Fantastic customer service from Lee Valley

And not too bad service from Timbercon.


Good service from Lee Valley is apparently old news, but I am so impressed that I have to tell someone.

I have recently taken advantage of a one weekend 10% off from Timbercon and bought a Veritas stone pond and some stones :). I got it in a week or as it was out of stock. Stones came within couple of days :) :).
That was quite impressive after all the bashing that Timbercon received here for late deliveries.
Now the real story begins when I received the pond. It was missing the clamps and the grit. I quickly sent emails to Lee Valley and Timbercon. Since it was at night, Lee Valley had and advantage and they responded within couple of hours, asking me nicely to take the matter up with local supplier in the first instance. I thought that was fair enough so I spoke with them next morning. Timbercon said, oh yeah, we are sorry but it seems to have been packaging omission from Veritas so we need to talk to them. Oh and by the way it may take 3-4 weeks, being holiday season and all. I thought it was a bummer that I will have to wait that long but considering the season and distance I figured that the estimate was not unreasonable. Disappointing but not unreasonable.
I let Le Valley know of the outcome and I expressed the same sentiment, not unreasonable but somewhat disappointing. Not so, said the hero of the story, one Wally Wilson, we will rush ship it to you directly. Ok, I thought, that will cut it down to week or two, much better then 3-4. I was already impressed by that.
This was on Saturday 17th Dec. Today 20th December the box with parts from Lee Valley was waiting for me when I got home from work.

Those guys are just unbelievable.

And if a cynic might think that the problem should not have happened in the first place, well, cock-ups do happen to the best of us. The measure of customer service is not if problems occure or not but what you do when they do occure.
These guys have written the book on customer service!
Well done and you can pat yourselves on the back for me!

Have to agree with you whole-heartedly.

Just had another email from LV; your order sent & will be there in 6-10 days.

Unreal.

Ken

I bought some grippers off them a little while ago.........the hardest part of the whole deal was me putting them together.....enough said, great prices and great service

That is fairly typical of customer service from the US, I used to import and distribute fishing gear, one supplier in Queensland would take 5 weeks to supply parts, I then went to US and got the same bits cheaper and had them within a week.
Queensland supplier then screamed foul, we have a backlog of orders, so did I matey, so did I.
I sold a customer a faulty piece of equipment, just one of those things that was not obvious until put into use, customer had a grizzle at me, I gave him a loan unit and the manufacturer air freighted a replacement to him direct, 3 days it took, one very happy camper.
Some local businesses have a lot to learn.

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Originally Posted by stolar

And not too bad service from Timbercon.


Good service from Lee Valley is apparently old news, but I am so impressed that I have to tell someone.

I have recently taken advantage of a one weekend 10% off from Timbercon and bought a Veritas stone pond and some stones :). I got it in a week or as it was out of stock. Stones came within couple of days :) :).
That was quite impressive after all the bashing that Timbercon received here for late deliveries.
Now the real story begins when I received the pond. It was missing the clamps and the grit. I quickly sent emails to Lee Valley and Timbercon. Since it was at night, Lee Valley had and advantage and they responded within couple of hours, asking me nicely to take the matter up with local supplier in the first instance. I thought that was fair enough so I spoke with them next morning. Timbercon said, oh yeah, we are sorry but it seems to have been packaging omission from Veritas so we need to talk to them. Oh and by the way it may take 3-4 weeks, being holiday season and all. I thought it was a bummer that I will have to wait that long but considering the season and distance I figured that the estimate was not unreasonable. Disappointing but not unreasonable.
I let Le Valley know of the outcome and I expressed the same sentiment, not unreasonable but somewhat disappointing. Not so, said the hero of the story, one Wally Wilson, we will rush ship it to you directly. Ok, I thought, that will cut it down to week or two, much better then 3-4. I was already impressed by that.
This was on Saturday 17th Dec. Today 20th December the box with parts from Lee Valley was waiting for me when I got home from work.

Those guys are just unbelievable.

And if a cynic might think that the problem should not have happened in the first place, well, cock-ups do happen to the best of us. The measure of customer service is not if problems occure or not but what you do when they do occure.
These guys have written the book on customer service!
Well done and you can pat yourselves on the back for me!

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Another voice in praise of Lee Valley (mine).Had a problem just before Christmas and in fairness to LV,I don't believe it was their fault.No arguments,no delays,they resolved it to my complete satisfaction by the New Year.Without a doubt they are the best company I have ever dealt with and I am happy to spread the word about their exceptional service and the quality of their tools.I'm a loyal customer for life.

Steve (who sleeps with a LV blockplane under his pillow):):):)

steve you will get hurt one day by that block plane :D :D :D

Have to agree things do go wrong and that is when you really find out how good the customer service is.

Lee Valley seem a very customer focused organisation. They email you let you know what is going on thank you for your order etc and run things very nicely. They reply quickly to an queries and ship immediately.

It is easy for the company to say we have the order and we know what is going on and not worry about anything. The customer at this point is sweating thinking that nothing is happening.

Have to say plaudits to Lee Valley. When I grow up I want to be just like them.

Studley

I purchased a spoke shave from Lee Valley. All the usual, great price and fast delivery. Now here is where I got stupider.

In class, Sharpening etc., I had disassembled the spokeshave. Either I or my bench mate lost a special nylon washer. (Maybe it wasn't there in the first place, but I seriously doubt that option.) I sent an e-mail to Lee Valley explaining the lost washer. Gave them the order number and instructions to just bill me for the washer.

The next day, a washer arrives from Lee Valley shipped next day service. Oh, yeah. No charge. No charge for what was more than likely my own stupidity.

I just have to agree, with all of the above.

I have bought quite a few things over the past eighteen months or so from Lee Vally, and other than a manufacturing glitch with a new item - which circumstances were fully explained to be by Rob himself (!), every order has been exemplar. Fast, efficient, informative and friendly, and with great items and good prices.

Ya gotta admit ya gonna stick with good service,very hard to top LV tho MIK are also good ,DICK are also good.

Customer 1on1 is paramount and this evokes where the real good guy's come from.

I'll alway's stick with those that give me efficient and cost effective time relative to what I require from them.

Cheers:)

Guys, it gladdens my heart to read that a supplier is so customer focussed.:):) Its something I've blatted on about for years. Ever since I quit my job at a hardware store in the early 80's. The company had been around for about 150 years. Well, the idiot sons took over from the wonderful old owners and decided to turn it into a DIY business, 7 days a week, with many fewer staff. I always looked after the customers and went out of my way to make sure they (trades as well as DIYers) received top notch service.;););) With the new focus on cheap tools and less staff I quit. The company closed its doors forever 8 years later.:cool::cool::cool:
There's a moral there. Put the customer 1st, 2nd, third and always and the profits will look after themselves. I just hate it when I go into a shop and stand around like a spare c*ck at a wedding waiting for someone to come and serve me.:mad::mad::mad: I generally walk out.:mad::mad::mad::mad:
In Australia, bosses are driven by the profit motive. Employees aren't - they're just driven. Therefore they jack up and go slow. Just look at A Post for a classic example. I'm just glad they don't have the contract for organ transpant delivery. They'd be fossils by the time the recipient got them.:(
Off my soap-box!:cool:

I have to admit that for an overseas company Lee Valley can produce the goods when it comes to customer service when dealing direct. However perhaps they could explain the following. I ordered one of the MK2 honing guides some time ago from Carbatec in Perth. surprise sold out, they are on order from Veritas. In all it took 2 and a bit months for the item to be received. Carbatec were very good and kept ringing me with an update on the eta and it finally arrived, wicked piece of kit. Why does Veritas take so long to supply the likes of Carbatec, is it that they dont want to wholesale and just retail. I for one want to support the local suppliers and for various other reason ( customs having a bad day so make the purchaser pay - expensive exercise) would prefer to buy from the likes of Carbatec, MIK etc.

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Originally Posted by ssgt

. Why does Veritas take so long to supply the likes of Carbatec, is it that they dont want to wholesale and just retail. I for one want to support the local suppliers and for various other reason ( customs having a bad day so make the purchaser pay - expensive exercise) would prefer to buy from the likes of Carbatec, MIK etc.

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I would reckon it is because of the volume they get from supplier like LV air mail would be prohibitivley expensive, so the local suppliers would have it shipped in, which would take a couple of months, as opposed to 5-10 days via air.