Eagnas Machine Owners

LttlElvis

Professional
OK. It is well known on these boards that Eagnas has poor customer service. It seems also that most satisfied customers are happy and really not that vocal about it. There are certain models that seem to do well. (The Flex 940 seems to be very popular and is very inexpensive for what you get). There are other models that seem to give people a lot of problems. It seems like a lot of problems are with their dropweights or their inexpensive electronic machines. Out of curiosity, would you name your model number and tell if you have had a good or bad experience with the machine itself. No need to talk about the customer service experience, because we all know. Just keep it simple.

Mine for example:

Eagnas Hawk 800: good (6 yrs)
 
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barry

Hall of Fame
Eagnas Star Y12-3 - Good (8 years use)
Eagnas Flash 925 - Good (6 months use)

CS experience - 3 times in 8 1/2 years, no issues.
 
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fastdunn

Legend
Eagnas Hawk 26: OK (3 years, sold it last year)

floating clamp failed within 1 year. failed to get it replaced under warranty.
 

JetFlyr

Rookie
Eagnas Flex 940 (March, 2006, 40+ frames) -- Good experience
Added WISE tension head (same month) -- Great combination!
 
M

martymule

Guest
ESG-700 - 9 years. I'm really happy with my machine.

I'm certainly not saying that an Eagnas is for eveyone - but I am glad that I decided to go with them.
 

rod_b

Rookie
So what's all the bashing about Eagnas for? How about the Flex 740?

People with a negative experience will always voice their opinions more than others who have a positive experience. I will agree, though, that Eagnas' customer service is sorely lacking. This could be because their US operation is basically a warehouse full of warehouse workers who probably have no technical or working knowledge of the product. I'm ok with that. Others aren't.
 

Ben42

Semi-Pro
I had a Flex 740. It was terrible. I tried to get Eagnas to fix it and they wouldn't.

(the condensed version.)
 
R

rqtguy

Guest
Flex 940 - Good (no problems)

Can't really beat it for the price. BTW, been to their warehouse, it is a mess. On a good day you might have two people actually there to do the required work.
 

WhiteSox05CA

Hall of Fame
Have you looked at this one?

http://www.eagnas.com/chaln1.html#pioneerdc
http://www.eagnas.com/com710.html#pioneerdc

Both have the better clamps. Personally I like the linear gripper better than the rotational one, so only 2 machines I would consider is the Alpha and two Eagnas above.

You might look in the for sale section on the TW site. I have used the 710, it is decent, the Challenger I
looks better made, but have not used one.

I looked at both of those, but the Flex 740 was only $220 and looked pretty much the same.

Doesn't the Flex 740 have a linear gripper? That's what I'd want.
 

WhiteSox05CA

Hall of Fame
Yes they both have a linear gripper with a clutch, which is a plus. The gripper head has 3 parts inside and is extremely simple. About the only thing which can go wrong is the spring inside, they usually break about every 400 rackets and cost $14. Very easy to replace.

It is the same as the 710, but has cone lock clamps. My first Eagnas machine had spring-assisted clamps. My latest one has cone lock, both work well, but if you are stinging 10 or more rackets a week, the spring assisted are easier and faster to use. Both will do the job.

Did you see the feedback at Eagnas on the 740? They must sell a lot of 740's!

http://www.eagnas.com/maxcmt/cfl740.html

That's promising, but I don't know if they are for real or fake, and what's preventing Eagnas from only posting their good reviews?

Are these machines accurate in tensioning? What I'm looking for is ease of stringing, accurate tension, and fast restringing.

If I do decide to buy this machine, would I have to order it directly from Eagnas? There aren't any other retailers?
 

antonio

New User
Eagnas machines

I am a recent purchaser of an Eagnas Challenger 1 drop weight machine. I have to say that I have had nothing but positive experiences with the Eagnas/Maxline co. The Challenger 1 is a very "beefy" machine. It is, I believe, a very good value for the money. It has "spring assisted" swivel clamps and a very sturdy base. The linear gripper works very well. My dealings with Maxline have been all through e-mail and they have been very good about responding and mailing things out in a timely fashion. I have read all the negative reports about this company. I did a lot of research before I chose this particular machine. I am brand new to stringing and am thoroughly satisfied with this drop weight machine. I would highly reccommend it to anyone who is going to be stringing for themselves and wants to begin experimenting with "hybrid" stringing.

Good luck!

Antonio
 

WhiteSox05CA

Hall of Fame
I am a recent purchaser of an Eagnas Challenger 1 drop weight machine. I have to say that I have had nothing but positive experiences with the Eagnas/Maxline co. The Challenger 1 is a very "beefy" machine. It is, I believe, a very good value for the money. It has "spring assisted" swivel clamps and a very sturdy base. The linear gripper works very well. My dealings with Maxline have been all through e-mail and they have been very good about responding and mailing things out in a timely fashion. I have read all the negative reports about this company. I did a lot of research before I chose this particular machine. I am brand new to stringing and am thoroughly satisfied with this drop weight machine. I would highly reccommend it to anyone who is going to be stringing for themselves and wants to begin experimenting with "hybrid" stringing.

Good luck!

Antonio


Antonio, how do I know that you don't work for Eagnas? I mean, this is one of your first posts. I wouldn't be surprised if Eagnas dudes came around these boards supporting their product and trying to convince us.
 

antonio

New User
Challenger 1

Yeah I'm new to posting and new to stringing. I researched for a long time and decided that I would take a chance on a machine that was a lot less money! The Challenger 1 machine looks an awful lot like the Pioneer DC plus for much less. I just got tired of all the negative posts, thought I'd see if anyone else out there has had a positive result from this company, like I have!

PS - most of the problems that I read that people had with the machines, seemed fixable, if people would just have some patience and take the time to figure it out
 

LttlElvis

Professional
Respectfully, I would like to keep this thread on track of particular Eagnas machine models and whether you have had a good or bad experience with that machine only. I would prefer it not to go into a debate on which machine to purchase. That can be determined after a number of people post here which ones are positive and which are negative.

With the few posts thus far, the Flex 940 seems to be a pretty good one as I have heard in the past. The Flex 740 is the same machine but a dropweight. Most likely, problems with this machine is the dropweight mechanism and not the mounting.

Eagnas owners, keep on posting which machine model you have and your experience.
 
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Audiodude

Rookie
I purchased an Eagnas Hawk 80 almost four years ago. After stringing only two racquets on it, I decided to return it. The overall build quality was poor (quality of machining and finish), the clamps required much more pressure to hold the string securely than what I perceive as normal, and the mounting system, with it's little bits and pieces was cumbersome, to say the least. Yes, the machine was usable. But, in my opinion, it was poorly designed and poorly manufactured.
 

tennis-skater

Semi-Pro
PS - most of the problems that I read that people had with the machines, seemed fixable, if people would just have some patience and take the time to figure it out

But if your putting $600 into a product, I would expect and I'm pretty sure all of you would too, for it to be in perfect condition when you buy it new with no problems. You don't go out and buy a car and the door falls off the first week you have it and be like oh well it's fixable I'm not going to complain to the dealer about selling me a POS
 

rod_b

Rookie
Antonio, how do I know that you don't work for Eagnas? I mean, this is one of your first posts. I wouldn't be surprised if Eagnas dudes came around these boards supporting their product and trying to convince us.

You think a company with a reputation for NO CUSTOMER SERVICE WHATSOEVER would take the time to find a tennis forum with thread for Eagnas machine owners, make a fake account and post a positive feedback about one of their lowest price machines?!?! LMAO!!!!

I will say one thing...whenever I have emailed with a question with the intention of buying something, they have responded. One time, even on the same day. :p You would think with 5 bazillion products, the one person there who has enough skill to even use email gets tired of emails that say "What's the difference between the X and the Y" or "Can I get a different reel of string if I buy blah blah blah." I'm not trying to stick up for them. I'm just trying to say they are what they are. If you bought a name brand DVD player from the swap meet...how much support do you think you'd get if something goes wrong as compared to buying it from a home theatre store?
 

mellofelow

Semi-Pro
Flex 940 - defective right out of the box. I also determined that the turntable base was weak and prone to flex at tension. Returned it immediately and stepped up to....

Combo 910 - much sturdier machine. Terrible fit and finish; but capable of a good string job. Had it for 14 months and strung approximately a dozen rackets.

They still owe me the reel of string with the original purchase... but I'll be pressing my luck.
 

mellofelow

Semi-Pro
As we all read this thread, make us go HMMMMM... "Why is this even a subject of discussion?"

If we owned a Babolat, Prince or Gamma, this discussion would not exist.
 

Ben42

Semi-Pro
With the few posts thus far, the Flex 940 seems to be a pretty good one as I have heard in the past. The Flex 740 is the same machine but a dropweight. Most likely, problems with this machine is the dropweight mechanism and not the mounting.


That was my experience. There was so much friction on the dropweight arm that it couldn't pull consistant tensions. They were off by as much as 15 lbs. Then Maxline wouldn't fix it. Told me I just needed to drop the arm "very very slowly." Needless to say I sent it back and (after disputing the charges with my credit card company) got my money back.
 

rod_b

Rookie
Which Eagnas is most accurate at tensioning? That's my top priority, consistent tension, and then ease of stringing.

My personal opinion is that you get what you pay for when it comes to the electronic stuff. While I'm happy with my Flex 940, I don't think I'd by an electronic machine from Eagnas. Drop weights are all basically the same design and theory so I can't imagine it could be way off. As far as accuracy, my crank was about 1lb off when I tested it against a digital fishing scale and a standard style tension calibrator. I'm probably getting a Wise 2086 when I get past Christmas.
 

LttlElvis

Professional
I was told by Maxline that all Eagnas crank machines, from the lowest price to the top, have the exact same tension head.

Yes, that is why I noticed most of their problems have been with their dropweights and inexpensive electronic tensioners. I can understand people having problems with the inexpensive electronic tensioners from any brand, because they are cheaply made. Not quite sure why people have problems with Eagnas dropweights. I have not personally seen an Eagnas dropweight.
 

eunjam

Rookie
flex 740 ..... absolutely no probs.

and....i don't foresee it.....but if something does go wrong now.....and i end up having to deal with the maxline nightmare, etc. , etc., etc......and i have to end up throwing out the machine......which i don't foresee......

i paid for it soooo long ago with the money i've saved, that i really wouldn't care.

i string for my friends and myself. i am not a professional stringer, but i do a damn good job stringing.

down to about 35 minutes now. but damn consistent jobs.

if you have further questions about the 740, then PM me. real questions. not negative comments. i don't feel like getting into a thread squabble with people that have such negative connotations about maxline...not even eagnas, that what i say doesn't even matter.
 

WhiteSox05CA

Hall of Fame
flex 740 ..... absolutely no probs.

and....i don't foresee it.....but if something does go wrong now.....and i end up having to deal with the maxline nightmare, etc. , etc., etc......and i have to end up throwing out the machine......which i don't foresee......

i paid for it soooo long ago with the money i've saved, that i really wouldn't care.

i string for my friends and myself. i am not a professional stringer, but i do a damn good job stringing.

down to about 35 minutes now. but damn consistent jobs.

if you have further questions about the 740, then PM me. real questions. not negative comments. i don't feel like getting into a thread squabble with people that have such negative connotations about maxline...not even eagnas, that what i say doesn't even matter.

I was seriously looking at the Flex 740.

Is the tensioning accurate? Some people say that they've tested and found their tension to be off by quite a bit on some of these drop-weight machines. Accurate tensioning is pretty much my top priority?

How are the clamps on this thing?

Thanks, big help!
 

eunjam

Rookie
I was seriously looking at the Flex 740.

Is the tensioning accurate? Some people say that they've tested and found their tension to be off by quite a bit on some of these drop-weight machines. Accurate tensioning is pretty much my top priority?

How are the clamps on this thing?

Thanks, big help!

clamps and tesioning are fine. my clamps hold fine after 80+ jobs and i've checked with a local shop's ERT on my string job...it has shown consistent across the stringbed.

ask yourself the following questions:

- do you have common sense? or will a horrible owner's manual throw you off your game?

- are you an independent person, or do you need hand holding?

- do you consider a bad paint job a bad machine? even though everything works?

- if you've never strung a racket before, do you have patience to learn on a dropweight that cost under $250, or do you need to learn on a $4000 babolat star, because it's a babolat star and is one of the most expensive machines around?

- is the road less travelled ok for you?

i think you know what i'm getting at....and know what my opinion is re: the eagnas that i have.

eagnas aren't for some people and that's fine.

i just don't think it's right knocking the actual stringer because the customer service of the distributor, i admit, is obviously questionable. i personally can't really comment because i have only dealt with the distributor once in my life: when i purchased it. hopefully i will never ever have to deal with them again.

straight up....my eagnas 740 is fine. it works well and i've already saved over $700 in the past 5 months. i paid for it after 2.5 weeks. (yes, i pretended i was a pro player and had a freshly strung racket every time i had a match and didn't use the same strings more than 3 times for practice. it was and still is nice.)

i'm just telling it like it is. sometimes the truth hurts for those eagnas haters.

i guess i must've gotten a defect or something because i have absolutely no probs and i'm touting eagnas....not maxline, but eagnas.
 
I purchased my Flex 940 (stand up, crank), a little less than one year ago. So far I've strung about 60 racquets, for my immediate family and a few friends. I paid $460.00, that included deliver, a reel of string (which wasn't that bad), and a set of tools.
 

kooguy

New User
I bought a Flex740 and retrofit the mounting system on my Serrano machine. Very happy with it, no problem so far.:-D
 
it seems to be is that most people get an ok quality machine. Also, as long as the machine doesn't break, everythign seems to run very smoothly.

But once it breaks, it becomes hell to try to fix it and communicate with customer service.

Why even risk any problems when you can get great quality machines and service from companies such as alpha, gamma, laserfibre, and SP for only a little more or even same amount of money.
 
I've owned four Eagnas machines. Their base model Hawk 10 was my first stringer; a simple two point mount/drop weight with a cam gripper. I found the mounting system was a bit flimsy (nylon hold down clamps with wing nuts). I also had problems with the cam tensioner biting into strings. But for eighty nine bucks new I got what I paid for. Certainly an adequate stringer for me at the time as I was just beginning to string.

I sold the Hawk 10 and bought a used Hawk 80 from a guy in New Hampshire via this board. It had a much better mounting system, six point, a ball bearing gripper and a drop weight. The fixed clamps were of the old Eagnas variety; adequate but not so great. (The clamps Eagnas uses now are much better.) I found it to be a good table top but decided I wanted a crank tensioner and bought a used Czech table top model also via this board (which weighed about eighty pounds) ;o) Sold that machine when I moved, and bought a used Eagnas 10 tabletop with six point mounting a ball bearing gripper and drop weight tensioner. Sold that when I moved and bought a used Court & Slope (Klippermate) tabletop. I then found a great deal on a mint condition Eagnas 800 which is a stand up, six point mount with good fixed swivel clamps and a crank tensioner. No complaints, a great machine for what I paid for it.

Eagnas is often trashed but certainly for the money they offer good value. I have had good experiences with them anytime I needed something or wanted to order something. It is obvious that the owner does not suffer fools well and takes pleasure in mocking those who ask questions he deems as bothersome or stupid. The Eagnas website has a whole section devoted to such interactions along with sections devoted to trashing Silent Partner and Mutual Power. Somewhat unprofessional to say the least. The guy has clearly lost his sense of humor about dealing with the general public. Certainly understandable given how many idiots there are out there but not exactly the preferred method to establish good will for one' s business. ;o)

So, does Eagnas have the best customer service in the stringer industry? Probably not. I think you could describe their machines as offering excellent value for the money but they are but more like Chevys than Lexi. They also offer an incredibly extensive product line. I imagine a lot of the components Eagnas uses are common to other manufacturers that operate in Taiwan. (Lilly Lee. etc). Bang for the buck; Eagnas is hard to beat. If money is no object; there are other brands that offer better build quality and a higher level of customer service infrastructure, but you'll pay a premium for something you might never use. If you are stringing just for yourself, you are not going to require the same level of customer service a professional stringer needs. If I was going to string hundreds of frames a year, I would certainly look into the higher level brands. But for strictly personal use, I've found Eagnas to be more than adequate.
 
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fastdunn

Legend
It's very obvious that Eagnas would be able to increase their revenue
significantly if they improve customer service a touch better.

Case 1: exchange e-mails with Mark @ alpha. He would answer any questions
I send him even if I get into details. One question after another.
Mark would provide me with any info as far as he knows.

Case 2: e-mail with Maxline: I send one question. Typically Maxline
answers with one line. I send follow-up question. I get no reply
or "We do not give that info. sir" type of reply.

I think the part of it has cultural root. The "customer is the king" is
a western concept. It's really hard to explain. As an asian myself,
I can feel it but hard to explain it.

Also the owner of Maxline is a relative(brother?) of Lily-Lee(Eagnas).
Family relation is also somewhat different in Confuscious culture.
You stand by your brother no matter what. Sort of Michael Chang
and Carl Chang relationship(not that Carl was a bad coach)..
 

Jack the Hack

Hall of Fame
I’ve posted about Eagnas machines numerous times in the past, but I haven’t done so in over a year because the same questions keep coming up over and over again. However, since there are probably a bunch of new posters now or folks that have missed what I previously wrote, here is my experience with Eagnas machines and dealing with Maxline.

Eagnas Hawk 80 and My Initial Impressions of Maxline

The first Eagnas machine I ever bought was a Hawk 80, which is their basic drop weight table top stringer. I had looked at the Maxline website and compared the machine to other entry level offerings from other companies, and at $280, it seemed like it would be hard to go wrong.

At the time (this was around 1998 or so), I had a job where I traveled quite a bit and one of my projects took me to LA, so I decided to go directly to the Maxline/Eagnas “store” while I was in town to buy the machine. I didn’t call ahead, but rather, just put the Torrance address from their website into Mapquest and started driving.

I was expecting to find a storefront or warehouse, but instead, found myself driving around an average suburban neighborhood. When I got to the address, it was just a regular, run-of-the-mill house. I rang the doorbell, and a confused looking Asian woman answered the door. I asked if this was Maxline and told her that I wanted to buy a stringing machine. She didn’t seem to speak much English, so after about a minute, a high school age kid came to the door and let me in. We wandered through their living room and into a shop area in the back. Inside, there were stacks of boxed machines everywhere. I picked out my machine, and paid for it with a credit card (using the old paper receipt method).

Based on this experience, I was kind of surprised how “mom and pop” Maxline was. They are not some big company, but a small family operation. I understand that they now have a warehouse store in Gardena, but they are still a small company. (Usually, these types of companies live and die by quality customer service, but more on that later.)

Anyway, I used my Hawk 80 table top machine for about 6 years, and it easily paid for itself. Since the machine had no problems, I had little need to contact Maxline again… until I lost a small part on the machine while moving to a new house.

First Experience With Maxline Customer Service

As I mentioned, when I was moving, one of the small plastic mounting supports on my Hawk 80 got lost in the trip. I decided to contact Maxline to get a new part. On the first try, I called their phone number listed on the website. I just got an answering machine, so I left a detailed message regarding what I needed and asked them to call me back so I could order the part. Several days passed, and I never received a call back. Therefore, I decided to send an e-mail instead, including pictures of the part that I needed. Two days later, I finally got a reply that the part was available and would cost $5.00. I sent another e-mail asking for them to send me the part, and included my credit card info (which isn’t the safest thing to do and made me feel uncomfortable). Anyway, again, I did not get a reply for several days… so I kept following up via e-mail with no response. About a week later, I received an envelope with the part in it. So, the communication was very patchy and the payment process arcane, but they did get me what I needed.

The Eagnas 860 and My Second Experience With Maxline Customer Service

At the end of 2004, I decided to upgrade my machine and decided on an Eagnas 860, which was selling for $399.00 and included a 660’ reel of string and 4 stringing tools. I sent an e-mail to Maxline’s address on their website with all of the complete order information on December 29th of that year. 24 hours went by, and I did not hear anything from them. Therefore, I decided to call. I got Victor (I think) on the phone, and he told me that the machine was in stock and that he would ship it out that day. So… 7 days went by, and I still hadn’t received my order yet! At the end of day 7, I sent Victor another e-mail asking for the tracking number of the shipment (or a response if there was a problem with the order). Another 24 hours went by with no response. I e-mailed him again and again, and got no response. Finally, I called, got Victor on the phone, and he came up with the tracking number.

I ran the tracking number to see where the package was since it was now 10 days since I had ordered it. Turns out that Victor didn’t even send the package until January 5th, even though he told me on the phone that it was shipped on December 30th! Obviously, the dishonesty and lack of communication was very irritating, but I could live with it if the machine was OK.

The Eagnas 860 arrived on January 10th, and I immediately opened it up. To my dismay, the head support mount (made of cast metal no less) was broken completely in half! In addition, the side support mounts were completely missing… along with several screws, and the free string tools were not included. And finally, the base support legs were not the same as what was advertised on the website.

Here is a picture of the damage to the 860 when it arrived:

2cygz5t.jpg


I immediately went to the Maxline website to find out what the return procedure was. Basically, the way I read it, a damaged shipment meant that I needed to contact UPS. I called UPS, and they told me to package the shipment back up in the original box and they would return it. I e-mailed Victor about the damage, told him about the missing parts, and sent some digital photos. To no surprise at this point, he did not immediately reply. In the meantime, UPS called a couple hours later and explained that the shipping damage insurance claim would be between them and Maxline, and that normally a manufacturer would ship a replacement machine once UPS picked the old shipment up for inspection.

The next day, I finally got an e-mail reply from Victor. He told me to keep all of the parts that were good, and that he would just send replacement parts for what was damaged or missing. I replied to him that UPS had instructed me to box the entire shipment up for return, that they had already picked it up, and that I was having second thoughts about the 860. (Aside from a cast metal part breaking in shipment, the missing parts and the base difference from what was advertised kind of spooked me. In addition, I was also very unimpressed with the quality of the clamps on that machine.) I e-mailed Victor and asked him some questions about the 860, Beta, and Flex 940, and requested some recommendations. Again, no response!!! Finally, on my own, I decided that I would rather receive a Flex 940 for a replacement machine instead of another 860. I e-mailed Victor again - in fact two more times over a 48 hour period - that I wanted to change to a Flex 940 and wanted to know when he would be shipping it (especially since UPS had already picked up the old machine at that point). Finally, he responded a couple days later (just as I was filling out an online Better Business Bureau complaint about them) that a new 940 was on the way and I got it about a week later.

(To be continued due to TT post length restrictions...)
 

Jack the Hack

Hall of Fame
(Continuation due to TT posting size restrictions…)

The Eagnas Flex 940

When the Flex 940 arrived, to my delight, all of the parts were there and intact. In addition, I was happy to find that the string clamps were upgraded from the older PN-1002 to the newer PN-1012 version (which is much better), and that there were some extra replacement mounting pads included. In addition, I got the free reel of string and the stringing tools that were promised with the original order. Just to make sure everything was working, I assembled the machine right away and strung a couple older frames I had lying around, and all was well for several months as far as I could tell.

Then, about 6 months after I purchased the 940, I began to notice that the string tensions that I was getting were wildly out of wack. I was stringing my personal racquets at 67 lbs with the same string every time, but sometimes the job felt way too tight and other times it seemed extremely low. I bought one of those tension calibration tools and did some tests on my machine. As it turned out, the tension was pulling up to 15 lbs, plus or minus off of the setting, which is obviously unacceptable! Furthermore, no matter what adjustments I made to calibrate the machine, it just kept giving me bad results. However, it soon became apparent what the true cause of the problem was…

There are two little pins or shafts that are supposed to be welded to the crank arm and go through the flywheel that the brake grabs onto. Unfortunately, on the tension head I originally received with my 940, one of these pins was not welded into place. It was like this when I first got the machine, but I did not notice it until these few months later when I encountered the noticable tension issues. I discovered the problem when the pin started falling out almost every time I cranked the arm - which made the flywheel go out of alignment and engage the brake... which made the machine impossible to use because it would stop at more and more variable tensions instead of where the tension knob was set at. Here is a picture of the problem:

axzpxz.jpg


My Third Experience With Maxline Customer Support

My experience in getting Maxline to replace the tension head under warranty (most of their machines have a 5 year warranty) was very frustrating. I e-mailed them about the problem and they responded within a day telling me to ship the part to them for repair. However, it took them more than 6 weeks (!) before they finally shipped me a replacement tension head... and it would have been longer if I hadn't been so persistant.

Basically, over several weeks after I sent the defective tension head in, I exchanged multiple e-mails with someone named Michelle. Every time I got a reply from Michelle, it either did not address my specific questions, or she wrote one line answers that did not give me any information. (I think her English skills are worse than Victor.) Anyway, after numerous failed e-mails and phone messages that were not responded to, I finally got ahold of a young sounding girl named Kelly on the phone. Kelly went into the warehouse and found the package with the defective part I had sent them. It had been sitting un-opened (after 6 weeks!) in their shop, and nobody had even looked at it. Anyway, after seeing the defect, she immediately understood the issue and shipped out a replacement tension head that day. (Ironically, I got an e-mail from Michelle about a week later that said they would be looking into my problem "soon"... :roll: ) What a joke… if it hadn’t been for Kelly (who I think was just working there temporarily), I might still be looking for Maxline to honor their warranty.

Concluding Remarks About Eagnas and Maxline

So, to make a long story short, here is what I think of Eagnas/Maxline:

1.) The two stringing machines that I have purchased and used (the Hawk 80 and Flex 940) have been of overall good quality and are an excellent value at the prices that they sell at. Although I had a tension head issue with the 940, I don’t think that this is a common problem with that machine. In fact, I am pretty sure that Eagnas uses the same tension head on all of their spring tension machines, so the quality control was the problem with that particular part, not the machine itself. Also, although I did not have a chance to use it, I was unimpressed with the Eagnas 860… but my opinion of that machine was probably tainted by the horrible condition that it arrived in. In general, I think that Eagnas makes some machines that are solid (like the 940) for the money, but you have to be prepared for headaches if there happens to be a defect in the equipment you receive.

2.) Maxline’s customer communication is terrible and their integrity is questionable. Whether it is talking to someone with broken English on the telephone, waiting 2-3 days or more for a response to an e-mail or voicemail, or having Victor or Michelle lie directly about something they say their going to do, it is not the kind of behavior you would expect when dealing with a “professional” company in the United States.

3.) The lack of secure credit card transactions on their website is disconcerting. Maxline wants you to e-mail your credit card information or tell them over the phone, which opens you up for fraud. How hard is it for them to set up a PayPal account? (For that matter, how hard would it be to set up an E-Bay store? They could probably open up more business that way.)

4.) Maxline’s website is not kept up-to-date, so product changes are not reflected. In addition, I think it is unprofessional to air their running feud with Silent Partner and others on the site - especially when their lack of English skills - make some of their arguments hard to understand. (For example, read their “bad stranger policy” or the part about why they don’t want to be associated with the USRSA.)

5.) Other companies I have dealt with over the years, especially the smaller ones like Maxline’s size, usually bend over backwards to please the customer because they are usually competing with the giant corporations. Excellent service helps the smaller company overcome the price barriers that giant companies generally have. With Maxline, it is the opposite. Their products are decent quality and low price, but they don’t (seem to) care about customer service. (If their products weren’t so relatively inexpensive, they would be out of business by now.)

In my opinion, if you are a home stringer that is not servicing racquets for a living, then Eagnas stringing machines can be an excellent choice because of the value. Since you are not relying on the machine for income, you can probably afford to deal with any customer service issues that may arise and in the end, you will have a great machine for the money.

However, if you own a tennis store and are stringing to feed your family, then you absolutely need the best product and customer service available. (For instance, if a major part fails under warranty, you want a company that would be willing to ship you a replacement machine while the other is being fixed.) If that is the case, even though it will cost you more money, you are probably better off going with a higher end machine from Alpha or Gamma because of their superior warranty support and customer service.
 

DADYO

Rookie
Please people, say that MAXLINE CUSTOMER SERVICE is bad not EAGNAS CUSTOMER SERVICE, Eagnas makes quality (but not high-quality) machines and ships them, and their customer service is great, they reply to emails in only few hours, they're patient and try to do anything to help you.
 
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