Originally Posted by webgeek
Reply with QuoteFirst post for me on this Forum.
I bought a 40W deluxe Hobby Laser from Full Spectrum Engineering in early September this year. From the start the laser was not functioning as it should. Frequent disconnects had me emailing FSE several times a day to try and find out why it wasn't working.
After an email asking me to remove the motor control card and USB RetinaEngrave card to take a photo of them for Henry Liu and the guys to look at, saw the machine not work again. It was many frustrating weeks of fiddling and trial and error by me with emailed instructions by FSE, before I did my block at them, six weeks after I received my laser.
Nothing they had suggested and I had done had worked in making the machine work. It wouldn't "Jog" or "Home", any job in RetinaEngrave would give a "Not Responding" screen and then shutdown.
Henry and the guys were really helpful throughout the whole time that my laser wasn't working, I made a few phone calls, they sent me many emails (64 of them), and quite a few photos giving step by step instructions to test various parts of the machine to see what was at fault. At one stage they remote accessed my computer to test what may be at fault on my own computer - a somewhat freaky thing to watch! One of the problems of living on the other side of the world from where you buy a product is that when something goes wrong, there is no one near to help. There was a "FSE Representative" in Australia, unfortunately that person lives on the other side of the continent, 4600Km away from me!
Eventually, I gave up and gave them a piece of my mind. I'm a Clinical Nurse in a big Trauma Ward, I have a Masters Degree, but I'm no Electrical Engineer. What they were asking of me really was out of my comfort level and beyond what I think a customer should be doing to a $4000 machine (with postage and Customs Duty). They replaced the machine without a seconds pause and I received the new one a week later. The only complaint I have with the new machine was that the laser pointer/splitter mirror wasn't in there (I took it from the old one, so that's OK) and that once again, it came with European and US electrical plugs, when I had paid extra to have the machine converted to 240V Australian. Is it such a hard thing to ask that it come out of the box with plugs that work, without having to buy new ones or adapters? As to service, well it was exceptional, except when one of the guys complained to me that it was after working hours, and could he call me back in the morning? OK for him, but the next morning for him, was 2am for me!
Anyway:
The new machine has been working perfectly, with only my inability to get the mirrors perfectly aligned, being the only hitch (fingers crossed!).
I cannot say I enjoyed the whole process, it has somewhat taken away the enthusiasm I had for the machine and what I had hoped to do with it. I cannot fault the service I received from Henry, Stephen and the guys at FSE, I just wish it hadn't taken seven weeks to get a working machine from the time my first one landed in Australia.
The new machine is working as it should, and I am producing some wonderfully detailed models and some stupidly cheap letterboards for stroke/brain injured people at work.
Would I buy another machine from FSE? Yes. But I'll wait until they have people a little closer to where I live (Australian East Coast would be wonderful), before I buy again.
