You guys ever hear from your HFO after the sale is made?

[panaceabea]

Just curious , its been about 6 months since I purchased a new vf4 and other than the service guy coming out for the setup and them mailing me a part to fix the drawbar after I called I have not heard a single word out of them.

A friend of mine who is running 9 Haas machine about 20 minutes down the road says they see the salesman every two weeks . I mentioned to him I was considering purchasing a new SL20 which he relayed to the salesman a few weeks ago , still no visit or call. Is this the norm? Would hate to think I am being ignored simply becuase I *****ed about the lack of memory on this forum when the machine arrived.

Also curious how to subscribe to the magazine, I have filled out the online form twice over the past year and also requested it thru the HFO when purchasing my machine

[behindpropeller]

Originally Posted by panaceabea Just curious , its been about 6 months since I purchased a new vf4 and other than the service guy coming out for the setup and them mailing me a part to fix the drawbar after I called I have not heard a single word out of them. A friend of mine who is running 9 Haas machine about 20 minutes down the road says they see the salesman every two weeks . I mentioned to him I was considering purchasing a new SL20 which he relayed to the salesman a few weeks ago , still no visit or call. Is this the norm? Would hate to think I am being ignored simply becuase I *****ed about the lack of memory on this forum when the machine arrived. Also curious how to subscribe to the magazine, I have filled out the online form twice over the past year and also requested it thru the HFO when purchasing my machine

Same here. Not a word. I guess they don't care about small peanuts.

[xiondavis]

I bought one Mini Mill - The local HFO gave me a call after 6 months and asked if i was happy with it. Another call 1 year later to see if i needed another machine (hint hint - I love the Mini Mill - Eventually I'll buy another or a super!)

Getting CNC magazine was like pulling teeth. I signed up online and contacted my local HFO multiple times. Finally, someone in "power" noticed my complaint on this board and got it set up for me. I figured that would help everyone else, but I guess not.

Its a great magazine with good production quality. The magazine is one of the things that will prompt me to buy another Haas - it's useful and informative without being a piece of marketing crap. Heck, I lent a copy to a friend who was going to buy a Hurco, and they ended up buying a Haas instead! With that kind of pull, you'd think they'd make sure everyone who spends at least $25k with Haas would have a subscription for life!

They only have had one issue this year so far - maybe thats why you haven't got one. Someone at Haas doesn't recognize the value of this unique publication to their customers and their sales department.

[panaceabea]

What bothers me is I am about a month or less from purchasing a new lathe and just a couple of months from purchasing 3 more mills roughly vf2 size. My dad is holding a wad of cash with plans to buy a Super mini mill at some point


I have almost been convinced to go with a mazak on the lathe but would like to stay with Haas on the mills so my operators can migrate between machines. Currently have 5 machines with 5 diff controllers and its a big pain

[hercules]

I have had the same experience as you. I had to work very hard to buy my machines, make multiple calls to the sales guy to get one call back etc. Every time I had a question the answer was look on the Haas web site and you should be able to find answers there ... Oh and just and email me when you want to place an order. I asked if there were any similar machines local that I might go see and the answer was yeah lots of people have them, just call around to machine shops and I am sure you can find someone who has one. Not exactly the help I expected. I guess the most telling fact is that I am 3 years in and 3 Haas machines purchased now and I still have never been visited once by the salesman, haven't ever even met the guy. Strange way to do business for sure even if I am just a small shop. If it wasn't for the fact that I have been really set on buying US made I would have gone elsewhere long ago. In my opinion this is Haas' biggest weakness, the face of their company to the customer is the HFO's and some of the HFO's are pretty darn weak in the customer service area.

[ckirchen]

I bought a MiniMill 2 years ago and a GT20 six months ago. Obviously, I received plenty of attention before each sale and less after. They do follow up with phone calls and the occasional visit to my shop to make sure that I remain still satisfied. But that's what I expect. They are salesmen, not close personal friends.

I do find that whenever I do want to talk to them, they have the time. And that's what I appreciate.

As for the magazine, I requested it online 3 or 4 times and didn't receive it. When I bought the MiniMill (my first Haas), it started coming. Before that, I had one of the tool salesmen set aside a copy for me.

[Delw]

i'll consdier myself lucky.
They contact me once a month to see if there is anything they can do or questions I have. I get NO sales fliers and NO salesmen coming to the door, the only one is there techs or application guys.
I gotta give ours haas delaers a good rating.

if I call them up about a question they also follow up in the next 3-5 days to make sure it worked out properly.

Ive delt with other machine dealers in the past and most dont give a rats behind about you after you bought the machine.
in the 16+ years I had my shop the supermax and haas dealers have been the best.
Fadal has been good to me also. if I buy a part or have a tech question. they call to make sure everything went all right. I didnt buy a new fadal I bought it used years ago.

Delw

[Haas_Apps]

Guys,
As many of you know I work at the Haas factory and try to get on this forum every day. I have posted my email address and direct line telephone number multiple times on this forum. I have even spoken with some of you. As I read this thread I know that these experiences are not typical of the type of customer service that most Haas customers receive. If you are not satisfied with the service from our dealers or us please call me or email me and I will get to the bottom of your issues.


Wayne Reilly
Applications Manager
Haas Automation Inc.
805-278-8560
wreilly@haascnc.com

[Donkey Hotey]

And I've posted this a dozen times before but, it all depends on your HFO and even which person you deal with at the HFO. It's all just people. I could never say enough good about the service I've had from my HFO, the salesman or the technical staff. Then again, I'm lucky to be near the factory and most of these guys have close ties (I'm sure Wayne knows them all). Even so, not everybody at the HFO is identical and I do consider myself fortunate to be in the sales territory I am.

[TOTALLYRC]

Originally Posted by panaceabea What bothers me is I am about a month or less from purchasing a new lathe and just a couple of months from purchasing 3 more mills roughly vf2 size. My dad is holding a wad of cash with plans to buy a Super mini mill at some point I have almost been convinced to go with a mazak on the lathe but would like to stay with Haas on the mills so my operators can migrate between machines. Currently have 5 machines with 5 diff controllers and its a big pain

Originally Posted by Haas_Apps Guys, As many of you know I work at the Haas factory and try to get on this forum every day. I have posted my email address and direct line telephone number multiple times on this forum. I have even spoken with some of you. As I read this thread I know that these experiences are not typical of the type of customer service that most Haas customers receive. If you are not satisfied with the service from our dealers or us please call me or email me and I will get to the bottom of your issues. Wayne Reilly Applications Manager Haas Automation Inc. 805-278-8560 wreilly@haascnc.com

Hi panaceabea, reading these 2 posts I would be shocked if Wayne has not already contacted you. Or that you have not emailed Wayne as suggested in his post.

In a world were costs are what they are and everyone is fighting for every sale, one should not have to chase a salesman to purchase a machine or struggle to get information. Calling a sales person who says the website has the info is the same as saying I don't care about your sale to answer your questions.

Looking at it from the sales side, since I have worked in sales in the past, it is very easy to get jaded when a customer says he will be buying 3 machines as most of the times a customer wants a better price and can be playing games. That said, especially in todays economy, you have to follow up on every possible lead.

I would think Haas would have it set up so that every customer gets a Bimonthly phone call asking if the customer is happy with their machines, do they have any questions, and does the customer have any interest in buying a new machine or upgrades for the old one.

A typical call would go like this. Hi, my name is Sue from your Haas HFO, how is it going, any problems? Any questions? Would you like to have a sales person stop in and see you? What would be your preferred time for us to call you in 2 months? Thanks for taking the time to talk today. Talk to you again, Sue
. This could be done by a secretary or other person hired just to do this. This person would then schedule a visit or forward the info to a salesperson who would then take over. If there was a problem of a technical nature, the call would be handed over to the service/support for immediate handling.

It shouldn't come down to personalities as to whether or not you get a good response from the HFO. Every HFO should be playing off of the same play book. Sales people who can't follow along need to replaced, as one lost customer can cost you 4 or 5 that you don't know about.

Just my opinion.

I don't own a Haas, but if I get big enough to purchase that large of a machine, I will consider them since they are a USA company.

Mike

[Donkey Hotey]

Hey, Wayne, since we're talking HFO & purchasing, please, please, please tell somebody out there to get the Build-a-Quote system back up and running. I've already mentioned it to my sales guy and I hope he remembered to pass it on.

I've been trying for a number of years to justify the purchase of a growing number of machines at my 'day job.' We're now up to about $450K on a GR-712, VF-5XT and SL-20. That's a lot of options and it was tough for me to model a couple of configurations of each for comparison.

My sales guy has never balked at giving me a quote or answering questions but, it's a bit of a pain for something that I used to be able to do on my own. It was also tough to find all the options and pricing on the website because of how they were broken up between different sub-sections of each machine.

In one week we were agonizing between the GT-20 and TL-2 with an enclosure. I finally swallowed, paused and bumped the budget to get to an SL-10. Just as we were getting used to that idea, Mike convinced me that the right choice was really an SL-20 over any of them (and that it was more affordable than I thought).

Because of the higher buy-in on the SL-20 and the perceived higher cost of the options, I almost didn't pick that machine. Luckily, we picked the configuration of the VF and GR long ago and I still had the saved Build-a-Quotes. Build-a-Quote would have allowed me to quickly assemble the options we wanted and get a quick price on a few prioritized configurations.

[Excelmachine]

I second the suggestion that Donkey mentioned about the online quote system. We are contemplating another mill purchase and are trying to configure 3 different machines and what might work for us better and the build a quote system was really handy.