Willy P said:
Mr. Foster - Your commentary comes across as disingenuous. I remember taking a day off and a ferry across to your area to put some of the Recoil BB myths to rest. By the time I got across the water, you had somehow become sick and didn't show, so I wasted a day and 100 bucks on ferry fare. I'm not attacking you, just stating a fact.
Willy I just wasn't available and I think you know I wouldn't run away from the facts if presented to me.
I have never used a recoil or personally seen the inside of one. But I have seen plenty of pictures. In my opinion based on the close up pictures I have seen this is a very poorly assembled machine with many of the fittings poorly suited for their use in this machine. I contrast what I see in the Recoil against other machines that I have experience with.
When we hear of the really insecure and shallow business tactics he apparently used by denying he sold the unit to Greg it doesn't leave me or many others with a good feeling about dealing with this company. In fairness, I have to say that I also know many people here have developed good personal relationships with Mr. Valentine and speak highly of how he was to deal with.
Now let me compare this customer experience with another. Mytee has had assembly problems in the past, but uses far
superior design and components. When approached about Mytee's assembly challenges John chose to be up front with his assembly issues by publicly acknowledged them, and then dealt with them.
There is no doubt that there is a completely different scale of economics between Mytee and Cross American but that doesn't matter. Its the ethics and attitude that will drive either company to failure or success. A wise businessman invests in the the good will of his brand and customer relationships. There are lots of very small manufacturers in this business that don't have huge sales numbers or plants that continue to earn our business every day because they can still innovate, build good stuff and are honest with their customers. Terje comes to mind as one of the good innovative small manufacturers and, by the way, he talks to Mr. Valentine regularly and thinks he's a decent guy. I think the common ground they share is their complete contempt for hour long phone calls dealing with the time-wasters that ask stupid questions, that in the end have no money or are really only trying to get a component specifications in order to attempt to build their own machines or modify an existing one.
Its easy to overlook a manufacturer's short comings if they at least are receptive to criticism and make the effort to improve their products. Usually this criticism is in their best interests to listen to constructively. If they don't then they usually deserve all the crap thrown at them.
So Willy good buddy, the Recoil might suck fine and it has very nice access to the components to work on it or modify it with has decent vac motors but I think most all the rest of it is inferior to other competitive units. Why buy something that is poorly built to begin with? 75% of the people that buy these machines couldn't or wouldn't want to work on these machines themselves and of those at least half are heavily dependent on those machines to earn their living. Most of those that are POGs are new to the business and very vulnerable to financial problems that often come from interrupted income caused by equipment failures. In my personal opinion, they are a poor choice as a purchase. Sorry but Mr. Valentine being a nice guy isn't good enough.
Nothing disingenuous about any of this Willy. We simply disagree and I have given you my reasons why.
Now I'm late holly crap I gotta roll!