Carba-Tec

I hope this will turn into a review of the service ability of Carba-tec, as I am totally frustrated with the lies, the lack of interest and the unavailability of such things as blades for the Carba-tec line of machines.

I have a little six inch bench top s planner jointer which still has 12 months warranty. I ordered a set of new blades at $49.00 almost 3 months ago from their local agent in Coffs Harbour.

I am now told by the Brisbane office of Carba-tec that they wont have replacement blades for this machine until next year.

At one stage I spoke to a person, at the Brisbane office, who told me that the machine I have is obsolete and that blades are not now available, and that I should contact Black & Dekker, Stanely, DeWalt to see if I could get a replacement.

This lady, later apologised to me and said that it must have been something else she was thinking about.

Later I was offered a set of blades out of Melbourne at $39.00 but they would not send them to the local Coffs Harbour Agent, (Postage free to me) and they would not send direct to me from Melbourne but the blades would be sent to Brisbane and then to me owing I paid the full postage costs, which, incidentally, "I have absolutely no idea how much that will be" said my friendly carba-tec, Brisbane person.

I have solved the problem, I have purchased another floor stand jointer that has three blank blades that I can readily access by purchasing cut to size blades (one sided) from a local source.

Am I the only one getting frustrated with Carba-tec????

To balance the ledger a bit, I have to say that my experience with Carba-Tec Sydney has been consistently good. It seems to vary a lot from branch to branch, and possibly from person to person within a branch; I've only dealt with Sydney, and I can't even recall whether the Sydney outlet is owned by CarbaTec or let out as a franchise. In any event, CT management need to know there are problems in some places, and they need to deal with those problems.

- Michael

I can also say that the Melbourne store has provided me excellent service. You get a different flavour from each different sales person ... some quite extreme, but they're generally very helpful and knowledgeable.

I would be very frustrated by what you've explained, but a little bit of freight won't hurt too much I guess. I would expect them to carry spares for 10 years on any product they sell ... or they shouldn't stock it in the first place. You're buying machinery, not computers. The technology is very static.

There have been a few carbatec service threads over the years. As here reviews are mixed. In Brisbane I've had both ends, very good and very bad serivce.

If I were you I'd try timbecon and hare and forbes for your blades. Timbecon in particular can be cheaper for small items posted and all three carry similar lines. They usually know thier product and carbatec's so if they have something they will be able to tell you.

I'm sorry you've already felt the need to buy another machine, that's an unhappy outcome and carbatec should be concerned if their customers are that frustrated.

I have purchased many items over the years from carba-tec Melb. I have had a few grizzles and warranty claims and every time they have been more than helpful and have solved my problems and on some occasions they have given items to me free of charge to make me happy. You just need to ask for and insist on speaking to the people in charge to get the correct answers you want to hear.

Col Leeden
Hoppers Crossing
Vic.

Just got good advice and an instructive conversation about dust extraction from Daniel at the Melb. shop.

Rang for clarification about the right size bag to go under my dusty and he couldn't have been more helpful.

The service I get from Carba-Tec in Balcatta (Perth) has always been very good. One needs to build a ralationship with the people if you are embarking on a long term hobby - in this case woodworking.
Les

I almost always get good service at Sydney carbatec - they can get busy and sometimes you have to wait. But that's just the way it is.

I have had a bad experience with Brisbane. I'll never order or deal with them for a long time.

Andy

My experience with Sydney store has been good too. Staff always helpful, and if they don't know something, they find someone else on the staff who does. I remember when I bought some gear from them at the Working With Wood show a few years ago, I had to call in to the store at Auburn late on the Saturday afternoon to finalise some things. Staff were obviously frazzled after a long busy day, and probably stretched a bit thin, but they were polite and got the job done.

Your situation isn't a good one - I'd phone/write and complain about it and see what can be done.

ajw

G'Day Black Bear & Gents,
Just as a consideration have you thought about going "aftermarket" for your blades to a long term specialist in outer Sydney;
Henry Bros Saws at Vineyard on Ph#02 96275486.
They have been suppling industry with sharpening service as well as all sorts of new blades for many many years and are good at what they do.
Cheers. Crowie

Do you know if they do planer blades?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crowie

G'Day Black Bear & Gents,
Just as a consideration have you thought about going "aftermarket" for your blades to a long term specialist in outer Sydney;
Henry Bros Saws at Vineyard on Ph#02 96275486.
They have been suppling industry with sharpening service as well as all sorts of new blades for many many years and are good at what they do.
Cheers. Crowie

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I went to Henry Bros the other week - Excellent service :2tsup:

I discussed getting new planer blades as they sell good quality blades there. Maybe in the new year i'll get them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rsser

Do you know if they do planer blades?

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I have had my obsolete jointer blades sharpened there, and they confirmed they could fabricate replacements if needed.

regards

My Mate has just bought several band saw blades from Henry Bros, and he is very satisfied with the service and quality of the blades.

AS for making or fabricating blades I beleive that is a specialists job as there is a bit of a process cutting holes and slots in HSS.

I bought a new, bigger (So must be better) jointer that has 3 plain blades that I can buy as a lenght of 18% tungsten cut and sharpened for $35.00. The supplied blades are too soft and cost $51 a set at Gasweld locally.

Off track a little but I am going to try Henry Bros for router bits.

Regards
BB

Yeah, I have a bimetal bandy blade from them which I like as it can be sharpened and I don't have to faff around resetting everything after a blade change.