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Thread: What Are Your Expectations?....

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Northern UT
    Posts
    762

    What Are Your Expectations?....

    I fully understand that I have an unreasonable expectation when it comes to customer service. Perhaps my views border on fanatical, but having been in the service industry for the better part of 30 years, I know what I give my customers.

    Here is a situation that came up this weekend.

    Ten years ago, Dec 2004, I bought a Unisaw from Delta. I have enjoyed the saw for that time and made a fair bit of saw dust. At the time, Delta was offering a rebate of $50 or one of several free tools. I submitted my paperwork, filed my copy away and promptly forgot about it. Of course as happens with so many rebates, it was never fulfilled. I came across the paperwork over the weekend and out of curiosity called the number on the application. The fulfillment company no longer does work for Delta, but I looked up the Delta number on line and called.

    I talked with a lady who said that Delta at that time was owned by a different company and the current company had nothing to go from, had no responsibility and would not be able to help me.

    OK, I cannot say they are wrong, from any and all viewpoints, except one. Namely customer service. If it had been me, I would have at least explored more about it and tried to do something. From my viewpoint, I don't care who owns Delta today, it is the brand, not the ownership. When it comes time to replace or add tools, will I buy Delta? Perhaps, but the likelihood is lower today than last Friday, for two reasons. One I understand better how often the ownership changes, and two, the current owners don't seem to care much. Who will stand behind a purchase in a year or two?

    Again, perhaps I have unreasonable expectations, but service is service. An example is that in 2007 I bought a cabinet company and two years after I bought it, I had a guy stop in that had bought cabinets from the previous owner in 1999. The lacquer finish had worn off on the sink cabinet and didn't look the best. Plus of course the wood was going to start degrading. He asked what I could do for him. Short story is that I went to his house and removed the doors from the sink cabinet, plus the one on each side and took them back to the shop. We sanded them down, cleaned them up, then resprayed them. I delivered them back to him and he was very happy. When he asked what the bill was, I said 'No charge.' Was I right? Should I have charged him? I probably should have, but I knew that the previous owner had some lacquer issues and the cabs should have lasted longer. I felt that the right thing to so was not charge him. My cost was about $200 or perhaps a little more. From a customer service viewpoint, charging him was the wrong thing to do. From every other perspective, I should have charged him. It wasn't even the idea of him complaining to others as I don't think he would have done so, but how many people did he tell about the service he received?

    I would love to hear others thoughts.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Monroe, MI
    Posts
    11,896
    Seriously, 10 years later?

    I have a real hard time defending the current incarnation of Delta (which was bought by Black and Decker, which in turn was bought by Stanley, and was then sold off to a new owner in that 10 years) from anything but 10 years later and you're calling about a rebate????


  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    League City, Texas
    Posts
    1,643
    I rarely say this about customer service issues, but you let this slide for 10 years and now you are digging into it? Not going to get much sympathy from me on it, particularly since the Delta tool company of 2014 is not the same company that was in 2004...

    Actually with the rapid hands changing of Delta I would be very leery of buying anything from them as you have no clue of who will be there to provide service down the road...
    Trying to follow the example of the master...

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    San Antonio Texas
    Posts
    223
    your service on the cabinets was among the best a customer could ever get. that level of service is rare. i would not have an expectation for a company with different ownership to honor a rebate from 10 years ago until i read the terms of the rebate offer. sometimes its not about what we think is right, it's about the terms of the offer both that parties agreed to. with that said...i personally wouldn't spend more than 5 minutes trying to get a $50 refund from 10 years ago. If it was going to take more than 5 minutes, my time is worth more than the money, hassle, and effort to chase down that tired old rebate.

  5. #5
    Mark, I agree with you completely. What passes for "customer service" at most companies today is pathetic. With regards to Delta they should have shown some concern and, as you said, tried to explore the options. Yes, you should have followed up in a timely manner, which you obviously realize. Conversely Delta should have employed a firm which was capable of processing the rebate. Delta had a financial incentive to offer a mail in rebate rather than money off at the point of sale as well as an incentive to make the rebate process inefficient. Many studies show less than half of all rebates are redeemed.

    As to your example with the cabinet I bet you got your monies worth with word of mouth advertising.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    Carrollton, Georgia
    Posts
    1,815
    Mark, if it were me, I would send a letter to the president of Delta, saying exactly what you wrote in your post and see what kind of response you get. It only costs 49¢.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Nashville, TN
    Posts
    449
    Move on. Life is short. Far more important things in this world.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Lexington, Oh
    Posts
    509
    I would not have the guts to even ask after 10 years. I wouldn't expect free repair on cabinets after 10 years either. Especially if the company had been sold.

    I am all for reasonable customer service, but a 10 year old rebate when the only one(you) of the parties involved still exist? Some customers are worth divorcing! Sure, they should have honored the rebate 10 years ago, but if they did not and you let it slide for 10 years, I don't see where you have any right to complain.

    Just curious, is the cabinet business still going?

  9. #9
    How much money can you expect any arbitrary company to outlay on a roll of the dice from a past owners perfomance? Expecting any company to blanketly absorb the prior owners issues is utterly ludicrous.

    A stretch is phrasing it pleasantly.

    While your interaction with your companies prior customer may have lead to some good faith business on their part, you more than likely opened yourself up for a possible litany of other past customers to wipe you off the face of the earth with refinishing of work based on precedence.

    A long shot either way but bad business to say the least.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    PALM BAY FL
    Posts
    515
    The results of their honoring a prior transaction could be construed as accepting of past owner/ operators debts. I worked for a manufacturer that went belly up, a financial investment group purchased the assets, but not liabilities from the bank after foreclosure. I was one of the few former employees retained for the restart; we were given explicit instructions to refuse any incoming shipments with the old name and advise the vendors to reship with the new one for just such a legal reason.
    - Beachside Hank
    Improvise, adapt, overcome; the essence of true craftsmanship.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Belden, Mississippi
    Posts
    2,742
    Wanna buy a great Delta plant????
    There's one for sale here in Tupelo, MS.
    What a shame that a great brand has now turned to the Asian generic stuff.
    Wanna buy some Delta parts? Hahahaha!!!!
    Bill
    On the other hand, I still have five fingers.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Northwestern Connecticut
    Posts
    7,149
    While I'm no fan of Delta's customer service, or their exorbanant consumables costs (like the $45/qrt gear box oil and the most expensive belts on the planet), or the fact that you are lucky to get parts if you need them and will probably gasp at the price when you do.....I'm going to have a hard time faulting them for this one. 10 years later? Yes, it shows poor form that "Delta" in what ever incarnation they were in at the time didn't honor their sales gimmick at the time...but Delta has established a history of showing poor form so its at least not a surprise. You have genuinely missed your window to voice complaints about this, statute of limitations has expired, there is no context under which you should expect any company to honor a 10 year old claim for unreceived promo goods. I vote move on. If you want to hold something against them and not buy another machine from them there are a lot better reasons than this. They went from being owned by a tool company, to a hair dryer company, to a toaster oven company.....back to a hand tool and hardware company which quickly sold them...to what ever they are now. I consider them the junk bond of power tools at this point and would need some considerable convincing to have any confidence in them at all.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    New England
    Posts
    2,474
    Dude, you're the one who waited 10 years not them. It was your responsibility to follow up on this after about 3-4 months.

    The tools Delta makes today aren't even expected to last 10 years...

    35 years ago it was a HUGE deal for me to be able to move up from Sears tools to Delta. You can't even imagine. I felt like a professional for the first time after years of struggling.

    So sad to see this decline.
    Last edited by Dave Zellers; 06-16-2014 at 9:14 PM.

  14. #14
    Ten years? What is the statute of limitations where you live? I had similar problems with Ridgid Lifetime Service Agreement (LSA.) Registered online and sent in paper work as required (same day as online registration.) Ridgid swore they never received papar work, so LSA wasn't in force. I reminded then that I had "Certificate of Mailing" in hand. Quickly was told to send copy of COM so they could activate LSA. That was last Oct, and LSA isn't in effect yet.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    black river falls wisconsin
    Posts
    931
    Not to get off topic but seems like rigid is titening up on their lifetime deal now. Last time got replacement battries was told had to call in with cereal number details in so many days.

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