Sorry in advance about this long post but here is a bit of background info. My old Miller Digital Elite has seen better days from being dropped , caught on fire and had the headgear replaced twice and the lens gasket fell apart and also had to be replaced, so about 2 years ago I went out and bought a helmet, a brand brought in and marketed by a franchised tool company, it was discounted to about $190 from about $250, intention was that I would use it as a spare since the Miller would eventually let me down by falling apart or failing mid job.
When I got it, I tried this new helmet on 3 occasions just to try it out and see what it was like, whilst it does give a better view of the weld, it doesn't have the x-weld mode that the Miller has, so total time working was less than 1 hour and was used 3 times and so spent it's life sitting on the shelf. To cut a long story short, I pulled it out the other day mid job as the main splatter cover on the Miller was pretty grotty and hard to see through, that when I realized the advantage of the x-mode on the Miller. Climbing up the frame of the shed that I am welding, every time a bit of sunlight hit the screen it would darken as if I was welding, drove me nuts. I also noticed that the head back restraint strap had cracked in two places, so not happy about that considering the 1 hour of work it had done and also it was 12 months out of warranty, but it still shouldn't have broken. I have had helmets that have taken 15 years of constant use and only just started to break.
So under Australian consumer right laws if the product is not fit for purpose the the importer/reseller has to make it right. So rang them up and spoke to a young sales person who basically said it's out of warranty, so I asked to be put through to a manager as all I needed was a rear head strap, he said they don't carry any parts and as it's out of warranty I was out of luck, anyway he took my details and sent me a text later saying the manager said the same thing, but would not put me through to him or give me his name when I asked, and got very defensive, saying that I was aggressive when I asked for his name, I only wanted it so I could fill in a proper report to the Office of Fair Trading.
Anyway I contact that department and they advised me to send an email to the company explaining what had happened and what I would like to do to resolve the situation. Under Australian law an importer/reseller has to carry parts for a reasonable time and or refund the goods or come to some other solution acceptable by me. As they were still selling that helmet that was a problem for them to solve. Should the problem not be resolved to get back to them and they would talk to them on my behalf.
The manager of the store later today sent me an email, humbly apologizing for the response of the salesman and was happy for me to keep the helmet and he would give me a new one. In other words I personally think that the salesman didn't even talk to him and decided to just refuse my request. No doubt, the manager had quite a few words to him about a companies legal obligations regarding faulty products even if they are out of the stated warranty. Over here in Oz many companies have been fined multi millions of dollars for breaching the Consumer laws.
Anyway back to the original part of this long story, it looks like I would still have to buy another Miller just for that feature, however they seem to have patented it extremely well and no other brand that I have found has that X-weld feature which I really, really like. So I contacted the original company in the USA where I bought my first one and it seems that to send a new one to Australia costs more than the helmet itself, like about $480 just to send it, so it would be over $1100 landed, I think I paid about $50 for delivery first time around. Talk about transport cost inflation. So, now I am in the process of trying to find a replacement for the Miller, so far without success, so has any body on this forum heard about a different brand that does have this feature as you guys in the UK may have different brands to us in Australia. For the amount of welding I do now I could probably afford up to about $600-650 but can't justify any more than that. The Miller model I would like is the Digital Elite Clearlight 2.0 P/N: 289768
When I got it, I tried this new helmet on 3 occasions just to try it out and see what it was like, whilst it does give a better view of the weld, it doesn't have the x-weld mode that the Miller has, so total time working was less than 1 hour and was used 3 times and so spent it's life sitting on the shelf. To cut a long story short, I pulled it out the other day mid job as the main splatter cover on the Miller was pretty grotty and hard to see through, that when I realized the advantage of the x-mode on the Miller. Climbing up the frame of the shed that I am welding, every time a bit of sunlight hit the screen it would darken as if I was welding, drove me nuts. I also noticed that the head back restraint strap had cracked in two places, so not happy about that considering the 1 hour of work it had done and also it was 12 months out of warranty, but it still shouldn't have broken. I have had helmets that have taken 15 years of constant use and only just started to break.
So under Australian consumer right laws if the product is not fit for purpose the the importer/reseller has to make it right. So rang them up and spoke to a young sales person who basically said it's out of warranty, so I asked to be put through to a manager as all I needed was a rear head strap, he said they don't carry any parts and as it's out of warranty I was out of luck, anyway he took my details and sent me a text later saying the manager said the same thing, but would not put me through to him or give me his name when I asked, and got very defensive, saying that I was aggressive when I asked for his name, I only wanted it so I could fill in a proper report to the Office of Fair Trading.
Anyway I contact that department and they advised me to send an email to the company explaining what had happened and what I would like to do to resolve the situation. Under Australian law an importer/reseller has to carry parts for a reasonable time and or refund the goods or come to some other solution acceptable by me. As they were still selling that helmet that was a problem for them to solve. Should the problem not be resolved to get back to them and they would talk to them on my behalf.
The manager of the store later today sent me an email, humbly apologizing for the response of the salesman and was happy for me to keep the helmet and he would give me a new one. In other words I personally think that the salesman didn't even talk to him and decided to just refuse my request. No doubt, the manager had quite a few words to him about a companies legal obligations regarding faulty products even if they are out of the stated warranty. Over here in Oz many companies have been fined multi millions of dollars for breaching the Consumer laws.
Anyway back to the original part of this long story, it looks like I would still have to buy another Miller just for that feature, however they seem to have patented it extremely well and no other brand that I have found has that X-weld feature which I really, really like. So I contacted the original company in the USA where I bought my first one and it seems that to send a new one to Australia costs more than the helmet itself, like about $480 just to send it, so it would be over $1100 landed, I think I paid about $50 for delivery first time around. Talk about transport cost inflation. So, now I am in the process of trying to find a replacement for the Miller, so far without success, so has any body on this forum heard about a different brand that does have this feature as you guys in the UK may have different brands to us in Australia. For the amount of welding I do now I could probably afford up to about $600-650 but can't justify any more than that. The Miller model I would like is the Digital Elite Clearlight 2.0 P/N: 289768
