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I have a shop full of Grizzly power tools. I also have a Powermatic tablesaw, Meber band saw, and other quality machines. But I have found over the years that Grizzly machines could get the job done. But much to my dismay, the Grizzly company has changed. The quality of their machinery and the customer service they provide has deteriorated to a level that is unacceptable. I know I have seen other blogs on this subject, and if anyone else has experienced this, please post. My relationship with Grizzly is over. Kaput! I am not going to the trouble of explaining the current debacle I am involved in with Grizzly, so if anyone has a bone to pick with Grizzly, please post it here. I told them I was going to do this, so hopefully, the owner of the company will put his "two cents worth" in this blog. I know I have seen him on this blog before. He builds guitars like the rest of us. Unfortunately, he has not been running the company well enough to keep and retain customers. Old Customers, like myself. I have a 15" Grizzly planer that is over 20 years old, so I have been using their tools a long time. What a shame!!!!!

I am not going to the trouble of explaining the current debacle I am involved in with Grizzly, so if anyone has a bone to pick with Grizzly, please post it here.[/quote]
You want us to slam Grizzly but you won't explain your trouble with them. And want us to. Why is that? I have always had a good customer relationship with them and still do. Not to mention there prices are better than most as well.

I've actually had the opposite experience. The higher end tools they have added in the last 10 years or so look like a major improvement to me but the only one I have direct experience with is their 17" bandsaw. For the money, I haven't seen it's equal.

I think it's hit and miss with most tools. I bought a Jet 12" jointer/planer and a Clearview Cyclone this year. Both came with bad motors.

And fwiw, many forums have a policy against rants like this, particularly ones with no facts. If you want a response from the owner, maybe you could ask a specific question.

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Okay. You want the story, I will sit down and type it out. I ordered a surface plate about a year ago, and also the stand for it. When it arrived, it was stained all over, by something that left white stains. The plate is black granite, and it looked pretty bad. I complained about it, and before I could talk to someone, they shipped another one. Then I had two plates. Not what I was after, but it worked. I would have been happy with a discount on the first plate. So for a year I have been tripping over the extra plate. So about four months ago, I ordered another stand and figured I could use it for something else. I have plenty of room for two of them. The stand was back ordered for over two months. It finally arrived this week. The stand was drilled wrong and cannot be assembled. I complained, and their plan was to have a truck pick up the old one and return it. Then when they got the old one, they would ship a new one. I could not agree to such a waste of truck, fuel, and resources. So they made me buy another stand, and the same truck that delivers the new stand will pick up the old stand. There was a time in the past that this would not happen. I have thousands of dollars worth of Grizzly tools, and for them not to trust me is insulting. I even sent pictures of the problem with the stand.

By the way, I am asking for positive or negative posts on this blog. I am not asking anyone to "trash" Grizzly, I am only asking for your honest post relating to your experience with Grizzly. Why someone would find anything negative about this post is beyond me. And also, anything you post on a public forum needs to be true. You could be liable for anything that you cannot prove. I thought that this forum was a good venue for this type of experience, but it appears that it is more of a personal blog now. I think I will stick to the woodworking forums in the future. It appears to me that there are a group of people on this blog that just want to criticize every post that is made.

I have a grizzly bandsaw, dust collector, drill press, and combo disc/belt sander. I also have purchased from them a chisel set, spray gun, arbor press and a multitude of other things (purks of living within 10 minutes from grizzly). I believe all tools have issues. But if you keep up with regular maintenance, there shouldn't be a whole lot of problems. When I have had occasional issues with my grizzly tools, I have had great customer service and even had things replaced within the 1 year warranty time period without hassle. Maybe you got a bad egg or something, but I am still a fan of grizzly and will continue using their tools. They work great for me.

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Thats pretty good service if you ask me , and did u pay for both plates or have they given you 2 for the price of one here , Little confused ?

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Sounds like perfectly acceptable customer service to me. You got a free item (without question), then had a second issue and they offered to pick it up and replace it, that wasn't good enough for you? The fact that you take the time to complain that you were stumbling over the free item, then turn around and say you have plenty of space for it to be set up, makes me think that you are keyed up to be annoyed and have lost objectivity. Your defensive response strengthens my opinion. The good news is that this community will get to read multiple reviews of Grizzly's products and services. I for one look forward to reading it, as I have not purchased from them but have been considering placing an order.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Grizzly's great, hope to buy more from them one day.

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I have had some serious issues with Grizzly. Too long to go into the whole story but I had problems from the beginning with one of my tools and they never stood by their product. I am talking about a financial burden of about $800 that I should not have had to bear. Now I am having trouble with another one of my Grizzly motors. For the record, these were not the cheap machines and should be industrial quality for the price I paid. Grizzly's customer service is fantastic and they are very helpful but it is a definite hit or miss with their equipment (even their higher end offerings).

OMG ! You bought a granite surface plate and you got 2 for the price of 1??? How AWFUL !
Shame on them for not picking up the first one... If they had, you wouldn't be having this problem, right???



Geez.

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I can't add anything to that..........except I hope someone from Grizzly doesn't read this, and decide to charge you for the extra granite surface plate.

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I've always been happy with Grizzly purchases, and particularly happy with their service. I was shopping for a five-step pulley for my drill press a couple of years ago. I sorted through their replacement parts for several models on Grizzly's web site (my drill was older, and not a Grizzly). I found a couple of pulleys that I thought might work. Then I called and talked to a guy in their Springfield, MO store. He went out on the floor with his cell phone and personally checked some drill press shaft sizes, pulley diameters, etc. for me while he had me on the phone. The guy wasn't able to find the right pulley for me, but he sure tried. I'd call that EXEMPLARY service. So....my posting is POSITIVE.

Patrick

That's it, I'm buying a plate from Grizzly!

I have a Grizzly Ultimate Bandsaw and a Grizzly Jointer. Both have performed as designed and I could not be happier with both machines. In the near future I am going to order a sharpening grinder.

Why don't you put an add for the defective surface plate? Charge half of the catalog price and be done with it! Life's too short.

When did this forum become about slamming companies and people?

Grizzly has been phenominal to us. We've purchased several of their products over the years. Their machinery has exceeded expectations as long as you're being realistic. You wouldn't compare a Civic to a Porsche, you should expect to get what you pay for. I've always felt their products exceed their competitions in similar price points.

Expecting any company to replace equipment without it being returned or putting some sort of security on it isn't very reasonable. I've bought several thousands of dollars of equipment from Grizzly and met the owner. I wouldn't expect what you do in regards to replacement.

If I ordered a guitar from you and didn't feel it was acceptable or claimed it was broken you'd expect to have it returned or put down some sort of security on it before you sent me a new one.

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
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Here's my experience with Grizzly - no matter what I buy from them, they always ship the darned stuff on time! What the....?!

Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

A few years ago another shop in my area purchased a 25" industrial thickness planer from them, a little over $10,000. He was going to do some things for me on a subcontract basis that were beyond the capacities at the shop I run. That particular piece of equipment never manged to satisfactorily plane a single piece of lumber. It had a severe chatter and sniped like all get out. Some of our rough sawn lumber actually looked better. He called Grizzly to see about repair or replacement or return and they told him absolutely no replacement and no returns. He could crate it and ship it back and they would repair it and ship it back to him, warranty would cover repairs only, no freight and no timetable for when the equipment would actually be returned. He did not like the idea of being out all that cheese with nothing to show for it and argued with them for about a year over the matter, affectionately referring to the thing as "the POS in taking up the middle of my shop". Don't know what became of it, he has moved to a new location and that piece of equipment is not there and I still do all my wide surfacing by hand.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I've never purchased any large machines from Grizzly. Maybe a Table Saw someday if I can boot a car out of the garage =)

I have ordered smaller items from them many times, and never had a single problem. I've also driven up to the Bellingham show room and purchased some bench tops and legs. The place is always clean and well organized. The people are friendly and knowledgeable, and the turnaround time for pulling large items from the warehouse is always quicker than I expect.

My Dad had an old Grizzly Planer and Tablesaw and never had any problems with either of them.

I will say that their instrument kits are pretty bad. The guitar kit has a butt jointed neck. But that's a ' you get what you pay for' situation.

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Jim Hansen

I have a shop full of Grizzly product. I can say that I did business with them from the time they started in Williamsport in the 70's. I have a full shop of the tools and my history with them is that the service is fine the product has fallen . My sander and 18 inch belt sander had 3 motors replaced . They gave me the first one but not the others , I had an issue with that machine from day one. Finally we found that the controller base was cracked, Paid out of my pocket and I know Others with the belt sander issues.
Most of the stuff is ok and to be honest , with the amount of product they sell they are as good as what is out there . I do think the motors and bearings could be better . If you upgrade to the Shop Fox brand it is the same product with better motors . Like I said it isn't just Grizzly most other companies are the same

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

It is expensive to do proper quality control, like actually testing each product before shipping it. So to be profitable, they skip assembling and testing things, hoping everything is ok, and end up mistreating some loyal customers that have dropped a bit of money. What is so hard about asking every customer "what are we doing right ? what are we doing wrong ? how do we improve ?" IMHO if they don't care, they shouldn't be in business. But it may not be a profitable business if ran correctly, many modern consumer electronics companies are in that category.

I work in software and often see device schedules slip, and the testing at the end gets cut. That is why you see 10-15% failure rate in cellphones, and at one time a 51% failure rate in X-Boxes. I hate to say it, be if you look at the way our economy works, it is a race to the bottom, and the only option is to lower one's expectations. Medical devices and avionics products are usually exceptions to this.

If someone is having a bad, unresolvable experience, I would like to hear about it. Hopefully we are not violating any forum rules. Just this week I had a premium priced tool fail on me, I will try to resolve it with the seller.

You've GOT to be joking...Like a friend is fond of saying, "Some folks wouldn't be happy if ya hung 'em with a new rope!".

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My first big stationary tool purchase many years ago was a jointer from Grizzly.

It arrived missing some key parts and included other parts that didn't fit. It took over a month to get it running. They were able to work thru the easy stuff like the missing belt and fence parts while I spend hours re-drilling, filing and shimming to get it functional. To this day is remains in my shop as a reminder - the supplied guard has never worked correctly despite them re-machining some parts and it now has a wooden shaft and a bungee cord to make it functional.

That was my last purchase from Grizzly.

...but this post has me thinking about ordering a surface plate from them.

-jd

I've read a lot of reviews (too many) of Grizzly both positive and negative and the one thing that seems to come through consistently are issues with return shipping of large items. That seems to be one area where they won't budge or at least do everything they can to avoid that cost.

I've only bought smaller things from them and have never had any problems, but I won't buy larger equipment from them because of their reluctance to pay for return shipping on warranty claims, or simply manufacturer defeats from the start before equipment is even put together. If I'm going to put down several thousand dollars on a piece of equipment, I want guarantees that the company will stand by that product in full, including the costs of getting it to and fro.

I've read positive stories about return shipping as well, but those like B. Howard describes are just a little too frequent for my comfort level.

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