As I NEED a new jack plane, I took my own advice and ordered a new Veritas Low Angle Jack Plane today. Somehow I couldn’t make the order takers understand that I also need the plane with the optional 38 degree A2 blade vs the standard 25 degree blade, as I already have a 25 degree blade. Darn!
Great ending, though. A short (polite) note to the manager of customer service at Lee Valley resulted in a phone call from said manager saying “Well, why not, indeed?” and my order was promptly revised to accommodate the blade substitution.
Nice ending, yes? Customer Service IS alive and well in North America.
Soon I will have a plane that should eliminate the dreaded “clunk!” that I experience when I attempt to use my shooting board to refine a joint in end grain. Should THAT happiness actually occur, I’m even thinking about making up a new board that looks as good as one of Derek’s – well, maybe not AS good as one of Derek’s, but much nicer that my old clunker (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself).
🙂
Mike D
Replies
That place should start offering corporate training seminars in customer service to every other company that's open for business. The world would be a much better place.
If you build it he will come.
Isn't that the truth. Good customer service is harder than it looks. It requires real business sense and day to day focus. Lee Valley has got it right.
"It requires real business sense and day to day focus. Lee Valley has got it right." And to add to your list, the ability to choose the right employees. You can only "train" to a certain degree; the employee needs an inclination toward valuing customers, and a consistent temperament.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I've had nothing but great service from LV. I always look to them first for anything that I am buying. Sometimes there prices are a few dollars more but I know that if there is a problem. They will always solve it to my satisfaction.
Len
"You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. " J. S. Knox
Just recently I bought a number of items from LV. Among those items was a 6" steel ruler. When the order came, I saw that the ruler was very nice, but didn't have both Imperial/metric graduations (which I wanted and which I had ordered). I called them told them about this, said I would like to keep (and pay for) the ruler I got, but that I would like to also get (and pay for) the ruler I had originally ordered. Very shortly after that I received the ruler I had originally ordered, at no charge. It wasn't a lot of money, but I won't forget which company took the time, effort, and expense to make sure what I got what I wanted.
--Whit
It doesn't get any better than LV Customer Service.
I have to agree. It wasn't half an hour after I'd hit the "send" button on my email to LV that my phone was ringing with a response.
I told them how pleasantly surprised I was that a company today even responded, much less so quickly. Nice people, and good business men and women.
Mike D
living not far from their store and factory i go there often and have spent a quite a few dollars there over the years and have never had a problem with them
in fact a number of the clerks remember my name when i go in
an unusual aspect at the store is to see how many customers are women ( seems at least 50% )
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