Vendor Customer Service Kudos (starting with Klingspor)

[Steve Demuth]

I know many vendors get dinged by consumers for lousy customer service. But there are plenty who do right by their customers, and deserve recognition for same.

I'll start the list with the following: Klingspor Woodworking.

Over the holidays I ordered $100+ worth of sanding supplies online. Order came in under a week (over the Christmas holiday), but had one item that was just wrong - I ordered one kind of product, they sent a completely different thing (both were sandpaper, but otherwise, unrelated).

So, I emailed them a simple query for how they wanted to correct the order. This is their next business day reply:


Please accept our sincere apology for the incorrect item on your order.

Order xxxxxx for the correct item has been issued and will ship today.

Please keep the incorrect box. If you cannot use please donate to a School or Woodworking Club in your area.


I like the speed, and the resolution, and particularly the donation suggestion.

That, after a quick shipment of the original order, is what I call customer service.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Klingspor North America is head quartered here in NC. On a North Carolina based form, Coleman from Klingspor is a regular poster. They support both forum site and local Woodworking clubs, not only door prizes for events, but also meeting space. Meeting space isn't cheap to rent. Because I use so many 12" disks for my Toys for Tots car bodies, I cut my own and use spray adhesive to hold them on. Coleman told me to let him know what size paper I need to cut them from, and he would get it some for me. I expect to pay for it, but if asked they would probably donate it. That's just how they do business. Same goes for Kregg, Great CS!

[Frederick Skelly]

I love these kinds of threads because I get to talk about what GOOD things vendors have done. Here's several more "good guys" for your list:
* DMT (diamond sharpening "stones") gave me outstanding support a year or so back. I had rust developing on one of their Duosharp stones. It was 3 years old and I didnt expect more than some advice on how to clean it up. Customer service said that whst I described wasnt supposed to be happening and asked me to mail them the stone. They called back and said they were going to give me a new stone, free. It took a couple months - I had the impression they were making a production tweak to address what they found. Because it took a bit, they even sent me a little cleaning kit as a nice accessory.

* Carbide Processors - an SMC Sponsor - took really good care of me when some Woodpeckers rules I ordered from them came to me with chipped anodizing. (Yes, for WP money, I care a lot if it arrives chipped.) They worked with WP (not me) to get new ones snipped out. When one of the replacements was chipped, they did it a second time. No muss, fuss or question. Those guys wanted me happy and it showed. Again, good people to do business with. And they give Creekers a discount.

* Two more that wont surprise anyone but need to be mentioned for completeness of your list: Lee Valley and Lie Neilsen. Both have consistently taken outstanding care of me on orders, problems and returns.

* Highland Woodworking has done an excellent job for me when I've had a problem.

* Rikon has also given me good over-the-phone support when I needed help with my bandsaw.

* Tools for Working Wood (TFWW) is always on the ball. I havent had a problem with which to test them (yet), but I'd expect their customer service to be excellent.

Fred

[Flamone LaChaud]

Not to mention that they sponsor what is one of the last Woodworking shows in NC every October, so I have zero qualms about going to them for anything I need (that they sell).