Problem with Holbren! (RESOLVED)

[paul dyar]

I ordered 5 router bits from Horbren, one of them was the wrong shank size, my mistake. Called and talked to Brian, and he said I could send to bit back for exchange. Sent the bit back with credit card#, because the bit I wanted cost more. After over a week never got a response. I called and was told Brian was not in, left message to call me. No call, called 3 more times over 5 day same thing Brian not in office.. Called today and told the lady I would post on woodworking forum and call credit card if I didn't hear from him today. No call.

[Matt Day]

Brian is a standup guy. Many of us have had many dealings with him.

Threatening to, and then Flaming him on an Internet forum belongs in grade school. Be patient, talk to the lady kindly, and get it figured out.

Holbren is a small business, not Amazon. Maybe there’s a family emergency, did you consider something like that?

Sounds like there might be more to this story too.

Edit: forgot the discount is from woodnet, not SMC.

[glenn bradley]

Sounds like the person answering the phone was a poor choice. Always had great service from Brian. Something is amiss and it is not normal.

[paul dyar]

Brian is a standup guy. Many of us have had many dealings with him.

Threatening to, and then Flaming him on an Internet forum belongs in grade school. Be patient, talk to the lady kindly, and get it figured out.

Holbren is a small business, not Amazon. Maybe there’s a family emergency, did you consider something like that?

Sounds like there might be more to this story too.

Edit: forgot the discount is from woodnet, not SMC.
Don't think I flamed him, just stated facts. If he had a family emergency the lady should have said as much, and I would have waited. I told told the lady if I didn't hear something what I would do. Now you can call it grade school, but I call it common courtesy to let me know something after to weeks. And you don't know how I talked to the lady. Why don't you call and ask if I was rude to her before making assumptions.

[Matthew Curtis]

Don't think I flamed him, just stated facts. If he had a family emergency the lady should have said as much, and I would have waited. I told told the lady if I didn't hear something what I would do. Now you can call it grade school, but I call it common courtesy to let me know something after to weeks. And you don't know how I talked to the lady. Why don't you call and ask if I was rude to her before making assumptions.


Small businesses rely on word of mouth to build there business. That is one incentive for giving good service. that same word of mouth happens when service is bad. Paul, I would have done he same thing. If "Brian" is the only person that can help you that might be something that Holbren may want to address. I would hate for Holbren to get bad reviews due to one person being off work for an extended time for what ever reason.

I would have expected a response within a week. That may be just some communication as to what is going on. It does not have to be a fix to my problem, just some communication so I know that they did not forget about me.

[Jim Riseborough]

I ordered 5 router bits from Horbren, one of them was the wrong shank size, my mistake. Called and talked to Brian, and he said I could send to bit back for exchange. Sent the bit back with credit card#, because the bit I wanted cost more. After over a week never got a response. I called and was told Brian was not in, left message to call me. No call, called 3 more times over 5 day same thing Brian not in office.. Called today and told the lady I would post on woodworking forum and call credit card if I didn't hear from him today. No call.

Im not sure how we are to help. Why dont you call, ask her to refund the returned bit, and then just order the one you need from the website, Seems pretty easy rather than getting the owner of the company involved in a simple transaction. I have ordered a few things from there, not once did i make it an issue to the world.

[Sebastien La Madeleine]

I had to deal with Holbren recently and was at the other end of the spectrum, very satisfied with the transaction.

A couple of things to know. I am pretty sure this is a one man operation. Also the lady on the phone is a reception service that is hired to take messages. So she most likely has no idea where Brian is...

I have ordered many times from them before and never had an issue. I am not trying to excuse the lack of answer, all I'm saying is give the guy some time he should make things right.

[Matthew Curtis]

I have ordered a few things from there, not once did i make it an issue to the world.


Jim welcome to 2019 and the world of Facebook. A lot of people post everything. Good and Bad. Big and small, it doesn't mater.

[Jim Riseborough]

Jim welcome to 2019 and the world of Facebook. A lot of people post everything. Good and Bad. Big and small, it doesn't mater.

Yea, im sure the lady was like 'Okay' when she was threatened that it would be on a woodworkers forum. What else would she say, 'Oh please not a forum!'

[paul dyar]

Got email from Brian yesterday. He apologized for the delay and resolved the issue. Don't know if posting on forum helped or not. I hated to do it, but I needed to know something. The problem may have been with lady that was taking message. But wanted to let forum know he did make things right.

[Jim Riseborough]

Got email from Brian yesterday. He apologized for the delay and resolved the issue. Don't know if posting on forum helped or not. I hated to do it, but I needed to know something. The problem may have been with lady that was taking message. But wanted to let forum know he did make things right.

So he emailed you after 930PM last night? Now that is customer service!

[Kevin Womer]

Maybe he is on vacation, family/personal illness, or something else significant. You have every right to post on a forum, but waiting to hear from them before posting it somewhere for all to see is another choice.

[Mike Tekin]

Thanks for update - the people on the other end are just a contracted service and clueless. I have always emailed Brian and gotten prompt service. Case in point, emailed Brian regarding availabilty of item. Received response way after hours and item shipped way before estimated backorder timeline. I never expect an operator standing by - otherwise you will pay Woodcraft insane pricing for the same router bit.


Got email from Brian yesterday. He apologized for the delay and resolved the issue. Don't know if posting on forum helped or not. I hated to do it, but I needed to know something. The problem may have been with lady that was taking message. But wanted to let forum know he did make things right.

[Matt Day]

Don't know if posting on forum helped or not..

It didn’t.


I hated to do it

I doubt that.

[scott spencer]

Holbren has been one of my best and favorite suppliers for many years. Really a stellar guy. Not cool to post this so hastily IMO, but appreciate the update that the concern was resolved.

[Matt Day]

This reminds me of Veneer Supplies. They are closing up shop because people like this have no patience, threaten, and likely send hate mail.

We don’t need to loose Holbren. Brian’s a great resource and a I’d rather support him than a big box store.

[John Sincerbeaux]

This reminds me of Veneer Supplies. They are closing up shop because people like this have no patience, threaten, and likely send hate mail.

We don’t need to loose Holbren. Brian’s a great resource and a I’d rather support him than a big box store.


I am actually surprised at some of the replies here. I think the OP has every right to be frustrated and even angry. I don’t care what kind of business you’re in, but if you can’t or won’t call a customer back in a two week time frame, you’re going to lose customers and your reputation in a hurry.
It takes seconds to call someone back. It takes seconds to leave an informative message on your company’s voicemail about a family emergency, blizzard, government shutdown etc.
In my world (and anyone elses I know), if a business has your money and that business can’t or won’t find a few seconds or minutes to call back in TWO WEEKS, this is business 101 FAIL.

[Tom M King]

....and Tools from Japan. Looks like the one man operations are doomed. I can't say that I blame them.

[Bill Space]

This reminds me of Veneer Supplies. They are closing up shop because people like this have no patience, threaten, and likely send hate mail.

We don’t need to loose Holbren. Brian’s a great resource and a I’d rather support him than a big box store.

+10

Frankly I was thinking the same thing.

Seems like in the day of Amazon, with instant purchases, fast delivery and returns that can be done without a human being involved (I think), we often lose our patience if we don't get instant gratification when dealing with smaller sellers.

Not saying I am not this way also, but perhaps we should slow down a bit and give a little empathy to the small guy trying to provide a service to guys like us ...

Bill

[Tom M King]

Quote: "we often lose our patience if we don't get instant gratification when dealing with smaller sellers."

I don't.

[Mark Bolton]

I Called today and told the lady I would post on woodworking forum and call credit card if I didn't hear from him today. No call.

There is a great video on YouTube from a show called the Newsroom. It could be adapted to "you are a member of the worst period, consumer generation period, ever period". Every time I watch shark tank and others and hear the return rates and customer rates and customer acquisition costs.... I wonder how fast we are swirling around the toilet bowl. Companies have to maintain obscene margins to deal with anyone now. No fault returns. Immediate gratification false short resulting in a whiny baby internet post is not acceptable. The margins speak clearly to how these places absorb ridiculous but my gosh.

Maybe the dude is on vacation?

[John Sincerbeaux]

“Immediate gratification false short resulting in a whiny baby internet post is not acceptable“

I guess not calling back your customers who are trying in good faith to contact you for two weeks is acceptable?

[Tom M King]

When it's a one man operation, sometimes yes.

[Bradley Gray]

Impatience has reached epidemic levels.

I have made my living as a custom furniture maker for over 40 years and have seen the shift. In the early years I got a lot of orders BY MAIL!

These days, for a lot of customers, if I can't ship it today they go elsewhere

[Larry Frank]

I think not replying to a customer in a week is poor customer service and has nothing to do with impatience or instant gratification.

On the other hand, the problem was caused by the customer mistake and the company was doing a favor fixing it. They just did not fix the customer mistake fast enough so it got blasted on the internet.

[Charles Taylor]

I guess not calling back your customers who are trying in good faith to contact you for two weeks is acceptable?

As a standard practice, it's likely not in the best interest of a small business. But many of us have done business with Brian (myself not as often as others, alas), and the collective experience is that this incident is uncharacteristic. The problem got resolved, professionally we're told, and I'm willing to wager that the circumstance that prompted the OP to complain here won't become the norm.

Now let me tell you about my property manager and the monthly reports he owes me...

[Mark Bolton]

“Immediate gratification false short resulting in a whiny baby internet post is not acceptable“

I guess not calling back your customers who are trying in good faith to contact you for two weeks is acceptable?

I dont disagree that the timeliness of the customer service was a bit of an issue however the real issue for me personally is the mentality that uses a threat to anyone that they are going to use an online forum or social media or whatever as retribution unless they get satisfaction.

I have personally watched local businesses and read numerous accounts of others that have basically be run in to ruin or near ruin due to some viral internet post that in the end wound up containing only partial details, or complete inaccuracies, of the situation. I watched one local business (a hair salon) endure a week and perhaps several thousand vile posts, shares, and attacks, over a customer who went in asking for a procedure and the licensed beautician told her that she had had so many products put in her hair that one more would most guaranteed leave her bald and that she could not do that to her in good conscience. Those details never made it to the fray prior to the onslaught. After all of it, when the owners finally tried to get the truth out, and all the damage had been done, people then realized how wrong they were but it was too late.

I have no problem with being upset over poor service and poor communication but to state that you wield some almighty sword speaks to a mindset that is simply horrifying to anyone in business.

Unfortunately the big corporate retailers who have lived under the comfortable blanket of 500%, 600%, 1000% markups, and forcing their suppliers to blanketly accept no questions asked returns, have left us with a consumer base that is very very scary for anyone without that margin to operate with.

We reap what we sew. And the big box stores letting you take a saw home and use it for a month and return it no questions asked, have created the market.

[Brian Gumpper]

I appreciate the support and Paul does have a legitimate gripe. All I can say is I'm very busy and messages/emails do get backed up at times. Still need to find his return, I'm sure it's around, but sent the more expensive replacement to him at no extra charge or shipping costs to make up for lack of response.

[Mark Bolton]

I appreciate the support and Paul does have a legitimate gripe. All I can say is I'm very busy and messages/emails do get backed up at times. Still need to find his return, I'm sure it's around, but sent the more expensive replacement to him at no extra charge or shipping costs to make up for lack of response.

And there it is.