Within two weeks I had this alarm pop up on my VF4 and TL2. Now on the VF4 the advice I was given was to leave the machine on until the battery kit came in and I could then shut it off and replace the failed main board battery with the kit. So I send off the parts request, yes that right I can’t just order from Phillips Corp a part I have to get the form filled out first. So then I fill it out and get the $72.00 dollar part ordered. Now I figure that considering the problems if the battery does fail and the subsequent service call costing $$$ it would be wise to get it overnight.
Funny thing about overnight from North Carolina to Tennessee with Phillips though. I assumed it would be just like all my other vendors and when I get red label for such a small light item it is like $32.00 at the very most. Not from Phillips though it was another $75.00 dollars. I called up to complain about this and the flip patronizing response was “well that’s what UPS charges us”. So I am looking at a part made in China no doubt costing them maybe five or six dollars and that is not enough profit then they double the shipping and mark the shipping up 100% too.
Now as far as I am concerned this is nothing but a big time rip from Haas since this could easily be a factory install item and just mark the machine up a bit to give a decent profit. Don’t get me wrong here I recommend Haas and if I ever get another new cnc whatever it will come from them. But I still object to being taken advantage of by money grubbing CPA types who look for ways to dig deep into wallets. In any case it is what it is.
So I shut the mill down and install the battery kit and all the parameters are bad. Yup the battery that was supposed to die in 30 days was dead in 7 and time to call the service dude. He comes down and quickly restores functions from my parameters backup and hands me a bill for $335.00. This also happened on my old VF3 which was of course another service call. I don’t know if there was a battery kit available for it at the time since mention was never made of one and I did not know to ask.
A week later and the same thing with my TL-2. I am pretty ticked off now. So I order another kit using the cheapest ground rate this time and it gets here just as fast (overnight) as red label and much cheaper. Now we all know Haas has gone lawyer stupid with door safety switch controls and removing handwheels from their TL lathes. So of course the Haas guy could not tell me to just open the electrical cabinet and install the battery backup because the lawyers tell them not to. Liability because you might hurt yourself and we are all dummies don’t you know. Since the machine was left on per their advice like I did on the mill it dawned on me that all I need to do is install that rascal and plug it up and then shut it down and remove the old battery from the main board. Of course MY lawyer does not recommend you do this nor do I. I am only relating to you my story and I assumed risk for myself only. But son of a gun there it was running with parameters all correct and no stinkin service call again. AND if I switch the batteries out periodically I will never have to deal with this again. If I ever buy another cnc anything from Haas this will be ordered along with the new mill and installed before it is ever turned on. I don’t appreciate one bit this deliberate scheme to screw customers out of money.
Never have been a fan of lawyers, CPA squeeze every dime you can extort from customer types and Publicity PR types. Their primary purposes seem to be to complicate life, make it more expensive and harder to get honest answers. But in any case you get this 124 alarm perhaps you can benefit from my experience.
Machined Audio Horn Lens 