I was hoping to not have to make this public. But after giving John Kaspar (owner of Hurricane lasers) every opportunity to make this right, he has done nothing. I'll try to lay out the facts and hope this helps other make their own decisions as to whether or not to do business with this company. This is not about their machines (I never go the opportunity to use one), rather, this is about my attempt to purchase one and to make Hurricane a vendor/partner for our makerspace.

The most important part of this deal was a delivery in time for our grand opening, two months away (on October 6th). It was a critical day for us. I made this perfectly clear and was told it's no problem repeatedly. He was very excited to be a part of our makerspace.

Here's what happened:

July 20th 2013 - Went to NMB show and met John from Hurricane.

July 24th - Quickly received a quote from John for $13,324.50. Great response. Very pro-active.

July 25th - Asked about getting a gray & white machine instead of shades of green to better fit with our facility. was told "roughly 3 weeks build time, 3 weeks ship time 1 week customs and 1 week assemble, test etc"

July 25th - Asked if a 25% deposit would be enough to get our machine ordered, balance to be paid around September 1st (a month ahead of delivery!).
July 26th - John replied "That will be fine as long as the 25% deposit is non refundable due to the custom color"

The "custom color" is actually just the standard colors these machine are made in by G. Weike. They (Hurricane) have the Chinese factory paint them green to make them different from the others who import the same machines.

August 1st - John wrote "If you can wire $3324 for the 25% deposit that would be great" and I did a few days later.

August 6th - Received an email from Hurricane with an attached invoice PDF. Invoice clearly states "Ship date 09/25/2013" and payment of $3,324 made. $10,000.50 balance due. I was happy. Machine ordered.

August XX - some back and forth emails about control boards, software, coming out to train, etc... No surprises.

August 30th - In just about every email I ask about delivery. This email from John includes the line "I still anticipate delivery the week before you open. Have a great Holiday week and let me know if we can help any other way." Awesome!

August 30th - In an email, he asks when we will be wiring the rest of the money ($10,000)

September 3rd - I reply "Please give me a few more days and resend your bank info. It’s hectic around here."

September 6th - I wired the entire $10,000. Machine now paid in full.

September 9th - Email from Hurricane with an invoice, confirming zero balance. Ship date on invoice is still 09/25/13. I assume this is from LA harbor or from Las Vegas (their facility). Vegas is 4 hours max, LA Harbor is 2 hours max from us. All going smoothly. Getting excited.

September 24th - emailed John. Questions about size of the machine. We had to cut a bigger opening to get it in the room we want. Also asked about delivery. John replies "The laser is in the air and I expect it next week. We can then schedule the training and delivery at the same time." Ok. So a little concerned, but there's still time and I have my hands full with prepping a brand new facility for our grand opening.

October 2nd - emailed John. I wrote "Was wondering when we should expect our laser? I need to get my two guys here that same day for training. Our Grand Opening is this Sunday, we need at least a day or two to train and make our give-aways / samples. As we discussed, you (or your tech) are still coming to train us and install the same day?" NO REPLY. Getting concerned.

October 3rd (Wednesday) - I called, left a message with the receptionist. NO REPLY.

October 3th (Thursday) - I called twice, left a message with the receptionist and on his voicemail. NO REPLY. What the hell is happening? Opening day is Sunday. No machine. No reply. I have people coming to see this cool technology. I wanted to cut a bunch of cool dog-tags to give away and custom engrave water bottles to sell. Too late for that.

October 4th (Friday) - I called, and (luckily?) John answers. "We will be there with the machine tomorrow morning!" I let him know that I was disappointed in the lack of communication, but at this point relieved to know that it's coming. At least I'll have a machine to show my new members and the community. To be forthright, I don't recall if this conversation happened Thursday or Friday. There was A LOT going on!

October 5th (Saturday) - No machine. No calls. No answer at Hurricane. I don't have any cell numbers. Nothing. I am heartbroken.

October 6th (Sunday - Grand Opening) - So much happening, but I find time to email John. Here's the entire email: "Not sure how to start this email. Where is my laser? It is October 6th. You promised the machine a week before my Grand Opening, then one day before (after I CALLED to find out). Now it’s the most important day to my company’s future and there is no machine here. I promised people to see the machine. I planned on making give-aways on that machine. I planned on offering items for sale that I was going to make on that machine. It was going to be the centerpiece of the day. I wanted a few days to train my guys. You said you would personally come down to train and help set up.
I ordered the machine TWO MONTHS AGO. I paid you as agreed, in full a month ago. Now you have all my precious money and I have nothing.
You have not called, made no attempt to contact me to keep me updated. No offer of a temp machine. Nothing."

October 7th (Monday) called, left a message with receptionist, she states "John is not available"

October 8th (Tuesday - two days later) - I received an email @ 1:32pm

"My apologies. Traci and I both have Strep and were out Thursday afternoon on. You laser is in LA airport and is being trucked over to me Wednesday. we can deliver it this weekend, Let me know what time works for you and your team."

At this point I am livid and I respond with an email (since he's still not answering my calls!) @ 2:01pm:

"That’s it? “My apologies.” An apology is not enough at this point and again (you) have made ZERO effort to address my issues. I understand you were out sick. But you have employees, and they could have made an effort to contact me and let me know that the machine is not going to make it.
You have done a very poor job of communicating with us and have been dishonest. I count on my partners/vendors to be pro-active, truthful and let me know what’s happening BEFORE, not after.
I’d like to cancel this order. The machine not being here on opening day has cost me membership and reputation. You not being honest about delivery, not communicating and not offering a loaner (or any other recourse), has cost you the sale. We can keep this civil and easy, or I can go on the internet with how this turns out."

He replies the same day in an email (instead of calling) @ 2:04pm:

"I spoke with you last week and told you it was at the airport and was awaiting customs and that i would let you know when it arrived. No misleading here. Also, per our emails the custom color order is not refundable. There is no dishonesty here. Additionally, you stated last week that you had other pieces of equipment that had not arrived yet either. Please let me know of a sensible solution so I can get the laser delivered."

This is a lie, we spoke on (Thursday or) Friday the (3rd or) 4th and he said he will bring the machine on Saturday! He also quickly tries to claim that the "custom color order is not refundable" luckily I have the email saying that only the down payment is non refundable. So he gets to keep $3,324 because he has a 100% brand new machine in a different color. I assume he can sell it with ease anyway and make a nice profit.

So I fired back another email @ 3:10pm:

"I ordered the machine two months ago. You said end of September was no problem (lie?). That didn’t happen. THEN, not hearing from you, I emailed and called. You said Saturday morning delivery (lie?). That didn’t happen. NOT EVEN A PHONE CALL!

Not once did you updated me on the status of the machine order. Not once did you suggest or bring up the fact that the machine might not make it. Not once did you offer another machine in it’s place. I COUNTED on that machine being at our grand opening, you knew that. You never called, no emails, NOTHING. I kept reaching out to you for updates, but unless it was for payment, then you were really quick to e-mail me.

As for “non-refundable” here’s a quote from your email from 07/26/13. I underlined “deposit.” (attached his email stating so)

As for other pieces of equipment, they arrived. And one dealer made sure I had a demo machine for the event, while I waited for the one we ordered to arrive. Good business practice. Keep the $3,324 “non-refundable” deposit, give me my $10,000 back and I’ll let the world know how you do business. This is not a threat of any kind, I’ll just post up my version of what happened (didn’t happen) on public forums, you are free to do the same.
Or you can refund the entire amount and we’ll just go our separate ways silently. Since you gave us a “great deal,” a paint job is not going to keep you from selling that machine for the exact same price or even more.
You may have the best machine for the money, but because of your actions/inactions, I no longer want any kind of business relationship with your company. Do not attempt delivery."

John Kaspar replied the same day again @ 3:27pm:

"Since you have problems remembering things here is a copy of the email I sent outlining the 8 week time frame which puts us to this week. 8 weeks from 8/5 order date. Also, your balance due was due 9/1 and I had to call you to check on the payment. So it is ok for you to take an extra 10 days to pay but others can not have extra days for delivery.
I agree I would rather not deal with someone that twists the facts. I will refund your 10k less the non refundable deposit. Since this is what we agreed to in writing. Where would you like the check mailed to?"

So in this email he claims that it's perfectly OK to deliver the machine a week AFTER my grand opening AND he claims that he had to call to check on the payment (which was wired on the 6th and received the same day. Six days not ten.). No effort to apologize, nothing. I'm accused of "twisting the facts." All I wanted was a machine on my floor on the 6th or some sort of effort to help me with the situation. He made NO effort to resolve this situation. He KNEW that the machine was not going to make it, and made no effort to inform us. No effort to perhaps give us a loaner machine. NOT EVEN A PHONE CALL!

My last email with John Kaspar of Hurricane Lasers @ 4:46pm:

"I see that you have nothing to say about your lack of customer care or efforts to help your customers in their most critical time. There was no harm in my being a few days late with the balance of the payment. You called me, I told you honestly that I would be a few days late. I called you and you lied about delivery. There is the difference!
There was tremendous harm in you not doing the things I asked and lying to me about the verbal “end of September delivery not a problem” and then again with the “Saturday morning delivery.” You have nothing to say about that? You KNEW when our grand opening was.
Wire the money to: XXXX Or send a check to: XXXX"

I have called Hurricane Lasers (855) 552-7377 at least 6 times over the last two weeks. I have either left a voice mail, left a message with the receptionist. I've even got a "hold on I'll get him" and it goes to voice-mail.

It has been over THREE WEEKS since our last email exchange and NOTHING has happened. No check received, no money transferred. I tired twice to call him again today. But he would not take my calls. John Kaspar and/or Hurricane Lasers owes me (at least) $10,000, if not the entire $13,324. I was really hoping to work this out. But I don't have much recourse, he has all of my money. I cannot even purchase another laser because I need this money back first. Legal action is my next step.

I wanted to make them one of our vendor/partners, to grow with us as we expand our business to more locations. But, I have made a huge mistake in trusting John Kaspar and it is my opinion that people should be very hesitant to do business with Hurricane Lasers. Perhaps the machines are decent, but I feel that the business practices and ethics are horrible. Caveat Emptor!


Gene Sherman
Founder / CEO
Vocademy.com