Arcweld, there are people who have never heard of ESAB...except from a site like this, but that doesn't mean they aren't a strong company and are well established. We are well beyond "IF Everlast wants to compete in the American Market..." stage. We are competing and doing so quite well. We're well on the "majors" radar for sure...and they are privately acknowledging us and even talking with us about industry issues. We are growing exponentially every year. We sell nearly every unit we can produce and have invested heavily in our product. We have major marketing agreements in place with several national companies, sales agreements with many regional Airgas distributors, and a heavy e based direct market approach. (Something which Miller themselves have just adopted by selling directly off their website).
Again, it has nothing to do with the confidence level in the product, rather, the cost of distribution, warranty etc all figured in to stay competitive. Their shipping costs are much higher than ours. They have to freight everything in by rail. We are located right in a port town, just a few minutes from the port...Again, they pay a higher price than US through licensing etc. It's privately and independently owned. There are no "apples and oranges" here. A 3 year warranty is a three year warranty. A 5 year is a 5 year warranty. Sort of like telling someone that a lifetime warranty on a Craftsman product is less valid than one on Snapon. You may have personal feelings, and view each product and its marketing, quality, and country of origin differently, but the same general type of warranty applies...and a 9/16 wrench whether you pay 45.00 for it or 8.00 that is guaranteed for life still will turn the same screw and make the owner the same dollars per hour while doing it.
IF Miller puts a 3 year warranty on their product, and Everlast in Canada is willing to match it, then that says a lot about the product. We introduced the 5 year here back in 2008 with the introduction of our early IGBT line. We have confidence in it, or we'd be broke...and out of business by now if we couldn't stand behind it due to the cost it was costing us to do it, or run out of business by NOT standing behind it.
It's completely different marketing strategies. As I said earlier, they sell product we don't and we sell product they don't...they have different torch packages even. We have distribution in Canada, the US, Australlia, the EU, Africa, South America, Russia, New Zealand, and UAE...each licensed distributor is privately owned and distributed, and not directly owned and controlled by Everlast US (even though it is based in the U.S.). But we do give general direction, develop the product and work with them as they are still under our basic scope and contractual agreement. Each country has to meet standards locally as well that can affect the cost... and factor in ultimately to the warranty length versus the price point. In those countries, the warranty ranges from 2,3 and 5 years. Canada does have a service center as well as the US. Canada does a majority of their advertising on the web and they also travel to regional shows. They are smaller in distribution than the US, but coming along. Everyone has a right to "grow" a company. They're still several years behind us on that level...in size and scope. Unfortunately for both Everlast entities, the youth of our company, means not having a service center on every corner. BUT what it does mean that a single centralized service center offers better repairs because of more specialized factory training and equipment, and your machine isn't mixed in with two or three other brands and perhaps 40 or 50 models and some tech is having to jockey back and forth on repairs. There are some advantages, though having a repair center on every corner is nice for the customer, but not practical for a newer company that isn't 100 years old.
I guess if a person wants to spend 4 k-5k more for an Miller product, and is disappointed that Everlast isn't exactly the same as what Miller offers in the way of warranty and service centers, there's not much we can do or say to make a difference. I do think that is a bit drastic in regards to realistic expectations. I think if a lack of 2 additional years on our product'ss warranty even though it is equivalent in length and basic scope to Miller is enough to "sour" someone to go out and buy the vastly more expensive product, that Everlast was never in contention in the first place...at least that's how it seems....since the verdict already seemed to be in before I gave an explanation.
