[Neil Mc Anulty]

 I had posted back in July that I bought a dry fusion machine second hand. I am based in Newry in Northern Ireland. I have not even got to use the machine yet as I have been busy with other tasks but decided to ring Dry Fusion in the UK to see if they would send me a manual on the machine and details of where to buy the Activator. They give me the contact number of their agent for Ireland. Fair enough!

I contacted William Little( owner of The Cleaning Doctor) and told him what I was looking for to which he replied he would send me out some information. Fair Enough!

Dear Neil
I have just checked with Dry Fusion and I am to inform you that the unit you bought has no licence.Apparently this unit is 3-5 years old.

The licence for your area for dry fusionhas already been purchased. Dry Fusion is a totally licenced system machine, pad, product and comprehensive training - failure of any of these means that an individual is in breach of contract and unable to market the Dry Fusion name or purchase any of the product.

The machine you have cannot be used or marketed as a dry fusion system.

I do not know how much you paid for this, hopefully not to much as it is useless to you. Give me a calland maybe, I can sell it a licensed operator.

Yours sincerely.

This might sound stupid but Is this Legal?

The machine cost £1000.

[woodman]

Probably is although I wouldn't know for sure,

But what a high handed approach to take by DF.

Quite simple, market your self as a 'Low Moisture' cleaner and carry on using the machine that you bought quite legally but don't advertise DF.

I didn't realise that DF 'buy back' all their equipment when some ones finished with it. Thats a new one on me :

[Mike Halliday]

Craftex do a great chemical that can be used with the Columbus Thermo-rotory it does everything activator does its called Catylist and I've heard very good things about it.

if you have'nt got a 'Dry Fusion' machine then don't forget to buy a restoration brush from Columbus at less than half the price of the dry fusion price


why not sell your 'Ultra-fusion dry carpet cleaning'. It cleans , dries, protects your carpet  & its dry in 29mins

Mike

[mark_roberts]

Nr Neil

Welcome to the farce that is Dry Fusion in Ireland.

As I see it DF sold Willie Little the license to sell DF in Ireland.  He  then decided to only sell to his franchisees and not to the unwashed (thats us who havent bought his carpet cleaning secrets).  IMO DF have made a balls up of the Irish market.

You could contact Fintan Coll in Donegal who has DF but I'm not sure where he gets his supplies from.

Or go buy Texatherm of David Little (no relation) which is every bit as good if not better as I've got it.

As were such a small country you soon get to know whos done what to whom.

Mark

[Ken Wainwright]

Nr Neil

I'm gravely concerned with this situation. My understanding is this.

Dry Fusion is a registered/licensed name and logo. To use the name you have to be licensed by Dry Fusion UK. I agree with their reasons for this which are principally due to people in the past using D/F equipment and cleaning with products that didn't perform upto the standard of Dry Fusion branded products. For example, they may not have included a protector, or deodourant or cleaned well enough or may have not been Woolsafe. Complaints were made by customers and the Dry Fusion name was suffering because of others mis-doings. So D/F registered the name and started licensing agreements. Originally, these were at no cost, but were then advised that they needed to make a charge to make the agreement legal, so a "nominal" charge was then introduced.

I have to ask Nr Neil, what's stopping you from becoming a licensee? I gather there's a slightly different arrangement for N. Ireland than the UK. Have you tried contacting Shaun Bradbury direct with your concerns?  shaun@dryfusionuk.com  I'll be sending him one myself as this could have consequences for all Fusioneers.

Safe and happy cleaning:)
Ken

[Neil Mc Anulty]

Hi Ken

The reason I am not becoming a licencee is because I have been informed  that the licence for my geographical area is already in use, solely by the Cleaning Doctor franchisee.

Seems to me that the aforementioned agent wants to keep the dry - fusion  system for the cleaning doctor franchisees and not for us who are going it alone.

Are these actions forming a monopoly?

Ps
William Little offered me £475 for the machine so he could sell it to one of his franchisees.

 

[Len Gribble]

Very interesting, looking at their web site could not see anything about being sold under any form of licence agreement, surly this should be declared in any form of advertisements, the others do! The word is FRANCHISE.

Neil

The way I see it you get what you want or you re sell south of the border or back to the main land so to speak, but buyer will need to check if they can have a licence (franchise) cant comment on what you paid or what you are offered as I don’t know price paid 3-5 years ago or what the price is now, but I know what a rotary machine it worth second hand.

Len

[Fintan_Coll]

How interesting, I am glad to see this thing being blown open by some one at last. I could write a book about it if I had the time to spare but I have chosen to remain silent on this board for the present. However as Mark says if anybody wishes to telephone me I will be delighted to talk to them.

[Neil Mc Anulty]

Hi Fintan
Please tell us more. The more info the better as I am not prepared to let this go. At the end of the day the Cleaning Doctor Franchisee/Dry fusion Licencee is a competitor in my own area, mainly South Down/South Armagh.

At a wild guess the area would stretch approx 90sq miles. There are 10-12 companies in the area, so why should there only be 1 Dry-Fusion machine?

[The Great One]

Hi

Can an actual system be  sold under license only?

I know there are of course franchised businesses but can you license one system. host and others sell their system to anyone, surely any one system is not licensable?

Afterall MacDonalds is a franchise but anyone can sell burgers?

Thoughts?


Regards

Martin

[woodman]

but they can't sell it as a Mcdonalds burger

He can offer a low moisture cleaning service directly in competition with the local DF and they can't do a thing about it so long as he doesn't advertise it as DF.

Neil, Cut your losses and get a Texatherm system you can then advertise it as 30 minute drying etc etc.

[nick.solution]

Or you could try super pads and M/S

Best regards Nick

[Fintan_Coll]

Mr Neil, If you like to give me a ring on 074 9136119 I will be glad to tell you my own story, it may help you in your situation. The best time to get me is after ten o clock most nights.

[Nobby]

I agree with the above, use Craftex Catalyst which is an excellent product and much cheaper than Activator.  I've been using nothing else for nearly two years, it's every bit as good as Activator and Craftex are a great company to deal with compared to the alternative.  If you want a manual I'll copy all the information I have on DF including the manual and send it to you, just let me know.  If DF don't want to help you, you don't need them!  It seems that there are enough users on this forum to give you all the help you need.  I am a DF user who didn't sign the agreement, I just don't use the DF name, that's no big deal my customers don't know the name so it makes no difference.  I was not told that I could not re sell my machine or that it would be useless to anybody I sold it to, something about what you've been told just does not add up.  I must bite my tounge now in case I get carried away!

[DK]

Dear Nr Neil

Having read your problems with interest, Dry Fusion UK cannot and will not hand out another licence to a machine that has already been licenced to a cleaning doctor franchisee, as ken explains the system has to be licenced to stop infringment of the Trade mark I would sugsest that you email Shaun Bradbury at Dry Fusion with your concerns and he will contact you,(shaun@dryfusionuk.com). After looking at other comments does this mean that I can purchase a chem-dry machine  tomorrow and start calling myself chem - dry scotland now..................................I dont think so.

David
Dry Fusion (Scotland)

[mark_roberts]

So Dry Fusion is now a franchise and each area can only have one machine.  Catch yourself on.

The problem is this - Cleaning Doctor is a franchise.  They are also a distributer for Alltec and Dry Fusion and a few other brands.  They have sold the Dry Fusion system to their franchisees and refuse to sell to anyone else - no matter what area you are in (they dont have a 'doctor' in every area).

Did Dry Fusion UK know about this when the distributership was set-up?  I doubt it as its against their interest.  So in other words they've messed up the Irish market and Texathem will dominate once their distributer gets going.

This is how I see it and from talking to many other cleaners in Ireland and even some 'doctors'.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Mark

[woodman]

DK makes one post and its on the DF issues raised on here, this would suggest that someone has made him aware of the original posting by Neil regarding the laconic answer from DF in Ireland to his request for some materials.

Strikes me as obvious that if DF scotland have come on here then DF head office are aware as are DF Ireland that some issues have been raised that, in many people eyes, show them in a bad light.

As I suggested in an earlier post if I was mr neil I would get shot of the old DF equipement on e-bay or something and get a Texatherm system where he might find them a little more helpful in his request for help in obtaining and running a low moisture system.

[Mark Roberts]

Are we saying that there can only be 1 dry-fusion per area in the UK? It certainly has put me off buying 1 with the re-sale value being so low. If training was all that was required to become a licencee that would be more acceptable and make it easier to sell. (Bet it aint cheap tho!)
Looking at the website there is no mention of this.
And after reading the blunt post from Dry fusion Scotland, I wont be buying 1 now!  Texatherm looks a much better option.
Sounds like Dry-fusion has got some serious communication problems within there network.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys,

I too have considered this system and have had a demo , which was efficently arranged and carried out.

However I am concerned at the licence system as this does seem to border on a franchise in some areas.

Is it DF policy to allow a certain number of licencees in a given area ,or do they want to sell as many machines as possible?

I would never buy a franchise , simply because  , to me the biggest advantage of being my own boss is not being told what I can  and can't do!

Some clarication from DF would be useful.

Cheers,

Doug

[Dynafoam]

Doug,

My feelings would be much the same.

If I bought one of the machines I would expect to be able to either use it as a doorstop, a garden ornament or use it in whatever manner I saw fit to use MY property.

It would be a cleaning tool, not a marketing tool so I would have no interest in buying a licence to call myself a 'Fusioneer'.  As far as my customers are concerned, they have no interest in what a system is called, only the results that it produces.

Dry Fusion have every right to impose whatever requirements or restrictions they see fit as a condition of purchase but in doing so will doubtless loose sales.