Thread: Lee Valley

Welcome to the addiction known as Lee Valley. I have been dealing with them for years and can honestly say that I have not had one complaint. I think the Lee family needs to open a business school

Cheers

My experiences are the same as the above. Thay always seem so willing to help, and it's true.....it becomes a bit of an addiction; more tools, more tools.
Anthony

Originally Posted by maglite

Why is it that i can get that kind of service from a company more than 30K kms away but cant get the same type of service from merchants less than 300 kms away.

Hats off to Lee Valley......i will not hesitate to do business with them again...the same cant be said for the others.

Steve

A large part of the reason is economic. Our local guys work in a market of 20 million, scattered across a continent the size of the continental US. LV work in a market of about 300 million. We just do not have the economies of scale. Gross revenues do not support the investment in customer service that LV find possible. Even with a will to do it, pay peanuts get monkeys in full employment Australia. Another problem is that we import nearly all our tools, most of LV's are US/Canada made. More costs and admin for us, long lead times too, makes it harder.

Two points:

I'm not detracting from LV's service. I use them and they could write a book on customer relations and efficiency

Some of our local suppliers, simply would appear not to give a stuff about customer relations. Thats their company culture and all the revenues in the world won't change it. Market forces will (eventually)

I read a remark by Rob Lee that all this excellent (understatement of the year) service can only be achieved with having a sufficient number of dedicated people. He did note that it was expensive to employ all these people, but that LV works that way and that is why people keep going back for more. In fact, at the time of the article, LV had a full time staff of 19 people just for the IT department. LV do have a winning recipe, and I hope it never changes (hint for Rob).
Regards
Les

I agree. Lee Valley are great. I have ordered stuff from them 3 or 4 times and have never had a problem.

Just one point, Bodgy. LV are in Canada, with a national market of just 30,000,000 scattered across a country that is bigger than either Oz or the US. Having the US next door, with its population of 300,000,000 is the huge advantage they have over any Oz retailer.

Rob.

Quite correct Rob, and their focus is obvious from their Web site and the fact the default prices are $US not $Canadian, aided by the fact that the US and Canada have free trade across the border.

Useless fact: the last time the United States was militarily defeated at home was by Canada!

Originally Posted by Bodgy

Quite correct Rob, and their focus is obvious from their Web site and the fact the default prices are $US not $Canadian, aided by the fact that the US and Canada have free trade across the border.

Useless fact: the last time the United States was militarily defeated at home was by Canada!

Well, International customers pay $US, the old de facto standard. I have been a customer for about 20 years and have never had bad service from them.

The thing about customer service isn't just online. I have been to five of their stores and recieved the same sterling service every time. The opposite is true closer to home.

I think the war of 1812 was pretty much a draw, or it was called off for lack of interest or something.

Greg

Pigs ####!

Lee Valley may need 19 people to service their IT clientele, they may need 100 to service face to face clients, I dunno. Just because the US market is larger, that is no excuse for poor service, here there or anywhere.

Lee Valley excel in an area where most businesses fail. Lee Valley prospers while other vendors tell us how hard they are doing it. Maybe others should learn that clientele are a pretty damned important part of business. Maybe then they wouldn't whinge about how hard it is in business, how difficult customers can be, and why potential clients can expect poor customer service. I won't put up with that #####, it's my money and I'll spend it where I want, and that's with people that appear to appreciate my business.

We probably all agree with you Outback.

However, apart from service, LV sell at a good price by comparison with any sensible alternative available to us here in Oz. They get my business because of the price. If their service was rubbish they would lose my business regardless of their price.

They are able to maintain low prices because they have 300,000,000 people living right next door and, by virtue of that, they can move a lot of product.

We are doubly lucky here in Oz in that LV not only maintain their quality service when dealing with us, they also offer us the price benefit of their huge market place.

My $0.02 (US$0.014779)(CAN$0.017249) worth.

My 2c worth.

A while back I was smitten with the new router plane that LV had introduced, so ordered one.

I was quickly informed that there was a production issue with one of the cutters (the 1/4" one), but the plane and other cutters, etc were shipped after a small delay whilst they tried to fix the issue.

I recently emailed Rob Lee about when I might expect to receive the errant 1/4" cutter, and have received several explanatory emails directly from him - then an advisory one that it has been sent.

The point being, that the Pres (?) of LV himself takes the time, and makes the effort, to contact a single customer halfway across the world about an item that retails @ US $6.50. Stunning!

I know that I'll just keep going back there, even for little bits 'n bobs. (i've got most of their planes now anyway ); even have a special drawer for all the veritas instruction sheets . Woe is me!

Cheers!

PS If you read this Rob: Thanks for a service that defines first-rate!

PPS the said 1/4" router plane cutter arrived today!

Originally Posted by outback

Pigs ####!

Lee Valley may need 19 people to service their IT clientele, they may need 100 to service face to face clients, I dunno. Just because the US market is larger, that is no excuse for poor service, here there or anywhere.

Lee Valley excel in an area where most businesses fail. Lee Valley prospers while other vendors tell us how hard they are doing it. Maybe others should learn that clientele are a pretty damned important part of business. Maybe then they wouldn't whinge about how hard it is in business, how difficult customers can be, and why potential clients can expect poor customer service. I won't put up with that #####, it's my money and I'll spend it where I want, and that's with people that appear to appreciate my business.

Lee Valley's service is an anomaly in North America also. That's partly why they're so well known. Just because you only have 20 million people that's no excuse for crap service.

Originally Posted by Robert WA

They are able to maintain low prices because they have 300,000,000 people living right next door and, by virtue of that, they can move a lot of product.

We are doubly lucky here in Oz in that LV not only maintain their quality service when dealing with us, they also offer us the price benefit of their huge market place.

My $0.02 (US$0.014779)(CAN$0.017249) worth.

I may need correcting but I've been getting they catalogue since the late 70s. Back then I don't remember there being any tools for sale that were made by Lee Valley or Veritas, but they still had a great reputation. There prices were a bit less but not enough to get all bent out of shape for. So what do you have left, service. Everyone knew about Lee Valley's service, and the trust that went with it. Plain and simple there was no bullshyte with them. As far back as I can remeber is if you didn't like it send it back no questions no dramas.

It's the same with Oneway - an other Canadain company that has service second to none. I hear a lot of Oneway owners say the same thing. They bought their Oneway lathe because of the reputation for excellent service even though they could get a similar lathe for quite abit cheaper. It's also why I bought the lathe, you can trust they won't play games with you when you need service.

Can we all just agree that LV are the duck's guts?

Craig (another happy LV customer)

a wise old plumber once told me ##### flows downhill
if it's ##### at the top it will be ##### at the bottom
(dosn't matter how big your staff or client base)

the only down side for us in WA is frieght cost
if anyone else in WA wants to get together for a purchase and share the mail costs give me a pm