Tossed up between a Challenger and bendpak

[95mmrenegade]

I need to purchase a lift next week and down to 2 lifts. I initally wanted the Bendpak 10k - 30 degree column and asymmetric arms. I talked to a local guy and he said the bendpaks are now made in China which I've seen some information from site to site. He recommended the Challenger VS10 that somehow can be assymmetric and symmetric at the same time.

 

[brownbagg]

bend pak is a good lift, I have one

 

[ryno]

do some searches on this site.
bendpak always has great customer service and are willing to go beond to make sure your happy.
no i dont work for them , but i do have one and am going to be purchasing another hopefully soon.

 

[JD in DFW]

Challengers are now made in China as well. The only lift they are making state side are the big 4-post that are 30K lbs and up and maybe some of the 18K 2-post. The VS10 is made in China. Rotary is really the only one left making a 10K 2-post state side, though they do have some outsourced parts on it...but who doesn't these days? If you want quality, warranty both labor and parts and service after the sale I would pay alittle more and get the Rotary. The Rotary I am referring to is the SPOA10, they do make some lower end imports from china, but the SPOA is not one of them.

As with everything in your garage/shop...if you go low quality/low price....you'll pay for it twice in the end.

Just my .02

 

[95mmrenegade]

Whats the warranty on the rotary? Bendpak said theirs was a 5/1/1.

 

[JD in DFW]

Whats the warranty on the rotary? Bendpak said theirs was a 5/1/1.

Rotary's is one labor/2yr parts. That 5yr portion from BP I think only covers the structual steel(columns, cariages ect)....which lets be honest, should last a lifetime under even the worst conditions

 

[Used Gum]

How 'bout these guys? http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/default.asp

 

[jcs_in_ky]

There have been some recent reports of people dealing with Bendpak's customer service and they seem to have had favorable results. Maybe Bendpak has gotten their act together now and has their customer service running smoothly. When I purchased a HD-12 four post from them last year I had terrible customer service and quality control with their product. Bendpak finally came through and took care of everything but it took months and months of frustration and downtime on my lift to get it working correctly. It was shipped with factory installed parts that were not installed correctly, there were other issues such as the studs on the ladders not being the correct length, etc. Customer service would promise to send me parts next day, then the parts would not show up and I'd call only to find out that instead of shipping one day they made a "mistake" and shipped them ground (which takes about a week to my location). Then they'd ship packages and forget to put parts in it, send parts with hardware that didn't fit, etc. I hope for the sake of other customers that they have gotten their operation turned around and are doing better with their service. Also most of the problems seem to have been centered around their four posts lifts so you may not run into as many issues with a two post. Also if you do decide to go with a Bendpak I'd purchase from anyone except Garage Equipment Supply. I made two purchases from them and on both occasions they made unauthorized charges on my credit card and claimed it was a mistake and wouldn't happen again. The second time was for a very large sum of money, over $1000.00. Bendpak recommends that you purchase from Garage Equipment Supply. Later I found out that the CEO of Garage Equipment also happens to be the CEO of Bendpak. That explains their recommending the company to their customers.

I spoke with a local installer that installs both Challenger and Bendpak. He said he liked the Challenger product better because he normally could make one trip out to install it and be done with it. He told me that with the Bendpak product lots of times he'd have to make several trips to the jobsite to fix problems such as I described above.

Good luck with your purchase. You are doing the right thing by coming on this site to ask for advice and see what kind of luck other people have had with their lifts.

 

[dbird]

Just had my Bendpak 2 post lift installed, one trip & done.

 

[Junkman]

Re: Tossed up between a Challenger and Bendpak

I've purchased 3 Bendpak lifts, and have had nothing but great service from the lifts and the Bendpak customer service whenever I have had a question. It is the service after the sale that counts, and you can always count on Bendpak to be there for you, today, tomorrow, next month, next year, and into the future.
When there is a disgruntled customer of a business, that one customer seems to feel that it is their job to crow to the entire world that they have been mistreated, no matter how much the business tries to satisfy them. Some people you just can't satisfy, no matter how hard or how long you try to. Heaven knows, that in this instance, Bendpak has bent over backward trying.

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

challenger

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

I prefer rotary