Rockler customer service

I recently had a bad experience with Rockler. I live in New Zealand but most vendors such as Lee Valley and Woodcraft deal with this in rational ways.

On May 12 I ordered some Bessey K-Body clamps which were on sale. I received an immediate email confirmation.

For international orders another email is supposed to follow giving shipping options and costs. None arrived.

I kept checking the on-line order status, but it had no information on my order.

On May 17 I sent an email asking for the status of this order and what my shipping options were. No answer.

On May 18 I called Rockler. Of course I had to pay for the call since they do not have an international 800 number. I was told that the shipping on my $120 order would be by UPS and the total cost would be $254.73. I asked if I could not have surface shipping. After a long time on hold I was told that I could have surface shipping for $35, but why should I do that when I could get USPS air for $36. I opted for USPS air.

But the total price I was quoted on the phone was too high and it turned out that she wasn't going to give me the sale price for the clamps. We finally got that resolved after another long time on hold. I was given a new order number. I was told I would receive a new confirmation. No confirmation.

On May 19 I sent another email asking for my confirmation. On this email, and on no other I have sent to Rockler I received an immediate automated response email. Shortly thereafter I received an email. Here is the text in total: Thank you for your email. The item is to long to go USPS. We would need to send the item by UPS. Please let us know if this is ok.

I responded that if this really could not be shipped USPS Air, I would take surface shipment.

The response was: We can ship the item UPS express for the following costs: UPS Express: $104.74 For a total of: $254.73

Notice that this did not reflect the sale price of the clamps.

I canceled the order. In any case I hope I did. I have had no communication from Rockler since.

I would suggest that if you live outside the US, that you not deal with Rockler. I would suggest that even if you live in the US, that you check your Rockler orders very carefully.

Cheers,

Larry

Reply to
Larry Spitz
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Dear Mr. Spitz,

I'd like to apologize on behalf of Rockler for not meeting your reasonable expectations in handling your international order.

I reviewed the e-mail logs and it does look like we did send a follow-up e-mail after you placed your order that you may not have received.

Irregardless, your experience should have been better - and we are improving our systems to make it better. Within the next two weeks you will be able to check out on Rockler.com and receive real-time shipping estimates that include both UPS and USPS options for international addresses. No more waiting for a seperate quote :-)

We recognize the importance of global customers like you, and are committed to improving our processes as we grow our company to better support the complex issues of shipping internationally.

Scott Ekman Director of Internet Marketing Rockler Woodworking & Hardware

1-800-279-4441
Reply to
Scott Ekman

"Scott Ekman" wrote in news:1116539614.019815.82080 @f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

Scott, Thanks for monitoring this thread/group.

Reply to
Patrick Conroy

I've always have good service from both the web site and the local store. I visited the store in December to pick up the Bessey clamp kit that was on sale. However, when I got there they were sold out. They said they would honor the sale price after the sale and more were due in the following week. Well the holidays were here and I got sidetracked and did not go back. When I stopped in to pick up something in mid January, the gal said "I think we have something for you" and went into the back room and brought out my K-body clamp kit and sold to me at the sale price.

So don't pass judgement too quickly.

Reply to
Jerry

Glad to see you're monitoring this group and that you apologized for Rockler. I think its fair to say, we understand things happen but that doesn't solve his problem - getting the clamps he wanted. I would be asking him if he would consider ordering the clamps - at the sale price of course - and then tell him free surface shipping.

Bob S.

Reply to
BobS

A shame to see. I am in Australia and have ordered a few things from Rockler in the past and had no problem at all. I can imagine that shipping clamps and larger items poses different issues though as some carriers will not take non-standard box sizes etc, well not without a lot of hassles and extra cost etc.

Dean

Reply to
Woodcrafter

Agreed. It is good to know that some of our suppliers and manufacturers care enough to monitor these posts. If more of them did we might be getting better products and service.

Reply to
RonB

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