Thread re: Vicmarc Helped Me .....

not the General!!!

e

>hi Ruth:

sorry to hear your having difficulties with your lathe ... always thought you and "the General" would be inseparable.

i'd definitely would have conversations with General and find out what they are willing to do to 'fix' the situation. A piece of equipment that fails just 3 months after receiving it must have problems --- is there a lemon-law for industrial equipment?

Give General the chance to resolve this problem and make you a satisfied customer so you then can come back and tell us how wonderful their customer service is...

Deteriorating world.....

TDaniel

>Ruth, I used to recommend General lathes and considered them to be top notch. I even tried to buy one before I got my first VB but their agent would not return my phone call. The 260 VS at one time was a really nice lathe. I am not saying their current lathes are no good.....just not as good as they were. The castings are no longer smooth, the paint is not as good, and although they deny any quality cuts it is obvious they are trying to compete with Jet/Powermatic instead of One-way. To me life is too short to put up with a lot of aggravation; if you can't get the problem taken care of unload it and buy a good lathe from a company that will take care of you.

TD

Re: Thread re: Vicmarc Helped Me .....

John Lucas

>Ruth

I am not very good at confrontation either. In this type of situation I try to approach it from the standpoint of explaining the situation, expressing your willingness work with them to solve the problem and then asking for their advice on solving the problem. This makes you less of an adversary and more of a partner in getting finding a solution.

I would start by telling them how much you like the lathe etc and just want it to work correctly. If the person you get on the phone won't cooperate don't get angry Thank them for their time and just politely ask if you can speak to the manager or owner. It can be a difficult thing to do but if you can keep it upbeat it's much less stress on you and I find people will usually go out of their way to help friendly people.

Boy that sounds like I know what I'm talking about. Seriously, when I worked at Xerox and the Photo shop I found that If I simply asked Irrate people what they would like for me to do to solve the problem and use a polite I'm here to help you attitude they would usually ask for less than I was willing to do and we both ended up happy. I tried turning this around when I had a problem with a company and the owner seemed very happy to help and I got my problem solved. This didn't work with a car dealership but that's another story I'm still bitter about.

Re: Thread re: Vicmarc Helped Me .....

Jim Pugh

>Ruth, I think you have spent enough time and aggravation on this lathe. Push for a refund (first) or 'settle' for an upgrade to the 260. Be firm but let them know you aren't spending any more time trying to make the current "General" right. Sometimes lemons just can't be repaired and you have certainly tried.

Re: Thread re: Vicmarc Helped Me .....

Keith Tompkins

>Hi Ruth, sorry to hear of your troubles...

I wonder WHY the reeves unit failed....and what part caused the failure. It's good that General sent the new unit, but there is no excuse for you having to install the part yourself, in my opinion. A qualified technician would make sure the parts were in proper alignment, properly tightened, and possibly find the cause of the original failure, and prevent it from happening again.

You can remove set screws and apply a drop of Loctite compound to each one....they will not back out again.

I would approach General about the 260 lathe, however, go with the electronic variable speed. Good luck!

Re: Deteriorating world.....

RonZ

>Next be on the look out for disposable lathes. =o)