35 of 36 people found the following review helpful.
By Chaz
The treadmill arrived six calendar days after placing the order. The shipping carton was in good condition, and the various parts were present and in the correct quantities. Note: for the assembly process, four 1" bolts have been superceded by four 1-1/4" bolts, although both the 1" and 1-1/4" bolts are included. Lay out all parts and all papers before starting assembly. Also included was a coupon for a one-year iFit membership. The coupon was only intended to be good for activation prior to the end of October, 2012 although there is nothing on the coupon that indicated a cut-off date. When I sent a copy of the coupon to Pro-Form, they honored the coupon and activated a membership for me. These two points (longer bolts and misleading coupon) are minor, in my opinion, and are not the basis for the one-star rating I gave the product.
After assembly, you are to take the steps necessary to connect the treadmill to your wireless internet. My treadmill connected without issue. You are to then check to see if updated firmware is available to be downloaded onto your treadmill and installed. This is where the fun begins. When I select "Update Firmware" a symbol appears indicating the treadmill's computer (or computerette) is looking for updated firmware. The problems are 1) it doesn't find any and 2) it doesn't stop looking. Until you back out of the "Update Firmware" area, it keeps looking, without success, indefinately. I didn't view this as the end of the world. I mean how out-of-date can the firmware be on a treadmill packed in its shipping carton in June 2012? So on to the next step: Calibrate the incline system.
Calibration of the incline with this machine is supposed to be a process where you press a button, the machine raises elevation, lowers elevation, thinks a bit, and then gives you a message that the incline is calibarated. My treadmill doesn't do that. At the conclusion of its process it announces that the process failed and that I need to run the calibaration process again. I have run the calibration process several times. Each time the result is the same. Each time the machine raises the incline, lowers the incline, considers the state of things and announces that the operation failed and needs to be repeated.
At this point I've failed to update the firmware and failed to calibrate the elevation. I move on to the next step, which is create an iFit account.
You're supposed to be able to create your iFit account at the console of the machine. I start doing this and everything is going along well, right up until I enter the code for the expired coupon (see above), but I don't know the coupon code is expired, because they didn't put any information about expiration date on the coupon (remember?).
At this point I contact Pro-Form's Customer Care team. The lady I spoke with was very pleasant and after hearing my various problems, and conferring with someone while I was on hold, told me that all of the problems (except for the expired coupon) were due to the firmware on my machine. She said she was going to send me a flash drive with the new firmware, and that the drive would come with the instructions for updating the firmware. The flash drive arrived 15 days after I spoke with Customer Service (this is within their stated estimates of time required to process and mail the part and for the Post Office to do its thing in delivering the part, so I'm not really upset about the 15 days). What I am upset about is that the flash drive doesn't work. I followed the instructions and "Update Firmware" gave me the same results as before; machine looks and looks but never finds the updated firmware.
Yesterday I spoke with Customer Service and the representative took down my information and said someone from IT would call me. He also said that if I hadn't heard from IT by this afternoon to call back. I called back (becasuse nobody from IT called). Today the representative I spoke with (this is apparently a pretty sizeable call center. Each time I call I get a different representative) said I was given bad information yesterday, i.e. that I should not have been told to expect a call from IT. She said that while IT is aware of the problem (my treadmill is not the only one that has it) and is working on a solution, there is no estimated date for completion.
The good news is that I can use the treadmill in manual mode. I can turn it on, set the speed, set the (uncalibrated) incline, and use the treadmill. Even though I can access iFit (with my nifty free one year membership) on my computer, I can't access it through the treadmill because of THE FIRMWARE.
Bottom line: If you only want a treadmill to operate in manual mode, why in the world would you spend $1,500 on this machine. Go to your local sporting goods store and talk with their personnel about which machines don't cause problems. I'll bet you won't end up with a Pro-Form 2500 treadmill, irrespective of the glowing CR recommendation.
52 of 57 people found the following review helpful.
By D. Morcos
This is my experience with the Proform Pro 2000 treadmill. The 2500 and 4500 are the same with the exception of the console having the iFit built in and a few more programed exercises.
I am posting this in the 2500 model's page because of the above statement.
I have been nervous getting a Proform. The service is what concerned me the most. Well, now that I have had one for a few weeks I wanted to share my experience for what its worth.
I ordered mine from Proform.com, they had a sale where it was less than a $1000. 10 days later, J B Hunt calls to tell me they would be delivering the next day. Noticed the package was standing vertical in the truck, not good, they are on a pallet and that needs to be on the floor. Anyway, package was at my front door. It is big and you will need at least one person to get it to where you want it and that is after you get everything else out prior to moving the main belt unit with the motor. Once there I had not one issue assembling the whole thing alone. Little fussy, but if you keep some of the cardboard that was inside the box you can use to turn the belt over like I did to install the folding locking mechanism. The rest you just have to follow the instructions. For the locking rod I installed the end on the motor side and when everything else was installed I turned it on made sure the incline was at 0 and lifted the belt and installed the other end.
I only mention this because I wanted to share that it is doable, but if I had to do again, it would be a piece of cake to me if I had another person.
I am 53 years old and a little guy, 5'7 at 158lbs so you decide. Now back to the tread mill. It is very solid and once put together and folded, it is not difficult at all to move. It is very easy to fold up and lock automatically when there. You pull a knob and just let it go down, it does that with ease and finesse. It is not hydraulic (not sure how it works) but it does a wonderful job lowering itself. Fit is great. You can jump on it while running or when stopped and there is no shaking, noise or rattles. The belt is quiet smooth, the incline (after calibration) works perfect and smooth. Speed is 12mph at 0 to 15 deg incline and maxes out at 8mph at -3 deg decline. Fan is better than nothing but I prefer a floor fan.
To make this short, I love this treadmill, the fit, weight the finish and the smoothness in which it operates, however I did have a problem and is the reason I opted to write this review. The only thing that did not work from day one was what they call the information screen on the console. It is where you get the accumulated time and distance this machine has run, very much like the odometer in the car plus the time the engine has been running.
I called the customer service number that was in the documentation. Answer time was less than 3 minutes, but this is where it ends. The person helping me had no clue. My issue is that 99% or all this treadmill is supposed to do works, I just can't get one screen of information, I have all the others, the manual says not to use the incline at the steeper angles until the unit has 20 running hours. Well that screen I do not get. Now, after a few minutes with that person he puts me on hold, 15 minutes later I though that is it and the call was ended. I called back immediate and again, my wait was no more than 5 minutes, I explained to the person what happened after providing him with the serial # and he said please hold while I get the information for your treadmill, well, that was the last I heard from that guy, after 5 minutes of music I had to stop. I was on my lunch break and steaming. All my fears about service were well founded. I run that night and thoroughly enjoyed the machine, simple to operate, console is intuitive, and it does what you tell it to do, that simple. Now I started to think, I do not want to send this back, not for what it can't display, I am enjoying this thing and was hoping there was a solution.
Next day call to customer service, I get a lady in very short order again. I explained what went on the day before and I asked here not to put me on hold ( I was in no mood for that) after explaining what had happened, she apologized and said I will not put you on hold, just mute because I have to talk to someone else. I said okay. in a couple on minutes she got back with me and said we can send you a new console if you want to try that. I was smiling. She said they were out of stock but should have them in a week. A week later I had a new console delivered. 6 screws to take it off, and after labeling the wires (6 of them) so they can go back in the same connectors I put the new one on and with fingers crossed, plugged it in, turned it one and bingo. I also get to keep the old console, (actually would be glad to send it back if they want) but, all in all, after a few weeks with this treadmill, I absolutely love it, and while I have no experience with any other I do understand and appreciate solid, quiet, smooth designs, and I appreciate this package so much for what I paid for it.
To be fair, I must also mention that I have had 2 follow up emails assuring me that I will be satisfied. I am, and I have to say my concerns while might have been founded based on a review, have been proven wrong. I have also included a photo of my treadmill and the new console on top. If you can't see it here go to my review for the pro 2000 which is the treadmill I have. I am completely satisfied with what I have and the outcome of my issue with Proform.
Also, make sure you register your treadmill when you first get it, that is the information that they will use when dealing with you.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
By S. Ferguson
Update - After reading Dan in VA's review and discovering how to change the server to TEST and perform the update everything seems to work again. It is interesting that the numerous calls to customer service nor the onsite service tech knew anything about having to point the server to TEST to get the download to work. Also the first download was over a gig and took several hours. The second download was much faster and the third actually worked with the server pointed to ifit. You would have thought that the new computer they shipped me would have had the current software pre-loaded on it. I'm still docking 2 stars for the 6+ weeks of hassle and the incompetent customer service reps.
Previous - The treadmill seems well made and was easy to assemble. The workout software at first glance seemed nice as well but turned out to be have several glitches. The real disaster started about 2 months ago when Ifit updated their web site. I received an email from Ifit that they had changed my user ID to work with their new web site??? As soon as I logged in, the treadmill immediately began an Ifit update. 24 hours later it was still trying to update! I called Ifit who instructed me to wait another 24 hours because they were having problems with their server. A week later they decided to send me a thumb drive containing the software. Unfortunately that didn't work either because the treadmill computer was fried by that time. Ifit / ProForm at that point decided to send me a new computer / display. The new display will connect to the internet but not to their server. I was told by their customer service they were still having problems with their server and to wait a couple of days. And so the whole process begins again! What I have failed to mention thus far is the treadmill itself will not run without a working computer! Not even in manual mode. A technician is coming today to look at it; however, he's already told me on the phone that he really doesn't work with computers. In the many conversations I've had with Ifit, the only thing they want to talk about is selling me an extended warranty . . . . for what???
Product Feature
- iFit Live Technology Built-In
- 7" Easy-to-Read Full-Color Touch Screen
- 3.5 CHP Mach Z Commercial Pro Motor
- 0-15% Quick Incline Controls
- -3-0% Quick Decline Controls
Product Description
Product Detail
- Amazon Sales Rank: #86095 in Sports & Outdoors
- Size: 80" L x 35" W x 74" H
- Brand: ProForm
- Model: PFTL14011
- Released on: 2011-11-21
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 74.00" h x36.00" w x80.00" l,
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