Watch out!!! when warranty runs out

[fozziebo]

Speaking to techs at CW, they seemed delighted to inform me that the cost to repair this machine is $70.00 an hour plus parts out of warranty. No chance for extended warranty and tack on shipping charges both ways as well. With all the trouble reported on this forum, is anyone at least nervous about the cost of ownership once Carvewright starts charging us for their flawed merchandise?
I love what my machine can do, but have seen too much trouble to justify any more out of pocket expenses in the future. I will be selling my machine and buy back a new one later on....trying to keep one in warranty if I can. The costs to repair this thing can easily set back the home "hobbyist" types!

[Jeff_Birt]

No, I'm not really surprised that they would charge someone parts, labor and shipping on an out of warrenty repair. If I take my car to the garage, or have the HVAC guy come over to my house both will be delighted to charge me too .

[VtBlues]

I agree that CW has the right to charge for out of warranty repairs. But, they also have a lot of problems with their machines failing as often as not. This all can't be user errors as a lot of the people on here seem to be pretty knowledgeable about machinery in general. If GM has a design problem or defective parts, they issue a recall and fix it free of charge regardless of warranty. CW should adopt a similar approach or I belive they are going to see a lot of people that are willing to give the machine a chance and work thru the bugs under warranty that will unload their machines due to the expense of keeping them running. I'm sure that those people also will be very vocal about the problems they had and the response from the company. CW has a potential goldmine with this machine but needs to increase the robustness and reliability of their design/machine. Even goldmines can play out and dry up. For a machine with this price point aimed at a hobby user market these machines have way to short mean time to fail to continue on like this. Getting long winded here. Sure charge for repairs out of warranty but make a machine that can run for more than a week without breaking.

[Julie Coffey]

I'm not taking sides here either way but I recently had a plumber out to install a new hot water tank $45.00 an hour, last year I had someone out to work on a hot tub $75.00+ an hour. And just got through paying a lawyer for the probate work on my moms estate - you don't even want to know.

And speaking of computers- my son had an issue with his new laptop took it back to Best Buy and the geek squad charges an arm and a bloody leg. He never thought to ask me if I could fix it (which I did) he's now mowing my yard for a month in exchange.

It's my wish that the machines output will be equal to or better then the cost of eventually having it serviced. So far both Barb and I have been fortunate.

Julie

[VtBlues]

How long did your hot water tank and hot tub run till it had to be replaced/repaired? Can't afford a hot tub but my water heater has been working beautifully for over 20 years with no service. My CC has been giving me one kind of grief or another since day one. Some of it you can work around, which I don't mind but there is a lot of room for improvement. Figure a couple hours per repair and probably a 100 total shipping both ways and then parts, coupled with a short mean time to fail and it wouldn't take long for repairs to be more than the cost of a new unit.

[CallNeg151]

Personally, I'm hoping that Sears techs will be fully trained at some time in the future, since taking the unit into Sears for me would eliminate the shipping charge.

Several of the people who are discussing their operation costs factor in the cost of complete replacement after 200 hours.

What I would like to see priced is a piece of replacement hardware-only with out-of-warranty core exchange. The way I see it is that a good chunk of the price you pay for your CW/CC is the cost of software. We are licensed in perpetuity for software, so why buy it again? Likewise, some of the stuff in the box, such as the card and card-reader are not all that likely to fail compared to the mechanical bits.

So, I would love to see CW offer a discounted non-retail boxed replacement CW (possibly rebuilt but under full warranty) without an additional software license (I don't need to run the program on 4, 6, 8 computers, etc.), without the card reader or memory card (I can always buy extra if I want), and with a discount for sending in the out-of-warranty unit. This would help keep customer loyalty, and increase the pool of rebuild parts.

[VtBlues]

CALLNEG151 makes a valid point but I doubt that the software is that substantial to the total cost. The real issue, to me, is that CW has some real design and quality issues that they are going to have to correct if they are going to really live up to the potential of this machine.

[rjustice]

I am with CallNeg151.... I had discussed the same point of view with a friend last week... I think this is a perfect solution. I would be willing to go with a "refurbished" unit that was under full 200 hrs warranty. Perhaps $250-$400 with your rebuildable core as an exchange. ????

Something certainly needs suggested!

My 2 cents...

Ron

[liquidguitars]

How long did your hot water tank and hot tub run till it had to be replaced/repaired? Can't afford a hot tub but my water heater has been working beautifully for over 20 years with no service.

I changed a few parts on the old Hot water tank... Parts 12.94 labor priceless. Overall looks like the unit can be worked on at home to save a few bucks and you can save shipping costs but it's not for everyone.
LG

[MarkJamesDesign]

I agree that CW has the right to charge for out of warranty repairs. But, they also have a lot of problems with their machines failing as often as not. This all can't be user errors as a lot of the people on here seem to be pretty knowledgeable about machinery in general.

I beleive that LHR has sold between 5000 to 6000 units in 2006 and I have only seen about 30 or 40 folks on this forum with major or semi-major problems and I think many of those have beta units. Last I heard LHR had a return number of less than 100 units. Even if that number was doubled that would only be a 4 percent fail rate. Hardly sounds like "...their machines failing as often as not." I have worked in retail management and I can tell you that every retail store has a back room full of customer returns due to damages or product failure. It's simply a part of manufacturing that every company has to endure. I have a friend with a large bents & dents liquidation biz and he buys factory return tools, furniture and appliances by the tractor trailer load at .15 to .25 cents on the dollar.

With the exception of a sticky chuck (which LHR replaced in 3 days, no questions asked) I have not had any of the problems posted here. I price my work in accordance with the cost of owning & operating this machine, fully aware that I may have to replace it at my expense when the warranty expires. The machine may not be perfect, but let's not paint a bleaker image than actually exsists.

Just my rant, I could be wrong. Feel free to correct me if you need.

Jim