LifePro Half Exercise Ball Trainer

I discovered these BOSU balls or yoga half balls or whatever you want to call them at a physical therapy visit. After using one there I decided to buy one. I didn't want to get the cheapest thing around for fear of it being junk and I didn't want to dish out $200 for the BOSU pro. I ended up ordering this one from Amazon Warehouse in "LIKE NEW" condition. When this item arrived, it was in the original packaging, the box was beat up and looked as though it had been opened before, the items taken out of the box and put back in. Other than that it looked like it was in "like new" condition. I took everything out of the box and tried to pump up the ball. After pumping for at least 20 minutes it seemed like nothing was happening. I put my fingers by the tip of the pump to see if the pump seemed to be working. I could feel air coming out so it seemed that the pump was working OK. When I inserted the pump in the ball to try to pump it up, sometimes I could pump the pump and other times it would stick so I couldn't pump it. When I had difficulty I looked around online to see if there were any solutions to that. It seemed like people would twist the pump, put it in at an angle and generally move it around to get it to work to pump air into the bladder. After about an hour of trying to get this thing pumped up and getting nowhere, the pump just fell apart and grease went all over the place. In case of pump failure or maybe just as an alternative to the pump, there are a couple straws included that can be inserted where the tip of the pump goes. Insert the straw, blow into it and blow up the ball. I couldn't blow up the ball because the airway seemed to be blocked. I wiggled the straw around and tried it at different angles until it bent. There was still no air in the bladder. At that point I gave up! This will be going back to Amazon. I decided not to mess with cheap exercise balls like this and have instead ordered something direct from BOSU. I will note again that the one I ordered was from Amazon Warehouse but was listed in "LIKE NEW" condition and it did look pretty much like new except for the crumpled papers inside and the beat up shipping box. Someone else probably had the same issue I did, couldn't get it to inflate and returned it. From other reviews it looks like other people have had better luck than I did. Hopefully an actual BOSU will be better than this one. If you are ordering one of these balls, I'd suggest spending more for something better than this.