I wanted to share my experience with a recent purchase of one of Rockler's discontinued 8X11 aluminum router table plates. For those who aren't interested in reading the entire review/post, long story short: The product was defective but Rockler's CS, in the end, was outstanding to resolve the issue to my satisfaction.
I ordered item number 35265, it's the plate predrilled to accept the Bosch 1617-1618, and some other brands of routers, too. I purchased this size plate because it was on sale for $39.99 rather than the regular price of $59.99, and it would suffice for my needs.
The first plate was shipped on 12/16/08. When it arrived it had a sag in it that you could almost slide a dime under a straight edge laid across the length of the plate. Not acceptable.
I called Rockler CS and they shipped another one to me on 1/06/09. They apologized for the delay in shipping a replacement plate. Unfortunaltely, when it arrived it had the same defect. Bad sag.
Then I spoke with Al Wolford, the Tech Support Manager. He acknowledged that they had received a batch of these defective plates but he thought that the issue had been resolved. He told me that he would personally check their stock himself and to ship to me an acceptable replacement plate.
A few days later I received an email from Al telling me, in part, and I quote:
"I checked almost all of the plates currently in stock and have found they all demonstrate differing degrees of deflection. I chose a plate which has the least amount and will be sending it to you ASAP. I hope it will solve your issues. Let me know. You don't need to send back any of the plates."
On 1/16/09 they shipped the THIRD plate. When it arrived it was perfectly flat.........for about 2/3 the length of the plate. One end of the plate curved downward so that you still could almost slide a dime under a straight edge, but this time it was on the end of the plate rather than in the middle of the plate. Still not acceptable.
I called again and spoke with Al. I patiently explained that all I want is a flat plate. I told him that I'd even be willing to pay the 20 bucks more for their 8 1/4 X 11 3/4 plate. I want a flat plate. He assured me that he'd send me a flat plate.
The FOURTH plate was shipped on 1/26/09. It arrived today. It's perfectly flat. It is the more expensive 8 1/4 X 11 3/4 plate. However, they did not charge me for the difference. Unfortunately, they shipped the blank plate, the one that I have to drill the holes myself to mount the router to it. But that's OK. I got a flat plate! And, I know how to drill the holes properly to mount my router thanks to an excellent recent post by Bill Huber explaining the process in detail. For anyone who missed that post, here it is again:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...16630#poststop
I'm almost finished! I called Rockler CS again today after receiving the plate. They offered to send yet ANOTHER plate, the one predrilled for my router. I told the CS person that I'd live with the plate I received today because it IS flat. My only other issue was that this plate comes with only one insert with a 1 1/2" opening. The original plate that I ordered came with 3 inserts. They are shipping the two other inserts to me free of charge.
They told me not to ship any of the defective plates back to them. So, I now have 3 nice blue paper weights! Who knows, maybe I'll take the two plates with the sag the entire length of the plate to a friend who has a big press and see if we can "bend" the sag out of them, for some future router table project. I don't know if that'll work or not.
Moral of the story is that I'd advise anyone considering buying that particular discontinued Rockler Router Table Plate, item number 35265 for Group A routers, not to buy it, based on my experience. I can't speak for the discontinued plates for the other groups of routers, one way or the other.
Though it has taken nearly 6 weeks to finally resolve the issue after placing and paying for my order, I must give Rockler an A+ for customer service because they DID resolve the issue to my satisfaction. I shall continue to be a Rockler customer. This wasn't my first order with them nor will it be last, God willing. Anytime that I've had an issue with any order in the past, they fixed it. So, even though this router table plate order was a hassle, Rockler earned my respect and loyalty for doing the right thing to resolve this issue.
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Originally Posted by Sonny Edmonds
