Nightmare

[dirk martin]

I order the G0453W planer from Grizzly, back in May, along with the T27625 Shelix cutterhead. The Shelix head cost of $595.00
The planer arrived quickly, with the straight knives, and we were told the Shelix head was on back order until early June.
We ran a couple of boards thru it, to make sure all was well, and it ran perfectly.

We're planing lots of figured wood, and can't do anything with the straight knives. We need that Shelix cutterhead.
Mid June, I called, and asked for an update, and they said "End of June"
Now, here I am, past the middle of July, and still no cutterhead.

I called them today, and they gave me an estimate of "end of Aug"....and she emphasized "estimate".
I told her this has become rediculous, and I've been more than patient....but now that this planer is no use to us, I need to return it, and get something from Minimax or Laguna. She put me on hold....

She came back on the line, and said they do have another cutterhead that will work for us, but it's $895. I told her that I wasn't going to pay more for the head that I've waited so long for. She put me on hold again. When she came back, she told me that this $895 head was a straight knife head. I told her the planer already came with one of those, so that wouldn't do me any good, anyway.

She asked if I used the planer, and I told her I ran 2 or 3 boards thru it, to make sure it was in good operational order, and I told her it ran perfectly.
She then informed me that since it is now used, I will need to send her several pictures, confirming its condition, and that there will be a 10% restocking fee. In addition, I would need to pay the return shipping.

Needless to say, I was furious, but remained calm, and I simply asked her if she understood the "position I've been put in"? She said she did, but that her hands were tied.

Are there any other Creekers out there, that have any suggestions for me?

[Tim Boger]

I'd start working my way up the chain of command until someone fixed the problem .... someone will, the struggle to get to that entity will be the battle.

[dirk martin]

At this point, I'm willing to take a Grizzly spiral head, rather than the Shelix head....but for some reason the Griz spiral head is MORE expensive than the Shelix....even tho the Shelix has a better geometry to the knives.

If they'd just offer me the spiral head, at no increase in cost, we'd be done with this mess.....for some reason Grizzly wants $729-$815 more for their spiral head, against the $595 Shelix !

[Mike Heidrick]

Call Brian Gumper at holbren.com and see of he can get a Byrd head on order faster. Get the woodnet discount too if you can (not sure you can on a byrd). That is 10% right there. 800-838-8547

That or just order the T27451 $815 one that is in stock.

Or order a second planer and float till the restock comes back.

$120 restock is a drop in the bucket if you are loosing money but are you on the hook to send it back too?? That freight will cost you a bit maybe.

Id really try and take lighter cuts and run the wood askew while being patient and working with Brian on getting a byrd ordered or made for you.

[dirk martin]

C

Or order a second planer and float till the restock comes back.

$120 restock is a drop in the bucket if you are loosing money but are you on the hook to send it back too?? That freight will cost you a bit maybe.

Yeah, they want me to pay return shipping, too.
I'll call Brian, in the morning.

[John Conklin]

I'm betting that the problem lies with Byrd. I ordered one a couple years ago for my Delta jointer and it ended up taking about 4 months... and I ordered from Holbren. I tried to be patient, but toward the end was getting really tired of waiting. I tried emailing Byrd directly a couple times and never even got a response. The best that I got from Hobren (I believe it was Brian) was that they and Byrd was out of that model and Byrd wasn't going to make more "for awhile".

About 6 months ago I ordered a Byrd head for my Powermatic planer from Grizzly. At first I was told that it was out of stock and I wouldn't get it for about month. 10 days later it showed up at my door.

Realize none of this helps you, but just wanted to let you know that you're not alone.

[Robin Frierson]

Seems like a simple fix...send you a Grizz spiral at the same price of the Byrd. They cant just leave customers hanging like that. I had recent problem with a Grizz jointer and all ended well. They took it back and I ordered a different model and they even gave me free shipping. So maybe asking to speak to a supervisor might help.

[Brian Gumpper]

The problem definitely lies with Byrd, big problem with deliveries right now. Your frustration would have been exaggerated though when you got the head in and it didn't fit. I don't know if Grizzly is selling the new heads yet but all the machines ending in "W" using a different head than the other planers and jointers they appear to be exact copies of. Can't explain why just what Byrd says.

[Brian Gumpper]

My mistake, looks like Grizzly is selling the "W" version of the head now. I was told 8 weeks on the about three weeks ago.

[Allan Speers]

The problem definitely lies with Byrd, big problem with deliveries right now. Your frustration would have been exaggerated though when you got the head in and it didn't fit. I don't know if Grizzly is selling the new heads yet but all the machines ending in "W" using a different head than the other planers and jointers they appear to be exact copies of. Can't explain why just what Byrd says.

The problem definitely lies with Grizzly. They should never have sent the planer in the first place, with the wrong configuration, unless the buyer OK'ed that first.

I'm really surprised they didn't bend over backwards to rectify this.

[Keith Outten]

When you placed the order were you told that both items were not in stock?

If so you probably should have known that shipments from most factories have been taking a very long time for the last few years. The days of retail establishments stocking huge inventories are long gone, since the economic bashing we took in 2008. Your problem isn't with Grizzly its with failure of the banking industry. Most of the companies who sell both large and some small scale products are trying their best to support a reasonable delivery system, not much they can do about their suppliers production line problems since they can no long afford to stock large inventories in their warehouses anymore.

Clearly every retail sales organization would like nothing better than to deliver their products to their customers the next day so they can get paid. Long delivery dates have become the norm in many industries now, its a monster of a job to produce a major catalog many months in advance and be able to predict the ability of hundreds of suppliers to deliver anything on time. You will find hundreds and hundreds of posts here since 2008 about people waiting for delivery of machines for what used to be considered an unreasonable amount of time. Delivery dates promised by manufacturers slip almost every week, this is the new norm...the customer must learn to be patient and plan ahead.
.

[Aaron Conway]

I'd start working my way up the chain of command until someone fixed the problem .... someone will, the struggle to get to that entity will be the battle.

Tim's right...start escalating up the chain

[john lawson]

When you placed the order were you told that both items were not in stock?

If so you probably should have known that shipments from most factories have been taking a very long time for the last few years. The days of retail establishments stocking huge inventories are long gone, since the economic bashing we took in 2008. Your problem isn't with Grizzly its with failure of the banking industry. Most of the companies who sell both large and some small scale products are trying their best to support a reasonable delivery system, not much they can do about their suppliers production line problems since they can no long afford to stock large inventories in their warehouses anymore.

Clearly every retail sales organization would like nothing better than to deliver their products to their customers the next day so they can get paid. Long delivery dates have become the norm in many industries now, its a monster of a job to produce a major catalog many months in advance and be able to predict the ability of hundreds of suppliers to deliver anything on time. You will find hundreds and hundreds of posts here since 2008 about people waiting for delivery of machines for what used to be considered an unreasonable amount of time. Delivery dates promised by manufacturers slip almost every week, this is the new norm...the customer must learn to be patient and plan ahead.
.

"Your problem isn't with Grizzly, it's with the banking industry", are you kidding me?

He did not order the planer nor the new head from "the banking industry", he ordered it from Grizzly. The OP stated it was on back order until June. So yeah, the problem is with Grizzly.

I know Grizzly is an advertiser, but Jeez, give me a break!

[Bruce Wrenn]

Did you pay for planer on CC. Dispute the charges.

[Shiraz Balolia]

The problem lies with Byrd and their slow deliveries.

We have been placing orders with them many months in advance and are basically at the mercy of their delivery schedules. It is better to purchase a machine that is pre-fitted with the spiral cutter head than to try to fit an aftermarket cutter head. Frankly, we get stuff faster from overseas with several months lead time than we do from Byrd. They have been averaging between 6 to 7 months for deliveries and our orders are tens of thousands of dollars!

We are calling them today to get a more definite delivery date for that cutter head and will be letting the OP know.