Elena's Osim Surprise
To fully appreciate this story you have to have a bit of background.
I'm kind a toy freak, and although Elena's not really that much of one she does get infatuated with things. My brother had given me one of those massage pads, and she started using it. So then she was shopping around and saw this rather nifty massage chair at The Sharper Image. Well that became her new goal, especially since we've been collecting more than a few of the gift cards (from Discover rebates etc..) she even went so far as to tell folks just to give us gift cards for xmas so we could get the chair.
This brings us to about 3 days before xmas .. and of course we're shopping at the mall testing out the massage chairs in Sharper Image .. then we noticed this store that sold nothing but massage chairs .. it was an Osim store .. and the sales guy proceeded to give us both a 45 minute demo in the iMedic 500 .. yes two chairs, 45 minutes a couple of days before christmas .. kinda amazing in itself.
After the demo the conversation went something like this:
S: So how'd you like it?
E: ooh, it made my migrane go away ..
S: want to buy one right now?
E: how much is it?
Sales: $$$$
E: thats way too much for a chair
S: its worth it if it makes your migrane go away
E: no, we're not spending that kind of money, besides what are we going to do
with all of the gift cards?
S: ok, so do you want to get the chair from Sharper Image instead?
E: whats the point, its not as good as this one
And then, for the next 4 months, not a single peep out of her about any type of massage chair at all .. although she was continuing to use the massage pad pretty frequently.
The more I thought about it, the more it seemed worth the price if it could reduce her migrane symptoms at all, that plus I'm always spending about that much yearly on some kind of electronics toy ;).. but of course for that kind of money you gotta do some research.. and search I did, to no avail .. on the plus side no one seemed to be selling any of the chairs used (either on ebay or craigslist) but there were no personal reviews either .. not even in Asia where Osim has a relatively large presence. I did find a single CES review which gave a list price $500 less than the current retail price in the store.
So it was back to the store in February to grill them .. and grill I did, they were great sports about it .. showing me binders of sales .. and yet, in the heart of silicon valley I can't find a blog entry about the chair .. I had to think more, but quickly because the black chairs were already 2 months back ordered and I wanted it for a surprise gift for Elena's birthday in April.
I searched more and was getting a bit disheartened so I thought I'd ask one of my co-workers who travels frequently to asia and has a habit of buying high quality electronic toys .. that discussion was brief:
S: Say, have you ever heard of this Singapore company named Osim?
CW: The one that makes the massage chair? I bought one last November ..
S: The iMedic 500?
CW: yeah, everyone loves it, they come over to my house to use it when I'm on vacation
S: So what kind of company is it? reputable?
CW: big, oh yeah, you have to realize that massage chairs in asia are much bigger than in the US
S: really?
CW: yeah, they treat their chairs like we do cars, they're status symbols, Osim is a good company
S: I'd hope so, the chair is $$$$
CW: I don't think I paid that .. it may have been on sale but it was $500 less
Well nothing better than a known recommendation .. and he said the chair was really quiet too, so it was off to the Osim store to order one. They were really surprised that I came back, even more so when I told them about my co-workers opinion. I mentioned the sales price, and the CES review and they promptly gave me $500 off, probably the easiest bargining I ever did. The sticker was the delivery .. I wanted it on a Sat morning when Elena was at the market .. and they obliged. In fact the Osim folks were really, really great about it and made sure I was at the front of the list for the back ordered chair because it was a surprise gift.
The chair was due in the 15th for delivery the 16th .. then of course the Sonics managed to get in the way .. I had to reschedule the delivery not once, but twice .. and they were really accomodating about it .. they got it to me when Elena was out, brought it in exactly on time (I, of course was late), unpacked, setup, tested and away they went.. and when Elena got back (with a migrane) it was happy belated birthday/6 month anniversary .. what a gleam in her eyes that was. She was in the chair for about an hour and guess what, no need for migrane drugs afterwards.
I do have to mention a couple of things .. the total price they quote is "as delivered" tax included, white glove delivery and a 3 year, parts and in home labor as long as we're in a 25 mile radius of an Osim store (none in Seattle yet though) .. The only glitch was that after a few days the control display faded out .. we were worried until the sales folks at the store said .. "that happens sometimes in shipping the connection gets loose" they told us to cycle the power to the chair, and if it continued we could either "open the unit ourselves and tighten the connector" (no warrentee voiding at all) or they would send someone out to fix it for us .. the power cycle has done the trick so far (we had to do it again after a couple of weeks) but we'll be watching it. Otherwise the chair is awesome, its actually really quiet, but works you out pretty good (too good on the calves for me) I haven't even worked through all of the massage options yet because the pre-set ones are so good.
We are getting our money's worth out of it .. rarely a day goes by where at least one of us (if not both) are using it .. and as soon as I start playing again it'll be every day for sure.
The Osim sales staff was great, even for being in sales .. they were really responsive even after they had my money. I promised to write up a review of sorts for my journal so that others who search might see it, I wonder how long it will take to show up on the search engines.
Anyway, it seemed like a good surprise gift, but I will have to say there were a few times after I ordered the chair where I was a bit worried... first of all, it suddenly occured to me (after the purchase) that I really shouldn't be spending that kind of money with out consulting her (even if my pre-married spending patterns weren't violated) .. then right before her birthday she asked if I had bought a gift yet, because she wanted me to buy her massage gift certificates I promised that if she didn't like the gift we could return it for massage certificates ;). I did buy some smaller faux gifts (RadioShark !!) to get her through her birthday but later she started making noises about the Sharper Image chair because we were still getting gift cards and I was hoping she didn't just go out and buy it when I wasn't around .. it all worked out but man that was hard to hide for 3 months.