Laser price woes

[Michael Henriksen]

I've been getting quotes for fiber laser cutters from several Chinese suppliers and prices seem to be all over the place, even for same spec machines. From one vendor I got 3 different prices from 3 of their sales reps. They varied quite a lot and it puts me off that vendor a bit. One of the best offers so far actually includes the cost of the engineer to come onsite and install the machine and do training.

[Jacob John]

That's been my experience so far as well, hence my other thread. Though I'm looking for an engraver/marker. Still, I can't even find consistency about the laser types and sources.

[John Lifer]

Go with the one with the best/longest Warranty..... Aught to get min 2 years, hit them up for 3......

[Scott Shepherd]

Doesn't matter what you get. If they decide they want to help you, they will. If not, they won't. My rule of thumb for buying from China is that I assume nothing they say it true when it comes to service or support. If I'm still okay with it, then I'd buy it.

They speak perfect English when they are selling and suddenly don't understand anything you are saying when you have a problem.

There are a handful of companies over there that the vast majority of people have bought from. My advise is stick with one of them. Venturing off into an unknown company that no one here has dealt with is rolling the dice. They are all getting their parts (laser source, scan heads, driver boards) from the same places. It's not like any one of them are introducing new products. It's all the same.

[Kev Williams]

I'm fortunate enough to have been born with mekanickel abilities and ain't too bad with electric stuff, so I'm not the least bit afraid to buy the cheapest machine I can find. Because like Steve just said, they all come from the same shelf.

And speaking of the cheapest machine I can find, as one who has been keeping track of prices at least occasionally, I can safely say that the bottom of the market was about 4 months ago and it's now a seller's market... back then I could've bought a twin to my Triumph (to look at) off ebay for $4200 to my door. The cheapest TMD price I can find now is $5150, 20%-ish increase. The 20watter's are now going for what the 30watter's were a few months ago.

[Dave Sheldrake]

A cutter, especially a fiber cutter is a whole different ballgame Mike, cheap one's are cheap for a reason, the amount of stuff that can go wrong with them is mind bending

Personally, for a first fiber cutter I wouldn't import, everything that can go wrong with these things is expensive to fix....VERY expensive, they simply aren't machines that you can afford to cut corners on or work to tight budgets

[Gary Hair]

They speak perfect English when they are selling and suddenly don't understand anything you are saying when you have a problem.

Nothing could be any more true than this statement. Whether it's a warranty problem or an order discrepancy problem or just how to use the machine in general, you'll find the variability in their understanding of English to be quite frustrating. I had this problem quite distinctly with G. Weike and I will never consider another purchase from them again. Neil Chen at XT Laser, however, seems to know how important pre-sale and post-sale support is and I will likely buy from them when I need my next machine(s).

[Jacob John]

Nothing could be any more true than this statement. Whether it's a warranty problem or an order discrepancy problem or just how to use the machine in general, you'll find the variability in their understanding of English to be quite frustrating. I had this problem quite distinctly with G. Weike and I will never consider another purchase from them again. Neil Chen at XT Laser, however, seems to know how important pre-sale and post-sale support is and I will likely buy from them when I need my next machine(s).

Good to know Gary, thanks for that info.

[Scott Shepherd]

We ordered a piece of equipment from China once. It came and it wasn't what we ordered. Didn't have the things it was supposed to. Keep in mind, they have your money already. Contacted them and was told "Sorry, we make mistake, please sell this one and order another one and we will be sure to make sure it's all right".

And that was the extent of the fix. No discounts, no money back, no nothing. Just sent us something different than we ordered and told us to live with it. Not sure how you are supposed to deal with that level of service.

[Jacob John]

We ordered a piece of equipment from China once. It came and it wasn't what we ordered. Didn't have the things it was supposed to. Keep in mind, they have your money already. Contacted them and was told "Sorry, we make mistake, please sell this one and order another one and we will be sure to make sure it's all right".

And that was the extent of the fix. No discounts, no money back, no nothing. Just sent us something different than we ordered and told us to live with it. Not sure how you are supposed to deal with that level of service.

Can you post what company so we know who to stay away from?

Nevermind, you didn't post it was a laser. Oops

[Michael Henriksen]

I have worked for a Chinese company. It was quite an interesting experience although not a particularly pleasant one.

[Kev Williams]

I have to give Triumph props for their willingness to help. When The Dumpster started it's X-axis vibrating and eventual manic skitzoid movements, I explained I thought I needed a new stepper, Yolanda and 'the gang' told me 'no, it's not the stepper', and had me check a variety of other things first, like belt tension and tracking, bearing tension, loose screws. I insisted they send me a motor, and I'd pay for it if that wasn't it. They were right, and now I have a spare stepper! -They had a customer in Mexico with the same problem and they hadn't found the cause as of yet. I eventually found the problem to be the ground wire to the X stepper was broken at the soldered joint within the drag chain. The heat shrink was keeping it together enough to work until the chain started pulling it up. They profusely thanked me for discovering the problem- I also contacted them to have several longer-than-stock lens tubes made-- no problem, they made me 3 different lengths for $90 plus air. And when the fiber started engraving screwy, they were quick to offer up a new scanhead, which they sent me in November, and let me keep both for troubleshooting purposes for 3 months. They've been real good to work with. But it helps that I know how to fix my own stuff for the most part, how good of service I'd get in a 'totally clueless' situation, I can't say, but they've always given me the impression they'd rather help than avoid it.

[Michael Henriksen]

Some of the G. Weike sales people speak really bad English even before the sale and can be somewhat pushy and rude.

[Gary Hair]

We ordered a piece of equipment from China once. It came and it wasn't what we ordered. Didn't have the things it was supposed to. Keep in mind, they have your money already. Contacted them and was told "Sorry, we make mistake, please sell this one and order another one and we will be sure to make sure it's all right".

And that was the extent of the fix. No discounts, no money back, no nothing. Just sent us something different than we ordered and told us to live with it. Not sure how you are supposed to deal with that level of service.

Although my dealing with G. Weike wasn't quite as bad as you described, it was similar enough to swear me off of them and make sure I let everyone know about it.

[Michael Henriksen]

I'm fortunate enough to have been born with mekanickel abilities and ain't too bad with electric stuff, so I'm not the least bit afraid to buy the cheapest machine I can find. Because like Steve just said, they all come from the same shelf.

Kev, I agree with you on that. It often comes down to the skill and ability of the user. The machines are pretty near identical and the difference is in how sloppy or not they are put together. Of course there can be a few counterfeit parts to look out for as well. A lot of the people who have bad experiences with Ebay laser are partly to blame themselves. They buy something cheap but really need the kind of service you get from buying an expensive western made laser. I've owened on of the cheap 350 machines, aka "blue/white" and with minimal tinkering it was working fine. However if I did not have some prior experience and a determination to get stuck in, it probably would be a paperweight now.

My recent LG900 has worked well right off the bat but even then there was a sloppy piece of assembly - the X-axis limit switch was positioned so the belt tightener would strafe the pulley block before the limit switch was activated, resulting in a bang every time the machine homed. Easy fix. I know full well that when I buy a Chinese machine to this pirce point this is to be expected. It doesn't put me off buying Chinese machines though.

Considering how many machines some of the Chinese companies sell there are surprisingly few reviews out there. I recenly got a quote from Leiming Laser (aka Senfeng Laser). Their comms is decent, the price includes 3 days onsite setup and training and the have manuals online that are not too bad by Chinese standards. However I have not been able to find any feedback about them. I wonder if it is a case of people mainly posting bad experiences?