Two Shameless Gloats and a startling Lie-Nielsen repair experience

[Danny Thompson]

Shameless Gloats
For the past several months I've been closely watching Criagslist, the Classifieds here, and on one other Wood-related Net Forum, in search of a tailed jointer. When I was at my lowest, thinking I would never find one, thinking "Maybe I should just go Ne-" . . .

. . . the galoot gods dropped this Veritas Bevel-up Jointer with standard 38º blade, a spare 25º blade, a fence, and a plane sock (not pictured) into my lap:



$225 for the plane, $20 each for the blade and fence. It joins the matching Veritas LA Jack already at home here. Not a steal, but a pretty good deal.

Then, just last week this 18" Starrett Precision Combination Square hit CL.

$75 still in the box. At less than half of current street price, it seemed like a deal. Now, what to do with it?

Lie-Nielsen
Lastly, in the summer of 2007 I bought my first high quality plane. It was a bronze Lie-Nielsen Skew Angle Block Plane w/nicker (LN 140). I had no idea how to use it, I just new it was quality and a beauty. The feeling wasn't mutual. The first day in the shop, the plane realized whose hands it had fallen into and chose to take its own life--i.e., it took a header off the workbench smack into the concrete.

The cap screw was bent as was the front knob! Yikes! I couldn't begin to think how much it was going to cost to repair this plane I had already spent way too much on! Could it even be repaired? Needless to say, I put off the inevitable.

With the new jointer (above) on the way, I got inspired to finally send the 140 in for repairs. A couple of days later I got the call.

Me: Hello?
LN: Hi, this is Lie Nielsen calling. We received your plane. Are you willing to pay $6 in return shipping?
Me: Uhh, yeah?
LN: Okay, I'll send it down to the shop in the morning. It should be ready tomorrow or the next day.
Me: Um, great!

Sure enough, the plane arrived today: practically a new plane. At the very least they gave me a new knob, new cap, new cap screw, and gave it a good spit-shine. At most, it's a brand new plane. To be honest, I can't tell for sure. And NO CHARGE for the repair, just shipping. Look at that cap shine!

I had heard LN stood by its products, but when the damage was so clearly my fault? What a great company! I mean, really . . . six bucks for shipping? I guess I didn't overspend on the plane after all.

[Brian Kent]

Wow.

Tools to build with for a lifetime. Congratulations!

Brian

[Joel Goodman]

Isn't it a pleasure to deal with Mr. LN!!!!! Your experience is not unique.

[Charles Shenk]

Lie Nielsen is a great company!

[John Keeton]

And, that is why we don't need to be buying Wood River planes, or the other import crap - without starting another lengthy thread.

Great score Danny, and that LN really does look new. There is no turning back for you now - have you looked in the mirror and noticed the physical changes yet?? Since getting into the handplanes a few months ago, I have to shave more, and the sleeves on my shirts are too short!

[John Powers]

Puts LN up there with Martin Guitars and Orvis fly fishing. Standing behind the product is one thing, fixing up the occassional user screw up is outstanding.

[Berl Mendenhall]

I agree with John Keeton. Every day it seems like we're just along for this economic ride. We need to support companies like LN. It would be awful to loose a great company like LN. What they did for Danny and others comes from the top of the company. It would be a whole lot more profitable for them to have charged for those repairs. My opinion, it doesn't get any better than that.

Berl

[Joe McMahon]

Puts LN up there with Martin Guitars and Orvis fly fishing. Standing behind the product is one thing, fixing up the occassional user screw up is outstanding.

Don't forget Lee Valley. When the CEO of a large corporation such as Lee Valley regularly scans boards such as this and personally responds to comments, question & gripes, well, you certainly can call that a great, consumer oriented company.

[Richard Dooling]

Yep. I bent the cap screw on a LN low angle block - totally my fault. Called and had a new one in a couple of days - no charge.

I have also been very impressed with Veritas and Lee Valley.

Excellent products and excellent customer appreciation.

[Justin Green]

Martin is awesome. I love my Martin. I can't wait to save a few bucks for some LN tools.

[Walter Lay]

That's a great story to hear about L-N's customer service. I'm a new woodworker, but already I can see that working with planes is a lot more enjoyable than using a thickness sander. My wife gave me a L-N block plane for Christmas and I've already dropped it on a oncrete floor - fortunately it just put a small nick in the sole that I was able to clean up pretty easily. But that plane works so much better than the other planes I have, that I went ahead and ordered a L-N 4 1/2 smooth plane from Woodcraft last Saturday (10% off). I just got a call that it's in already Hearing your story confirms that I did the right thing, not settling for Wood River.
Thanks,
Walter

[Thomas Pender]

With all the talk of how good LN and LV are (and they are), I am not sure anyone got sufficiently jealous of your LV buy on the Jointer Plane with the accessories.


Well, I am not jealous, because I have the LV bevel up jointer (with the fence) and love it. However, I do congratulate you on a real deal!

[Dave Anderson NH]

Danny, that's just the way Tom Lie-Nielsen operates. Yours was a simple job for his people. One of my NH guild friends had a fire in his shop about 2 years ago due to defective insulation around a heating unit exhaust flue. He lost most of his machines and a very nice collection of hand tools, some of which had been in his family since before 1900. His set of about a dozen and a half LN planes were charred, warped, twisted, and some of the parts were melted. He sent them all back to Tom with instructions to see if anything could be repaired or salvaged. He really didn't have very high expectations. A month later every tool came back as good as new with a nice note from Tom saying that there would be no charge. That is truly above and beyond the call of good customer service and is one of the reasons that it is important to support our domestic tool makers.

[Doug Mason]

I had a similar experience--I knocked a bronze LN smoother off my bench and it hit the concrete. LN told me to send it in--and they did the best they could (it was damaged too much in one corner to get entirely flat again) at no charge. I have been entirely happy with the LN stuff (despite the stiff prices) that I have never veered elsewhere for a metal-bodied plane.

[Mike Henderson]

I've had excellent service from LN, also. Never dropped a plane, but when I had a problem with an LN plane, they took care of it quickly and at no charge.

But remember the economics. When you purchase an LN plane, you're paying a price that includes the cost of that "insurance". It's as if you paid the fair value for the plane and added an "extended warranty" for the life of the plane.

When you purchase some other brand of plane, you may only pay the fair value of the plane and get a 90 day or 1 year warranty. After that, if you drop it (or have any other problems after the warranty expires) you pay to have it fixed.

It's up to you as to whether you want the insurance or not.

Mike