that SuperTrac, it’s an L-track, but it can flatten out, which is kind of cool, and we are going to have the Human Touch Navitas Sleep, which I’m really excited about. That’s a Japanese designed and engineered chair, with Taiwanese components, assembled in China, figure that one out, but it’s a great chair, it’s the one that has the calf rollers, up and down both calves, I love it, and the ZeroG 5.0, which is a new model, which is a step up from the ZeroG 4.0, which we have here in the Utah showroom. So, we’re going to have about 17 models, we’re going to have a great, great selection of massage chairs, and we want you to come, and try them out, for heaven’s sake, I think they’re going to be just awesome, and it’ll be a great experience. Plus, the showroom, the California showroom, is wider, and longer, so it’s going to be more spacious. Here in Utah, it’s kind of like, you know, you can have one or two paying customers at a time, and it gets kind of tight when people are passing each other between the chairs. Well, now, we’ve got some more space, and it’ll be a little bit more open, and we can accommodate more people.
[SCREEN TEXT: Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale!!]
Alan: OK, now, finally, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, OK, listen, every Black Friday, we have a sale, and I can’t tell you what the sale is, and I’m not even allowed โ if we discount chairs, I’m not allowed to put it on my website, or anything, but you can call the showroom, at 888 โ where’s it at, you can see it behind me, 888-259-5380.
[SCREEN TEXT: 888-259-5380]
Alan: Or, you can go to our website, at the bottom of every page of our website, there in the footer, there is a place where you can download my free report ‘8 Things You Need to Know Before You Invest In A Robotic Massage Chair.’
[SCREEN TEXT: Get On Our Mailing List to Hear About Our Holiday Specials]
Alan: And if you download that, and get on our mailing list, you will receive emails about promo codes, and sales, and discounts, that we can’t put on the website, that we will have available for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. So, I’m just telling you, just saying, if you want to save some money, plus get the free ‘Peace of Mind Labor Warranty,’ and the most awesome return policy in the biz, well then, go download that free report, and get on our mailing list, because you will not be sorry. You will not be sorry for buying from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com.’ Gee, I kind of sound a little cocky, and I don’t mean to be that way. I’m not that way by nature, but I’m pretty doggone excited about what we’re offering, and what it does for our customers, and what it does for the buying base of massage chairs. It gives you some hope that you’re not going to be left stranded, after your warranty’s expired, and you can’t afford to do anything, to fix your chair. And I know customers who have chairs that are just sitting in their homes, because they can’t fix the bloody thing, because they can’t get parts for it, which is one thing altogether different. But they also can’t afford to pay, or don’t know where to get a technician to come out, and fix the darn thing. Anyway, I’m pretty excited about all these things that going on at ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com.’
[SCREEN TEXT: Massage Chair Research Update]
Alan: And as far as the research projects go up at Weaver State University, they just ordered two L-track chairs, two Alpines, and those are going up Thursday, and they are now doing a literature review for the first study. The first study is the one that takes all the data from the last four years, of all the pulse, and temperature, and blood pressure of people that have sat โ before and after chairs โ or you know, how they sat in chairs, and they were measured before and after. I talked about this in previous updates, but that project is coming along slowly, but surely, but we will keep you updated.
[SCREEN TEXT: CALL NOW for Black Friday Specials!]
Alan: Well, doggone it, I think that’s it. I think I’ve pretty much blown your ears out with all of my information today. But listen, if you found the video helpful, please thumbs up ‘Like’ us, and share us on your social media platforms. Tell other people what we’re doing at Massage-Chair-Relief, this is pretty awesome, and especially now with the season coming, and don’t wait to buy your chair. Buy now, and I’ve got some Black Friday specials โ I can give you the Black Friday specials over the phone now โ even though it’s a week before Black Friday, but call me, on this number, hello, and I’ll give you that stuff over the phone. But don’t wait, because color, selection, models, start going down fast right after the โ during that weekend โ so cash in now, before the rush. Well, that’s it, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com,’ 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.