PP70 Update....
An update to my PP70 story.....
Well I rushed home on Friday and there it was in all it's green glory, my new PP70 had arrived just a couple days after placing the order.
Sadly I had some trouble....however Everlast Tech support was on it fast as you can see from the above postings. After checking things myself on Friday, I was contacted by Mike on Saturday morning and we spent some time double checking everything....there didn't seem to be any stupid mistakes on my part so we pulled the cover to look inside for loose connections or obvious damage.
Now inside it is clear the units and especially the circuit boards are hand assembled. Working in computer and electrical engineering, I am a used to pretty high quality even on hand assembled prototypes. I would say the insides of the PP70 were about average, clearly not done by a master technician, NOT poorly done but probably done quickly by someone that knows the basics of good soldering and isn't too concerned with making things pretty. About what you would expect for bulk chinese assembly. I was surprised how complex the boards were, clearly there is more to this plasma thing than I thought.
We never found any internal problems. And the unit did start the pilot a few times but mostly it seemed unable to power-up correctly. I never really got a chance to cut anything. While taking apart the case I did notice that there was actually a pretty good crack in the plastic bezel on the front. This would have only been a problem if I had tried to carry it around by the handle, which I didn't do, but was evidence that it had probably been dropped pretty hard in shipment. Mike and I concluded that it would be best to exchange the whole thing since the operation was intermittent at best and eventually seemed to stop all together....I would suspect there were either components that got jarred up against each other and shorted or a crack had developed in one of the PC boards due to being dropped in shipment.
I contacted Alex on Saturday evening via email and got a response that day, that it would be handled on Monday....pretty excellent service for a weekend, not something you see from many merchants these days.
My conclusion is no product is perfect every time. I was told this is the first DOA seen on the newer units. Service from Everlast was beyond great so even if the unit doesn't 'everlast' I feel like the company stands behind what they sell which is really all you can ask.
While repacking the PP70 I did recheck the packaging and noted some compression of the foam carriers in the box. My suggestion would be that for items this heavy maybe a little more re-enforced box possibly with a cheap wood floor and then add another inch or so of dense foam at least on the bottom to provide a bit of cushion for when the shipper sets it down hard. And maybe I missed it but a 'This end up' sticker might help too. All that may increase shipping more than it is worth compared to replacing the odd unit but it would probably make the customers feel better and further reduce DOAs.
More when the replacement unit shows up....
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