penn state ind,,bad experience

[terry mccammon]

Under the heading of for what it is worth. Our Scout Troop decided to give the new Eagle Scouts a pen (made by me) out of a kit that someone found on PSI that features an Eagle motif. Fine, so they bought five kits and I drilled blanks, glued in five tubes and milled them to length. That was when I noticed that the tubes were of different lengths, one was 1/4" longer than the others, the other four were slightly different. The kit was such that the long length made the mechanism not work right. I glued a bit of wood to the inside of the kit and all was well. But really, how does this happen? I personally had not purchased any kits from these folks and that will be that for the future.

[David C. Roseman]

From the comments, it sounds like the OP's experience struck several of us as odd. Who knows what PSI (or at least the person who wrote the email) was really trying to get at with the request for a photo of Jeff's chuck. The lady on the phone could have handled it differently, including bumping the call to someone more senior when Jeff pushed back for a better explanation. But unless the vendor comments in this thread, or we hear from someone with a similar experience trying to order chuck jaws who took it further, we're left to conjecture.

Over the last few years I've placed quite a few orders with PSI and never had a bad experience with either their customer service or their products. That's anecdotal, to be sure. But PSI occupies a niche market for the woodturning world, and I know a number of excellent turners who consider them a good resource.

[Bill Splaine]

I've had nothing but excellent service from them. In fact, I bought a couple of items from them back in '03 that I never used. One I just didn't know what it was and the other I knew what it was.. but it is so different from what they and other vendors sell today I was confused.

My initial contact was a lady, I believe named Kim. She was awesome, polite and couldn't answer my questions. She bumped me to Jerry as I remember. Both took the time to politely help me with no frustration on their part. Mind you, neither of these were in their catalog any more.. times and tools have changed.

Back to the OP. I wasn't there.. but, I can almost see the frustration in the OP's wording (?). If there was raised hackles.. that may have precipitated the problem.. I don't know. I'd hate to be a customer service person due to the myriad of people problems they face every day. I'd guess that they were trying to verify just what Barracuda chuck you have.. assuming they, like my two parts, have possibly changed in some small way that would preclude using the parts that were to be ordered.

[John Sincerbeaux]

about 2 yrs ago I purchased a barracuda chuck from amazon,, I noticed penn state had a few things on sale which was some jaws for this chuck,,,i ordered them and today I got a email from them saying I had to prove I actually had a barracuda chuck by sending them a picture of the chuck,,that I couldn't believe,,,so I called and told the woman the model number of the chuck and told her I bought it at amazon,,she said very rudely,,that I still had to prove that it was a barracuda chuck,,im not a child and I do know the difference between one brand of chuck and the other,,,and I personally don't like the fact that I was being called a lier,,I cant speak for everyone else on here,,and im sure others will disagree on what im saying,,,but unless amazon sells it,,i will not buy it,,,at penn state you not only have to pay the shipping charges to get it to you but if something is wrong with it or you don't want it you have to pay the return shipping,,,,plus the fact of the wait time in which you receive it,,i have had to wait 2 weeks or more to get a item,,amazon ships most things free of charge and for any reason you don't like it,,they will send you a return label(free) to send it back which is free,,and you will receive your item from amazon in 2 days,,like I said said,,I cant speak for everyone else on here but being polite and taking care of the customer is first,,,i had rather pay more for a product than be insulted,,,im not trying to discourage anyone from buying from them,,,im sure some will disagree on this and that's ok,,thank you,,,lol,,just a bad day,,lol

"unless Amazon sells it,,I will not buy it"
And we get sad when all the brick and mortar stores close��

[Dave Lehnert]

Years ago I purchased a slow speed grinder from them. The tool jig was missed drilled where one of the three holes did not line up.
I called and their response was something like "Two holes line up, whats the problem? "