radioman
NES Member
This company sells restoration equipment. I've heard good things about them so I thought I would try them out.
I'm in the market for a plasma cutter. The US made units are in the 2 grand range for a 60amp machine. That's to much for what I'm going to use it for so I did some research on the Chinese made units. The Eastwood company has a re-branded unit they sell with their name on it. They claim they designed it and have it made overseas. The reason this had me interested is there a big company and they support the machine stateside. I didn't want to have to call China if I had a problem. I ordered the machine, 840 bucks including shipping. I received it promptly. Set it up and practiced with it for a few hours then, it quit. Nothing? Would not cut. All connections tight all settings good. The machine was running but dead. This was Friday afternoon. Eastwood was closed for the weekend. I called Eastwood's tech dept 9am Monday the second they opened expecting to talk with a tech but got an answering machine instead? The machine told me it could take up to 48 hours for my call to be returned? Needless to say I'm now thinking I made a big mistake. 48 hours??? Boy was I right! I did receive a call around noon time. The tech told me my problem was most likely the torch and he'd have a new torch shipped out that day. The customer service dept was supposed to call me that day with shipping info. No call. I emailed that night and did get a call Tuesday and was told my torch would go out on Wednesday? Two days after I was promised. I asked for expedited shipping but was assured because they were in Pennsylvania and I was in MA I would get the torch no sooner if they shipped it expedited. I got the torch on Friday afternoon. Installed it, nothing. By that time Eastwood was closed for the weekend. No service on the weekends. Called again 9am Monday and talked with the machine. When tech called back latter Monday they told me they would ship out a new machine and I'd get a call that day with return info on the old unit and shipping info on the new unit. No call. I sent a strongly worded email that evening to the CS dept. This was the second time I was promised a call and didn't get one. Received a call Tuesday by a very rude CS rep telling me I'm being impatient and need to give CS up to 48 hours to return calls??? (This conversation was bad real bad. I'm not going into full detail because it was bad.) I know now I'm in big trouble. She told me a new unit would be shipped just as soon as FedEx picked up the old one and notified them electronically that it had been P/U. Well the unit was P/U Wednesday that was two days ago and I've heard nothing. It's now Friday and I fully expect I'm going another weekend with no machine.
If I don't get the replacement machine today it will go into the third week with no resolution to my problem. Two full weeks+ with no machine. To say this is unacceptable is an understatement. I've never had a problem go this long. All other problems with other companies that go longer than three days I get a personal call from the owner/manager with a new product shipped out overnight! These guys are a joke!?
All the good I've heard about the Eastwood company is gone and I'll never buy a single screw from them ever again. This is the worst customer service dept I've ever dealt with. All other companies that I've had a problem with have bent over backwards to make it right. Eastwood is not only not taking my problem seriously they've been actively hostile with me by sicking their rudest CS rep on me? Conversations with this CS rep got way worse than I've written. I just don't want to go into full detail of our call. This is just an advisory to anyone who is considering buying from this company.
My nick name for the Eastwood CS dept is "The Witches of Eastwood". I only use this term when ranting to my wife. I had to put it here in my NES rant because I thought it was such a good one!
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UPDATE
I have received shipping info on my new machine. I was promised it would ship out Wednesday 10-30 but tracking shows it shipped Friday 11-1. I wont see it until Tuesday 11-5. That makes 15 days from the day of my complaint to see a new machine. Over two weeks! I thought since they were a US company I would get faster service if I had a problem. I could have received two week service from Beijing!! I would have liked to have bought a US made unit but there's is no way I could afford two grand. As far as buying a used unit the technology had advanced so much buying a used unit would be like buying a 1955 dodge pick up compared to a 2014 Toyota Tacoma! I do hate to buy foreign but I've all but given up buying US made. With a 17,000,000,000,000 dept there's no way this country will ever pay any of that off. Just to put that number into perspective A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.
I'm in the market for a plasma cutter. The US made units are in the 2 grand range for a 60amp machine. That's to much for what I'm going to use it for so I did some research on the Chinese made units. The Eastwood company has a re-branded unit they sell with their name on it. They claim they designed it and have it made overseas. The reason this had me interested is there a big company and they support the machine stateside. I didn't want to have to call China if I had a problem. I ordered the machine, 840 bucks including shipping. I received it promptly. Set it up and practiced with it for a few hours then, it quit. Nothing? Would not cut. All connections tight all settings good. The machine was running but dead. This was Friday afternoon. Eastwood was closed for the weekend. I called Eastwood's tech dept 9am Monday the second they opened expecting to talk with a tech but got an answering machine instead? The machine told me it could take up to 48 hours for my call to be returned? Needless to say I'm now thinking I made a big mistake. 48 hours??? Boy was I right! I did receive a call around noon time. The tech told me my problem was most likely the torch and he'd have a new torch shipped out that day. The customer service dept was supposed to call me that day with shipping info. No call. I emailed that night and did get a call Tuesday and was told my torch would go out on Wednesday? Two days after I was promised. I asked for expedited shipping but was assured because they were in Pennsylvania and I was in MA I would get the torch no sooner if they shipped it expedited. I got the torch on Friday afternoon. Installed it, nothing. By that time Eastwood was closed for the weekend. No service on the weekends. Called again 9am Monday and talked with the machine. When tech called back latter Monday they told me they would ship out a new machine and I'd get a call that day with return info on the old unit and shipping info on the new unit. No call. I sent a strongly worded email that evening to the CS dept. This was the second time I was promised a call and didn't get one. Received a call Tuesday by a very rude CS rep telling me I'm being impatient and need to give CS up to 48 hours to return calls??? (This conversation was bad real bad. I'm not going into full detail because it was bad.) I know now I'm in big trouble. She told me a new unit would be shipped just as soon as FedEx picked up the old one and notified them electronically that it had been P/U. Well the unit was P/U Wednesday that was two days ago and I've heard nothing. It's now Friday and I fully expect I'm going another weekend with no machine.
If I don't get the replacement machine today it will go into the third week with no resolution to my problem. Two full weeks+ with no machine. To say this is unacceptable is an understatement. I've never had a problem go this long. All other problems with other companies that go longer than three days I get a personal call from the owner/manager with a new product shipped out overnight! These guys are a joke!?
All the good I've heard about the Eastwood company is gone and I'll never buy a single screw from them ever again. This is the worst customer service dept I've ever dealt with. All other companies that I've had a problem with have bent over backwards to make it right. Eastwood is not only not taking my problem seriously they've been actively hostile with me by sicking their rudest CS rep on me? Conversations with this CS rep got way worse than I've written. I just don't want to go into full detail of our call. This is just an advisory to anyone who is considering buying from this company.
My nick name for the Eastwood CS dept is "The Witches of Eastwood". I only use this term when ranting to my wife. I had to put it here in my NES rant because I thought it was such a good one!
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UPDATE
I have received shipping info on my new machine. I was promised it would ship out Wednesday 10-30 but tracking shows it shipped Friday 11-1. I wont see it until Tuesday 11-5. That makes 15 days from the day of my complaint to see a new machine. Over two weeks! I thought since they were a US company I would get faster service if I had a problem. I could have received two week service from Beijing!! I would have liked to have bought a US made unit but there's is no way I could afford two grand. As far as buying a used unit the technology had advanced so much buying a used unit would be like buying a 1955 dodge pick up compared to a 2014 Toyota Tacoma! I do hate to buy foreign but I've all but given up buying US made. With a 17,000,000,000,000 dept there's no way this country will ever pay any of that off. Just to put that number into perspective A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.
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