I agree, but in my position and without experience running these lines I think I should err on the side of having local support.
If things turn out well I will be able to get 2 PnP machines, a 2003 Opal XII and a 2007 Assembleon MG-8, along with several hundred assorted feeders, for ~$80k. I'm trying to figure if this is a good deal or not. It seems marginal although if both machines are in excellent condition and the feeders work, I think it's not so bad. Then again a brand new Samsung SM482 is $70k from Korea, but then I'll spend another $20k+ on feeders alone. It is a faster machine although not quite as flexible as the MG-8. Decisions, decisions...it seems to me I should pay the slight premium to get the support access. If it all goes well I'll be in a much better position in the future to evaluate machine purchases.
It sounds like you're pretty set on getting the Assembleon machines - and there's a LOT to be said for having local support, especially when you are totally new to the PnP world. However... various machines differ greatly in how easy they are to set up and change over, both in terms of the time it takes to change a feeder out, or to change a reel from one component to another in an existing feeder, or to change the program in the machine, or to program the machine for a new board. If you are intending to offer assembly services, then the time it takes to set up the machine is going to be one of (if not THE single) biggest time sinks and costs. Over the years, pretty much everyone I've ever talked to that has run these machines has said MyData machines lead the way in how fast they can be set up and switched between jobs.
I have no connection to them and don't own one - but I've owned several PnP's over the years and some of them can be a massive PITA to set up or change over the jobs.
As for shipping... unless you are paying for an installation service, I would almost guarantee the terms are going to be FOB, so as soon as it leaves the dock of the seller - you have no guarantee from them. The shipping company would only cover obvious physical damage upon arrival, and if you have a rigger unloading it, their insurance would cover things like them dropping the machine or boinking it against a doorway as they move it in. The big concern is always.... you get the machine in position, plug it in, run air to it... turn it on... and... nothing. Or, you get a whole bunch of error messages indicating some non-trivial problem. Unless you've paid for installation service and a turn-key setup (where the seller is providing shipping, move-in, installation, set-up, etc), then you're going to be on your own. Control boards jostle loose in shipping, cables come loose, circuit boards with dodgy connections can fail from the vibration of road trips. But a shipping companies insurance isn't going to cover a machine that was claimed to work when shipped and doesn't when it arrived and was set up.
Just an FYI.
I am one of the horror stories mentioned above. I bought a couple of *really* cheap chipshooters from a guy in California once. He assembled DDR memory boards for Micron and had 2 new Fuji chipshooters coming and needed the old ones gone right away. He was letting them go for practically free. I had no time to arrange everything and the long and short of it is that when the machines arrived, they had been transported cross-country on an OPEN truck, without even a tarp.. through a couple of rain storms. They had been shoved into a box truck at the sellers end, then dragged out with chains at a terminal, and worse. When they arrived, the sheet metal was bent to hell, there were boxes of parts that had fallen out of the machines shoved inside them, the frames were covered in dents and gouges - just a total mess. I eventually managed to get one machine working from the two... and luckily the parts on the machines were so valuable (motors, vision system parts, sensors) that I parted them out and got about 20 times back what I paid. But the shipping company - who I had a written contract stating they were to be shipped in an enclosed air-ride truck - basically told me "Ok, sue us...". They were in another state. So be careful.