HSE Machines (Mr. Sohail Saleem) Ordered "special" block making machine that was supposed to produce high-tech EPS Insulated Concrete Block. Received a machine that could not even produce a normal concrete block! Karachi Sindh

In March 2018 we came across the website of HSE Machines (hsemachines.com) and got attracted to the "special" block making machine that was advertised on the main page (after fooling us the "special" machine page has vanished from their website). We were at the time searching for machinery that could produce Thermally Insulated (EPS insulated) concrete block and this machine looked like it could fulfill our requirement. I contacted the company by phone and spoke to the owner/proprietor Mr. Sohail Saleem for further information about this machine. He told me that he had manufactured this machine for a few clients who were using it in very cold places like Skardu and Gilgit (Northern Areas, Pakistan). Mr Sohail spoke well like a qualified and knowledgeable person, and I got convinced enough to visit him in Karachi.

I travelled to Karachi in the last week of March 2018. The address given lead me to a dirty, congested, low-income area of Karachi known as Liaquatabad where there was a string of small cramped shops packed with concrete block making machinery and other machinery parts. There standing outside one of the shops was Mr. Sohail Saleem wearing sunglasses and sporting a long beard. I asked him if I could see the special block making machine and he said that it is only made to order as very few people know about this so it is not a regularly produced item. He then proceeded to explain the process of how this machine makes the insulated blocks with many technical details thrown in. I told him that I require the machine within 30 days and he said that it could be made in this period after which the machine would be shipped to Islamabad. A regular hydraulic egg-laying block machine is typically available for PKR350,000-400,000 in the market.

For this machine Mr. Sohail quoted a price of PKR725,000 inclusive of the mould/die plus an additional mould/die for making normal solid blocks. I thought this price to be steep since the machine would be based off a regular hydraulic egg-laying machine, but got convinced that with the special block moulding technology added it would obviously have to cost more. I then travelled back to Islamabad and after a couple of days confirmed the order with 50% payment. After about 25 days the machine was ready and photos were sent for confirmation by Mr. Sohail. Balance amount was transferred to his bank account and our machine was transported to Islamabad in late April '18. Now the nightmare begins: after arrival to our site we checked the "special" mould/die and found to our horror that it was made as crudely as you could think of. Not the kind you would expect for a high precision process. It looked like the mould was literally made by the hand of a 5 year old child!! I took the opinion of a quaified mechanical engineer who checked the machine and told me that it would never be able to produce the insulated block. After this stressful revelation we decided to run the machine with the other normal solid block mould.

Even that turned out to be a failure! The normal mould was also so crudely made that it would simply get stuck in operation. We complained about all this to Mr. Sohail but he would cleverly spin off to other directions saying do this , try that and blah blah blah, never once admitting that he had sent us a machine that was not capable of producing what was claimed. I even offered him a free air ticket to come over to Islamabad to setup the machine but he said that he is too busy and cannot leave his shop for even one hour! The machine is still standing as it is, now after 3 months of useless talking and trying all kinds of tricks. We had spent over PKR1,000,000 for the infrastructure related to this machine, such as concrete platform, electricity cables, water tanks, etc. Now even after spending all this money our mission has completely failed and we are left with a crap, piece of junk machine. 

Beware of Mr. Sohail Saleem of HSE Machines, Karachi! He is a smooth talker who will (after offering you tea and Pakola soda) convince you with such technical sounding words that you will believe him to be the pioneer or maybe the inventor of block making machinery! I got fooled by this guy and lost my money to his stories. I hope others will avoid this man after reading this report.