I have used a question to title this post, but I am confident that I already know the answer. For those who just want the punchline, the answer is "It ciomes right from the very top". I will elaborate on why I am sure that this is so below for those who are interested.
Some may have already looked at how many posts I have made and noticed that I am new to LJs. I would, nonetheless, ask everyone to judge this post on its own merits. If anyone is looking for another rant, sorry, this will not be a rant.
I joined LJs recently after seeing that there were quite a few posts that were very critical of Laguna Tools Customer Service. I was surprised to see these, as from what I can make out, Laguna Tools goes to considerable effort to suppress this sort of thing. I know this from personal experience. I suspect the international scope of LJs has helped here.
I dealt with Laguna Tools for a number of years. It started with me buying a ResawKing blade after being frustrated with poor quality carbon blades. Then I saw Torben Helshoj's folksy videos. videos that did a ggod job of highlighting some of their bandsaw's superior features. I ended up buying an LT24 (bandsaw) and a TSS (table saw with a built-in slider). Those deals went fine but things started to go off the rails when I bought accessories. Mostly just slow service at first, but then I bought a driftmaster bandsaw fence and had to wait 6 months for it to arrive. They had my money but I had no product. Worse still, Laguna repeatedly promised that it was on its way.
As i mentioned in a reply to another post here on LJs, you can see the reminents of a post I made on a Canadian forum by GOOGLEing "Laguna Tools - good tools, bad service". What you won't find is basically the same post that was also put on what I believe is the largest woodworker's forum based in the USA. That copy was wiped clean from that forum when the forum's owner caved to pressure from Laguna Tools, one of its advertisers.
The post in question was in response to an outrageous incident whereby I was shipped a damaged TSS accessory (sliding table support arm) with no assembly instructions or documentation of any kind. Laguna claimed that this swing arm would bolt right on to my TSS. Turns out it was designed for their panel saw, not the TSS, and mounting it was no simple matter. When I complained about the lack of instructions and the fact the swing arm / TSS connection was not made clear, Laguna's CS guy was totally unrepentant. I lost over a day's work and his response was "well, you got it on in the end, didn't you ?"
The above incident prompted me to join a couple of forums to get the word out. This action led to a phone call from Catherine Helshoj, who, as I understand it, runs the business end of things at Laguna Tools. I told her what the situation was and that one of her employees had been aggresive, abusive, combative, you name it when I had complained about the swing arm situation. To my great surprise, Catherine dismissed my concerns about this employee and said "He's an excellent employee . . ." She was not sympathetic at all to my plight or concerned about her employee's behaviour.
The next thing I knew my account on that big USA based forum was blocked and my Laguna posts were wiped off the record. Coincidence - not likely.
Some will likely be thinking "this guy ranted when he complained to Laguna . . .", Well, I didn't and the large number of other complaints about Laguna's CS should help to convince a reasonable person that I am very likely telling the truth. I think that's why my post disappeared.
OK, it's time again for the punchline. Laguna Tools has had a lot of CS issues for such a small company. In the past they have claimed to have addressed this, fired the odd rogue employee, whatever. But, it is clear to me that these employees are essentially just following the example set for them. They are being told to play hardball whenever costly misqueues occur. IMHO it should be pretty evident that things won't change at Laguna until its top brass change. Given that it's a private company, how likely is that ?
Some may have already looked at how many posts I have made and noticed that I am new to LJs. I would, nonetheless, ask everyone to judge this post on its own merits. If anyone is looking for another rant, sorry, this will not be a rant.
I joined LJs recently after seeing that there were quite a few posts that were very critical of Laguna Tools Customer Service. I was surprised to see these, as from what I can make out, Laguna Tools goes to considerable effort to suppress this sort of thing. I know this from personal experience. I suspect the international scope of LJs has helped here.
I dealt with Laguna Tools for a number of years. It started with me buying a ResawKing blade after being frustrated with poor quality carbon blades. Then I saw Torben Helshoj's folksy videos. videos that did a ggod job of highlighting some of their bandsaw's superior features. I ended up buying an LT24 (bandsaw) and a TSS (table saw with a built-in slider). Those deals went fine but things started to go off the rails when I bought accessories. Mostly just slow service at first, but then I bought a driftmaster bandsaw fence and had to wait 6 months for it to arrive. They had my money but I had no product. Worse still, Laguna repeatedly promised that it was on its way.
As i mentioned in a reply to another post here on LJs, you can see the reminents of a post I made on a Canadian forum by GOOGLEing "Laguna Tools - good tools, bad service". What you won't find is basically the same post that was also put on what I believe is the largest woodworker's forum based in the USA. That copy was wiped clean from that forum when the forum's owner caved to pressure from Laguna Tools, one of its advertisers.
The post in question was in response to an outrageous incident whereby I was shipped a damaged TSS accessory (sliding table support arm) with no assembly instructions or documentation of any kind. Laguna claimed that this swing arm would bolt right on to my TSS. Turns out it was designed for their panel saw, not the TSS, and mounting it was no simple matter. When I complained about the lack of instructions and the fact the swing arm / TSS connection was not made clear, Laguna's CS guy was totally unrepentant. I lost over a day's work and his response was "well, you got it on in the end, didn't you ?"
The above incident prompted me to join a couple of forums to get the word out. This action led to a phone call from Catherine Helshoj, who, as I understand it, runs the business end of things at Laguna Tools. I told her what the situation was and that one of her employees had been aggresive, abusive, combative, you name it when I had complained about the swing arm situation. To my great surprise, Catherine dismissed my concerns about this employee and said "He's an excellent employee . . ." She was not sympathetic at all to my plight or concerned about her employee's behaviour.
The next thing I knew my account on that big USA based forum was blocked and my Laguna posts were wiped off the record. Coincidence - not likely.
Some will likely be thinking "this guy ranted when he complained to Laguna . . .", Well, I didn't and the large number of other complaints about Laguna's CS should help to convince a reasonable person that I am very likely telling the truth. I think that's why my post disappeared.
OK, it's time again for the punchline. Laguna Tools has had a lot of CS issues for such a small company. In the past they have claimed to have addressed this, fired the odd rogue employee, whatever. But, it is clear to me that these employees are essentially just following the example set for them. They are being told to play hardball whenever costly misqueues occur. IMHO it should be pretty evident that things won't change at Laguna until its top brass change. Given that it's a private company, how likely is that ?
