Kudos for Lee Valley

[Alain Tellier]

Hi everyone, my first thread here on this forum. I think good service and attention is worth mentionning.

I’ve been ordering tools and stuff from Lee Valley for a long while and so far I’ve never had to return any items, until now.

I purchased one of those plywood bit (29/32”) figuring it would save me some time instead of using my old trusty jig. After a month of fiddling around with it I realized the fit was not as tight as I was expecting (plywood being even thinner now) thus I decided to return it for a complete refund. That was a week ago.

Yesterday got an envelope in the mail from Lee Valley customer service. Actually, it was a hand written letter by one of their rep explaining that the refund was made to my credit card for X amount including the shipping in and out and that they were very sorry for the inconvenience.

A hand written letter, with letterhead !!!!

In this day and age of “fill the blanks” notes and already prepared receipt spat out by automatic computerized customer services, having someone to actually put pen to paper and take the time to write ( not type ) a letter to a customer is very commendable and a rarity to the very least.

I am impressed and surprised at the same time :o

[Alex Berkovsky]

Just to add my $.02... I placed an order yesterday and forgot to add a small item to the order. I called today to add it, but the order had already shipped. The CS rep told me since the item is small, they will ship it separately and won't charge me for shipping and handling. Little things like that keep a customer for life.

[John Gregory]

My experience with Lee Valley has been awesome.

[Vaughn McMillan]

...A hand written letter, with letterhead !!!! ...

Maybe the computers were down? :p

Just kidding -- I've had nothing but great service from Lee Valley, and now that I've got LOML looking at the Lee Valley gardening catalog, they're getting even more orders from us than before. My latest package just arrived today.

- Vaughn

[Ken Garlock]

I had returned some cabinet hinges for refund. Several days after I saw the refund hit my credit card, I also received a hand-written note stating that they had refunded the cost of the hinges and shipping.

You can't beat that with a stick.:D

[Roger Barga]

I have had similar experiences with Lee Valley. Now when I identify a tool that I wish to purchase or need supplies or cabinet parts, I first check their website. The shopping basket feature on their website allows you to store items in the basket for a later purchase. Mine is getting pretty full and father's day is around the corner ;-)

[Denise Ohio]

I was going to start a thread like this.

I have a thank-you letter from Robin Lee (the Lee in Lee Valley) thanking me for a fan letter I sent him regarding the attention I received from his staff.

Unbelievable. Not only did they replace some tools I had messed up through my own ignorance (I am not going to emntion it publicly because it is too embarassing), they refunded my shipping, and they sent the replacement tools OVERNIGHT before I had sent back the originals.

I'm thinking of getting a Lee Valley tattoo somewhere on my own fine self, but I don't like needles. Maybe Dino will get one as a proxy. Bet he would if I double-dog dared him.

Regardless of my state of tattoo-iness or nontattoo-iness, I'm a fan of the company and of the tools.

[Lars Thomas]

They are one of only a handful that do CONSISTENTLY fine work.

[Kyle Kraft]

I always look in the L-V catalog first whenever I need anything. I too have had much good experience with that company and will continue to steer others to their services.

Kyle in K'zoo

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

They are absolutely tops in my book, I just dropped a $400 order for turning stuff, pens and the like, can't wait till it gets here :D

Cheers!

[Mike Henderson]

I've bought a number of things from them and have had nothing but good experiences. I've had to return things, called the next day to add something to my order and I don't know what else. Every time, they have bent over backwards to help me, even when the fault was mine.

My only suggestion to them for improvement is in their shipping charges. They use "tiered" shipping so if your order stays under, say, $100, you pay several dollars less than if it goes to $100.01. Several times, I found that I was just a buck or so over the limit, so I took a low cost item out of my order to get the lower shipping charge. In essence, that extra item would have cost me an extra $2.50, so I saved it for a later order.

Seems like a better approach would be one that encourage people to buy more, like free shipping for over $100, than one which encouraged people to limit their orders.

But who am I to argue with success.

Mike