Receiving and Sending Back Bad Transformers  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: buildafriend
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 25, 2018, 05:23:01 pm
content: Being that I'm in the assembly section of an EE forum, I'm assuming more than one person here has found some parts coming in and had to send them back.I order 5 custom transformers, pay $200 for a custom spec fee to have them made right to spec. They come in 3 months later and then they sit around for another 3 months until I finally get a chance to use them. I get an assembly model prototype put together and switch the sucker on to see if anything smokes. Nothing really works right so I start doing the basic power tracing routine. Every AC secondary is putting out close to half of their V AC rating? What happened here? How much more obvious could it be? It's wound for 240 volt mains. It has 240V primaries. The primary coil reads 1520mH. I call the manufacturer and say look 2 out of 5 of these are doing this and they tell me to ship two back. Nope! I'm sending these all back!How would you guys handle this? I think I'm going to make a video of them failing to streamline it for them. They say they'll pay me back for my shipping fees and replace them IF they are bad? I should charge interest!

author: ar__systems
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2018, 01:12:29 pm
content: Dude, chill. Mistakes happen. If they offer replacement, take it and be done with it. It's not like they screwed you on 200K order.Focus on the positive - at least you have 3 good ones, right?

author: buildafriend
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 26, 2018, 08:35:16 pm
content: I can't argue with optimism. I also can't be too kind about this though. I'm not sure how much you know about the amount of mistakes that happen in electronics manufacturing but bench techs go through a lot to make sure a product is good. There are certain things that I expect to see like wrong resistors, bad solder joints, wrong cap, etc.. but 5 wrongly wound power transformers worth $500 of your own money and then they don't believe you about it is a bit nuts.Of course that's just my opinion. What I was asking for was how you would handle it. I guess you would chill.

author: NorthGuy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2018, 08:52:16 pm
content: Quote from: buildafriend on June 26, 2018, 08:35:16 pmThe reason they don't believe you is not because they think you're a liar, but because you may make mistakes too ...

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2018, 08:59:59 pm
content: You said 5 wrongly wound but in the original post it was 2 wrong and 3 correct. Were they labeled all with the same info as well?I would accept their offer of replacements, just be sure to check the ones you get once they are received.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2018, 09:03:44 pm
content: My opinion, send the two back after checking, double checking etc. and they'll replace the lot but I'd explain to them that their mistake has caused significant delay and cost so they have to expedite replacement.I don't think they're being unreasonable.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2018, 09:40:27 pm
content: Their response seems reasonable, but I would think very hard about doing more business with them. All manufacturers spend a lot of time and effort on finding reliable suppliers. This episode does not count in this suppliers favor.

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2018, 10:30:40 pm
content: OTOH what evidence is there that the supposedly good three have been wound with the correct gauge of wire?They've already demonstrated a quality control process that's so poor that 40% of the product delivered have the wrong specs, and (assuming all five were supposed to be identical) that's actually much more worrying than them *all* being wrong.At the very least, the remaining three need an extended soak test at full rated load before acceptance, however that's more work for the O.P.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2018, 05:57:47 am
content: I read it that all five were wrong but they only want two back.Mistakes happen and if only two of the five were wrong then that's terrible but if all five were then it's slightly better and it's now about how they rectify the mistake.Would still second source them though.

author: Terry01
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2018, 06:29:42 am
content: How many of them are not working properly, 5 or 2?

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2018, 08:01:48 am
content: Quote from: Terry01 on June 27, 2018, 06:29:42 amI would suggest that this:"but 5 wrongly wound power transformers worth $500 "in the third post by the OP says that all five are wrong.

author: buildafriend
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 27, 2018, 02:34:28 pm
content: Thanks everyone I appreciate the input.I could have stated more clearly at the time of the original post that two out of five had been tested as being wrong. Now 5 out of 5 have been tested as being wrong and they have all been sent back with a well shot and clear video showing the mistakes. I sent the video in advance which clearly shows the wrong voltages but they are still making me pay for return shipping until they confirm it.There are other issues here too, like they quoted a final price with different end bells and then never sent the ones I put in my request. Then they say it's an extra $10 each for them. That's not right. Then they wind for Euro instead of American AC, that's not right. Then they make me pay for return shipping until they confirm it even after seeing a video showing objective proof. Unfortunately I can't upload the video here because I would find it unethical.Their response seems reasonable, but I would think very hard about doing more business with them. All manufacturers spend a lot of time and effort on finding reliable suppliers. This episode does not count in this suppliers favor.I think the above is the answer.. they are really slow too.