Amazon mishap

[Bruce Benjamin]

Bruce, the "company" itself may not monitor this forum, but I can tell you that two members certainly do. LOML works for WWS and I do demos for them, so we watch for all the comments about them--good or bad--and they ARE relayed to the owner/president.

Nancy (108 days)

Well, that's good to know. I like them and have been well treated in the past. But how many of them actually reply or participate in some way? In this case, you do since you do some work for them. But there are very few that have an actual presence here. Dino from Eureka Zone is a good one that comes to mind. Not only does he answer questions about his company but he donates very expensive tools to help a charitable cause, (the Freedom Pens).

Bruce

[Wilbur Pan]

Or, you could just not read it...The reason for the bold text was that much of my reply was embedded in the quote of the post to which I was replying.

Bruce, I would agree that all bold text is hard on the eyes. Much like typing in all caps when the only forums were one Usenet, all bold face looks like screaming.

That seemed pretty obvious to me. Would you rather just try to guess what part was mine and what part was the quote?

Luckily, when replying point by point to a post, one can cut and paste the codes that begin and end the text to break up the quotes, and insert your comments in between that way. In fact, the process is nearly identical to posting comments in bold, except using quote and /quote for the tags, instead of b and /b.

You can also use the "Preview Post" button to check your post to make sure all the quote and /quote tags match up.

But thanks for the lesson. By the way, I've been using the internet for at least a dozen years so I'm pretty familiar with what text means what. Did this really warrant a ?

Well, I don't know if it warranted a , but I learn new things every day, even if I had been doing something for a dozen years.

Bruce

Wilbur

[Bruce Benjamin]

Bruce, I would agree that all bold text is hard on the eyes. Much like typing in all caps when the only forums were one Usenet, all bold face looks like screaming.


Luckily, when replying point by point to a post, one can cut and paste the codes that begin and end the text to break up the quotes, and insert your comments in between that way. In fact, the process is nearly identical to posting comments in bold, except using quote and /quote for the tags, instead of b and /b.

You can also use the "Preview Post" button to check your post to make sure all the quote and /quote tags match up.


Well, I don't know if it warranted a , but I learn new things every day, even if I had been doing something for a dozen years.


Wilbur

Yes, Wilbur. I realize that you can cut and paste the codes. It's a pain in the xxxxxx and I don't usually bother. It's much easier to post the embedded text in bold the way I did and I will continue to do so. Reading your post all chopped up like that isn't exactly easy on the eyes either. I gave the reason why I posted the way I did. I've wasted enough time responding to librarians as to why I posted the way I did. You didn't teach me anything today that I didn't already know. If you don't like it, don't read it. Thank you.


profanity is prohibited even in the form used

[Wilbur Pan]

Yes, Wilbur. I realize that you can cut and paste the codes. It's a pain in the xxxxxx and I don't usually bother. It's much easier to post the embedded text in bold the way I did and I will continue to do so.

If some cutting and pasting is too much of a bother, have you considered an alternative to bold, such as changing the text color? It seems to be just as easy as bold facing everything. It's also an accepted modality of helping to keep comments associated with their author in chat rooms, which is the closest thing to interspersing comments within a quote that I can think of.

Reading your post all chopped up like that isn't exactly easy on the eyes either.

True, but it is preferable to the constant use of bold face. A change in text color is also much more readable than all bold face for this purpose.

I gave the reason why I posted the way I did. I've wasted enough time responding to librarians as to why I posted the way I did.

I'm not a librarian.

You didn't teach me anything today that I didn't already know. If you don't like it, don't read it. Thank you.

No, thank you for clarifying that you were in full possession of this knowledge, and for taking the time to explain your position!

[Gary Keedwell]

No, thank you for clarifying that you were in full possession of this knowledge, and for taking the time to explain your position! [/quote]
And very diplomatic.

Gary K.

[Bob Childress]

And very diplomatic.

Gary K.

Just like you and me.

[Gary Keedwell]

Just like you and me.

You got it mate.

Gary K.

[Raymond Fries]

I ordered a DW625 from in June of 2006 which I needed for to make christmas gifts. It was a really good deal and I was in no hurry. When the first week of November arrived and I was still getting pushed off, I cancelled the order and paid about $30 more and ordered from from another supplier as I needed it to make the gifts. Every four weeks or so I would get an email that the ship date was pushed out another 4 weeks.

This was the only bad experience with them and I have ordered quite a few things.

[Brad Sperr]

I'll cast another positive vote for Amazon, mostly for the occasional great deal. However, I also think their customer service is very good, especially with price adjustments and returns. I've waited months to get tools that were labeled "in stock soon" but it doesn't upset me since I'm just a hobbiest and my credit card doesn't get charged until shipment.

[Ralph Lindberg]

Lately we have had a number of problems with Amazon and "in stock" items.

The DW ordered a cooking tool she wanted, it was listed as "in stock", then she got the notice that it was back-ordered 45 days. Then I noticed that Amazon was showing three in stock and she contacted them, they said the in-stock listing was in error.

But she ordered a 2nd one to check, we got another 45 day notice, so she canceled the 2nd item.

A week before the first order was to ship, we got another 45 day back order. The web-site still said there were three in stock.

So she canceled the order I went to Camping World and picked it up that day (paid $10 more, but we were tired of waiting).

[Daniel Simon]

I've always had great success with Amazon. I order a lot of tools from them and will continue to do so in the future. Once or twice I had problems with damaged goods but they always seemed to find a way to correct the problem whether it be through refund, credit, or replacement. I always check with them beforehand on every tool purchase to see if they have the lower price. Needless to say, I usually order from them. To me, their customer service is second to none. Where else can you call a large company and actually speak to a live person without going through a recording? Their customer service reps are empowered to do what it takes to resolve the issues. Several times, I actually received more than I expected. That being said, I would not order something from them if I needed it quickly or overnight just because I know that in a large company, things do happen.

[David Weaver]

If I was looking for a big planer and they had a deal like you got on the DC580, I would have a lot of trouble laying off of it. A lot of trouble. That only comes in one crate, though, right?

In the end, they made everything right each time I ordered something, but I was frustrated with the grip-tite situation because if I could've talked to one person who spoke english well and knew tools, I could've had them straighten out a warehouse labeling issue and send me the right thing. Once they send you something wrong twice, you have no choice - they won't try it again, they just refund your money.

Two extra trips to ship a package (fortunately, they paid for that), lots of time spent on the phone, and a week and a half before I just went to Rockler, all the while with a pile of wood waiting to be ripped into thin strips.

But again, I would have a lot of trouble laying off the planer or DJ-30 if I was wanting something like that and it was half price. I wouldn't be able to resist.

[David George]

I'm surprised that anyone is...well, surprised by Amazon. You can do a comparison shop on just about anything and if Amazon is the cheapest, what are the chances that you'll actually get the entire order?

Had a customer that needed a price on a Porter-Cable router. Quoted him. He said, "well Amazon has it for 30 bucks cheaper". Really I said, then you should probably buy it there. "It's not in stock" he said. Really? How about I beat Amazons price by 5o bucks, would you buy it from me? "Sure I would!"
Well, I don't have it in stock either!!

Plus, is Amazon going to warranty that tool? Nope. What's it going to cost you to get it to a place that does?

I understand here the problem was with clamps but the bottom line is you can advertise any price you want. Having it in stock is another matter.

Dave

[Steven Triggs]

I just checked my order history, and I have placed 45 orders with Amazon over the past 6 months. Some of the orders were for as few as one item, some were for several items.

Every order arrived within the time frame that was listed when I made the purchase. I have never placed an order with them for something that claimed to be in-stock and later been notified that it was back-ordered.

Out of all of those orders, one was damaged in shipping (a miter saw). Amazon immediately shipped out a replacement, and sent UPS to pick up the damaged one. All I had to do was leave it on my porch for the driver.

One of the orders contained an item that was missing a feature claimed by the product description. I have since verified that this was a manufacturer mistake, not Amazon's mistake, in that the manufacturer's web site makes the same inaccurate claim. Anyway, Amazon offered to either provide a postage pre-paid return label and refund my money, or give me a 20% refund if I kept the item. I chose to keep it.

On at least half of the items, at some later date the price went down temporarily due to a sale. In all cases, all I had to do was contact Amazon and they immediately refunded me the difference. Sometimes I did this via the phone, and sometimes I did this via the web site. In all cases, it was easy. I can assure you those price adjustments went much more smoothly and quickly than they ever have for me when dealing with a "brick and mortar" employee face to face.

Christmas before last, I placed an order for several presents. A few days before Christmas, it was looking like the order might not make it in time. I called Amazon. They said they weren't certain the order would make it in time, so they offered to send a replacement order via overnight shipping (at their expense), along with a return label for when the original order arrived. Indeed, the replacement order arrived the next day. The original order ended up arriving before Christmas as well.

In the years I've been shopping with Amazon, I have only had a few problems arise. With the few problems I have encountered, they have gone "above and beyond" every time. I genuinely feel that I get better service from them than any other retailer; online, brick/mortar, big, or small.

Several posts have seemed to imply that the savings with Amazon are somewhat trivial. Often the savings are VERY significant. They offer so many promotions on top of their good prices, that you can come out with ridiculous deals. For example, I recently purchased a miter saw from them. It was $360 and due to a promotion included a free drill that I was able to sell for $140, resulting in a net price of $220. This is a saw that Lowe's sells for $399, so with tax would cost $426.93.

Finally, claims that their prices are so great because everything is out of stock are just wrong. They have an incredible amount of stock on hand. I would estimate that less than 5% of the "deals" that I've found on their site were out of stock. And about half of those were in-stock when I started considering them, but sold-out before I made up my mind. It is COMPLETELY understandable that when a company offers an incredible price to the entire country, and those deals get posted to countless web sites, such as happens on our forum, the item will sell out.

I'm done, at least for now...

[Jesse Espe]

Amazon has given me great CS. Handled problems by using both the super-secret phone number AND email. Both gave me lightning quick resolution.

Guess it just doesn't work out for everybody.