Lee Valley pulls a fast one.

I ordered some items the other week from the Lumber Bunker and Lee Valley. The Lumber Bunker stuff was all books and after a quick email from Steve to advise of a bit extra postage to cover the weight, they were sent friday morning 1/9/06 (friday).:)

I ordered some gear from Lee Valley and the shipping confirmation came through in the early hours of 31/8/06 (Thursday). I had elected to use the surface mail option for delivery which should take 8-12 weeks.

The books from the Lumber Bunker arrived Wednesday 6/9/06 which was great but when I went to the post office to pick up my parcel I got two boxes. Guess where the other parcel was from?:eek:

Amazing isnt it, customer service from them is very good!
Compared to a tool shop here in SA who shall remain nameless still havent got my tools in since the SA WWWS!(and they've taken payment from my CC over a month ago!)

I'm not sure how much Lee Valley had to do with it, but 5 working days to an address that isn't near a major city is quite extraordinary.

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Originally Posted by Harry72

(and they've taken payment from my CC over a month ago!)

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What? That should never happen until the item is shipped. I'd be putting a stop on the order unless they gave a shipping code.

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Originally Posted by Dan

I'm not how much Lee Valley had to do with it, but 5 working days to an address that isn't near a major city is quite extraordinary.

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Must have been overnight from Canada, then four days for AP :D :D

Seriously, After 2 1/2 years or so of dealing with LV, I must say that their customer service is quite extraordinary; a country mile above just about any other merchant that I've dealt with, even though many of those are pretty good.

If he hasn't done it already, I think that Rob (or his dad) should write a book on customer service. Then they could say that they really "wrote the book on it" :D

Sent them an email last night, apparently the place they deal with promised the del date... , they are reimbursing my card until its here!

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Originally Posted by Dan

(snip)
Guess where the other parcel was from?:eek:

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Hi Dan -

Sound like it set a record getting there....:D

To be fair - I don't think we can accept the credit for that... especially if it'd mean accepting the blame for all those deliveries that take longer than usual....:eek:

It is nice to be surprised once in a awhile though...

Cheers -

Rob

G'day.
This brings me to the question - what exactly is the surface mail option. I thought it was mailed via ship (On the ocean), which means that a mistake was made in sending Dan's shipment or am I wrong about my assumption. Maybe Rob Lee can explain the shipment detail - would be much appreciated.
Regards
Les

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Originally Posted by lesmeyer

G'day.
This brings me to the question - what exactly is the surface mail option. I thought it was mailed via ship (On the ocean), which means that a mistake was made in sending Dan's shipment or am I wrong about my assumption. Maybe Rob Lee can explain the shipment detail - would be much appreciated.
Regards
Les

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Hi Les -

Without being able to look at Dan's order, I can't really address specifics, but can offer some speculation...

Many carriers have shipping agreements (guaranteed volumes etc) with other carriers, and if the space/weight capacity is unused for it's intended purpose, than it's free for other services...

That's just a a complicated way of saying that if Canada Post has contracted 500 kg/day of air cargo space with Quantas, and they only have 300kg of first class mail... they'll bump up 200kg of 3rd class packets to first class...

Sometimes we'll do the same here... if we run across high value parcels that are really small, there may not be as much of a difference in surface/air rates, and we'll bump it up to a different class of service...

It's all about setting and meeting an expectation... in business, you only want to say what you know you can deliver... though you always try to exceed that...

Cheers -

Rob

Rob, I could've sworn you mentioned something about plane specials in the coming catalogue recently, anything further to add?

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Originally Posted by Groggy

Rob, I could've sworn you mentioned something about plane specials in the coming catalogue recently, anything further to add?

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Hi -

Right now - it's the cast iron edge trimming plane for USD $89 ....

More planes are on the go - we got diverted a tad by chairmaking tools....

Cheers -

Rob

Let me start off by saying that I'm an idiot! :o
Hummmm, I thought that aleast one of you would disagree. :confused:
Oh, well. :mad:

I purchased a spoke shave from Lee Valley for class. I disassembled the spoke shave in preparation for sharpening. My bench mate decided to clean the bench and a nylon washer from the spoke shave was lost in a pile of shavings.

I sent an E-mail to Lee Valley customer service explaining the problem. I requested a new washer and instructed them to charge my credit card for what ever it cost.

Lee Valley sent the new nylon washer with overnight shipping at no charge.

What more could one ask?

Rob,
thanks for the explanation. As always you are never too busy to provide excellent service and/or information. My dealing with LV/Veritas has always been very positive and the only single time LV mailed an incorrect item, it was immediately rectified with the speedpost option at no charge for me.:)
Regards
Les

It truely never seaces to amaze me the postal services... I mean Ive ordered gear ex US and Canada (sadly not LV) and they have arrived well before another item ordered ex eastern states got here in one case a plan set arrived from Nova Scotia in 5 days flat while another plan set ordered ex Queensland on the same day at the same time arrived 3 weeks later... personally when it comes to postal items I like the service ex USA or Canada over Australia Posts service ex eastern states

Great comments Rob thanks :cool: