bad response from warriorwarehouse.co.uk

[Walney Col]

On the 11th August 2014 I told warrior warehouse that I wanted to return a lathe I'd purchased from them a week or two before. The Lathe was a Charnwood W815 8" mini lath (http://www.warriorwarehouses.co.uk/...Turning-Lathes/Lathe-Mini-Wood-13x8-20CH-W815) and I'd already been onto them for a week complaining about it having been bogging down cutting 5" diameter bowl ever since it arrived.

WW initially contacted the manufacturer (Charnwood) for advice who first blamed it on blunt tools and when I refuted that took forever to finally take the lathe back a full 8 days ago now. I phoned WW on wednesday this week and again today to see when my refund would be issued and was today told it would be dependant on Charnwood confirming that there was a fault with it. I reminded them as politely but firmly as I could that the distance selling regulations don't require any reason whatsoever for a product to be returned and that since I'd bought the lathe from Warrior Warehouse it was THEY who were liable for issuing the refund not a third party I've never had dealings with.

The guy on the phone said he wasn't authorised to issue refunds but promised to leave a note for attention of their accountant tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is a saturday. Are accountants really that poor they have to work on saturdays now, or are they still fobbing me off?...

I know what I think. What a stark contrast between WW and Axminster.

I wouldn't buy a bag of nails from WW now never mind another machine tool.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

That surprises me as I've used WW regularly for decades (it's just down the road), and they have never been any other than first class.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

What size blank does the literature suggest you can turn? I'd have thought a 250w brush motor was a bit small for a 5" bowl - the average electric drill is three times that size.

 

[bugbear]

What size blank does the literature suggest you can turn? I'd have thought a 250w brush motor was a bit small for a 5" bowl - the average electric drill is three times that size.

Agreed - why (on earth) does it have 8" swing if it doesn't have the power to turn it?

BugBear

 

[marcros]

I think that the sale of goods act may be more relevant. You have 7 days under the distance selling regs, but that is predominantly for if you change your mind. Goods should be in a saleable condition, which a lathe used a few times isn't.

SOGA will give you protection under fitness for purpose- perhaps more clauses too. It would be worth looking at money saving expert, which etc who will give you a step by step guide on what you need to do.

If you paid by credit card you may have an easier option by giving visa the issue to deal with.

 

[wizard]

it says Recommended for Pen Turning

 

[Phil Pascoe]

But as BB said, Wiz, why give an 8" swing and expect people not to try to use it?

 

[wizard]

for £159.98 i would expect junk

 

[wizard]

i would put it om ebay for £60.00 and look for a good second hand lathe

 

[Walney Col]

What size blank does the literature suggest you can turn? I'd have thought a 250w brush motor was a bit small for a 5" bowl - the average electric drill is three times that size.

There is no literature for it as such other than the web page description giving the maximum diameter and length. The guy at WW however did say he hadn't heard of one bogging down on a 5" bowl and the charnwood rep when he was told about it blamed it on blunt tooling which also gives the impression that he thought it should have managed 5" without too much trouble. They did try to talk me into buying the bigger model, the 12" swing 18" between centres Charnwood W821 at £100 more but I finally succumbed today and thought well if I'm going to have to clear more space and spend £300 I might as well get the Axminster AWVSL900 and be done with it. As someone pointed out here you can turn small stuff on a big lathe but you can't so big stuff on a small one.

 

[Walney Col]

I think that the sale of goods act may be more relevant. You have 7 days under the distance selling regs, but that is predominantly for if you change your mind.

There were other issues complicating it as well. In week 1 I let them know about it bogging down and that one of the indexable handles had a bad plastic molding and didn't work. We talked then about upgrading to the next size lathe up but they didn't have any in stock but agreed to me keeping the smaller one (and using as best I could) for another couple of weeks when new stock was due to arrive. I was at the end of week two after having looked into mini lathes more closely that I became so wary of charnwood's reputation that I decided to cancel the planned upgrade and put the money towards an axminster model.

Charnwood trying to blame it on blunt tooling is what really did it for me. I've been making and grinding my own lathe tools for over 50 years now I think I have a pretty good idea of what constitutes sharp.

 

[RossJarvis]

As a casual observer it can be a bit difficult to know if you are an "unreasonable customer" or they are selling junk. In my experience these days, most new machinery is junk unless you want to spend serious money. Very few retailers actually know much about what they are selling and they have never come across good machinery. To my mind the majority of machine tools these days, stuff like Clarke and Record Power should go straight to the scrappy and avoid any serious user, although, some of their products are actually quite good. Unfortunately it's very difficult to know which items are okay and which ones should have been drowned before birth.

 

[Walney Col]

Needless to say I didn't get an email phone call or refund on Saturday morning as promised by Warrior Warehouse's Mark Curnow last friday.

 

[Graham Orm]

From their blurb:
"Electronic variable speed control allows the ideal speed to be quickly selected for jobs of any diameter. "

"Distance over bed: 200mm (8")"


From their video:

I'd say this was bigger than 5" dia.

 

[Walney Col]

Thanks Graynorm, I do believe you're right. They obviously intend it to do more than pens

 

[Walney Col]

Hot off the press... I've just been issued a full refund. Thanks for all the support and advice lads.

 

[TimothyClaypole]

The 7 days is now 14 days.