3 years, 2 months ago-
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Hello,
Anyone have any info on the status of the Graves Co in Florida. Cannot get ahold of them and all of the reviews I have read are terrible! Are they still in business?? Thank you
About a month ago i ordered a table adapter from them and all went well.
So they are still in business.
@I bought my Mark IV from them a few years ago and it took many months before I got it, but they told me up front that they were really behind in getting the machines built. They only had one person at the time doing calibrations.
I could only ever reach them early in the morning by phone and typically had to leave a message for them to call me back. I haven’t had any issues with orders I placed with them, except that their website isn’t up to date with what is actually in stock and things overall seem to take a long time to ship. I placed some orders by phone when they called me back and others on their website only to be notified that much of what I wanted was really out of stock.
I would order from them again but only if I wasn’t in a hurry to get stuff and I couldn’t find it elsewhere.
abrugger’s review is pretty much on par with my experience with them.
When I first got into faceting back in 2013 I ordered a Mark 5 from them, it took months for the machine to finally arrive and when it did show up it was missing the motor control dial for the base unit. Considering the cost of these machines missing a base part is simply unacceptable.
Nevertheless the machine still works, although lately the motor has begun to make noise so I’ll see if they are ship parts faster than they do full units.
I think other companies order from Graves. I’ve placed orders with other companies and had parts shipped direct form Graves. Right now I mostly use Kingsley North in Michigan. They have given me excellent service in the last couple years.
If another company is available, I’d never order from Graves again. Communication is so bad its not worth the effort.
I was a fan of Graves. I teach faceting and learned on a Graves machine. They are the easiest to learn on. I ordered a drive belt from them 3 weeks ago and still have nothing. I live 3 hours away from then. I have called and e-mailed with no responce. I would no longer suggest a Graves machine to any of my students.
One thing I learned about graves many years ago. If you need a belt buy 3. If you need dop alignment screws buy 10. keep a ready inventory of parts you replace fairly often. When you order, order spares, and when you put the last one on order more. I spoke to them at the Tucson show this year. They had a booth inside the big tent an electric park. Their name has been in the business for many years and they really don`t have the need to advertise or apparently maintain their phones. I have been ordering online from them for many years without any huge delay except for when they came out with the Mark 5. Their backlog of orders was huge and I purchased mine from the show after waiting months for it to be available from the store. They have always only had a few employees and the same ones are still there
Well,I can tell yo that no mater how long they have been i n business, they will not be for long if they keep
treating customers and potential customers like they do!!!Unfortunately, the booth at Kino (formerly Electric Park) this year was not Graves, it was a dealer who had some Graves products on display, along with other stuff. I had hoped to talk to Peter Erdo, but he wasn’t there.
They are notorious for not answering calls and/or responding to customers. However, for non-machine products (dops, rough, etc) they will send an order out within a couple of days.
Hmmm…how to respond. OK…I’m not going to bash anyone, mainly because there are already so few places left to get the lapidary supplies/equipment that I need. BUT…I am also not going to let a SUPER COMPANY go unrecognized. Hat’s off to Kingsley North…they have exceeded my expectations! So…how about we turn this tread around and ask “Which companies have exceeded your expectations”?
I’ve never had a problem items from them and they were rather quick in sending my order out. If the person on the phone needed a technician she went and put him on the line to answer my question. I do feel the price for their Mark 5 facet head is a bit high(by about $700 or so). Other than thos no problems with my equipment so far.
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