Wizard Upgrades

DonB

True Grumbler
Joined
Jun 11, 2002
Posts
53
Location
Houston, Texas, USA
Just talked to Wizard. Upgrade options to the new model were just released :D -

Mat cutter w/new PC - $3700
Mat cutter only - $3000

30 month payment option available - $140/mo w/new PC

DonB
 
Man I don't think I'll ever get to break any news about Wizard, my customers always beat me to it.

Thanks for the post Don.

For customers who have additional questions please call our Help Desk at 888 855-3335. Just so you know, upgrades will not be available until mid-March but we will have a first come first serve list. We will be launching a new web site in the next few weeks and all pertinent information will be available there as well. I apologize for it not being up already, but I have already worked my staff to the bone, and heaven knows I'm not competent enough to do it myself.

See you Grumblers in Vegas. Please take a few minutes and come introduce yourselves to me.
 
Thanks Don. Way cool, Edd. I'll have mine boxed up waiting for the replacement. Put my name on the list for the new one.

If it's the same size as the nold one, can I return the old one in the new box? I've saved that d...ed box for so many years Ifear it may not hold up in shipment of the old one back to WA.

Looking forward to my new Wizard since I'm SOOOOO tired of cutting these 8-plys by hand ;) ;)
 
Michael,

You are officially on the list. We will contact you when upgrades are being scheduled.

By the way you are not number 1 on the list, but for a little cash I might .... oooops this is a public forum. Just kidding, thanks for the confidence in us.
 
We rent our Wizard. I don't know the make or model. I am at home. We are having all kinds of adjustment problems with it. Is there no way to have a company representive come around and look at it and other people's Wizard,for that matter. When we call, us three women are just not up to fixing it by phone. There are too many parts and if we did one thing wrong, we would be dead meat. We love our Wizard, but definitly need some help. We have learned to compensate for some things, but for others we need help.
 
Susan,

Not knowing what problems you are experiencing, I certainly can't advise you as to what actions you might take. So I will answer your questions two ways. First, try calling our Help Desk (888 855-3335) 95% of the time they can walk you through the fix or adjustment you need. If that doesn't work, in many cases we simply ship you out a replacement part (up to and including an entirely new board if necessary). We also have to ability to remotely access your computer (provided you have a phone line available, i.e. a fax line, internet line etc.) and make any necessary software adjustments. Our Support personnel are the best in the business (with over 3500 customers they have heard it and seen it all).

However, we do have Distributors who have been trained to service the machines. If one is in your area we can dispatch them, but there may be a cost to you. If we determine that we need them to come to you, we will pick up the charge, if it seems to be an "education" issue and we can't seem to handle it over the phone, you will need to work out the costs with the Distributor for their time.

Finally, being the liberated man I am, I am not too proud to admit that a good number of our Help Desk staff are women and they can all run circles around me (no pun intended) when it comes to diagnosing and fixing issues for our customers.

If for some reason you don't get your issues taken care of with a call to our Help Desk, please feel free to call me directly and I will make sure you get the help you need.

PS: If you or one of your staff get a chance to attend one of the many upcoming shows, please take a few minutes to stop by our booth and have our one of our Support personnel work with you on any questions or issues you still have.
 
Thank you for this imformation. I am printing it out for my boss.

Most of our problems have to do with uneven mats, mats curving, mats not being square, etc. We have called Support without having problems resolved. We also have a sheet that describes problem solving for such things. The fixes just don't seem to last more than a day. It is more consistant out of whack.

Do you know if it costs more or less to buy a new Wizard than it does to rent one? I do not know what my boss pays. Our Wizard is probably 6 years old at least.
 
Susan,

There are several options for your boss. As a general rule it is always more cost effective to rent, but I won't go into all the reasons here.

Why don't you have him give me a call and we will try to determine the best solution to your situation. No matter what we can certainly get your cutting issues solved.
 
Purp: Mansfield is a little out of our normal Ohio coverage area but the boys in Troy (TCM) may be able to help you out with adjustments. Call Ed Bax at 1-800-632-4842. He is our general manager and he may be able to get John or Tim down to see you. If not, Frame King is also a distributor, but I do not know if they go north of Columbus. Wizard may have someone covering Cleveland and they also may be able to help.
 
Thank you. I will give this information to my boss. She hasn't gotten the earlier information, yet, because I have been on vacation.

I think she will find it valuable.
 
Edd,
Let me get this straight.....I'm currently on the Wizard Jr. Program I've had the machine for 16 months.

To get the new machine, I have to pay $3000 and keep the computer i have or $3700 with a computer?

Even though I could send the one I have back, and then re-rent and get the new one with just a $500 software fee initially, and more or less extend my rental program about another year?

I haven't called tech support yet and asked but maybe you can answer it here
 
Edd,

I realize that you want us to call your tech support, however, you could answer some questions on the Grumble that many of have in common and save your staff a bunch of phone calls. I'll post my questions, but if you choose to not answer, there won't be any hard feelings.

How will the new Wizard be different from the old one other than cutting 8 ply mats?

Will our current V Cadd program still work like it does now?

Can we still use the designs we have saved for customers?

Will Wizard still support the old version?

How can we determine if it is going to be worthwhile for us to change to the new version?
 
Edd is Vegas demoing the new machine which for future reference is the 8000. The past board was known as the 5000. I'm going to try to answer some of the questions. Edd, help me out if I'm wrong!

How will the new Wizard be different from the old one other than cutting 8 ply mats?

"It will be quieter and more accurate do to the new motor technology. The micro stepper motors should allow for intricut cuts as well. The new head design looks very clever in that blade depth will be controlled by a dial." There are probably many more benefits but these I know for fact.

Will our current V Cadd program still work like it does now?

"Yes. Both the 5000 and 8000 boards use the same software."

Can we still use the designs we have saved for customers?

"Yes, same as above."

Will Wizard still support the old version?

"Yes, however and Edd can correct me on this but I'm going to guess that templates and clip art may become more complex and over time the 5000 board may not cut some of these more complex designs as well as an 8000. I'm sure you've experienced the little message "The clip art you've selected may not cut properly because of small radius has been detected", and this message may appear more often if attempted to cut on a 5000."

How can we determine if it is going to be worthwhile for us to change to the new version?

"My personal opinion is that if you have the opportunity and can afford it you should always upgrade to new and better technology. The 8000 has had a lot of time and money spent on development and even though I've only seen some preliminary specifications I have to believe it is well worth the investment. If you cut a fair amount of 6 and 8 ply board it will be payed for in no time at all with the rental or purchase of an 8000."

Thanks.
 
Did you have an answer to this?
Let me get this straight.....I'm currently on the Wizard Jr. Program I've had the machine for 16 months.

To get the new machine, I have to pay $3000 and keep the computer i have or $3700 with a computer?

Even though I could send the one I have back, and then re-rent and get the new one with just a $500 software fee initially, and more or less extend my rental program about another year?

I haven't called tech support yet and asked but maybe you can answer it here

--------------------
Voted 2002 "Worst Joke of the Year" on Warped
Jerry Vandergriff, CERTIFIED PICTURE FRAMER®
McCue and Blanford Frame Shop Supply
Gumby
Think Green
 
Get the new Wizard as soon as you can. The waiting list is getting longer... after the introduction in Las Vegas I am sure.
It is a VERY good machine... and it is all new. The software is all new...easy to use. We were very impressed with it.......so impressed
we purchased the new Wizard while at the WCAF in Vegas last week. Can't wait to get it in...

:D
Judy
 
Hey folks,

Sorry I haven’t been on-line to respond sooner. Although we have been busy in Las Vegas at the WCAF, I am just too spoiled by the high-speed Internet access that I have at home and in the office. When I have to use dial-up I tend to stay off the Internet.

I have said it many times here, I feel somewhat uncomfortable promoting our product in a forum designed for open exchange between framers. However, since I was asked to do so, I will answer as many questions as I can. Please feel free to chastise me if I go overboard.

First, thank you John for pinch-hitting for me, you did a good job, nothing to correct on your answers. Also, thank you for the kind words Judy, they certainly carry more credibility coming from a happy customer, than they would coming from me. I think most of our customers will eventually opt for the new machine, primarily because of the convenience features (i.e., blade change, depth adjustment, and quieter more accurate functionality).

There are several upgrade options, you can find them on our website, but I will try to cover the basics here.

Junior Customers will simply sign a new contract (they will have to pay a new Software User Fee $500) but they won’t pay an “upgrade” charge per se. They will then pay the new Junior monthly fee of $245 (instead of $225). The contract is still month-to-month, so you are never locked in.

Standard rental customers have the most options. If you are a Platinum member, you will pay the $3000 or $3700 (depending on if you need a new computer or not), but if you want you may pay that in installments (30 months). We will charge a little finance charge so you will pay $140 per month or $110 per month for the 30 months, but that way you don’t have to put out the cash up front. For the rest of our Standard rental customers it really becomes a math equation, that being how long have you rented for and what would it cost you (over time) to upgrade rather than simply start over. I have run the numbers and I think the answer is 14 months. If you have rented a Standard system for longer than 14 months you will save money by paying the upgrade fee. As a current Standard customer, you get to lock in your corners charges to the original 5 cents (we raised the fee on the new system to a whopping 5.5 cents per corner). But that does raise the rent $20 per month and that will add up over time. If you’ve had the system less than 14 months, you are better off to simply exercise a new contract, pay the Software Users Fee again, and pay the $390 per month.

If you purchased your machine in the last 120 days, we give you a 100% credit of what you paid towards the new machine. There are some other variables based on what you paid for your machine, but essentially we will give you at least a 50% trade-in value towards the new machine if you bought it anytime before September. Additionally, we guarantee you a “future trade-in” value on the new machine. We call it the future technology guarantee. We don’t feel people should invest upwards of $16,000 only to find out that the technology is outdated in a year or two (another great reason to rent).

Man this is getting long. Okay, other important items. If you upgrade you have to send us the old machine (remember the part in the contract about keeping your shipping boxes), but I will pay the freight. You get to pay the freight of the new system to your shop, so essentially we are swapping the freight charges with you. The new machine weighs about the same as the old one so the shipping charges should be close to the same.

The new machine takes a new blade (roughly the same cost) and we will take any un-open boxes back and replace them with new ones for you. We also will transfer any banked corners you might have on your machine if you are a rental customer.

We will always support our old machines and our valued customers. John is correct that the new machine has several advanced capabilities, so it is likely that there will be some designs that might not cut well on the older model (model 5000 for those of you who didn’t know there was a model number), particularly with 8 ply designs.

Well that is probably enough. Please feel free to call me if you have more questions or call our Help Desk (888 855-3335). I apologize for the length but I was hoping to only do this once. For those of you who don’t like vendors posting “sales stuff” I apologize to you as well, but with over 3500 customers, getting accurate information out is critical and this is a great forum for it.

The End (thanks for reading this novel by Edd Pratt)

[ 01-19-2003, 09:31 PM: Message edited by: WizardEdd ]
 
Back
Top