As some of you know by now, I have snapped a tendon in my wrist and won't be turning for some time to come and then only a limited amountThe one thing I intend on doing in my time off though is offering product and website reviews of relevance.
My first review is of the crappy customer service you get from PSI if you order their products through Amazon. The normal genial service you get from them goes out the window if you try and get service from them on any of their products ordered through their amazon store. At first glance Their amazon store is sounds like a much better deal than dealing with them direct for the things they offer. My two reasons were the free shipping and the fact I can do an instant electronic check. If you have ever had a debit card transaction go awry from an online transaction you will understand why I prefer e-checks.
The lathe itself is a great little lathe, despite the fact it arived in less than a pristine conditions with several large paint scratches. the first problem I had was the faceplate was warped. This is no big deal as it is easily remidied and I had no reason to ever use it anyway (I use chuck mounted faceplate rings). The second problem was the tool rest snapped the first decent catch I got while doing a pen no less. So I decided for the sake of argument to call them up and get replacement parts because they normally are very good about such things. What a shock I was in for.
I sent a couple of emails detailing my problems but after 2 weeks not a single a reply. This isn't surprising since I hear about their lousy email service often enough in forums. I am not sure why I am surprised that when i call in with an order they are prompt and take my call immediately, but calling in with a complaint gets you transfered from person to person and disconected twice. Once I finally get through to the right person their sollution to my problem is this. Send them all of my paperwork from amazon and the broken parts. I ask if I fax/email the paperwork and digital photos of the broken parts. Their reply nope not good enough, but couldn't come up with a good reason why, unless it was to foist the broken parts off on someone else I can see no reason to ship them back to PSI so they can decide if they are really broken for themselves. Basicly what the conversation with them boiled down to if you go the cheap route in buying their products and are not willing to spend money via shipping and waste countless weeks on them making a decision on getting parts under warranty then they don't have any desire to honor their warranty. BTW everyone I know who has bought the lathe from PSI directly had no such problems getting replacement parts.
Don't get me wrong the lathe is still a good lathe and well worth the money and is a great alternative to the jet if you can't wait for it to be on sale, just don't count on good CS if you bought through amazon. My solution was simply to add a modular rest post for the sorby rest system I already use, though I could have used any rest with 5/8" post(though the banjo will also securely hold a 1/2" post as well).
My next review will be either the sorby modular rests or tools from soren berger. Later this summer I will be reviewing videos/ dvd's. I will also be buying some more to add to my own collection does anyone have any requests of videos they want to see reviewed, it might just be on my shopping list.
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Originally Posted by Wes Bischel
