Amadeal Lathe failed - customer service appalling!

Hi,

Hope it's ok to post this mini rant here.

I bought an Amadeal bench lathe January 2019 after having 2 faulty out of the box machines from Clarke.

It worked fine for about 11 months, then just died. No apparent reason, just spun down and stopped working. I contacted Amadeal and they were initially fairly helpful, but insisted I tried to replace parts (which they sent me, and actually weren't an exact match), which I personally didn't think I should be doing, as I'm not a qualified electrical engineer, but whatever. I gave them the benefit of the doubt here. After replacing both the speed control board and filter board, the machine still didn't work. Bear in mind it took over 6 weeks to get to this point. They were also becoming almost impossible to get hold of.

I then began to send strongly worded emails (polite, but as a fairly irritated customer at this point), which they also took forever to respond to. They eventually agreed to arrange a collection to take it back and repair it. Though they did say over the phone that all their engineers left and they haven't replaced them. So he'd been guessing about the issue this entire time. I also don't know how they plan to fix it without an engineer.

So on Wednesday I booked the afternoon off to wait for a courier to come, which was all agreed and arranged. By 4pm they hadn't arrived, so I called Amadeal yet again to ask where they were. They called me back and said they're not coming today now. We booked it too late. They then tried to twist my words and claimed I said I was free all day, which is daft. I only had the afternoon off. I said I was free on Saturday as I am off work, and he said 'Oh it costs 3 times as much to collect on a Saturday, I can't do that' I said with all due respect, that isn't my problem. You have messed me around for 2 months and I still don't have a working machine. He then said, 'Well are you going to pay the extra cost then?' Safe to say at this point I lost my rag a bit. I wasn't insulting or anything but I expressed how poor their customer service has been in resolving this matter.

I would also note that the machine died before the warranty was ended.

I'm still working to resolve this, as once again they are ignoring me.

All I can say for now if for heaven's sake, don't buy anything from Amadeal, they don't deserve your money. I was really hoping that buying from a small UK based company would be supporting local business etc, but it seems they just don't care about their customers.

Maybe a Recorded Delivery letter threatening Small Claims Court, or Trading Standards, on the grounds of breach of contract may speed resolution?

(Was pestered by a firm of baliffs, chasing the bloke who used to live across the road. A red "Final Warning" letter, and on the envelope, to them stopped things immediately! )

Howard

Similar problem here! Time they got their act together.

Im sorry but you've gone through 3 lathes in 12 months? Sounds like user error to me.

Sounds like dodgy electrics to me

If there is one weakness on modern units, especially if they are built to a price point, it's the electricals

No problems with the old stuff, a mains switch and a whirry motor

Motor blows up etc, fix it or get another and b backe up and running in 7 days or less

Always follow Mr Spareys advice from 1948

--------------------

Electrical Wiring
It must be admitted that the electrical installation of the average home workshop does,

more often than not, leave much to be desired.
In an understandable eagerness to ''see the wheels go round,'' temporary wiring hook-ups,

often from the house lighting circuits, are perpetrated, and do, alas ! only too often
remain as permanencies. These may continue to function indefinitely without undue

trouble, and the amateur is apt to add other machines, such as a driller or grinder, to the
existing arrangements, until the workshop presents an ideal set-up for a spot of arson!
No electric motor above 1/10 h.p. should ever be connected to the house lighting circuit.

The writer himself suffers from all the amateurs prejudices against "professional safety

factors" yet, in the matter of electrical installation, it is not so much a matter of

prejudice as of plain common sense.

The wise amateur mechanic will, therefore, see to it that a proper power point is fitted

in his workshop, from whence he may wire up his machinery with a heavy "cab tyre"
cable. If this cable is secured to the benches and walls of the workshop, so that it is out

of the way of damage and cannot chafe, metal conduit may be dispensed with, although,
of course, conduit tubing is the ideal.
Another point which is often neglected is the provision of an earthing lead to all

machines. It is quite a common occurrence, especially in damp weather, for the
operator to experience an electric shock, of more or less severity, whenever the metal

portion of a machine is touched. Apart from being extremely disconcerting, this
can be dangerous, as it may cause the operator to "jump" on contact.
Sudden, uncontrolled movements such as this should never be made near revolving machinery!
The simple cure is to connect all the machines by a common wire to an earthing point, such

as an outside stack pipe or a water main. A bare copper wire connection will suffice.
Do not earth to a gas main, it is illegal.

Hi Adam,

Your Amadeal lathe is not a CJ18 mini lathe by any chance..?

If so I had one and I had problems with the speed control pot on the front panel. It became a problem to set the speed it was up and down all over the place and eventually stopped working. I was waiting for a response from Amadeal but wanting to get the lathe running in desperation I gave the pot a big dose of contact cleaner and it cured the problem.

Of course yours may not be the CJ18 and you may not want to play with it plus my problem came on gradual where yours just suddenly stopped so it may have nothing to do with the pot but just thought I would mention it.

What contact you did have with Amadeal did they not consider it could be the motor that is the problem.

Ron

Something along those lines is the plan yes!

I had 2 clarke latches that were faulty. They were cl500m lathe mill combos. The first one had knackered lathe bearings and didnt cut smoothly, rattled and ran like a locomotive. Second they replaced came with no key in the mill so it didnt turn, then eventually fixed that and then it turned out the mill bearing were shot. Same rattling and deafness of the first lathe bearings. So no, that wasnt user error. And I've been extremely careful with this machine also. I consider this very bad luck Im afraid. Still? Their service has been awful.

HI Ron,

No it's a bigger AMA240V. It did something similar and he got me to test the motor but it seemed fine. When I first took the back off a set of the block connectors were totally melted. Hugh just kept getting me to change it parts saying 'Oh that'll probably work'. Gave them the benefit of the doubt at first but this machine has clearly just keeled over. I'm in disbelief they dont gave a service engineer.

Yeah its definitely some sort of electrical fault aa there were melted connectors inside the unit when I took the back off.

Oh really, may I ask what's happened to you?

Worn out bearings straight out of the box? A friend bought one of those Clarke combo machines, same sort of problem. Not worn, it was brand new! Problem was adjustment, soon sorted, much easier than the hassle of returning it. The worse thing about this machine was the gearing to get the drive up in to the milling head, noisy, but my friend soon learned to live with it.

John

I have seen the same problem with a new Clarke CL500 combo machine at a Machine Mart showroom in Mansfield. The headstock spindle was stiff when rotated and very notchy, so possibly the taper roller spindle bearings were full of muck or more likely way over tightened with preload. It certainly wouldn't have worked well at all, or for very long, in the state it was in.

Buy British ????

Try Arc for machinery, no connection but the late Sir John did a good job at source, followed up by Ketans gang.

Regards Ian

"Buy British?" You probably are, most of our scrap being reimported.

Edited By Circlip on 07/03/2020 12:28:22

They weren't worn, they were just defective. It sounded like there was a spanner rattling around inside!

Yeah sounds like it was as dodgy as the one I had, though that isn't even the issue I have now, lol

I thought I was, Anadeal being a small london based company. I know the machines I still from china, but I can't really afford anything made over here, it costs a bomb. Worth it I know, I just don't have the funds.