Seaga Manufacturing

Seaga Manufacturing Inferior Vending Machines With NO Customer Service, Watch Out, Bad Company Practices, Salespeople Who Lie! Freeport, Illinois

7th of Apr, 2011 by User805798

I purchased several VC 1100 frozen food vending machines from Seaga Manufacturing. This purchase has proven to be the worst business decision I have ever made. These machines are poorly constructed with inferior parts. The salesperson has flat lied to me and a couple of the machines did not even work for a full year. I should have known something was wrong when the machines were delivered and bolts were literally falling off of them. They had to be gone through to find where the bolts came from to replace them and tighten the rest. They went into several accounts and started having constant issues within days of placement. Problems with the machines are as follows:
1. The coin chute is too short causing constant coin jams because the coin does not always have an opportunity to straighten itself before entering the coin mech.
2. The coin return mechanism is on a hinged system that does not allow it to always push the coin return lever on the coin mech correctly causing more jamming or no coin return to the customer should they change their mind. Opposite of that it will rest on the coin return arm of the mech causing jams because the door is slightly open on the mech.
3. The coin return chute under the coin mech constantly comes loose and or out of adjustment causing coin returns to the customer to fall inside the machine or get stuck in the return chute where the customer cannot reach it.
4. There are steel bands in the back of the machine that hold the wire harnesses for the shelf motors. They are supposed to keep the wire harnesses from being damaged when sliding the shelves in and out for refilling. They failed within a week to 2 months on many of the machines leading to the next issue...
5. The motor wire harnesses on the shelves are made of inferior quality materials for the harsh environment they are in. The wire harnesses wore through from regular use of refilling the machines within about 9 months. That causes a whole fiasco of issues.
6. When the motor wire harness wears through (which you will never see till the following problem happens), the control board for the whole machine burns up.
7. Parts are very expensive! Control board $615 ea., Wire harnesses $84 ea. Then you get to deal with the manufacturer to try to repair the machines. If you are willing to pay for parts on nearly new machines, you may be just fine. I was not willing to absorb these costs completely due to all the failures. I spoke with Seaga to troubleshoot why the machines did not work and they agreed it was a board issue. They reluctantly sent me new control boards which blew nearly the instant they were installed. Seaga then determined there must be another issue so I took a picture of a failed board and they determined the wire harnesses were bad. Seaga would not send wire harnesses or new control boards unless I paid for them. Being less than a year old, I refused to pay. I was then asked to send all the control boards and wire harnesses back to Seaga for inspection. They would repair or replace them and send them back within 48 hours of receipt the salesman told me. I waited over a month before contacting the salesman to see where the parts were. I was told they had been sent back to me a week prior. I again waited with no parts. After initializing contact with the salesman again I was sent an email stating my parts were bad and how much it would cost to replace them. Apparently they were never sent back to me as I was told. I asked that my parts be sent back even though they were not repaired and was told they had thrown my parts away. I disagreed on the way everything had been handled and again refused to pay for parts that should not have failed so quickly in a professional vending environment. (We have over 700 vending machines and know how to take care of them) Seaga finally agreed to sell me the control boards at a discounted rate and provide the wire harnesses at no charge. To my surprise when they sent me a quote it had 2 extra control boards on it that I did not request or need. When I informed the salesman of this simple error I was told that "changes things". They told me I now had to pay for the wire harnesses if I was only buying the parts I need. I tried to work with Seaga as to why the deal had changed and I never needed extra control boards. I was then told that was their final offer. Understanding that Seaga was no longer willing to take care of the problem and they had quit returning my calls sometime earlier, I went to the BBB for resolution as Seaga had great standing with them. After a few jabs back and forth, Seaga is still not stepping up to the plate to resolve the issue without wanting to charge me for parts they already agreed to supply. Magically they did find my old parts but said they will only return them if I purchase the new ones. What kind of business does that? Those parts are mine! I hopped on to the BBB website the other day because I had not been informed of any response to my latest rebuttal. I found out that the BBB had closed the case due to no response from me with the assumption it had been settled. I let the BBB know I was never informed of a response by Seaga. They said I can add to the case and they will review it to possibly open it back up. It has been 3 days and they have done nothing. I have 2 machines that have been out of service for 6 months now and not generating any income. It is getting very close to them being out of service longer than they were in service. They certainly have not even paid for a small portion of the initial investment. In conclusion: I would not recommend anyone to this company due to its inferior product and lack of customer service. If you call them a person does answer the phone but then you are transferred to voicemail for anyone you want to talk to. Then they don't return your call. They will flat lie and not hold up there end of a bargain. The machines are marginal at best and it seems Seaga tries to inflate the parts cost due to the lack of sales and high parts overturn. They found they can make more money selling parts rather than a good finished product that lasts. Spend a little extra to get a better known brand, it will be pay off exponentially in the long run. I feel bad for any "mom and pop" vending company that has had the misfortune of ending up with one of these machines!

Track this Report 0 Comment | Post a Comment