Issues With New Jet Bandsaw

T

TakeDeadAim

H-M Supporter - Gold Member
H-M Supporter Gold Member
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Hey guys I ordered a new Jet horizontal band saw and picked it up from the freight terminal this week. I cant get delivery because I live on a state highway and dropping at the road is apparently a very expensive ticket. So I always need to go pick up.

Anyway there was some very minor damage to the crate, which was poorly built, machine was covered in plastic and it was dark but all looked ok. Got it home to find the chip pan dented, fixable, in two spots. No big deal. Then as I got the crate off and the saw into the shop under the lights I noticed the motor is horribly out of alignment. The crate had shock and tip stickers on it and they were not tripped. Long story short the motor mount is bent as is the switch box that is mounted on the bow. I took photos and sent them to the distributor. Now is when you learn all they do is take your order and have Jet ship to you. Ok but now it takes till yesterday to find out Jet wants the machine back rather than sending me parts. My real thought here is the thing came lose in the crate on its trip overseas and the weight of the motor bouncing on the loose mount just bent the stamped metal. Same with the electrical box. Many fasteners are loose as were the bolts holding the machine to the skid. Still hard for me to believe they ship them in this type of crate.

I can see this now. I have to spend $50 on lumber to fix the crate, load it back up, drive to the terminal and ship it back. Then wait till they look at it and either fix it or send me another. This sounds like weeks to me and I dont have that amount of time. I have jobs waiting and my old saw has just died. I bought the new one because I did not want to spend the time and money to fix it, its small and to cut miters is a real pain.

I bought the Jet so I did not have to buy a HF machine and spend the time and money to make it cut straight and be reliable. So now what do you suggest? Ship it back? or make a plea for the parts and fix it?
 
It seems to me that the onus for resolving this lies with Jet. If they want the saw back then they should be willing to pay to have it crated and shipped back, given that their packing was the cause of the issue in the first place. If they aren't willing to do that then they would be obligated to ship the parts you need, provided you sent documenting photos to prove your claim. Of course, they might balk; in that case, I would send an email to their corporate headquarters and deal with it there. I've had issues like this with several companies and a letter to the CEO can do wonders.
 
I'm a firm believer in writing letters. If something goes wrong, I'll write a letter in a heartbeat. I would do what mikey says but I wouldn't stand for any less than a complete new machine in it's place and let them pay for getting the old one back. I know someone who had a problem with his truck and he stuck to his guns and they finally got tired of him and gave him a new one which was two years newer than the one he had problems with.
 
I once received a new jet wood lathe it was a smaller one, UPS left it at my door I wasn't home at the time. I got it into the house and noticed the box was a little beat up . I opened the box and pulled out the styrofoam insert it was beat up also, I pulled the lathe out in two pieces the bed was broke in half.
Sent pics to distributer , they had a UPS supervisor come by and look at it and the packaging.
Jet rushed another lathe out fed X it made it ok . UPS owns the broke one now
 
WDG said:
I'm a firm believer in writing letters. If something goes wrong, I'll write a letter in a heartbeat. I would do what mikey says but I wouldn't stand for any less than a complete new machine in it's place and let them pay for getting the old one back. I know someone who had a problem with his truck and he stuck to his guns and they finally got tired of him and gave him a new one which was two years newer than the one he had problems with.
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I remember once having a dispute with AT&T years ago. I patiently called them to no avail. Finally, I talked with an service person who nicely told me that they dismiss calls. Write a letter, she said. We can's ignore that.

In a recent case, I finally had to contact the BBB with a dispute on satellite TV. I had spent hours with service reps. The problem with that is the reps take the notes to justify the company position. All the customer has is verbal behavior. I found out where their headquarters were. I contacted the BBB and sent in a description of my dispute with my proposed resolution. It was on a Friday. Saturday morning I received a call from the president's office. I had asked for an apology and the reduction. I got it and ditched the satelite provider.

Moral to the story--write it down.
 
Had a similar experience with an eBay vendor. Bought a CNC pendant and when I plugged it in a few of the buttons didn't work. Wrote an e-mail to the vendor explaining the situation and they said return it and they would refund my money. Found out that return postage was on me and the cost was nearly the amount of the purchase price. I sent another email insisting that they send me another pendant explaining that I expected to receive a working pendant. A few more emails were exchanged and finally the vendor agreed to send me another pendant.

You paid for the saw but received damaged merchandise. Not your fault! Rather than wait for them to make a decision on repair or replacement I would make that decision for them and document your decision in a letter to them. Not saying they will arbitrarily do as you ask but it will put them on notice that you are not happy. Assuming you used a credit card for the purchase you could also dispute the payment until they resolve your claim.

Hope it works out for you.


Tom S.
 
TomS said:
Had a similar experience with an eBay vendor. Bought a CNC pendant and when I plugged it in a few of the buttons didn't work. Wrote an e-mail to the vendor explaining the situation and they said return it and they would refund my money. Found out that return postage was on me and the cost was nearly the amount of the purchase price. I sent another email insisting that they send me another pendant explaining that I expected to receive a working pendant. A few more emails were exchanged and finally the vendor agreed to send me another pendant.

You paid for the saw but received damaged merchandise. Not your fault! Rather than wait for them to make a decision on repair or replacement I would make that decision for them and document your decision in a letter to them. Not saying they will arbitrarily do as you ask but it will put them on notice that you are not happy. Assuming you used a credit card for the purchase you could also dispute the payment until they resolve your claim.

Hope it works out for you.


Tom S.
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I purchased a Rikon dust collector. It sat around for a while and finally I hung it from the ceiling. I plugged it in and it just hummed. It probably was damaged in shipment somewhere and the motor mounts and impeller were bent. The damage was not apparent from the outside, but it was not my fault. Rikon sent replacements for the damaged parts, including an impeller and new motor mounts. I installed them and found the replacement impeller was bent as well. Finally, I took it back to Woodcraft and with Rikon's permission, was given a new one. I still had to deal with getting the old one down and putting up the new one, but at least I got a functioning unit. I would say, however, that Rikon handled it well, actually better than Woodcraft. I had purchased it locally and it would have been nice if I had more local backup.

Emails made it easy to establish a written trail.
 
Many years ago I had a problem with my phone service, I believe it was AT&T. At that time they were trying to get permission from the FTC to do something, I can't remember what, but I wrote a letter to the FTC complaining that there we no way that AT&T should be allowed to expand, (or whatever it was) and I copied the district manager in Atlanta after looking up the addresses to both. In a couple of days I had my problem fixed AND the service man here gave me his personal number and told me to call him that I didn't have to call the service dept in Atlanta any more. The service department here would not take calls and when you tried their number it automatically transferred you to Atlanta. The woman in Atlanta kept telling me the problem was in my house. I'm and E&I tech and tried to explain to her that I knew what I was doing. After several calls she threaten me with some retribution of some sort. I never had to call Atlanta again.
 
Thanks for the great advise guys, I wrote a letter to the customer service manager at JET and copied Tools Plus where I purchased the saw. They followed up with Tools Plus and agreed to send out a replacement saw; in fact they were out of the belt drive model so I am getting the gear drive model in its place. A logistics company called me today to get details on picking up the saw. I agreed to help them by putting it onto a pallet they will supply with my gantry crane and they will take it to their shop and crate it. Pays to stick to your guns I guess. I must also give a nod to Tools Plus, as their rep called me several times and was in contact with Jet as well trying to make this right. Always helps to have someone to bounce things off of. I appreciate the feedback.
 
That is an outstanding result! Good for you, and for Jet and Tools Plus, too. It almost always pays to go as high as you can and let them get their people moving on your behalf, and the bigger the company the more this is likely to be true.
 
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