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Busy Bee Tools Canada
- Thread starter tigercat4519
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2017
- Messages
- 46
There are definitely a lot of things I don't much like about Busy Bee and the general lack of knowledge by their staff is one of them. That being said, the staff at the Concord store are at least friendly. What irks me about Busy Bee, though, is their e-commerce is pretty terrible and store stock is always a hit and miss. If there wasn't a Busy Bee here in Toronto, there would definitely be one less source of choice which would be a bad thing. There is no KMS here and shipping from KMS usually kills most deals. KBC isn't too far away but their prices are pretty high (though, in truth, the stuff they sell seems to be better quality in general). We lack so much as Canadians in terms of choice. I bought some end mills from ebay and noticed that they're shipping out of North Bay yet there doesn't seem to be any savings to be realized from the fact that they're in the same province. You want machinery? For home hobbyists, you basically have...Craftex or King Canada and that's it. You can order from Grizzly (I have quite a few woodworking machines from them) but choice is definitely anemic compared to our counterparts down south.
HRgx, do you follow AvE what with the confuser and all.
Sorry charlton, what is this AvE that you mention?
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2017
- Messages
- 46
Ah! I see, no I don't follow this fellow on the Tube. The only guy that I do follow is Joe Pieczynski in terms of machining.
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2014
- Messages
- 428
I've been buying tools from KMS since '86 or '87. In those days they were in small store front in a strip mall, behind the liquor store in Mallardville. KMS got their start importing Speedaire compressors. They do auto body, air tools, welding, and construction carpentry tools well. Woodworking tools, OK, but machine tools, you are asking a lot out of a welder.
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2017
- Messages
- 46
I had sent an email to Busy Bee's customer service describing my latest experience and lack of confidence in the actual customer service. Well, today I've received a phone call from the lady who is the store manager at the Calgary location. She was very apologetic and even stated that the staff doesn't receive any training whatsoever. I replied that I surely wasn't expecting any one to be fired as I do realize that folks need to put bread and butter on the table same as the rest of us. My conversation with the lady was very pleasant and she stated that she wished to not loose my small amount of business. All being said, we ended our conversation on a friendly tone. However, I will deal with KMS in the near future and still look to Busy Bee should KMS not stock items that I'm searching for. My final thoughts are that Busy Bee's issues reside more at a corporate level than those at the retail end.
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2016
- Messages
- 4,008
I like Bev at the Calgary branch, and buy my HSS tool bits from them and any 'Glanze' carbide tools that go on sale, and that I can use. - But you have to be your own tech support for most things. If in the Calgary store, talk to John. He doesn't know a heap, but he is helpful and doesn't pretend to know what he doesn't. Most of the staff there don't do any metalwork or woodwork. Go figure.
Just to add another tool in the toolbox (an hopefully not to confuse things) I buy some of my things at KBC out of Vancouver. They ship right to my door at about the price of gas to go elsewhere. They have a lot of 'real' tools and consumables, but you have to compare prices. I ordered 6 grinding wheels from them this summer with prices better than I could get anywhere else. On the other hand there's lots of stuff they sell that is cheaper at KBC and Accusize.
Good hunting!
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2015
- Messages
- 561
Just for clarity ... does that mean your new machines needed warranty repairs?
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2014
- Messages
- 9,380
To me this this sounds completely ridiculous and the blame _HAS_ to land squarely on management......apparently they cannot hire and train workers competent in the tasks required. This is either because of money (ie. they cannot afford knowledgeable employees) or incompetence.
Either way it's tough making a case for using them as a supplier.
i) you cannot trust anything they say, and
ii) due to "market forces" they may not be there to honour any warranty claims for anything you do buy.
I hate to see it this way and definitely do NOT want it to be a "self-fulfilling prophecy".
We need all the suppliers we can get here.
However, I am not very positive on Busy Bee and their long-term success.
They have always seemed to be "Princess Auto" quality, but at more than double the price.
At least at Princess Auto, you know what you're getting and pay accordingly.
Unfortunately, the range of products are not comparable.
-brino