Never Again

[Nick DV]

That's why I personally don't mind too much paying a higher price from a dealer I trust.

So true, and backs up the old saying of "you get what you pay for"

 

[matt1978]

To be honest I don’t think it was for financial reasons Howard ended up buying from the local supplier. It was probably more so just for the fact that they was local. However the main issue initially lay in the fact that they were not a Lorch dealer and therefore had no obligation to our brand to try and help resolve the situation and do the best by the customer.

There is no doubt that their was a problem with the 1st machine, albeit a minor thing and unfortunately luck wasn’t on our side when it was returned and the connection to the PCB wasn’t secured properly, again, very minor but still nevertheless frustrating for the owner and couldn’t of happened at a worse time.

I don’t for one minute think that the repair cost would be anything like the original estimate. After seeing the parts list that have been quoted I am sure some of them would of been advised for replacement to air on the side of caution. If just one of the Diodes or IBGT’s fails under warranty our recommended procedure is to replace both of the whole sets set because it’s just good practice, however that’s all fine and well for warranty but it certainly doesn’t mean that it’s essential especially if someone is having to foot the bill out of warranty.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

@matt1978

Well done to you.

Good customer service.

I agree with what was said above.

Well done.

Did the OP over get back in the public forum?

 

[Bravheart]

@matt1978

Well done to you.

Good customer service.

I agree with what was said above.

Well done.

Did the OP over get back in the public forum?

I agree with this and as said before
Theres always two sides, would be interesting to hear the op view now.

 

[Nick DV]

I agree with this and as said before
Theres always two sides, would be interesting to hear the op view now.

I agree, and I'd like to see what the repair quote breakdown is

 

[Cheesie]

Reading this has give me a little more faith in what I bought, I hope if anything goes wrong with mine I will get a similar service, i hate buying anything Chinese I probably could of got 3 parweld acdc tigs for the price of my Lorch

 

[addjunkie]

Reading this make me think yes great follow up from Matt and Lorch, but I really should go and look inside my tig as Ive been messing with a fair bit of wood recently.

 

[Cheesie]

It's probably obvious to some but it's a lesson for me too surely it would need to be on and the fan drawing it in while sawing ECT close to it

 

[Member 32799]

Its not the saw dust !

 

[Brad93]

I’ve had a HandyTig200 for what must be 4-5 years now. Sometimes it goes a few weeks without being used, I’ve had the covers off recently just to blow it out and it’s perfect inside. The filters on the back certainly prevent dust from getting into the machine in my experience.

They’re a very reliable machine in my opinion.

Matt has helped me out tonnes of times with any questions or issues, which are usually user fault
As an owner of three Lorch machines I see no reason to go elsewhere. I’ve had great service from Matt and every Lorch distributor I’ve used. Wasp Welding being one of those, Elmdale another and most recently Camarc

 

[Maker]

I want a Lorch now.

 

[roblane65]

Nice thread with hopefully good news at the end . but a bit of hijack here and a Question
for matt1978 are the Tweco AC/Dc tigs currently on offer at united welding ( £1600 ish ) actually rebranded Lorch machines been seriously looking at one for Home /hobby use . A diffeintive answer make swing it Pm me Matt.

 

[Brad93]

Nice thread with hopefully good news at the end . but a bit of hijack here and a Question
for matt1978 are the Tweco AC/Dc tigs currently on offer at united welding ( £1600 ish ) actually rebranded Lorch machines been seriously looking at one for Home /hobby use . A diffeintive answer make swing it Pm me Matt.

The Twecos are rebadged T220s. But they are missing a few features if I remember correctly.

Id spend the extra dosh and get Lorch backup. ESAB certainly won’t go the same distance.

 

[skotl]

Obviously I was disappointed to see this post pop up as it did and also dismayed with the wording used. As promised I did some research into what had gone on. It took me a while because the original sale was around 8 years ago and I had to trawl through many old emails between various parties to get to the bottom of what had gone on...but here is an update.

Howard contacted me around 8 years ago on this forum asking about where would be a good place to source a HandyTIG 180 ACDC. I advised via a PM to try Wasp's online shop as they had some offers running. A few days later, Howard told me that he had purchased a machine locally to him (which suprised me because at that time we didn't have any Lorch distributors in Aberdeen). It turned out that Howard had purchased a machine via a company (who was a non-Lorch distributor) which in turn who had purchased the machine via a Lorch distributor who was located elsewhere in Scotland.

From the serial number I was able to find out that the machine was not actually a brand new one, but it was actually at that time a 2 year old ex-demo unit. As I wasn't there nor had any knowledge about this until after the event, I don't know if this was sold to Howard as brand new unit or if it was explained that it was ex-demo. In any case the original unit was collected by Howard but shortly after receiving the item, the machine was displaying an intermittent error code, but every time the machine was switched off/on again the error code was cleared and the error went away for a while.

Based on this info (and the error code Howard reported), we didn't believe it to be a serious fault, more likely a defective or loose ribbon cable. I think its fair to say that Howard was not happy with the level of after sales care he received from the non-Lorch dealer which he purchased the machine off in trying to get this issue resolved, so he contacted me via PM. I offered to get the machine collected and returned to the actual Lorch distributor which did sell the machine to the non-Lorch distributor in order for them to investigate.

Howard opted to take the machine to them as he was in the area anyway and left them with the machine. After testing they couldn't recreate the fault which Howard had experienced and informed me. Because I didn't want Howard to have any further problems, I instructed for the machine to be collected and returned to the Factory in Germany for further investigation. They inspected the machine and as we already assumed, exchanged the ribbon cable and the unit subsequently tested fine. The machine was then dispatched back to the company local to Howard in order for him to collect.

Unfortunately when the machine arrived with Howard the front panel was not illuminating! When Howard told me this, I immediately agreed to exchange the machine for him as a good will gesture especially based on the issue he already had experienced. When the original machine was retuned to the Lorch distributor in Scotland they found that the problem with the front panel was actually that the connection to the front panel from the PCB had become loose. This possibly could of been caused in transit during the trip from Germany to Scotland or even perhaps by human error from the engineer who had put the machine back together in our German service department. In any case the connection was pushed home securely and the machine performed faultlessly but I had already organised a brand new replacement to be shipped to Howard which arrived within a couple of days. In the meantime the original unit was sold as a shop soiled machine and hasn't been heard of again.

Fast forward 8 years or so and then I see this post! To be fair to Howard, I can understand his frustration but at the time of creating the post he had not received a copy of the Engineers report from the local company (an authorised Lorch service centre) which he had taken the machine for a repair estimate at that time he only knew the price he had been quoted. However you can see on the service report what the Engineer believes to of been the cause of the issue and to be honest it doesn't seem like the machine was at fault.

I personally have not seen the machine so I cannot comment on how it looked internally when it was taken to the repair centre in Aberdeen, but Howard has sent me some pictures of the inside after he collected it back yesterday from the service centre and is after it had already been cleaned inside in order to test it.

I am passionate about the brand and I don't like to think anyone who has invested in our Brand and products do not feel like they have received a high level of service, so I have arranged to get the machine collected (at our cost) and sent to our engineer to see how we can get the unit back up and running with as little cost to Howard as possible.

I believe it is being collected tomorrow and once it is back with our Engineer I shall be in touch with Howard to discuss his options.

That's fantastic service - well done, Matt

 

[roblane65]

The Twecos are rebadged T220s. But they are missing a few features if I remember correctly.

Id spend the extra dosh and get Lorch backup. ESAB certainly won’t go the same distance.

that is the problem though at 16 ish i'd already be pushing the boat far further than it should be considering the machines use will be ( i e not money making . )

 

[Munkul]

I'd have one of the twecos, they're really well priced
Not for money making though, the lorch panel design and torch controls are too useful. It pains me to think that torch controls are worth an extra grand or so, but like Brad says, you get the solid backup with it as well.

 

[DennisCA]

There are so many Y/T videos of people using welding machines in the same shed/garage/workshop where they regularly do woodworking and vice versa, and my first thoughts are that it will end in tears - either a dead welder or a fire and precisely why I've just extended my workshop to separate the welding and woodwork!

I have a large plastic drape that separates the woodworking section from the metal section, it traps 99% of dust or more in the woodworking side. But most of my welders are older and can take more punishment from a dirty environment regardless (I still blow them out every few years and clean the filter). I don't have a single inverter based welder out of the three I own.

 

[matt1978]

The Twecos you can see online are new (old) stock. They are not available via ESAB/Tweco anymore and they are selling off what remains of their stocks.

The prices are very much artificially lower than previously was available because of this

 

[TechnicAl]

Well done Matt......great service.....they will all want 8 year guarantees now

 

[nickk]

That’s exceptional service Matt,I’ll remember that when I’m in the market.