A company is accusing me of sabotaging a treadmill

temp89

tl;dr I sent a treadmill for repair and the manufacturer says I must have cut a wire, after previously saying it was their engineer's fault. Neither of us have pics of the wire prior to being sent off.

I own a fairly heavy-duty treadmill that I purchased on Amazon UK. 3 months ago the motor burned out. This was 9 months after purchase and with daily use on average of 45 minutes. Sucks, but it has a separate motor warranty and the manufacturer sent an engineer to replace it no problem. 1 month ago the motor burns out again (red hot to the touch, smell of ozone, fails to move).

At my worst I've been 90kg, and I use silcone lubricant on the belt every few months. Have adjusted the belt so there's 3 inches of slack if you lift it up, as recommended by the manual.

This time the company insisted I send it to them for repair. I'll spare you a diatribe about their pick-up service, but suffice to say there were multiple "failed attempts" that left me fuming.

After 2 weeks they say a coupling must have been left connected that shouldn't have been by the engineer and they'll repair for free as specified in the 5 year warranty. Then the next day they email me saying a cable inside the motor housing has been cut and that I must have done it.

They sent a photo. The cable in question is 3 sheathed wires, wrapped in another sheath and there's no question the thing has been sliced cleanly through. The problem is I haven't touched it. The motor is housed inside a compartment like a standard treadmill. No one else has had access to it, and you would need a special right-angle screwdriver to get the casing off due to the screws are in between 2 metal bars with a few centimetres clearance. Before I sent it off, when I switched the treadmill on the motor wouldn't move but would make a loud humming sound. I don't know if it would still be receiving power with that cable sliced.

I don't have any photos of the condition of the treadmill before I sent it off and neither do they. I think something happened in transport or an engineer did something by accident and decided to keep silent or wasn't even aware of it. I can understand dodgy customers damaging something in hopes of a free replacement/refund, complete with histrionical sob story. I can even believe the company is sincere in their belief that I cut the cable. The only issue is, I didn't.

They want me to pay for repairs, the engineer's time, and the courier costs to-and-from as they consider it my fault. What do?