Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: boshravie on November 08, 2010, 08:19:43 pm
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Hi guys I believe is my duty to warn all you guys to be aware of the service Ashby’s provide regarding their water pumps in their ninja or any other service they provide.
I have had problem with their service for several year and I have spend several thousands of ££ with them and i would have thought they treat me with a little respect as a good customer and not try to ripe me off.
This year in MAY month I had a problem with my water pump leaking in Ninja and took it to them for repair which is a 2 hours drive from my home town, I had to Waite most of the day for them to get it repair as I needed the machine for my job ,and they said that this pump is no longer serviceable and has to be changed to a new one for a cost of £450 including V.A.T. and fitting which I was happy to pay, as I always like to have my machine in an excellent working condition.
took the machine back and within 2 days after, it leaked again, and had to take it back again, so they looked at it and straight away tried to put the blame on me so they can charge me again for fixing it, I was crossed with them, and I told them that I just use plain water in the tank and that’s all, as we clean carpets by pre spraying the carpets therefore don’t need any chemicals in the water tank. After all that Hassel they repaired it again, 6 months down the line water pump is leaking again and I have spend another £400-£500 to change to a new pump.
I just think they way they treated me over the year is very unfair and very unprofessional so I thought I let guys know that to be aware, if they can they will take as much money as they can from you.
Is any one else has had problem with them?
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Which pump did you get with the machine
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Ashbys and water pumps !!!!!!!!!! Bought a Ninja with all the bells and whistles. Water pump packed in after 7 months. They refused to replace it because I hadnt had their 6 month service. I kicked and stamped and they changed their mind. 8 months after that water pump packed in again. That was 3yrs ago and i havent used the crappy machine again. I'm open to offers if anyone wants it lol
Chris
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Hi Vernon
Pump Tec
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I would never deal with them too and i almost bought a new machine from them a few years ago and the service was poor.
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Well this is interesting with 10 minutes already one more complain, many thanks for you comments Cleanability.
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Did sittingbourne or dartford do the work.
Mr B
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whaaaaa two complaine, please keep it coming guys.
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I would ask to speak to Derek Ashby, he's the owner,
He's always been very fair with me.
Mr B
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Over the year I have taken them to Dartford most of the time, but the last time which was May this year it was Sittingbourne and it was Edward Ashbys that I was dealing with most of the time.
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I have a Ninja 400psi and guess what?
Yep, there is water leaking out through the bottom of it.
I won't be taking it to Ashbys though. I use a company local to me who are pretty reasonable.
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I would ask to speak to Derek Ashby, he's the owner,
He's always been very fair with me.
Mr B
[Hi Brian barber, it doesn’t matter who is serving us, the point I am making is that they have to be fair with their customers, this is competitive market and if you don’t look after your customer you be doomed
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If one of my customers spend nearly £10,000 over a period of 8 years I would most certainly make sure my customer is treated like a KING. That’s how much I spend with these guys.
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My first machine was a Ninja, whenever the machine went to kent i parted with money usually a lot, in the end i had no trust in them telling me the truth about what really needed fixing and what they could get away with replacing, sold the machine recently now have an Airflex turbo from cleansmart which is a completely different setup i trust Mat to give me good advice and not try to make a quick buck, and he has been more than generous considering i did not buy direct from him, i got my machine second hand he honoured the warranty on the machine and has sent me plenty of stuff free of charge plus helpful advice thats customer service Ashbys hang your heads in shame wsell at least one of them :-X
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Hi Vernon
Pump Tec
Yea they have about 20 diffrent models
common on is a 205 V with a Fasco motor or a 112V with a brush motor which one do you have?
Does your machine have heat?
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Hi James.
Many thank your great reply, I am very grateful for you guys, and its good to hear that I wasn’t the only one.
You see greed is very bad, specially when its to do with money, ever since I got involve with Ashby’s, I could sense that all of them were money greedy, and thats the worst thing you could do to yourself as well as your business, imagine you have spend years to build your business and then you treat your customers in bad manor, and then see your business go down in no time.
its crazy way of going about running your life. Just doesn’t make scene. And that’s what they are doing to themselves.
I am so glad that you (James Roffey) are happy with Cleansmart, in fact I have bought few small items from them time to time and its good to know there are descent companies out there for us to do business with. And I have this to say to Ashby’s, I hope they take note for their own sake.
(Quality is not expensive, it is priceless. Quality is never and accident either. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skilful execution. Quality represent the wise choice of many alternatives.)
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They know there always new suckers coming into the business
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Hi Vernon
Pump Tec
Yea they have about 20 diffrent models
common on is a 205 V with a Fasco motor or a 112V with a brush motor which one do you have?
Does your machine have heat?
Hi Vernon Purcell.
To tell you the truth, I have no idea what kind of bump it is, because I have never taken it apart as I am not technical in these matters, its just my new engineer that I have found in my home town, who is much more skilful than Ashby’s and a kind man told me that its Pump Tec. What different would that make any way?
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I have to say that as soon as I have the money available to me I will be offloading my Ninja and getting another machine. Maybe an Alltec or Scorpion.
The Ninja is great when it works, but in the 4 or 5 months I've had it I've had the heating element go, a few electrical problems and now it's sprung a leak and I dread to think what the cause of that is.
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Anything you buy over £100 is covered by the consumer credit act 1974 for up to 6 years. If you think that the pump is faulty and is not your fault ask ashbys to repair or replace free of charge. If they don't tell them you would be getting an independent survey done on the pump.(can cost up to £400). If the survey goes in your favour you can claim the cost of a new pump and the money for the survey back but I bet it doesn't get that far.
Mark
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That’s a very interesting point Mark, the point is I spoke to Edward from Ashbys, and his answer was that these pumps only have 3 months warranty, isn’t amazing we buy a washing machine which cost more or less the same price and we get 1-5 years of warranty on them, but when it comes to do with business most of these companies just rip people off.
I think I have to put it to Ashbys I writing and ask my independent engineer who is working on the machine at the moment to clarify that for me too.
So grateful for your help Mark-Slaney
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Why not just ditch the Ninja and get something else?
That's what I intend to do. You can't keep throwing money at it. It's funny how a lot of people seem to start off with Ninjas, but then move on to something else - even machines with less power/lower spec sometimes. There has to be a reason for that.
I don't like the way they look either. It's not exactly the most attractive or modern looking machine on the market. It's long overdue a bit of a cosmetic revamp.
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Hi matt, well to tell you the truth I like the Ninja, because is a good size for the jobs we do, we work in a lot of tight areas and it serves the purpose, and in general is good machine if the people who fit the pump, fit it properly, there is no problem with it. I have another spare one which has been working for at least 8 years without any problem. So its not the machine, it’s the human who are not true full. :(
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why would you use them if you dont need. you can get the same service from local guys for example apex in billericay will fix any machine. just because you buy a machine from one guy does not mean you have to use them to service. its my view that you are paying for two guys wages when you take a machine thats why they take all day. to justify the charge. its a real sham as the ninja is a great machine.
Or, have a go yourself most stuff is easy. its good practice to carry spare parts so you can fix on the run.
I think if someone started up servicing ninjas on the side they would do very well. and it would focus Ashby's to provide completive rates. i know that many on here could provide this service.
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Boshravie
You spent £8000 on the machines in 10 years.
I have a 3 vac Scorpion which is now about 6, maybe 7 years old (I am the 2nd owner).
The previous owner had no problems. I have replaced 2 vac motors (one that blew was entirely my fault - so its really only one) and uprated the pump from 300psi t0 500psi (I could have overhauled the 300 pump and its motor for less then couple hundred). So in total, inc the vac I wrecked, its cost less then £1000.
The service from Solutions Cornwall is top notch, no question about that, and Ed Valentine (in the USA and the maker of the Scorpion), John Bolton and of course Nick, are very experienced people who are very willing to help.
As to the fact you like Ninjas cause they can get into tight spots (think thats what you said).
Whats a tight spot??????
I leave the Scorpion in the van, and easily hook up 100ft of 2" hose and it sucks extremely well.
100ft covers all but one of the domestic houses I do. Note:- the big one needs about 120ft but even if I bought another 50' the Scorpion will cope.
Invest in the right equipment and the right people.
People are important, the horror stories I hear on here about Ahbys and the poor service at times from another supplier already spoken of on here, Alltec, -I am just amazed how so many of you put up with it.
I get brilliant service not only from Solutions Cornwall but also from Restormate in Newcastle Upon Tyne, and as little as I do deal with them now - Cleansmart.
And there are plenty of small businesses that can handle service and repairs of pumps and vac motors - cause what inside our machines are common to other types of work - nothing that special.
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My Ninja is now over three years old and going string, one vac motor has had to be replaced (machine was three years old then), but the original pump is fine. A tip someone gave me is before switching pump on to release the pressure, then crank it up once pump is running, and release pressure before switching off, not too sure about the logic but I think its a bit like driving, you don't set off in top gear at 60 mph, you build up to it.
In general I agree with the comments about Ashby's customer service attitude, first six month service done at dartford, ever since been serviced at Royston near Cambridge, totally different experience and no hard sell while waiting.
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The Ninja is a good machine and served me well for 3 years, it only recently had a vac go pop - once I replace that I will be selling it.
Don't equate poor customer service with poor equipment - I've never used a Scorpion so I take others word that it's a good machine, but clearly the machines reputation would suffer if Solutions didn't offer such good back-up.
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Same as Phil and Steve.
Find it a very good machine.
Have it serviced locally at £37 a time.
Their solution hose is second to none.
John
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Whilst on subject , can any of you guys recommend somebody in the south east to service the ninjas, either in Kent, or maybe Essex or sussex,
Willing to travel for reasonably priced servicing.
Mr B
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Hi guys
Many thanks for your replies, well to answer the 1st question, about spending £8000 with Ashby’s, well it wasn’t just for machine, it was for all kind of services and different item that I bought from them through the years.
I have now found some one local after all these years, you see I am based in Brighton and there wasn’t any one that I knew of who could service ninja, and who ever I asked they said that I have to take it to Ashby’s, its only recently thanks to one of you guys on here that I found an engineer in Brighton.
Brighton is a city that have lots of narrow roads and basically you cant park outside of a house or flat to bring a pipe from van to clean carpets, and lots of flats in Brighton are old Regency buildings with lots of stairs so we need something like Ninja to deal with these kind of jobs.
I love ninja, they are very good machine that’s why I kept mine all these years, its just the service from Ashby’s and I never deal with them in future.
As I said before its shame to work so hard to build your business for years and just loos it the way they are by bad customer service.
I most grateful for all your comments.
Bosh
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Whilst on subject , can any of you guys recommend somebody in the south east to service the ninjas, either in Kent, or maybe Essex or sussex,
Willing to travel for reasonably priced servicing.
Mr B
Yes:
Elm Grove Vacuum Centre in Brighton
112, Elm Grove
Brighton BN2 3DB
Tel: 01273-694705
Speak to Bob, he is a GEM absolutely great guy.
Bosh
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Did you take your machine there alex? Bobs very helpful and knows his stuff very good prices aswelll and a quick turn around
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Did you take your machine there alex? Bobs very helpful and knows his stuff very good prices aswelll and a quick turn around
Yes Oneills
And I am so grateful to you my friend, Bob is saint, he is a great gentleman. That’s why I will recommend him to the world.
Once again I am so grateful to you.
Bosh (Alex) :-0)
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Always happy to help mate, at least his prices are fair!!
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Always happy to help mate, at least his prices are fair!!
Yes my friend he is a man of Honor.
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Hi Vernon
Pump Tec
Yea they have about 20 diffrent models
common on is a 205 V with a Fasco motor or a 112V with a brush motor which one do you have?
Does your machine have heat?
Hi Vernon Purcell.
To tell you the truth, I have no idea what kind of bump it is, because I have never taken it apart as I am not technical in these matters, its just my new engineer that I have found in my home town, who is much more skilful than Ashby’s and a kind man told me that its Pump Tec. What different would that make any way?
Well they made a 205 with a fasco motor. This was a 200 psi pump, what people have done is take this 1/3 hp motor and crank it up to 500 psi with a spring in the bypass making it work too hard. If it reaches full pressure and you depress the wand trigger your pressure will fall to something like 200 psi, where as if the pump is fitted with the correct size motor, when the wand trigger is depressed presure drop will be about 475 psi, the small motor cannot keep that pressure up, it can only dead head the pressure, also you have to check your chemicals you are using, I have a customer who may be on this board who changes his pump head every 8 months or so. By the way I was the first importer of Pumptec high pressure pumps into the Uk about 17 years ago. I still have the original advertising material showing this pump as a 200 psi. When it is used as a 200 psi pump its the greatest pump in the world
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Hi Vernon
Pump Tec
Yea they have about 20 diffrent models
common on is a 205 V with a Fasco motor or a 112V with a brush motor which one do you have?
Does your machine have heat?
Hi Vernon Purcell.
To tell you the truth, I have no idea what kind of bump it is, because I have never taken it apart as I am not technical in these matters, its just my new engineer that I have found in my home town, who is much more skilful than Ashby’s and a kind man told me that its Pump Tec. What different would that make any way?
Well they made a 205 with a fasco motor. This was a 200 psi pump, what people have done is take this 1/3 hp motor and crank it up to 500 psi with a spring in the bypass making it work too hard. If it reaches full pressure and you depress the wand trigger your pressure will fall to something like 200 psi, where as if the pump is fitted with the correct size motor, when the wand trigger is depressed presure drop will be about 475 psi, the small motor cannot keep that pressure up, it can only dead head the pressure, also you have to check your chemicals you are using, I have a customer who may be on this board who changes his pump head every 8 months or so. By the way I was the first importer of Pumptec high pressure pumps into the Uk about 17 years ago. I still have the original advertising material showing this pump as a 200 psi. When it is used as a 200 psi pump its the greatest pump in the world
Hi Vernon Purcell
Many thanks for your in-depth information, its very interesting to know these facts. We don’t use any chemical in our solution tank, we stopped this many years ego, as we always pre spray the chemical to carpet and then agitation, so solution tank is always plain water, and in fact Ashby’s told us that we have to set the temperature of water in the tanks at 50degrees which we do, so what’s the solution?
The trouble is not many people sell these pumps these days!!!
Bosh
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Hi Vernon.
I still have one of your pumps in my Grace machine. It's never missed a beat. I think it's around 200 or maybe 225psi. Never even serviced it. Don't use it full time now as I have a TM. But it was a superb upgrade from the 135psi pump that came with the machine. The extra little bit of psi doesn't sound a lot but in the real world makes a huge difference. I am not convinced that the old shurflo pumps kick out anywhere near 135 at the wand.
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Boshravie
I have had three ninjas over a ten year period and although the machines were fine when they were working, i hated going to Ashbys when they were not! I felt that i recieved very bad service from them from start to finish, but that is very common with hwe extraction machine suppliers.
Good suppliers are few and far between, Nick from solutions is a real breath of fresh air! I havent experienced service that good in the twenty odd years that ive been in the business
I just hadf a problem with a pumptec pump i bought it from woodbridge commercial, but saying that the fault wasn't realy a warantee repair, in fact the pump was only three months old but had corroded completely and valves were not seating properly! I have been using Ultimate master from altec! and believe there chemical has caused the damage to my pump! i emailed robert saunderes from Altec and he has refused to accept responsability even though his tecnical people told me that there chemical was corrosive and would cause damage to pumps, apparently they infact install a differant black pumptec pump in there machines to combat this, but of course we are not to know that are we ?
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Further to my comment with regard to Ashbys, they serviced my Ninja quite a few years ago now and a day after recieving it back from them it broke down!!
I sold two of my ninjas and only have one now which i keep as a back up machine to my Scorpian, the ninja isn't in the same league as a scorpian!
Ashbys insist on having your money before sending out any parts! All pumptec pumps come with 12 months warantee and not three months, if i was told this by Ashbys, think i would be giving Trading Standards a ring !
Stu Clark
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Would not give ashbys a penny of my money and was all set to spend nearly 3 n half grand two years ago on a set up they had and found one guy in paticular very unhelpfull so spent the money somewere else!
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Boshravie
I have had three ninjas over a ten year period and although the machines were fine when they were working, i hated going to Ashbys when they were not! I felt that i recieved very bad service from them from start to finish, but that is very common with hwe extraction machine suppliers.
Good suppliers are few and far between, Nick from solutions is a real breath of fresh air! I havent experienced service that good in the twenty odd years that ive been in the business
I just hadf a problem with a pumptec pump i bought it from woodbridge commercial, but saying that the fault wasn't realy a warantee repair, in fact the pump was only three months old but had corroded completely and valves were not seating properly! I have been using Ultimate master from altec! and believe there chemical has caused the damage to my pump! i emailed robert saunderes from Altec and he has refused to accept responsability even though his tecnical people told me that there chemical was corrosive and would cause damage to pumps, apparently they infact install a differant black pumptec pump in there machines to combat this, but of course we are not to know that are we ?
Hi Stuart –Clark
Many thanks for your informative feed back, yes you are right about some of the machine suppliers, I have had bad experience from Altec too, and that was a long time ego, which put me off of buying their machine. and to tell you the truth I don’t have the time to chase Ashby’s for this, I think the damage they have caused to most of us regarding their service has now come back to them, I am so grateful for this CLEAN IT UP FOURM that we can all come to this place and find out so many information and also can name and sham companies that not behaving in a good manner, and treating us bad way. I could never imagine myself to even try to cheat my customers in this way, not just because of my business going down, but my conscious wouldn’t allow me to do so, and these people running a massive company and representing a very good machine (NINJA) and giving them a bad name too, remember ninja doesn’t belong to Ashby’s, they just import it and assemble and add few things to it.
Bosh
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Hi Vernon.
I still have one of your pumps in my Grace machine. It's never missed a beat. I think it's around 200 or maybe 225psi. Never even serviced it. Don't use it full time now as I have a TM. But it was a superb upgrade from the 135psi pump that came with the machine. The extra little bit of psi doesn't sound a lot but in the real world makes a huge difference. I am not convinced that the old shurflo pumps kick out anywhere near 135 at the wand.
Glad to hear that its still going, but I did tell you it would. LOL
Like a lot of pumps they dead head it and say that is the pressure, crap . One thing I do know is my pumps, I had a certain manufacture visit me on lots of ocasions, to peek at my machine and see what pumps we used, they put a 500 pump in their machine only to be with drawn shortly. WHY, because the used the wrong motor, little did they know that we had gone through what they went through motors only lasting weeks, due to our power supply in the uk. Rectifiers are ok if you are using 110 volts
60 cycle. Pumptec pumps can take 105 degrees C for 7 houes a day 6 days a week, however you do loose pressure a bit when you get over 95 degrees, and your bypass piston rubbers also take a hammering
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Guys
has anyone found a supplier for Ninja pumps yet?
Respects
Ian
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Ian
Look at this site http://www.pumptec.com/html/Europe.htm
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These storys I have been told many times from people and can understand where there coming from, :o you dont know how good it is or they are untill you have got the machine,I can tell you I had a ninja,now have a power flite great machine great after care by caring people,can only recomend Amtech,nice to hear other carpet machines companys the same so it should be,we spend a lot of money with these people.
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Ian
Look at this site http://www.pumptec.com/html/Europe.htm
Hi Ian, if you have dealt with this company in England before , do you know how much they are selling the 400 p.s.i. for ninja?
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I get what few chemicals I need from Ashbys (dont do much cleaning). All the branded chemicals they sell are cheaper than any other company and been told they work spot on. Service always seems to be great and friendly.
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Terry
I must say that these stories have put me off ashbys who wants to pay out £450 and have it go wrong in a few weeks or months we need reliable parts, what i dont understand is the one in my machine has lasted about 4 year, what gone wrong for ashbys with their parts? and am now thinking about a CFR
Respect
Ian Harper
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I had the very same problem with Ashby's Derek agreed to replace pump as I did not have 6 month service but Martin refused and over ruled his father,Derek is a gentleman but I think his son drags the company down
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Terry
I must say that these stories have put me off ashbys who wants to pay out £450 and have it go wrong in a few weeks or months we need reliable parts, what i dont understand is the one in my machine has lasted about 4 year, what gone wrong for ashbys with their parts? and am now thinking about a CFR
Respect
Ian Harper
Hi ian,
I must say love your website, implicitly professional .
You see as said before, Ninja carpet cleaning machine Is a fantastic machine and have been going for I think more than 20years, but no matter which kind of machine you buy, which I believe there are new modern ones on the market now, it always come down to customer service, unfortunately with few companies, who think they are the only source of the equipments for certain items, they are the GOD and you either like it or lump it, which is the main cause of their downfall. That’s why I am always in favour of competition.
Competition gives best service for consumer and at the same time keep most companies on their toes.
I have had CFR too in past and I wouldn’t rate it much. So good luck.
Bosh
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Bosh
I had a single vac cfr which i got free with my deal with woodman when he went down. i used it for upholstery cleaning. i found the idea great and would hope that the water lift is as good as the ninja on the doubles.
Its really sad about Ashby's. I called this week and he said that the aliment has to be right with the motor and pump or it will knock it out. this could be what they are doing wrong and then blaming the users.
What i plan on doing as i gave my back up ninja away when a friend got his stuff stolen is replace with a small pump and then that will give me time to sort out the big pump. does anyone see any problem with doing this?
what would machine you recommend?
I like vac based and not air flow.
Thanks for your comments. I try to show the prospect that its a bit more than dirt sucking. mind you with the way the market is at the moment its very priced based. I have lots of ideas out there at the moment testing what's working. would be nice to hear from others what's working for them. For example i have had rubbish results with leaflets of late.
Respects
Ian
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Veron
your email on your site does not work
info@carpetcleaningworld.com
respects
Ian
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Thanks Len
great service a scot and sons.
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Some good info guys.