Grizzly shipping trouble?

[Keith Outten]

FWIW I received my Shopfox planer/molder from Grizzly this afternoon and it was delivered by Overnight. The machine was received in perfect condition, not a scratch, and it was delivered at the exact time they promised.

I haven't always been this lucky but in all fairness there have been problems with almost every carrier I have dealt with.

[Allen Bookout]

Thanks Keith! In that case I am expecting the same. I will report back when mine gets here which could be up to four more weeks. Allen

[Joe Chritz]

In the FWIW files..

I just received the 3 HP grizzly shaper on 12/30/05. It came via overnite with some damage to the bottom of the box. No damage to that part of the unit however the handwheel had broken.

One email to grizzly and a new part was on the way. It arrived a few days later. To my amazement I ordered the wrong part. (musta got messed up in cyberspace it couldn't have been me.)

Another email and the correct part arrived a few days later.

Stuff breaks in shipment and from what I have seen Grizzly takes care of it with no hassles. Getting that beast from the truck to the ground may be a trick without some help. (backhoe )

Enjoy

Joe

[John Wilson]

I'm a new member with a new Grizz G1023 just delivered by Overnite. It took three tries but no damage. First and second tries the lift gate didn't work. On the third try the driver stopped at the corner about a hunderd yards from my house (I live on a narrow street) and pushed the pallet jack with five boxes to my garage and dropped it exactly where I wanted it. After the second attempt I called Grizzly and promptly received an ativation number and a return call from their freight department. They advised that they would call first thing in the morning to see if they could get Overnite to expidite with a working lift gate. I don't know if it was a call from them but in any case as previously stated, alls well that ends well! The Overnite driver admitted that they do a good job of tearing up stuff and was supprised to see all my boxes delivered with no rips or tears in the cardboard. It may have helped that they put the saw on another pallet since the one attached to the bottom of the saw at the factory is a fairly flimsy affair. The driver also stated that since UPS is now the new owner, he expected changes to occur in how they do things in quick order.

Thanks to all those who have posted reviews and information about the Grizz G1023 as it helped to make up my mind on the purchase. From what I see so far I think I'm going to be happy with it. Now if my JessEm Sliding table would hurry up and arrive I'd be a real happy camper.

[John Lannon]

For what its worth...........A shipment that leaves grizzly's whare house might be handled by a forklift up to 4 times. 98% of all cargo damage occurs at loading docks. Machinery is unlikely to shift or fall over once its on the truck. They are crated/packaged with as low a center of gravity as possible. Quite often, a trucking company will leave empty trailers at the shipper, and will be faxed a copy of the "bill of lading" for the driver to hook up to without getting to see how its been loaded.

1. Loaded at whare house by forklift jockey.
2. "Regional" driver hauls to "local terminal" for cross docking.
3. Weather,traffic,accidents, might delay the load or it gets redirected through an alternate terminal.
4. Loading at local terminal.

I was a owner operator for a few years. I ran all 48, Canada, and Mexico. Shipping docks were always my no#1 fear.......Ice, Storms, Steep downgrades, bad motorists ALL took 2ND behind the shipping dock.

Forklift operators (jockeys) are brutal. They spear cargo, punch out the front of trailers, the sides etc. I would refuse to let them load unless I could be on the dock to watch what ever goods that I was hauling. If I thought they might have damaged any goods, I wrote it on the "BOL" and call my dispatcher. I had to carry my own cargo insurance, and it only takes a few incidents/claims before my rates would get jacked up.

[Dev Emch]

For what its worth...........A shipment that leaves grizzly's whare house might be handled by a forklift up to 4 times. 98% of all cargo damage occurs at loading docks. Machinery is unlikely to shift or fall over once its on the truck. They are crated/packaged with as low a center of gravity as possible. Quite often, a trucking company will leave empty trailers at the shipper, and will be faxed a copy of the "bill of lading" for the driver to hook up to without getting to see how its been loaded.

1. Loaded at whare house by forklift jockey.
2. "Regional" driver hauls to "local terminal" for cross docking.
3. Weather,traffic,accidents, might delay the load or it gets redirected through an alternate terminal.
4. Loading at local terminal.

I was a owner operator for a few years. I ran all 48, Canada, and Mexico. Shipping docks were always my no#1 fear.......Ice, Storms, Steep downgrades, bad motorists ALL took 2ND behind the shipping dock.

Forklift operators (jockeys) are brutal. They spear cargo, punch out the front of trailers, the sides etc. I would refuse to let them load unless I could be on the dock to watch what ever goods that I was hauling. If I thought they might have damaged any goods, I wrote it on the "BOL" and call my dispatcher. I had to carry my own cargo insurance, and it only takes a few incidents/claims before my rates would get jacked up.

Good thing these container freight companies dont haul atomic waste and nuclear bomb triggers or Sadam's virtual weapons of mass destruction! i guess I will be content with them hauling import woodworking machines.

My experience has been with yellow. Holy Cow! I have dealt with them about four times and they have either destroyed the cargo or goofed the shipping contract all but four times. In the case of destroyed cargo, I was moving a racine power hack saw. When it arrived, it was re-banded to the pallet on its side and the heavy cast iron arm was cracked like an egg shell. That did not happen in the truck! Some brain trust dropped it with a fork lift and then covered up his mistakes with a banding machine. And yellow was quick to have me sign on the line and remove the carcas... Um, I mean freight article.

But then again there was the experience with federal express freight. I bought a really cool and super accurate 9 inch SIP tilting rotary table which was surplused from the old NASA Apollo program. Sweeet! It left Fla and disappeared. About 12 days later I finally gave up and blew my stack. Then nobody could find the item. Finally they found it. The wooden crate was smashed, the lid missing. This extemely precise instrument was laying there in the crate, outdoors in the snow and slush in a corner by the dock manager's office. They insisted that it was only a bit of rust damage. A quick trip to a machine shop showed it was off by more than 600 thou. In other words, a total loss.

Ah yes, the reliability of the container freight industry!

[Marcus Ward]

Forklift operators (jockeys) are brutal. They spear cargo, punch out the front of trailers, the sides etc. I would refuse to let them load unless I could be on the dock to watch what ever goods that I was hauling.

Someone emailed me last night about when my boat first arrived in the US, the forklift guy put the mast on the forklift (27' long) sideways and tried to drive through the door (not 27' wide).

[Jim Becker]

My Jet LT Cabinet saw was shipped with a cardboard carton covering it and the pallet that the machine was bolted to. Pretty standard practice, I believe. The issue is likely more often how the shipment is treated between the source and destination, rather than how it is packaged...

[Allen Bookout]

Why are some fork lift operators so reckless? Where my son in law works the operators can load a truck in no time and I would not hesitate to sit on a pallet being loaded twenty feet high. They are gentle, precise, and efficient so I know that it can be done.

Is it low pay or pressure for speed or low quality employees or boredom or what?

[John Lannon]

Why are some fork lift operators so reckless? Where my son in law works the operators can load a truck in no time and I would not hesitate to sit on a pallet being loaded twenty feet high. They are gentle, precise, and efficient so I know that it can be done.

Is it low pay or pressure for speed or low quality employees or boredom or what?

Its all about being a PRO. Dock work is hard, repeticious, and boring. Alot of dock workers are treated like neanderthols by thier supervisors and they just give up caring. Some could care less if they gash a 8 foot hole in the side of a $25,000 trailer, or beat up the cargo. But then again , I have seen some forklift operators get all upset because the think they might have set a 5,000 lb. paper roll a foot or so off the mark,..... thinking that they might have created a axle weight problem for the driver. I always tipped the paper mill operators on a good job. They can make or break a drivers day when it comes to getting the weight distributed right on a 40,000 lb. load.

[Marcus Ward]

I will say the forklift driver who loaded my order at Grizzly was a ninja with that forklift. I would have probably let him feed a baby with it. He was GOOD, and a very nice guy. They don't all suck.

[Keith Foster]

As a teenager I spent many an hour loading freight using a Yale electric fork lift for Best Products. I took pride in my work and - as far as I recall - never destroyed anything. Back then you were "checked" out on the lifts and required to take several training classes. They also fired your butt if you screwed up. Personally, I liked my job. Evidently there are several "dock hands" who don't.

My take has always been that you moved on when you didn't like your job any more - not stay around and trash the customers goods.

[Dave Lehnert]

When people think shipping they think about a place like Lowe’s delivering out a new stove from the store to your house. When shipped on an over the road truck it is a whole other story. It is not uncommon for your shipment to be on a truck that may also have a pallet or two for Home Depot in your town. The kid driving the forklift may have to pull your table saw off the truck to get his product. I would guess this is where most of the damage occurred.

I would have to agree Grizzly is the best at CS replacing damaged goods. But have you noticed how many people on the Creek alone have had damage to their Grizzly shipment. A friend has purchased 3 tools from Grizzly and two has arrived damaged. His shaper was so bad he had to send it back. They may be good at replacing etc…but I just don’t want or have to fool with a problem. I always like the Grizzly when deciding on a tool purchase but in the end the shipping damage people talk about marks it off my list. If Grizzly was closer to Cincinnati I am sure I would own a shop full of their tools. I have a Morticer from Grizzly that was shipped UPS and it is a wonderful tool.

[Allen Bookout]

One thing that occurs to me is that we mostly hear about the damaged shipments. We very seldom hear about the shipments that arrived intact. It could be that the percentage is very small that have actual damage. Otherwise companies like Grizzly would go bankrupt. I wonder what the percentage really is.

[Bill Fields]

My not-the-first experience w/ this was today--when my new (29.95 + SH of some amount that seemed HIGH) drill press table arrived.

I think many Creekers ordered this item based on the price--and it was a Griz product. (BTW--looks pretty good)

The box was trashed--the product seemed unharmed. It was in a box about the same footprint as the table, but the box had 4-5" of excess space in thickness--which they filled with those horrible styrofoam pellets. Huge mess.

This packing issue is industry-wide, and more.

Suppliers: Please spend a little more time with packaging engineering--it will surely pay off in the long run of customer/retailer satisfaction.

I'm in the bicycle industry, where 98% of bikes come out of the Far East--and due to the pressure of dissatisfied (more like totaly P.Oed) retailers, the shippers have spent time and money on highly engineered , but still cheap packaging.

In this industry the surest way to doom youself is to tick off WalMart.

They don't like your boxes? They reject the entire 5 boatloads, and you will pay them, and you will eat your product--and please never darken their door again--please smile on your way out.

Everyone should complain--this is fixable problem that needs some simple engineering.

Bill