Hammer A3-31 arrived ... and fell off the truck

[mreza Salav]

Oh...I don't know I would be upset for not having my machine delivered or for such a waste of a great machine.

[C Scott McDonald]

Sorry about the Hammer.

Nice looking neighborhood though!

[Mike Hollingsworth]

I just wonder how that shipper treats yours stuff when you're NOT looking.

[Johannes Becker]

The street has a slight slope but it looks much worse on the picture. It has not been a problem before when unloading things. Well, that is until today I guess. The shipper was actually very decent. He was really sorry and did not look at all like somebody who would normally just abuse stuff.

I am not sure about the damage -- it may just be the covers and nothing serious. Felder certainly knows where to look for damage and can put it back into original condition. For me that is a different story. if it was not perfect I would just not be sure whether it is me or the machine.

[Len Rosenberg]

I had a similar experience with a Minimax FS41 Elite jointer/planer combo. I used a rigging company to pick it up from the local freight depot, got a call from them saying they refused to even touch it, it looked like it had been dropped off the truck, the shipping crate was in pieces, they refused delivery. A few emails with MiniMax and a brand new machine was on its way to me before the damaged one was even received back in Atlanta. Second time was the charm, delivered without a scratch. Can't beat service like that.

[Keith Weber]

A lot of those lift gates are poorly designed or worn out. I've rented lift gate trucks numerous times, and most of the time, the lift platform has a rear-sloping sag to it. My solution for tall items was to tie a rope to the handle on the one side of the truck box, loop the rope around the tall item, and then hang onto the other end with my left hand, as I stood on the platform and lowered it with my right hand. It just prevented those ever-so-tippy loads from going over when the lift gate moved abruptly (as when starting or stopping).

One day, when I showed up to pick up a truck, they said that they had a brand new truck for me. The lift gate was designed differently. It went down flat, but when it hit the ground, the mechanism tilted the platform to the ramped angle. On the way up, it first tilted the platform level, and then raised it. Brilliant! They should all be like those.

But, you get what you get on the day, so if the driver has a saggy, ramped lift gate, start by having him park so that the front of his truck is pointed downhill, and if it's a tippy item, consider throwing a safety rope around it with the person holding it standing in the back of the truck. I move a lot of heavy stuff. The most important thing to always remember is that if something weighing 1000's of pounds wants to fall over for whatever reason beyond your control, you stand back and let it fall over. I've seen too many people lose their head and try to stop a large mass from doing what it wants to do in the moment -- risking getting their relatively frail body crushed.

[Rod Sheridan]

So I'm wondering what happens to that broken jointer-planer. Does Hammer attempt to repair it and sell it? What condition do they sell it as -- used? salvage? buyer-beware? Or is all this too dodgey for their brand integrity, and they just chuck it into the dumpster?

Hi, with damage to the frame evident, it will most likely be scrapped.

The cost to strip everything off, inspect it all, order replacement parts and re-assemble it would cost far in excess of their cost for a new machine, not to mention the risk of missing a part that's damaged.

That one will be heading for recycling............Regards, Rod.

[Erik Loza]

Hi, with damage to the frame evident, it will most likely be scrapped.

The cost to strip everything off, inspect it all, order replacement parts and re-assemble it would cost far in excess of their cost for a new machine, not to mention the risk of missing a part that's damaged.

That one will be heading for recycling............Regards, Rod.

This ^^^

From a vendor's perspective, the single most expensive part of the budget is labor. Unless it's something like a CNC, it goes to the scrappers. The profit margin on machinery at this price point is slim enough as it is and it's just not economically feasible to pay a tech to try and fix it and then have a sales guy try to sell it and make any sort of profit. I don't know how other vendors handle it but with SCM, the most important thing is finding a freight company who pays claims in a timely manner. They use FedEx commercial now and according my logistics folks, FedEx commercial pays all claims within 30 days, which is huge. So, in Len's case, SCM got paid on that smashed FS41 within a month. That is HUGE when your business is getting machines in and out the door.

I see the list of freight damaged machines SCM claims each year. You would be shocked at the number of not-inexpensive machines that go directly to the metal scrappers. Entire sliding table saws, big bandsaws, etc. No particular freight carrier is immune. You can get perfect deliveries for months through a certain terminal and than several damaged machines for no apparent reason. There are so many cogs in the wheel of what it takes to get a machine from the warehouse to the customer's site and all it takes is one guy on the shipper's side to make a bad decision about offloading (rare, in my experience) or to spear the crate with his forklift (more common), and there goes a machine.

Erik

[Frederick Skelly]

That's tragic and I'm sorry to hear it.

I'm glad to hear they took proper care of you. That's a good thing for folks to hear.

Fred

[Michael Koons]

This brings to mind a discussion I had back in the fall with the group about delivery of large tools to freight depots instead of on lift gate trucks to homes. There were Creekers who said they preferred the freight terminals to home delivery. Now I understand why.

[Pat Barry]

The slope of that street is clearly visible in the first picture. It was foolish to even try a lift gate from that direction. It could have been even worse if it was on a pallet jack and it took off down the street!

OK, its delivered, please sign here, and then you can go catch it. I'll come back for the pallet jack later.

Interesting observation. Notice the lift is significantly canted with respect to the road. No doubt the slope was the main issue, coupled with this top heavy equipment. Next time tell the driver to make sure the unit is strapped to the lift gate so it doesn't just fall off.

[mreza Salav]

I had a 24" bandsaw delivered with a liftgate. With the crate the machine was almost 8' tall. The street didn't have a slope but the slope of the gate was enough that worried me it would tip once the gate reaches the ground. I requested the driver to let me add a couple of 2x6 under the end of the gate to off-set the slope. He listened to me and it worked fine at the end. Sometimes people who do a job are not thinking through the process as you would expect them to do.

[Rod Sheridan]

This brings to mind a discussion I had back in the fall with the group about delivery of large tools to freight depots instead of on lift gate trucks to homes. There were Creekers who said they preferred the freight terminals to home delivery. Now I understand why.

Hi Michael, that's why I like home delivery. Felder were responsible for putting it in my garage.

If it was tweaked, they were responsible.

If I had picked it up at their location, I would be responsible..........Regards, Rod.

[keith wootton]

super bummer. i had a similar problem last year when a new 16" j/p fell over before it got to the freight terminal and my pickup. shipper had put a tilt-watch indicator and a good thing, because crate looked pretty good. fed ex had shoved a broken up pallet under it and didn't say a word "but there's your shipment, take it". didnt understand well that i should have left it there and refused it. went thru 11 weeks of hell before fed ex refused to pay claim, stating crate wasn't strong enough. falling on side knocked motors out of alignment with drive chain (bent mounts). seller was very good, and fed ex equally bad, but they took it back to seller after i recrated it very well, and reached some agreement. i got a check for full amount from seller. i had negotiated a deal on a used felder ad 741 with the help of west coast felder (thanks fergus) to fill the empty spot in my shop. i had sold old planer and jointer to make room. freight inspector who came out (with 93 year old mother with dementia who wandered off twice) wanted me to bend up mounts worse and do other additional damage because damage didn't show up well on camera. i refused. and, the lift gate failed on pick up fed ex truck as j/p was going back. i ended up helping fed ex secure lift gate to truck and cleaned up oil. dispacher wanted driver to pick up another shipment on the way back to the terminal, and didn't understand that lift gate was ratchet strapped to back of truck. and it was 105 that day!

[Scott Allen27]

Erik,
I would think there would be a good opportunity in that for you guys. I know there would be Creekers lined up to take advantage of opportunities like that.
I believe I actually got one of those machines, a CU300 that was refused delivery - and I got a great deal on it. The machine required a little adjustment, had a few broken parts but it is an incredible machine that I haven't had any problems with after adjustment.

Why not sell those machines online with limited/no warranty and let DIY guys take a chance on them, instead of sending them to the scrappers. I think everyone wins in that scenario.

This ^^^

From a vendor's perspective, the single most expensive part of the budget is labor. Unless it's something like a CNC, it goes to the scrappers. The profit margin on machinery at this price point is slim enough as it is and it's just not economically feasible to pay a tech to try and fix it and then have a sales guy try to sell it and make any sort of profit. I don't know how other vendors handle it but with SCM, the most important thing is finding a freight company who pays claims in a timely manner. They use FedEx commercial now and according my logistics folks, FedEx commercial pays all claims within 30 days, which is huge. So, in Len's case, SCM got paid on that smashed FS41 within a month. That is HUGE when your business is getting machines in and out the door.

I see the list of freight damaged machines SCM claims each year. You would be shocked at the number of not-inexpensive machines that go directly to the metal scrappers. Entire sliding table saws, big bandsaws, etc. No particular freight carrier is immune. You can get perfect deliveries for months through a certain terminal and than several damaged machines for no apparent reason. There are so many cogs in the wheel of what it takes to get a machine from the warehouse to the customer's site and all it takes is one guy on the shipper's side to make a bad decision about offloading (rare, in my experience) or to spear the crate with his forklift (more common), and there goes a machine.

Erik