Really Really Frustrated. Do I Need To Talk To Ken??

[tlzimmerman 11]

Some of your points are valid and I agree to a point.

As for working on a Roland or such yourself I would almost bet that if you did while in warranty it would void that warranty. Granted comparing a Refine to a Roland is like comparing apples to oranges.

If I paid that much for a machine of anykind and it was that new, even though I could fix it myself I doubt that I would. That is one of the reasons that the costs of presion items be it a cutter or a tractor have the high costs that they have, to pay for the support that you might need.

If I bought a new car and the transmission went out while I still had a warranty on it even though I'm able, I'll be dang if I'm going to change it myself. that's why they cost so much to pay the mechanics at the dealerships that are waiting on that defective transmission to change. I also know that I wouldn't be responsible for the tow charges, as it was still under warranty.

tlzimmerman - Please understand that I'm not trying to start a war, It just seems lately that USC has disregarded the ones that have made them who they are. There are a few posts about rudeness and such with a attitude from USC that if you have a problem you will do as they say with no in between or compromise on the issue.

Anyway I'm done now I'll set and watch how USC handles this one.

I do know that in the next few months I'll be looking at a better cutter and if things don't change alittle at USC I'll be looking elsewhere..

Two Thumbs up to all that make this forum what it is..

Dave

Dave...not trying to start a war either, just trying to say that working on cutters are ok is all, its not like we have dealerships we can take it too, and I bet if USC was in the same town as him and he brought in his cutter, they would replace it....unfortunately thats not how it works.

Edit...roger said it above me better.......

[sarconastic 29]

This has been a very interesting thread to read. I had a few problems, albeit small with my LP when I bought it. I went into it aware (from these forums) that I may have these, and I may have to do some work to take care of it. Unfortunately many who buy cutters, direct or from E-bay don't understand this, you do get what you pay for and you in turn have to expect some problems from what you get.

This wasn't an issue with cutters, just 10 years ago, because to be honest, the majority of us here that now have cutters could not afford to purchase them. Prices that USC offer us were not even close to beaing able to purchase a cutter and get started in this business.

Honestly from a service standpoint, I don't find it unreasonable, and I think it's even beneficial for USC to send out parts for us to swap them out. With that in mind, there are not a lot of people that are comfortable soldering, and even if they think they can do it, most don't know how to solder correctly. They could damage a part with too much heat, that Weller instant heat 140 watt gun will roast a chip on a board in about 3 seconds flat.

I like the Idea that I can work on this machine and don;t have to worry about voiding my warranty, I can tweak it to my hearts content and improve it's performance and still be $2000 to the positive side as far as expenses go.

Now I was a little wary of the policy about shipping the machine back at the owners expense to have warranty work done. Most companies will issue an RMA with a Shipping invoice and have it returned at their expense. Notice I said MOST, not all. Many require you to pay the shipping to them, so it's not un-common.

USC obviously has a deal with their shippers that gives them a pretty good break on shipping. So why couldn't US cutter issue an RMA and have it shipped back to them using their $9.99 shipping. Then the customer can pay that fee back to USC. I really don't think anyone would object to paying that return fee, It's when we take it down to be shipped and they want $45 that it really starts to take a bite out of the Wallet.

As another alternate solution. Your not comfortable soldering, very understandable. but your under a deadline, you need your cutter, now. Find someone you know, or a local electronics repair person to solder it for you. I would take a shot even if you have to pay someone they would do it for less than $20. You would spend more than that shipping it back.

USC has sent me out parts to replace myself and every time it got my cutter back online and working, with only a couple days down time. Never were any of them anything but supportive and eager to make sure I was a happy customer. So if someone from there was rude, at the very least you need to take it up a level to the management, or to Bannerjohn (our hitman!   ) to make sure that something is done. There is absolutely no reason for that kind of treatment.

I really hope you get this resolved and get back online.

Kevin

[Kwelp68 0]

Again, I really really appreciate everyone's input.  I'm starting to think that I should go ahead and order the carriage and try to install it myself.  I wonder if I can splice the wire together instead of solder.  I took a look at the carriage, and I couldn't see how you can easily remove it.  I just hope that this is what's wrong with the cutter, or I'm more days out.... This does seem like the quickest solution.  It's not that I'm afraid to solder, I've just never done it before.  I don't want to mess it up more than it already is.

[BannerJohn 1,324]

order the carriage. When it comes,call USC and tell them you are ready to go and have them walk you through it,step-by-step. It is not unreasnable to expect (at the very least) intructions on how to replace a part. Since,in effect, you are doing their job for them, it is also not unreasonable to expect a little help from them.

Pay for overnight shipping. In this case, it shouldn't be more than $20-30 if they tell you it is, they are wrong. But a word of warning..if you buy today and pay for overnight shipping,don't expect it tomorrow.Maybe 2 days, if you are lucky. There are other posts on here about that. I don't think the shipping department understands the concept.

[tlzimmerman 11]

I would recommend against the splice, it may work but with the way these machines use magnets to control the carriage, having a more solid connection will lead to less issues with static I would assume.  It may work perfect, or it may not who knows though.

Great advice on maybe getting someone to come solder it for you......probly much cheaper/faster than shipping it to them.

[BannerJohn 1,324]

I don't know if I have seen it in awhile...might try radio shack...but there used to be solder that came in  thin strips..you just wrapped it around the area and heated it with a match.

[Guest]

Hello, I spoke with you yesterday to try and get this taken care of. I understand that you are unhappy with your warranty options, but this policy is consistent for every customer. We were actually bending the rules to try and accommodate you. Usually we would not have been able to offer you an exchange at all. On top of the exchange we offered you a half price restocking fee and we reduced the cost of the 2 days shipping requested. We even offered to cross ship the package meaning we would ship your order when all we had from you was a tracking # on the return package. This is completely against policy, but we were trying to help you out. We were in a rush to get your order ready and shipped, yesterday we had a limited amount of time before FedEx Express showed up so we needed to act fast. We spoke to you I think four separate times and during that time we got the clear from you to do the exchange and charge the card for the fees. Brandon and I started getting this done for you. After we made the charges you called back and told us that was not an OK solution and that we needed to reverse the charges. To make a long story short we bent over backwards for you, did a whole lot of work for you that ended up being a waste, all because we were trying to bend policy so that it would work out better for you. Having multiple people call in concerning the same issue with different decisions is at best frustrating for us and in turn costs you time.

Unfortunately we cannot offer a better warranty because of the rock bottom prices that we are selling these things at. The alternative is to add the price of one warranty issue into the cost of every cutter so that the shipping is prepaid at the time of purchase. This is what our competitors do. We feel that this is unfair to the customers that do not have warranty issues so our policy remains the same.

If you would like to get this taken care of please give me a call. 425.481.3555 x7116

[Guest]

USC obviously has a deal with their shippers that gives them a pretty good break on shipping. So why couldn't US cutter issue an RMA and have it shipped back to them using their $9.99 shipping. Then the customer can pay that fee back to USC. I really don't think anyone would object to paying that return fee, It's when we take it down to be shipped and they want $45 that it really starts to take a bite out of the Wallet.

I completely agree with your post up until here. We take a hit on shipping every single time we ship something for $9.99. This is one of the services that we supply to our customers at a loss. If that was the actual price we got we would LOVE to offer that to our customers for warranty service, but it is not.

[Guest HowardI]

I would like to offer a tidbit of information regarding the restock fee. 

If we had a refurbished unit in stock to do the exchange with there would not be a restock fee. 

Since we don't and would have to send a new one, that is why we would need to require a restock fee.

Hope this helps to clear up a little of this mud. 

Howard Irwin

Support Specialist

US Cutter

425 481-3555 Ext. 7105

[Kwelp68 0]

I really appreciate the work you all did for me yesterday.  Believe me, I want to do business with you all, and continue to buy my supplies from you.  My wife is talking to Howard, and I think things can be cleared up. 

[BannerJohn 1,324]

I hope you are getting it straightened out.Good move letting your wife do the talking.

Surprized to see TWO responses at this time of day from US Cutter,but maybe this means someone is on the ball. I hope the two who responded are not teh same one who was rude to you to begin with.

Bottom line, a warranty is a warranty. 3 weeks is way too soon to have a cutter malfunction unless it was already malfunctioning when it was shipped.Most Problems could be solved by a bit of quality control.

I guess I was just lucky to never have any problems with my Refine. Of course, 2 years ago,things were different.

[tlzimmerman 11]

I 2 hope a good resolution is found, its these situations that are hard for any customer/company to deal with.  Bottom line sounds like they offered to fix it and send it back, which takes too long, so they wanted to charge a restock fee because they would have to sell your old/repaired unit as a referb.....which makes sense to me but still sucks for the customer.

All in all, not that it MATTERS what I say, but I think USC has been satisfactory on this (minus the rudeness).  Sure an exchange with no restock fee would be nice but after thinking about it more that is a little much if they offered to fix the machine.  I do think the shipping charges kill everyone though, which makes it so much nicer if people are willing to work on their own machines with the help of USC.

[BannerJohn 1,324]

Two rules of business:

Keep the Customer Satisfied

The Customer is always right

Policy or not...one bad situation can cost a company a LOT of customers in the long run. I am even now getting emails from potential customers who are having second thoughts. What can I say? "Take your chances"? A year ago I could say "Go for it,you won't  regret it".

as a business person who has been in business longer than most of the US Cutter staff has been ALIVE... I would happily eat $50 shipping rather than risk losing Thousands of dollars in sales. Nit-picking over a few dollars can lose a company a LOT of business.

[Guest]

I 2 hope a good resolution is found, its these situations that are hard for any customer/company to deal with.  Bottom line sounds like they offered to fix it and send it back, which takes too long, so they wanted to charge a restock fee because they would have to sell your old/repaired unit as a referb.....which makes sense to me but still sucks for the customer.

All in all, not that it MATTERS what I say, but I think USC has been satisfactory on this (minus the rudeness).  Sure an exchange with no restock fee would be nice but after thinking about it more that is a little much if they offered to fix the machine.  I do think the shipping charges kill everyone though, which makes it so much nicer if people are willing to work on their own machines with the help of USC.

I completely agree and I appreciate your support.

[tlzimmerman 11]

Two rules of business:

Keep the Customer Satisfied

The Customer is always right

Policy or not...one bad situation can cost a company a LOT of customers in the long run. I am even now getting emails from potential customers who are having second thoughts. What can I say? "Take your chances"? A year ago I could say "Go for it,you won't  regret it".

as a business person who has been in business longer than most of the US Cutter staff has been ALIVE... I would happily eat $50 shipping rather than risk losing Thousands of dollars in sales. Nit-picking over a few dollars can lose a company a LOT of business.

There is a fine line between customer is always right, and killing your business bending over backwards.  You are right I would eat the money in this situation too, but it is clearly stated in their policy about warranty work......so I can't honestly blame them.  I work in customer service for an ISP and yeah making the customer happy is the most important thing, but you have to draw the line somwhere don't you?

However...I think the policy about shipping back for warranty work is what gives everyone the sour taste in their mouths, its expensive and the perception about warranty work is that if something goes wrong during x period of time, my cost is covered EVEN IF the policy states otherwise.  I think they would be smarter to change their policy.  Add $10 to each cutter so you have that cushion to ship them back and repair them if you need to.  If someone needs it faster, I can't say i think them paying a restocking fee because they need it rush is out of the question.

Bottom line I see both sides of the argument.  USC has gotten a bit of a bad rap here on the forums since the Ken situation, and some guff from me as well, and I am trying to step back and look at this from both sides as best I can.  Kwelp....sucks man it really does, I feel for you and I wouldn't be happy in your shoes either, but because you didn't want to work on the cutter yourself, your options were to adhere to the policy that you agreed to when you purchased......or the other option USC gave you.  I guess that is the chance we all take. 

USC I will say this, the reason I and many others took a chance on a discount cutter was because of your reputation for service......and hearing reports of rudeness on the phone is really damaging to that image that has helped you grow.  Maybe since you have grown to the point you have you could look at  changing some of these policies that keep giving you a black eye, even if it adds $10-20 dollars to the cost of the cutter. I would have gladly payed $20 more for my cutter to know that if it broke, I got it fixed free of charge for me.....well WELL worth it in my opinion, maybe others would disagree.  Either way, some of these problems that get aired on the forum it would be nice to see concrete solutions and happy customers at the end because some of them sure seem to have drug on for weeks.

[Kwelp68 0]

I did not post this to tarnish Uscutter's reputation, or to bulldoze anyone's decision on buying a cutter from them.  Yesterday was very confusing on both parties business/customer.  There are many options when you're cutter breaks, and we needed the comfort in choosing the best, quickest, and least expensive option.  Yes, I'm sure we were difficult to deal with.  Yes, I did call many times.  Yes, we did change our minds from what we originally wanted to do.  Policy is policy and I understand that, but I think it is understandable to be a little upset when you pay over $300.00 for something, and it didn't last more than 5 hours of use.

But, it became hostile when it shouldn't have.  Everyone from Uscutter had been nothing but gracious the times I've talked to them until both my wife and I were insulted by somebody yesterday without ever being rude to them.  Once it became hostile, the situation could not be figured out.  I posted this thread because I felt like I had nothing else that I could do. 

The situation has been resolved, and Howard took care of things with my wife.  We went ahead and purchased another 871 to have as a backup instead of throwing away $120 or some odd dollars to exchange, ship, and restock.  We'll then send out the other for repair. 

[BannerJohn 1,324]

I am happy you got it taken care of...but the one thing that bothers me is this statement:

my wife and I were insulted by somebody yesterday without ever being rude to them.

There is,simply,NO EXCUSE for that happening. And,sorry to say,it's not the first time I have heard that,or even the second. Whoever it was needs to be at the work bench and NOT answering the phone.

You decided to go ahead and buy again from USC..but we will never know how many others decided the opposite.

I spent most of the morning dealing with customer service on something I bought online. After a week of no response to emails, no answering the phones (or being put on hold and then hung up on)..I had decided that unless I got hold of somebody today that was nice,and willing to resolve the problem..I was going to do a charge-back. Luckily for them, I finally did get hold of someone like that.

BUT..I won't be buying from them again...and why? Because their customer service sucked when I needed it. And to beat it all, I was a regular customer.

[Guest round2racing]

Banner, sometimes employee turnover is so quick that they new ones don't realize that they may be ticking off a lifelong customer.  It shouldn't matter, but it does sometimes.

If an employee were to treat a customer of mine rudely like that, I would fire them on the spot.  I don't stand for rudeness from my kids, much less someone I pay to represent me.

KUDOS BannerJohn!!!

[Rodger 527]

  I am not so quick to conclude ANY USC employee was rude . I know it takes unbelievable patience to deal with the public . I don't think any employee should eat crap IF they are being mistreated . Get what you give IMO . I know both sides of business as do most on this forum . It is hard to be unbiased ... I try  , but my bias leans towards USC    . I am glad the OP is satisfied 

[greenmachine 52]

Rodger, I went back and read all of KWELP68's 53 posts and did not see any trace of him provoking anyone. Bannerjohn agreed with what kwelp68 said about his treatment and even stated he has heard that a few times. USC never disputed or defended the accusation. So please tell me why you see fit to believe Kewl68 is not telling the truth. Also why do you believe USC is not capable of being rude.

I await your response.

greenie

[kenimes 42]

Rudeness to customers on the phone- both you and your wife? Insulted? And you just want a working cutter?  :-

Yea- I may not have been able to bend policies, but you still should not be flat out rude to customers on the phone- multiple times. Sad stuff- sorry to hear. 

Have you removed the carriage casing to see if something popped loose yet? Might not need a complete replacement, which would require a little soldering. Not much, but a little. You also say that you cannot loosen the screws on the bottom of the unit to access the motherboard? I have seen this a few times, and some of those screws can be buggers, but they will come off. Could be a loose motherboard, or loose connection to the motherboard.   

First time I have heard of a re-stocking fee for a defective unit. Warranty refund returns- sure. But a broken cutter? More sad times- sorry to hear. But policies are policies. 

[Rodger 527]

Greenie ,

   Wait no longer .

   I am not accusing Kewlp68 of not telling the truth . I consider him telling his side of the story as he sees it sincerely  . Things are said & things are taken much differently when upset than when in a calm or humorous mood . I know he was upset about the cutter not working when he had jobs with a deadline . I stated that  " I am not so quick to conclude ANY USC employee was rude " . I don't see how many members have CONVICTED  USC of rudeness based on mostly " hearsay " & 1 unhappy customer  ( I'm excluding John from that list as it seems he has had e-mails etc instead of just this thread , but think he should post it since he mentioned it )  Some other members have convicted & already sentenced USC & the un-named employee . Kewlp68 did not say what the USC employee said or what was said before that .. just that they were insulted . It takes much more than that for me to take it as fact . Me or others might not have taken what was actually said as an insult , just telling what the company policy is   I don't think it is rude or insulting to be frank or tell it as it is . I also don't think it is rude to cuss/yell/be ignorant to someone who started the rudeness . It is likely IMO that the discussion was not all warm & fuzzy coming from Kewlp68 , especially when he did not get the answers he wanted . I have seen how far USC goes to accommodate customers  ( as in this thread ! )  ... . That is what I go on , instead of hearsay & 1 understandably mad & upset customer .

I was aiming my post at the people kicking USC without proper proof , wondering if they were being biased instead of wanting the facts  

[Guest HowardI]

I am glad we were able to resolve this to the satisfaction of the customer.

I must say being rude is something I do try to avoid. 

BannerJohn, I don't believe I've ever had the pleasure of serving you but would be happy to help with anything you might be having any issue with. 

I'm sorry this got so blown out of proportion.

KEN:  FYI:  the "restock fee" was because the unit we were going to cross ship was NEW not a refurb.  And YOU KNOW that is policy in that circumstance.  Not having any refurbs in stock made it hard to provide one.

I do hope you will reconsider BannerJohn.  I'd be happy to do anything I could to work with you.

Thank you everyone who was posting and providing useful information.  That's what makes this forum and community great. 

Howard Irwin

Support Specialist

US Cutter

425 481-3555 Ext. 7105

[BannerJohn 1,324]

work with me about what? My cutters run fine. Have right out of the box,thankfully. If they didn't, I'd fix them myself. I know how.

[Guest]

He misinterpreted your anecdote. He thought you were referring to USCutter.