Thread: Carba-Tec .... Oh Dear!

I recently had a couple of queries about the Triton router so I sent off email to Kinchrome and Carbatec.
I got an answer from Kinchrome the next day but it took 11 days to get an answer from Carbatec by which time, I'd already bought the router.

I can relate to the comments offered. I have varying degrees of service from good to....Anyway my thoughts are that this is a serious complaint in terms of Carba-Tec continuing to service our market. They have had the reputation of sourcing and selling stuff which otherwise is near impossible to find else where. I for one would not like to see them disappear from the scene because I think we would be the real losers. As some one had suggested in an earlier thread the original thread should be brought to attention of the man in the driver's seat who may not be aware of the situation.
In the present climate of economics no business can afford "bad business" with their customers who are the ones who make them their money.
As I say it would be a sad day if this business were to disappear

Originally Posted by chambezio

I can relate to the comments offered. I have varying degrees of service from good to....Anyway my thoughts are that this is a serious complaint in terms of Carba-Tec continuing to service our market. They have had the reputation of sourcing and selling stuff which otherwise is near impossible to find else where. I for one would not like to see them disappear from the scene because I think we would be the real losers. As some one had suggested in an earlier thread the original thread should be brought to attention of the man in the driver's seat who may not be aware of the situation.
In the present climate of economics no business can afford "bad business" with their customers who are the ones who make them their money.
As I say it would be a sad day if this business were to disappear

Ain't that the truth

Originally Posted by veloaficionado

Yes - their head office to branch communication sucks the proverbial. They can't update their stock holdings and communicate them between branches at all. I bought their horizontal borer (eventually) and Bris couldn't tell me whether Syd still had the only one in stock in the country. Syd couldn't tell me either. And when I got it, it needed some major tweaking and greasing. After about 20 x 12mm mortises in PINE, i am starting to hear the occasional squeal from the motor bearings! AAAGH! I'm shopping with WWWH from now on.

It is now June 2012 and at the recent wood show in Brisbane I decided to upgrade my old 200mm (actually 170mm now)Tormek with a T7 and the two kits , the wood turners and the hand tool sharpening kit that are available for it. When I asked about the drill bits that were on offer when buying the T7 , I was told "don't have any here and they are crap any way" by the sales rep from carba tec, no offer to send me some or give somthing else in lieu of the drills that was not "CRAP". That did annoy me after spending around $1300- $1400 with them.
Today I decided to buy the black silicon carbide stone for the T7 and a planner blade sharpener. The lady I spoke with made me initially believe I had been transsfered to a call centre in the Philippines. She spoke English with a very strong American accent & I had trouble understanding what was said. When I asked for a price on the" black silicon carbide stone SB-250 for use on a Tormek T7 wetstone grinder" she had no idea what I was asking and was not able to give me a price, she was also not able to put me onto the staff on the shop floor. She suggested I call back next week. From now on Carba-tec is only a last resort.
Fortunately my wife is off to the US on business in a couple of weeks and she will pick up the stone for me and it is only $198 delivered to her hotel. I'm waiting for a price on the planner blade sharpener I am also after. I would expect it would also a lot less than carba-tec. A much nicer gift than a fifteen year old bottle of single malt.
It is a shame that Carba-tec can't get their act together as I would prefer to buy locally but it is just too difficult, from now on I will be checking for other suppliers on the internet before dealing with carba-tec again. The up side is the big difference in price.
Previously Carbatec had the 10 x 4 inch DMT duo sharp stones listed at $230 each, then in subsiquent editions of their catalogue had them listed at $159 each. A suprising drop in price. While the price was at $230 I found a clearence warehouse that had some for sale and bought two duosharp stones from them. One was a fine/extra fine and the other a coarse/extra coarse stone, both the 10 x 4 inch size, and the seller threw in a plastic support base for free. The all up cost for both stones and the stand, landed in Australia was Au$140.00. Less than half of the present price and less than a third of the previous exploitive price.
There is somthing wrong with service from Australian companies when it is not only cheaper to buy overseas but is just easier and simpler and only takes a couple of days longer to arrive.

I find a lot of the above posts quite sad.
I haven't been to the CT store for many, many years since I moved "Bush". In fact, they were in Richmond in those days. It was a joy to walk in there.
Knowledgeable staff, high quality products, good service.
I had cause to order some specialty glue from them recently. I ordered online and received an email that it had been put on backorder.
I was concerned this would seriously hold things up but within a week another email arrived to say my item had been posted. Perhaps I was lucky.
I agree with all that have said we would be the losers if CT went belly up.
This should definitely be brought to the attention of whoever is at the top of the food-chain there.
Jim

I have just sent the following email to Carba-Tec via their online contact page.

"IMPORTANT - Please pass this on to the chief executive.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I recently posted my thoughts about Carba-Tec on the Australia Woodwork Forums. No doubt you understand that these particular forums are the very heart of your target customer base.

There have been quite a few follow up posts by other Carba-Tec customers detailing their own experiences and thoughts. A few of the contributors felt that the thread should be brought to your attention, hence this email.

The thread can be found here. https://www.woodworkforums.com/f11/ca...h-dear-153491/

I would like to invite you to respond to the comments in this thread, either by registering yourself, or by emailing me and I will post your comments on your behalf.

Yours sincerely,
Ric Einstein"

Hopefully we will get a response as I, for one, would be very interested in both their reaction and their thoughts, as I am sure many other readers will be too.

I've tried this before Ric and their response is no response at all.

Well put Ric, no abuse just a polite request.
Cheers,
Jim

Try adressing the email to Geoff Lowe

Have to agree with you mate!
Am pretty new to woodworking and have had similar experiances with carba-tec, ended up getting my 2nd choice marking knife as it was taking forever (8 weeks) for my prefered choice.
Have recently bought 'Understanding Wood' online for $36. Carba-tec had it for $93.
Would normally prefer to buy from a local retailer but can't justify spending 3 times more for the same product.

I think most of my experiences with Carba Tec have been covered in earlier posts. I only wanted to chime in to swell the ranks.

Last night I also sent a message to Carbatec via the online contact page pointing them to this thread. I wonder if anyone else has and it will be interesting to see if anything happens now that more than one person has done so.

I only buy machinery from CT as it is obviously to hard to get it online. Otherwise it is cheaper and faster to get it delivered from an online purchase.

What really urks me though is when you get a catalog for specials at CT they don't have any of the specials in stock.......

Originally Posted by Soredust

I only buy machinery from CT as it is obviously to hard to get it online. Otherwise it is cheaper and faster to get it delivered from an online purchase.

What really urks me though is when you get a catalog for specials at CT they don't have any of the specials in stock.......

maybe when the cattledog was printed?