Re: Ordering heavy tools from Amazon?

dteckie wrote:
> [email protected] (MSCHAEF.COM) wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
> > I'm considering ordering a table saw from Amazon. Is there any
> > conventional wisdom about ordering such a heavy item from them?
> > To be honest, I'm concerned about buying a saw from a company
> > I primarily think of as a book vendor. (But if it works...)
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Mike
> >
> I ordered my JET supersaw and other heavy stuff from Amazon and No
> problems. Delivery was with Fedex ground .
It's not super-heavy, but I got my air compressor (around 50 lbs) from
Amazon, and i arrived without any problems via UPS.

Free shipping on these kinds of things is often what makes a great deal
an entry level gloat, in my opinion.

-Nathan

Thanks for the info
John Grossbohlin wrote:
> >> I'm considering ordering a table saw from Amazon. Is there any
> >> conventional wisdom about ordering such a heavy item from them?
> >> To be honest, I'm concerned about buying a saw from a company
> >> I primarily think of as a book vendor. (But if it works...)
>
> I had a couple bad experiences... both with Delta DJ-20 jointer deliveries.
> The first one had been dropped. There were broken cast iron pieces and the
> infeed table drooped .030". A forklift had also been run through the side of
> the crate but no visible damage to the jointer itself existed at the time of
> delivery. All the real damage was hidden and not detected until set up
> time.
>
> The second DJ-20's crate was in even worse shape with the top basically
> missing due to all the broken wood. This time the fork lift punctured the
> crate and nailed the fence. This machine too appeared to have been dropped.
> The stand was also dented. Refused that shipment right up front.
>
> Ended up getting a DJ-20 from Woodworker's Warehouse... they matched
> Amazon's price and gave me another 10% for opening a charge account. Great
> machine... even if it took ordering three of them to get one intact!
>
> John

"dteckie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> [email protected] (MSCHAEF.COM) wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
>> I'm considering ordering a table saw from Amazon. Is there any
>> conventional wisdom about ordering such a heavy item from them?
>> To be honest, I'm concerned about buying a saw from a company
>> I primarily think of as a book vendor. (But if it works...)
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Mike
>>
> I ordered my JET supersaw and other heavy stuff from Amazon and No
> problems. Delivery was with Fedex ground .
>

I got a contractor's saw from them a few years ago. Painless. I arrived
home one day and there it was sitting on my driveway by the garage door.
That was around 5 years ago so perhaps they're getting to be more difficult
in terms of "unloading".
Cheers,
cc

"dteckie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> [email protected] (MSCHAEF.COM) wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
>> I'm considering ordering a table saw from Amazon. Is there any
>> conventional wisdom about ordering such a heavy item from them?
>> To be honest, I'm concerned about buying a saw from a company
>> I primarily think of as a book vendor. (But if it works...)
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Mike
>>
> I ordered my JET supersaw and other heavy stuff from Amazon and No
> problems. Delivery was with Fedex ground .
>

I got a hybrid TS from them this year. It came quickly on a truck with a
lift. There were signs of minor damage to the plywood crate and the driver
was not willing to back the truck up my 250' driveway to my garage. With
some coaxing he helped me put it on a pallet dolly and I got it into the
garage. He made it clear that the free delivery did not include unloading
or moving the item. So wherever you order, either arrange for some help or
specify how you want it delivered. Overall I have been satisfied with
Amazon customer service after several tool orders.

-Steve W

On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 10:13:40 -0000, [email protected] (dteckie) wrote:

>[email protected] (MSCHAEF.COM) wrote in message
>news:<[email protected]>...
>> I'm considering ordering a table saw from Amazon. Is there any
>> conventional wisdom about ordering such a heavy item from them?
>> To be honest, I'm concerned about buying a saw from a company
>> I primarily think of as a book vendor. (But if it works...)
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Mike
>>
>I ordered my JET supersaw and other heavy stuff from Amazon and No
>problems. Delivery was with Fedex ground .


I got my unisaw from them. 4 packages, with the largest delivered by a
truck with a lift gate. No problems.

Gary

My experience has been anything but painless.

I first bought a table saw from them. It was delivered FedEx. That
really was painless. A small van pulled up and the driver offered to
put the saw anywhere I wanted.

Next I bought a jointer. For that, the freight company called me
beforehand at said it would cost an extra $75 to get a liftgate
delivery. That was Amazon's "free" delivery. They then pulled up in a
huge semi trailer truck that was unable to navigate down the narrow
residential street. I swear he snapped every tree branch that over
hung the street when he hit them with his truck. And this was after I
had told them to bring a small truck.

I didnt learn my lesson yet, but since there are no local stores where
I live, I had no choice. I then ordered a bandsaw and panel sander.
Now to be fair, these problems are probably due more to the crappy
packaging from the manufacturers, but both were utterly destroyed on
delivery. The bandsaw box looked like an elephant had sat on it, and
while there was no damage to the sander box, it was damaged too. It
took three re-deliveries to finally get a working sander and that was
after I pulled pieces from the previous 2 sanders to repair the
damaged 3rd sander.

Trying to deal with Amazon to fix these was an exercise in futility.
Amazon said talk to the vendor, the vendor said to talk to Amazon. I
got into a threeway phone call with the manufacturer rep and the
Amazon rep and listened while the manufacturer rep ripped the Amazon
rep a new one. That was almost fun.

Eventually, Amazon stepped up to the plate and straightened things
out but it took several months.

I learned my lesson and will never buy anything heavy from them again.

If you're going to do it, I'd say don't go with the free shipping.
Pay for the shipping and I suspect it'll come via a more reputable
delivery company like FedEx. Surprisingly, the shipping on my Unisaw
was only $11. I havent figured that one out yet. It was several
years ago, and with the increase in gas prices, I'm sure delivery has
gone up too. But still, it was so extremely low it was worth it. Dont
automatically check the free shipping box. At least check out the
regular shipping costs.

dickm

On Tue, 5 Sep 2006 16:57:17 -0600, "James \"Cubby\" Culbertson"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>"dteckie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> [email protected] (MSCHAEF.COM) wrote in message
>> news:<[email protected]>...
>>> I'm considering ordering a table saw from Amazon. Is there any
>>> conventional wisdom about ordering such a heavy item from them?
>>> To be honest, I'm concerned about buying a saw from a company
>>> I primarily think of as a book vendor. (But if it works...)
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Mike
>>>
>> I ordered my JET supersaw and other heavy stuff from Amazon and No
>> problems. Delivery was with Fedex ground .
>>
>
>I got a contractor's saw from them a few years ago. Painless. I arrived
>home one day and there it was sitting on my driveway by the garage door.
>That was around 5 years ago so perhaps they're getting to be more difficult
>in terms of "unloading".
>Cheers,
>cc
>

>> I'm considering ordering a table saw from Amazon. Is there any
>> conventional wisdom about ordering such a heavy item from them?
>> To be honest, I'm concerned about buying a saw from a company
>> I primarily think of as a book vendor. (But if it works...)

I had a couple bad experiences... both with Delta DJ-20 jointer deliveries.
The first one had been dropped. There were broken cast iron pieces and the
infeed table drooped .030". A forklift had also been run through the side of
the crate but no visible damage to the jointer itself existed at the time of
delivery. All the real damage was hidden and not detected until set up
time.

The second DJ-20's crate was in even worse shape with the top basically
missing due to all the broken wood. This time the fork lift punctured the
crate and nailed the fence. This machine too appeared to have been dropped.
The stand was also dented. Refused that shipment right up front.

Ended up getting a DJ-20 from Woodworker's Warehouse... they matched
Amazon's price and gave me another 10% for opening a charge account. Great
machine... even if it took ordering three of them to get one intact!

John