Long read
A little warning, it's a long read because I think bad customer service should be exposed, especially if you are treated very poorly while giving a company all the opportunity in the world to fix something before writing a bad review. The post will hopefully be read by others considering buying a product from Cecotec in Spain.
Remember that treadmill?
Yes, that treadmill that felt like a life saver a week after I ended up at the ER for the extreme high blood pressure. Funnily enough we ordered that treadmill the day before I ended up there, but it took a week for it to arrive. Well, the fun was over quite soon because we had nothing but issues with it from day one which were just not acceptable for a brand new machine, especially not because a mechanic came twice to fix it for hours both times and then it was sent back to the repair centre (several weeks without the machine) and returned with more issues (and they lied about what they did as well).
We wanted to withdraw the sale even though it was beyond the return period, they didn't deliver a decent product in the first place and we gave them 3 opportunities to fix the issue, without result. This was a big item taking in half the bedroom and supposed to help me with my health but instead it became the biggest frustration in the house and later when it was sent back, things got even weirder.
Time for a review
Now that the book is about to be closed, let's review the customer support of Cecotec in Spain. I already told them before they left me hanging without a response for 5 weeks that I was about to write about my experiences, so here you have it as people should be careful dealing with them!
Smooth first repair request
At first, I was super happy that I could get a mechanic to come to our home for a repair super easily on the Cecotec website. That process was so smooth that I told my boyfriend wow, I'm surprised that a budget brand has it all figured out this well to make it easy for their customers. I mean, so many shitty customer service experiences makes you scared to reach out sometimes because you know it's going to give you grey hairs!
Still hopeful
At first, we were still hopeful that this was just a minor thing that caused the treadmill to be so loud that it drove us nuts and I was afraid the neighbours would be knocking on the door every time my boyfriend used it to run. I mean even with a budget model, the model says you can use it to 16 km / hour. Well, even with 5 km/h it made crazy sounds an it really seemed as if they forgot to montage some parts inside that prevented this from happening.
When the mechanic called, we were already waiting for a week or so, annoying but hey this happens, deal with it, right? I was very hopeful the guy would come and find out there's some part missing, not put together properly, whatever and then be done with it.
I felt sorry for the poor man
He was an older man, clearly a professional, came dressed in a suit and I could see that he wanted to examine the issue well so the machine was turned to the side many times, opened, put back together to test and repeat. I felt a bit sad that he had to carry it up and down constantly as the thing was heavy and hard on the back and I surely could not assist him with my bad back.
Every time when he put it back and tested it, the sound was there still, he had a bit of progress but it was short and soon started to make this horrible sound again. He thought it was the oil but my boyfriend already did all of that himself because he's quite technical. It's just that this item was supposed to be brand new and in great state so he said I'm not taking it apart myself because of warranty issues, and I agreed.
First repair: 2,5 hours
After two and a half hours and many test moments, my boyfriend ran on it on 6 km/h and it seemed fixed. The relief on both our and the mechanic's face were easy to spot and we thought this was the end of it. I used it shortly after but I couldn't run even a bit as my knee was still recovering so when I used it it was walking and then it would not make the horrible sound so I had little issues most of the times in the first weeks.
Then my boyfriend used it and the first minute he upped the speed I was about to pull out my hair as the sound was worse than when you scratch your nails over the school board! Damn it! Conclusion, the man has to come back and I went to the website thinking that I could book another repair visit easily as I did the first time.
The first frustrating moment with Cecotec
I went into my personal environment, clicked on the treadmill purchase and there it said "Your item has already been repaired" and some other stupid comment which made me feel very annoyed because there was NO way to navigate through the website AFTER you already had a repair issue. So this whole convenient thing of booking technical support is just valid once, after that, good luck getting in contact!
Time consuming and frustrating
I will summarise what happened since that moment to get a second repair, I had to go through their whatsapp service where every single time when you try to contact them you get no response first, after hours you get a message that you should leave all your data and issue and they contact you asap. Several times, they never get back to you, other times it can take days but at the very least hours. They then tell you they will pass it on to the department and never hear back.
Meanwhile it took weeks before the mechanic came a second time, this time he gave up after 1,5 hours I think because right now the probably also had another sound added to the issue (we suspect he may have not put it back together 100% correctly as we found some foam in the room when boxing it again). But I can't even hold him responsible because in the end he is dealing with a shitty product in the first place and have to figure it out, I hope he doesn't work on a no cure no pay base for them.
To repair centre
The mechanic ordered the item to go back to the repair centre of Cecotec and then we waited for weeks until it was picked up. It was a nightmare to get boxed and not only did I suffer from heavy back issues after, my boyfriend had troubles too because it was not clear how it was packed the first time we opened it. I mean, you don't expect it to be sent back do you?
It took weeks before I received the message it was received, and then just half a day before I received a report that it was fixed and sent back. In the report they spoke about the issue that the motor was broken and it didn't turn on (really?) and something about the belt being replaced by a non branded one (oh?). I decided to wait and see what we'd receive back but this surely raised eyebrows because there was never an issue with the motor! My trust was quite broken at this point and I felt nervous for the moment of delivery.
Worse state
They didn't even bother to put a new box on it or properly close it, no it was sent back with a more damaged box than it was delivered the first time and I was quite stressed about what we'd find inside. My boyfriend said let's be smart and put it up inside the box so we don't have that struggle to box it again if it's not what we expect. Smartest idea ever lol, because he was right, the thing was signed off as replaced motor and new belt while both was a lie! We have proof of the belt being the same because I accidentally damaged it and the scratch was still there.
Many things were off
And we decided the same hour that this thing needed to be taken back and we didn't want the thing anymore. I felt nervous having to deal with them again seeing how "non approachable" they are hiding behind their Virtual Assistant customer support but I totally understood that my boyfriend was not going to pack it again and unpack it and repeat. This item was faulty from the delivery moment and therefore we'd find a loophole to return the product and withdraw the sale. This is where my Dutch attitude comes in handy because our landlady already said, this will never work here.
If only I could get back the time
That I spent on worrying that the item would get "lost" or that they'd keep ignoring my emails and whatsapp update requests. I was constantly ignored or put off with "someone will get back to you asap". And then 5 weeks later, nothing was communicated and for all I knew the treadmill never arrived and they'd leave us hanging.
Bright moment
We had financing for the treadmill because we didn't have the savings for it at the time and decided to buy it with financing spreading it over X months. Half of the item was paid already and if the item is returned the financing will be fully refunded including the insurance that you have to take upon buying the product. I thought let's contact them to see if they have an update and otherwise I may get lucky that a good person reads it and decides to contact Cecotec on my behalf.
I'm so happy I did!
I decided to send the email thread I had about the product withdrawal and them confirming that it was a withdrawal and not a repair, I did this for a reason because I forgot to mention that 30 minutes after our treadmill was picked up, the mechanic ringed the bell for a third repair. I already had the feeling they'd try to treat it as a repair so I made sure the financing company would see what was communicated from Cecotec as well.
Although at first I received the message that they need the company to let them know there's been a return to start the refunding process, coincidence or not (I think not) 30 minutes later, Cecotec emailed me that they had processed the return and started the refunding process. Finally!
Grateful for the help of the financing company
The next morning they emailed me from the financing company that the refund was processed and that it would take some days to find it back in the bank account. I was so relieved and grateful that they ended up contacting them (which they didn't have to do) because this was clearly what made Cecotec respond. I think they're absolutely shitheads for treating people this way and it's added so much stress and frustration while the whole intention of this purchase was to make me feel better and healthier. The opposite was reached instead, thanks for that Cecotec!
If anyone ever tells me that they're buying from you, I'm going to tell them to read this first because even though we will now receive back the money we paid, I can't get back the time I spent on dealing with your shitty service and the stress that added so much extra pain to my already existing health issues.
I'm not alone
While the product was returned, I read horrible customer service reviews about Cecotec and I think I'm going to leave this link for a more detailed experience at some places to make sure Cecotec will either continue their scammy practices or maybe up their game. If that will ever happen, I'm more than happy to edit this post and also share that with the world.
Sadly it took me a lot of time to write this all down, they didn't deserve that much of my time anymore but here we have it. Now it's out there.
0 stars for Cecotec spain. Never buy from them directly, if you buy from them, try a third party service if they have good customer support, otherwise run! If you happen to run into issue and bought the product with a financing company, my tip is to reach out to them as they may be your hero to solve the matter. If it weren't for them, I don't think Cecotec would have contacted us and let us hanging for longer just to be annoying.
Closing the Cecotec chapter forever now!
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