No more Jet tools for me

I just got off the phone with the Jet tools Customer service dept. I needed a belt for my 9x20 metal lathe. Their price was $27.95 for a v belt that weighs 1/4 oz (that is what a pencil weighs). OK I am stupid enough to buy this POS lathe, I have to pony up for the parts. Then they told me that the shipping was a flat rate of $19.95 for parts costing over $20.00. That's almost $48.00 for a v belt! I got a supervisor on the line who told me the same old "I don't make the rules, I just live by them" and then offered to do a one time special deal just for me since I was so upset of only $9.95 shipping. I told her to tell the bean counting MBA's upstairs to quit ripping people off and trying to back door profits by jacking the shipping costs. I told her I just sent a part across the US that weighs 28 times what the belt does for $3.85 USPS Priority mail. I told her forget it, and told her I will never buy another Jet tool. I called Grizzly and the CSR told me the price was $25.00 for the belt (the 9x20 lathes are all the same). I got an email from them last week that quoted the price at $20.00. They went up YESTERDAY 25% on this part. I also told them no thanks. I looked at my bookshelf and spotted the Enco catalog. Called them and got a price of $14.xx for the belt and about $5.00 shipping. Done deal, ordered two so I wouldn't have to do this again.

I hear about how Jet tools are a lot like Delta. Maybe, but their parts are getting the same also, and that is not a good thing.

Jamie Norwood............cooling down as I am writing this.

Reply to
Jamien
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Goto an autoparts store and I am sure you can find a belt there to help you out or add a pully and use a longer one..

-- Log

Macgyverize it works for me :)

Reply to
Log

Reply to
Jamien

*Somebody* must make a compatible belt - I doubt that JET and Grizzly make their own.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

Reply to
Doug Miller

I'd try vacuum cleaner and sewing machine repair shops. I wonder if you could make one by splicing "O" ring material?

To charge $20 for shipping a belt is pushing the S & H thing quite a bit.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

============================ Good suggestion on vacuum cleaner stores... from experience they have a TON of belts ... But I would grab an old pair of my wives panty hose and attempt to make my own belt before I dropped close to 50 bucks for a belt and shipping....

Bob Griffiths

Reply to
Bob G.

Reply to
Jamien

Not to defend Jet, but I worked for a large wholesale house and their cost to process an order was $50. Jet probably would lose money on your belt purchase. Greg

Reply to
Greg O

They just did.

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

I'm sure that's true. Enter an order into the system, track it through shipping, mail a bill, receive the payment, match it up with the invoice in the A/R dept, deposit the check, blah, blah, blah.

A lot of big companies handle this by just dropping some small item into an envelope and giving you a freebie. Sometimes it's marked "engineering sample" to get around stupid internal regs which prevent them from giving away freebies. Chalk it up to good customer relations.

Reply to
Roy Smith

So they have to pay a salary to the poor lady you abused on the phone. They have to pay a salary to the person who picks the order, the one who packs the order, packing materials cost, inventory depreciation, and the actual shipping costs. The margin on that belt, while perhaps significant (a GPM of 30-40% probably), is peanuts when compared to the salaries of all the folks doing the S+H. TANSTAAFL.

scott

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

I you set up a small parts department properly, you can handle small orders efficiently. Not free, but less than $50. If this is a common part for replacement, they can be put into mailing envelopes in a bin ready to go. Slap a label, affix the postage, and off it goes.

To operate a business it must make a profit in order to satisfy customers, but if you go too far and lose sales, the losses are greater than the gains. The OP will never buy a Jet tool so the profit on a lost sale of a bandsaw, DC, whatever, far exceeds the loss on the belt sale.

FWIW, the minimum order for my company is $300.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

$50 bucks to process an order? Who did they have working this place - a buncha snails?

Now I know that many other costs are factored in here - Social Security, Workman's Comp, all taxes (federal, state, property taxes, etc.), but that sounds ridiculous. How long a period of time did they figure it took to process that order?

Greg O wrote:

Reply to
USENET READER

Depends on the product. Many of our orders cost $100 to $300 to process as shipment with billing of $200 to $7000. You can't speak in generalities. Big mail order firms process hundreds, maybe thousands of orders a day while Boeing may handle one. A big shipping day for us is 8 orders and it can take four people most of the day to get them out the door.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Salesman places the order, enters into the computer. Order is picked, shipped or loaded on one of their many delivery trucks. Driver drops off the product, gets packing list signed. An order entry clerk confirms all was shipped, and corrects the bill and back orders any products not shipped. Another body prepares and sends out a bill, then at months end a statement. I probably have missed a step or two, including the person that placed the stock order to stock the warehouse shelve, the person that received the product into the warehouse and put it on the shelve. Do the math and every step adds a few seconds to several minutes to the process. Before you know it you have an hour or more spent just doing work caused from processing an order. Small orders are quick, large orders take more time. All the steps are caused one way or another from a customer's order. Greg

Reply to
Greg O

Profits are caused by repeat business and word of mouth.

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

Can you just measure it and buy it from a local hardware or industrial supplier?

You could also try McMaster or Grainger if you can't get it locally.

Barry

Reply to
Ba r r y

You could buy a new and unused pair and still save a bunch of money.

Why does everyone always use OLD panty hose, toothbrushes, wiper blades, etc... when new ones only cost a few bucks?

Barry

Reply to
Ba r r y

try a google search you would be amazed at what you will find experiment with different words in your search, for example length of belt, size,type what it is for, etc etc etc.

Reply to
Jim & Sharon

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