Starrett disappointment.

[John Miliunas]

Kinda' bummed here. I've always held Starrett in real high regards but, my latest encounter has been less than pleasant. My family typically does not buy me tools for special occasions, as they really don't have a clue as to what I want or need. Nonetheless, my youngest daughter paid attention when I mentioned a "Starrett Digitape" sometime before Christmas. Sure enough, she pooled enough $$ together and got me one! I left it in the package out in the shop until such time I needed to use it. Well, long about a week or so ago, she was out in the shop and spotted it still in the package and wondered why I wasn't using it. I was just getting ready to start up a mini-project and said, "Well then, let's break that puppy out and take it for a spin!" She got it out of the package for me and I pulled out a board for measuring "digitally"! I read the instructions and all is pretty straightforward. Problem is, it did NOT properly read the correct dimension! After trying several times, the "trouble shooting" section said to pull the battery and then put it back in to "reactivate" the readout. Did this several times with the same results. There's also a battery icon on the readout with an "X" through it, indicating that either, the unit has to be reactivated or the battery replaced. Remember, brand new unit here!) After trying the "reactivation" routine several times and it still giving inaccurate readings both, my daughter and I were kind of dejected.

I told here "not to worry". I said Starrett is a straight up outfit and I'd contact them for a resolution. That's exactly what I did just as soon as she left the shop. I jumped on their site and wrote their CS dept. a detailed email explaining exactly what is going on. Well folks, I'm here to sadly say I got absolutely zero response from Starrett!!! This is well over a week now! Nothing. Nada. Zippo. Zilcho! As in, it appears they don't give a hoot! Worse yet, I checked at three different retailers looking for a new battery, with no luck. I finally found the right flavor/number on-line and ordered some, which I still haven't received. The bummer is, if the fresh battery doesn't take care of it, I'll be rather P.O.'d! Worse yet, my daughter is now the one who feels bad about getting me a "bum" present. I asked and she's not exactly sure what she did with the receipt, so even taking it back is not an option.

So, moral of the story: Keep your receipts, regardless of the OEM!!! (And tell your gift givers to do the same!) It appears that even companies we hold highly are very willing to leave you high and dry. BTW, for those who may suggest calling them, I may try that but, I still stand behind the idea of, if you're going to give me an on-line venue to try and resolve issues, then you should respond!!!! Besides, my experience with calling many of these companies simply adds to the furor by having to navigate through a myriad of menu's before and if I can ever get to talk to a human!!! Guess I never expected this type of treatment from a company like Starrett! Rant mode: "OFF". Thanks for listening and be careful out there!

[John Russell]

Hello John,
I bought one of those also a year or so ago. the "digi" part quit working early and I also did an email to Starrett with no response. I have a combo square of their and it is good quality and requires to contact with them, so I was also disappointed that the readout quit working AND they did not respond. Good luck with it.
JR

[John Miliunas]

Well, that's yet another bummer! Here's what I "love" about their "response" when you submit an inquiry:

E-Mail Response Form - Confirmation

Thank-you!

Your e-mail has been received and will be processed as quickly as possible.
************************

"...as quickly as possible." Yeah. Right! BUYER BEWARE!!!!

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

That sucks, I feel sorry for you and your daughter.

My question is, when and buy whom was Starrett bought out by?

Get on the phone, complain bitterly, send a piece of snail mail their way.

Cheers!

[Dev Emch]

Starrett is an old US machine tool company making highly precise instruments. Rulers, micrometers, intrimikes, surface plates, etc. As long as US metal cutting machine tool was alive and well, so was Starrett.

But as everyone high tails it to china with our tails between our legs, companies like Starrett are forced to reinvent themselves. They have branched off into other areas such as digital instruments, hole saws, bimetal bandsaw blades and a host of other imported trinkets.

More and more, I am finding significant numbers of items not made here but outsourced from china. For example, I understand that all JO Blocks from Starrett are now made in china.

I do have a Starrett digital caliber. It works great. You do have to zero the instrument frequently to make sure your accurate. This type of feature is actually used to set a virtual origin however and I have used the feature like this. But it has no off switch and turns itself off in time. The constant on off on off cycle that this instrument goes through when doing machinst type work burned out the batteries to soon. They are good for about 6 months in a machine shop and about 2 years in a wood shop. So to lazy to buy batteries over and over again, I just picked up the old dial caliber from starrett and have been using it. You have add numbers in you brain sometimes but who cares.

So I feel your pain with these digital items. My last real job with a real PITA boss was that of computer hardware and software engineer. So I know a wee bit about designing ASICS and real time embedded control system software. Personally, I am weary of bringing computers into the shop. Esp. consumer grade computers such as this digi-tape. This unit is most likely a FRU or Field Replaceable Unit made only who knows where.

So at this point, I would be looking for a relative origin reset feature. Was the instrument reading anything prior to pulling out the tape? In other words, was it zeroed correctly? Tell us more about what you did and what you read.

Then on Monday, call Starrett customer service on the phone. Make sure you tell them how upset you are and that you want answers now. If this thing is defective, they should replace it. In the past, they have been very good about fixing or replacing instruments.

But you should also get a welcome to the modern age we live in. For example, in the old days Starrett and everyone else used to make engineers squares by grinding an L shaped square blank from a solid square of tool steel. Then the sides were peen rivoted to this blank and the square was then super precision grind for surface finish and accuracy. By canting the handle part in the light, you could see the three or so peen rivots just barely gleaning in the light. Today, they cut a slit into the handle section and rivot in a single arm or blade. This is much cheaper and faster to make but not nearly as robust and accurate as the old way. I now look for vintage Brown & Sharpe and vintage Starrett engineering squares on ebay.

Its frustrating has the dickens....

[Andy Hoyt]

I got one of these about four or five years ago as a Christmas gift, and said, "Cool!". But I found the logic and memory of the digital feature useless, cumbersome and highly problematic.

I did use it a few times in the presence of the giver to show my appreciation (momma didn't raise a fool) and then quickly relegated it to the drawer with all the other equally useless whizmo gizmos I've acquired over the years.

Nothing beats a 25' Stanley.

[tod evans]

Nothing beats a 25' Stanley.

amen!!!!!!!

[Michael Ballent]

Dev, have you tried the Incra Guaranteed squares? The blade is milled from 1/4" Al and they are guaranteed to be square to .001. I recently bought the 7" version and it is a great addition. They even screw the whole thing down while milling it to make sure that it does not move around. Oh yeah USA made

[John Miliunas]

Dev, I did indeed zero it out and it did indeed show "zero" having done that. As it happens, I have a number of other digital readout devices in my shop, all of which have the capacity and need to zero them out in order to recalibrate them. I've not had the same issues with them, including the el cheapo Harbor Freight digital calipers. I have three of them scattered throughout the shop and, believe it or not, they measure within 1/1000th of each other!!! A bargain at twice the price and I bought all of them on sale for I believe right around $16.00 USD!!! I also have a couple of the Wixey DRO's, both of which, I'm extremely happy with and neither of those are exactly what you would call super high quality, as they relate to other available DRO's. I've priced some of the ones found for machine shop use and the price/quality difference is staggering!

Mind you, I'm NOT looking for the accuracy of the machine shop DRO's or even that of my Wixey units. Heck, the Starrett Digitape only goes down to a 1/16th to begin with. Sadly, it's always off by, at least, that same 1/16th"!!! What I am looking for is to be able to have it function, at the very least, within the capacity it is advertised to do. I'm also looking for some satisfaction from the OEM via the venue they have given me to do so! I really don't think that's asking for too much! Plus, if you check out their Web site, you may note that they give you a toll call number to contact them!!! Say what??? They sell you a defective product, then don't respond via their on-line form and now expect you to pay for a toll call to resolve an issue regarding an item you already paid $$$ for! Sorry, but that's just wrong!

FWIW, I do indeed have a Stanley 25', as well as a couple other tapes. I also had a LV 16', which I just threw out, because I found it's NOT accurate!!! I've been testing a DRO for my table saw and found inconsistencies between it and the LV tape. Well, I took my Stanley and it matched exactly with the DRO. I then took the Starrett and matched it up against the Stanley. Just comparing the tape readings (NOT the DRO), it too matched both, the Stanley and the DRO on the TS. The Stanley and Starrett tapes both matched the TS tape, as well, right out to 54", as well as all the increments between. So, in favor of the Starrett, it appears that the tape itself is fine and accurate. However, the DRO portion of it is not and it looks as though I may end up spending more $$$ to even find out if it will work as advertised. In the end, I feel a whole lot worse for my daughter's sake than my own. Right now, I wish I woulda' kept my yap shut about the stupid Digitape and just bought it on my own. Lesson learned!

[Mike Henderson]

John, Why not give Starrett a call and see if they will respond when you complain "in person".

Alternatively, look up the president’s name and address in their financial data and send him/her a letter saying how much you had previously respected Starrett products and how disappointed you are with the Digitape (and how upset your daughter is). You probably won’t get a response from the president but you may from one of the underlings.

Both approaches have worked for me in the past.

Mike

[Jim Becker]

John, as someone who works closely with a lot of folks in the contact center business, I'll say to you...call them on the phone. MANY companies (actually, most companies) are not setup properly to respond to email on a timely basis, some of them are really large companies, too. It's not that the technology doesn't exist to route your electronic inquiry to the right place for quick action...it does and I sell it...but even in 2006, they still don't treat email and web contacts the same way as phone contacts even though it makes absolute sense to do so.

Sorry that your gift is giving you and your daughter such angst. Never a good thing!

[Bob Marino]

John, as someone who works closely with a lot of folks in the contact center business, I'll say to you...call them on the phone. MANY companies (actually, most companies) are not setup properly to respond to email on a timely basis, some of them are really large companies, too. It's not that the technology doesn't exist to route your electronic inquiry to the right place for quick action...it does and I sell it...but even in 2006, they still don't treat email and web contacts the same way as phone contacts even though it makes absolute sense to do so.

Sorry that your gift is giving you and your daughter such angst. Never a good thing!

John,

Agree with Jim completey, give them a call - I would bet they would take care of you.

Bob

[John Miliunas]

John, as someone who works closely with a lot of folks in the contact center business, I'll say to you...call them on the phone. MANY companies (actually, most companies) are not setup properly to respond to email on a timely basis, some of them are really large companies, too. It's not that the technology doesn't exist to route your electronic inquiry to the right place for quick action...it does and I sell it...but even in 2006, they still don't treat email and web contacts the same way as phone contacts even though it makes absolute sense to do so.

Sorry that your gift is giving you and your daughter such angst. Never a good thing!

Jim, et all, who have suggested calling them directly: I may indeed do that, although it would be under extreme duress and against my better judgment! Again, I think it's just adding insult to injury, not to mention yet another cost to me for a product already purchased once. I guess in my way of thinking, if a company is not setup properly to handle inquiries by a method they provide, don't set it up at all!!! I guess my "luck" regarding contacting companies via email or their provided venue has generally been positive and, given that Starrett purports to be the type of company they are, I would've expected the same from them. Hah! That's what I get for thinking!

[Bruce Page]

Bummer John, I hope the new battery fixes the problem. BTW, I have had good luck finding odd batteries at Radio Shack.

As the others have said, give Starrett a call.

[Barry O'Mahony]

John,

I don't know about you, but when I feel like being ignored, I send an email to the CS dep't of a randomly-picked company. My track record of getting a response, even from companies I've otherwise had very good service from, is near-zero. Like you, I don't understand why they even publish the email address in the first place.

This sounds like a dead battery. Have you tried getting a replacement at Radio Shack? They kinda pride themselves as being "Battery Central". I know an exec there who jokes that the main purpose for selling alot of what they do is so people keep coming back to buy batteries. If they don't have it in the store they should be able to order it.

They sell you a defective product, then don't respond via their on-line form and now expect you to pay for a toll call to resolve an issue regarding an item you already paid $$$ for!

I didn't think anyone paid "toll charges" anymore. Don't most cell phone plans come with free long distance these days?