Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After reading reviews of this rowing machine, I was thrilled to order one as my birthday present to myself. In college, I learned what great exercise rowing is; it exercises most muscle groups without pounding your knees or exposing you to traumatic injuries. I loved that this machine is so quiet I could watch TV while rowing. And I knew my wife would love that it folds up when not in use. Having now received TWO defective units -- the first with the pull cord on the side, not the middle, so it was being ripped to shreds with every pull, and the second with a monitor that gave me an "E1" error message the first time I turned it on and then refused to ever power on again -- I could not be more bitterly disappointed in this product that seemed so promising. I must have gotten unlucky that both units were defective. But any product with so high a defect rate that any customer could receive two defective units is unlikely to last long. The build quality is obvious just from the metal "Made in Taiwan" plate glued onto the machine at a 15-degree angle. Even worse, though my attempts to address these problems were responded to, the responses proved completely unhelpful. Carolina Fuentes at Cap Barbell -- Velocity Fitness is their sub-brand -- replied to my emails but wasn't able to fix either problem. For the first problem, she emailed: "attached is a pic of what the cord is supposed to be placed. that is not correct behavior and its better to exchage the unit instead of tryin to fix it." After several back-and-forths on the second problem, she put me in touch with the manufacturer (proteus.fitness@gmail.com) who emailed this: "First, please allow us to grant our appreicate to your support our production. Regarding of this situation, our QC made a few studying for the possible reason. From your description, machine dysfuntuion could be as following issue 1. Monitor drawback: the whole machine is control by monitor system. change a new monitor could be a result. 2. Motor is jammed or build-in electric circuit burned by rapidly frequently power reboot. Change a new motor could be a result. 3. The connect cable is broke or connect pin damaged. Change connect cable could be a result. For the above situation could be the possiblity, also, the plug power source must be check, there is a adaptor with the machine, if not use the same one or not using the adaptor will damage the build in spare part. To exam the all above situation, please contact with the retailer or Amazon E-shop which can send the technician to exam every step. The technician should be bring the following parts to check your machine. A. a new monitor B. a full set of connect cable(include monitor connect cable) ; C. a new motor , D. a new adaptor. We are pay the great care to this case, please keep contact with us the related situation if you may. You also can connect with terry_chen@proteus.com.tw Thanks again for bought our CHR-2001" The manufacturer sold two defective products, expects Amazon to send a technician to fix their defective machines, and can't find even one person to write comprehensible English! I'm depressed I wasted many, many hours unboxing, assembling, disassembling, and re-boxing their unreliable, unsupported machines. The only exercise I got was lugging the heavy machines up and down stairs. It's a promising concept and a promising design. But quality control and customer service are completely non-existent.