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George Beck
01-26-2010, 4:02 PM
Check out Quartro new web site! I have one of these and it operates at about 54 decibels. very quiet

http://www.quatro-air.com/

George

Dan Hintz
01-26-2010, 5:02 PM
I really despise it when companies require you to email them to get pricing. It just reeks of "Shaft him for everything you can get."

Dave Johnson29
01-26-2010, 5:30 PM
I really despise it when companies require you to email them to get pricing. It just reeks of "Shaft him for everything you can get."

Dan,

I may have not agreed with you a couple of times lately, but man, I am right behind you on that philosophy.


It's just nuts. If a competitor wanted to know the price, they would just email from a free Gmail account. No way to trace that back. Just plain dumb thinking.

Why are people so afraid of competition? I love competitors. I send all the crappy work I don't want to do or the whiny and/or bad paying customers to them. I LOVE competitors. :D

Dee Gallo
01-26-2010, 6:04 PM
On a similar note, I just bought a new air compressor, and decided to go with a super quiet (47 decibels) small jobber made for airbrush nail salons. I don't use a compressor for my airbrush but this thing is great! It's tiny, like 6" x 6" x 3" and it just purrs. My laser fan is louder than this unit. Plus, it only cost $55 including shipping. It's called a "Salon". Its max output is only 40 ppi, but I only need 25-30 for the laser according to Epilog and so far I've engraved and cut both wood and acrylic without so much as a flareup.

cheers, dee

ps - I'm with Dan, I hate sites that make you sign up before you can get info.

George Beck
01-26-2010, 8:44 PM
Well. It was just a new website that went up today. I did not write it.
Geeeeeeeeeeeez

Dan Hintz
01-26-2010, 8:44 PM
Dee,

Care to share the manufacturer? I'm up for replacing my 33 gallon noise maker that only runs once every 45 minutes with a small brick that runs constantly but is quiet as a mouse.

Dee Gallo
01-27-2010, 6:36 AM
Dee,

Care to share the manufacturer? I'm up for replacing my 33 gallon noise maker that only runs once every 45 minutes with a small brick that runs constantly but is quiet as a mouse.

Here's a screen shot of the invoice. Since I've only had it a month, I'm not vouching for its longevity, but at this price, I could buy one every year if I had to.

:) dee

Dan Hintz
01-27-2010, 8:30 AM
Sheesh, I may order one as soon as I get home for that price!

Mike Null
01-27-2010, 9:55 AM
Me too. I have a couple already but the big one, which is the multi-use unit is so loud it would be a pleasure to have something quiet for air brushing.

Brian Robison
01-27-2010, 11:38 AM
How would it compare to an air brush compressor (like I use)?
More psi and volume maybe?

Dee Gallo
01-27-2010, 12:17 PM
How would it compare to an air brush compressor (like I use)?
More psi and volume maybe?

It IS an airbrush compressor, just a little one... only low pressure. I personally like to be able to crank up my pressure to 60 if I want to, and I like the SILENT and CLEAN air I get from a CO2 tank. But this unit was designed for use at nail salons and bakeries, with airbrushes needing 25-35 pounds.

I had no need for the 100+ pounds of pressure my noisy one could put out, and definitely love the 47 decibel level. Plus, it does not crawl, because there's no real vibration. Bonus!

BTW- this company is also known as the Airbrush Depot.

cheers, dee

Ralph Tesson
01-27-2010, 4:12 PM
I really despise it when companies require you to email them to get pricing. It just reeks of "Shaft him for everything you can get."

Hi,
I'm Ralph from Quatro Air and responsible for the website in question, I'm very happy to note that many of you have come to visit, Thank you, and I'd like to address the pricing issue. We are a Canadian company and manufacture all of our fume extractors in Canada however we sell them around the world with greater than 40% being exported overseas. As one of the largest companies specializing in air filtration products and to avoid currency fluctuation pitfalls we sell our products around the world in three currencies: Canadian dollars (the funny colored money), US dollars and the Euro. This makes it challenging to post pricing on our website that is correct based on the viewer's location.
That being said I am a firm believer in providing the pricing and all of our emails sent to specific target markets always include the pricing; it is one of the selling points! We do also offer a number of options depending on the user's application and thus we do enjoy engaging the user to see how we can best help them.
To give you an idea, a typical rotary engraver unit like the JetStream retails for US$699 and a typical laser unit like the SPH-400 series retails for US$1940. Please contact me for any other pricing questions and I will be happy to get back to you straight away.
Also thank you to George for pointing me to this forum, I hope to be an active participant since I do speak to a large number of engravers on a daily basis!

Mike Null
01-27-2010, 4:53 PM
Ralph

Welcome to SMC and thanks for the explanation. Having had some experience with the pricing issues you've described your policy is certainly understandable.

BTW, please include your contact info and web site in your profile so interested parties can contact you.

Dee Gallo
01-27-2010, 7:45 PM
Update: I decided to buy a "backup" since I like this model so much. On their website, the same model is $69.99. Still not bad, but then I went to eBay and the same people have it there for $44.99 plus 9.98 shipping. I put in a bid and there are more than one, so I recommend this route for a better price. Type in "Salon II Airbrush Compressor".

cheers, dee

Dan Hintz
01-27-2010, 8:34 PM
Dee, that explains the price difference I saw.



Welcome, Ralph. If you sell in 3 different currencies, why not list the price in all three? There does not need to be a direct connection between the price in one currency and the day's exchange rate for another. I'm in the US, so I'll pay attention to the US dollar, and unless there's some odd 2:1 or 3:1 difference in price compared to the European version, I'm really not going to pay much attention to it.

I can't count the number of times I've walked away from a product because the company made it difficult for me to find out simple pricing information. When I felt unnecessarily compelled to contact the company, it was either a hard sell tactic or I wasted a lot of time speaking with someone who knew little more than what was already listed on the website.

Personally, I would reconsider your position on the matter, but it's your call.

Ralph Tesson
01-28-2010, 4:08 PM
Hi Dan,
thank you for the welcome. I mentioned that we like to engage the customer, hopefully we do a good job of understanding their needs and can help suggest solutions. On the website we list some standard products; what we don't tell you is the myriad of options available on any given unit. I'll give you an example; on the SPH 400 series that we sell I have either brushed or brushless motors in either 110V or 230V. So far so good, next I have the intake which can be single, dual, top, side, all options with multiple intake diameters. In all there are 20 options as well as 18 extended lids that we offer.
Next we like to talk to the customer about the type of material that they are dealing with and then perhaps suggest suitable duct sizes based on the conveyance velocities required for their heaviest particulate.
Next I can exhaust from the bottom of the unit for recirculation or via a discharge vent. I also offer custom controls for interfacing directly to a variety of lasers so the unit is only turned on when the laser is in use. We can also convey additional status updates to a PLC or other device at a variety of different voltages, so we offer 7 different control panels.
Now the important part; what type of material are you working with? We offer 10 different filter combinations based on the type of material that you work with. We have multiple pre-filters, various HEPA and ULPA filters and 5 different kinds of Chemical beds depending on the type of odors and VOCs being created.
Now some of these options are simple choices but some of them require some research and some experience and can impact the cost, which makes it difficult to post a standard price. I get frustrated when I hear an ad that they play on our local radio for laser eye surgery from only $495 per eye. Everyone who goes gets a quote for thousands because their eyes have something that means they don't qualify for the special pricing. I swear nobody pays $495 but it does get them in the door. Personally I don't wish to mislead customers or up-sell them as a practice however if they do have some particular materials that they work with and I have a better solution I will certainly try and educate them as to the difference. If there was one generic solution I would be happy to quote pricing however the reason that we became specialists is that we are an engineering company and we will go out of our way to try and provide the best solution for a customer which means that we are in constant development and customization to engineer solutions. All of the practical experience pays off for the end user since it is based on the feedback of thousands of customers. It is also the reason that we provide so many of the laser manufacturers with air filtration units that we customize for their needs and that they sell under their own name.

Dee, that explains the price difference I saw.



Welcome, Ralph. If you sell in 3 different currencies, why not list the price in all three? There does not need to be a direct connection between the price in one currency and the day's exchange rate for another. I'm in the US, so I'll pay attention to the US dollar, and unless there's some odd 2:1 or 3:1 difference in price compared to the European version, I'm really not going to pay much attention to it.

I can't count the number of times I've walked away from a product because the company made it difficult for me to find out simple pricing information. When I felt unnecessarily compelled to contact the company, it was either a hard sell tactic or I wasted a lot of time speaking with someone who knew little more than what was already listed on the website.

Personally, I would reconsider your position on the matter, but it's your call.

Roy Brewer
01-28-2010, 11:15 PM
I can't count the number of times I've walked away from a product because the company made it difficult for me to find out simple pricing information.Dan,
Since this is a laser engraving forum I suspect your jab was thrown against laser manufacturers also. If not, others have made the same bitter complaints. I have addressed this before (I think on this forum, but you guys are better at searching than I), but let me take another stab at an explanation.

I am an Epilog/Xenetech distributor, my comments/explanations are not authorized by those manufacturers.

Your suggested solution to Quatro would create horrendous problems for Epilog/Xenetech. They would have a very difficult time obtaining and maintaining distributors worldwide if they made it easy for anyone, anywhere to find out prices in all other countries.

Already, my distributorship has to handle several calls per month from people around the world who have learned that US prices are incredibly cheap compared to what they have to pay their distributor and they are hoping that I will sell them a product and ship it to them. They are sure that their authorized dealers are shafting them. They do not want to hear that their distributor has to invest at least twenty times as much cash in his/her distributorship. They have to order and inventory a huge number of systems all sizes/models/wattages. They have to invest heavily in parts to be able to handle service on all current and past models. US distributors typically hand any serious tech issues to the factory, but offshore distributors have to invest in the people and their training because their clients demand "local" service.

These offshore distributors are absolutely essential to the continued success of major laser manufacturers. These offshore distributors want to take advantage of the heavy investment US manufacturers have put into their web sites. Very few, if any of them, would make the investment and take the huge risks involved if the manufactures posted their US prices! And, how could anyone blame them?

So I plead with anyone who thinks the lack of price reeks sinister &/or is an attempt to keep the competition from knowing our prices, to consider that, like it or not, in this world of growing interdependencies, it is not always that simple.

The Quatro product appears to have been quite successful in their three markets but I'm very suspicious that they have set up their web site and business model for a future that will position them in the same boat as discussed above. Personally, I buy Ralph's explanation and point of view and appreciate his details; he certainly doesn't need me to come to his defense.

Excuse the verbosity; I hope I remember where I wrote this the next time this comes up so I can just point to it.

Kim Vellore
01-29-2010, 1:00 AM
Dan,

Your suggested solution to Quatro would create horrendous problems for Epilog/Xenetech. They would have a very difficult time obtaining and maintaining distributors worldwide if they made it easy for anyone, anywhere to find out prices in all other countries.

Already, my distributorship has to handle several calls per month from people around the world who have learned that US prices are incredibly cheap compared to what they have to pay their distributor and they are hoping that I will sell them a product and ship it to them. They are sure that their authorized dealers are shafting them. They do not want to hear that their distributor has to invest at least twenty times as much cash in his/her distributorship. They have to order and inventory a huge number of systems all sizes/models/wattages. They have to invest heavily in parts to be able to handle service on all current and past models. US distributors typically hand any serious tech issues to the factory, but offshore distributors have to invest in the people and their training because their clients demand "local" service.

These offshore distributors are absolutely essential to the continued success of major laser manufacturers. These offshore distributors want to take advantage of the heavy investment US manufacturers have put into their web sites. Very few, if any of them, would make the investment and take the huge risks involved if the manufactures posted their US prices! And, how could anyone blame them?

So I plead with anyone who thinks the lack of price reeks sinister &/or is an attempt to keep the competition from knowing our prices, to consider that, like it or not, in this world of growing interdependencies, it is not always that simple.

Excuse the verbosity; I hope I remember where I wrote this the next time this comes up so I can just point to it.

Roy,
In my view as a buyer it is very easy to get the prices of these equipments on the net. If you just search this forum you will probably get the costs including costs of replacement tubes. New Epilog sells on ebay too... In fact there were many "wow you guys in the US are getting it cheap" comments on this forum from people around the world. When I was looking for a laser I did get a quote from each local distributors for different equipments and when I decided to go with one over the other there was suddenly so much room in the price for negotiation, it was like buying a car 8 years back, I hated the experience. You can justify yourself on your business model but you would be better off if you see so many other successful business model on the net.
Epilog cut the cost of replacement tubes by half once people started discussing the costs on the net and finding out the real costs, having paid full cost for the tube I feel .....

Kim