This page chronicles our opinions of and experiences with Swashdrive Tattoo Machines of Australia Looking for a good rotary tattoo machine? So were we. We settled on the Swashdrive. Then we made a mistake: We asked the company a question. Now we've cancelled our order. Read WHY below. Our experience with "Tony" at Swashdrives ------------------------------------------------------------------ We were in the market to try a rotary tattoo machine, so in due course we settled on the Swashdrive machine, made in Australia. On 3-7-09 we ordered a package from Unimax including the machine and an Instek power supply. On that same day we sent an inquiry to Swashdrive, inquiring to know where we could buy the grip that is featured on their machine on their website (see image, above). We figured this was a pretty basic question. We had an assortment of those grips lying around loose in a drawer, unsterilized, but after scouring half a dozen tattoo supply websites and not having any luck finding new ones in the package, we figured it was easiest just to email Swashdrive. Clearly they were recommending them for their Swashdrive machines, or they wouldn't have featured the main photo of their machine with one hooked up. That being the case, one would think they'd be more than happy to help one of their own customers buy these grips for themselves. Right? RIGHT? Of course. We merely present the emails, below, in chronological order:   Our first email to Swashdrive: >> > We've just ordered a gen6 swashdrive through Unimax. We're trying > to >> > find the grips shown in the picture on your website at this url: >> > >> > > http://swashdrivetattoomachines.com/page/tattoo-machines-II/default.as >> > p >> > >> > We have a few of them here but none are sterile and they can't be >> > claved, so we need to buy a new batch but cannot find them > anywhere. >> > Any idea who sells them in the US? >> > >> > Thanks,   Swashdrive's first reply: > On 3/8/2009 9:05:47 AM, Tony from Swashdrivetattoomachines > (admin@swashdrivetattoomachines.com.au) wrote: >> No mate, I get them direct from the manufacturer for my guys. >>  >> Tony   Our reply to "Tony": > Thanks, but who is the manufacturer of these?   Tony's reply back to us: Sorry mate , This is a trade secret that has taken me many hours of work to find and a heap of cash and I'm not going to give that info out to anyone that asks, sorry mate if you want to find them you need to do the leg work yourself. Tony   Our order cancellation to Unimax Note: At the time this was written, we assumed the person we were having trouble with (Tony) was the owner of Swashdrives. He is not : Unimax: We placed an order for a Gen-6 Swashdrive machine and Instek power supply a little while ago. In eager anticipation of receiving this machine we emailed the manufactuer in Australia, and asked a few simple questions. Among those questions was, "Where can we buy the grips that you show on the machine featured on your website?" Instead of receiving a reply that might have said something like, "Well, you can try retailer X, Y, or Z, and good luck." The guy essentially told us to go fuck ourselves, and that he would never reveal where he got them! As it happens we found dozens of ebay auctions for them and we ordered a box of 200 then and there, but that's not the point. The point is that we wouldn't buy this jackass's product if God himself commanded it. Nor would we ever, for one microsecond, trust this asshole to stand behind what he makes. If we had a problem with his machine down the road and emailed him with a simple question about it, who's to say he wouldn't just tell us to go fuck ourselves again? We've never seen anything like this in any business environment anywhere, at any time, in 23 states and three countries. This one absolutely takes the cake. We don't know if this guy is a boozer, a dope-head, or is just plain mentally retarded, but we're damned glad we found out about him before we received his product. Our experience with this nutcase is being posted straight to a review page online. Give it three weeks and Google it. Our order through you for this machine package with the Instek is herewith CANCELLED. Sorry you're the folks to lose on this, but maybe this will give you an insight into your supplier for this product. Good fucking grief. We're still looking for a quality rotary and if we end up findng what we want on your site we're happy to buy it there. But we will never, ever deal with this stupid, childish jackass again, nor will we ever own one of his Goddamned products. Good fucking grief again. God DAMN. 3-7-09 23:33 Pacific   We've developed a sensitivity to tattoo supply retailers and wholesalers over the years. It's not uncommon to place an order with one, find that they immediately debited your card, then never see the product (and a time-consuming credit-card chargeback ensues). It's common that they send wrong items, or send not as many as were ordered, or send broken items, DOA items, items different from those advertised, items that are 30 or 60 or 90 days late, or that they overcharged you, or that 5 days after placing the order you find your credit card number has been sold and you're being charged for $1687 worth of vE-ArG-RA, through an online pharmacy in Barcelona. Of the dozen or two tattoo supply companies we've ordered from, we find that only a very few can manage to just do the job (we give them money -- they give us products in a timely manner -- it's a simple concept). We've grown to be afraid of most of these outfits and we're automatically testy when we have to deal with them at all, because we've learned to EXPECT some kind of silliness or problem. We've had great experiences with Joker Tattoo, Element Supply, Needle Jack, and one or two others, listed here at random. There may be good vendors out there we have yet to deal with. We place up to 25 orders a day for our businesses, and have done so for 12 years. We don't have TIME for stupidity and shenanigans. Tattoo supply outfits are, by an order of magnitude, with only a VERY few exceptions, the worst businesses we've ever had the misfortune of trying to extract products from. We have better luck ordering from Third World countries than we do trying to complete simple transactions with tattoo equipment suppliers in the US. To answer the question for those who'd like to order these (they're great grips), simply do an eBay search for "tattoo machine grips". You'll find dozens of auctions. We would have rather bought them from a reputable retail tattoo supplier, and they probably are available somewhere -- we just haven't found them. Now why in the name of God could Tony at Swashdrive not be bothered to simply say, "Hi, thanks for the inquiry, mate (and thanks for buying our vastly over-priced product too by the way), we think you can get those grips on eBay, or from ____________." There's no reason whatsoever. None.   UPDATE: We're told that "Tony" isn't the owner of Swashdrives. Too bad he's authorized to speak on their behalf.   UPDATE: The son of the author of this page was teetering on the edge of buying a Swashdrive. He has now purchased a Neuma.   UPDATE: Received, unsolicited, from Unimax:   Thank you for taking the time to write about your recent email experience with Craig Wyeth, Inventor of the Swashdrive Tattoo Machine. (Note: Our experience was NOT with Craig Wyeth; it was with "Tony", as demonstrated in the above-emails.) We have worked with Craig for over 15 years and can vouch for him as always taking time and care to attend properly to every detail of business including cusomer relations and answering inquiries.  We can assure you he is a gentlemen in every way. We are sure therefore that there is a miscommunication or misunderstanding. Regretfully we will cancel your order #25039. If you change your mind in the future we are here to provide exceptional service. Thank you Wes Wood Unimax Supply Co Inc   That was a nice enough reply. Unimax is defending their friend, which is honorable. Unfortunately Unimax didn't pay attention to the emails posted above, and thought we were trashing Craig. In reality, we were trashing the author of the emails, Tony. Tony signed the emails, not Craig. In any case, we figured the matter was settled. Then we received the following from Unimax. Our reply is interspersed, in black: I was disappointed to see our private correspondence posted on line. Nowhere in the email does Unimax suggest that this correspondence is to be kept private. Unimax's email, above, is not something that anyone would imagine that needed to be kept private. They are defending their friend, Craig, and advising they have cancelled our order, as requested. There's not even the hint of any sentiment contained therein that suggests Unimax would be embarrassed by what they wrote; to the contrary, their loyalty and efforts on behalf of their friend, Craig Wyeth, is commendable, and added to our respect for Unimax. Unfortunately, Unimax promptly turned that respect into disrespect: On the merits of the case itself: You owe a personal apology to Craig Wyeth, the inventor of the Swashdrive Tattoo machine for subjecting him to your mistaken diatribe. Huh? We have subjected Craig Wyeth to nothing whatsoever except, perhaps, our distaste for his taste in employees. It's his employee we take exception to. We've made that clear. Craig may be a first-rate human being, he may run the perfect company, he may produce the best rotary tattoo machines on the planet. We have no idea if this is true or false. Our problem was with his counter-productive employee. We're sorry Craig hired this guy. This guy has cost Craig business. We would not do business with any company that hires and maintains employees like Tony. Who needs the aggravation? No one. You owe an apology to Tony because it is an insult to ask the person who is in the business of selling grips where they get those grips so that you can purchase them directly instead of from the them. This is considered effrontery. We owe nothing to Tony except a few rounds in the ring. We weren't trying to circumvent buying the grips from Swashdrive. We would have been thrilled to buy them from Swashdrive. They weren't offered on their website (which we saw as slightly odd), and there was no mention of where we might obtain them. Therefore we asked an excruciatingly simple question: WHERE CAN WE GET THEM (preferably in the US but we would have gladly bought them anywhere else)? If Swashdrive does indeed sell them, then Tony's reply was triply stupid. He could have said, "We don't know of any dealers in the US, but you can certainly get them from us!" And we would have said, "Great! We'd like 200, please!" See how this works? It's as simple as simple gets. But instead of even TRYING to help us or point us in a productive direction, Tony engaged in that bizarre, counter-productive attitude which so obnoxiously pervades the entire tattoo industry: "I know something you don't, and I'm not telling." To understand just how much of a problem this is, read through half a dozen tattoo forums. They are replete with people trying to ask simple, direct, plain, polite questions about tattooing or tattoo equipment. Nine out of ten responses will be from loud, crude, stupid assholes who will only berate the inquirer for asking the question and advise them to go to hell. That's the category we place Tony in. We owe this dipshit less than nothing. We're sick of this guy and all people like him. We see this mentality in no other industry or profession. I hope you will consider these suggestions.. Thank you for your time, Wes Wood, Unimax Supply Co Inc. . We did consider these suggestions, and have rejected them. We will tolerate no further communication from Unimax. We have removed Unimax from our list of acceptable vendors (their website is a nightmare to use, anyway). The. End.