Hi Has any one used this company? We recently sent a spindle in for rebuilding and now they won't answer calls or return messages. All these websites are associated with them hopefully we didn't get ripped off :/ http://www.umrservices.com/ http://www.universalmachinerepair.net/contact-us.html http://universalmetalrefinery.com/ They also claim UMR services is a proud member of the National Tooling & Machining Association www.ntma.org But when contacted they are not a member Any help would be appreciated Thanks Matt
Do not use this company!!! Please make this a sticky!!! This company is a rip off!!! The claim to repair parts but are just recieving them and scrapping them for metal and parts> we sent a guy to their headquarters and its just a dirt little garage full of old parts waiting to be scrapped please share with everyone so no one else has this happen to them
Hi Matt, sorry to hear of your trouble with this company! Did you get your part back!
google maps - http://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=66...=zG3AKUtugSLy8P5rGA4kww&cbp=12,211.39,,0,2.21 Their location sure looks a little different to the quality of the website !!!
No we did not get it back. we reported them to the FBI and Cops. we also sent a freind down there and its a little dirty garage with 3 guys that can barely speak english. The office is empty with only a phone on the floor. I hope these low lifes get busted and serve some time!!
If they sent you anything by US Mail, you can get the postal police involved as well. Get a lawyer and sue them for your loss, aggravation, punitive damages and whatever else you can think of.
He has now taken one of our customers for their spindle and $7K. He was just at an aviation trade show in Dallas last weekend. We are going after them full boar with criminal charges, etc.
They are definitely rip-off artists. They have some of our tooling and wanted to charge over 30K, and for repairs that were not needed or authorized. The same parts are 16K new. Currently they are holding them hostage demanding payment. I hope we can get enough info out so that other people don't loose money and equipment dealing with Universal Machine Repair.
We have an open police report with the Houston police department. They had a guy Chuck take the spindle and do the work, only because our client's salesman in Houston went and confronted them. the spindle still does not work right and Chuck states we have to pay for his flight to come look at it and Mark will no longer respond to anything. My advise is to go to the Houston PD (they will also say you need to file a report in your city). If they get enough reports, maybe they will truly investigate.
We are also going to post on CNC Zone about them to hopefully keep others from going to them. If everyone would do this, maybe it would help.
Thank you for sharing that information. I created this post on cnczone, http://www.cnczone.com/forums/cnczone_club_house/152975-universal_machine_repair_-_bad.html Please, everyone who has been defrauded, add your comments. Like ktrmachine said hopefully we can stop others from going to them. Perhaps we will file a report. We have alerted the NTMA, and are emailing all the companies they claim to do work with to let them know their logo's and names are being used without, I am sure, with their permission. Thank you again to all who have shared their experiences!
should set up a auto dailer and just keep calling them so they cant answer the phone and rip anyone else off
The perils of the internet
Cnc repair houston [ Looking for someone to repair Mazak CNC Lathes & Mills. Any suggestion? I'm in Houston. Was going to call Universal Machine Repair before I saw your post. Has anyone used Steer Services LLC? QUOTE=Stoneconcepts;346644]No we did not get it back. we reported them to the FBI and Cops. we also sent a freind down there and its a little dirty garage with 3 guys that can barely speak english. The office is empty with only a phone on the floor. I hope these low lifes get busted and serve some time!![/QUOTE]
its bad to hear your trouble.
Mark Mitchel at Universal Machine Repair is a crook and liar. I am not gonna get into detail why I know this, but please BELIEVE me. Do not deal with this joke of a company. He will lie about anything and everything to get you to send parts to him and hold them hostage until you pay him and the work you pay for WILL not be done at all. He is a major con artist taking advantage of companies who need help. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not fall for his bulls**t. I know for a fact the Houston Police Department know this guy is bad news. Everything bad you read or hear about this company is true and anything otherwise is very false.
Apparently these guys are still in business. They have a ball screw that we sent them to be re-loaded and I can't get him to return my calls since he said it shipped, but we still don't have the ball screw.
this company ripped us for 25000 ..mark is not a man of integrity...i believe he may be a web hacker also..
UMR (Mark Mitchell) is a crook, scam artist, gypsy, etc... Do not use this company for anything. His web page is deceiving, his shop is a dirty warehouse/storage unit. If you call any of his numbers listed on his web page they are all routed through Houston, no offices just phone lines. We called the number to the closest division listed on his site and he suggested sending our spindle to his Houston facility because his tech's there were more qualified for what we needed. Here's the low down: He quoted us a fair price and a great turn time but after he had possession of the spindle the price started to go up and up and up and ofcoarse he didn't hit the lead-time. A few weeks into it, he called and stated the job was complete and needed a wire or ACH to release shipment. BAD MISTAKE, we were suckered into sending payment. 3 days later I called for tracking info and that's when he said there was a problem, it didn't ship and that he would call in a few ours and explain everything to me. Never heard from him and he wouldn't return my calls, texts, or emails. Two days later we were forced to call a PI to track him down. Funny thing was is the PI new him and had tracked him down a few months earlier to serve him for a similar case. We eventually got ahold of him and he wasn't anywhere near complete. Luckily we eventually got our spindle after paying double. We ran it for less than 24 hours and it seized up. We sent it to the OEM for evaluation and repair and they basically told us that nothing that was stated or quoted was not performed. We are in the process of starting legal action to hopefully recuperate some funds and damage his supplier base. All of his sub's that he stated performed work will also be included. Bottom line is DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY for anything. Hopefully this will save someone out there the headache and pain we went through.
Hello we are from Florida and they got our spindle to repair... we wire 4500, same thing ......did not receive the spindle back. Do you have anymore info about them. They are ROTOMEK now. We will file a small claim against them tomorrow. If you have any information please contact us 727 581-1220. We really appreciate!!
I've actually meet these crooks and was invited to their "shop". For those of you that's don't know, east Houston is a combination of amateur junk dealer/scrap yard/mess, interesting place if you like junk, but kinda weird. Well I had bought a very large lathe from that part of the world, a 40x25' Hendey, made Oct 8 1920. My encounter with them is when they flag me down when I was moving the lathe (Mind you the lathe is 30' long, the trailer was 24' rated to 10k and that machine weights atleast 15k....). They get out of their late model BWM/Lexus and start to talk me up about buying it. They asked what I paid for the machine, they said they would give me 1,000 more and they would unload it. Since I'm too sentimental with machine that I should be, I didn't want to sell the machine. I made the mistake of giving them my phone number, well they start calling me. The story is that they need to have a long bed lathe so they can polish a ballscrew and that they are professional machinery re-builders. Next they offer me more money and say that I can have the machine back once they run the job they need done, at this point my BS sensor starts to go off. Next they say they would give me more money for the use of the machine, completely rebuild it and give it back to me (a total rebuild for a machine of this size would easily be north of 30k). They want me to go to their shop, thinking talking in person would help sway me or something. Since I'm more curious than I should be, I went. What a pathetic excuse for a machine shop. Full of wore out, busted Chinese junk in no position to run. They weren't even wired in, just sitting against the wall. No tooling, no inspection equipment, no nothing. I'm sorry to hear that so many of ya'll go screwed by there crooks. The machine they wanted to steal from me; http://s1309.photobucket.com/user/mebunting/library/Moving the Hendey?sort=2&page=1
Thank you for your answer. We spoke with the police from Largo, FL yesterday, lets see what they can do.... Also, this guy send us a tracking number e said he was shipping back the spindle....lets see also..! What a Waist of time for those who work hard and with honesty.......
WARNING! BEWARE! KEYWORDS MARK WHITE MITCHELL "MARK WHITE" "MARK MITCHELL" 6616 MAYFAIR ST SUITE B HOUSTON TX "6616 MAYFAIR ST SUITE B" ROTOMEK URM SERVICES "URM SERVICES" UNIVERSAL METAL REFINERY "UNIVERSAL METAL REFINERY" ADVANTEK URM UNIVERSAL MACHINE REPAIR "UNIVERSAL MACHINE REPAIR" "281 302 6309" "713 458 8444" CHRISTINA WHITE "CHRISTINA WHITE" GODADDY.COM NETWORK SOLUTIONS "713 458 8444" "281 302 5413" "800 588 0190" "469 334 4284" "713 858 4042" "954 522 4835" SPINDLE REPAIR MACHINE CNC REBUILD WIRE TRANSFER FRAUD BBB BRIAN DESHAZER "BRIAN DESHAZER" NEPHILUS AnunnakiTech ANUNNAKI TECH NEPHILUS TECHNOLOGIES 14777 WUNDERLICH DR #2101 HOUSTON POLICE ATTOURNEY GENERAL 469 334-4284 9330 Lbj Fwy STE 900, Dallas, TX 75243-3443 Phone: (281) 302-5413 Fax: (281) 302-6309 Houston, TX 77087 ADVANTEK ADVANTEKCNC TEXAS STATE BAR NO 24082471 ATTOURNEY LEGAL INTERSTATE TRANSACTION MECHANICS LEIN FREE INSPECTION AND QUOTE SHIPPING Weblinks: BBB Houston RotoMek BBB Houston Universal Machine Repair Whois Rotomek Advantek Universal Machine Repair URM Services GOOGLE universal machine repair GOOGLE Universal Machine Repair Mark Mitchell CNC Machine Parts Texas State Bar Note all topics on this company have been removed from CNCZone due to an unknown reason. On an unrelated topic I once heard a story about a company doing business across state lines but I cannot verify if any of this was true or just a myth. The company was known to provide quality work and had a great reputation. They had several websites and had retained a website developer to do all their work. The internet was populated with their websites and a network of local phone numbers that all dialed to the same number in Houston. Their business model was to lure customers in by any means - price, promise, delivery, whatever. The company would focus on mission critical parts the customer could not live without for a period of time due to production. The preferred method of payment was wire transfer 100% up front. Most customers got fantastic service. Some customers never saw their money or their parts again. One scheme was to offer free shipping and a free teardown and quote evaluation. if the customer didn't like the price the equipment would be shipped back free of charge. But somehow mistakes were made and the customers equipment was rebuilt without authorization or any quote being done. Now the company could place a mechanics lien on the equipment meaning, the only way the customer could get the equipment back was to pay for the repairs that were never authorized. The company always made good on their promises to repair the equipment properly and send the equipment promptly after payment was made. They were a good company. The company provided this excellent service due to the owners legal training, knowledge of Texas state laws for interstate commerce, knowledge of legal costs, and leverage of the laws governing use of the mechanics lien. All of this excellent service was completely intentional. Thank you to the webhost and webmasters of this site for keeping this post on-line as a research point for those exploring machine, ball screw, spindle, lathe, CNC, control repair services. You may save a small company from going out of business and ruining the life of those who work so hard to keep this country going with skilled domestic suppliers. This post is fiction and any relation to those persons or companies, living or dead, real or imaginary is coincidence. This post is to be considered and used for entertainment and research purposes only.
I sent a ballscrew to Advantek 3 days ago, but things didn't add up after speaking to him the second and third times, so I googled "Mark White" and Advantek CNC and came up with this forum. Turns out he has at least 6 different balls screw companies all located in Houston Texas at various locations, each with the name Mitchell tied to them. I wish I had seen this thread sooner, but at least I haven't sent him a dime, nor do I plan to. alskdjfhg -- you say you met him, what does he look like? Have a picture of him? White, Spanish, African American? Old, young? I noticed doing my Google search that Caterpillar has a law suite with him.
The guy that I meet named "Mark", was short and looked kinda Hispanic and pretty young. Beyond that I don't remember, sorry.
Alskdjfhg Thank you, I beleive the person you are describing i have seen in the Instagram photos he has posted online. He is trying to pull the same BS on me, gave me a price on the phone to repair a ballscrew for $1000. Which includes grinding the screw, once he received the unit he tells me it will be $2000. Because the screw and nut should be reground. I said that I was told that was included in the original estimate...he says no that was for polishing the screw. That's when I felt something was wrong and started looking him up on google and found out he is a crook. Not to mention the fact that none of the equipment he has pictures posted of online can grind a ballscrew. So now I,m looking into buying a new part from a reputable company, there is no way I am sending him a dime.
I know this is off subject a bit but I live in North Central Nebraska and have made several good contacts in the area for repairs. We rarely use cat parts for spindles and shafts and replacement pins anymore. Between two local shops we can line bore up to 8 inch and they have a mill that is 5' tall!! We just welded new center in mt865 driver and had them true it up cost $1700 versus around 4k from dealer new. Vat has even sent the main spindles for old style challenger to then after seeing how we did it. Costs $600 to weld up and turn down while they wanted $3000. I don't know how this all works so don't want to say names as am new, but if needed I can email their info. I am not in any way associated with them.
Buyer beware. I hired Mark to repair my lathe and lost a substantial amount of money. I was forced to hire an attorney to file for damages against the company. The attorney hired investigators who did some serious digging into the company. They found that Advantek CNC not only just popped up on the map few months ago, but they have your parts go to the same facility as Universal Machine Repair and Rotomek . All of these companies have the same address linked to it: 6616 MAYFAIR ST SUITE B HOUSTON, TX 77087 Phone number: 281-302-5413 Advantek CNC started as Universal Machine Repair. Then, 2013 the company changed it's name to Rotomek. After less than 2 years of operations and several complaints against the company's business practices, Rotomek is now Advantek. Dont be fooled by them. It is being run by the same people from day 1 - Mark Mitchell/Mark White/Mark White Mitchell/Christina White
Here is a lovely selfie of mr Mitchell he brags and posts photos of what he supposedly does at his multiple mystery machine shop locations on his Instagram. Take a look. It's amazing this guy is still around and still getting away with ripping people off. http://websta.me/p/1068270272534183840_1912585158 If you keep scrolling down you will see different parts he has worked on. Maybe some of you might see your parts that were never returned!! http://websta.me/n/advantekcnc
Yes Indeed it does! Theirs is a the rinkydinky shop with the opened garage door at the left with the two guys and their buckets scrubbing stuff on the ground. http://www.advantekcnc.com The website is Very deceiving especially since he is obviously stealing photos of European machine shops. Everyone knows mr Mitchell has low paid little Latin men working in the shop not clean cut happy Europeans. This website has scam written all over it.
What they show versus what their facility actually is View attachment 140677
Reported
There is an odd smell to this thread. Lots of posters here who seem only to have joined HEF to post in this thread. Some seem to be exactly who and where they say they are, and some seem to have given information that's inconsistent with the information on their profile pages. Two may even be the same person posting under different usernames. Make of the comments posted here what you will. Whatever, it seems the point has been made. Thread closed.