Valiani Repairs - testing the new provider

markw · Post by **markw** » Tue 18 Mar, 2008 9:49 pm

presume I must be the one who had the board change..
My experience of Valiani Italy has always been very positive and they seem to have gone out of their way to fix my machine so that I could use the software up date.
But- I need to know that Valiani have a solution in place now they have changed agents - No machine occupying such an important place in my business can be out of action for more than twenty four hours - I shall be emailing Valiani tomorrow and asking them what service they have in place - would suggest that all Valiani users do the same.

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Tue 18 Mar, 2008 9:57 pm

DavidDeer

Try ringing Joe (Simons) again on his mobile please

0795 8333370
or contact him via Simons email at

joe.adepoju@djsimons.co.uk

Although I do know he is in Manchester this week and up in Edingburgh with Nico next week.

MITREMAN · Post by **MITREMAN** » Wed 19 Mar, 2008 8:10 am

Hi daviddeer,
I am very sorry to hear of your CMC problems and those of Mary and Grahame Case.

CMC Machines as you know require an engineer to be up to date with the software, pneumatics, Mechanics and what the machine can and can't do.

What I am about to say is a bit late for you, but it might help others.

When buying a CMC from any provider, make sure you get it installed with basic trainig including basic maintenance, they are very expensive so your provider should at least spend a day with you or arrange in house training (Do not install it yourself, you will be asking for trouble).

Arrange for regular servicing.
Make sure they stock spares and are able to help over the phone.
Make sure they do breakdown service.
Make sure you have some of the everyday spares (ask which ones will need to be replaced)
Check for software updates weekly.
Back up you Software and cutting data onto a portable USB hard drive once a week (Say friday night and keep a copy of site or on the Web).

I am sure your problem will be fixed ASAP, These engineers do there best and have to have a lot of trainig and cover large areas, its even more difficult when they become a new agent as they are not bought up with the machine and have to learn everything quickly.

I know it's very frustrating when you have a machine down.

I hope your problem is soon resolved i will be watching your post.

MITREMAN

markw · Post by **markw** » Wed 19 Mar, 2008 8:35 am

Valiani seem to be having a specific problem at present having changed UK agents. The previous agents provided training and after sales service as well as spares.
I would have thought it courteous for Valiani Italy to have written to all customers informing them of changes to the UK agency and explaining the service provided - how much it will cost and contact names and numbers for the new agents.

Mitreman - not sure what CMC you use but most software changes made by Valiani are very infrequent and normally distributed to users on disc, not via the web - The software seems to be preconfigured with the machines registration code already entered. Having info backed up is vital - I also make screen grab copies of tables just incase.

barta73 · Post by **barta73** » Wed 19 Mar, 2008 11:11 pm

Hello to all of you;

Let me first introduce myself, My name is Luca and I’m one of the person who belong to Valiani Staff.

First of all I would like to thank Mark and John to let me know what was happening in UK and about all the doubts for machines servicing the old Valiani customers have; as many of you already know I'm quite new in this market and there fore I wasn't aware of this forum and I haven’t signed on yet.

I had I look of all the messages left in the last week and I do really want to apologize with anyone who had a problem or a mishap during the couple of months.

We've been working with Richard for many years and only recently we have added Simons for UK market; the purpose why we added Simons was to cover better Great Britain, to improve our presence in the local market and to offer a better service to anyone who had bought Valiani or intend to buy Valiani. At this time we couldn't imagine that Richard would have decided to close the relation ship with us and stop to service all his old customers.

This subject could be something to discuss on the forum; how a supplier can leave alone all the customer who gave him the resources to work and consequently to make money; but this is not my duty; time will tell us who did the right thing.

Anyway, lets go back to the point, after Richard left us we founded ourselves with a brand new distributor, probably not ready to walk alone; for this reason we really tried to close the gap asap. We went, me personally and Nico as well, to London to start to train them on CMC machines, Joe and Mark came to Italy for an additional training and than we had the first show together. Luckily the show was very successfully, many customers appreciated the interchangeable heads system and we sold 12 machine; the Spring Fair was followed by other shows that have forced me and Nico to travel a lot and the delivery time due to an unexpected success to be a little bit longer.
We tried to do our best to make all happy and to start the set up and training of the machine as faster as we can but it was basically impossible to do all in a short term.
We have already started with 3 set up and for next week are already planned to 3 more set up and one service.
I’ll to go to Pelican ( Belfast ) and to Tipperery ( Republic ) to service and old Richard’s customer, who just called me last week for a problem on his CMC and Nico will go to Wallspace ( near Birmingham) and Edimburgh for two more set up.

To come back to a more stable situation it will probably take us a couple of months more but I would like to reassure all of Valiani customers, new and old one, that we will do our best to sort everything out and with the help of Joe and Mark to give you a local support as well, service and spare parts.

I also would like to apologize especially with David, who didn’t get a fast reply to his problem and with Mary, Grahame and Rolf who had the problem of machines’ reversal.

David, as I promised to you at the show your problem with the board will be fixed, I only asked you to be a little more patient because as we discuss at the show this Feb and March has been very busy for my Company and also for me. For any other problems you might have in the future if for some reason Simons or anyone else won’t answer to a phone call and a message left on the answering machine and I won’t be available with e mail ( last week I was in Japan and my BlackBerry doesn’t work over there) please fell free to call Valiani. All the staff speak English and they will be happy to help you or anyone else who will need assistance.

Mark, we have already worked together to fix a problem on your machine, and at that time Richard was still working for Valiani; a good reason to keep on working together and to be reassure that you won’t be left alone.
Mary, Grahame and Rolf I’m very embarrassed for what happen to you and there aren’t any words that can explain my regret; it’s something that has never happened before and make all of us very sorry. We will see next week and we will try the way to make us forgiven.

I do apologize again for all the problems, for the long speech and for my English, I also would like to take the opportunity to wish all of you a happy Easter.

Luca

Mary Case GCF · Post by **Mary Case GCF** » Wed 19 Mar, 2008 11:49 pm

Hello Luca, we appreciate your response, and understand the problems you have been having, (many of them not your fault)

Don't worry about your English, it is much better than my Italian!

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Thu 20 Mar, 2008 12:14 am

Would be even better if we could hear your beautiful accent!

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Thu 20 Mar, 2008 8:27 am

Luca
Thank you for your response. Very much appreciated.

No problem with you English, as Moglet remarked, it is much better than our Italian.

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Thu 20 Mar, 2008 9:46 am

our valiani arrived safely, can i extend my thanks to All at Valiani and simons for resolving this swiftly.

markw · Post by **markw** » Thu 20 Mar, 2008 9:47 am

Luca - thanks for the reply - Its obvious from this forum that lots of framers are looking at purchasing a cmc - It would have been unfair if they read this thread without getting some response from Valiani.

I suspect that we shall get plenty of feedback from Grahame at Blackhall Framing - doubt he will even notice Easter as he will be knee deep in mount offcuts.

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Thu 20 Mar, 2008 10:10 am

markw wrote:doubt he will even notice Easter as he will be knee deep in mount offcuts.

unfortunatley we'll be coding our website over the easter weekend -

besides we are waiting for Nico & Joe to come install our baby properly, i'd rather not attempt it.

birdman · Post by **birdman** » Thu 20 Mar, 2008 2:10 pm

Luca,

Thanks for your post it is good to see that Valiani are listening and are prepared to utilise the forum. We look forward to seeing you next week and joining the world of CMC enthusiasts.

Rolf

Nico Valiani · Post by **Nico Valiani** » Fri 21 Mar, 2008 10:39 am

Dear all,

I wanted to address some of the issues/concerns that have been posted regarding Valiani and our new distributor DJ Simmons.

Unfortunately there are times when it is necessary to end some business relationships while beginning new ones. We enjoyed a good relationship with our previous distributor, but circumstances required that we make a change and we did so a few months back. The official announcement could not be posted until March with magazine submission deadlines being what they are. Our previous distributor has not provided us with a customer list so we were unable to announce any changes directly to the customers. At the same time, the previous distributor decided to immediately discontinue all service, a situation we had not anticipated. This is not meant to be a criticism, I simply want to state what has happened.

In any business transition, there are bound to be small, and maybe some not so small, “glitches”. I believe the true test of a good supplier/distributor is the way they respond to these types glitches. We are confident that the Valiani Company and DJ Simmons will work through these incidents to the complete satisfaction of the affected customers. However, while we work through these transitions, please let me apologize for any inconvenience that some of you may have experienced. While we do make mistakes on occasion, we do our best to be responsive to our customer’s needs.

With My Best Regards,

Nico Valiani

Mary Case GCF · Post by **Mary Case GCF** » Fri 21 Mar, 2008 10:58 am

Thanks for your input Nico. Our new baby has arrived safely and we look forward to seeing you next week so she can be put to work. Not sure whether Rolf has his machine yet.
Might I say that though we have been inconvenienced, the situation has been resolved as quickly as possible considering the weather last week and the distance separating the 2 machines. I appreciate that a new distributor/ manufacturer relationship can sometimes have teething problems. Just a bit sad it should have been Rolf at Pelican Framing and ourselves that had the toothache!

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Fri 21 Mar, 2008 11:20 am

Nico Valiani wrote: Our previous distributor has not provided us with a customer list so we were unable to announce any changes directly to the customers. At the same time, the previous distributor decided to immediately discontinue all service, a situation we had not anticipated. This is not meant to be a criticism, I simply want to state what has happened.

Nico
Thank you for your reply. Surely though, a manufacturer as large as yourselves hold a 'master' database of your customers, as all your machines and the software that goes with it hold a unique serial number.

I do understand that maybe you cannot account for your machines that have been sold/transferred onwards.

black panther · Post by **black panther** » Sat 22 Mar, 2008 1:16 am

Dear All,
This is Joe from Simons and this is my first contribution to the forum.
I have just arrived from a valiani installation in Manchester and since it is way past midnight on Good friday, please forgive me if my piece sounds a bit disjointed.
I would just like to apologize on behalf of D&J Simons and Valiani for any inconveniences suffered by new and existing valiani users in the UK.
As stated by Luca and Nico,any new venture is bound to have its own share of teething problems. Specifically when Simons took over UK distributorship of Valiani in January,we inherited tens of hundreds of valiani users who the previous distributor used to service but who were unknown to us. We have since then been compiling a list of existing valiani users.The fact that we sold many machines at Spring Fair also compounded the situation as delivery of these machines had to be added to the equation.
I would like to assure all existing and prospective Valiani users that D&J Simons is committed to delivering the highest possible standards in Sales and services. We have an extensive network of 12 sales reps covering the whole of the UK. So there is always someone within reach.We have 2 engineers on the road with 40 years of experience between them. Also in our London office we have a dedicated machinery department ready to deal with all sales and service enquiries. It may not be immediate but with time and patience iam convinced that we will reach the Promised Land.
regards

Mary Case GCF · Post by **Mary Case GCF** » Sat 22 Mar, 2008 9:57 am

Hi Joe
Thanks for your post. I spoke to David Murphy, my local rep, last week and he advised me that local reps would be getting on-the-job training on the Valiali CMCs. This gives me confidence that any problems will be sorted out quickly. I'm sure that the recent difficulties have been teething problems and that once we all settle down together into a working business relationship, that this matter will be just a memory. Look forward to seeing you on Wednesday.
Mary

China shop · Post by **China shop** » Sat 22 Mar, 2008 10:44 am

Hi Everyone,
I am new to the forum but have looked in a few times in the past. Excuse me if I ramble on a bit.
I am the installation in Manchester that Joe refers to in his reply to this post. We are originally a family run china and giftware retailer established over 40 years ( hence the name ). I have diversified into framing and have been doing it for about 7 or 8 years so I consider myself new to it and have got plenty to learn. D and J Simons were the first framing wholesaler that I dealt with. Our local rep. has always been very good to us and offered plenty of advise when required. As with any company the odd mistake occurs but it has always been sorted out for us.
We ordered the Valiani at the show after quite a bit of deliberation between that and the Wizard . The Valiani seemed to give us more options with the head changing system and also I got the feeling from observing both machines it had a better build quality, But I did feel the software on the Wizard was a bit more user friendly.
Did we make the right decision

Will we ever know? All I can say is that the machine was delivered on time, Joe arranged a mutually convenient time to install it, which he and myself did together ( me not wanting to miss out on playing with the new toy

). So she is now up and running, we do have a very tiny bit of a fault to correct at the start of cut on the 40 degree head but Joe assures me that will be taken care of very soon. All in all we are happy with the service we are getting and very much looking forward to this wonderful machine making us some of our money back

Good luck to the rest of you who are about to get yours installed, seems like the mix up at Valiani with the machines is going to prove beneficial for you as you will be getting training from Nico as well as Joe

Johnson_M · Post by **Johnson_M** » Tue 01 Apr, 2008 3:56 pm

Hello all,

First off, this is my first post on this (or any other framing related) forum. Only found out you existed last night after googling Valiani. Great forum by the way!

Anyway, after reading this thread and a couple of other threads relating to the Valiani CMC I thought i'd throw in my 2 pence worth to give other readers our views on our new machine and the service received from Simons and Valiani.

We had our Valiani delivered about 3-4 weeks ago now and Joe and Mark Griffiths from Simons came and did our installation after a few days of us receiving it. I understand we were the first installation that Simons had done and were in effect their 'guinea pigs' for the couple of days. We had a few minor problems setting up the various heads but as we had our machine delivered early we were kind of expecting a few niggling problems (nothing major i might add, we were still able to cut perfect mounts using the 40 degree head). Anyway one week later Nico flew out from Italy to meet us and spent two full days with us teaching us how to calibrate the other heads and going through all its functions.

Three weeks later and probably 1500 mounts later, we have had no problems at all, the machine is great! I would highly recommend the Valiani CMC to anyone interested in purchasing one. Simons have been great, Joe and Mark have been great, And Nico and Luca have inspired us to use this beautiful machine to its full capacity.

By the way, we are in no way affiliated with either Simons or Valiani, we are just happy satisfied customers!

Mark Johnson
Wallspace

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Tue 01 Apr, 2008 4:10 pm

welcome Mark, make yourself at home,

having been able to play with the valiani for a few days i completely understand where your coming from, she is excellent, and performs like a pedigree.

regards From Edinburgh,

Grahame,

CMC operator extraordinaire

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Valiani Repairs - testing the new provider

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