Grizzly Customer Service

[Hans Braul]

A bit of a good news - bad news story here. I recently bought the 12" jointer and set it up to produce beautiful, straight faces, but was having problems getting the second face exactly square. Turns out the fence was .020" out of flat. I called Grizzly and they immediately shipped me a new fence. When UPS attempted the delivery (I wasn't home) they indicated they required $58 to cover customs brokerage fees. I wrote to Grizzly and they cheerfully agreed the same day to pay the fee. Of course, I'd prefer if the machine had been perfect, but I'm very impressed with the service.

Hans

[Hans Braul]

I spoke too soon. I just checked the replacement fence - it's .042" out. The saga continues...

[glenn bradley]

Grizzly has great prices and sometimes the payback is a little fiddling but they always seem to stay involved until you are satisfied on issues like this. Are you describing a dip along the length? Just curious really as the fence needs to be very near flat.

[Phil Thien]

What are the dimensions and in what direction is it bowed?

I fixed a small fence once with a sanding belt cut open and put down on glass. I rubbed the fence on the sanding belt until it was dead flat.

But that was a smaller fence.

[Dave Wagner]

The wrenches they sent with my G1026 shaper for spindle replacement, just pressed metal, bent the first time using them, they did send new ones, but still the same problems, cheap, pressed tools, i used my good craftsmen wrenches now.

[george wilson]

Old Delta wrenches for their knives were cheap,pressed metal,too,from the 50's. I had to grind down a better wrench thinner to get the gib screws loose.

[Hans Braul]

Grizzly has great prices and sometimes the payback is a little fiddling but they always seem to stay involved until you are satisfied on issues like this. Are you describing a dip along the length? Just curious really as the fence needs to be very near flat.

The fence is about 4' long and is concave along its length by .042". The other one that came with the machine was also concave, but only by .020". The other problem was that there was a significant twist such that I could square the fence at one end and it would be out of square at the other. Hence my problem with getting square surfaces.

Hans

[John Mark Lane]

I wonder how many machines have problems like this, but the buyer doesn't have the knowledge, or tools, to check it. My guess is pretty many.

[Dan Karachio]

I see many posts about how Grizzly does right by sending out new parts and tools, and while that is a very positive thing I have to imagine this cannot be good for the bottom line. Perhaps they have less control over QA than they would like, but to get this right at the manufacturing plant the first time would be ideal. As a customer shelling out big bucks for power tools, I really want this right the first time too.

Also, shipping heavy stuff all over the world over and over has to add up. Too bad we don't make this stuff here any more. I bet US workers could kick a$$ on the quality part... Sigh...

[mreza Salav]

Hans, I'm following this with interest as I have been debating doing some big purchases from them and would like to see how your problems are handled. It sucks to buy such a big machinery and not get a reasonably machined part not once, but twice!

[Erik Lindseth]

I wonder how many machines have problems like this, but the buyer doesn't have the knowledge, or tools, to check it. My guess is pretty many.

Wow, .042" concavity is really signficant. This definitely shakes my faith in Grizzly. Then again, I gotta really agree with the above statement.

[Ruhi Arslan]

At least they are trying to fix it and right away. I bought the JET 12" J/P recently. Infeed side table has a 0.010" dip in the center when measured with a steel straight edge (woodpecker) and fence has a warp that cannot be adjusted. They never even replied to my emails, returned my phone calls. They hae lost one customer forever good after selling only one item.
I am considering a bandsaw and was going to be either a JET or PM but not anymore. Grizzly there it comes.

[Dave Lehnert]

At least they are trying to fix it and right away. I bought the JET 12" J/P recently. Infeed side table has a 0.010" dip in the center when measured with a steel straight edge (woodpecker) and fence has a warp that cannot be adjusted. They never even replied to my emails, returned my phone calls. They hae lost one customer forever good after selling only one item.
I am considering a bandsaw and was going to be either a JET or PM but not anymore. Grizzly there it comes.

I have always had good service from JET. But I have always called, never sent an e-mail.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I will argue it's been decades since "Made in the USA" stood for quality. If you have an hour I will relate how I ordered an '83 full-sized K5 Chevy Blazer and after 41,000 miles, 4 1/1 years the 5th transmission started going out, I got rid of it. If Chevy's customer service had been any good I might have hung on but the regional rep was too calloused too.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Let's get back on topic, please.

This is thread was regarding's Hans' view of Grizzly customer service.