In Praise of Extech - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: bullet308
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2012, 08:31:20 pm
content: I know they are not Fluke and that they are universally loved, but I had to share this positive experience with Extech in the US.I bought an EX430 multimeter off of eBay back in January or so. It was billed as brand-new but a bit of slight scuffing on the plastic covering the LCD lead me to think it might be slightly used. In any case, it was at a good price and worked quite well.A couple of weeks ago, it started giving me readings that seemed a bit off to me. It used to settle down to zero on all ranges almost instantly, but now it was either taking a long time to settle down or never quite would. More than accurate enough for general toolbox use, probably, but not quite for any sort of EE work.I emailed Extech (which is a division of FLIR in Nashua, New Hampshire, in case you are keeping tabs) stating that it had the above problem and would like an RMA so I could get it fixed or whatever. That was sometime Sunday. On Monday, I got a reply telling me they would send me a new unit and to scrap the other one, no need to return it. The brand new unit arrived this (Thursday) afternoon.Well, now...warranty service does not get much better than that, does it?They have made a fan of me. One day, I will spring for a Fluke 87, but for now, Extech is serving nicely.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2012, 09:02:27 pm
content: Then you had no need to scrap the other meter and use it as a just-in-case meter ... Lovely!Yeah i give extech thumbs up for their efforts

author: bullet308
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2012, 09:06:01 pm
content: Lets just say I was not exactly scrambling to find a big hammer so I could decommission my older one. :-)

author: ejeffrey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2012, 10:28:52 pm
content: Its good you got good service. However, the first time you take a reading with the flaky meter and then go find the working one to verify it, you may have second thoughts about keeping it...

author: bullet308
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2012, 02:07:47 am
content: Oh, I know. I have already marked them as "NEW" and "OLD" to tell them apart. From what I have observed, the errors on the "OLD" one are limited to a few dozen millivolts or so. More than good enough for household mains and major appliance work, I figure.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2012, 10:57:24 am
content: That's wonderful service. But also beware, when they don't want a product back there can be some serious reasons behind it:There is aknownfault in the product line so they are just waiting for calls for defectsthe fault is so costly to repair, its not worth getting units returned for refurbishing and resellingorthe unit is so low cost to begin with, its not worth refurbishing regardless of faultHowever, its usually good practice to get the defective unit back so the production engineers can do forensics on the how-why of the fault, to further improve their production methods, regardless of the cost of the device. So, if they don't want it back, it also means they don't care about their QC. Even if they have a known flaw in their production that caused a bad batch, they still need the defective units returned to confirm the problem was in the same segment of the process, so not getting it back spells questions about their overall quality approach. They can never know if there is another fault in their process they did not uncover. Lastly, in many warranties, the owner pays for s/h back for warranty so the cost of shipping may only be for the replacement unit.Quote from: ejeffrey on May 17, 2012, 10:28:52 pmQuote from: bullet308 on May 18, 2012, 02:07:47 am

author: bullet308
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2012, 02:25:21 pm
content: Yeah, I know. Fluke sure as hell would have wanted a defective unit of theirs back. I suppose its a fundamentally different model, what with the Extech product priced at less than 1/3 of the Fluke, made in China and everything.

author: Extech
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2012, 06:01:34 pm
content: On behalf of Extech, thanks for sharing the good feedback on your recent customer service experience.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 19, 2012, 09:27:33 am
content: Quote from: ARebelo-Extech on May 18, 2012, 06:01:34 pmExalt.....