Marvin at imat

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Excuse my ignorance, who is Marvin at Imat and why is it of interest to The Grumble that he ownes a condo? Now that I think about it, what is Imat?
I'm not trying to be a wise ass, I am genuinely curious.

John
 
Marvin is (was) the owner of Regal Crown Industries in Seattle, a company that made, among other things, the Mat Maestro and iMat computerized mat cutters. Some of us have the machines and are more-or-less happy with them. Others have non-working iMats, and a significant number have paid for machines and never received them. The twist is that Marvin and iMat filed for bancruptcy in April, but apparently continued to collect money for machines that would never be delivered. Even those of us who have working Mat Maestros or iMats are very concerned about future supplies, parts, tech support and software upgrades. It's a very ugly situation, and I think a lot of us are preoccupied with it. A few of us are tying to "circle the wagons" and share support info, but I, for one, don't care much where Marvin's condo is, unless he's going to invite us all out for the weekend to discuss intregity snd ethics in our industry.
 
How is it that they filed for bankruptcy in April, and they contacted me late June? They were trying to get me to buy one of their CMC's. I got the information in the mail, but I am glad that all I wanted to do was see the offer... I'm not ready to buy yet.

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.
 
Susan, you were definately one of the lucky ones. The bankruptcy trustees are asking the same question you did, especially since iMat is claiming zero assets.
 
Certainly explains the blitz of mailings I got from them since the first of the year. Got a call on the phone asking about my interest and then the brochures started.
They're not the only ones to have vanished. I bought a Gunn Art manual mat cutter from Gerlich Prime Commercial. Called to get some warrantee work done, and they had vanished from the face of the earth. the parent company, Gunnar, has been helpful but there is no western hemisphere distribution for their manual cutters, and I'm now having to deal with the home office in Switzerland.

[This message has been edited by wpfay (edited July 16, 2001).]
 
I guess as we start spending big bucks in this industry for production equipment to increase our productivity and capabilities, we're also opening ourselves up to get burned. iMat, formerly Regal Crown Industries, was hardly an industry giant, but had been around a very long time without annoying too many people. They became the victim of what I call MBO, or management by offspring and apparently went down the toilet pretty quickly. If my analysis is wrong, I'm certainly open to other opinions. I think a forum like this certainly gives framers an opportunity to solicit opinions before making a major purchase. I don't think anyone knew the depth of iMat's troubles a year ago when I bought my CMC, but, had I known about The Grumble, I probably would have discovered that there were already people having serious problems with service and delivery from Regal Crown Industries and I might have held out for a Fletcher or Eclipse, or pounced on the Wizard as I had originally planned.
 
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