Shopsmith Forums

a1gutterman wrote:I understand your frustration and can knot understand the "why" of it either. Did she explain their reasoning?

All she mentioned was that since the restructuring of the company, that was the policy. I don't think she really knew why. She said they were operating with a "small" staff now. I read between the lines on that one that maybe they didn't export because they didn't have a shipper familiar with export anymore. There is a very small difference with invoice paperwork(country of origin to be stated on invoice and no taxes charged) and if you ship via USPS, you usually have to go take the parcel to a Post Office yourself.(UPS & FedEx pick up and do an export manifest for you, but SS stopped using UPS/FedEx to ship to Canada 3 or 4 years ago for some reason unknown to me and would only use USPS going north, resulting in some higher shipping costs and longer in transit times for me-but I was OK with that).
As I was composing this I thought of an incident last Feb?/09 when SS was restructuring. I saw some SS items on eBay advertised as brand new in the boxes. They appeared to be listed by a member of SS's ownership family. Under the shipping criteria it was stated they would only accept bids from the USA and would only ship to USA addresses. I sent an email through eBay asking if they would allow me to bid and stated I would pay via a confirmed PayPal acc't in USD and would pay all extra shipping costs, thus no unusual risks to a seller. I have done this with other eBay sellers in the past if their item was attractive enough to me and 95% of the times they get back to me with a "Sure, no problem" and a friendly comment or two reply. This time I got a prompt reply- one word- "NO". I watched the auctions and noted the 2 or 3 items I had the most interest in all sold for less than I was going to bid for them. Maybe they equate exporting with importing, ie: "BUY American" policy. Or maybe they have been burned by a shady business practice of some Oriental supplier and don't trust any foreigner any more. Whatever?
DTM

mckenziedt wrote:All she mentioned was that since the restructuring of the company, that was the policy. I don't think she really knew why. She said they were operating with a "small" staff now. I read between the lines on that one that maybe they didn't export because they didn't have a shipper familiar with export anymore. There is a very small difference with invoice paperwork(country of origin to be stated on invoice and no taxes charged) and if you ship via USPS, you usually have to go take the parcel to a Post Office yourself.(UPS & FedEx pick up and do an export manifest for you, but SS stopped using UPS/FedEx to ship to Canada 3 or 4 years ago for some reason unknown to me and would only use USPS going north, resulting in some higher shipping costs and longer in transit times for me-but I was OK with that).
As I was composing this I thought of an incident last Feb?/09 when SS was restructuring. I saw some SS items on eBay advertised as brand new in the boxes. They appeared to be listed by a member of SS's ownership family. Under the shipping criteria it was stated they would only accept bids from the USA and would only ship to USA addresses. I sent an email through eBay asking if they would allow me to bid and stated I would pay via a confirmed PayPal acc't in USD and would pay all extra shipping costs, thus no unusual risks to a seller. I have done this with other eBay sellers in the past if their item was attractive enough to me and 95% of the times they get back to me with a "Sure, no problem" and a friendly comment or two reply. This time I got a prompt reply- one word- "NO". I watched the auctions and noted the 2 or 3 items I had the most interest in all sold for less than I was going to bid for them. Maybe they equate exporting with importing, ie: "BUY American" policy. Or maybe they have been burned by a shady business practice of some Oriental supplier and don't trust any foreigner any more. Whatever?
DTM

I am sure they have good reason. Would be interesting to know why. Has there been some kind of law change like parts being shipped to Canada now need some kind of gov. safety rating that they do not have?????

They do now have a small staff. Last word they were down to around 11.

cincinnati wrote:I am sure they have good reason. Would be interesting to know why. Has there been some kind of law change like parts being shipped to Canada now need some kind of gov. safety rating that they do not have?????

They do now have a small staff. Last word they were down to around 11.

I am not aware that OEM replacement parts applied to a machine that met safety standards in affect when it was originally produced would have any regulatory concerns. Whole assembled machines-yes. But SS MV's and SPT's have always been manufactured to meet both UL and CSA standards(these are tightly integrated and if a product is certified by one,the other will often accept it without further testing or certification). SS's products are currently designed or have been modified as required to meet both country's safety and labor standards and older production can be repaired to the standard it was built to. eg: the location of the red switch on the type C headstock is moved to the left because revised Canadian standards required the off switch to be open and not to be under any other machine parts, like the corner of the table, when in normal use configuration. As a result the USA versions got the same modification. Switch locations on older machines are grandfathered to the regulations in effect when they were built and older switches can be replaced with the older style ones no problem. A rare situation were grandfathering might not apply, would be where an older design turned out to be such a hazard with multiple documented injuries that all prior production was condemned-Think lawn dart games and baby crib models from a few years ago. These types of condemned products are listed by name in available government information sources. If it's not listed it's OK to have and repair it.
Even 10E's can be sold, repaired, restored, used etc.,and parts can be commercially manufactured or imported. But there is no way whole machines of that design could be manufactured and sold new now without many safety modifications and guards being designed into them and couldn't be used in their original form by hired employees in commercial use due to today's labor laws.
DTM

I'm glad you guys are getting your parts. my grandfather ordered a bandsaw blade about a month before christmas, and still waiting for it. he called and they told him it would be febuary before it gets shipped.

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??

beeg wrote:Or MAYBE this is the reason why?

http://allinonewood.com/?page=shop/browse&category_id=549a1cbc1bf62cce3e85dcf910ccbd3f&PHPSESSID=98dffd1695ee4d17979082a00e987ed1

I took the time to look at this and compare the prices from the accessory catalog. Do owners really buy from these people? The markup was, in my opinion, unbelievable! Is this actually a markup or does Shopsmith make a profit from this? Or is this the actual price do to an increase in materials? I have ordered a replacement lathe arm since the original one cracked apart. I would think Shopsmith would have this in stock since it is part of the original equipment. It has been on backorder for a few weeks now and after looking the price comparison I am content to wait awhile longer. But this raises a question that I believe Shopsmith must answer: are they going to use this company as an outlet where owners order parts or has this company gotten a list of Shopsmith's suppliers and offered more money in order to drive Shopsmith out of parts altogether?

BPR

ryanbp01 wrote:I took the time to look at this and compare the prices from the accessory catalog. Do owners really buy from these people? The markup was, in my opinion, unbelievable! Is this actually a markup or does Shopsmith make a profit from this? Or is this the actual price do to an increase in materials? I have ordered a replacement lathe arm since the original one cracked apart. I would think Shopsmith would have this in stock since it is part of the original equipment. It has been on backorder for a few weeks now and after looking the price comparison I am content to wait awhile longer. But this raises a question that I believe Shopsmith must answer: are they going to use this company as an outlet where owners order parts or has this company gotten a list of Shopsmith's suppliers and offered more money in order to drive Shopsmith out of parts altogether?

BPR

I don't know what the relationship is between these folks and Shopsmith or if there even is one but I believe the price difference is directly related to the border relationship. It costs money to do business across international boundaries (even if it is just a few miles).

dusty wrote:I don't know what the relationship is between these folks and Shopsmith or if there even is one but I believe the price difference is directly related to the border relationship. It costs money to do business across international boundaries (even if it is just a few miles).

I have not checked but I would suspect that those are Canadian dollar prices and would look much higher.

ryanbp01 wrote:I took the time to look at this and compare the prices from the accessory catalog. Do owners really buy from these people? The markup was, in my opinion, unbelievable! Is this actually a markup or does Shopsmith make a profit from this? Or is this the actual price do to an increase in materials? I have ordered a replacement lathe arm since the original one cracked apart. I would think Shopsmith would have this in stock since it is part of the original equipment. It has been on backorder for a few weeks now and after looking the price comparison I am content to wait awhile longer. But this raises a question that I believe Shopsmith must answer: are they going to use this company as an outlet where owners order parts or has this company gotten a list of Shopsmith's suppliers and offered more money in order to drive Shopsmith out of parts altogether?

BPR

I may be wrong, but I believe All In One Wood has been the Canadian Shopsmith dealer for many years....They also have a lot of how to articles for SS items.