Something Stinks in Canada and Taiwan

[spartanscroller]

Two years ago I purchased an Excalibur ex-21 here in Michigan. it was from a company with a generic sounding name General. I was excited to have it as everyone seemed to be recommending it. Two weeks later rumors began to fly about manufacturing problems in Taiwan and in another two weeks it was announced that General would no longer be producing and selling the saw! Then Seyco  comes out with exact same saw only with a bigger table. Now I see on today's scroll saw workshop another Canadian company called King is now manufacturing the same saw at the same plant in Taiwan that General was using. In the immortal words of coach Vince Lombardi "What the Hell's goin on out here!"I am concerned about the availabiility of parts for my saw. Recently I replaced the slide bracket and thumb screw on the upper blade clamp bracket. I did not see the slide bracket listed on Seyco's sight so I called general and ordered it from them. The parts were less than $20 and weighed less than six ounces and they charged me $32 for shipping. Is this what I can expect from now on if I need to replace parts. Are the King scroll saw parts interchangeable with the ex-21? Oh, I almost forgot, according to Steve's story on his blog this morning. King made an agreement to sell only the 16 and 31 inch saws. Thought General was a reputable company. Now I really regret buying this saw even though it has served me well for the past two years, but I not ready to jump to another saw just yet. Anybody have any thoughts or information/
Regards,
Terry

[Jim Finn]

If you want company and design stability along with parts availability....   one word....Hegner.  I just received a replacement part for my 1986 Hegner.

[dirtrider73068]

International shipping charges are killer. Call Ray at seyco next time he may have the parts you need just not listed on the site. Or maybe even the parts from his saw may fit the ex saw pending what parts you need.

[don in brooklin on]

International shipping is a real killer.  Just ask us Canadians that want to order stuff from US.  The coins from Steve are $4 Shipping in the US and $14 to Canada. Change that to Canadian $ and it is $20.

I wanted to order the upper blade clamp from Seyco last time and shipping was really expensive was just the same so I ordered from General in Montreal and the cost was $12.

The EX-21 is now available at Home Depot in the US so things may work out. 

If I was looking at parts I would call Seyco first.

[scrappile]

I guess I do not understand why you are so upset.  General is a Canadian company, been around for a long time and have good tools.  Now the Excalibur is back, and there are two other saws that use interchangeable parts for the Excalibur.  And of the three saws you probably own the best one.   Life is good! 

[sawdust703]

i bet you'll do a little more research on saws before you "jump" into the next one. It takes $$$$ to cross the border, & their prices are different that ours. This is a a lesson of dollars & SENSE.

[Norm Fengstad]

I think there is enough stink to go around to not only Canada, Taiwan, but to china and U.S, must include Mexico in the stink as well. I recently bought an article out of Minnesota for $180.00, shipping to me here in Canada was another $62.00 plus, This item like most things is made in China. Go figure. On the positive note its just a good topic to exercise our right to complain.

I made an 8 x 10 puzzle that fits inside a 10 x11 envelope for my neighbor to ship to Austrailia, Priority shipping was $60.00 and regular mail was over $20.00 the same article to ship inside Canada was $4.50 even $4.50 looks to me like a gouge job.

Have a good day my friends and don't let the stinky things spoil the day.


 

[scrappile]

I guess I look at it a little differently.  I mailed a picture to a friend in Australia this past year.  The picture cost little, I made it, the shipping was around $35.  I couldn't even deliver it to the next town from me myself for $35.  I thought I got a heck of a deal. 

And, Norm, if that item you purchased that was made in China, if it had been made in America you probably could not have afforded to buy it in the first place.... 

[eburk]

I was going to order some wheels for a project from a US company (I live in Alaska). The weight on the package was listed as 1.1lb. Priority Mail by USPS was 17.xx. I can ship to the lower 48 priority mail all day long for less than that, a medium flat rate box goes from here to Iowa for 13.60

[DWSudekum]

Eburk I use USPS priority mail but use my OWN box and I ship everywhere.  I can ship a 2 lb box to Singapore for around $22 USD or anywhere in the US for under generally $10.  My box, I weight and print the shipping label and then just drop it off at the post office.  Simple and convenient.  I used to use the USPS boxes but that costs way too much.



DW

[eburk]

DW, I understand where you are coming from. Most companies ship USPS priority to Alaska. The point I was trying to make isone must be careful because many companies are not like you. Many companies shipping Fedex or UPS will "put a thumb" on the scale, like the old day butchers did 60 years ago. Fedex and UPS are weeding some of the blatant ones of these out by reweighing the package, and taking it back to the company to correct the weight and shipping costs. Other companies ship USPS Priority, but overcharge,like the company I spoke of yesterday.

[Hawaiilad]

Shipping has always been a pain to me.  For years we had a online business and shipped allot, most small packages we used USPS Priority in their boxes...we would order 100's from them all the time delivered to our shop.  Large boxes we UPS as did out of Country shipments, except to our customers in Hawaii.  It cost much less, about a third, to use USPS.  Jump forward a few years and we find our self living in Hawaii.  Customers on the Mainland we had worried about shipping rates going up...but they went down by using USPS.  Worked fine for a couple years and then out of the blue their rates started going up and up.  Now it cost us an extra third to ship USPS Priority.  I try to use regular Post Office as it saves on the cost allot.

But when I order items from the Mainland at many Companies and ask them to ship USPS Priority or Flat Rate, they refuse.  Turns out the Post Office does not deliver or pick up from their business and they will not take the package to the Post Office.  Many Companies say the must charge more because of where we live but when asked the weight of the package and why my rate charts shows less, they have no answer.  But some just say they do not ship to Hawaii or Alaska from the Main land.  That way they just have to deal with it I guess.

[spartanscroller]

You all seem to be missing my point.  While shipping charges are a huge pain in the neck (or lower) the real problem for me is what is going on with these Excalibur scroll saws. General stops making them and all of a sudden all these knock offs start showing up and are coming from the same factory in Taiwan that General was using. I'm a little upset, I guess, because this is the second time I bought a scroll saw that was discontinued right after I bought it. I have a Delta Q3 sitting here in my basement that I really liked but can no longer get parts for it because it is obsolete. Can't find the quick set blade clamps anywhere. I have heard that General is a reputable company and I did get replacement parts from them but at that huge shipping cost. Can probably get them from Seyco but when I have talked to them direct they don't seem to want to help me very much because I did not buy the saw from them. OK I understand that. So they come out with an Excalibur type saw with just a few minor differences and tack on a few hundred more dollars for it. Then King (another Canadian company) comes out with an Excalibur style saw manufactured at the same factory in Taiwan where the Ex21 was made only they are not selling the 21 inch model. So why is that? Is it because General has a load of EX21's left to get rid of or what? That is my issue.

[hardkore]

I have a Delta saw and burned the motor out. Replacement motor sells for about $300.00.
For less than that I got a reconditioned saw shipped from Amazon. The reconditioned saw vibrated so bad that I considered it useless.
LIGHT BULB moment!!!  Took the motor from the new saw and placed it in my old one. SMOOTH running and I still have the rest of the saw for other parts.
Kind of an overkill, but, it worked for me.

[apopj]

Hello all,

After talking with Ray at Seyco, parts will not be a problem for the foreseeable future. He has plenty in stock and the new saws use many of the same parts. I just ordered spares for the clamp system on my EX-21 and there was no problem at all. Ray is good people. As far as discontinued after a few weeks, perhaps you haven't bought any electronic items for awhile. It seems everything is "outdated" after a week or two. My $2000 MacBook Pro is now worth $75 in trade on a new one. What do you think the odds are that I will be buying anything Apple again?

Shipping is a PITA. Try ordering scroll saw plans. One or two sheets of paper cost $5.95 shipping and handling. So, shipping would be, say $.75 including envelope. That means, whomever is their mail clerk is making about $5.75 an item. So, shipping 50 items a day would net them about $290.00, or about $36.00 an hour. Where do I sign up?? For stuffing envelopes with a piece of paper! Like not watching NFL due to the "protests" by someone making millions of dollars, I refuse to pay that amount for sending me a couple of pieces of paper. So, we do have an option. Write to these companies and tell them you like their patterns but will not buy from them unless the shipping becomes more reasonable. Thankfully, a few are offering PDF files by internet without the shipping charges. Buy from them until the world gets the message.