Arnold Howard on mon 24 may 99
When you buy a mail-order kiln, you receive a discount because the
dealer does not offer customer support. If you have a warranty problem,
you will probably have to make your own repairs (unless you send the
kiln to the factory). The local dealer's price is higher usually
because it comes with warranty service.
It is very difficult for the local dealers who offer customer service
to compete with mail order dealers.
Arnold Howard
Paragon Industries, Inc.
--- Evan Dresel wrote:
> Well maybe things have changed but I didn't buy a
> Skutt even though I
> live only 3 1/2 hours away via the gorgeous Columbia
> River Gorge. Among
> other reasons,
> I got really ticked at Skutts pricing structure.
> Something is wrong,
> IMO, when the least expensive way for me to buy one
> is to order it from
> Florida where it would be shipped clear across the
> country and back.
> Couldn't even order it from FL and arrange to pick
> it up at the factory.
> So what incentive is there to support "local" Skutt,
> if they price
> things so "local" Georgies or Clay Art are at such a
> price disadvantage?
_____________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Free instant messaging and more at http://messenger.yahoo.com
Cameron Harman on tue 25 may 99
I would like to add my two cents here as well. The thing that
Arnold Howard could not tell you is that the manufacturer must
protect their dealers, otherwise the the dealers will leave them
altogether. So, the manufacturer should not discount the stuff
they make since the dealers will do that.
If you buy a kiln from a local dealer you get both a discount and
local service. The catalog supplier leaves you on your own. They
will discount, but that discount is larger because they don't
provide on site service that the regular dealer provides.
Now, all of that is the way it is supposed to work, but in the
real world with real people, strange things happen, so you should
ask the dealer to what extent they will provide warranty service,
and will they provide it on site. For non warranty service ask
what they charge and how quickly they will get there.
IMHO the largest difference between kilns is the service after
sale issue. Pay close attention to that issue. You may never need
it, but, if you do it is something badly needed and usually in a
hurry.
Cameron harman
--
**********************************************************
Cameron G. Harman, Jr. 215-245-4040 fax 215-638-1812
e-mail kilns@kilnman.com
Ceramic Services, Inc 1060 Park Ave. Bensalem, PA 19020
get your free ezine: http://www.kilnman.com/ezine/ezine.html
THE place for total kiln and drier support
**********************************************************
Euclids on wed 26 may 99
Hi,
The term "discount kilns" should be a dead giveaway.
Kilns that are built with quality should last outside of their warranty.
Component failure in a new kiln does happen, but the instances are few &
far between.
I think that you would find that most of the quality kiln manufacturers do
not do alot of warranty work. If they find that a particular component is
prone to failure, it is replaced with a better quality component.
As far as service goes, if your local distributer is "Ma & Pa`s ceramics",
you may be better off to fix the kiln yourself.
It is important to get a quality repairperson with experience to do
repairs. A simple example of experience paying off is installing a new lid.
If there is not enough clearance between the lid & the side walls, when the
kiln heats up & the side walls rise up a bit, the lid will open during the
firing.
An experienced person will know this, amoung other things.
Chris @
Euclids Kilns & Elements
1-800-296-5456
euclids.com
mail@euclids.com
| |
|
