The General ACS Minima Thread

PortafilterProcrastinator

I’m sure they can cut almost any shape. I’m thinking of not making a feature of the metal by painting it black (I have a black minima) if the etching work’s through the paint it’ll be very similar to how ACS are etching the case on the new ones. The company can also cut in 2mm stainless but that would need polishing to give a decent finish (which is easily done in my experience).

Abstracted what the actual fcuk how does that even happen

Abstracted I’m very sad/frustrated/angry to report that my Minima has been delivered to some guy, with my same name, in Florida.

Meanwhile I sit here in California wondering what the hell happened…

Any more news on this?

PortafilterProcrastinator I was thinking something like a custom Les Paul switch plate.

Les Paul switch plate

I’ll have a look around and see if anyone does customs. If they do and the hole is the right size, then it’s a case of deciding on the wording and the colour.

@PortafilterProcrastinator

This place in the US does customs

https://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/custom-guitar-parts/switch-rings/custom-personalized-toggle-switch-ring-plate/

But, it’s the same as your first link essentially but aluminium instead of perspex.

An interesting option perhaps?

Verion That got me googling… and I found this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192661890679

Could work really well - although I am not keen on the shape.

I much prefer the traditional shape like this:

https://www.carbuilder.com/uk/printed-aluminium-on-off-on-toggle-switch-id-plate

But they wouldn’t be specific labels, just on or off. Does it matter if you know the machine?

DavecUK Swapping with the water valve should solve the problem

Thanks for convincing me to swap them rather than order a new one to avoid the dreaded red threadlock on the water valve… took a bit of effort but the hot water joint seemed to come away easier than the steam valve did - was still a pita though 😁.

Abstracted I think you have to look in context. ACS are a small Italian craft factory with I think 10 employees. Yes, they are frustratingly slow at times but you are not dealing with a multi national. Everyone wears more than one work hat. You have to ask how popular the Lucca is, especially in the UK and where you would source one from. As for Meticulous, they do look very interesting. Over the years I have been an early adopter for quite a few things, so if you go down that route I would definitely take a Mk 2 version. I have not read through this thread so I am sorry if I have missed something out.

I bought a Minima for my son. I have only used it a couple of times but it s eems very competent, especially since it is a mature machine and at that price point

Hi dfk, some context:

dfk41 ou have to ask how popular the Lucca is, especially in the UK and where you would source one from.

Abstracted lives in California, USA.

Abstracted I’m very sad/frustrated/angry to report that my Minima has been delivered to some guy, with my same name, in Florida.

Meanwhile I sit here in California wondering what the hell happened…

Lucca is not a machine: It’s a collection of machines by Clive Coffee. They seem to be specially made or re-badged coffee machines and grinders from different manufacturers:

https://luccaespresso.com/

I think Clive Coffee is quite a reputable seller in the USA, from what I hear.

https://clivecoffee.com/collections/lucca

I can imagine the frustration from @Abstracted - imagine having an expensive item ordered from overseas, delivered to a totally different address thousands of miles away. Insane. Who knows what happened there, and I hope it gets sorted out soon.

Once a similar thing happened to me, with a Kinu M68 grinder. It simply got “lost” in transit. No where to be seen. The resolution was different: Christian (main person behind Kinu, a tiny german company back then in 2017) sent me another one straight away and said that, if it does turn up, to just contact him and he will have it collected from me. It never turned up. After talking to him a few weeks afterwards, he told me not to worry and he would take that with the courier - DHL in that case. Now, that’s service.

Abstracted - it baffles me how can someone possible accept delivery of such a large item if they were not expecting one. 😬

Hopefully it works out in the end. What a terrible experience; whatever happened.

MediumRoastSteam Maybe they thought they were getting a free espresso machine LOL

TL;DR: A month and half later and it was delivered today. And of course it’s beat up. The front feet don’t touch the counter:

Whole story: Maria mistakenly shipped the machine to a past customer of theirs, with a name similar to mine, but different: Like if my name were “Jon Cole”, she shipped it to “John Coleman”. When I saw the name and address on the invoice, it was so different I assumed it was a domestic distributor that would forward the machine to me. I was wrong.

Anyway, at the last minute I thought I should double-check and I emailed Maria to confirm that it was going to be forwarded to me. She said that it wasn’t, and asked if I hadn’t recognized that the address was incorrect on the invoice (intimating that I was at fault). I said no, and told her to contact DHL before it’s delivered to have it rerouted to me. She said that it was a holiday in Italy and that she’d email them. Of course that wasn’t prudent enough, and it was delivered a couple days later in Florida. And for those of you in the UK, that’s the equivalent of it being delivered to Moscow.

A couple of days later, I of course had to reach out again for the status (because Maria being Maira isn’t the most proactive). She came back with a rather vague and mysterious response, saying that the woman won’t be home for two weeks, so I’ll have to wait a while until UPS can pick it up from her. After reading that, I was a bit confused and concerned, to say the least.

Two weeks go by and Maria sent me a copy of the actual UPS shipping label (instead of just the tracking number). And the name and address of the woman it had been picked up from was printed as the return address. So I googled her and found her phone number. Texted her and asked if we could chat. She said yes, so I called her, and she told me the whole story.

Turns out the guy it was sent to was her ex-boyfriend and no longer lived at her house. He was contacted by ACS, and told him that DHL was going to deliver the machine to his old address. But by the time he let her know, the machine had already been dropped off and had been sitting outside for two days. She found it, moved it inside, kept it there, and didn’t open it. But she was so busy that she later had to use a day off to wait for UPS to come and pick it back up.

A week later it was delivered to me here in Southern California. But after this whole terrible experience I knew the handwriting was on the wall, and it was going to be damaged. So I video’d the whole unboxing. Sure enough the legs are bent.

I’ve now emailed Maria asking what my options are, though I’m not expecting a prompt response nor a very good one.

But I’m pretty much done with them. There’s a reason why I paid with credit card and not a wire. And this is it.

Acs produce some great products,

But as of late stuffs been slipping, I read there’s been illness etc and it’s only a small form, but it Lance blows them up with a good review then they really need a sole person dedicated to just the social media,emails website and customer service side.

I want to ask, what is the water flow rate of the machine without flow control device?

Abstracted

hi Jon

of course i understand that it’s a bit frustating that after long time you have received the machine a bit bent.

i would like to clarify something, just because from this side there are some people that works hardly everyday and your message seems to be a sort of disqualifing of our effort and i cannot accept it.

considering our error, we have sent a proforma invoice before the shipping where the details was wrong and you said that you are thinking that it was our US warehouse which should have our name obviosly, this type of documents are also sent to check, but it’s ok.

there are several emails with tracking number and so on and of course if we ship with DHL express ¾ days the machine normally will be delivered. When you contact us again about the wrong address it was too late and we contacted immediately DHL, you have to think that we can contact DHL Italy than they contact DHL US than DHL US will reply to DHL Italy and DHL Italy contact us, so you can imagine that this sort of couminication take a bit long time due of different time zone and also the ammount of request that DHL should handle, surely they are not waiting for us.

you take care about how to contact the lady (the ex girlfrined of our customer) and you didn’t tell us anything about that, of course she told you what she want, but she forget to tell you that,

1 we contact our old customer and he said that he no longer live there due of broken relationship.

2 when we tried to contact her she replied after a couple of day saying that the machine sit there.

3 when we asked to collaborate to ship the machine to a right place she replied saying that she didn’t find the machine and want from us the proof of delivery…..

4 she refuse to give us her phone number, and only when we said that we have the proof of delivery and we will open a ticket with DHL for stolen delivery she will reply that the machine will be outside of her house ready to pick up and she will not take care about eventually damages or stolen. “very friendly”

5 when we complain about that she will agree to take the machine stored but she will be away for one week….

6 finally we was able to pick the machine asking to one of our dealer in the __US to take care the shipment because from Italy we cannot manage shipment inside of the US.

in every case it seems that Maria always replied as soon as she had some information, due of email delay for time zone and also the time to elaborate the information from DHL.

we accept credit card, wire transfer and so on just because we do not have any problem to serve our customers as much as better we can, sometimes some wrong things can happen and i suppose that from the other side our customers can empathy with us, which not in some case.

Maria told you also that if the problem was not solved we are open to ship another machine to you which means a totally more than lost profit, of course it’s our mistake and cannot be charged to our customer even if we have sent some documents with wrong information before the shipment, even the name and surname was wrong as you mentioned.

this small machine are shipped with wooden pallet, did you get the machine with small pallet? if not this is the reason of the problem of the small bending base. If you are unable to fix this problem understanding where it’s bent we will ship another machine. there are no problems. of course we cannot send a wooden set as a gift for your frustating experience, but if you find a way the way to fix this small issue we will more than happy to ship a gift as collaborative customer.

Minimize always the work of the people it’s not a good point to start, we have tons of positive feedback for our pre and after sales service and if finally you got your machine it’s a result of 2 people that works on the side to fix the problem.

my apologies for the inconvenient, of course if you want your money back we can pick up the machine no problem.

Paolo Cortese

Cuprajake

even if you read only Maria reply in the back there are other 2 people for service enquiries, and social media. You have to consider that, there isn’t only one forum to follow, there are also instagram, facebook, emails, whattapp messages, telegram messages, to follow and Dave that knows perfectly our company can explain what we do daily, the effort and diligence that we put in our work. Unfortunately we are a small company and i cannot handle another couple of workers in order to reply smoothly and fast avery request.

no i understand that, and its a hard balance to find.

unfortunate a global presence and peoples need for instant gratification doesn’t help when running a business,