RESOLVED: I was trying to avoid posting this - General jointer damaged by ???

[Bruce Benjamin]

They lost me right there. I'd tell 'em to pickup their bad jointer and I'd find another company to deal with.

Well said. They're treating you as if they're doing you a favor after you screwed up. Don't be intimidated by their tactics. Whether or not you take their offer you're still going to have to do the same amount of work to return the POS jointer and after the CC company backcharges them they're still going to have to send a truck to pick up the jointer. Continue on with the dispute with you CC company and buy from someone else. You have options other than what they have demanded. I'm assuming Redmond is monitoring this thread and they can't be too pleased with the responses. What are they thinking? Unbelievable!

Bruce

[Matt Meiser]

I agree with everyone above. Any company that treats customers like they are ripping them off REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEY THINK is not a good company in my mind. Even if they think you are ripping them of unless or until they think they have PROOF, they should keep their mouths shut. Sounds to me like General needs to do a review of their distributors and make sure they are only working with companies that have their best interests in mind.

And hopefully someone from Redmond is watching because they are seeing a LOT of money going down the drain. It would have been SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper for them to have overnighted Gary a brand new jointer a few weeks ago than this is going to cost them now.

[Lloyd McKinlay]

Redmond is completely unreasonable, and childish, in their demands. I wonder if the freight company knows their driver will be wasting a couple hours while the machines are repacked.

The letter from Redmond tells me all I need to know about their company. To send something like that after much thought and deliberation is incredible.

[Jim O'Dell]

I think I'd ammend the contract's last line to say that General Machinery will get a favorable write up because Mr Frampton stepped in and came up with a quick and fair solution to the problem, and that you will acknowledge in the same post that Redmond did finally step up and take part of the responsibility for making this right. The bad thing is that they had to be, is prodded the right word here ?, by the manufacturer to participate in making this right. I couldn't in good conscious give them a favorable writeup. It is what they made it to be. Anyone following this thread will already know that. To state otherwise is a slap in the face of what is right and wrong. If their version of the contract is the only way they will make this right, I think I'd pass and ask for my credit card to be credited or dispute it with the credit card company if need be. It just comes across like they are holding you hostage and want their demands met. It's like they still don't understand the customer/business relationship, and that the product was damaged, what looks to be like from an internet view, before it was shipped. If not, at least because of the way it was packaged for shipping. (I'm not sure if the broken piece was found in the unit/packaging, or if it was gone when the item arrived, or if it was just cracked.)
My 2 cents worth. Jim.

[tim mathis]

i am going to purchase a jointer soon and it won't be from redmond.

[Scot wolf]

I think I'd ammend the contract's last line to say that General Machinery will get a favorable write up because Mr Frampton stepped in and came up with a quick and fair solution to the problem, and that you will acknowledge in the same post that Redmond did finally step up and take part of the responsibility for making this right. The bad thing is that they had to be, is prodded the right word here ?, by the manufacturer to participate in making this right. I couldn't in good conscious give them a favorable writeup. It is what they made it to be. Anyone following this thread will already know that. To state otherwise is a slap in the face of what is right and wrong. If their version of the contract is the only way they will make this right, I think I'd pass and ask for my credit card to be credited or dispute it with the credit card company if need be. It just comes across like they are holding you hostage and want their demands met. It's like they still don't understand the customer/business relationship, and that the product was damaged, what looks to be like from an internet view, before it was shipped. If not, at least because of the way it was packaged for shipping. (I'm not sure if the broken piece was found in the unit/packaging, or if it was gone when the item arrived, or if it was just cracked.)
My 2 cents worth. Jim.

That is about the way I view it as well. If it were me, I would ship it back on there dime. And order another machine from a company that does have good CS. I wonder if you would have ordered a Griz and this happened how they would have handled it. Heck, you could have a NEW 490 for way less than you have in that thing.

[Al Willits]

Who's at fault or is this the complete story?
Not sure if anybody but the parties involved know the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so we post our opinions on what we know, if we needed the complete story from both parties, I'd think this would be about a one post topic.
We deal with what info we have and hope its as correct as possible.....

Imho....
Should he get a new jointer? Nope..He bought a demo and that's what he should get, I see many posts talking about the company doing the right thing, but we may have forgot if he'd inspected the jointer asap and sent it back or reported it damaged he wouldn't have had to drag it down and back up the stairs, crying shame he has to go though all that though.

It sounds like once the higher ups at General found out there was a problem, they came up with appears to be a workable and fair compromise for Gary.

I think I'd be a bit miffed at the dealer who sent it out shipped like it was, my 8" York came in two packages and were packaged so well I think they'd go though just about anything with out damage.

Quite the learning experience though, and I have to admit when my jointer and planer came I didn't uncrate to inspect....I will from now on though.

I'm not sure if anybody will be happy at the final outcome, but it seems like a fair compromise was reached.

Hopefully all works out for ya Gary, good luck.
Thanks to the people at General for responding, always a good sign.

Al

[Randal Stevenson]

I posted a few weeks ago that I purchased a General 8" jointer and and a General 14" planer on sale at Redmond Machinery.

What I didn't post was that the jointer arrived damaged. I had assumed that either Redmond Machinery or the shipper (Old Dominion Freight Lines)would make it right for me. That was my 2nd mistake. The broken off piece was not in the crate.

I don't have time to read this completely right now (off to work), but, YOU saw the package, WAS THERE A HOLE IN IT?

If not, I think that damage could have fallen through General's quality control, as I doubt everything sent to a dealer/wholesaler/etc, gets unboxed/crated and checked before repacking and shipping.

Please contact General as well.
I know your po'd and lessons learned, but more then one way to approach this.

[Randy Kramer]

I don't have time to read this completely right now (off to work), but, YOU saw the package, WAS THERE A HOLE IN IT?

If not, I think that damage could have fallen through General's quality control, as I doubt everything sent to a dealer/wholesaler/etc, gets unboxed/crated and checked before repacking and shipping.

Please contact General as well.
I know your po'd and lessons learned, but more then one way to approach this.

Therein lies the problem with replying without reading the entire story.

[Tim Morton]

I don't have time to read this completely right now (off to work), but, YOU saw the package, WAS THERE A HOLE IN IT?

If not, I think that damage could have fallen through General's quality control, as I doubt everything sent to a dealer/wholesaler/etc, gets unboxed/crated and checked before repacking and shipping.

Please contact General as well.
I know your po'd and lessons learned, but more then one way to approach this.

The packaging was fine...the lesson is that this all would have been avoided if the OP had taken 5 minutes to open the crate before signing for the unit.

[Alex Berkovsky]

The packaging was fine...the lesson is that this all would have been avoided if the OP had taken 5 minutes to open the crate before signing for the unit.

I recently purchased a Grizzly bandsaw; it was crated solid. I will say that it took me a long time to uncrate it, assemble and test. If there is no visible damage to the crate and packaging material, does it mean that there won't be any damage to the machine? I doubt that the truck driver will stick around until the machine is uncrated and inspected.

[Tim Morton]

I recently purchased a Grizzly bandsaw; it was crated solid. I will say that it took me a long time to uncrate it, assemble and test. If there is no visible damage to the crate and packaging material, does it mean that there won't be any damage to the machine? I doubt that the truck driver will stick around until the machine is uncrated and inspected.

The trucker has no choice...especially when its the policy of the shipper that once you sign for it, you own it. I have recieved dozens of large pacakges. Generally a screw gun will get you inside within a minute or two. The OP said he has recieved 6 large packages...so he must own a cordless drill. Look at the pics ...it was a 2x4 frame with im guessing USB or plywood screwed to it.

[Gary Herrmann]

The packaging was fine...the lesson is that this all would have been avoided if the OP had taken 5 minutes to open the crate before signing for the unit.

The OP said he has recieved 6 large packages...so he must own a cordless drill. Look at the pics ...it was a 2x4 frame with im guessing USB or plywood screwed to it.

The crate was put together with a framing nailer. It didn't just take 5 minutes to get it apart. There were two crates, not six. One for the jointer, one for the planer.

Tim, I've already stated a couple times that the lesson for me here is to open the crate before signing for the item. If I had seen the damage, I wouldn't have signed for the jointer. I've never stated otherwise.

[Phil Thien]

The trucker has no choice...especially when its the policy of the shipper that once you sign for it, you own it. I have recieved dozens of large pacakges. Generally a screw gun will get you inside within a minute or two. The OP said he has recieved 6 large packages...so he must own a cordless drill. Look at the pics ...it was a 2x4 frame with im guessing USB or plywood screwed to it.

I receive palletized freight all the time. You are welcome to accept or reject a pallet. You can accept a pallet with a notation of damage. But unless prior arrangements are made or there are extenuating circumstances, trucking companies don't let you unpack merchandise before deciding if you're going to sign for it.

[Bruce Benjamin]

I don't have time to read this completely right now (off to work), but, YOU saw the package, WAS THERE A HOLE IN IT?

If not, I think that damage could have fallen through General's quality control, as I doubt everything sent to a dealer/wholesaler/etc, gets unboxed/crated and checked before repacking and shipping.

Please contact General as well.
I know your po'd and lessons learned, but more then one way to approach this.

Sorry Randal, but none of this is correct. All three points have been addressed and answered.

No hole in the box. It was a floor model that Redmond repacked. This isn't General's fault. They're the ones that tried to come to the rescue.

Bruce