Everlast took a while to get it right but....

by Alan
(Hamburg, NJ)

What I'm about to outline is my experience with Everlast over the course of the last year or so. I'll also give my take on the performance of the machine I ordered which is a Power Pro 256.
10/12/2010 I Ordered a PP256
11/19/2010 PP256 Delivered (took 38 days from order to delivery)
12/5/2010 After 2 weeks of use, a Problem with my PP256 developed.
The issue was... on AC or plasma, the machine would only produce HF arc start energy and the main welding arc would fail to fire. DC worked fine.
12/6/2010 Called Everlast support and left a message, Tech called back but I missed the call, I recalled again and left another message.
12/7/2010 Tech called back and we trouble shoot the machine. Tech thinks it will probably need to be swapped out, but has me try to adjust points and call him back with my findings. I adjusted "points" to .045" and retried the machine which still had the problem.
12/8/2010 Contacted tech again who thinks one IGBT module went bad and arraigned for a swap out.
12/9/2011 Contacted by Everlast and was supplied a return/exchange form and a shipping label to print out.
12/15/2010 UPS picked up PP256 to ship to Everlast.
12/20/2010 returned PP256 arrives at Everlast.
12/22/2010 Contacted Everlast to make sure they received the unit and see if there were any problems. I also was advised replacements were not in stock and were scheduled to arrive "around New Years"
1/10/2011 Contacted Everlast asking about the status of my replacement. I was told there was a delay and the shipment was due to their company on 1/18/2011.
1/18/2011 inquired to Everlast on status and was informed, "The units arrived to port we are waiting for the custom?s release."
1/24/2011 again inquired to Everlast on status and was informed, "It looks like the customs are scanning our container and it is taking much longer than it is supposed to. I'm really hoping it will be here today or tomorrow."
1/27/2011 again inquired to Everlast on status and was informed, "It is shipping out today." "Your UPS tracking number will be e-mailed to you in about 1 hour" which it was.
2/3/2011 Received my replacement PP256 in which the front bezel was cracked and failed when I tried to lift the unit. The boxes didn't look very damaged on the outside. I also contacted Everlast and informed them of the damage. They had me photo the damage and they would send a replacement bezel for me to install. (It Took 45 days from the time THEY received my returned PP256 to finally get my replacement back) There are two Youtube videos of me opening the shipping boxes both times. You can watch the bezel break in the second video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9KPLbo0Zkg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEnWj9ed1hI&feature=watch_response

2/14/2011 I received the replacement bezel and installed it. Also adjusted the points gap while the unit was open. There was a lot of stress from the screws pulling on the bezel because of fitment issues. I put the screws in until I felt resistance and saw the bezel start to bend, then I stopped. Its probable that the stress of the screws being tightened all the way at the factory contributed to the 1st bezel failure. Overall, from the day I ordered my 1st PP256 to the day I finally got the replacement up fixed and running was a total of 125 days or approx 4.1 months. You could take off about 2 weeks off of that time if you count the days the 1st machine worked.

Fast forward to present day (10/7/2011) which is about a year after the order was initially placed and about 7 1/2 months after I fixed the replacement and got it running. What do I have to say? I love the machine. It works and does everything they claim it could. Yes I know that was a TON of waiting and was very aggravating, especially having to repair a new machine, but I also SAVED a ton of money. If I had to replace this green machine and all that it does with separate blue or red machines, do you know what that would cost?? I do, about 3-4 times what I paid! ($1600) Does it weld worth a crap? It sure does! I'm not going to start gushing and turn this into a testimonial, but realistically I'm very pleased with its performance. Would I buy from them again? That depends. If I needed a machine quickly, NO WAY, unless they had it IN STOCK and on a shelf waiting to go out. Now that I know how long it really takes, I would NOT advise buying an Everlast machine if you needed one very quickly. That being said, if time isn't an issue, I WOULD absolutely buy one again. They offer some of the best welding values available today. How the machine welds is not the issue, the time it takes TO GET the machine is. Also to their credit: EVERY time, and I mean EVERY time I asked for a status they were polite and gave me their best APPROXIMATION of when things were going to happen. In my opinion, I think they're having a hard time keeping up with demand and they're running their factory overseas WIDE OPEN to keep up. That may be a reason why there are so many stupid little issues we've all heard of (like broken bezels or mis-adjusted points) All in all, if you don't mind waiting a while and possibly dealing with a small problem in the name of savings, this is your machine. If you read the above story and could feel your blood pressure rising, then I would look elsewhere. All I can say is this is an account of MY experience with Everlast over the last year or so. Your experience may vary. All the e-mails were saved, and the dates are accurate. Hopefully you'll find this information informative and useful. I've tried not to color the story but present the facts and my own opinion on the machines performance and what to expect when ordering from Everlast. Good luck to all!

Alan