Shopsmith Forums

I attempted to contact Shopsmith through the "contact us" section of the website with a technical question recently. I received an email saying that they have a new program whereby you can call in and speak to a technician for $19.99 and $1 per minute after the first 15. I called to ask if someone would answer my original question, but was only able to leave a message. The recorded message said that someone would return my call that same day, however I still have not gotten a return call.

Does anyone know if they will still answer technical questions for free, or only if you pay? Also, are they currently answering calls at all, or closed for the Covid situation?

I've very seldom called Shopsmith for technical help, and they've always been helpful. It's quite disappointing to me if they will now charge a fee to answer questions about their products.

I received that same email. I'm told by CS that when setting up the appointment you can specify that it is for a warranty issue and you won't be charged. When I called the number to set up the appointment, though, I was right back in the queue for CS. So I'm trying the email method to set up the appointment, jury is out. CS is working, perhaps from home or not full staff, I don't know. Wait times are long.

If your concern is not under warranty, or if you're not sure, or perhaps in almost every case, I would start with this forum. Answers are free, fast, generally well thought out, come from extremely knowledgeable sources, and if the problem is not resolved the participants try again until it is.

To be fair, I don't think it is unreasonable for SS to charge for support on machines that are out of warranty. We are talking hundreds of thousands of machines, many built decades ago by predecessor companies and bought second (or tenth!) hand. I feel like this is a reasonable response, support of old machines was costing them money so they are now charging what I think is a reasonable fee for that support. My company, an aircraft manufacturer, did the same thing. If you try to provide support for old, but still in service equipment, out of the profits from new sales (think lower quantities) you simply price yourself out of existence and everybody loses. Two cents, worth, I know some will disagree and for good reasons.

- David

The email does not work. I clicked the link in the email to sstechsupport@shopsmith.com and it kicked back undeliverable. Neither the phone number nor the email address provided to make an appointment for engineering support seem to work.
Getting frustrated...

-David

The link to schedule your own appointment for Engineering Support, from the SS Home Page and most other pages, works correctly. You have the option of selecting Warranty when setting the appointment this way and you are not charged for warranty engineering support. (The form says Eastern Standard Time, but I think it means Eastern Time, they called me on time for EDT.) Support was excellent. In addition to getting the Double Tilt parts I need on order Jim helped to clarify some PowerPro observations I had as normal operation.

Both Customer Service and Engineering Support are currently operating.

- David

I just talked to Customer Service to a very helpful and nice lady. They are indeed operating. There are fewer people working in production and other areas so orders may be slow getting shipped. Be patient and we will all get through this together but with distancing.

4/16

I just spoke with customer service briefly, after about a 15 minute on hold.

For service/repairs- they are currently expecting to be back in the office on May 1st.

You can ship things to them before that, but they wont work on them until May 1st or whatever the actual return to work date becomes , depending on state mandates.