PriceSmart and Customer Satisfaction

The Editor
Friday July 03, 2009
Boquete, Panama

I’m in the midst of resolving a warranty issue on a Pro-Form AT 500 treadmill that I purchased at PriceSmart in David. Not a pleasant experience thus far!

Pro-Form AT 500

I’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE
Sunday July 26, 2009

Before I share “the rest of the story” with you, here’s a backgrounder on PriceSmart International as related to me by Tom Sliney, a buyer for PriceSmart. Tom is based at PriceSmart headquarters in San Diego, California. Incidentally, Tom was the catalyst and “go to guy” who resolved this issue:

“PriceSmart Inc. was founded in 1994. Originally Price Club in the US merged with Costco in 1993 to become Price Costco.

The first Price Costco in Central America was opened in Panama. The merger didn’t last, not sure why, but Robert Price acting CEO and Chairman of the Board decided to keep the international piece and PriceSmart was born.

A few more clubs were opened in Central America and then in 2000 started to expand and grow to the Caribbean as well, 10 clubs were open that year. We now operate 26 clubs in 12 countries, Panama 4, Guatemala 3, Costa Rica 5, Honduras 2, El Salvador 2, Dominican Republic 2, Trinidad 3, St Thomas 1, Aruba 1, Barbados 1, Jamaica 1 and Nicaragua 1.

We are not affiliated with Costco but do still have a good working relationship with them.”

That should set the record straight once and for all. Rumors abound that PriceSmart is owned by Price Costco.

Ok, back to the warranty issue with my Pro-Form AT 500 treadmill.

This monster machine transports my partner five miles a day, 6 days a week since she received it as a Christmas gift from yours truly in 2007. It’s a workhorse that is sleek, efficient, well engineered and solidly built. As it turns out, it is built by ICON Health & Fitness who bring you NordicTrak, Weider, HEALTHRIDER, FreeMotion Fitness™ and other major players in the health and fitness arena.

The precision motor started to howl a little, then as time progressed it howled a LOT. My shade tree diagnosis told me it was likely a bearing that was screaming out for retirement.

So I consulted the user guide and warranty manual and it advised me to call the support center in Logan, Utah. As I read through the manual I saw that the Pro-Form AT 500 had a 5 year warranty on it. Way cool!

Karen badge number 117, took my call and served up some of the home grown, quality customer service I suspect ICON Health & Fitness is renowned for. No problem, thus far.

Here’s the rub: Since I purchased the treadmill in Panama, the claim had to be handled in Central America somewhere. “Oh NO!” I screeched. “Now it will take me two years to get the fricking motor.”

As it turned out, after an extended email dialog between various PriceSmart insiders and myself, Tom Sliney took command and graciously shipped the motor from the U.S. via DHL, I picked it up in David and installed it myself.

Now that’s the kind of customer service I’m talking about!

Let’s just hope that it rubs off on the staff at the local PriceSmart…

Pro-Form AT 500 back in business

Thanks Tom!