Thread: Fed up with Carbatec.

G'day number86 - Firstly welcome to the forums.

Stupid question but.... Did you bother to ring them. Ring and talk to an actual person, get first hand information and if that person can't help ask to speak to someone who can help. It may be that the right person isn't at the location you ring. Bear in mind that Carba-Tec are not manufacturers of their products they are sellers of machines branded with their name, so it is entirely possible they won't have what you want on hand and may need to order it in.

Probably get better service from them than from Bunnies or a hardware shop if you were trying to get parts for your second hand machine. Different kettle of fish if it was purchased new and under guarantee.

Sending emails is often a frustrating waste of time. You could be waiting in vain for an emailed response which may have been handed on to others in the company before being read or lost.

I get on average around 300 emails per day and am often still sorting through them at midnight. Occasionally some inadvertently get missed usually through sheer weight of numbers or because they are triaged from most important to those of lesser importance/urgency. I'm sure CT like many other businesses are in the same boat as me and I'm only a small fry business compared to them.

Try the phone and if you are still unable to get satisfaction then you have more of a case to put here.

Cheers - Neil

Oh, I've called them plenty of times. I only emailed them because I knew that I was going to have a hard time explaining the problem over the phone, and a picture tells the story better than I can.

I feel the pain of your inbox too. But in this case that's their burden, not mine.

If you're in the market for a new one then the dewalt 735 is a ripper... little more expensive but much much better result whilst still being relatively portable and similar (little more expensive) price points.

Just my 2c

I am not sure if he still works at Carbatec as he was part-time as their repair man but Charlie at Springvale might be the man to help you.

No affiliation or relation just someone who was helped by him.

Ahhhh good Old Carbatec, nothing changes it seems.

I recently returned to purchase some items from them after i swore off them some 18 months ago, bought 3 cheapish $99 roller stands and some other bits, got home and only 1 stand was fit for purpose. So I rang and spoke to Steve ( store manager ) and he said sure bring them back, to which I said its and an hour each way. I then said that i had just returned to make said purchase, and typical Carbatec always manages to mess things up, Steve got , said he would post out the items, sarcastically thanks me for my feedback and HANGS UP!!!!

was rather displeased so I Ring Headquarters and made a complaints over his phone manners.

Karma bus got me back because my 3yr old Carbatec Drill Press blew up( motor ) 2 days later............
want nothing to do with them anymore.

Bought some items on special including a Triton Multi-stand. It arrived two days later but the plastic slides on top were damaged. Rang up and spoke to Jocelyn who said " take a photo and email me it" which I did. Next morning I had an email with a post return number. Sent it back and two days later new one arrives.
Can't complain about the service provided by Jocelyn so I thought I'd give her a rap, BUT I have had other issues in the past re phone ordering.

Unfortunately service standards appear to be slipping in many businesses so it is very refreshing to hear Lappa's rap for Jocelyn. I have had similar good service from the staff in Brisbane, however they will always get a fair amount of grief purely because of the changed market towards imported low quality mass produced items.

We purchase cheap machines, work them hard, then grumble because it broke. We must realize that we are asking a fair bit from some of these machines.

A lot of them are cheap for other reasons - manufacturers source "similar parts" from the cheapest source / supplier and do not necessarily maintain records of what went into a batch of machines and they certainly don't keep a stock inventory of future replacement parts. So for importers / retailers it becomes a nightmare to identify , locate then supply the correct replacement part. Really most of them try to assist when they should say to a customer 'it broke, it can't be fixed, purchase a new one." At least they attempted to source parts for you.

More well respected brands have their problems too!

Originally Posted by Chesand

I am not sure if he still works at Carbatec as he was part-time as their repair man but Charlie at Springvale might be the man to help you.

No affiliation or relation just someone who was helped by him.

Chesand, Spoke to Charles last year and he said he has retired and only works casual on warranty repairs 1 or 2 days a week. He actually came to me to fix a lathe controller which was incorrectly installed when replaced.

Everything now is being run by bean counters and companies are bottom line driven. You can't see the benefits of good service, support and back up on a balance sheet so,at best it gets ignored, or more and more often it seems actively discouraged.

I should add that this is a general comment and not aimed at CT, as I buy occasionally from the Sydney store and am always satisfied with the service.

Yep no excuse for Carbatec service or lack of,Charlie has been the most helpful of all that I have come in contact with, as for talking to management don't waste your time I had serious words with one and they don't give a stuff just want to sell product .

Not a good rap for Carbatec and these days all you can really do is vote with your feet. Having said that, I think poor service is often down to the attitude of the person you deal with at the store. A bad salesperson can loose lots of business for a store whereas a good one can achieve the exact opposit. I have recently been a customer of Carbatec in Sydney and have dealt with David who has been excellent, even considering my rudimentary knowledge and skills. He has been patient and helpful to me, which will ensure I return as a customer for future purchases. Tim

I've had great dealings with Brisbane for a Leigh dovetail jig. Pity I had to go 2000kms away for that.

Blaming suppliers isn't an excuse when your name is plastered all over the box. For $100 the stands are terrible, not stable, not able to hold more then 30-40kg without sagging. If I thought I would get suitable service I would return them, I won't so I'll keep them and mutilate them till they work. As for the drill press, the motor certainly hadn't been used enough to blow up. $6-700 worth of junk now. And I won't be re buying one through Carbatec. Shame. They have the presence in every state, shame they sell junk and offer poor service

Have bought a number of toys from Carbetic. Had a problem with a Woodfast lathe and the service was excellent. I'm only an hour from Brisbane so that's a plus when service is needed. Their small spiral thicknesser has given me good service.
Sometimes the best of us have a bad day.

Have you tried ringing them? I purchased a new motor for my lathe last week from them and it was faulty and I rang them and they couldn't have been more helpful , even offered to send a courier out to my place which is over an hour from them.