Poor customer service/relations Vega

[tobycat99]

Just got off the phone with customer service for Vega tools... I bought one of their 50" fences for my saw 3 or 4 years ago. Well I am going to build a stand and want to build the extension wing and an outfeed table for it. I know that in the instructions they had a plan for these items. Try as I may I can not find the directions. You can not download the directions off the web. So I called them up a few weeks ago....The person on the phone seemed to be a little off, Seemed as if I were bothering him. He finally said he would put one in the mail. I haven't seen it yet so I called them back today. I guess it wasn't just a bad day for this guy, as today again it seemed as if I were bothering him....Was asking him what was best material for table melamie or mdf...his statement was that it is in the directions and I would get them soon enough. The mail hadn't gone out yet and he would put it in todays mail....It was again that he couldn't get off the phone quick enough. Gets you PO'd that a company with a product I consider to be good would have such poor customer relations.... Any one else with experiences? Drives you crazy....

[Cubby]

I can't say I've ever called Vega about something but I did email them when I was considering the purchase of their fence. They responded very quickly. After receiving the fence, it had some poor machining on the fence mechanism. I emailed them about it and never heard from them.....hmmmmmm.

[Unisaw A100]

Once upon a time they had an entire line of woodworking machines and it was pretty solid stuff. They dropped most of it and now concentrate on lathes and fences. Trouble is there are people out there with their other machines and when they call to ask for a owner's manual they are told "we don't have anything".

I realize it's not the company's responsibility to continue to back a discontinued machine but this kind of indifference would make me think twice about buying a lathe (or anything else) from them.

UA100

[tobycat99]

[hylourgos]

I have had the occasion to speak w/ Richard several times recently because I acquired an '80s 8" Vega jointer. It's a fine machine w/ a hefty Baldor motor, but mine was missing the fence. He had one milled special for me and I got it just yesterday. It took about a month from the time I first ordered it, but that included the Xmas season too.

My impression is that he's a one-man show on the CS and tech side, so that's why he may have seemed busy. In my discussions with him he said that their building had burned down a few years back so they have almost no literature on any of the older stuff.

There were delays in getting information and, ultimately, the fence, but it wasn't what I consider unreasonable. You should plan on being patient with Vega if you want to ask for any unusual service, but my impression is that they try to do a good job.

H.