airbrush compressor dealer anbody ever deal with these guys ?

pyrrhus wrote:

Air fuego is the company http://airfuego.com/index.htm anybody ever order from them ? Their TC-2000 compessor price looks good but is it too good ? 5buck handling and 18.00 to ship oppinions ?

I have that Compressor (TC2000), bought it about a month ago...  first, it is a great compressor- very quiet, great airflow...  when I bought it I saw that deal from airfuego and considered it...  in the end, I decided it was worth dealing with a retailer I felt comfortable with.  I paid $40 more but the company I purchased from guarantees the product, is a family run business, and was a pleasure to deal with.  I had originally ordered it from another company (not airfuego) and was called the next day to "verify" the order as a "special-order" which had to be shipped from the manufacturer and so could not be returned to the retailer...   I cancelled the order.

 I ended up getting it from madison art supply (www.madisonartshop.com), paid $201 shipped.  Got it 2 days after I ordered it and am totally comfortable that if something happened in the first year, they would replace it.

Bexley wrote:

They've got a decent enough return policy, and will pay for shipping if you're returning something because it's damaged or not what you ordered. Though, I've never had to return something, so I can't say how true that is. They also sell a lot of different airbrushes and parts. It's been a while, but my recollection was the prices were pretty fair-to-better than most places. I also bought my airbrush there, and (unless I'm impatient and get it locally) I get replacement parts there too.

Good luck getting TCPGlobal to respond promptly to email when you have a problem though, if at all. Or getting someone on the phone because they don't answer their email, despite their site banner saying they have "live" help 7 days a week. Most of the time you get their answering machine, and they DO NOT return calls.

I bought an Artograph 1530 spray booth from them through Ebay, and it was dented big time in 2 places, although it appears to have arrived that way to their location from Artograph since it shipped in the original manufacturer box and the box itself was undamaged.

When I finally got their manager on the phone, he was obviously some young punk with a title and his whole tone dripped with annoyance and condescension. He was long on excuses ("we have one guy handling all our Ebay transactions"), and slow to just say that the item would be replaced because it was insured, and they'd send a mailing label with the replacement. It took about 15 minutes of him playing the excuse and blame game before just cutting to the quick and satisfying his customer that paid over $300 for the spray booth.

I'm sure others may have had dissimilar experiences, but for me having to deal with an as on the phone is enough for me to take my business elsewhere. I have better things to do frankly. Caveat emptor applies here.

I have TCPGlobal's TC-196 (which is the dual piston version of the TC-20T) and I'm very happy with it. I got it pretty quickly (I ordered directly through their website, though they do sell through Amazon, if you wish to have a little more protection) and it hasn't had any problems. Well, in the six months I've had it. It's fairly quiet (I can work at night in the basement without waking the family) and I would expect the TC-20T to be about as loud. A bigger tank would have been nicer, as it does tend to run a lot, but that's likely more due to being used to a big 10-gallon  shop compressor. I needed something quieter so I could work later, which outweighs the small tank issue.

 They've got a decent enough return policy, and will pay for shipping if you're returning something because it's damaged or not what you ordered. Though, I've never had to return something, so I can't say how true that is. They also sell a lot of different airbrushes and parts. It's been a while, but my recollection was the prices were pretty fair-to-better than most places. I also bought my airbrush there, and (unless I'm impatient and get it locally) I get replacement parts there too.

pyrrhus wrote:

I was thinking of the sparmax tc2000 or the iwata smart jet both are at my local hobby lobby and both seem good buys with a 40% off coupon . any oppinions on these two ?Airbrush-Depot TC-20T or this one ?

Whenever in doubt, buy from a seller where you can return conveniently in case you do not like it. It helps if you do a search on "compressor" and read up on the feedback from users on this forum.

The decision, after all, is yours and you will live with it.

pyrrhus wrote:

thanks tom i am looking for a good compessor that is quiet . I live in an Apt and can paint quit late so I am limited that way .I have herd sparmax makes good compressors and the harbor frieght ones seem like they wouldn't last long and would be loud .any suggestions expeirences ?

How about one of the Silentaire Scorpion models here: 

http://dixieart.com/Silentaire_Scorpion_Compressors.html

That link you posted has good prices but I am not comfortable buying from someone I have never heard of. I would buy from Coast Airbrush, Dixie Art or Bear Air if it were me as I know and trust them. 

Another option is CO2 but I am not sure how you feel about that in an apartment. It is safe if handled properly but some people are afraid of the high pressure in the tank.

pyrrhus wrote:

Air fuego is the company http://airfuego.com/index.htm anybody ever order from them ? Their TC-2000 compessor price looks good but is it too good ? 5buck handling and 18.00 to ship oppinions ?

IMHO, this looks like one of those situations where a company is either is closing out a product line/catagory, or going out of business without declaring it, as we both know, if they are "all sales are final", etc., whether your card got charged or not.

In either case, if you order from folks that still list a bunch of stuff, as they do, and then show it as "Sold Out", that should tell you something right there.

In either case, I do not see how you would get any customer satisfaction from someone who is essentially having a "garage sale" on their website.

As a for instance, what if they say they shipped your order, and you don't get it,and then they say that they shipped it but it was their last one? Then you gotta wait up to 60 days for a tracer to verify as to where the shipment went, provided it relly did ship, if you get my drift.

For good priced airbrush compressors and airbrushes, I prefer to stick with established businesses like model expo-online.com:

http://www.modelexpo-online.com/

Or Harbor Freight Tools:

 http://www.harborfreight.com/

I have had excellent customer service with both of these firms.

Tom T