TIG Welder - Miller/Lincoln/Kempi?

[Jim Davey]

Not got the slick website or back to base service though that has worked so well for R Tech, but they are committed to a Dealer network rather than a sell direct approach and that works for them and us. It does mean variable product knowledge and service from area to area though. We are clued up on the ones we sell, but it could be a "machine in a box mate", somewhere else.

 

[Richard.]

Going direct is ok if you can keep up with the demand and RTech do this well. Through a distributor is better if you ask me. Yes you will pay a bit more for it but like yourself an approved service centre is always usefull if there is an issue. It's also better for the brand because they are on the shelfs ready to go rather than in a warehouse ready to ship.

 

[Jim Davey]

R Tech have built a fantastic reputation for service, but they had to, they sell a cheap product with a good margin that goes wrong a lot. Certainly in the early days anyway, the R Techs I sold had a lot of failures, good sets when they worked, but R Techs whole ethos revolves around getting failed kit back to the shop and fixed/replaced as quick as possible. People are so pleased that it got picked up fast and was repaired/replaced they don't stop to question that it shouldn't have failed at all or so fast in the first place. R Tech can afford to throw a new machine at a customer to keep him/her on message as it costs them so little to do so.
They expect the machines to fail and that's why the advise you to keep the box to send it bac in if it has a problem.
Now I have no problem with the service, no problem with the kit itself, and if you're a hobbyist it's not a huge problem if your set packs up and you loose a weekends tinkering in the shed.
If you're a professional, and you rely on your kit for a living then failures can have a more costly impact. I think the established brands have a lot to learn from the R Tech customer service model, but then nobody ever raves about a set that just quiet gets on and does its thing, yet people will gush all day about how their faulty machine was collected FOC and replaced in a few days even though it packed up an hour after first using it. It's all a matter of perspective I suppose.
I'd recommend an R Tech to anyone who wanted a welder as an occasional use thing, but not to a pro, not based on my experiences.