A Treadmill Story
Well, beings that Germany is coming up in a couple months and knowing how much walking one does in Europe, Sharon and I have decided to work on the exercise bit again. Our strategy at this point is to walk on the treadmill. And that has, in fact, been the plan since the first of January, but unfortunately, implementing the plan has turned out to be quite an ordeal.
Dr. G had been paying for a membership at the gym for me, but with my school schedule, I found that to be more of a liability than an asset for a variety of reasons. So I canceled the membership.
Dr. G was not impressed that I had canceled it, and he had no qualms about telling me so; a day later, he came into my office and offered that he would buy me a membership to go swimming at the pool where he goes swimming. Sorry--NOT interested. At all.
Sharon and I decided that our living room is really serving no useful purpose at this time of our lives, and so why not convert it into a mini-gym? So at the first of the year, we bought this treadmill at Sears because we were not about to go tromping across the road to Martin's house to use Sara's old treadmill.
And no, we did not buy the service agreement with the machine. An extra couple hundred dollars is no easy thing to part with—especially while in college. Besides, it had a year's warranty on the parts with it already. Sharon is a great furniture assembler (and I'm an even better gopher-girl), so we thought we had what it took to get the thing up and running.
We borrowed Martin's "new" 4 Runner to transport the thing home. Our troubles began with getting the thing loaded at Sears, even though it was their guy who was doing the loading. Number one, we couldn't figure out how to open his back door, so we had to call Martin for instructions. You'd think there'd be a handle on the door! Number two, the box was so bulky, we didn't think it was even going to fit right at first because of the wheel wells. We all three shoved on it until it finally fit. And this was one of the coldest nights of the season, I might add.
We got Martin to help us transfer it to our little "pod in the sod." We decided the most logical thing was to slide it down the stairs while still in the box; so that's what we did. Well, evidently something got jostled at some point in transport because when we opened the box, the drink holder was busted.
Well, we were not going to accept a broken treadmill, so I called Nordic Track's customer service, and they promised to send two new parts for us. Now, to get to the serial number to make the call in the first place, I had to raise the belt part of the treadmill, and it was too late before I realized that it was not clearing the base part like it should have been. And the base broke in the midst of all the lifting, etc., although we didn't realize it until much later.
The one part came, but the second one just wouldn't show up. We finally decided to go ahead and fix the busted water holder and just use the old set of bars--who knew if or when they were actually going to come?--and we spent a good portion of time doing just that. And we accomplished it and beheld that it was good. And then we tried to lift the belt into Space Saver mode. And that's when we discovered the base was actually broken. ARGH! We were NOT willing to put up with any more replacement parts!
So one Friday, after our German class, I snagged Sharon before she went to work, and we headed over to Sears where we subsequently proceeded to voice our displeasures over the whole thing. They suggested we just exchange it for a different one (which is the very minimum we were going to suggest if it came down to it). They told us to bring the old one in, and they would swap it out.
After some consulting between the two of us, we decided we would go ahead and pay them the twelve bucks to have the new one assembled. And with all our troubles, we also decided we would just bite the bullet and go ahead and get the service agreement--and by golly, we were going to walk the fire out of that thing to get our money's worth. We thought about getting them to deliver it, but the lady said it would cost us ANOTHER $120 dollars to have that done, and we just weren't willing to go there.
So the next day, we attempted to manhandle the treadmill up the stairs. We had never finished assembling the thing and thought it would be easier to get it up the stairs without the extra weight. Now, we knew it would be too heavy to just pick up and carry, so we began to explore other options. If we could just get it up the stairs, we'd be alright.
We had decided to take Mom's van instead of the 4 Runner this time, as it was wider and roomier. We took both of the back seats out and decided we would even be nice and clean and vacuum it out. We got it all ready to go, then went to the task of figuring out how to raise the dead treadmill.
Then I had the brilliant idea to put two planks we had out in the garage along the sides of the steps and just roll that puppy right up (it had wheels). And so that's what we did. And it was such a good idea. Except that the planks weren't long enough to span the whole stairs. But it was only a couple steps short and surely we could bump it up until we hit the concrete surface of the garage floor. And we proceeded in that manner. We ran into a problem, however; when we were at the very top step and about to "slide into home plate," we discovered that alas! it was TOO WIDE to go through the doorway, and because it was in its disassembled state, we could not, in fact, turn it on its side.
Going up those stairs was bad enough, but going down? I declare, I thought Sharon was going to burst a blood vessel. She was NOT impressed with my very good idea of rolling it up those steps. She was on the bottom end and was actually in a very precarious position. Oh, but we grunted and shoved and moaned and groaned!! Ticked off!!!
Finally, we made it back down to the bottom and were oh, so mad! So I felt responsible to come up with another good idea. I thought that in Plan B, we could possibly run the two planks up the middle of the steps, turn the treadmill on its side with its base on a carpet, then pull it up the steps on the carpet. I just knew it was bound to work, but Sharon was all of a sudden willing to pay Sears to come deliver the new one and pick the old one up. So as the sweat dripped from my brow, I decided that I was suddenly willing too.
So we made the humbling call to Sears and said it shall be done thus and such, and thus and such is simply the way it was going to be, and subsequently, that is the way it was.
We went on up to fill out the paperwork on it; it turned out that instead of $120, it was only going to cost us $60. And we signed our paperwork with the flourish of experienced signers, then turned and walked into the midst of the women's clothing, chortling with glee. It was absolutely worth $60--if they only knew we had been willing to pay $120, no questions asked. And if they only knew what THEY were going to be getting into! Har har har.
And that's the story of our treadmill. The bummer of the whole thing is that if we had gotten the service agreement to begin with, they would've had to come to our house to fix the thing on site, and it would've saved us the hassle and the $60!
Did I mention my arches hurt? And we've still got a whole lot of walking to do!
Dr. G had been paying for a membership at the gym for me, but with my school schedule, I found that to be more of a liability than an asset for a variety of reasons. So I canceled the membership.
Dr. G was not impressed that I had canceled it, and he had no qualms about telling me so; a day later, he came into my office and offered that he would buy me a membership to go swimming at the pool where he goes swimming. Sorry--NOT interested. At all.
Sharon and I decided that our living room is really serving no useful purpose at this time of our lives, and so why not convert it into a mini-gym? So at the first of the year, we bought this treadmill at Sears because we were not about to go tromping across the road to Martin's house to use Sara's old treadmill.
And no, we did not buy the service agreement with the machine. An extra couple hundred dollars is no easy thing to part with—especially while in college. Besides, it had a year's warranty on the parts with it already. Sharon is a great furniture assembler (and I'm an even better gopher-girl), so we thought we had what it took to get the thing up and running.
We borrowed Martin's "new" 4 Runner to transport the thing home. Our troubles began with getting the thing loaded at Sears, even though it was their guy who was doing the loading. Number one, we couldn't figure out how to open his back door, so we had to call Martin for instructions. You'd think there'd be a handle on the door! Number two, the box was so bulky, we didn't think it was even going to fit right at first because of the wheel wells. We all three shoved on it until it finally fit. And this was one of the coldest nights of the season, I might add.
We got Martin to help us transfer it to our little "pod in the sod." We decided the most logical thing was to slide it down the stairs while still in the box; so that's what we did. Well, evidently something got jostled at some point in transport because when we opened the box, the drink holder was busted.
Well, we were not going to accept a broken treadmill, so I called Nordic Track's customer service, and they promised to send two new parts for us. Now, to get to the serial number to make the call in the first place, I had to raise the belt part of the treadmill, and it was too late before I realized that it was not clearing the base part like it should have been. And the base broke in the midst of all the lifting, etc., although we didn't realize it until much later.
The one part came, but the second one just wouldn't show up. We finally decided to go ahead and fix the busted water holder and just use the old set of bars--who knew if or when they were actually going to come?--and we spent a good portion of time doing just that. And we accomplished it and beheld that it was good. And then we tried to lift the belt into Space Saver mode. And that's when we discovered the base was actually broken. ARGH! We were NOT willing to put up with any more replacement parts!
So one Friday, after our German class, I snagged Sharon before she went to work, and we headed over to Sears where we subsequently proceeded to voice our displeasures over the whole thing. They suggested we just exchange it for a different one (which is the very minimum we were going to suggest if it came down to it). They told us to bring the old one in, and they would swap it out.
After some consulting between the two of us, we decided we would go ahead and pay them the twelve bucks to have the new one assembled. And with all our troubles, we also decided we would just bite the bullet and go ahead and get the service agreement--and by golly, we were going to walk the fire out of that thing to get our money's worth. We thought about getting them to deliver it, but the lady said it would cost us ANOTHER $120 dollars to have that done, and we just weren't willing to go there.
So the next day, we attempted to manhandle the treadmill up the stairs. We had never finished assembling the thing and thought it would be easier to get it up the stairs without the extra weight. Now, we knew it would be too heavy to just pick up and carry, so we began to explore other options. If we could just get it up the stairs, we'd be alright.
We had decided to take Mom's van instead of the 4 Runner this time, as it was wider and roomier. We took both of the back seats out and decided we would even be nice and clean and vacuum it out. We got it all ready to go, then went to the task of figuring out how to raise the dead treadmill.
Then I had the brilliant idea to put two planks we had out in the garage along the sides of the steps and just roll that puppy right up (it had wheels). And so that's what we did. And it was such a good idea. Except that the planks weren't long enough to span the whole stairs. But it was only a couple steps short and surely we could bump it up until we hit the concrete surface of the garage floor. And we proceeded in that manner. We ran into a problem, however; when we were at the very top step and about to "slide into home plate," we discovered that alas! it was TOO WIDE to go through the doorway, and because it was in its disassembled state, we could not, in fact, turn it on its side.
Going up those stairs was bad enough, but going down? I declare, I thought Sharon was going to burst a blood vessel. She was NOT impressed with my very good idea of rolling it up those steps. She was on the bottom end and was actually in a very precarious position. Oh, but we grunted and shoved and moaned and groaned!! Ticked off!!!
Finally, we made it back down to the bottom and were oh, so mad! So I felt responsible to come up with another good idea. I thought that in Plan B, we could possibly run the two planks up the middle of the steps, turn the treadmill on its side with its base on a carpet, then pull it up the steps on the carpet. I just knew it was bound to work, but Sharon was all of a sudden willing to pay Sears to come deliver the new one and pick the old one up. So as the sweat dripped from my brow, I decided that I was suddenly willing too.
So we made the humbling call to Sears and said it shall be done thus and such, and thus and such is simply the way it was going to be, and subsequently, that is the way it was.
We went on up to fill out the paperwork on it; it turned out that instead of $120, it was only going to cost us $60. And we signed our paperwork with the flourish of experienced signers, then turned and walked into the midst of the women's clothing, chortling with glee. It was absolutely worth $60--if they only knew we had been willing to pay $120, no questions asked. And if they only knew what THEY were going to be getting into! Har har har.
And that's the story of our treadmill. The bummer of the whole thing is that if we had gotten the service agreement to begin with, they would've had to come to our house to fix the thing on site, and it would've saved us the hassle and the $60!
Did I mention my arches hurt? And we've still got a whole lot of walking to do!
posted by Kris at 3/10/2006 12:51:00 AM
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