My Black Friday Jet clamps arrived today

[Sam Beatty]

Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't see the other posts, so for the benefit of anyone else who missed them this is what I see. The threads on my black friday clamps are inferior to all the other Jet clamps I have: much shallower, with a cheap-looking chrome finish, and noticeably less smooth. I don't see a visual difference in the clamping mechanism, but I can sure feel the difference: the trigger release on my current ones is easy and reliable, but these I need to fiddle with for 10 seconds before they'll release. There are other minor visual differences. Even assuming I just got two defective triggers, I can't see how anyone would think cheapo shallow threads on a parallel clamp won't make a difference in practice over time.

What a disastrous purchase. Waiting over two months only to get a bait-and-switch cheap imitation, my golly. Jet, you had me, but now you've lost me.

Unfortunately, this is something that happens quite a bit with BF sales. Manufacturers do special runs of their BF products with cheaper materials and lower quality to meet the rock bottom prices that people go crazy over. This is one of the reasons that I cringe any time someone tells me they bought a laptop or TV, or any typically high-end purchase for that matter, on a BF sale. They are just never up to the quality of the same product at any other time of the year.

[Matt Stiegler]

Unfortunately, this is something that happens quite a bit with BF sales. Manufacturers do special runs of their BF products with cheaper materials and lower quality to meet the rock bottom prices that people go crazy over. This is one of the reasons that I cringe any time someone tells me they bought a laptop or TV, or any typically high-end purchase for that matter, on a BF sale. They are just never up to the quality of the same product at any other time of the year.

I'd never heard that before, but then again I'm not sure I ever bought a BF special before. Seems like false advertising, or at least bad business, to do that without disclosing it. A company like LV builds their business with good BF prices on advertised seconds, that seems quite a lot smarter to me.

[Ruhi Arslan]

Since few months past already, it is time for an update... My order through Southern Tools was completed in early January. As I have posted earlier, packaging was not suitable for the heavy content of the shipment. Considering it was drop-shipped, had nothing to do with Souther Tools of course but I emailed them to let them know that the caps at the end of the handles were missing on several clamps. Got a reply back a week or two later saying they will take care of it. If I did not receive them shortly to let them know. Did not happened. Sent another email to remind that I did not get anything yet. No reply this time around. Then a month later another email; again no reply. It's been three or four weeks since the last email. At this point, I am inclined to think the Black Friday fever is over and Southern Tool is choosing not even bother to reply to my emails. All it takes is one liner reply; not available, it will be available within a year or two, whatever, but just a simple courtesy reply... It helps me to choose where NOT to order from next time... Please save the "they have so much emails to answer" or pick up the phone anc call excuses. They were able to reply to emails pretty well before. Obviously they choose to utilize the email as one of the means of communication with customers.

[Fred Voorhees]

I got four Jet clamps for free when I purchased my Jet cabinet saw. Quite honestly....I just about always reach for the Jets before I go for my Bessey's. The Jet clamps are just great clamps without a doubt.