am i being ureasonable

[purpledragon]

Ok just throwing this out there for opinions really
Im a great believer in you get what you pay for , when i bought my mug press it cost me £800 ish now i couldve opted for the cheaper end of the market but thought no i want quality and if you want quality you pay for it the press arrived and i have to say what a fantastic machine i get top to bottom prints perfect every time its done me well its now 3 years old and still has the original blankets in (did i mention its a double header). comming up to xmas one of the blankets was starting to look a bit ropey so i thought id best be prepared and get a new blanket. Now this machine has been hammered over time so for these blankets to last 3 years is fantastic im sure most of you will agree but then i did pay a premium so like i said you want quality you pay for it. So i rang up the firm to order a new blanket. This cost roughly double what most suppliers charge but again you want quality you pay for it . The blanket arrived and to be honest it looked differnt to the original and not as good quality but hey ho it should be fine and i put it in the machine the resulting prints now start to fade about 2cm from the edge of the print on one side of the mug . I rang the firm and told them i think the blanket must be faulty unbelievably im told that they used to supply the same blankets as the original but no longer do , i also got a sob story on how they were ripped off for 4 grands worth of equiptment inc blankets whilst sympathetic i failed to see what this had to do with me . they suggested i shrink my images from 20cm long to 18 or 19 cm to accomadate the fading this is no bloody good i want what i paid for i couldve bought a blanket half the price which did a better job is it unreasonable to expect this especially when paying double the average price ? this is a well known firm too so i thought id be safe with them obviously not whats your thoughts folks

[John G]

Yes, I'd feel ripped off too. For the same money you could have had nearly 7 cheaper presses offering the same quality print as you're getting off your new blanket.
Are they still selling the same model press now, with the original better blanket?

[purpledragon]

No John theyre not infact the only press i can see on their site is the black version of the df10 that bms sell i rang up and spoke to the boss and told him im in the market for a new printer can he tell me if he were in my shoees would he consider his firm to buy from unbeliveably he said yes he would (well i suppose he would say that)

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Purple

I do not think you are being unreasonable at all. More and more times of late I have seen/heard of really shoddy customer service and also cost cutting measures that quite frankly put our businesses in danger. It would seem that while we are prepared to ignore the ebay cheap mug sellers the suppliers are not and are subsequently trying to cut costs to compete.

Instead they should stick to selling good quality machines and parts and ignore the ebayers.

If I were you I would ask for my money back and tell them that they are welcome to collect the blanket. Obviously this can be explained that while you understand their problems it does not help you and that you need the quality you (and your customers) have come to expect. That is why you are running a successful business in these troubled financial times.

I always treat my suppliers very well and try to build relationships. However I am very firm with them and always honest.

[RogerC]

Not unreasonable at all...stick to your guns...and principles. As for the comment 'reduce your image size to accomodate etc' I would be fuming at that. Push on with your case PD. It's the supplier at fault here with shoddy goods and an even worse attitude not you. Good luck.

[John G]

stick to your guns...and principles

I don't think it would make any difference - the supplier isn't/won't stock the old blankets and after 3 years the guarantee is well out - unless it was a 10 year guarantee, in which case I'd want my £800 back as its not fit for purpose.

[pisquee]

We're thinking of giving up on both our expensive Adkins and Jarin mug presses - we get better results from our cheap Chinese ones - they wrap around a lot closer to the handle which gives us much better looking mugs. I love the built-like-a-tank-ness of the expensive presses, but for a top to bottom full print which gets close to the handle our cheap ones do us better. I may have a play and see if I can adapt the Adkins or Jarin to take a different clamp thing and make a hybrid machine

[Andrew]

We had kind of the same thing a couple of years ago. After having had 2 twin head presses at nearly 1k each run brilliantly for 4 years they then became a bag of shite. This was after a £600 overhaul by the same comapny but I guess it all comes down to the elements. Just moved on from suppliers and presses. If they drop their levels long time after the initial purchase there is little that can be done.

[purpledragon]

Thanks for all the replies to be honest its nice to know that im not just being a bit of a whinger ive actually taken the new blanket out and put the old one back which is working as good as it did before how long for is anybodys guess . There wasnt a 10 year gaurantee so thats not really an option john oddly they guy did try and justify the cost of a new blanket by saying "it has got a steel band on it" well so have all mug blankets havnt they ??? i do have 2 or 3 other machines inc a df10 from bms which are great for differnt items in fairness to the company i did beat them into submission and got another blanket out of them but its exactly the same as the first they sent so pretty pointless really theyve just replace a peice of crap with another peice of crap really but its certainly a lesson learnt. Always check your back up when parting with your hard earnt cash but even thats no gaurantee.

[RogerC]

Is there another supplier that you can get better quality blankets from?