Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have a FitDesk 2 and love it, wrote a 5-star review for it. I bought the under desk elliptical for my office, thinking the quality would be the same. It did not arrive with any visible damage, but the unit is too stiff to pedal even on the lowest setting, and makes a squeal and hiss.from inside the mechanism. It feels like it is grinding against something when trying to pedal. I contacted FitDesk's customer service twice before getting a response, and that response was my question (how do I fix this?) was forwarded to a tech, who has not responded. I wasn't given the tech's contact information. My only real option is to return this item at this point. UPDATE: Customer service finally got in touch with me, and wrote back that the mechanism was faulty. They said they would send me a new one. One arrived yesterday, and it knocks continuously on the left side. It also is not new; it has scratches and dirt on the floor-side of the mechanism, and oil stains by the pedal shaft and on the brand sticker from where someone presumably tried to fix the knocking my lubricating the pedal. I think I was given someone else's returned defective unit.