Another Customer Service Story

[Rick Hubbard]

A couple of weeks ago I bought 4 brand Irwin 24 inch steel bar clamps for CHEAP ($6.97) at a local hardware store. I took them home and hung them up and a few days later, when I grabbed one to use it, I was appalled to see that there were no clamp pads.

I went to the Irwin web site to see if they have pads available and Lo and Behold they did. After I signed in to the spare parts area, there were no prices or anything but there was a way to select what I was looking for. I selected the proper pads and clicked submit. Nothing happened so I figured I would get an email from them explaining pricing and where to go to order. After 2 days I had heard nothing, so I was getting a little aggravated. On the 3rd day, there was a package at the post office from Irwin full of brand new clamps pads. No invoice, no nothing. It was FREE!

You can't beat THAT for customer service!

Oh BTW, there was one hitch- they were the wrong pads. Oh well, I'm still impressed!

Rick

[Rob Bodenschatz]

I don't get it. Sounds to me like it's a confusing website, lack of communication, and poor execution (wrong pads). You didn't really expect to have to pay for them either, did you? My, how our expectations have slipped. :rolleyes:

[Rick Hubbard]

Yeah, I did expect to have to pay for them. Or, maybe I should say I would have been willing to pay for them since I paid about 1/2 price for the clamps in the first place AND since they had no way of knowing whether or not I really had bought clamps with missing pads or whether I just felt like getting new pads.

Regardless of whether they screwed up (or whether I screwed up) the pad descriptions I still think it is refreshing to be able to NOT have to argue with a CSR and NOT having to shell out money to have a problem remedied.

Incidentlly, if anyone needs some clamp pads for Irwin Quick Grip clamps (which I don't use) contact me off list and I'll send them to you no-charge.

Rick