Online or LWS purchase for Plasma

[tigman250]

here is the story, i am in the market for a Hypertherm 1250 plasma cutter, talked to the salesman from the LWS and he quoted me $3100 new w/3 yr warr or $2749 refurbished w/2 yr warr. checked on-line and alot of stores are selling new cutters cheaper than his price for the refurbished model!! in fact comparing apples to apples (new to new) there is almost a $500 diffrence.

now i am probably the biggest spokesman for buying local but for $500 i just can't justify it i understand that there is a certain amount of service that you get buying local that you just don't see from buying on line but a plasma is kinda plug and play (no brainer really) do i ask my local guy to sharpen his pencil or just buy online? i don't mind paying $100 mabey $150 more locally but $500 is just too much.

[Pile Buck]

Originally Posted by tigman250

do i ask my local guy to sharpen his pencil

That’s what I do.

If they can’t meet it, well it’s a dog eat dog business! Worked my whole life on the hard money bid!

[dubby]

Last year during the plasma vs. bed debate between me and wifey, I had decided to buy online before I was outvoted. Her votes count as 2 apparently.

Anyhow--I talked to the local supplier and they couldn't get anywhere near the onilne deal. And considering it had free shipping they couldn't use that argument against me.

The salesman was very hesitant when it came to warranty information. He wouldn't tell me whether or not their service department would honor the factory warranty in the event of a failure. Of course, this is the same service department that told me they wouldn't do warranty work on a Hobart machine, even though they are a Miller/Hobart authorized service center.


I'd bet if you weren't arrogant about it, your LWS wouldn't hold it against you for long.

[tigman250]

Originally Posted by dubby

Last year during the plasma vs. bed debate between me and wifey, I had decided to buy online before I was outvoted. Her votes count as 2 apparently.

funny how that works isn't it??

Originally Posted by dubby

Anyhow--I talked to the local supplier and they couldn't get anywhere near the onilne deal. And considering it had free shipping they couldn't use that argument against me.

I'd bet if you weren't arrogant about it, your LWS wouldn't hold it against you for long.

when i get going full blast there are going to be thousands of dollars spent on consumables from the LWS each month so i doubt he should get too huffy about me wanting to save $500 on a major purchase, like i said if he can even get within $150 of the online price i will buy from him.

[Rich59]

The last time I faced a decission on an equipment purchase like this I went LWS after showing them what I could do online and asking if they wanted to make an offer.

In your case they are going be happy to see you when you get up and running no matter where you get your big ticket items.

I don't see how they could be offended by you offering them them the chance to bid on the purchase.

[Pile Buck]

Out of all the equipment purchases I’ve made, for the company or myself. I never once put it in the equation that I might hurt someone feelings if I went with someone else. My company would spent 10’s of thousands of $ bidding a single project, sometimes into hundreds of thousands of $ bidding a single bridge. If they won the bid, they got a notice to proceed, if they lost, didn’t even get a Hallmark card. Remember, this is business it’s not personal. I’ll bet a dollar to a donut the guy behind the counter at the LWS never gives it a second thought. If he does, to bad to sad! :evil:

[midmosandblasting]

I am doing a total rebuid on a pot from my normal supplier $2000.00 on line 1100.00 guess who got the business.I bid my work so why not bid my rebuilds.

[harcosparky]

Go to the LWS and make an offer to buy from him at a price you can live with.

If you can live with $150 over the online price tell him .....

" Hey I am going to buy a plasma cutter and I really want to buy it from you, however I can order it for $2600 and you want $3100. If you can sell it to me for $2750, I'll make the deal right now. "

Not sure if it will work, but if ya don't ask it sure won't.

I remember when I bought my MM210, my LWS wanted almost Full List for it with the Spoolgun ..... when I told him I can buy it for $1850, he offered to sell it to me for $1950 +tax ( about $2045 total ). Well the online dealer was a shop about an hour away and they sold me the MM210 for $1850 total. When I went back into the closest LWS he asked if I bought a unit, I told him I did. When I told him the deal he said " i'd have taken that deal, just to make a deal ". I reminded him that prior to my buying it from an out of town dealer I had been in his store 3 times with cash money. In fact I woulda bought it at $1950 'cause he was local, but when I went to buy it he told me " I have to order it. " The other guy had it in stock.

Bottom line - take an offer to the LWS you can live with and be prepared to close the deal when you make the offer. Nothing makes me madder than to negotiate a price with someone only to have them tell me " oh I am not buying today, I just wanted to see how low you are willing to go "

[Scott V]

I could even show you how great the 1Torch works.

Wow, that was pretty low!!! :evil:

[tigman250]

i called the LWS sales rep late Fri. and expect to hear from him on Mon. i will ask him what is his best price if it dosen't hit my mark i will have to purchase from the on-line dealer.

thanks for the imput fellas.

thanks for the cleanup Ron!