Got my lathe and mill today...and the rest of the story is...

Pitchfire

Pitchfire

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Well I got the University of California's mill and lathe combo today with my name on it and their paperwork. They apparently got my mill the same way just about the time theirs was getting on the barge to come up here to me (not quite in time to stop it). Grizzly didn't bother telling me until after I had loaded it up and driven it home (they knew for about a week but wanted to make sure I was indeed getting the wrong mill too. So they had the barge folks scan it to make sure without telling me anything about it and then Grizzly told them to hold it as I was driving away). Of course I knew it was the wrong one when I picked it up, but after you shell out the money you're not going to go home empty handed until things get straightened out so as I was going to call them I got their voicemail. I wondered why the shipping quote from the barge was so far off their quote. It was also 300lbs heavier and much longer, but luckily, or perhaps not, I had pulled sufficient seats from our 15 passenger van to fit it. So I took it out and showed it around town then drove it back to go home. Dang tourists! So now I get to wait for them to make it all right...holding my breath now. So now I'm hoping they don't send me the other world traveler on the lamb in So. Cal and they will do the right thing and send me an untraveled one and inspect the world traveler for the kind of diseases they get as you know ;)

We'll see. I guess now I can say "well with my first mill..." Hope the dang thing enjoys the beautiful ride back down to Seattle!
 
They're sending out a new machine soon. It was a bit more expensive a machine (the mistake), but I really did not want a G9729 combo machine so I was happy to send it back.
 
Been an eventful day. Haven't been banned from anywhere in awhile till today... I cross posted this elsewhere aftfer posting it here as a way of protecting myself through visibility for one thing, and just by way of introduction on other less friendly sites. I thought it was interesting and fairly light hearted, but good grief I guess people are on edge in this economy/election season. Since I am new to machining I haven't really had a whole lot to say yet, but I thought that since it didn't cost anybody anything to read it they would respond with a "darn that sucks, but Grizzly is known for their customer service and will make it right" or "funny story" or some such... instead it was more like "why should I care," or even though I didn't mention either machine by name it was banned from the zero import site for having the word Grizzly in it. Tough crowd I guess.

All of which leads me to say Thank You!!! to everyone here that makes this site what it is, which to be clear is the best site of it's kind on the web.
 
If you're going to frequent those other sites, you will have to be careful about what you say and to whom. They will rip you head off and s*** down you neck for even mentioning a chinese import. Been there, done that. LOL

Pat
 
If you read the rules of that other site(where I also read your posting),Chinese hobby level machines are not allowed. That is their rule. I have a 16" x 40" Grizzly lathe,which is allowed as it is a larger.industrial lathe. That other site is supposed to be a professional site. while things can get unfriendly there for sure,I have no problem respecting their rules about posting only about professional grade machinery. Their site,their rules.
 
The kind of attitude you're talking about at "other forums" is exactly why this one exists :)

It seems to me that UC would be better off buying a mini mill and mini lathe if they're looking to save space. Never heard anything great about the combos.

If it WASN'T a combo machine, I figure it'd be cheaper for them to let you keep it....the freight for swapping the machines has got to be killer. That being said, it looks like Grizzly IS trying to make it right, even if they took their sweet time fixing the problem. But, once the barge leaves port I guess it's kind of hard to ask them to turn around.
 
As to the other site, the thread I posted didn't mention a single model number, so it was all assumption. I could have been getting your lathe for all they cared. To me the model numbers and machine types were completely irrelevant to the subject.

As to it being their site, I don't really care if they just don't like my name or hate me cause I'm an English, German, Scandinavian. It is their site, and they can do what they want, but that doesn't automatically make everything they do morally or even logically correct now does it?

As to the economics of the interesting situation it cost $100 freight to Seattle, $142 up here (I'll assume the same for the return trips), so $484 total. The machines were $1600 (G0619) and $2000 (G9729). I didn't want the G9729 even if they offered to just let me keep it (they didn't), but as for the math $484 in shipping plus logistics (taking it back in and inspecting it and repackaging and sending back out...and their time would way more than cover the $400 price spread. They would have been a lot of money ahead, but I would have been functionally behind. I suspect that they well realize that people do not want what they didn't order.
 
It's kind of a useless exercise to ask "what if"....but I wonder what would have happened if you had ordered a G0463 and accidentally got a G0619? I think they are less able to let people keep this stuff, because they keep low stock. It all comes direct from China, and I think there's a tight margin on that pipeline, i.e. very little excess....especially because it is branded just for Grizzly. Also, there's a rapid turnover in terms of new models coming out, so I'd think if they stocked too many of one model then they'd have to slash prices and lose money once the latest and greatest comes out (I love deep discounts).
 
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