I am posting this in the hopes that it may grab Rob Lee's attention.

I'll start by saying that I am in the commercial construction management business- so I am fully aware of the unprecedented supply chain issues still plaguing all industries. I get it. Making it worse are the percentage of people in the 'chain' that are being opportunistic and inflating the problem- in the hopes of obtaining expediting fees from desperate clients that are willing to pay double for a Widget that is critical to them. Again- I get it- and I in no way think that is what Lee Valley is doing.

My frustration is that it appears their fabrication priorities (ie what IS in their control) are not as customer centric as I have always thought them to be.

I am not upset that I ordered a tool (Left handed Shooting Plane) in May and still do not have it. I'm a hobbyist, and willing to wait.

I AM upset that after checking in regularly it was clear that the customer service reps at Lee Valley had no more information that the seemingly computer generated meaningless date that perpetually gets pushed back ever 6 weeks- which I can see on the website myself. I eventually thought I'll just call Veritas direct and see if I can get a real idea if I am ever going to get the tool- or if I should cancel my order. Really that is all I want to know.

In calling Veritas I was able to glean a piece of information that didn't surprise me- but is absolutely not right. Turned out there were many people with a backorder on the Right Handed version of this tool- but only about 6 of us with Left Handed on backorder (and this was 5 month in for me). It was obvious that the production of the right handed version was being prioritized, regardless of how long the minority of us Lefties needed to wait. I am used to the world being biased against lefties- but this is an intentional decision, and not one I expect from the purported Customer Service guru's at Lee Valley.

The last straw for me though was advertisement I got recently for the brand new Miniature Shooting Plane. I was onboard with blaming the supply chain up on the reduced production and machining capacity until this- but somehow they have production capacity and machine time available to make a toy tool that is essentially their version of this years 'HESS Truck'- yet not an actual tool simply because I had the misfortune of being born left-handed - and their aren't enough of us to matter- is just the last straw for me.


So- Rob- if you see this- since I've been a longtime customer I will give you guys the benefit of the doubt one last time to address this- but it really is beginning to feel like Lee Valley is just one in the long line of companies blaming the supply chain boogie man for their own mismanagement.