3D Lasering?

[Peter Vasic]

This is an unashamedly blatant plug...if you want service. speak to,

Gary Chapman at www.signwarehouse.com.au

He helped us and continues supporting us with an almost pathalogical zeal.
He backs everything he says and does..I even put a testimonial on his site!

Gary and his team will assist with any query.

regards

Peter

[Mike Mackenzie]

Peter,

I regret hearing the difficulties you have had with the sales rep for the Universal. I don't exactly know what happened and I can't change anything. However I would like to offer my assistance with your ULS anytime you need it . We are a sales and service office here in Los Angeles, Ca and we have been working with this equipment for 15+ years. Please if you ever have a question or need assistance with your system let me know.

[Peter Vasic]

Peter,

I regret hearing the difficulties you have had with the sales rep for the Universal. I don't exactly know what happened and I can't change anything. However I would like to offer my assistance with your ULS anytime you need it . We are a sales and service office here in Los Angeles, Ca and we have been working with this equipment for 15+ years. Please if you ever have a question or need assistance with your system let me know.

Hello Mike,

Thank you so much for your offer of assistance.
We are in a bit of a bind here in Australia, as the market is not massive like the USA, so With each brand of laser you get more or less one national distributor ( in some cases 2 ). We still deal with the ULS ditributor, ( no choice) ,

I worked for many years as a sales rep for a National company and never did I or the Company I work for treat customers the way my business was treated by the Australian dist. of that product. There were times in my position of Account executive where we were required to compensate customers ( sometimes to the tune of thousands of dollars and replacement material) which we did after discussion and technical follow thru/evaluation, showed our product was at fault. I knaievely thought all companies worked on the same principles.

The amazing follow on to this was, we were in Perth, Western Australia some 3000 miles away some months ago, looking at a large rotary system. We were invited to look at a complete set up in one of Western Australias largest engraving companies and were most impressed with the machine we saw,

however, this business also had several ULS machines,
we remarked that we had one also, at which point the director of the company said to us..."You can shove those machines up your a.., we will never deal with those mongrels again",( meaning ,the Aust distributor of ULS) They were going to convert to Epilog.

Having dealt with the Epilog people ( Project Engraving Supplies) I can understand why, they are fantastic people, who back their machinery
(all brands they sell), support them and support their clients thru down times.

Our machine was supplied with a NON standard fitted motor ( brand new) off the floor of the distributor ( even ULS were perplexed at the motor, i.e according to them that is not the motor that should be fitted to that machine) , much too-ing and fro-ing and downtime ( days , weeks then ongoing for months ) changed belts,bearings several times,finally resolved the machine issues, however any responsibility for defective machinery and software was deflected to ULS and Type 3, no compensation was offered.

After all, from the way our account was being handled, it was evident to us that the Australian distributor had taken the stance that it wasnt the responsibility of the Australian distributor to sell a machine and software that was fit for purpose...It was ULS's and Type 3's..The distributors job was simply to take my money, send me newsletters, direct me to his website, sell me consumables and hope to God that real problems didnt occur with my machine and software....because little else was done....except for them to be really narky on the phone whenever we rang pleading for help..( because after weeks of downtime...and no effective recompense ..how else were they to handle us?)

We had to plead, then demand for any recompense... and it met with deathly silence..


The Tech that worked for them for years, left the company ( he was a nice man caught in an unenviable corner) Oh...another tech left after him too..he was the young man that set our machine up. ( bit of a parttern me thinks...)

As a result what could be massive purchases for IPI products ( another product they are sole distributors for) are now directed to other brands and also I am happy to say a number ..yes a number of potential purchasers of ULS lasers in Australia have been directed to Epilog and GCC...

Now as I said previously, Australia is not that big a market, we have only 20,000,000 people, so I reckon any sales in such a small market are quite significant.

The GCC guys want to trade our V460 for another Laserpro and are willing to assist us in all sorts of ways to do it.. The Epilog people want our business..Now the Gravograph people have caught wind and are trying to get us buying from them too!

We are not a small operation by any Australian standard and are growing quite progressivelly, with a new workshop and store opening up soon in another part of our city.

The really sad part to all of this fiasco is yet to be told...you have only heard the tip of the iceberg..We kept contemparanious notes, faxes , emails, photos of dongles and the machine ....

Hey , The V460 is a good machine....

But I've said it before and I'll say it again......look in the dealers eyes and ask him...When the system You supply..fails and as a result I lose $ 10- 20,000...what will you do to support me, when the products supplied are not fit for purpose.

Oh, the other thing I forgot to say...Burn me and the world will hear..well quite frankly until, the situation is righted...

To hear the final an now immortal words from the Australian distributor...after he asked us "What do you want?, What do you want me to do, tell me?"

So we did, we asked for some assistance towards the damages and losses, we even asked for the $15,000, but we knew that was never going to happen so we said...."If you were in our position...with ULS..what would you expect ?"

he wouldnt answer us..So we rephrased the request, "tell us what you would expect if you were treated this way with these losses ?"

He said..."Tell me what you want ?" We then said "Some recompense, some empathy, some..any, friggin offer of help".. We truly didnt expect much..

He finally said..."My responsibility is simply to get you back up and running and I've done that, I have no obligation to assist you any further"

We were furious..The compensation offer to us was 5% off of a photograve software and a free upgrade of the software we were using ( he didnt realise that the free software upgrade was negotiated with his sales rep at the time of purchase of the V460 as the new upgrade was only weeks away, the rep chucked it in as a deal sweetner).

We took the upgrade, not the photoengrave....We are now letting Australia and the world know.

( The plot thickens and gets even tackier so stay tuned if you all want to hear more)

Next edition...The loan machine


Kindest regards

Peter

[Mike Mackenzie]

Peter,

I am truly sorry for your problems you have had to experience I wish we could have gotten involved earlier in this fiasco. I don't know if anyone at the factory was informed or not. I have nothing to do with the Australia market but it really upsets me to hear these stories. It reflects bad on the manufacturer and there equipment and there equipment is good we just have a rotten apple in the bag that needs to be thrown out.

I will be forwarding your posted message to the International sales Manager at the factory. I don't know if anything will come of it but I want to make sure that he is aware of it.

Again we may be thousands of miles apart but if I can be of any assistance with that machine please let me know.

[Peter Vasic]

Peter,

I am truly sorry for your problems you have had to experience I wish we could have gotten involved earlier in this fiasco. I don't know if anyone at the factory was informed or not. I have nothing to do with the Australia market but it really upsets me to hear these stories. It reflects bad on the manufacturer and there equipment and there equipment is good we just have a rotten apple in the bag that needs to be thrown out.

I will be forwarding your posted message to the International sales Manager at the factory. I don't know if anything will come of it but I want to make sure that he is aware of it.

Again we may be thousands of miles apart but if I can be of any assistance with that machine please let me know.

Mike,

Thanks again , We are currently doing very well with alternate companies, I cant believe the difference in response to challenges we have with the machines compared to our previous supplier.
You know its also strange as to why we would hve been abandoned in a financial sense by that supplier...Like any business they must have people that deal with them that reckon they are pretty good as well.

The other thing to realise Mike is this, when you are in such a small market like Australia, Tech firms capable of picking up a distributorship are pretty thin on the ground, so as much as letting ULS know ( they have corresponded ) it woould be a remote chance that a fish my size would be of any consequence to the end result. The arrogance and patronization my wife endured and finally non response by phone, simply returned emails told me everything.

However,At the same time, one fish my size full of mercury and the food chain is gonna find out every last detail of my interactions..

We were disgusted and continue to be so...

But life and business go on and we are relieved to be doing so well now with alternative suppliers..Having said that..I'll reiterate..

The V460 is a good machine we continue to use it and we still must deal with the suppliers as they are it. So we continue to be cordial with them, we just wont shut up about how they handled our business. ( I couldnt imagine what it would be like If I dealt with any of my clients in the same manner, its beyond comprehension)


As I tell other people ( lots of them), its amazing how good alternative products are as well and its a shame that I had to find that out...But I have struck up great relationships with alternative suppliers as a result

You know, we gave them chance after chance after chance after chance after chance, literally it went on week after week into the months, sometimes down time as long as 5-6 days in one hit, but this happened regularly....in the end we werent sure if that was the way you were meant to be treated or not so we decided...nope we aint gonna be treated like that by anybody, so when our next purchase came up ,we chose an alternative laser .

With much trepidation we chose a GCC Spirit, but boy ,oh boy,we hit the jackpot with the distributor, you know..they are an interstate company, but so far over the last 10 weeks they have had reps and techs come into see us 4 times...( simply because they are in town )and they follow up with phone calls and emails we feel like desired customers again and its nice to feel like you are a partner in business with your supplier, not just someone to exploit.

regards

Peter

[Francois Galipeau]

I am also in the process of buying a laser i am leaning towards the Epilog Helix 35 watt. Does anyone have an opinion? Also can someone tell me if you can cut vector cut through Avonite, if so what were your settings? Thank you

[Mike Mackenzie]

We did cut through 1/2 corian but you need Conical air assist and 120 watts of laser power to do it. Avonite is very similar.
Have you considered the Universal?

[James Stanaway]

Hi Francois,

What thickness of Avonite are you thinking of cutting? I'd be happy to test it on a 35 watt Helix here at the factory and send you the results.

Thank you,

James Stanaway
Director of Marketing
Epilog Laser
jstan@epiloglaser.com

[Francois Galipeau]

thickness of the Avonite would be 1/2 inch...I look forward to hearing your results

[James Stanaway]

With the 1/2", you are definitely going to need to look at a higher wattage laser system than a 35 watt, like Mike said. A 35 watt just won't get through a material like that. A 120 watt laser would be the best bet for that.

Thanks,

James Stanaway
Director of Marketing
Epilog Laser
jstan@epiloglaser.com

[Francois Galipeau]

Thank you very much James

[Chuck Burke]

Gary,
What do you do when you have a corel question or need help with corel and your Pinnacle?

Chuck Burke

[alen lin]

Rodne, thxs again for your info/opinions. you've answered more unasked questions, . & i've learn of some features that i was unawear of like the starting in the center of a piece!

William,

Did you know that GCC has a authorized LaserPro dealer in Quebec, Canada. They offer great support. You can find them on the web at http://canucktechnologies.ca/.

Have a great day!

Best Regards,

Alen Lin
Business Development Manager
GCC America, Inc.
alen.lin@gccamerica.com

[Gary Shoemake]

Hi Chuck

I missed your question about corel and the pinnacle. I'm fortunate enough to have a son that is in computer programming and also a couple of his buddies are working in graphic arts ( using both Corel and Illustrator) in Atlantic City and are really good. I mean really good, so I do have quite a bit of unofficial help. I also am in my second semester in college learning Corel. Although I did have to change schools for it. Thank goodness for the education money from my retirement package.

gary

[Chuck Burke]

Gary,
That is WAY cool. If there was Corel training in the islands I'd take it in a minute. But I am learing A LOT from cd's and books. And of course this and other fourms. And the Corel website...
Recently I downloaded the trial version of Adobe Illustrator CS2. Have you used it? What do you think of it? It seems powerful but Corel seems to be able to do everything AI does, so I don't know if I should learn it too or not. Your input would be appreciated. The reason I even looked into AI was the bitmap-vector conversion. I heard it was fabulous, but I"m not sure it is better than Corel. Maybe just my inexperience talking. I also found out Engravelab has a vector conversion feature in it. I'll have to try that too.

Chuck