Shopsmith Forums

It has only been about 5 months since I purchased my SS so I am still buying thingys regularly from them as well as other sources. The only poor customer service I have had was with Dave. He was rude and acted like I should not be wasting his time trying to order something. As we were finishing I said to him sarcasticly " I'm sorry to have bothered you". He answered "OK" !! He needs an education on what a customer means to a company.

That's my "rant" for today...

dusty wrote:Ed, do you REALLY feel like that? Do people really treat you that badly? Maybe you need to move to a friendlier neighborhood.

Dusty
Yes I do in some businesses. I often come across them and I make a mental note to myself to watch how long they stay open. It has been interesting. If they are selling the latest thing (things of interest to younger people) they will manage to stay open fairly long. However if they are selling competitive products they usually close fairly quickly.

I don't know how things are your direction but we have brand new shopping centers that have half their stores closed. I can walk into the store and pretty much predict it's chance of being there 6 months from now just by how they and their employees treat their customers.

Ever watch kitchen nightmares on TV? They fairly accurately portray owner attitudes that cause restaurants to be failures.

My last 13 years in the corporate world was in Customer Service. We hired only the best (on paper and through interview process) but it was shocking to see how many of our employees viewed their customers as annoyances. This wasn’t a low paying sweat shop. This was a white collar with excellent working conditions and salaries that put them way into the upper half of the economic scale of the area.

I saw it yesterday at the Walmart pharmacy. I went to the drop of window and the woman there was simply awful, everything was wrong, everyone was picking on her, she was only there two hours and already her eyes were bothering her, she knew she shouldn’t come in today. And all I was doing was dropping off a prescription.

She of course got backed up and one of the druggists came over to the next window to help. His opening comments was “Will the next customer in line please allow me the pleasure of helping him today? How may I help you?

Unfortunately today too many businesses are ran by people like the lady and far too few are ran by people like the pharmacist.

bicman wrote:Bob,

I just ordered the main track guide for a saw. The t-square attachment seems interesting, I'll get that later after I play around with it.

Hey Bicman. Hope all is well! I noticed that the TrueTrack just went on sale at SS (250 plus S&H), which makes it similar in price to the other vendors. Have you had a chance to use yours yet? Just curious what your take is on it so far? Worth the dough??

Thanks! Bob

Ed in Tampa wrote:Dusty
Yes I do in some businesses. I often come across them and I make a mental note to myself to watch how long they stay open. It has been interesting. If they are selling the latest thing (things of interest to younger people) they will manage to stay open fairly long. However if they are selling competitive products they usually close fairly quickly.

I don't know how things are your direction but we have brand new shopping centers that have half their stores closed. I can walk into the store and pretty much predict it's chance of being there 6 months from now just by how they and their employees treat their customers.

Ever watch kitchen nightmares on TV? They fairly accurately portray owner attitudes that cause restaurants to be failures.

My last 13 years in the corporate world was in Customer Service. We hired only the best (on paper and through interview process) but it was shocking to see how many of our employees viewed their customers as annoyances. This wasn’t a low paying sweat shop. This was a white collar with excellent working conditions and salaries that put them way into the upper half of the economic scale of the area.

I saw it yesterday at the Walmart pharmacy. I went to the drop of window and the woman there was simply awful, everything was wrong, everyone was picking on her, she was only there two hours and already her eyes were bothering her, she knew she shouldn’t come in today. And all I was doing was dropping off a prescription.

She of course got backed up and one of the druggists came over to the next window to help. His opening comments was “Will the next customer in line please allow me the pleasure of helping him today? How may I help you?

Unfortunately today too many businesses are ran by people like the lady and far too few are ran by people like the pharmacist.

The biggest problem we had over 20 years was too small of a customer base... Our customers were also our friends. By the time we retired many of our customers were the grandchildren of our early days customers.
One of the many little things we did was during the Xmas season we passed out plastic Santa rings to any kids that came in with their parents. Many years later it became common for a young adult to bring work in and then tell us that they always remembered us doing that. Many said that they still had those rings...
It was common for folks to tell us that they enjoyed coming in the store because they said that we always acted glad to see them come in. No matter what we were doing it was a rule that one of us would speak to who ever was coming in the door.
A local lawyer with a son who had a number of special needs and had a hard time talking, once told us that we were his son's favorite store in town. He said that we were the only ones that would talk to his son. I don't know why, it didn't cost a thing...


.

Considering it myself and SS just emailed a tickler good thru May 6:

556228 True-Trac Combo Kit... $249.98
Total Value: $299.98 - SAVE $50.00
(Includes all contents of 57" Starter Kit AND 48" Extension Kit)
+ S/H

robinson46176 wrote:The biggest problem we had over 20 years was too small of a customer base... Our customers were also our friends. By the time we retired many of our customers were the grandchildren of our early days customers.
One of the many little things we did was during the Xmas season we passed out plastic Santa rings to any kids that came in with their parents. Many years later it became common for a young adult to bring work in and then tell us that they always remembered us doing that. Many said that they still had those rings...
It was common for folks to tell us that they enjoyed coming in the store because they said that we always acted glad to see them come in. No matter what we were doing it was a rule that one of us would speak to who ever was coming in the door.
A local lawyer with a son who had a number of special needs and had a hard time talking, once told us that we were his son's favorite store in town. He said that we were the only ones that would talk to his son. I don't know why, it didn't cost a thing...


.

Farmer you make my point. Your customers remembered you, you were the only store to talk to a son, and etc.

As for a customer base I suspect your prices were on the high end. In my travels I have found stores that offer exceptional prices. While I don't travel to shop there I do make it a point to stop in every time my travels take me near them. The same with all my friends. Thus their customer base for all intents and purposes is world. And if the crowds that are always in the store are evidence of this then I would say they are successful. Offer the right mouse trap and the world will be at your doors.

bdeweese wrote:Hey Bicman. Hope all is well! I noticed that the TrueTrack just went on sale at SS (250 plus S&H), which makes it similar in price to the other vendors. Have you had a chance to use yours yet? Just curious what your take is on it so far? Worth the dough??

Thanks! Bob

I had some peg board to cut for my storage shed and used it to cut it. It made the job easier, simplier to push a saw instead of a large sheet of peg board.

Has some questions and called the manufacturer and left a message. Dick Rhodes called me back and helped me out. He is the owner and used to work for Shopsmith in the 1980's. We had a good chat about things and got me straightened out.

I went and got a 2x10x10 to fully support the True Trac when I made the initial cuts. This worked better for me than my previous attempt to piece together some shorter piece of scrap I had laying around.

So far, I am satisified with the True Trac. My next wood working project is a Jeffersonian bookcase which should really showcase the unit.

Greg

bicman wrote:I had some peg board to cut for my storage shed and used it to cut it. It made the job easier, simplier to push a saw instead of a large sheet of peg board.

Has some questions and called the manufacturer and left a message. Dick Rhodes called me back and helped me out. He is the owner and used to work for Shopsmith in the 1980's. We had a good chat about things and got me straightened out.

I went and got a 2x10x10 to fully support the True Trac when I made the initial cuts. This worked better for me than my previous attempt to piece together some shorter piece of scrap I had laying around.

So far, I am satisified with the True Trac. My next wood working project is a Jeffersonian bookcase which should really showcase the unit.

Greg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQQCGWdB2sU

Voice sound familiar???:rolleyes:

beeg wrote:Call SS customer service. If Dave answers, ask to talk to someone who KNOWS something. Ya still might get the same answer, but then ya know it's policy.

I haven't had experience with this but do 2nd the notion of speaking with someone other than Dave, preferably Linda. I was having numerous delivery problems some ss and mainly fedex and when dealing with Dave I was ready to climb through the phone. everyone else great!

beeg wrote:Call SS customer service. If Dave answers, ask to talk to someone who KNOWS something. Ya still might get the same answer, but then ya know it's policy.

Starting with what he is there for!;)