Follow up to broken gouge

[Steve Plunkett]

A few weeks ago I posted about a Oneway Mastercut gouge that inexplicably broke in two. I sent the gouge to Oneway for them to see and I immediately got a call from them saying they would replace it. It was well beyond the warranty period and they didn't have to. They said it was a flaw in the metal and they would still stand behind their tools. What I call great customer service.

[Eric Holmquist]

I'm not surprised, Oneway has an excellent reputation of making quality products and supporting them.

[Bill White]

Good on Oneway.
Bill

[Mike Cruz]

I don't mean this as a slam on Oneway, but that is why you pay what you pay when you buy Oneway tools. They are standing behind their product. They DO have plenty of cush in their pricing to cover this sort of thing. I applaud them for their actions taking care of you. It is the smart business thing to do, and it is the right thing to do. Not all companies (whether they charge that cush or not) will do the right thing. I've had an experience with them where they did the smart thing (for them), and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I DO like their integrity.

[Jeffrey J Smith]

I also applaud Oneway for supporting both their products and their customers. But the 'cush' to cover replacement of defective tools isn't the whole reason that they cost more. Oneway, Robust and other manufacturers that build in North America pay a higher percentage of revenue to wages to have well trained, competant people on staff that design and build their products. Well made products built with quality materials, engineered for optimum function and supported by people who care about the company's reputation will always cost more than those sourced for best profit. Sometimes there's more value in spending a little more for your tools.

[Brian Ashton]

I don't mean this as a slam on Oneway, but that is why you pay what you pay when you buy Oneway tools. They are standing behind their product. They DO have plenty of cush in their pricing to cover this sort of thing. I applaud them for their actions taking care of you. It is the smart business thing to do, and it is the right thing to do. Not all companies (whether they charge that cush or not) will do the right thing. I've had an experience with them where they did the smart thing (for them), and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I DO like their integrity.


That maybe true but their staff go way beyond the call of duty.

I have a 2436 that had intermittent inverter problems some years back when living in British Columbia. It was way out of warranty but I phoned them to ask if they could help nut out why the lathe would suddenly cut out randomly. I don't remember the guys name but I was on the phone with him for about half an hour and he was running me through some tests and such. We didn't solve the problem then but he told me to phone him right away if it happened again so he could run some other tests and I could tell him if there was an error code flashing on the LED screen… Took a few months but it happened again, so I got on the phone to oneway to talk to Kevin (just remembered his name!)… Receptionist told me he was on holidays and was unavailable for at least a week… I explained the situation to her and asked if I could speak to anyone else. She said she'd get back to me… Call came in about 15 minutes later. It was Kevin, phoning from Disney World in Florida. My response was, "You're on holidays, why are you phoning me…" He said it was no problem. By the end of the conversation we couldn't determine what the problem was so he would arrange for me to box up the inverter to send to them so they could then send it down to the US and get it tested by the manufacturer… Remember he's doing this all from Florida… Sure enough I got another call a short time later from the receptionist at Oneway saying it's good to go and send them the inverter. In the end they didn't find a fault but couldn't explain the random shut downs so they offered to sell me a new one at their cost. So I got another for a great price and they shipped back the old one also (which I used for about 8 years until it finally packed it in). It came pre-programmed and I only needed to bolt it in and hook it up. From the first call I made to when I was turning again took only a few days. So if that's what you get for the premium paid on their stuff, I'll take it very time.

[Dave Fritz]

Oneway, Robust and other manufacturers that build in North America pay a higher percentage of revenue to wages to have well trained, competant people on staff that design and build their products. Well made products built with quality materials, engineered for optimum function and supported by people who care about the company's reputation will always cost more than those sourced for best profit. Sometimes there's more value in spending a little more for your tools.

Agree totally, also Robust gets all the parts they don't produce themselves from local shops with few exceptions.

Dave F.

[Don Orr]

Good to hear, but not surprised at all. Good company right there.

[Mike Cruz]

BTW, I wasn't downing on Oneway for being more expensive. Just saying they are, but you'll get great CS, too. Many companies that don't have that "cush" in their prices reflect it in their CS. My experiences with them have all be fantastic.

What is amazing to me is how PM charges a premium, but their CS is one of the worst in the industry. And replacement parts are WAY overpriced.