The Healthy Back Institute What Customer Support? Internet

On December 11, 2014, I received a large Infra Red heating pad from Lose the Back Pain, associated with Jesse Canone’s Healthy Back Institute at a cost of $539.99. It was a Christmas gift for my wife of 62 years. She has suffered for a number of years with chronic joint and muscle pain which has defied diagnosis. It is progressively reducing her mobility. Pain medication is all that the medical profession can come up with but is not very effective. I hoped the heating pad might help but on the several successive days she used it for 30 minutes, she did not find it helped at all. She has since refused my suggestions that she give it a longer trial.  Her mind was made up and that was the end of it.

I made the mistake of letting things slide for too long. In mid January of 2016 I contacted the vendor about returning the item without asking for any refund. I learned that I was too late. Returns for full or partial refund were only accepted within one year of the purchase date. The fact that I was willing to return it to the vendor at no cost to the him rather than trash a barely used item because it did not help my wife’s muscle and joint pain was very kind but they would not accept the return at all.

They did suggest that I contact the manufacturer to see if they would accept a no cost return. However, the Doctor Clark Research Association in San Diego was also adamant - they wanted no part of it as it was now “obsolete”. Still loath to throw it in the land fill, a couple of weeks ago I laid out the heating pad, to see if it was in working order before I set about advertising it as a give away to anyone willing to see if it provided any relief for joint and/or muscle pain. I attached the controller and plugged it into a 115 volt outlet. The controller did not light up or give any indication that it was functioning. It included a timer and a small illuminated (when it worked) panel. The pad did not heat.

So I emailed Lose the Back Pain and asked if they could let me know which contacts on the heating pad were those connected to the heating element so I could check the continuity of the element. I could no imagine how it could have failed while stored in its carrying case and stored in a nice dry closet for a year, but something was wrong, hopefully the controller not the heating pad.

There has been no response to my query.  I find the attitude of both the vendor and the manufacturer to be a bit reprehensible. Being so adamant about washing their hands of a fairly pricy item five whole weeks after their one year return deadline is a bit sticky. I did not at any time ask for any refund of my purchase cost, I just wished and still wish to see it used rather than trashed. And refusing to provide the circuit information requested or to volunteer to provide a test replacement controller is pretty poor customer support for a profitable purchase.

I think it only fair to alert potential buyers of this item to the fact that customer service and support is non existent.