# My experience with grizzly industrial



## JeepsAndGuns (Apr 21, 2014)

I see lots of people who have grizzly machines and a lot of people talking about them. I just felt like I should share my experience with them. 

For a long time I have wanted a lathe and mill for my own personal hobby use. I knew I could never afford them. A few months ago I discovered the 3-in-1 machines. This fit my bill exactly. 
I will keep the story shot, but after lots of looking, I decided to get a grizzly G9729. I really liked the smithys, but they were out of my price range at the time. So I drop the coin and place my order with grizzly. I order it online through their website. 
Next day I get a email saying there was a problem with payment and to call customer support. I call to find a automated call system. I finally reach someone and see whats going on. They said it was something about my address I entered was different than the info on my card. I pulled it back up and nope, its exactly the same. He could not tell me what the issue was, or was was different, just that it wasnt going through. I check my bank account (paid with debit card) and there is the payment showing as it went through. He had to get off the line to go talk to his supervisor. They do something and get it worked out and calls me back saying its fixed but he will have to re enter my card info. We do that and he says it should ship out the next day. 
I get a tracking numer the next day and have a expected delivery day of a thursday. I get a call wed from ups and they set up a time to deliver it. Thursday rolls around and they call saying it didnt show up at their hub? OK, so now what? They said it should show up the next day. They call back friday and say its on its way to you, I said it has to be there by 4 or I will not be there. They show up at 3:59. Ok, so thats ups's fault, not grizzly, I'll give them that.
So saturday morning I uncrate it. First impression......this doesnt look like it did in the pictures. Fit and finish were poor, parts are poorly cast and made. Some parts even had finger prints that had rusted before they were oiled. But oh well, as long as it works good I can deal with it. I plug it in and decide to test it out.....nothing. Is the outlet working, yep. plug it back in, still nothing, its dead as a doornail, wont do anything. I call them up. Tech support is not there on saturday, I will have to call back monday. OK, I can understand it being the weekend. A little mad I just dropped 2 grand on something that doesnt work. So I decide to poke around with it a bit. I take the door off and start looking at the wiring. This is some of the worst wiring I have seen. None of it made sense. I print out the wiring diagram and it makes no sense. I am getting power in, but nothings getting to the motors or switches. It has a contactor in it, I found by accident that if I pushed it in, I could make it work. To get the cover off the contactor, I had to move the center step idler pulley out of the way. I loosen the clamp bolt and it wont budge. Slot of not even made right. I just took it completely off and set it aside.
So monday rolls around and I have to wait till my lunch break at work to call them. They cant help me, they will have to have the tech call me back (notice I said THE tech, not A tech, makes me think they have only 1 guy) and have him troubleshoot with me. Ok, lets see what he says. I wait and wait, he never calls that day. I wait and wait, he never calls tues morning. I am starting to get mad now. I call them back on my lunch. Still no one there that can help me and they say the same thing, the tech will have to call me back. Oh yea, I forgot to mention all the time I spend on hold for every time I have called them. Half the phone call I am on hold. 
I wait the rest of that day and still no call from the tech. So now I have a broke machine, no tech support, and very poor customer service, on top of a machine that is nothing like the nicely made one they show in their pictures. Wed I call back on my lunch and still no help. I am fed up, I tell them enough is enough, I want to send it back and get my money back. If this is the quality of machine, and quality of service I am gonna get from this company, I do not want it. After telling them the story from the start, and a little bit of trying to change my mind by them, they finally agree to take it back. They say they will have to inspect the machine for themselfs and make sure it is a problem with the machine and not me.  ...
They say they will email me a bill of lading with instructions on how to send it back. OK. I get home, no email. I check my email at lunch the next day on my phone, still nothing. I call them yet again and ask whats wrong. They say something about it taking up to 24 hours to send that email. Really? I finally get it the next morning. 
I actually had less trouble with ups setting up the pickup. They get it back. Someone from there calls when I was unable to take the call. He said he was with grizzly and just got my machine in and was needing to talk to me about it. He did not say his name. I call the number he left in the message and get the automated system again. I finally reach a person and they do not know who called me or why. He said there is no record of them calling me. He checks his supervisor, they have no clue who called me or why. No one there knows anything about who or why I was called..... Really?
After a few more days they issue my refund. 

I really hate to talk bad about places, but this mess was just too bad not to. I just want to share my experience with grizzly just to let people know. I'm sure there are many people who have had no problems with them at all. With as large of a company as they are, you think their customer support would be better. But it seems, the larger a company gets, the worse their customer support gets.  I saved up my money and actually found a used smithy with extras and I am really happy with it. WAY better quality than the grizzly. I called smithy for a replacement part the previous owner had lost. Two rings and a actual person picks up. Very friendly, knew his machine well, knew exactly what part it was, even asked about my machine and its age. After finding its age, he told me about a update to it to help protect it from damage from accidential power feeding. (updated to use a shear key) He went the extra mile to help me and let me know about the update to help protect it from damage and possiable costly repairs. This is how customer support should be.


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## coolidge (Apr 21, 2014)

I can empathize with some of your experience, but the less expensive Grizzly was not as nice as the more expensive Smithy that stands to reason does it not? That it was not at nice as the one in the pictures you have a point there. Dealing with Grizzly is pretty simple the sales people don't know anything. There is a direct line to tech support. How many staff they have who are familiar enough with this particular machine to troubleshoot it who knows. Maybe the other guy was on vacation or busy. Grizzly is notorious for not getting emails out the door in a timely manner, in my case its typically something I need to return to them and they seem in no hurry to get it back. The point is they had already sent out the replacement whatever immediately. Its companies that first want the original back before they will even ship the replacement that gripes me.

Overall some of Grizzly's machines are top notch, the best in class on the market often costing much less than more expensive brands. Other machines are middle of the pack, and some may be towards the lower end quality wise. That's why you do your research before purchasing. The same could be said of the other brands as well. That's the world we live in today, manufacture of most of these machines has gone to China and Taiwan that's reality.

I have 6 new machines in my shop from Grizzly, several required fixing a few little things nothing major. The fit and finish on a couple was outstanding, the fit and finish on others not so great. Paint job on my G4003G lathe I would rate poor for example. On my G0696X 5HP 12" table saw was better than a Powermatic costing $1,000 more for their 10" saw.


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## valleyboy101 (Apr 21, 2014)

Well i'm glad you ended up happy - even if it was not with your original choice.  Live and learn.  I have never bought a machine that I hadn't inspect in person - maybe I'm smarter that I thought.  As with yourself I would have been extremely unhappy with the customer service from G, but your experience with Smithy was excellent - the way it should be.
Michael


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## JeepsAndGuns (Apr 22, 2014)

I did do as much research as I could for the machines. I found good and bad about both. It seemed like all the bad stuff was always from people who have high end dedacated machines and/or work at machine shops and were expecting them to be the same quality. 
I knew the smithy was a better machine, but like I mentioned, I could not afford it at the time and the grizzly looked like a decent quality alternative. 

I do really wish I could have inspected the machine before I bought it. But with the showroom being out of state lieft that out of the question.  Thats why I jumped at the used smithy when I found it on craigslist. I was able to inspect it and run the machine before I bought it. As soon as I walked up to it I could instantly tell it was a better machine. I really like the variable speed motor.


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