Today because I suffered a lot of grief and un-needed exposure to web hacking I am going to use my soapbox. I really like Helical end mills. I like the configurations they offer and the robustness of their offerings. I gave up using Hanita when I first ran across them and have yet to find a compelling reason to switch. There is however a problem I do have with their corporate policy.
It is the one they have for their Milling Advisor. In their determination to use it to generate sales leads they demand that you can only install it by going online to do so. For every workstation or PC every time. No standalone download. Now it is not like I am not a customer which is what really ticks me off. Between Win10 forced downloads and my intermittent 75KBS ISP throughput it took over an hour just to get this thing loaded on one Workstation. I filled out their form again and again and again to finally get the initial download which then tells you to go online and get the rest of it.
What really makes me mad is that I took two Workstations that I never intended to allow online, online to do this. Like all companies that expose you to hackers they don’t care about your concerns, it is all about them. I understand that “my company first attitude” since this whole post is all about me and my company which oddly enough I consider more important than theirs. It is about their dumb lack of ability to track who is or is not an existing customer and treat us like we have never been here before every time. I decided today that this has become a problem and I will never be going online again with a critical box to download Milling Advisor.
I consider the Milling Advisor to be a valuable tool. Problem for Helical is that others are starting to do the same thing and integrating tool libraries to various CAM programs and there it is with your cam program and standalone download. It is just a matter of time before there will be a competitor who will duplicate their effort and their prices. To be honest I am loyal to companies that improve my bottom line. I can easily see switching from Helical in the future because all things being equal a value added program like Milling Advisor helping me to extract efficiency from my cutter purchases is an asset.
Not one I will go online to acquire with critical workstations again but one I will down load from their competitors when that day happens. Here is the thing they don’t consider. Helical wants loyalty, I do to. You want my money but treat me like I am not a customer with your download policy it is just another thing to push me away to someone who does. Do I see another place yet like that? No but after today I am looking again.
Machined Audio Horn Lens 