CW ups the scanning probe price

[jdrof]

I decided yesterday to order the probe. Called CW only to find out they also increased the cost to $400.00 this morning. I was told it has to do with the contract they have with Sears. If Sears raises the cost, CW has to raise theirs.

What a drag! Like they say, "The early bird .........."

Only a minor setback, because nobody has them anyway.

[Dan-Woodman]

They probably only do that so they can " put it on sale" for $300.00

[Bill]

If Sears raises the cost, CW has to raise theirs

Why does CC have to raise the cost ?
Who ownes the company Sears or CC?

[BoardSilly]

Why does CC have to raise the cost ?
Who ownes the company Sears or CC?

LHR owns the company, Sears has the distribution rights. LHR can't sell cheaper then their distributor or they would financially impact them. And if that happens, you can bet Sears would drop the product line like a hot potato.

[Bill]

Then why don't Sears have support and parts?

[BoardSilly]

Then why don't Sears have support and parts?

Service: Sears Techs are not yet all trained on this machine. Look at how difficult a time LHR themselves is having trying to get their own people trained to support it.

Parts: LHR is the middle man in the supply chain. They can't provide parts to Sears when they don't have them from China themselves.

Personally, I think LHR would have been better served if they had taken the first 2-3 years of production life and handled all sales, service and parts directly. That would give them time to develop out their internal processes, correct any manufacturing problems, make the needed design changes to the machine, control the release of the machine to reduce bad publicity, and finalize firmware and software issues. They were not prepared to go national when they did. Of course, I'm sure the investor's / owner's were looking to recover investment and show profit as fast as possible. Unfortunately, I've seen companies self destruct when they light the fuse to quick. As my daddy said, "You can only make a first impression once". Just my own thoughts on the matter.

[rgant05]

Hope they honor the orders they have already taken at $299 and haven't delivered yet

[jdrof]

Yes. They will honor orders made prior to today, according to CW.

[Bill]

Service: Sears Techs are not yet all trained on this machine. Look at how difficult a time LHR themselves is having trying to get their own people trained to support it

Myself I find it hard to believe that there are not technicians that are capable or could be capable of service and support through Sears look at some of the folks (not all) but some on this forum who make there own repairs and some are quite extent.

They can't provide parts to Sears when they don't have them from China themselves

As far as parts go if they can not be suppled by LHR (as long as there is a demand) someone will eventually will make parts for this machine just like they do everything else.

[BoardSilly]

I'm not saying there are not people capable of fixing this machine working at Sears. I'm just saying that I doubt if they have been trained. LHR is having a difficult time handling their own support issues let alone training the Sears people. There is a big difference between a home user who tears into his machine to fix it and doing so when you are a tech working for a company. If the home user screws up the machine... to bad they broke it themselves. If a tech tears into it and screws it up, the company just ate it.

I'm sorta on the same page with you on the last part of your comments. But I think I'll even take it further then just parts by a third party. LHR has shown that there is an appreciable demand for a low cost home sized CNC woodworking machine. How long until someone else comes out with one, after watching to see what design issues arise out of LHR's foray into this field, and learning from their mistakes?