Fadal Service- Not

[Crash]

Had a Fadal 4020 go down last week. Local service guy tells me I need a new spindle moter and inverter. Call Fadal, get the inverter no problem. Shipped right out. The motor ... they tell me they have the parts in stock, just need to put the correct pulley on it. That was last thursday. Since then, I have been on the phone every day, same story. They say they will check on my order, and call me back. Well, no one ever calls back. This morning, I talk to a different person, and he confesses that they have no motors in stock. I have never encountered such poor customer service. My company would be out of business if we treated our customers this way.

I would not buy another Fadal after this experience. In my opinion, the machines are worthless if I can't get parts for them.

Anyone else have a similar experience with Fadal?


crash

[nervis1]

I have probably ordered more Fadal parts than anyone on this forum and I can honestly say getting parts was always fast, within two or three days. Even a reman spindle only took 3 days. Never had any problems.

I either called and ordered direct from the factory or off of their website.

Never ordered a spindle motor though. Maybe they can get it drop shipped?

Dave

[carbidecraters]

DUDE RELAX! You are complaining about a single part they have to modify...and its only been a week. Give me a break

[Edster]

What's wrong with your pulley? Have them ship the motor and put your old pulley on the new motor.

[fourperf]

I have to say that in my experience fadal service has been great. I have had 3 fadals

Mark

[Dsny]

Parts have always been no problem. Now getting a service tech, that another story.

[Crash]

Update- Talked to Fadal on Friday. They finally admitted they had no motors in stock. Say they will get some this week, but no firm date for shipment. Got the name of the dept. supervisor there, will be calling him this morning. Seems like a simple request, one I deal with every day ... When will this part be done/ready for shipment? Apparently a difficult thing at Fadal.

[fourperf]

Update- Talked to Fadal on Friday. They finally admitted they had no motors in stock. Say they will get some this week, but no firm date for shipment. Got the name of the dept. supervisor there, will be calling him this morning. Seems like a simple request, one I deal with every day ... When will this part be done/ready for shipment? Apparently a difficult thing at Fadal.

well thats a drag

[Crash]

Parts have always been no problem. Now getting a service tech, that another story.

I don't use Fadal factory service. I found an independant company that specializes in Fadal service. They have been very good, generally responding within hours of a machine going down. Decent labor rates, too.

http://www.arbcomachine.com/

If you are in the San Francisco bay area, give them a try.


crash

[Tom Slick]

Crash's experience is typical for me. I have a knack for needing parts that are not in stock. I usually end up calling the VP of the parts/service dept and asking what is going on. Usually he is the only one that can get me answers to simple questions like "when can I expect the parts I need."
I am easy going and don't complain about much but Fadal's parts dept needs help. when I am loosing $1000 a day and they can't tell me when I might expect a controller card I tend to get concerned and need some basic answers. "I'll know later" for 3 days is not good enough for any business.

On the flip side their service and tech support does a good job.

[Crash]

Well, finally got the spindle motor, mid December. Arbco installed the motor and the inverter and immediately find other problems with the machine. End up replacing the C axis card, and one other card ... don't recall what it was. Seems like it could have been a power spike that killed a bunch of components. But the end result is - you power up the machine and the monitor looks like an old tv with the vertical hold misadjusted. It just rolls. Tried swapping the video card and the monitor, no help.

Anyone seen this before?

thanks

crash

[Crash]

Finally got the machine up last week. After the service guy installed the last bad card, we went through the machine, all looks good. He leaves. I go to load a program, no communication. Turns out the floppy drive is dead. I wire up the external 232 port, everything works fine.

Parts replaced:

1 spindle motor
1 inverter
1 C axis card
1 1990 card

Total cost, close to 10K, to repair a 6 year old machine.

still to come ... a floppy drive. Are these compatible with the cheap, generic ones we all have in our computers? If so, I will swap it out myself.