I paid Rs. 5, 499 for a weight training set on Ebay.in. It was described as an 8 in 1 bench, with 60 kg of weights, 2 dumbell bars, curl bar and bench press bar, clamps to secure weights on bars, plus a jump rope and gloves.
The package was supposed to arrive on January 12th but came a day late on 13th. Had I received a decent quality product, I wouldn’t even mention the delay, but the level of disappointment and disgust I felt upon seeing the awful quality of the product can only be rivaled by the kind of disappointment and disgust that a man would feel upon discovering that his beautiful new bride has male parts!
What I discovered upon removing the gauzy white covering was a FrBrianbalakumaran Lay box full of horribly manufactured garbage. I could train a troop of inebriated monkeys to weld better than the jokers who put this piece of junk together.
The bench is the most obscene joke in this box of gags. The whole frame from top to bottom is as crooked as the Gurjit Brothers’ business practices. This Ebay seller, Gurjit Brothers, is hawking unusable scrap with a No Returns policy, and Ebay is more than happy to facilitate this shenanigan. Seriously, the bench is unsafe to use because it has been haphazardly welded together in the most warped and sloppy manner possible. It is a series of orthopedic injuries waiting to happen!
Furthermore, the parallel bars are shoddily welded with a weak and incomplete bead, and the push up bars are rigged in such a way that they are impossible to use. Additionally, the rack intended to hold the bar used for bench presses is uneven and made in such a way that it’s impossible to place the bar safely on the rack unassisted. The parts used for working the legs are so badly constructed and crooked that it’s impossible to use without injuring the connective tissues in the user’s knees. The moron who designed this monstrosity doesn’t understand that lifting weight at a crooked angle will result in all sorts of joint and soft tissue injuries!
Aside from these problems, the edges of the metal have not been ground or filed, so accidental contact with skin will surely result in cuts and scrapes. The padded part of the bench is cheaply made with protruding staples on the underside that could cause injury to hands and fingers when gripping the edges. Also the areas not coated in paint are starting to rust. Another problem is the paint job. This is nothing but clumsily applied, cheap spray paint. I think the seller threw this thing together at the last minute because the paint was still damp and sticky, and soiled our hands during the unpacking and assembly process. After scrubbing our hands with liquid Vim twice, we still had to apply acetone to our skin to remove the paint.
If the bench wasn’t bad enough, the dumbbell bars only add insult to injury. These bars really put the dumb in dumbbell, as they are not even proper bars, but are just giant bolts with nuts on each end!
The bar used for bench presses features more crappy welding and the curl bar is also poorly made.
I really think this useless product was manufactured in the Gurjit Brothers’ cow shed, certainly not in a professionally run factory. As it is unusable, the bench can only be sold for scrap metal at this point.
Also the rubber coating is cracked on one of the weights, and each weight feels lighter than the amount of weight mentioned on the product. For example, the 2 kg weight feels like 1 kg when I hold it in my hand.
The jump rope included is another piece of cheaply, sloppily made trash that isn’t fit to use.
There is also a 7 rupee difference on the invoice, as it states the total price as Rs. 5, 492, which is 7 rupees less than I was charged.
I’ve got many photos and a video of all the defects mentioned in this review, but am only allowed to upload 2.
The order number isn’t mentioned on the invoice, but I’m sure it can be cross referenced somehow with the invoice number and other information.
INVOICE # 3758
INVOICE DATE: January 7, 2016
AWB # 50337679490( shipped via Blue Dart)
Ebay seller details:
GURJIT BROTHERS
BASTI NAU, JALANDHAR
PUNJAB 144002
TIN # 03581060526
PHONE: 9876884773
EMAIL: mandeep.assi@gmail.com
UPDATE:
I called customer service, spoke to some guy who sounded like he had a speech impediment. Upon asking his name, first it sounded like Michael, then it sounded like Manu, then when I asked him to spell it out, it turned out to be Jitender. Despite his inability to speak clearly, and his inability to distinguish a male voice from a female voice(he kept calling me "sir" repeatedly despite me telling him I’m female), he gave me a claim number and told me I would hear from someone in 5 working days.
Today, I received a call from a smug, apathetic character who failed to introduce himself properly. He told me to send the photos, and that some people at Ebay would decide if the product is defective or not! I told him I have a history of using professional gym equipment, as well as an electric arc welding machine and that I know a defective weld job and a defective piece of gym equipment when I see it.
I am going to submit the photos to them and I expect a full refund. Their website is moving soooo slowwww when I try to upload them. In the meantime I am setting up an account with the Consumer Court.
Instead of doing damage control in the form of PAID FAKE POSITIVE REVIEWS, Ebay needs to redeem themselves by refunding my money and improving the quality of sellers they recruit.