Precision Matthews Delivery Question

[erikmannie]

I work as a UPS driver & I never expect anything other than a thank you. I get paid by the hour, and people regularly ask me to take heavy packages into their house or up some stairs. I am always very happy to do it, and it is in no way offensive if I just receive a thank you.

I always *want* to tip freight drivers, but I guess I’m too cheap. I do make sure to always express my gratitude.

 

[jwmay]

I work as a UPS driver & I never expect anything other than a thank you. I get paid by the hour, and people regularly ask me to take heavy packages into their house or up some stairs. I am always very happy to do it, and it is in no way offensive if I just receive a thank you.

Well that's a relief. Thanks for saying so!

I knew the delivery guy and I never tipped him. I never knew at the time that I was suppose to.

Ha! Well now THAT kind of delivery has always gotten a tip from me. But that's cause pizza delivery is one of those jobs where the delivery person literally makes nearly nothing without tips, and drives their own vehicle.
Sorry to the OP for steering your thread off course. I'll get out of the way now.

 

[SRay53TxTn]

I tipped $25 and a big cold bottle of water for each of my PM deliveries - 1228LB-VF Lathe and 728VT mill. They rolled it right where I wanted it dropped. I figure they have a tough job and deal with some unreasonable folks, try and make their day a little nicer.

 

[yota]

I have to get my machinery from the street to my shop across over 100 ft of grass with sandy soil. isn't going to happen with a pallet jack. I usually do a tailgate delivery, back my pick up to the semi truck, the driver lowers the gate to my truck bed height and rolls the pallet into my truck bed. I back into my shop and use a chain hoist to unload. a few years ago I bought an 18" vertical wood cutting bandsaw and the guy used a hand truck and got it across the grass into my shop. I was pretty impressed and gave him 40 bucks. he said it was too much and gave me back 20.

 

[Cletus]

IMHO the trucking company used by PM sucks, as well as their tracking and info system. My machine was supposed to reach my Miami forwarder since Friday, it's still anywhere but there. 12noon tomorrow is the cutoff time to make this Friday's sailing to the Caribbean. The on-line tracker is flawed and not properly updated, and forget trying to contact them by phone.
Whenever it reaches, it reaches! ....I've already spent my $$$ and just too frustrated to worry at this point.
EDIT: My assistant finally got through to a human on the phone, after relentlessly trying. They promised to deliver it this afternoon, fingers crossed!
EDIT, EDIT: Well, it just arrived at my forwarder in Florida, just in time to sail off to the Caribbean on Friday hopefully.

 

[jwmay]

I always hate when my assistant drops the ball. Luckily he's a cat, so he never picks it up to begin with.

 

[twowhites]

I just had my PM-728VT delivered last week. I had ordered the lift gate service and the driver backed into my driveway and moved the mill into the garage and placed it exactly where I requested. Very nice guy. For what it is worth, I added some ratcheting leveling casters to the stand so I can move it around the garage. It is a good quality stand from PM - recommended.

 

[wrmiller]

I tipped the driver when my lathe was delivered, and then again when the mill was delivered. Both were put in my garage, after getting them up a rather steep driveway. Money well spent IMO.

 

[sunrise305]

I just had my PM-728VT delivered last week. I had ordered the lift gate service and the driver backed into my driveway and moved the mill into the garage and placed it exactly where I requested. Very nice guy. For what it is worth, I added some ratcheting leveling casters to the stand so I can move it around the garage. It is a good quality stand from PM - recommended.

Thanks for the info! Did you pay the extra fee for "inside delivery?" Also may I ask when you placed your order. I'm interested in how long it's taking to receive the 728s. Finally I see the the 928VT is now $4,299 with DRO ($3,499 without). I believe that's up $300 right? Maybe even up $500 from earlier in the year.

 

[twowhites]

I paid the extra $49 for the lift gate along with the $199 shipping - that was all. The price on the 728 has gone up. I paid $3800 with DRO back on 22-Mar-21. It was almost a six month wait from order to delivery. Plenty of time to figure out all of the tooling and devices you might need. I'm still discovering all of that. The cabinet is still the same price. There was no hard copy manual included with the mill, but you can download it from Precision Mathews. I used a wooden 2x4 home built gantry to lift it onto the stand. I strapped the gantry to some scaffolding for stability. I was able to position the mill on its shipping pallets with a manual forklift. It was essentially a one person operation although the wife helped keep the stand/chip pan/mill holes aligned while I lowered it.