The "euro machines" : Martin, Format 4, Felder, Hammer, Minimax, Agazzani, etc., tend to be expensive. And for many if not all of them a buyer has to essentially custom order whatever machine he's buying. The machine is then built, shipped, and delivered at some later date. And I think this sets the expectation that, for the price premium, things would go swimmingly thereafter. But sometimes this is not the case. And then there are 3 possibilities:
1. The problem is so bad that the machine needs to be replaced.
2. The problem is something that can be "fixed" over the phone by talking to a technician and learning what to do.
3. The problem needs an onsite visit from a factory trained technician.
For those who have "higher end" machines and have had to deal with customer service after the sale, what has been your experience? Was the process of getting help easy, or difficult? Fast or slow? Was the manual any help?
If you've owned your machines for a long time (say 10 years or more) and needed assistance initially, and again recently, have things gotten better, or worse? If you needed onsite tech support, how did that work?
For instance, with Felder, it doesn't matter if the machine is brand new, or years old. If a technician has to come to your shop, you get to pay for his travel time--charged at $65.00/hr, airfare, and the hourly fee charged in the shop, which right now is $95.00/hr. They will try to arrange for the technician to visit other shops in the area during that trip, and thus split the travel costs, but if nobody else needs service, it's all on you. Maybe this is common in the industry, I don't know.
I've read good reviews and bad reviews about customer service on just about every manufacturer out there. But there aren't that many of them, and of those there aren't many that are current--say within the last couple years. I'm not really interested in the machine reputation, so much, as that just ends up being a Ford vs Chevy argument. I'm only interested in customer service experiences. I know I stipulated the "Euro-machines" but if someone wants to weigh in on Northfield customer service, or another "high-end" manufacturer that isn't in europe, that's okay. Thanks.