The NordicTrack Commercial X11i Review Part 2 - No True On-Board Workouts - Deceptive Advertising by NordicTrack
So now that I have a working treadmill, I began checking out all the features, making sure everything works and does what was advertised. I actually started this before but since I did not know if the control module controls anything but the belt, I waited to do a full check after we got the belt working.
If you go to the NordicTrack website, it will tell you that the treadmill comes with 44 On-Board Workout Programs. The reviews I read said it came with 44 Built-In Programs, but for the life of me, I could not find out where these workouts were at on the treadmill console.
I scoured the User Manual. It does not mention at all how to access the built-in programs. I went out to both myfitnesshelp.com (NordicTrack support site) and Ifit.com's support page and did a search on "on-board workouts" and nothing came back telling me how to find them. Surely I am not the only one who has asked this question.
One of the reasons I chose this treadmill was for the 44 built-in programs. I live in the country and my WiFi and reception are limited. I called NordicTrack back and asked them where they were at. The tech could not help me. She had no reference on how I could find them and told me I needed to call iFit. I said "No, I am talking about the pre-built workouts" not the iFit workouts. She informed that would still be iFit as they handled all the software for the NordicTrack. She gave me their number and told me that I could not call them on Saturday because they are closed. I had to wait until today (Monday to talk to them).
I called them and again, I am waiting forever on the phone to talked to someone. While I was waiting, there was background music playing which was fine but every 20 seconds or so, a voice would interrupt the music to tell you to "go here" or "do that" like a mini commercial for their products. It was so annoying. I actually would have preferred to just listen to the music because each time the voice interrupted there was a break such that you thought a real person was coming on the line, but no, so it felt like a million false positives.
I said "You are joking right? How is that on-board?" The response I got back was "Well it is on-board, not just the "on-board" on how I am used to it being on-board". In other words completely false or certainly deceptive advertising.
The way I am told you have to access the "on-board" workouts is that you have to connect to the Internet and then you click on browse icon and that is where your "pre-built" workouts are located. You do NOT have access to these workouts if you are NOT connected to the Internet.
I expressed my displeasure at this - what I consider to be false advertising and of course they are sorry for the miscommunication and my misunderstanding and confusion, etc. Basically, a bunch of BS
This is so NOT cool and a couple of things need to happen.
- First, they need to correct this on the website and warn people that this is the case.
- Second, they need to correct this in their user manual. Having this in the User Manual certainly would have saved me a lot of useless manhours on the phone with them and searching the internet for the answer.
Honestly, I would not have bought this treadmill had I known this fact because, in my situation, the value of the treadmill came in the fact that I had 44 workouts I could use without connecting to the Internet.
What is more, I read and watch all the reviews I could find on this treadmill and nobody mentioned this fact, and these were supposedly "professional reviews". It astounds me that no one would have called attention to this. Hence my long multi-part review - to make others aware of it. There are no reviews on the NordicTrack treadmill and once more, there is no place for me to put a review letting other consumers know about this.
One YouTube review that I saw was of an older model (the 2950) and he explains how they don't tell you where or how to access the onboard workouts and he showed on his model how you click this runner icon. I thought it would be something similar for my model.
So just know, if you buy this model, you NEED Internet access to do almost anything with. I am thinking the only thing you can do without the Internet is the manual workout and for a $2000 treadmill, I find that to be truly pathetic.
At this point, I feel that my $800 treadmill that I had since 2011 and gave to my parents in December had more features and functionality than this treadmill. You can read my review of that by searching treadmill. on my blog.
I will be back in about a month with another review (part 3) of this treadmill after I have used it more. Thus far, I have only done two workouts. Needless to say, at this point, I am disappointed in this whole experience with NordicTrack and the treadmill itself.
Comments
Post a Comment