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:
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...)