Copam CP2500 issues, Broken MH721 out of the box, mixed customer service experiences

[chixwithtrix 1]

I'm a business person and know how important it is to take care of your customers. I'm not into bashing someone without giving them a chance first. I've given USCutter and this Copam many chances at this point and my experiences need to be voiced to the public.

USCutter, you have been doing a very poor job of taking care of me and I am completely fed up with my experience with your Copam CP-2500 and customer support after being on the phone for hours with service, on hold for usually 10-20 minutes and sometimes over 30 minutes waiting for a service representative, actually getting a representative and when put on hold I was booted back to the main menu and had to wait on hold AGAIN, not being called back when I was told I would be when an incompetent representative couldn't help me with my problem, and many replacement parts not fixing my lemon of a cutter. I bought a 24" Copam for my small vinyl cutting business based on positive reviews about the cutter. My experiences with the Copam have not been positive.

I originally wanted to return the cutter a few weeks after I bought it because it was so problematic after working with service to solve problems, which you will see below, but I had emergency back surgery and by the time I was able to work on my business again it was after 30 days since I bought the cutter. Based on others raving reviews of the Copam I truly believe this cutter I was sent is faulty. It has cost me many hours of productivity between being on the phone and not being able to meet deadlines because it wasn't working. I bought the Copam mainly to replace my old cutter that could still cut some jobs, but was not as accurate with age. I have since bought a THIRD cutter because the Copam has been down so much I needed something to fill order demand that my original cutter couldn't do. You have forced me to waste money and time and this is not acceptable.

Lets start from the beginning:

-When I first got the Copam it took me a little under 2 hours on the phone with customer support to get it to communicate with my computer. While customer support did eventually get it working after many failed attempts, they could not tell me WHY it didn't work so I could avoid the problem in the future.

-Once the cutter communicated it would not go to the advertised 80cm/s, it only went to 60cm/s. The advertised fast speed was one of the reasons I passed up the GCC cutter. That is false advertising.

-After it would communicate I was having issues with accuracy. I would change the offset in the machine and on the program (separately) and the line quality would not get any better. After experiments with different blades and time on the phone with service it ended up being a faulty blade holder right out of the box. In this instance the representative was helpful and knowledgeable so at least a positive point to service for this one issue, but I was back to only one cutter because the faulty blade holder made the graphic quality unacceptable for my customers. So the brand new Copam sat while I waited for the blade holder to come in the mail.

-At the same time I had line quality issues with the faulty blade holder, after completing a row of graphics the Copam would randomly roll the sheet of vinyl all the way out of the back of the cutter and onto the ground. This really pissed be off because 1. the vinyl roll would get dirty touching the ground and need to be cleaned, 2. it messed up my alignment for cutting and weeding, 3. a lot of time was wasted either hovering around the cutter to turn it off before it rolled the vinyl out the back or missing it and having to clean off the roll and replace it into the cutter and 4. it was random so I never knew when it was going to happen, but it happened more often than not. Big problem when I have employees I brought in for a bulk job were being paid to sit and not weed completed stickers because of my lost time. Customer service for this problem was HORRIBLE. Not including the wait time and time spent with the representative, the first time I called the guy did not have any idea why the cutter would be doing this. He said someone would call me back after he talked to them about the problem. OK, I could deal with that to get someone more knowledgeable. NOBODY called back after a day (said it would be a few hours) so I had to go through the hold system and explain my problems to a new person. After explaining the different experiments I had tried to stop the vinyl from being spit out the back, he said something along the lines of "my best guess would be that it is the motherboard" keyword, 'guess'. I suspect he had no idea what was causing my problem or else he would have suggested other things to try. He got approval and sent a new motherboard and told me to call in when it arrived.

-The new motherboard arrived and I tried calling into customer service like I was told so they could explain how to install the new motherboard. I waited on hold for about 30 minutes in the afternoon before a recording came on and said "there are no representatives available" or something along those lines and was hung up on. All that time I had waited on hold not being able to work on filling orders was for nothing. I needed to get a job done that night and wanted to use the Copam so I called back again. Waited on hold for about 15 minutes before a representative came on the line. He explained basically what I needed to do and I was on my way. I replaced the motherboard without too much fuss in about 30 minutes, reassembled the cutter, and tried a couple cuts hoping the motherboard would fix the random spitting problem. I completed the small job that night without the vinyl rolling out the back. However, I worked on a bigger job last night (Aug 9th) and it started spitting the vinyl out the back again. Back to square one. I wasted all that time waiting for and installing the motherboard to have it not fix the issue.

-During the time I was waiting on the motherboard the cutter had a different problem. It could not cut horizontal lines so any job I had with straight horizontal lines was out of the question. The blade would not cut all the way through and would skip, making the horizontal lines look like a dashed line where the blade didn't cut. While on the phone with customer support about the spitting out the back issue I mentioned that it would not cut horizontal lines right. Again the representative did not have an answer why it was doing this and took the easy way out saying "that also might be fixed by the new motherboard." I managed to limp by using the Copam for jobs without horizontal lines and used my original cutter to take care of what straight line jobs it could do. When I put the new motherboard in the horizontal line issue didn't change. Now that I knew it wasn't caused by the motherboard I experimented. I had an idea to use the original faulty blade holder to see if it cut horizontal lines. I found it, put it in the machine and it cut horizontal lines fine. That told me that the second blade holder I was sent had developed a problem within a month. Called to get another blade holder sent to me yesterday. The wait time was over 20 minutes, but at least I was not booted out to the main menu this time. I got through to a representative and talked to him about my issue and my experiment and he was pretty much useless. After being put on hold he came back and said "this needs to be submitted to our tier 3 department and they will call you back in a few hours." I guess he didn't have the authorization to send parts and/or he wasn't knowledgeable enough. You guessed it, I wasn't called back!

So here I sit extremely fed up with my faulty cutter that I can only use for a select few jobs with its second motherboard that didn't fix the problem and second blade holder that needs to be replaced.

I'll say it again, I've read that many people are happy with their Copam cutters. I have been overly patient waiting on parts and dealing with incompetent service people ONLY because the cutter has gotten so many good reviews and I figured if I waited it out I would also be happy with my cutter. But at this point with parts not fixing the problems, I need to cut my losses and need a new Copam or a refund. This cutter is not worth my time to fix and should be thrown in a dumpster.

[Rodger 527]

I have had my Copam for a litle over 4 years . It has been great except for some poor quality metal in the pinch rollers . $50 replacement cost , so not a big deal IMO . It spits out the vinyl sometimes ( especially at the higher speeds ) . I think it is a static electricty issue , or it may be a software problem or a communication problem that randomly occurs at times . I turn it off , wait a couple minutes & turn it back on . It then cuts great . I have read turning the cutters off ( especially the lower cost models , ex: MH series with little memory ) helps reset things , so that may be what helps makes them act up at times .

The faster cutting speeds are nice , but the cutting quality & problems with the vinyl spitting out is not worth it IMO . If you get a couple of feet of vinyl moveing fast & then the cutter reverses direction etc .. seems alot to ask . try the slowest speed & see if that works better . Also in the software , there should be a setting to have the cutting done prgressively to elminate moving the vinyl back & forth as much .

[chixwithtrix 1]

I'm willing to work with a few things on the cheaper cutters to an extent. I started my small business 4 years ago with a USED MH721 that lasted me 4 years while I built up the business. It was not without its problems, but the old MH didn't have any problems along the lines the brand new Copam did. No spitting, no inaccuracy, etc. I wanted to upgrade to replace the old MH and decided the Copam would be great for my workload and type of jobs. The speed is important to me. If a used cheapo MH721 can cut faster and more accurately than the more expensive Copam, something is wrong. It is also wrong to advertise a faster speed than the cutter is capable of, whether the end user wanted it or not.

Nothing can help the fact that customer service is so hit-and-miss. I have an update on the latest adventure with USCutter, both positive and negative.

As I said in my first post, I bought a 3rd cutter to help take care of the overflow jobs my broken Copam couldn't do because of various issues. It was another MH721, I chose it because it was inexpensive and I figured if my old one took me 4 years into my business another fresh one would be fine as a back up cutter. The new MH arrived Wednesday August 10th. Shipping was fast since I ordered the cutter Monday so I was happy about that. However -

-Went to set up the new MH Wednesday evening and immediately it was broken out of the box. The set screw that holds the roller bearing under the left cover that controls the metal vinyl roller was not set and the bearing was extremely loose. The roller would not even roll the vinyl back and forth. It was after hours for customer support, I had jobs to do, and being handy my partner and I managed to fix it ourselves.

-Tried using the cutter, but it would not communicate. Once again after hours so waited until Thursday morning. Thursday morning I called in and talked to Mike. He was very patient and nice, and the wait was under 10 minutes to get to him. I spent over an hour on the phone with him trying to get the new MH to communicate. Eventually we got the drivers working and it cutting, not in Flexi like I wanted, but with the simple SignCut program that came with the cutter. Mike could not get the new MH's drivers to work with my version of Flexi.

-Once the MH communicated turns out, wait for it, the blade holder was defective right out of the box! Lines were not straight and corners were rough. Could not be dialed in with pressure, blade depth, overcut, different blades, or offset. Mike said that he would get a blade holder sent out later that day and I would receive an email with the blade holder shipment info. I thanked him and hung up. I never received the email so a blade holder was never sent.

-Later that day after talking to my partner from the day's earlier events we decided it was time to give up on the Copam we had and ask for another unit and return the new MH because it wasn't doing us any good sitting there, once again, waiting for parts. Called in and talked to Levi, one of the head service people. He was also helpful and patient, even stayed after hours at the call center because he was on the phone with us for over 2 hours. Told him the WHOLE story about the Copam and the new MH's problems and service calls we'd made. He said that if they could not solve the problems then they were obliged to send us a new unit. He submitted a teir 3 approval to get a new Copam sent to us. They could return the MH, however they would not waive the 20% restocking fee or pay for the return shipping. I decided not to return it so Levi wanted to help us more with its issues out of the box.

-While we told him that Mike had worked with us earlier that day (Thursday, yesterday) he wanted to try and see if he could get the cutter working in Flexi. He spent some time trying to get the new MH to work with Flexi, but none of the drivers worked. He switched over to SignCut to try and verify the blade holder issue. We made a few test cuts, sent him photos, and tried more test cutting.

-In the middle of trying some more test cuts, the new MH randomly spits out the vinyl and endlessly continues rolling while the cartridge scrolled slowly to the left, then slowly to the right, then stayed still. Turned the machine off, tried cutting again and got the random scrolling. While we were on the phone with Levi, the brand new MH721's motherboard died, which the tech admitted. After the hours spent on the phone I was left with two defective cutters. Levi submitted a request for us to be sent a new MH721 as well. We hung up on a good note that we should be sent two new cutters to replace the defective Copam and new MH and we would be receiving a call tomorrow to verify that.

-Well, its Friday today and we did indeed receive a call from Levi himself. Yes, the replacement cutters were approved for us. The only thing we needed to do was pack up both cutters and ship them back to USCutter, then we would be sent the replacements. WHAT?! You mean USCutter wants me to shut down my business and PAY to ship back two heavy cutters that were defective, THEN they would ship me my replacements. Excuse me, but that is utter BS! Told Levi that that was unacceptable, I could not shut down my business during a busy season, nor was I willing to pay to ship back the cutters on my dollar because of USCutters mistakes. Levi said the only way a Copam could be sent to us without us shipping the old one back first was to BUY another cutter. Well, after talking back and forth for a while I gave in on arguing and bought another Copam so we would at least not have to stop filling customer orders. I had to pay to ship back the Copam and pay for a new Copam so it would be on the way to us. Once we shipped the old Copam back we would be refunded the purchase price of the second Copam. I didn't have to pay to ship back the MH because it was brand new, but I had to ship it first before they would sent out the replacement. Terrible policies here.

I would like to thank Levi for being patient and actually following through for the most part. I'm quite pissed about the shipping policy of USCutter, but in the end that is not the tech's fault. It is the fault of a large corporation that doesn't really care about its customers. If Dell can ship you replacements first and pay to have you return your defective product in the same box then USCutter should do the same.

[chixwithtrix 1]

I wanted to follow up on my original posts about the Copam to be fair to all who were involved. Since then a lot has changed and I apologize for not getting back here before everything got out of hand. I've been busy with life outside of my business and now finally have a chance to do the due diligence that the support forum is all about. Please take the time to read the entire post as it will give you the full picture and hopefully help your future decisions and recommendations to others.

Some basic background on my choice to purchase the Copam originally and my business; the reason I went with the Copam as an upgrade for my business was based on the many raving reviews out there on the machine. At the time when I bought the cutter which was months ago, my little vinyl business profited under $400 a month. Based on my income level and the supposed abilities of the Copam - it seemed like the logical upgrade path rather than dropping $1800+ on a Roland or Graphtec. The Copam was hailed as having good detail work for its price level when I read about it online. While my vinyl business was very small at the time, I had loyal customers and I strive to produce a quality product. They came to me after they either were charged too much or received sub-par product from other larger vinyl operations. For many of my jobs, I've fallen into a niche market of difficult designs to cut. I kept my income low for the vinyl business up until recently because of the health hazard vinyl cutting has. The vinyl outgasses are toxic to breathe (ever get a headache from cutting vinyl?), not so toxic they will kill you with repeat exposures, but for someone who works with vinyl daily for years and years it is definitely an occupational concern. Only recently I found a solution to the inhalation and tactile exposure and have been increasing my monthly income substantially in the last couple months, partially due to the outcome you are about to read.

Fast forward to where I left off on the Copam and MH's return with my last post made in August. Here is the rest of the story:

-The MH and Copam were sent back to US Cutter. I later received a brand new Copam, hooked it up, and after a few tests realized it had the EXACT same issues the original Copam did. I was sick and tired of playing games with customer support and this machine. I'll leave the MH's story out since there really wasn't much to me being sent a refurbished one.

-I then made a very detailed video explaining the issues I was having with the original Copam that were also happening with the new one I had just received: spitting out the vinyl, having the blade skip on straight lines, and generally having unacceptable quality for the speeds it advertised. I submitted a detailed web ticket including a link to the video for a tech to look at, so that way nothing could be lost in describing the problems verbally.

-A day or two later I was contacted by Brandon Davis; US Cutter's 'Special project's Division' manager. In other words, I had finally made it to a top level guy outside the customer support call center loop. After talking with him I was much more informed and had even less faith in US Cutter's customer support call center. Brandon explained that many of the the call center people like Levi actually were not very well trained in each cutter's idiosyncracies so they 'winged it' with some of the support issues. He sincerely apologized for their customer support center and how I was run around the block so many times, because he was also frustrated with many of the employee's performances himself. He seemed very irritated with US Cutter's policies, and frankly explained that in this economy everyone wanted to be paid, but didn't want to do the work. I inferred from that that US Cutter was getting what they paid for in employee loyalty and work ethic.

-I told Brandon many times throughout the conversation when he stated something about my issues that I had been told something completely different from Levi or the other support guys. How was I supposed to solve a problem when the people trying to help me didn't have the knowledge to solve it? Fortunately with Brandon it seemed like he actually did his job and was the first person who really knew what he was talking about. I also learned that he was part of the team who actually worked on the cutters in a lab. Levi and the others in the call center did not work on the cutters themselves. Brandon could not be contacted through the tech support call loop, and he gave me his office phone number and email to contact him directly.

-I worked with Brandon for a few weeks trying to solve the Copam's issues. In the beginning he was very confident he could solve all my problems of the vinyl spitting, blade skipping on straight lines, and quality issues. He solved the spitting issue almost instantly in the first conversation. That problem was no fault of the Copam, but rather the Flexi drivers. As soon as I switched to SignCut with the current Copam driver the cutter installed flawlessly and stopped spitting the vinyl roll out the back. Brandon took the time to show me how to navigate the SignCut program and explained in detail why Flexi was a poor program to use with the Copam. I told him I wished I had been told this in the very beginning before going through the customer support ordeal with swapping the original cutter's motherboard, etc. He knew the issue right off the bat whereas none of the customer support people had any idea what I was talking about with the spitting issue.

-The next issue Brandon addressed was the blade skipping problem and this is what we spent most of our time trying to fix. In my video I went though many different speeds, pressures, and even tried a different blade holder to show how badly the blade would start skipping on horizontal lines. In the beginning Brandon seemed skeptical that it was a flaw of the Copam and that I was the source of the problem. Fine I told him, as long as he could tell me what I was doing wrong I was totally fine with that. Nobody so far had been able to tell me what to fix in either me or the machine. I told Brandon the pressures I was working with (which were very light, recommended previously by Levi to stop the blade skip). Immediately he said that was completely backwards that the cutter shouldn't even cut at those pressures. Once again, I was getting conflicting info from the customer support guys and Brandon. His first guess was that I had the blade tip too far out so he requested a photo of how far I had the blade out from the blade holder face. My depth was totally acceptable and we ruled that setting out as an issue. Next we tried a different blade holder and that didn't make a difference in the cutting.

-After days of corresponding back and fourth with Bradon doing tests on the original Copam I sent in, he determined that the skipping issue was with the 60 degree blade face I was using for detail work and the speed at which I was cutting at was too fast. Brandon explained how he had written a paper on the difference in 60 degree and 45 degree blade faces and the leverage they put on the material they cut, etc, and went though a lot of technical detail to explain why I shouldn't be using a 60 degree blade at the speed I needed. I told him that all sounded great in theory, but in reality I had been able to use a 60 degree blade in my old MH at a faster speed with no skipping issue on the same designs, so I should be able to mimic those settings on the Copam with better results. The killing blow was that I hadn't been able to do even what the MH was capable of on the Copam. Not much he could say to that.

-In the same phone call, we then had a long discussion about the engineering of the Copam. He previously had contacted one of the engineers in China about my issue and the engineer had told Brandon the bit about the 60 degree blade/speed as well and that I should slow it down and use a 45 degree blade. I reminded Brandon I had used varying speeds from slowest to fastest in the video I sent and the blade still skipped. The only thing I hadn't done was use a 45 degree blade, but using a 45 degree blade in the detailed designs I was cutting (which had some straights that cause the blade to skip) just wasn't going to work for my purpose. There was nothing in the Copam's manual or anywhere online that I had read that stated a 45 degree blade must be used at all times. Basically I told him if the Copam couldn't cut my designs with a 60 degree blade at a decent speed without skipping then the cutter wasn't doing what it was designed to do; the MH had done a better job on straights so the skipping issue was a failure of the Copam's design.

-What happened next was our aha! moment. Brandon said he had a personal Copam CP 2500 at home and never had these issues with it, but the cutting head and blade holder were a different design. His Copam was a V1 design, and mine was the updated V2 version. Ok, that explained a lot of things including people's raving reviews of the Copam's cut quality that caused me to buy the cutter in the first place. The V2 version hadn't been out as long as the V1 had been on the market and the V2 hadn't been reviewed nearly as much. Mainly because most people, like myself, hadn't known the cutter went though an update. When I went back to the online reviews, many were before the V2 came out. That also explained why an acquaintance of mine had a Copam that never exhibited these issues even doing large sign jobs with LOTS of straight lines - it was a V1 model. I'm not sure if I was supposed to know this or not, but it seems as though someone dropped the ball when the new design came out. Not enough R&D and/or there may be other factors that cause some of the V2 machines to exhibit the blade skipping issue. We stopped this conversation with Brandon stating he was going back to the lab and doing some experiments with my old machine and other Copam's that were in his lab. I sent him one of the designs I had to cut where skipping and quality issues were a concern just so he would be able to work with the same variables in the design that I had to work with.

-When I received a result a few days later it was sent from him and another tech that he had been collaborating with. They were very excited and stated that they had solved the problem though cut settings and that I was now going to be able to cut that design with confidence, speed, and a 60 degree blade. I was very excited too until I saw the sample photos they attached with the cutting results/settings. The quality of the cuts were HORRIBLE; everything was lumpy and un-defined. I looked at that and said, what the hell did they do, it looked nothing like the file I sent them! After asking them essentially that in a return email, I get something back from them stating that they are not focusing on the end product, but rather that the machine can cut the vinyl properly. That is their job, not to produce a 'sale ready' vinyl design. They are techs working with machines, not vinyl cutters operating a business. In my opinion, that is a bunch of mumbo jumbo of them covering their asses not being able to get their product to cut properly.

-However much they spouted the BS in their return email about the technicalities of their machine's cuts, they also suggested that if I was not satisfied with their final result that a positive step would be to offer me an upgrade to a more expensive machine they also distributed such as a Roland or Graphtec. While I was not happy with the fact that they were unable to get the Copam to do what it was advertised to do, they were being responsible and offering the price of the Copam as a credit towards a new machine.

-I ended up with a 24" Graphtec machine from them. I had no trouble installing the cutter, no setup issues, no hardware or setting issues, nothing. It arrived, I set it up, and was working on a job in the best quality I had ever produced within a few hours. The machine is amazing, able to produce extremely fine cuts in 45 and 60 degree blades at wide open speed. I am extremely happy with the Graphtec and the fact that US Cutter offered the upgrade to me. I was patient throughout the couple month's process (sometimes I think too patient) as was Brandon in the end bit. I have to thank him for the detailed discussions we had, I now know more about vinyl cutters than I ever expected to.

The fact remains that US Cutter and the Copam definitely have issues that they may or may not admit depending on who you talk to, but in my case they backed down and offered a money losing option to me and I have to commend them for that. That reason is why I just spent the last few hours shedding light on all the work Brandon and I went through to get this result. I hope the process I have described in these various posts will help you in your choices and future recommendations to others.

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

I wanted to follow up on my original posts about the Copam to be fair to all who were involved. Since then a lot has changed and I apologize for not getting back here before everything got out of hand. I've been busy with life outside of my business and now finally have a chance to do the due diligence that the support forum is all about. Please take the time to read the entire post as it will give you the full picture and hopefully help your future decisions and recommendations to others.

Some basic background on my choice to purchase the Copam originally and my business; the reason I went with the Copam as an upgrade for my business was based on the many raving reviews out there on the machine. At the time when I bought the cutter which was months ago, my little vinyl business profited under $400 a month. Based on my income level and the supposed abilities of the Copam - it seemed like the logical upgrade path rather than dropping $1800+ on a Roland or Graphtec. The Copam was hailed as having good detail work for its price level when I read about it online. While my vinyl business was very small at the time, I had loyal customers and I strive to produce a quality product. They came to me after they either were charged too much or received sub-par product from other larger vinyl operations. For many of my jobs, I've fallen into a niche market of difficult designs to cut. I kept my income low for the vinyl business up until recently because of the health hazard vinyl cutting has. The vinyl outgasses are toxic to breathe (ever get a headache from cutting vinyl?), not so toxic they will kill you with repeat exposures, but for someone who works with vinyl daily for years and years it is definitely an occupational concern. Only recently I found a solution to the inhalation and tactile exposure and have been increasing my monthly income substantially in the last couple months, partially due to the outcome you are about to read.

Fast forward to where I left off on the Copam and MH's return with my last post made in August. Here is the rest of the story:

-The MH and Copam were sent back to US Cutter. I later received a brand new Copam, hooked it up, and after a few tests realized it had the EXACT same issues the original Copam did. I was sick and tired of playing games with customer support and this machine. I'll leave the MH's story out since there really wasn't much to me being sent a refurbished one.

-I then made a very detailed video explaining the issues I was having with the original Copam that were also happening with the new one I had just received: spitting out the vinyl, having the blade skip on straight lines, and generally having unacceptable quality for the speeds it advertised. I submitted a detailed web ticket including a link to the video for a tech to look at, so that way nothing could be lost in describing the problems verbally.

-A day or two later I was contacted by Brandon Davis; US Cutter's 'Special project's Division' manager. In other words, I had finally made it to a top level guy outside the customer support call center loop. After talking with him I was much more informed and had even less faith in US Cutter's customer support call center. Brandon explained that many of the the call center people like Levi actually were not very well trained in each cutter's idiosyncracies so they 'winged it' with some of the support issues. He sincerely apologized for their customer support center and how I was run around the block so many times, because he was also frustrated with many of the employee's performances himself. He seemed very irritated with US Cutter's policies, and frankly explained that in this economy everyone wanted to be paid, but didn't want to do the work. I inferred from that that US Cutter was getting what they paid for in employee loyalty and work ethic.

-I told Brandon many times throughout the conversation when he stated something about my issues that I had been told something completely different from Levi or the other support guys. How was I supposed to solve a problem when the people trying to help me didn't have the knowledge to solve it? Fortunately with Brandon it seemed like he actually did his job and was the first person who really knew what he was talking about. I also learned that he was part of the team who actually worked on the cutters in a lab. Levi and the others in the call center did not work on the cutters themselves. Brandon could not be contacted through the tech support call loop, and he gave me his office phone number and email to contact him directly.

-I worked with Brandon for a few weeks trying to solve the Copam's issues. In the beginning he was very confident he could solve all my problems of the vinyl spitting, blade skipping on straight lines, and quality issues. He solved the spitting issue almost instantly in the first conversation. That problem was no fault of the Copam, but rather the Flexi drivers. As soon as I switched to SignCut with the current Copam driver the cutter installed flawlessly and stopped spitting the vinyl roll out the back. Brandon took the time to show me how to navigate the SignCut program and explained in detail why Flexi was a poor program to use with the Copam. I told him I wished I had been told this in the very beginning before going through the customer support ordeal with swapping the original cutter's motherboard, etc. He knew the issue right off the bat whereas none of the customer support people had any idea what I was talking about with the spitting issue.

-The next issue Brandon addressed was the blade skipping problem and this is what we spent most of our time trying to fix. In my video I went though many different speeds, pressures, and even tried a different blade holder to show how badly the blade would start skipping on horizontal lines. In the beginning Brandon seemed skeptical that it was a flaw of the Copam and that I was the source of the problem. Fine I told him, as long as he could tell me what I was doing wrong I was totally fine with that. Nobody so far had been able to tell me what to fix in either me or the machine. I told Brandon the pressures I was working with (which were very light, recommended previously by Levi to stop the blade skip). Immediately he said that was completely backwards that the cutter shouldn't even cut at those pressures. Once again, I was getting conflicting info from the customer support guys and Brandon. His first guess was that I had the blade tip too far out so he requested a photo of how far I had the blade out from the blade holder face. My depth was totally acceptable and we ruled that setting out as an issue. Next we tried a different blade holder and that didn't make a difference in the cutting.

-After days of corresponding back and fourth with Bradon doing tests on the original Copam I sent in, he determined that the skipping issue was with the 60 degree blade face I was using for detail work and the speed at which I was cutting at was too fast. Brandon explained how he had written a paper on the difference in 60 degree and 45 degree blade faces and the leverage they put on the material they cut, etc, and went though a lot of technical detail to explain why I shouldn't be using a 60 degree blade at the speed I needed. I told him that all sounded great in theory, but in reality I had been able to use a 60 degree blade in my old MH at a faster speed with no skipping issue on the same designs, so I should be able to mimic those settings on the Copam with better results. The killing blow was that I hadn't been able to do even what the MH was capable of on the Copam. Not much he could say to that.

-In the same phone call, we then had a long discussion about the engineering of the Copam. He previously had contacted one of the engineers in China about my issue and the engineer had told Brandon the bit about the 60 degree blade/speed as well and that I should slow it down and use a 45 degree blade. I reminded Brandon I had used varying speeds from slowest to fastest in the video I sent and the blade still skipped. The only thing I hadn't done was use a 45 degree blade, but using a 45 degree blade in the detailed designs I was cutting (which had some straights that cause the blade to skip) just wasn't going to work for my purpose. There was nothing in the Copam's manual or anywhere online that I had read that stated a 45 degree blade must be used at all times. Basically I told him if the Copam couldn't cut my designs with a 60 degree blade at a decent speed without skipping then the cutter wasn't doing what it was designed to do; the MH had done a better job on straights so the skipping issue was a failure of the Copam's design.

-What happened next was our aha! moment. Brandon said he had a personal Copam CP 2500 at home and never had these issues with it, but the cutting head and blade holder were a different design. His Copam was a V1 design, and mine was the updated V2 version. Ok, that explained a lot of things including people's raving reviews of the Copam's cut quality that caused me to buy the cutter in the first place. The V2 version hadn't been out as long as the V1 had been on the market and the V2 hadn't been reviewed nearly as much. Mainly because most people, like myself, hadn't known the cutter went though an update. When I went back to the online reviews, many were before the V2 came out. That also explained why an acquaintance of mine had a Copam that never exhibited these issues even doing large sign jobs with LOTS of straight lines - it was a V1 model. I'm not sure if I was supposed to know this or not, but it seems as though someone dropped the ball when the new design came out. Not enough R&D and/or there may be other factors that cause some of the V2 machines to exhibit the blade skipping issue. We stopped this conversation with Brandon stating he was going back to the lab and doing some experiments with my old machine and other Copam's that were in his lab. I sent him one of the designs I had to cut where skipping and quality issues were a concern just so he would be able to work with the same variables in the design that I had to work with.

-When I received a result a few days later it was sent from him and another tech that he had been collaborating with. They were very excited and stated that they had solved the problem though cut settings and that I was now going to be able to cut that design with confidence, speed, and a 60 degree blade. I was very excited too until I saw the sample photos they attached with the cutting results/settings. The quality of the cuts were HORRIBLE; everything was lumpy and un-defined. I looked at that and said, what the hell did they do, it looked nothing like the file I sent them! After asking them essentially that in a return email, I get something back from them stating that they are not focusing on the end product, but rather that the machine can cut the vinyl properly. That is their job, not to produce a 'sale ready' vinyl design. They are techs working with machines, not vinyl cutters operating a business. In my opinion, that is a bunch of mumbo jumbo of them covering their asses not being able to get their product to cut properly.

-However much they spouted the BS in their return email about the technicalities of their machine's cuts, they also suggested that if I was not satisfied with their final result that a positive step would be to offer me an upgrade to a more expensive machine they also distributed such as a Roland or Graphtec. While I was not happy with the fact that they were unable to get the Copam to do what it was advertised to do, they were being responsible and offering the price of the Copam as a credit towards a new machine.

-I ended up with a 24" Graphtec machine from them. I had no trouble installing the cutter, no setup issues, no hardware or setting issues, nothing. It arrived, I set it up, and was working on a job in the best quality I had ever produced within a few hours. The machine is amazing, able to produce extremely fine cuts in 45 and 60 degree blades at wide open speed. I am extremely happy with the Graphtec and the fact that US Cutter offered the upgrade to me. I was patient throughout the couple month's process (sometimes I think too patient) as was Brandon in the end bit. I have to thank him for the detailed discussions we had, I now know more about vinyl cutters than I ever expected to.

The fact remains that US Cutter and the Copam definitely have issues that they may or may not admit depending on who you talk to, but in my case they backed down and offered a money losing option to me and I have to commend them for that. That reason is why I just spent the last few hours shedding light on all the work Brandon and I went through to get this result. I hope the process I have described in these various posts will help you in your choices and future recommendations to others.

really? Levi, I always thought your were the best informed and gave the soundest advice for what it's worth

On the copam - I had excellent service from mine when I had it - was not as nice as the graphtec but was a very fine machine - and I have used 8 different cutter models to compare it too.

[BannerJohn 1,324]

"Brandon explained that many of the the call center people like Levi actually were not very well trained "

bad form for him to say it,and bad form for you to repeat it. It's not true.Levi was working on cutters before Brandon ever heard of USC.

[Rodger 527]

"Brandon explained that many of the the call center people like Levi actually were not very well trained "

bad form for him to say it,and bad form for you to repeat it. It's not true.Levi was working on cutters before Brandon ever heard of USC.

IF Brandon said that ........ ( I am not disrespecting the OP , just thinking his " interpitation " of what was said " might " be different than what was actualy said ) I hope Brandon & Levi comment on this , but I doupt they will ... Maybe Marcus will set the matter straight Brandon & Levi cannot be totally honest in their position IMO . I totally agree with John IF that was said & then even more " bad form " when repeated ... well I agree but I think it is much more than just " bad form " ( that is too polite & I am SURE John was holding back . Levi in my experience & reading his posts & advice is top of the line . Based on that , I call BS on what was said abvout Levi & seriously doupt that was said by Brandon . Levi , you go tiger ( I actually don't know what " tiger " is , Levi said that about me 1 time in a very humorous way ? )

[chixwithtrix 1]

I'm not going to have a pissing match with any of you, but I do not appreciate the personal attacks. I am forwarding what I was told as far as the Levi/Brandon comment. I was told on the phone in one of the earliest conversations that Levi was 'one of the worst' by Brandon referring to the call center people, but it was verbally on the phone and I have no way to prove that was said. That is one of the reasons I prefer email as it is in writing and cannot be contested. At the time I was not interested in WHY Levi was one of the worst, I was just interested in getting my cutter fixed.

I neither know Levi or Brandon in person and can only comment on my experience and what I have been told. Brandon could have been talking out of his ass to cover himself or to avoid confrontation from me when his answer was totally different from Levi's. Or Levi could be talking out of his ass on certain aspects that he may not have been as knowledgeable about. Who knows, that is only speculation. Nobody is perfect, not any of you nor myself, and I received wrong answers from both Levi and Brandon in my experiences I posted about. However I'm not going to burn them at the stake, I wouldn't want either of those guy's jobs! Again, nobody is perfect and if any of you believe that you or others are perfect then I would be interested in knowing your reasoning behind that. I would also hope that Brandon and Levi would step in this thread and speak honestly about the situation.

The fact is that some of you are focusing on the nit-picky points and not getting the big picture, or at least posting about the big picture. As I said in the end, the reality remains that I had extensive issues with US Cutter and two Copams. Nobody was able to solve all of my Copam cutting issues and there were many hours wasted on the phone chasing the wrong solutions. It's not as if I wanted to spend so much time with tech support or on this forum just to wrongly hate on US Cutter and the Copam. No, I want others to take what I have experienced and better be able to make decisions for themselves in the future. Why? Because I would have be extremely thankful if a detailed thread like mine was available for me when I was doing my research before buying a Copam.

Those of you who have had good experiences with US Cutter and a Copam, by all means post up your experiences! I'm not saying every machine will exhibit the problems I faced, whether it be manufacturing flaws or the types of jobs. I can say that my experiences with the V1 Copam was very positive, my buddy's pulled my ass out of a tight spot when mine wouldn't do the job. If you feel the need to bash me for writing what I have written, BannerJohn and Rodger specifically, please take the time to think before typing something like "I call BS on what was said abvout Levi & seriously doupt that was said by Brandon" or "bad form for him to say it, and bad form for you to repeat it."

Rodger, why do you call bullshit and say that I am lying about what was said? I can see that you might do that because you don't know me, but what have I posted here that would make you think I want to lie about my experience? Just as I posted the negatives, I posted positives and thanked both Levi and Brandon for taking the time to help me. And they both did sincerely help me, they were on the phone the same amount of hours I was, the only difference was that they were being paid and I was losing money. Levi even stayed after hours on one of our multi-hour phone calls. Brandon offered the upgrade path to the Graphtec. I have not personally attacked either of the men, only stated what was told to me, my experience, and offered some speculation as to why things happened.

Same goes for BannerJohn, why is it bad form for me to repeat it? Yes, if Brandon said that knowing it wasn't true then shame on him. Who knows, there may be some office tension between those two that we don't know about. Office politics are constantly in play behind the scenes. But I have no responsibility for what he said, I have no idea whether it is true or not. I felt it needed to be repeated because it did have a bearing on my experience. Brandon and Levi said two different things for the same problem. Nobody will know who was right in my situation because the actual problem was not resolved, only masked over when I was offered an upgrade.

[BannerJohn 1,324]

"Same goes for BannerJohn, why is it bad form for me to repeat it?"

You were repeating a personal conversation that obviously wasn't meant for the general public. Maybe I should have said just plain rude. And,btw..you provide the reason yourself:

"But I have no responsibility for what he said, I have no idea whether it is true or not"

[chixwithtrix 1]

I still stand by my previous post and do now know why you continue to attack me personally.

I do not see my reposting what Brandon said as rude on my part. There is no reason I should hide what was said, Brandon said it and that's that. It would have been rude of me to say that Levi was one of the worst myself, but I didn't, and still won't as that would be libel. I have no reason to call him 'one of the worst' simply because I haven't talked to everyone who works there. Have you? The fact that I did include what was said has bearing on my experience and others should know what was said whether it was right or wrong. It is reality.

"And,btw..you provide the reason yourself: 'But I have no responsibility for what he said, I have no idea whether it is true or not.'"

Here again I don't understand how this is providing a reason for me not to repeat it. Just because I don't know whether it is true or not doesn't mean it didn't happen or make it an important example where the two men were differing in answers. What are you trying to say with this quote?

[BannerJohn 1,324]

I still stand by my previous post and do now know why you continue to attack me personally.

I do not see my reposting what Brandon said as rude on my part. There is no reason I should hide what was said, Brandon said it and that's that. It would have been rude of me to say that Levi was one of the worst myself, but I didn't, and still won't as that would be libel. I have no reason to call him 'one of the worst' simply because I haven't talked to everyone who works there. Have you? The fact that I did include what was said has bearing on my experience and others should know what was said whether it was right or wrong. It is reality.

"And,btw..you provide the reason yourself: 'But I have no responsibility for what he said, I have no idea whether it is true or not.'"

Here again I don't understand how this is providing a reason for me not to repeat it. Just because I don't know whether it is true or not doesn't mean it didn't happen or make it an important example where the two men were differing in answers. What are you trying to say with this quote?

I am trying to say that you repeated something even admitting you didn't know if it was true or not. If you don't see what's wrong with that,there's no point in saying anything else.As for bashing..you have a strange idea of what bashing is. Read your own posts if you want to see bashing. If I edited them down to what really needed to be said, they would be about 2 paragraphs.

[chixwithtrix 1]

I am trying to say that you repeated something even admitting you didn't know if it was true or not. If you don't see what's wrong with that,there's no point in saying anything else.As for bashing..you have a strange idea of what bashing is. Read your own posts if you want to see bashing. If I edited them down to what really needed to be said, they would be about 2 paragraphs.

I will admit that in the first two posts I was angry with my experience and I made that known. Yes I put more emphasis on negative things, but I did include the positives even when I was angry with US Cutter's support and the Copam's performance. Please put yourself in my shoes and understand that you probably would have been angry in the same situation. Would you have been able to talk about the positives of US Cutter when your business was losing money? I had just spent over $1000 between the Copam and the New MH, and both were costing me money and productivity that would take me months to recover. That is no small problem any way you look at it. Now that time has passed I am less angry and more reserved about what happened, which I hope reflects in my update post earlier today. Nothing is black and white, but full of shades of gray.

My definition of bashing is saying something about someone or some thing with no real reason. Just because we are somewhat anonymous behind computer screens not talking face to face doesn't make it right to say that I am rude or lying based on opinion. If someone can give me a concrete example of why I am in the wrong for posting the information about Brandon's comment on Levi, please tell me.

I also challenge each person who reads this to reflect on the whole story, not just what me, John, and Rodger are focusing in on at the moment. Different people could go on for days focusing on what they think is important, and that is fine as this is a public forum, but in the end the whole story of my experience is what is most important.

Think of your schooling as you grew up, you might have had good teachers and bad teachers (good customer service people and bad customer service people). Been bullied or were the bully yourselves (had a bad experience with support or wrongly called out people who did not deserve it). But in the end it was the whole experience that was the important part. The nuances we just a part of the process. I give this example so that those who read and post here can take a step back and look at my experience from beginning to finish. That's why I took the time to post it and still continue to post about it.

[BannerJohn 1,324]

I will admit that in the first two posts I was angry with my experience and I made that known. Yes I put more emphasis on negative things, but I did include the positives even when I was angry with US Cutter's support and the Copam's performance. Please put yourself in my shoes and understand that you probably would have been angry in the same situation. Would you have been able to talk about the positives of US Cutter when your business was losing money? I had just spent over $1000 between the Copam and the New MH, and both were costing me money and productivity that would take me months to recover. That is no small problem any way you look at it. Now that time has passed I am less angry and more reserved about what happened, which I hope reflects in my update post earlier today. Nothing is black and white, but full of shades of gray.

My definition of bashing is saying something about someone or some thing with no real reason. Just because we are somewhat anonymous behind computer screens not talking face to face doesn't make it right to say that I am rude or lying based on opinion. If someone can give me a concrete example of why I am in the wrong for posting the information about Brandon's comment on Levi, please tell me.

I also challenge each person who reads this to reflect on the whole story, not just what me, John, and Rodger are focusing in on at the moment. Different people could go on for days focusing on what they think is important, and that is fine as this is a public forum, but in the end the whole story of my experience is what is most important.

Think of your schooling as you grew up, you might have had good teachers and bad teachers (good customer service people and bad customer service people). Been bullied or were the bully yourselves (had a bad experience with support or wrongly called out people who did not deserve it). But in the end it was the whole experience that was the important part. The nuances we just a part of the process. I give this example so that those who read and post here can take a step back and look at my experience from beginning to finish. That's why I took the time to post it and still continue to post about it.

Why don't you just call Brandon in the morning and ask him what he thinks of you repeating something he said in a personal conversation.

[Rodger 527]

I am trying to say that you repeated something even admitting you didn't know if it was true or not. If you don't see what's wrong with that,there's no point in saying anything else.As for bashing..you have a strange idea of what bashing is. Read your own posts if you want to see bashing. If I edited them down to what really needed to be said, they would be about 2 paragraphs.

Hey John , I would say thanks if you edited the " books " down , but I did not read past the 1rst book . Bottom line IMO , if a $700 cutter upsets this member this much , I am glad they have not experienced what I have in life . Nuke would enjoy responding with a detailed book , but he has not been around . When he drops back in , I am sure he will not disappoint me . Best & a value model does not go together... i have read the gerber is the best , so that might be what should have been bought . Not everything is for everybody . Seems the Op got what they need to do what they want , so a happy ending I was starting to offer to make a donation site so the OP could get his money back . SV26 , if you want me or most to read any more of your posts , i suggest to limit the size of the book . I am glad the problem got rresolved .

[chixwithtrix 1]

Rodger, if you chose not to read my entire posts then how can you judge what happened fairly, on both sides? Better yet, why did you post in this thread at all without reading the whole story?

I can see you like US Cutter from your experiences, but the fact is they made mistakes that made me unhappy and cost me money. Nothing good about that. In the end they offered a solution, and as I said, I can respect them for that. That's why I posted my 'books' as you say.

"Bottom line IMO , if a $700 cutter upsets this member this much , I am glad they have not experienced what I have in life"

Really? You think just because an $800 cutter upsets me that I haven't experienced real hardship? Get real, that statement is plain ignorant. All of us here have experienced loss and hard times.

At the time I posted my original posts in this thread I had just had spinal neurosurgery for a ruptured disk. That was my 3rd surgery in 4 years, I'm 23. I was losing money to cutters that didn't work right and the customer support couldn't solve my problems. I had to hire two contract employees to do my vinyl job for me (because I couldn't bend or sit) so I could deliver to my customers on time. Did my customers ever hear about that or receive their product late? No, because that is what real customer service is about. I lost money on all of the jobs I did during that time. That simple $800 cutter cost me more than double that in lost productivity with materials and employee wages as we had to adapt and troubleshoot constantly. Add to the fact I was quickly loosing money from the thousands of dollars in medical bills, yes, the fact that my $800 cutter didn't work as advertised was very important to me.

John, I'm sure Brandon would not be happy about that being repeated, but he shouldn't have said it if he didn't want it repeated. Just like the things I've said on this forum, it shows your character and I think that is important in my experience.

[BannerJohn 1,324]

John, I'm sure Brandon would not be happy about that being repeated, but he shouldn't have said it if he didn't want it repeated.

Jeez.

[kenimes 42]

Ack!

Brandon was out of line saying anything bad about ANY co-worker, let alone Levi. I had the pleasure of working next to Levi, and he honestly was good at what he did, and he cared about helping. He was always eager to learn many of the quirks these Chinese import cutters can throw at you. With all of the different cutting programs available, different computer hardware configurations, different operating systems, etc., it is a wonder the Copam works as well as it already does with many of them.

If Brandon has more knowledge and experience in the field, and he can pipe you more sunshine than Levi because of this, it still does not give him the right to down talk a counterpart. Bad bad bad.

Any of us could talk someones ear off all day about crap they did not know, and sound as intelligent as hell. Does not mean everyone else around us is shitty.....

Glad to hear you went with the GraphTec. That is a brand you can count on. You will not be disappointed.

[chixwithtrix 1]

I have been answering your questions so far in detail, yet you still haven't answered mine with something that is more than just an opinion.

What I tried to say in the last post is what Brandon would think about the situation has no bearing on me repeating it. The fact that he said it in the first place shows his character. That is why I repeated what he said. Not to be malicious or rude and I still stand by what I have been saying all along.

Brandon could have been lying at Levi's expense because Brandon had just told me something opposite of what Levi told me. Or he could have been telling the truth that compared to the other reps, Levi was 'one of the worst'. Or there could be some office tension between those two and Brandon let that snipe slip when he was on the spot. I do not know, I can only speculate and repeat what was told to me.

What I really want to know is why is me repeating what Brandon said so important to you and why are you making me out to be the bad guy in this situation? I praised both men in my posts and when I talked to them on the phone and through email. I don't hate them, nor do I like them. I'm neutral because while they did help me, their inability to solve my problems was not doing their job. That is what they are paid to do and they didn't do it. I lost money because of that. But Brandon and whoever he had to confer with stepped up to the plate and offered a solution. I hate to keep repeating myself because it seems nobody is reading my posts, I can respect them for that and that is the reason I came back after months to tell what happened. Their service reputation in my eyes is mixed and I want people to know about it. What more do you want?

I would also like to know why both of you, BannerJohn and Rodger, chose to post in this virgin thread rather that go back to the 2 page thread you all had originally posted in?

I don't see anyone balking or talking about US Cutter's website having false advertising about the Copam's speed (the photo I provided in the first post). That I was hung up on after a long time waiting and had to go through the hold music again. Or that the MH721 I bought was broken before I even got to use it. All of these items are in my above posts plus more with detail.

I can see you guys are for US Cutter because of your experiences with them. That is great! Please tell your experiences because most people only talk about the negative experiences and to be fair more poeple should talk about how they had good experiences. Where I have a problem with your stance is that you have become bias in my case.

You are focusing on one thing, Brandon's comment, that I honestly would like to know why it is so important to you as I said above. There are so many other things I've posted that are more important to teach people about US Cutter's product and services than discussing rudeness about a comment without backing up your points.

[chixwithtrix 1]

Ack!

Brandon was out of line saying anything bad about ANY co-worker, let alone Levi. I had the pleasure of working next to Levi, and he honestly was good at what he did, and he cared about helping. He was always eager to learn many of the quirks these Chinese import cutters can throw at you. With all of the different cutting programs available, different computer hardware configurations, different operating systems, etc., it is a wonder the Copam works as well as it already does with many of them.

If Brandon has more knowledge and experience in the field, and he can pipe you more sunshine than Levi because of this, it still does not give him the right to down talk a counterpart. Bad bad bad.

Any of us could talk someones ear off all day about crap they did not know, and sound as intelligent as hell. Does not mean everyone else around us is shitty.....

Glad to hear you went with the GraphTec. That is a brand you can count on. You will not be disappointed.

Great post, I'm glad to hear someone talking about these men who actually knows them. So far I have been extremely impressed with the Graphtec over the last month or so. After I bought it my sales have more than doubled, because of various reasons not just the cutter (but it certainly helps keep things streamlined), and I am working on making it a full time business.

[Rodger 527]

I did read the whole story in both threads . I read post # 4 in this thread , but not the next book . both posts were 100+ sentences & post # 4 seemed VERY dramatic to me with much that should have been kept to yourself . I did not read the next 100+ post . Demeaning Levi 2nd hand on the USC forum is VERY classless . It seems that about 20,000 members really like Levi & have posted how good he has been with them & 1 member ( you ) demean him by " saying " Brandon said this & that ... I remember elementary school kids doing that , but am surprised an adult does that . Then you wrote another post that was about the same size ... I could not force myself to suffer thru reading that as the content of post # 4 demonstrated your professionalism or lack of . IMO USC did not cost you money , your poor business plan did . Since you talk about ignorance ... Hilarious BTW , It is extremely ignorant to run any business where a $800 item devastates the business . I just play around making decals & I bought 2 Copams at the same time . I am not rich , but am a realist . A financial deal that is $800 causing this much drama is what I said , not traumatic health issues . Live long enough & everybody gets those . Loosing $800 is what was being said , I have lost much more & my panties did not get bunched up . Things happen & how we deal with them is how our character is defined . I ruptured a disk bad when i was 18 & have lived with it ever since . I don't use that as an excuse , I just have planned my business better so that has not effected my business .

I do agree 100 % with your statement " Just like the things I've said on this forum, it shows your character and I think that is important in my experience. " repeating what was " supposedly " said in a private conversation shows a major quality in your character ... my take is just to demean Levi . << shakes head slowly >> John gave you a realistic reaction & you don't get it , so not really worth trying to explain ... that is your character & I accept that . I am glad you got it resolved & hope you never have anything more expensive than a $800 cutter have major problems , as I don't know if you could cope at all ...( seems the cutter actually did what is was supposed to do , just the Flexi software & what you are doing with it was the bulk of the problem ) .

feel free NOT to PM me again to read this thread , I will never give you a " atta boy " for your conduct .

Edit ; , It is not what you said Brandon said about Levi , it is you repeating it . THAT is what John & I think is right below whale poop .

[chixwithtrix 1]

Thank you Rodger for telling your side of the story detailed like that. I may not agree with what you say, but I am glad you took the time to tell me.

And rupturing a disk at 18 and still living with it must be difficult, I don't wish that pain on anyone! If you feel that way about me with those reasons then I honestly don't think you understood what I was trying to say in some of my posts. I'm not expecting you to analyze every word and meaning behind what I post, just want some basic understanding.

I'm also not looking for you to pat me on the back and say everything will be OK. Some of the things in the first two posts I did say in anger, which I admitted in the posts you probably didn't read. But I did include the positive and negative experiences on both sides. I never once stooped down to you saying your worth as a person was less than mine or that your decisions were wrong. I did call you ignorant, and I still believe that from what you have posted, you act like you know the whole story and try to give advice when you don't know the whole story.

I edited your post down to the parts I would like to discuss; your post parts are in bold and my replies are below:

-I did not read the next 100+ post

How do you expect me to take anything you say to heart when you won't even take the time to read some posts? You have enough time to post in this thread, but not enough time to read it?

-Demeaning Levi 2nd hand on the USC forum is VERY classless

If I was actually trying to demean Levi then that would be classless. I have said multiple times in most of the posts that they both (Brandon and Levi) helped me and that I respect that. I said I also hoped they would come in the thread themselves. How is that demeaning Levi? What Brandon said was demeaning to Levi, my repeating it is not demeaning. I have no personal link with Levi and can't comment on how good he does his job all the time, but I can comment on what happened when I worked with him. He didn't call me back one time when he said he would, he was not able to resolve the spitting problem, nor was he able to resolve the blade skipping problem. I was sent to Brandon because Levi was not able to help me. He did help me with my faulty blade holder, and spent a great deal of time trying to get my MH721 to work right before it's motherboard ate it while on the phone with him. All this is written in my previous posts.

-It seems that about 20,000 members really like Levi & have posted how good he has been with them & 1 member ( you ) demean him by " saying " Brandon said this & that I could not force myself to suffer thru reading that as the content of post # 4 demonstrated your professionalism or lack of

Then you have no leg to stand on in your posts, you admit your bias right there. Anything I say is tainted with your negative opinion of me. I'll ask other members who read this, have I exhibited a lack of professionalism overall? I've taken to time to explain myself throughout and never said Levi or Brandon are bad people. I don't know them well enough to judge that. I do not like them or dislike them. I know there are people who like Levi because of their experiences with him through customer service. Awesome, keep posting that. But you did leave out that there are a lot of people who don't like him or were at least unhappy with him. No two people will have the same experience, that doesn't make each of their experiences any less important. Just like those 20,000 forum members positive experience doesn't make my overall negative experience any less important. And visa verse.

-IMO USC did not cost you money , your poor business plan did . Since you talk about ignorance ... Hilarious BTW , It is extremely ignorant to run any business where a $800 item devastates the business .

Your bit about me being ignorant for running a business where $800 would devastate it would have merit if I had not previously talked about my business's situation in my other thread which you posted in. You start to run your mouth about my business without having all the facts, or even trying to obtain all the facts. That is where you display your ignorance. Yes, in a regular sense of running a business that would be a poor business design, I totally agree with you. This is my earlier post in the other thread:

Tthe reason I went with the Copam as an upgrade for my business was based on the many raving reviews out there on the machine. At the time when I bought the cutter which was months ago, my little vinyl business profited under $400 a month. Based on my income level and the supposed abilities of the Copam - it seemed like the logical upgrade path rather than dropping $1800+ on a Roland or Graphtec. The Copam was hailed as having good detail work for its price level when I read about it online. While my vinyl business was very small at the time, I had loyal customers and I strive to produce a quality product. I kept my income low for the vinyl business up until recently because of the health hazard vinyl cutting has. The vinyl outgasses are toxic to breathe (ever get a headache from cutting vinyl?), not so toxic they will kill you with repeat exposures, but for someone who works with vinyl daily for years and years it is definitely an occupational concern. Only recently I found a solution to the inhalation and tactile exposure and have been increasing my monthly income substantially in the last couple months, partially due to the outcome you are about to read.

Outside of the health hazards, I also had other businesses that made up other portions of my income. A photography business and a business where I repaired motorcycles and engines. Since the back surgery I am not able to repair motorcycles and engines at the moment because of various weight restrictions and other issues I now face with my back. I hope to get back to this business in the future. So I've only recently developed an solid business plan to increase the vinyl business's role and will also be investing in a screen printing setup to expand and better serve my customer base. As I said before, my vinyl income has now more than doubled monthly in only two months. The reason I never had a business plan before recently is that I never expected to get into the vinyl cutting business at all. My first cutter was a used MH I bought in college to play with. In the automotive racing circles I hung out with people started to ask me to cut stickers for them. My business was born out of necessity, I registered a DBA and a sales tax permit and just did it on the side for years. Just because I was small didn't mean I didn't make my customers happy and the business grew by word of mouth. Only recently I've begun print and online advertising now that I chose to do it full time. At the time I invested in the Copam, the cutter's cost made up a big portion of the business's worth.

Both Apple and Microsoft were started in a few kid's garages. In the beginning don't you think a setback like mine would have been devastating for them too or that their good business plan was formulated before the work started? Look how successful they are today, it's all about how they handled themselves. Not everyone can start of with the latest and greatest equipment, or shrug off $800 worth of money. I received a resolution, but it doesn't mean the road getting there wasn't rocky.

-Things happen & how we deal with them is how our character is defined

You should apply this to yourself too. Where you choose not to read my posts and personally attack me without having all the facts - I chose to reply to you in detail, thank you for saying your side, and explain why I believe you are being ignorant. I never said you were a bad person, or that I thought your feelings or what you said were 'hilarious', or that your business plan was lacking. I didn't have enough info to say anything to you about those items so I didn't. But you chose to and you reactions show how your character is defined.

-Seems the cutter actually did what is was supposed to do , just the Flexi software & what you are doing with it was the bulk of the problem

This also shows you did not read what I wrote. The Copam did not do what it was designed to do even in the end when I upgraded to the Graphtec. Brandon and Levi were not able to solve all of the cutter's problems and offered me an upgrade to move in a positive direction.

[Rodger 527]

I am a member of the USC Super Hogs . Me & my comrades have much experience in many types of business & in life itself . USC personnel like Brandon , Levi & John can't respond as honestly & directly as I can because of the business thing . I am just a member with the same rights as you . Me & my comrades ( hence the " club " ) have always taken exception when we think something is unfair or unjust no matter who or which direction it is given , even if it is a buddy who turns out to be a backstabber !!! Your drama & especially repeating what you say Brandon said ( I don't believe that ) has only 1 purpose ... to demean Levi & put Brandon in a peculiar position if it is true . Personal vendetta to-wards them IMO . You admit you posted in anger , that is immature in anybodies book !!! You could have covered the facts & left out what was said . Repeating it seems like a way to say things you don't have the balls to say . You could have summed the last batch ( post # 4 forward )as

" The piece of crap Copam never did what it was supposed to do no matter who did what . I did send it back & got a Graphtec ( at a major bargain I bet Right .. I thought so , so USC made your very dramatic deal turn out to be an even better bargain ) "

but you dragged what you say Brandon said about levi into it . I don't understand that as I don't have that character in me & am very glad i don't !!! I agree , i am ignorant in that respect & also very glad about that also

99,9999 % of the members are just as you or was , starting out & improving as money/profit improves . In all of the posts in the last 4 years , i think you have been the most dramatic , so I dud thee " Drama queen " of 2011

moral of the novel ... USC is ALWAYS the best bargain , even in a situation like this

If you take posts in a public forum this seriously , I am starting to understand the problem more .

[chixwithtrix 1]

It seems as though you still don't understand so we will have to agree to disagree. You continue to attack me and not comment on you own short comings. That makes you the ball-less one.

I think you and your comrades as you call them have the right idea, but as with many people in the past and present, your cause looks to be corrupt or diminished by biases and opinions.

No matter whether I am dubbed the drama queen or not, it still stands that you chose to come at me without all the right information. In your future endeavors - to shed good light on USC you should take that into consideration. Your approach to people like me, as I'm positive I am not the only one who has disagreed with you, reflects on USC because you support them. I personally would not want someone acting like yourself to plug my company. There is a difference in supporting a group for the good of everyone and what you have done in this thread.

If you don't take your fellow members on this forum very seriously, as I do, then what good is your time spent on here and your cause for?

[BannerJohn 1,324]

Everyone needs to just leave this alone.He/she (SV26) just doesn't "get it" as to why everyone sees the comments about Brandon and Levi were wrong, and he/she never will.

Just leave it alone.

[Rodger 527]

Everyone needs to just leave this alone.He/she (SV26) just doesn't "get it" as to why everyone sees the comments about Brandon and Levi were wrong, and he/she never will.

Just leave it alone.

I agree . The member seems to be sincere in some ways , but nobody could be that naive about the tattletale issue .