grizzly service

[DAN & CINDY]

Tis the season to buy a new tool for your workshop, but beware of the delivery system. This is my story on buying the 14" Grizzly Bandsaw from Grizzly . As most of you know they are up front and tell you that anything over 100lbs it's yours to get off the truck. No problem, but the problem started when the trucking company called me and told me that they would deliver the saw last monday, no problem took the day off and waited and waited and waited, called them asked where is my saw? oops be there tuesday at noon , no problem took the afternoon off and waited and waited and waited, called them again, where is my saw? oops wednesday the man says before 2pm.Wednesday went by no saw called raised all kinds of hell got all kinds of names finally shift boss comes in and says he deliver it himself on Thursday at 12 noon, Thursday noon turns to 1pm I left for work with my wife at home in case the saw gets delivered. I called from work to my wife and asked if the saw came, funny you asked Dan the driver is sitting in his CAR with the saw in his TRUNK waiting for me to help unload the saw that weighs

204lbs. Mind you the driver never came to the door only honked and when my wife looked out the door he waived her to his car and says," here is your saw, am I parked close enough for you to the shop doors" wife says depends on how far you want to carry it and she went back inside, (was raining, snowing and cold that day). The driver got pissed backed out of the driveway went to the curb got out and dumped the saw on the ground leaving without getting my wife to sign anything. Long story shortened called grizzly ,they took note the situation said anything damaged call we'll send it no questions. I told them to come and get the saw cause I dont want it, if you cant find a more professional trucking company I'll find a new company to by my tools from. They offered free shipping and they are going to send a rep out to investigate . Still waiting on rep.

[Silvan]

If your wife didn't sign the bill of lading, you have a free saw. Without the bill of lading, you didn't receive it, plain and simple. The fact that it's sitting in your living room is inconsequential. The trucking company has to eat it.

If anybody gives you any more grief, make sure to let them know you know that.

Most carriers won't touch a residential delivery with a 10' pole. Taking tractor-trailers into residential neighborhoods is a hellish experience. That's probably why they gave you the run-around for so long. Nobody would take it.

Usually they will require you to drive to the terminal and pick the item up for yourself if you require a residential delivery. Grizzly told me as much when I ordered, but that was a few years ago. I had it shipped to work to avoid these problems.

Anyway, be that as it may, if they promised to deliver it to you, they should have delivered it to you plain and simple. You got shafted, and you have every right to be extremely pissed off.

Please let us know what they end up doing.

[Bob Davis]

I knew I was glad I bought Jet from a local dealer.

Bob

[V.E. Dorn]

Your assuming that is the norm - fortunately, I had the opposite experience. Within the past three years, I have purchased seven Grizzly machines and in the worst case scenerio, the delivery was delayed one day. All others were on time within a half hour, the packaging was fine, the driver courteous and they brought a straight truck with an end lift at no extra charge. That end gate came in especically handy for the 1023SL. He just lowered it enough to slide it from the ramp to my pickup - done deal. Out of the seven, two boxes had holes in them but no internal damage. I'm curious as to how the original poster comes out - it would have pissed me off too.

Don

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

Who was the trucking company? Was it a national firm?

In my parts, most local truck deliveries seem to be made via Yellow, GOD, or FedEx Ground.

I was actually looking at one of those saws, but planned on having it delivered to my buddy's bike shop dock, which is fork lift equipped, if necessary.

Please keep ups up to date, and I'm especially interested in your thoughts on the saw, once you get a good example.

Thanks, Barry

[Frank Ketchum]

Well, I had the same saw delivered to my house. The truck driver showed up on time and unloaded it all by himself without a lift gate. He wheeled the thing up the driveway and placed it in my shop exactly where I wanted it. He was very nice and complemented me on my workshop.

The saw itself runs great.

Frank

[Ksu93dlv]

I just got a Grizzly floor drill press delivered the other day. The delivery guy unloaded it and put it exactly where I asked him to in the garage. The box was badly damaged, but upon inspection it appears that everything inside is fine because it was packed well in form-fitting styrofoam. It was delivered just five days after I ordered it, so I was pretty impressed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not disputing your story, but people should know that others have had good experiences buying from Grizzly. Maybe the local shipping company they used in your town is just bad, in which case I hope they find a new company to deliver for them there.

[al martin]

Sounds like a strange situation by the delivery company. Perhaps everyone called in sick that day due to snow. I have purchased several Grizzly tools, the largest a 15" planer, G1021Z...weighing 540 lbs. Roadway Express called the delivery day, had a truck without a lift gate and asked me to meet him at our local car dealership....at the loading dock. I did and they put it in my truck with a forklift....no extra charges. Then I had 4 strong friends place it in my garage.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience....I would hope Griz makes it up somehow to your benefit.

[Sweet Sawdust]

[DJ Delorie]

I *know* that the big trucks just can't get up our driveway (enough of them got stuck during construction that I just don't let them try any more). When I order something big, I tell Grizzly to "hold at depot". Then the shipping company calls me when it's at their depot, and I take the pickup truck down to get it. They use their equipment to load it onto my pickup, I drive it home and unload it (somehow ;).

Although slightly inconvenient, this has been very reliable for me.

[hex]

Actually most carriers will do residential delivery. The pole isn't

10', however, it has a $35 to $80 price tag. My parents run a business that ships an average of 6 500-700# skids a day. The volume is sufficient that their main carrier has waved the res delivery charge.

The big problem with freight lines is not that the occasionally fail, but that when the do fail it is spectacular -- e.g. freight sitting on a dock at the destination terminal for 8 days. I would guess the problem rate runs about one in 40.

Shipment to a business is almost always a good idea. Even if that business is in your garage. If you have a farm, have it shipped to "asdf farms".

To the OP, good luck.

hex

-30-

[Mark Jerde]

Bummer!

I had no problems when my G1022 table saw was delivered. 18 wheeler pulled up to the curb, the driver pushed the boxes to the back of the truck, and my teen age son & I put the box on my heavy duty wheelbarrow.

I hope Grizzly makes it right for you. Waiting to make sawdust is a bummer. :-)

-- Mark

[Mark & Juanita]

In article , dcopeland2 @woh.rr.com says... ... snip

Not sure why you are angry with Grizzly -- it is your local trucking company toward whom you should be directing your anger.

Had a similar problem when I moved to Tucson and ordered some material to be delivered by trucking company. It was a national name company -- local instantiation of that company sucked.

[Nova]

Grizzly states their large items are shipped "F.O.B." (

.). Here's part of what is stated on their web site:

" What is F.O.B.? F.O.B. stands for "Free On Board" and is usually applied to items that are too heavy to ship via UPS. "Free On Board" means that we are responsible for putting the freight on the truck... "

Grizzly's responsibility ends at the truck's tailgate while at their dock. Shipping problems have to be worked out with the shipper by the receiver. If Grizzly gets involved with the dispute they are going beyond what is necessary to meet their obligations.

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

Did you tip him? I certainly would have. If he wouldn't take money, I would have hooked him up with a cold drink and a snack.

Barry

[roger]

Jon I also live in W. MT (Ronan) and can say that the service I've gotten from Grizzly has been amazing in this day and age. Any email problems are very quickly cleared up with a call to their toll-free number. Grizzly's operators and Customer Service Reps are the most courteous and helpful I've experienced in 40-odd years.

Roger

[Vic Baron]

I had the exact opposite experience. Ordered my G0555 and it came out via Viking ( Fedex Trucking) . I live on a hill but a semi *can* get up the street. I was waiting there with my little hand truck and the driver just laughed. He had the 200+ lb package on one of those small manual fork lift pallets. He moved it to the lift gate and actually pushed the whole pallet into my garage - that's up hill and then up the driveway to a garage that's in back of the house. Put in right inside the garage!

I guess it's up to the individual driver and how he feels? Grizz had made no bones about telling me that I was responsible for getting it off the truck but this guy went above and beyond.

So FEDEX/Viking is on my A list.

Vic

[Silvan]

200 pound saw? I wouldn't have unloaded it and carried it into the shop unless the customer was really beautiful and preferably dressed in a very revealing fashion. ;)

Different companies have different rules though. My company's rule is that I drag the freight to the ass end of the trailer, and after that, it's not my problem. YMMV.

If you offer the driver a cold drink, don't make it a beer.

[Jim K]

This isn't really a Grizzly problem, but the freight company. They recommended I go to the depot and pick mine up. A friend and I took his pickup there and picked up my Grizzly "Ultimate" 14 inch bandsaw.

I read the bill of lading later and it would have cost $60 to use the power tailgate on the big truck.

Nowadays, I just figure anyth>Tis the season to buy a new tool for your workshop, but beware of the

snipped

[Charlie Self]

I keep hearing this, but over the years I wrote a lot of tool reviews and manuals, I had every trucking company in the Roanoke Valley deliver to the driveway above my house---it's possible to get a semi down into my shop area, but it's damned near impossible to turn it and get it out because of trees, banks, etc. Off-loading onto an old Dodge pick-up, after which I loaded it into my shop (shop door floor is level with the truck tailgate). But EVERY driver helped me, including a couple who moaned of bad backs.

Same here, though I've gotten far fewer tools.

But the easiest way I ever found to move tools was to go to the loading dock. They'd drop it down (slowly) into the pick-up bed, and I could horse it into my shop, usually alone (when tools got over 450 pounds, I liked to have a buddya round, but it wasn't always necessary). Hell, I had no idea that Grizzly's 24" bandsaw weighed in at something like 750 pounds until after I agreed to write the manual! Some fun with that 7+ foot tall (on its pallet) sucker coming off the truck.

We lowered it, gently, onto one side, on a furniture dolly and zipped it right to where I needed it for photos, tipped it up and had a Coke.

My buddy bought that saw and still has it. Runs great.

Charlie Self

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton