It's Going Back

My Cerec machine is going back to the company that sold it to me.

WHAT? Why would I send it back since I spent two days in Charlotte in September learning how to use the machine and Tricia, Jeanine and I spent 3 days in Scottsdale, AZ learning about the CEREC.

And we spent three days in office training on the machine.

So what's up?

Well for the first 3 months, the machine had a defective video driver which prevented us from scanning our patient's teeth, the first step in making a crown...But everyone maintained that Tricia, Jeanine and I were just inexperienced with the machine and that was why would could not scan teeth. The tech person replaced the video driver and we could scan with the best.

Then the software became quirky and we no longer could perform tasks that we had mastered just a few weeks ago...Again we were told that we were NEWBIES and if we just practiced more, we would design our crowns better....Oh we are sorry, you have a WINDOWS  problem and after the software was removed and reinstalled, our "NEWBIE' problems were miraculously resolved.

And when the milling machine broke three burs in minutes at $20-$30 a bur, service brought us new burs and apologized.

But the real issue was that my laboratory could produce a better looking, more realistic looking crown than the machine designed.

Too much effort, too much stress, too expensive for a machine that has been around for 30 years.

I  am sorry, a $200,000 investment must be integrated seamlessly, be intuitive and produce a great product.

I have spent $5,000,000 (yes million) on my post doctoral education. I am a good learner. But the machine was just not a good fit. ...And companies shouldn't  play the game of 'blame the customer'  when their product fails to perform as advertised.