Carlos Barros
11-20-2014, 9:33 AM
My (bad) experience with Triumph Laser Machines
Hi everyone,
I'm registered at this forum for a couple of months, and came in frequently to learn with you guys more experienced, but haven't posted before. Well, this is my first one and saddly it's not for the best reasons. Just to try to warn some other unexperienced like me before they make the same mistakes.
I bought in november/december 2013 a Triumph TR1390 laser cutting machine 80W from Shenzhen Triumph Industrial co.,LTD, which arrived in my country in february, (very unluckily in the chinese new years week where they are all closed and I couldn't sort any kind of problems). Customs of my country soon started to spot a lot of problems, like no serial number, model TR1390 not inscribed on the machine, instruction manual only in (bad) english, but worst of all without a valid CE certificated (people at Triumph switched labels as well). Well after a lot of conversations and as I couldn't reach Triumph, I signed a document to bring the machine home, but could not use it until I certificate the machine through a portuguese institute CATIM (which are simply leeches). Later I contacted Triumph to support the costs on this certificate as it was simply their fault, and they refused. Then we have agreed at least to pay half. Never got that money. Cutting story short, I understood by CATIM attitude they were only interested in my money, and that would be too expensive (they charged 400 euros for each visit plus VAT) and told me to solve the problem they would need several visits. So I came the conclusion the machine won't worth it, and soon spoke with Triumph to solve the problem. They told they wouldn't want the machine back as cost would be higher then the machine itself. They told me to keep it. But customs doesn't act like this. Or you send the machine back to the manufacturer or you should destroy at your own cost. I again spoke with Triumph which have kindly refunded me the machine cost, but never payed me all other costs I had with a bad machine, not certificated, not valid for european countries.
Machine did cost me almost 3000 USD (refunded), however I had to pay 2239.80 EUR (almost 2800 USD) in fees for customs/carrier/vat, plus 467 euros to CATIM for one single visit, plus 285 EUR to destroy the machine, not counting the inumerous trips from home to customs to try to avoid any kind of fines.
So, if you're think to put a lot of money on a laser cutting machine coming outside your economic region, think twice before you make the same mistakes I did.
Meanwhile as I couldn't work with this machine, I had to buy a new one, but bought it through a portuguese importer. It also came from Taiwan I suppose, but it came certificate, and I had not to deal with any problem. Besides that I'm very happy with this one.
Kind regards.
Carlos
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp253/barcori/1_zps65e2db7c.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/barcori/media/1_zps65e2db7c.jpg.html)
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp253/barcori/2_zps647e01eb.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/barcori/media/2_zps647e01eb.jpg.html)
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp253/barcori/4_zps91ca64c3.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/barcori/media/4_zps91ca64c3.jpg.html)
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp253/barcori/5_zpscb0e45d2.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/barcori/media/5_zpscb0e45d2.jpg.html)
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp253/barcori/6_zps21a3e439.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/barcori/media/6_zps21a3e439.jpg.html)
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp253/barcori/7_zpsc952ae95.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/barcori/media/7_zpsc952ae95.jpg.html)
Hi everyone,
I'm registered at this forum for a couple of months, and came in frequently to learn with you guys more experienced, but haven't posted before. Well, this is my first one and saddly it's not for the best reasons. Just to try to warn some other unexperienced like me before they make the same mistakes.
I bought in november/december 2013 a Triumph TR1390 laser cutting machine 80W from Shenzhen Triumph Industrial co.,LTD, which arrived in my country in february, (very unluckily in the chinese new years week where they are all closed and I couldn't sort any kind of problems). Customs of my country soon started to spot a lot of problems, like no serial number, model TR1390 not inscribed on the machine, instruction manual only in (bad) english, but worst of all without a valid CE certificated (people at Triumph switched labels as well). Well after a lot of conversations and as I couldn't reach Triumph, I signed a document to bring the machine home, but could not use it until I certificate the machine through a portuguese institute CATIM (which are simply leeches). Later I contacted Triumph to support the costs on this certificate as it was simply their fault, and they refused. Then we have agreed at least to pay half. Never got that money. Cutting story short, I understood by CATIM attitude they were only interested in my money, and that would be too expensive (they charged 400 euros for each visit plus VAT) and told me to solve the problem they would need several visits. So I came the conclusion the machine won't worth it, and soon spoke with Triumph to solve the problem. They told they wouldn't want the machine back as cost would be higher then the machine itself. They told me to keep it. But customs doesn't act like this. Or you send the machine back to the manufacturer or you should destroy at your own cost. I again spoke with Triumph which have kindly refunded me the machine cost, but never payed me all other costs I had with a bad machine, not certificated, not valid for european countries.
Machine did cost me almost 3000 USD (refunded), however I had to pay 2239.80 EUR (almost 2800 USD) in fees for customs/carrier/vat, plus 467 euros to CATIM for one single visit, plus 285 EUR to destroy the machine, not counting the inumerous trips from home to customs to try to avoid any kind of fines.
So, if you're think to put a lot of money on a laser cutting machine coming outside your economic region, think twice before you make the same mistakes I did.
Meanwhile as I couldn't work with this machine, I had to buy a new one, but bought it through a portuguese importer. It also came from Taiwan I suppose, but it came certificate, and I had not to deal with any problem. Besides that I'm very happy with this one.
Kind regards.
Carlos
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp253/barcori/1_zps65e2db7c.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/barcori/media/1_zps65e2db7c.jpg.html)
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp253/barcori/2_zps647e01eb.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/barcori/media/2_zps647e01eb.jpg.html)
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp253/barcori/4_zps91ca64c3.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/barcori/media/4_zps91ca64c3.jpg.html)
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp253/barcori/5_zpscb0e45d2.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/barcori/media/5_zpscb0e45d2.jpg.html)
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp253/barcori/6_zps21a3e439.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/barcori/media/6_zps21a3e439.jpg.html)
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp253/barcori/7_zpsc952ae95.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/barcori/media/7_zpsc952ae95.jpg.html)