I’m disheartened to have to give UMI a negative review as most of our experience with them was generally positive, but they were unfortunately very misleading and disingenuous with one critical element of business – the warranty on our machine.
My wife and I originally purchased an expensive Terason ultrasound machine from UMI about 2 years back from a sales member named Eric who was generally very helpful and honest. However, my wife and I were very cautious in our purchase of the machine because we just weren’t sure how our new business would fare. To that end, we frequently asked Eric “will the machine’s warranty transfer if we end up having to sell it?” To which Eric would always respond “yes, the warranty can be transferred.”
Fast forward about a month and a half and ago when my wife and I decided to sell our machine – she had found a new job and we didn’t want to pursue the business any longer. Given Eric’s reassurances that the warranty from the machine would transfer to the new owner, we were planning to advertise the machine as coming with the original five year warranty, but just in case we also gave UMI a call to confirm that the warranty would transfer. After speaking with a different employee at UMI (apparently Eric is no longer with them), we were told that “the warranty can transfer with a small fee”. It’s at that time that we really should have asked what “small” means to them, but I guess we were naive. Given the assurance that the warranty would transfer with a small fee we listed our machine for sale and advertised it as coming with the original 5-year warranty.
The person that ended up purchasing our machine, it turns out, had already spoken with a sales member at UMI (Neil) who had given him quotes on brand new machines. Having found our machine for sale online at a much reduced price, and coming with the original warranty, the purchaser decided to go with our machine instead of a brand new one – thus leaving Neil without his commission.
Once the machine was sold to the purchaser, he reached out to UMI to ask for the warranty to be transferred to his name. Neil told him that he could purchase a warranty at a price of $3,500 per year or $8,000 for the remaining 3-years of the original warranty. Interestingly, Neil actually told the purchaser that he “sold the machine to us” and that he knew exactly who we were when we had never spoken with him before and we actually purchased the machine from Eric.
I assumed this was just a salesman trying to make some money out of a deal that didn’t work out for him, so I reached out to UMI directly to ask for assistance in transferring the warranty. While my original call to UMI (I spoke with Mansoor) sounded very promising – he said that he could definitely transfer the warranty for me and that it wouldn’t be a problem, didn’t even mention a fee – I was completely appalled when he emailed me 2 days later saying that we could transfer the warranty for $8,000 for the remaining 3 years. To my greater surprise, guess who was CC’d on the email – Neil.
While it may in fact be common practice to upcharge for a warranty transfer after the sale of an expensive machine like this, I nevertheless believe UMI has been very disingenuous about the warranty transfer right from the start. At first they made it sound like it would transfer without issue, then they said it would be a “small fee”, immediately followed by an $8,000 bill for the “transferred” warranty. I fail to see how $8,000 is in any way a transfer rather than just a brand new purchase of a warranty. Very disappointed in UMI with how this was handled and certainly not paying the $8,000 ransom for the warranty.
United Medical Instruments Inc Reviews
I’m disheartened to have to give UMI a negative review as most of our experience with them was generally positive, but they were unfortunately very misleading and disingenuous with one critical element of business – the warranty on our machine.
My wife and I originally purchased an expensive Terason ultrasound machine from UMI about 2 years back from a sales member named Eric who was generally very helpful and honest. However, my wife and I were very cautious in our purchase of the machine because we just weren’t sure how our new business would fare. To that end, we frequently asked Eric “will the machine’s warranty transfer if we end up having to sell it?” To which Eric would always respond “yes, the warranty can be transferred.”
Fast forward about a month and a half and ago when my wife and I decided to sell our machine – she had found a new job and we didn’t want to pursue the business any longer. Given Eric’s reassurances that the warranty from the machine would transfer to the new owner, we were planning to advertise the machine as coming with the original five year warranty, but just in case we also gave UMI a call to confirm that the warranty would transfer. After speaking with a different employee at UMI (apparently Eric is no longer with them), we were told that “the warranty can transfer with a small fee”. It’s at that time that we really should have asked what “small” means to them, but I guess we were naive. Given the assurance that the warranty would transfer with a small fee we listed our machine for sale and advertised it as coming with the original 5-year warranty.
The person that ended up purchasing our machine, it turns out, had already spoken with a sales member at UMI (Neil) who had given him quotes on brand new machines. Having found our machine for sale online at a much reduced price, and coming with the original warranty, the purchaser decided to go with our machine instead of a brand new one – thus leaving Neil without his commission.
Once the machine was sold to the purchaser, he reached out to UMI to ask for the warranty to be transferred to his name. Neil told him that he could purchase a warranty at a price of $3,500 per year or $8,000 for the remaining 3-years of the original warranty. Interestingly, Neil actually told the purchaser that he “sold the machine to us” and that he knew exactly who we were when we had never spoken with him before and we actually purchased the machine from Eric.
I assumed this was just a salesman trying to make some money out of a deal that didn’t work out for him, so I reached out to UMI directly to ask for assistance in transferring the warranty. While my original call to UMI (I spoke with Mansoor) sounded very promising – he said that he could definitely transfer the warranty for me and that it wouldn’t be a problem, didn’t even mention a fee – I was completely appalled when he emailed me 2 days later saying that we could transfer the warranty for $8,000 for the remaining 3 years. To my greater surprise, guess who was CC’d on the email – Neil.
While it may in fact be common practice to upcharge for a warranty transfer after the sale of an expensive machine like this, I nevertheless believe UMI has been very disingenuous about the warranty transfer right from the start. At first they made it sound like it would transfer without issue, then they said it would be a “small fee”, immediately followed by an $8,000 bill for the “transferred” warranty. I fail to see how $8,000 is in any way a transfer rather than just a brand new purchase of a warranty. Very disappointed in UMI with how this was handled and certainly not paying the $8,000 ransom for the warranty.