So what's the better of the two? Eagnas vs SilentPartner

[zidanej]

It seems like Eagnas bashes SilentPartner and SilentPartner bashes Eagnas. I don't know what to trust anymore but I recently bought a Eagnas upright machine called the Hyper 480. Website for it is http://www.eagnas.com/hyper480.html I haven't gotten a tension calibrator or tester for it yet so I'm wondering if I should go out and buy one. Also, is it true that the USRSA took Eagnas machines off of their list because most of the information that Eagnas and SilentPartner bash each other about can be fabricated and exaggerated but the USRSA one seems most interesting.

[Alamo]

Hello. How do you like your Hyper 480 so far? I am looking to buy a string machine soon. Would you give us a good review or your thoughts on your machine? Thank you.

[guitarman]

Hi Zidanej,

How is your experience dealing with Eagnas, I myself is interested in buying a machine from them only because their price is so low, I know, I know I should be watching for the quality too and I have been reading on the bashing between Silent partner and Eagnas. The way I see it Eagnas has been in the businees much longer than Silent Partner and that Silent partner at one time proposed to do business with Eagnas but Eagnas wasn't interested so Silent partner went ahead on it's own with some manufacturers in Taiwan which is the same country where Eagnas gets its stuff and then after that each one is accusing the other of copying their machines.

I actually called Eagnas one time to inquire about their product but a guy there (probably the owner, he doesn't speak english very well) is the rudest person I have ever talked to, he didn't know anything about customer service, it's either I order a machine or I am wasting his time is what he told me ggrrrrr!!! Anyway I don't know if I'm a cheapskate why I have to stick with this guy, but for some reason although Silent Partner seems to be more customer friendly, they have higher prices and that they don't seem to be very straight forward too. For example, I do not buy the claim of Silent Partner that their electric stinger is superior than Eagnas because I do not believe their motor is better when I read the literature for both.

Eagnas was removed from the USRSA list because Eagnas didn't care about them (that's how rude they are) they said that USRSA never featured their product so why would they care about being listed with them, so USRSA removed them, God I do not know why Eagnas is like this my 10 year old would do better customer service.

I know this is lengthy but I do not know if I'm hanging myself if I do business with Eagnas. I seem to think that not only their prices are cheaper but that their products are better than Silent Partner.

Zidanej, tell me about your experience with them and the machine. Thanks.

[zidanej]

To tell you the truth I'm a newbie at stringing so I probably can't tell what's good and what's not. I don't even have a string calibrator so I don't even know if the stuff's at the right tension. But I guess I'll give what limited experience I can. :p The six point mounting system is quite nice and it seems to all be in good shape. The clamps are nicely done and I have had no real problems with it. From playing with my first strings I could tell no noticeable difference from the tension before where I had a professional stringer string for me. It's quite simple to use and have not really had any problems with it. I follow Jay Cee's advice on stringing the crosses with +4 lb compared to the mains and the raquet seems to play quite nicely. As long as you buy a decent priced stringer ($400+) I think it's quite worth it. The hardest part is actually learning how to string. :D Once I buy a string calibrator I'll give a post on how accurate it is. Overall I think it's a pretty decent product. I never actually called in customer support because I bought my stringer from a store which sells Eagnas stringers. Anytime I need help with stringing I just go to the store for advice.

Word of advice: Watch someone else string a racket with the type of tensioner you bought or read the manual VERY CAREFULLY. Luckily I only broke 2 cheap strings before I learned :D

PS: I notice that many people seem to have problems with drop-weight machines for Eagnas. If you buy any type of stringer from eagnas I recommend a spring tensioner. I have no clue on how the electric machines fare, but when I was considering buying one the store owner who I bought my machine from said that if the machine breaks or there's some sort of error it's almost impossible to fix which makes sense.

[Jay Cee]

@ Zidanej,

Good posting mate, you relate your experience and your opinion very well, this is the sort of information that is particularly interesting to have on the forum. I like the last comment concerning the electric motor. :)

I had an unfortunate experience with a top end model of an Eagnas stringing machine which I bought new for my shop, it worked fine for a couple of years, but after a complete impossibility to repair the electonics, the machine has been rusting away in my cellar ever since. :mad:

Mechanical machines have advantages.

Bye
:cool:

[Jack the Hack]

This is a long two-part post (due to the length restrictions), but I thought I would share my experience with Eagnas:

I have been stringing my own racquets for about 14 years now, and do it mainly to save money while maintaining quality strings in my racquets.

After using a friend's machine for years, '98 is when I bought a machine of my own. After looking around, I was attracted to the price of the Eagnas machines and decided to buy a Hawk 80.

At the time, I had a job where I traveled quite a bit. One of my projects took me to LA, so I decided to go directly to the Maxline/Eagnas “store” while I was in town. I didn’t call ahead, but rather, just put the Torrance address into Mapquest and started driving.

I was expecting to find a storefront or warehouse, but instead, found myself driving around an average suburban neighborhood. When I got to the address, it was just a regular, run-of-the-mill house. I rang the doorbell, and a confused looking Asian woman answered the door. I asked if this was Maxline and told her that I wanted to buy a stringing machine. She didn’t seem to speak much English, so after about a minute, a high school age kid came to the door and let me in. We wandered through their living room and into a shop area in the back. Inside, there were stacks of boxed machines everywhere. I picked out my machine, and paid for it with a credit card (using the old paper receipt method).

Based on this experience, I was kind of surprised how “mom and pop” Maxline was. They are not some big company, but a small family operation. I understand that they now have a warehouse store in Gardena, but they are still a small company. (Usually, these types of companies live and die by quality customer service, but more on that later.)

Anyway, I have used my Hawk 80 table top machine for about 6 years now and have had no problems. I paid about $280 and it has easily paid for itself. (For those of you that were wondering if the customer quotes on the Maxline website are real, they have actually cut and paste some of my comments from e-mails I have sent to them.) Since the machine had no problems, I had little need to contact Maxline again… until the last year and half.

First up, I moved into a new house and one of the mounting supports on my Hawk 80 got lost in the trip. I decided to contact Maxline to get a new part. On the first try, I called their phone number listed on the website. I just got an answering machine, so I left a detailed message regarding what I needed and asked them to call me back so I could order the part. Several days passed, and I never received a call back. Therefore, I decided to send an e-mail instead, including pictures of the part that I needed. Two days later, I finally got a reply that the part was available and would cost $5.00. I sent another e-mail asking for them to send me the part, and included my credit card info (which isn’t the safest, but more on that later). Anyway, again, I did not get a reply for several days… so I kept following up… with no response. About 5 days later, I received an envelope with the part in it. So, the communication was a little patchy, but they did get me what I needed.

To be continued...

[Jack the Hack]

Part 2 of my Eagnas experience (continued):

So fast forward a few months, and it is just after this past Christmas. I was browsing around the Internet and decided to check the Eagnas/Maxline website. Lo and behold, they are selling several of their professional models for $399.00 and throwing in a 660’ reel of string and 4 stringing tools for free. I had the extra money floating around, and thought this was an excellent chance to upgrade!

I decided on an Eagnas 860 and sent an e-mail with all of the complete order information to Maxline on December 29th. 24 hours went by, and I did not hear anything from them. Therefore, I decided to call. I got Victor (I think) on the phone, and he told me that the machine was in stock and would ship it out that day. So… 7 days went by, and I still hadn’t received my order yet! At the end of day 7, I sent Victor another e-mail asking for the tracking number of the shipment (or a response if there was a problem with the order). Another 24 hours went by with no response. I e-mailed him again… and again, no response. Finally, I called, and he came up with the tracking number.

I ran the tracking number to see where the package was since it was now 10 days since I had ordered it. Turns out that Victor didn’t even send the package until January 5th, even though he said it was shipped on December 30th! Obviously, the dishonesty and lack of communication was very irritating, but I can live with it if the machine is OK.

The Eagnas 860 arrived on January 10th, and I immediately opened it up. To my dismay, the head support mount (made of cast metal no less) was broken completely in half! In addition, the side support mounts were completely missing… along with several screws, and the free string tools were not included. And finally, the base support legs were not the same as what was advertised on the website.

I immediately went to the Maxline website to find out what the return procedure was. Basically, the way I read it, a damaged shipment meant that I needed to contact UPS. I called UPS, and they told me to package the shipment back up in the original box and they would return it. I e-mailed Victor about the damage, told him about the missing parts, and sent some digital photos. To no surprise at this point, he did not immediately reply. In the meantime, UPS called a couple hours later and explained that the shipping damage insurance claim would be between them and Maxline, and that normally a manufacturer would ship a replacement machine once UPS picked the old shipment up for inspection.

The next day, I finally got an e-mail reply from Victor. He told me to keep all of the parts that were good, and that he would just send replacement parts for what was damaged or missing. I replied to him that UPS had instructed me to box the entire shipment up for return, and that I was having second thoughts about the 860. (Aside from a cast metal part breaking in shipment, the missing parts and the base difference from what was advertised kind of spooked me.) I asked him some questions about the 860, Beta, and Flex 940, and asked for some recommendations. Again, no response!!! Finally, on my own, I decided that I would rather receive a Flex 940 for a replacement machine instead of another 860. I e-mailed him again, in fact two more times over a 48 hour period, that I wanted to change to a Flex 940 and wanted to know when he would be shipping it (especially since UPS had already picked up the old machine at that point). Finally, he responded that a new 940 was on the way.

Yesterday, the Flex 940 finally arrived. To my delight, all of the parts were there and intact. In addition, I was happy to find that the string clamps were upgraded from the older PN-1002 to the newer PN-1012, and that there were some extra replacement mounting pads included. Just to make sure everything was in order, I assembled the machine and strung a couple older frames I had lying around. The machine is great!

So, to make a long story short, here is what I think of Eagnas/Maxline:

1.) The two stringing machines that I have purchased and used (the Hawk 80 and Flex 940) have been of good quality and are an excellent value. I was unimpressed with the Eagnas 860, but my opinion of that machine was probably tainted by the horrible condition that it arrived in.

2.) Maxline’s customer communication is terrible. Whether it is talking to someone with broken English on the telephone or waiting 2-3 days or more for an e-mail response, it is not what you would expect when dealing with a “professional” company.

3.) The lack of secure credit card transactions on their website is disconcerting. Maxline wants you to e-mail your credit card information or tell them over the phone, which opens you up for fraud. How hard is it for them to set up a PayPal account? (For that matter, how hard would it be to set up an E-Bay store? They could probably open up more business that way.)

4.) Maxline’s website is not kept up-to-date, so product changes are not reflected. In addition, I think it is unprofessional to air their running feud with Silent Partner and others on the site - especially when their lack of English skills make some of their arguments hard to understand. (For example, read their “bad stranger policy” or the part about why they don’t want to be associated with the USRSA.)

5.) Other companies I have dealt with over the years, especially the smaller ones like Maxline’s size, usually bend over backwards to please the customer because they are usually competing with the giant corporations. Excellent service helps the smaller company overcome the price barriers that giant companies generally have. With Maxline, it is the opposite. Their products are high quality and low price, but they don’t (seem to) care about customer service.

In my opinion, if you are a recreational or amateur stringer like me, the Eagnas stringing machines are a great deal for the money. However, if I was going to open up a tennis store, I think I might be more inclined to go with another manufacturer like Alpha or Gamma because I would want better support for a machine that is part of my livelihood.

Can you imagine how many Eagnas machines Maxline could sell if there were no customer service problems? If they modernized their website and hired a marketing/customer service person that could speak English, there would not be a single bad thing anyone could say about them!

[Gaines Hillix]

The USRSA delisted Eagnas from their website and yearly stringing machine issue in their magazine because of Maxline's misunderstanding of the USRSA offer. USRSA offered to include their machines and used the word "introduce" in the letter they wrote to them. Since the owners of Maxline speak English as second language they misunderstood the offer and took offense thinking the USRSA was offering to take over marketing of their machines. When the USRSA tried to explain to Maxline this wasn't the case, Maxline still got huffy with them, so the USRSA bailed. Can't blame them, really.

[skarkboy]

Nothin is better than an eagnas. Das my word.

[ericb]

Nothin is better than an eagnas. Das my word.

Well, I guess it's settled then.

I'll go out tomorrow and sell my silent partner DG even though I'm very happy with it, have received excellent technical support (by phone and email), and find it to be a very high quality product for the price.

I've also been to the Deuce Industries warehouse in Toronto, but I'm sure somebody selling from their basement in LA must be better than a company with real hours and a real warehouse and real service.

Give me a f***in' break.

If you have an Eagnas and you're happy with it, good for you. Maybe you can share with us what you like about the machine, the support etc. instead of 'da word'.

[M0rgan77]

I once considered buying a eagnas machine but have heard countless stories of people loseing 100s of dollars on shipping returns and damaged items. The machines are also really cheaply built. I would rather spend the extra money on a good stringer from laserfiber or gamma than lose my investment on a crappy stringer.

[bickerto]

I bought a Maxline (Eagnas) Combo 910 a few weeks ago. The machine is great. The build quality is excellent and the machine was adjusted fine out of the box. The person I placed the order with spoke english fine (younger man.) I have talked to a woman who was a bit difficult to understand when I ordered more tools, but she was pleasant and helpful. My experience was just fine.

[niknax]

I have an Eagnas Combo 910 and so far I really like it. But overall if I had to do it all over again (going through the process of buying another stringing machine) I would have saved a few more bucks and bought a Prince or Gamma stringer. Don't get me wrong the Combo 910 is a solid machine, but if something goes wrong with it, I just don't want to go through the fustrations of dealing with the people at Eagnas.

[electrice]

why do i feel like the last two posts were from fake users at eagnas?