Back orders at Shopsmith

[cincinnati]

*UPDATE*

I received my order today IN FULL. No back order parts at all:D

I placed my order last Wed and received it on Monday. Shopsmith shipped it next day so it seems the post office sat on it for a couple of days.
I am only an hour south of the factory and always receive my order next day.

All the parts were packaged extremely well.
Seems Shopsmith is back on track. That makes me HAPPY!

Thanks Shopsmith.

[a1gutterman]

*UPDATE*

I received my order today IN FULL. No back order parts at all:D

I placed my order last Wed and received it on Monday. Shopsmith shipped it next day so it seems the post office sat on it for a couple of days.
I am only an hour south of the factory and always receive my order next day.

All the parts were packaged extremely well.
Seems Shopsmith is back on track. That makes me HAPPY!

Thanks Shopsmith.

Yay, SS!!! I am sure that knot every order will go that smoothly, but that is very good news.

[tom_k/mo]

I just ordered a bunch of attachments for my dust collector last week, and I just received my entire order today.

[charlese]

It also looks like things are improving with the new Shopsmith Company. Ordered a new 510 rip fence on 11/30 and it was shipped on 12/7. I was first told it was on back order with no anticipated date of receipt.

Also ordered a replacement speed control assembly on 12/8 with the same reply that it was on back order with no anticipated receipt date. I noticed it was shipped today (1/14). Not too bad!!! Only a short wait compared to last year's longer waits!

What was wrong with my speed control assembly? I had stripped the high speed stop screws threaded hole. Finally did my second repair (J-B weld)on the threads in that hole just yesterday. The unit works just fine, but who knows for how long? Now I will have a new replacement!:)

[kd6vpe]

My lathe duplicator came in on Monday and was missing the cone cutter I had ordered with the order. Called customer service and Dave said I will go ahead and order another one for you but it will be on back order. I just looked and my order was shipped yesterday. Wow what a great company but I do think they found the one that was supposed to ship because I looked in the catalog today and it is still on backorder status. I am very please with ss and will continue to trust in their word.

Here is the update, the second order of the cone cutter came in yesterday I was so happy until I opened it. The tube had the same parts as came with my lathe duplicate a set of followers and the screw for holding the cutter to the cutter support but now cutter? Talk about disappointment. The tube says 555278. So there must be something wrong with the inventory in that the back ordered cutters really are not there and the inventory control is wrong?? I will call customer service again. I have a picture of the shipment any know if I can send that picture t customer service or not??

[mckenziedt]

Sounds like things are looking up for Shopsmith. The above posts indicate they are getting many items out in relatively short times with minimal back order delays now.
Unfortunately this doesn't do anything for us Shopsmith owners who don't live in the USA. I have in the past, phoned in my orders for parts and accessories (they never have had the internet order system available for non USA sales, probably due to not having a quick or standard way to figure out the extra shipping charges). In early December I phoned in an order for about a dozen items, but was told they wouldn't ship to me as they now had a policy of no outside of the USA shipments. The lady on the phone was very polite and helpful, even looked up my past orders records etc. and also made the suggestion that if I had friends in the US, they would ship there and my friends could then forward to me. That would work, but more than double the shipping costs because it makes the shipment go into the postal system twice. Since I wasn't desperate for the items, we cancelled the order. Subsequently, I went to eBay and have purchased about $700.00 of Shopsmith stuff in the last 6 weeks. Since SS doesn't supply the rest of the world now, we are willing to go the limit and outbid American bidders to get the stuff we want.
It seems strange that an American business would get out of the export business, when exports prop up the dollar(USD has declined about 25% vs the CND in the last 2 or 3 years), help balance off the vast amount of imports coming in(did I hear the word China), and open up a larger market than just the currently depressed US consumer market spending(Canadian consumer spending is only slightly down from 2 years ago, unemployment is only slightly up, and the banking/mortgage/brokerage system is one of the most healthy ones in the world-no,none,zero failures).
OK, I'll get off my soap box now and get back to sourcing some more 520 upgrade parts I can't get from Shopsmith. From 2 510's I've got to about 1 7/8 520's so far.
DTM

[tom_k/mo]

It does seem as things are looking better for ShopSmith. I still do have one item on backorder since May-2009 though. Seems there's still 4 parts in the build list for that item that they haven't found a new manufacturer for. I'm sure that finding companies that will do custom castings in small quantities can be tough in this environment...

[dusty]

It does seem as things are looking better for ShopSmith. I still do have one item on backorder since May-2009 though. Seems there's still 4 parts in the build list for that item that they haven't found a new manufacturer for. I'm sure that finding companies that will do custom castings in small quantities can be tough in this environment...

If they have lost manufacturers who owned castings or moldings for them before it will be even more difficult. The up front costs could still be prohibitive for a while.

[a1gutterman]

Sounds like things are looking up for Shopsmith. The above posts indicate they are getting many items out in relatively short times with minimal back order delays now.
Unfortunately this doesn't do anything for us Shopsmith owners who don't live in the USA. I have in the past, phoned in my orders for parts and accessories (they never have had the internet order system available for non USA sales, probably due to not having a quick or standard way to figure out the extra shipping charges). In early December I phoned in an order for about a dozen items, but was told they wouldn't ship to me as they now had a policy of no outside of the USA shipments. The lady on the phone was very polite and helpful, even looked up my past orders records etc. and also made the suggestion that if I had friends in the US, they would ship there and my friends could then forward to me. That would work, but more than double the shipping costs because it makes the shipment go into the postal system twice. Since I wasn't desperate for the items, we cancelled the order. Subsequently, I went to eBay and have purchased about $700.00 of Shopsmith stuff in the last 6 weeks. Since SS doesn't supply the rest of the world now, we are willing to go the limit and outbid American bidders to get the stuff we want.
It seems strange that an American business would get out of the export business, when exports prop up the dollar(USD has declined about 25% vs the CND in the last 2 or 3 years), help balance off the vast amount of imports coming in(did I hear the word China), and open up a larger market than just the currently depressed US consumer market spending(Canadian consumer spending is only slightly down from 2 years ago, unemployment is only slightly up, and the banking/mortgage/brokerage system is one of the most healthy ones in the world-no,none,zero failures).
OK, I'll get off my soap box now and get back to sourcing some more 520 upgrade parts I can't get from Shopsmith. From 2 510's I've got to about 1 7/8 520's so far.
DTM

I understand your frustration and can knot undertstand the "why" of it either. Did she explain their reasoning?

[henecle]

Pardon my soapbox but there are two sides to every story...

I currently sit with 4 items from a recent email promotion on back order (Dust Collection). I've long since stopped ordering online and now only order by phone to confirm availability to ship for the parts I purchase. I've had customer service confirm that parts were in stock and available to ship only to call back to check back order status on other orders and find out that the promised items were not really in stock and they were now holding up shipment of the items that were in stock on that order.

My recent stripsander purchase was shipped with a defective frame (table lock knob could not be threaded into the frame as the threads were defectively cut) and the chisel sharpener was shipped missing the bracket to mount the eye shield. Called to order the missing bracket, customer service did so free of charge and then was sent another eye shield but no bracket (their part numbers were incorrect in their system).

Their fix for the stripsander frame was to ship the entire stripsander back. After already waiting for almost two months (one month more than was promised and missing its use for Xmas gift projects) I used one of the eccentric tube set screws to recut the defective threads from the inside out after removing the idler wheel. Finally got to use the sander minus the eye shield (still awaiting its arrival).

I can only hope that others aren't experiencing similar quality and customer service issues. I've only had the bug since June of 2009... I now have three systems, a 500, a 510 and a 10ER, plus many SPTs. My rough addition puts my spend with Shopsmith, Craig's List and eBay at a little over $4500.00 for Shopsmith equipment. I'm committed to my new hobby and willing to spend the money to prove it but if Shopsmith can't get the basics of running their business under control I can certainly choose to spend my money in the secondary market where everything is available and ships within a day.

Proactive communication from their end would certainly go a long way. At no time during any of my calls with Shopsmith did customer service mention adjusting my bill, discounting a future order or offering a free part or upgrade. Even the offer would have been enough, I don't want something for nothing. I do expect to get what I pay for just like they expect to be paid. We customers are holding up our end of the buyer-seller contract...