Any experience with Grizzly customer service?

[eranox]

Two days ago, I placed an order with Grizzly Industrial for a 22x42 wood lathe and a 7x14 metal lathe. Their web site stated that both items were in stock. After placing and paying for the order, I received an e-mail telling me that the items were out of stock, and they would be receiving more in about a month!

Obviously, I was not pleased. I called Grizzly customer support, and the woman I spoke to was pleasant, but informed me that Grizzly did have the products...but not in the warehouse closest to me. She said that the company would under no circumstances ship to me from the other warehouse, claiming that it was "too risky," and the products had a greater chance of being damaged. The website makes no mention of this policy, and I foolishly assumed that "in stock" plus "I have money" meant that we could do business.

I'll save you the rest of the details, but I'm very seriously considering cancelling my order. This would have already happened if I had been able to find something comparable at a comparable price. Has anybody else experienced this? Were you able to find a resolution? I'm not making this post an outright jeer, as the issue is still being worked and Grizzly still has the opportunity to turn it around. I would appreciate hearing any advice or similar experiences.

 

[terry q]

I had a bad experience over a burnt out motor on a new machine. The end result I told grizzly I would never purchase a corded machine from them again nor would I recommend them to anyone.

 

[Rockytime]

I recently purchased a mini mill from Grizzly. After setting it up I was adjusting some wires for the digital speed read-out. In the process I accidentally broke the magnetic sensor on the spindle. The digital no longer worked. I called them and they offered to replace the spindle. I decided to decline not wanting to go through the effort of changing out the spindle. They called me three times to make the offer. They made sure that I was satisfied. I declined because the digital read-out is no use to me as the max spindle speed is 2K. I always run it full throttle because all my cutters are fairly small diameter. Over the years I have purchased several machines from Grizzly with no problems. I like them as a vendor.

 

[Old Codger]

I have several Grizzly products that I use often and never had an issue with their customer service or products. They are NOT top of the line products in many instances, but of course, they do not charge 'top of the line' prices either... My most recent purchase, their Anniversary special bandsaw is my favorite product and I love it and would highly recommend it as great shop addition and would compare it to much more expensive name brand products. Hopefully, Grizzly has resolved the issue and kept you as a customer!

 

[maxwell_smart007]

Their products are good, but their customer service is top notch! (But they can't fix 'out of stock in your warehouse' without waiting for more)

I tend to check the warehouses before I order (you can do that near where it says in stock), and I often call it in just to be sure.

They're quite amazing at fixing problems - especially fo tools you've already bought - but not having stock is one that's tough to fix. THey must have experience with the number of damage claims if they ship cross-country, so I guess that's why they don't want to ship to you in that instance.

That being said, if you're that unhappy, cancel your order and find one elsewhere - but be prepared to pay a lot more!

 

[nativewooder]

I would have cancelled the order before I quit talking to the woman. What have you got to show for your time and effort except nothing!

 

[wyone]

time to regroup and decide why you were buying from Grizzly. Was it because of quality, price or stock of items? I know for me it is really disappointing to have things I expect delivered to be delayed. It is then I stop to think about why I was ordering there. If it is truly about delivery times I am sure you can find similar items in stock elsewhere. Was it about cost or value? if so, well you might be hard pressed to find the same thing.

I do not agree that the system tells you it is in stock and then backordered, but I know it happens a lot.

Sorry for your inconvenience and hope you decide how to handle things. You certainly do not want to have some bright shiny new tools that have bad thoughts attached to them. If so they will never be right.

 

[randyrls]

I have always had good experiences with Grizzly, but they recently closed their store in PA.

The web site does NOT have an accurate of the status of items. When ordering parts or large items, or something I need immediately, I always call their order line. The people there can check to see if the item is in stock, but you have to ASK!

 

[TurtleTom]

I do what RandyS does. I'm going to get on the phone and get someone to lay eyeballs on that thing before I order it.

 

[JimB]

I have always found the Grizzly people to be excellent. I have a large lathe, bandsaw and some smaller tools from them. I wish they hadn't closed their PA location. I enjoyed my annual trip for the tent sale.

 

[eranox]

Update: After about half a dozen phone calls, Grizzly has more or less resolved the problem. After telling me that they could not ship to me from the Washington warehouse "under any circumstances," they relented and agreed to ship the items to me. I had to pay some $30 additional freight shipping as part of the deal, which I was more than happy to do.

I'd like to attribute this to Grizzly getting their act together, but I think it was rather a case of persisting until I was a large enough pain in the butt to be worth dealing with. To be clear, I was kind to everybody I spoke with, as I've worked customer service jobs and don't appreciate getting cussed out over policies that I had no part in making. I asked the customer service reps if they could authorize the shipment if they wanted to, and they all told me no, it was out of their hands. So, I asked to talk to a supervisor, explaining that I would be a fool to accept a no from somebody who didn't have the authority to say yes. Then I went through the same conversation with a supervisor, and asked to speak to the manager when they in turn claimed they couldn't authorize the shipment.

Eventually, I received a call from Grizzly with no real explanation, just an estimated shipping date and a request for an additional $30 for shipping. I'm glad to say that I'll have my new lathes on Friday!

For those who may deal with Grizzly in the future, be aware that claims of "in stock" on their website are highly subjective. Click on the item in question, and you will then see "in stock" again in green in the upper right corner, or you will see a place to enter your ZIP code to determine availability. This will generate a message, "Shipping to XXXXX available," which is likely untrue, and will tell you which warehouse(s) have the item in stock. Be aware that the warehouse that ships to you is NOT necessarily the closest warehouse to you, and that there is no way to determine which warehouse serves you without calling customer service. "In stock" can mean anything from, "We have it, and we'll send it right out," to, "We have it, but you can't have one."

Since the issue was eventually resolved, this will not become a jeer. Still, I'm very unimpressed with their customer service. Now that I'm aware of the issue, I'll know to look for this before I order next time.

 

[TurtleTom]

I've always wondered if tool and pen companies assign an individual, or even a committee, to check forums like this one for bad publicity, then no matter what the cost, resolve the issue. If I was a CEO you could bet your bippee I would put some Vice President on it.
I think Ed, Smitty and Oklahoman, to my knowledge anyway, represents the biggest problem solvers on the forum I know of at any rate. (I pray I didn't leave out someone important) I know I mostly deal with them because of their presence here. I'm afraid if this message goes viral in board meetings we may be overwhelmed with Vice Presidents.
Too late, i didn't delete it like I should have.