Dorian "First Time Buyer" QCTP and Holder set - beware!

I bought a Dorian tool holder for cnmg insert last year, 60 + dollars, very poor machining on pocket, snotty attitude when I called them to point it out. I am done with Dorian, use to buy their drawbars for my Bridgeport clone every few years so I could have nice new threads, last one I got was marginal. I believe the company is riding on its reputation and cutting corners.
 
I've bought a tool post and numerous tool blocks, from Dorian, I never had a problem with the equipment or the customer service. Later when I wanted to buy a certain Dorian sourced threading tool, I called them, they were a little less helpful and told me to go through a dealer, to get the info I needed. When I said, just give me the info, I'll then buy it through the dealer, they said NO!, but after me singing the 4 aria for a few minutes, they relented and finally gave me the information. I was so PO, even with the information, I bought the threaded tool from Valenite.
 
I was well aware that Dorian made changes to their holders, lucky for me I had no idea they made changes as often as they did. I was set on getting a Dorian SQCTP wedge, that's what I bought & I absolutely love it, no regret, & is what I would buy again if i had to do it all over. I've used older cam lock Dorians, Aloris, DTM, & piston Armstrong QCTPs, the Dorian wedge is by far my favorite. I decided to not purchase the FTB set & went with the tool post only. I was going to buy Aloris holders.

Didn't end up that way, I couldn't afford Aloris holders for how many & how fast I wanted them. I went with import holders, still no regrets. I have so many now & enough, I don't see myself swapping out for Aloris holders either. I'm not a fan of how Dorian tries to be "innovative" & make changes to their holders so I don't buy them. The only Dorian holders I like & buy are their current boring bar holders. They are truly "indexable" unlike the Aloris ones & others. But who knows, they may change as well & they were a different style in the past.

I have a Dorian parting blade holder similar to Alan's mentioned in the OP but I bought it used. It must have been changed & the one I have must be older cause the one I have works perfectly fine with my BXA on a 12x36.

I have only dealt with Dorian once on the phone but it was a good experience. The CS rep had no idea what I was talking about but she kindly transfered me to one of their engineers who was very helpful. He worked with the distributor I was dealing with. Got my issue quickly resolved. Most manufacturers won't even let you talk to one of their engineers.

I agree with Mike, can't blame a company just on one or two CS reps. I worked for a large electronics repair depot, we had CS reps that were awesome, then there were the ones that weren't. Unfortunately, people are going to be people.

Same with places like Grizzly, some people have great experiences with their CS, some don't. I've had the same off & on experiences with Amazon. When a company is large enough & they have a considerable size CS dept, not all of them are going to be as helpful or nice as you hope for.

Think about this, not to be sexist but most CS reps are women. How many female CS reps do you think are out there that even has machining related knowledge? It can't always be a requirement to get the job to have the knowledge so they have to learn overtime. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes people catch on quick, sometimes, they never do. I have seen it.
 
Doubleeboy said:
I bought a Dorian tool holder for cnmg insert last year, 60 + dollars, very poor machining on pocket, snotty attitude when I called them to point it out. I am done with Dorian, use to buy their drawbars for my Bridgeport clone every few years so I could have nice new threads, last one I got was marginal. I believe the company is riding on its reputation and cutting corners.
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That's interesting, could be just the one you have but sucks to hear about your experience with them. I would have returned it to the vendor if possible.

I have a number of Dorian indexable tools, MCLNR for CNMG included. I have no problems with any of them.
 
The next time I think about it, my brother knows a couple of the inside guys at Dorian. They are not the counter guys. I'll see if he can come up with a name or two and their email addresses and I'll share with some of us here on H-M. Ken
 
Too bad. Weird if this is company policy, the tooling business is no where as large as many other businesses so why **** off the future potential customers?
Pierre
 
pdentrem said:
Too bad. Weird if this is company policy, the tooling business is no where as large as many other businesses so why **** off the future potential customers?
Pierre
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Most of the larger tooling companies deal more to the high end tooling users where more $$$$$ are made off of a sale of high end tooling than a sale off of a commodity item like a QCTP holder. Yeah, the basic QCTP and holders that are mass produce by world wide sources have brought the prices of this stuff down so it is affordable to most of us low end users. Us low end users are of no interests to high end tool vendors. They will sell to you, at their price, and after the sale, they want you to go away so they can take care of the big volume buyer of high end tooling. It's not totally like this in reality, but close to it.

You also have to remember, most businesses still use the 20/80 rule in managing their business. The 20% customer base is what brings in the largest revenue per say, while the other 80% is there but may only bring in a few $$ annually. They get neglected somewhat more or less, depending on sales. And believe me, us H-M are in the bottom 80%, probably not even enough to make spect on the chart, unless you are like me and spend all of your money on evilBay.
 
There is no excuse for poor customer service. However, in the case of machine tooling, I feel some mods are to be expected, like having to machine the tee nut to fit or having to machine a chuck backplate. I think It would be difficult if not impossible to make a toolholder that is optimized for every machine, and since the end users can machine them to fit, they probably figure most will simply do that. I personally wouldn't think anything wrong of having to modify the toolholder to fit my machine.
 
Eddyde's comments made me remember my series of Jet power feed phone calls. I have a Jet JVM-836 milling machine, I wanted to put a knee feed on it, Jet didn't offer one, but at the time they were also selling Wilton mills, they had a model, almost identical to the Jet, that had a knee power feed. The CS agent at Jet, said it would bolt right on, so I bought the kit. Well, it wasn't even close to bolting on, so I called Jet and got the CS agent on the phone and explained my situation. His next comment made my day, he siad "you own machine tools, make it fit", then politely said goodbye and hung up. I made it fit and it has worked great since then.
 
Could be a fluke, but you shouldn't have to re-machine or modify a high quality, expensive tool system that was made to fit right the first time.
Like other's have said, I would follow up the chain and try to resolve this. If management isn't aware, shame on them too. If they are aware and still allow it to happen, shame on them. Hopefully this is an aberration, a fluke. I would contact the company to let them know and at least give them a chance to explain or resolve the issue.
Hard to believe a company in the US would take such a lax attitude. Unless they are folding their tents and/or moving operations East, I don't understand it.
 
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