Carbatec need to really rethink their customer service

When I was living in Bundaberg, up until around 2008, we used to make a trip to Brisbane approximately once a quarter. There was a lacy there called Jan, who I used to email direct with my requirements. We used to leave Bundaberg early on a Saturday morning and try to arrive at carbatec around 9am, about a four hour drive. On arrival my order was always ready to pick up. I only met Jan face to face once but we used to email and phone as needed and it worked very well. I bought a number of pieces of larger machinery from them, a 15" thicknesser, bandsaw, drill press and belt and disk sander. Back then I thought their customer service was great.

I have not dealt with the Brisbane store in a long time apart from an "experience" when I ordered replacement drive belts for the belt and disk sander, and they lost them on me by posting them to the wrong address. They had a typo and sent them to the wrong street number. To their credit they sent another two belts to me after Australia Post washed their hands of any responsibility.

I bought my 21" bandsaw from Carbatec Melbourne at the WWW Show a few years back. I ran into Jeremy, a luthier, who used to work in their Brisbane showroom and had been called in to man the show stand. Coincidentally, he had sold me my 14" bandsaw in Brisbane. He allowed me to negotiate a good deal but I had to go to their Melbourne branch to pick it up.

All in all, I seem to have fared better than most in dealing with Carbatec, and I agree with the sentiments that have been posted that it is the management rather than the employees who are the problem. I have to endure that situation at my place of employment and it is very frustrating.

In my own situation, I know that the top echelon are very savvy people who have a great vision for the company and ideas that work. At the coalface there are great people who try to do their best for the customers, but there is this big sponge in the middle that just sits there and absorbs the good ideas coming from above and below and acts as a huge blocker, frustrating the people at the coalface and I am sure causing the upper echelon to bang their heads against the walls of their ivory towers.

Unfortunately, it is this totally useless layer of management that is frustrating those above and below them. The majority of them have no idea what the people at the coalface do every day or how the management decisions affect how they do their jobs. I think this is the same thing that is happening at Carbatec.

Cheers

DOug

Use their own ordering and customer service systems.

Why not pick up the phone and order a big widget and see what the experience is like, right through to delivery?

Why not fill in their own forms and see how long and what type of response customer service takes?

Why not order the same thing off a competitor to see if they offer a better experience than others?

It's not as if it costs anything. They can just refund themselves or sell it anyway.

If the CEO is concerned with balance sheets and shareholder value, it can only be seen through direct random experiences.

If someone here knows who to write to at Carbatec I'd be VERY happy to pen a letter.

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Originally Posted by delbs

We had a huge thread regarding this topic a while back which neil shutdown because it was turning into a winge and moan thread instead of something constructive. Not wanting or trying to offend people but if carbatech didnt listen 6 months ago with the last thread I dont think they're going to now.. :) id just go shopping where you know will treat you well and prices are good etc. I wouldnt bother trying to flog a dead horse.

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I agree with most of delbs comments. There is no point having a whinge here if you are not prepared to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard to compose an email or letter re your experiences with Carbatec.

Personally I have had some very good interactions and some not so good out of the Carbatec Brisbane office, with enough average & good ones to make it worthwhile though. I have probably experienced no worse service than from several other major retailers these days. That does not excuse poor service by any of them though. Retail managers look at their business model, trading stats, and the percentage of poor customer interactions wrt the total transactions. Unless each poor performance in delivery, customer experience etc makes it into their stats they think they are doing just fine.

When a much smaller competitor offers similar products, very good service, reliable, fast packing and delivery and some even go well above and beyond what I consider good service, they win my business hands down every time, even if I have to pay an acceptable (to me) premium for that service.

One thing I marvel at these days is the level of effort most retailers are putting in to get customers through the door to purchase. Most of our wood/metal hobby purchases are purely discretionary so we really can do without the "luxuries" of our hobby. Smaller competitors must be relishing the opportunities to redirect that business to themselves.

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Originally Posted by Evanism

Use their own ordering and customer service systems.

Why not pick up the phone and order a big widget and see what the experience is like, right through to delivery?

Why not fill in their own forms and see how long and what type of response customer service takes?

Why not order the same thing off a competitor to see if they offer a better experience than others?

It's not as if it costs anything. They can just refund themselves or sell it anyway.

If the CEO is concerned with balance sheets and shareholder value, it can only be seen through direct random experiences.

If someone here knows who to write to at Carbatec I'd be VERY happy to pen a letter.

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An "Undercover Boss" situation where management works in the various areas and states to find out what works and what does not. They might get customer and staff feed back which is negative or positive.

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Originally Posted by doug3030

........I bought my 21" bandsaw from Carbatec Melbourne at the WWW Show a few years back. I ran into Jeremy, a luthier, who used to work in their Brisbane showroom and had been called in to man the show stand. Coincidentally, he had sold me my 14" bandsaw in Brisbane. He allowed me to negotiate a good deal but I had to go to their Melbourne branch to pick it up.

Cheers

DOug

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Thank you for jogging my memory Doug, that is the very efficient and capable guy who looked after me with my tablesaw purchase.

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Originally Posted by Evanism

Use their own ordering and customer service systems.

Why not pick up the phone and order a big widget and see what the experience is like, right through to delivery?

Why not fill in their own forms and see how long and what type of response customer service takes?

Why not order the same thing off a competitor to see if they offer a better experience than others?

It's not as if it costs anything. They can just refund themselves or sell it anyway.

If the CEO is concerned with balance sheets and shareholder value, it can only be seen through direct random experiences.

If someone here knows who to write to at Carbatec I'd be VERY happy to pen a letter.

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Absobloodylutely! I actually came across a website (2 in fact) just recently where I could tick ALL the items I wanted to add to the cart in one go! Astonishing! Lousy websites proliferate around the world. I often say to my partner (a web designer) "Don't these people test/use their own websites?"

Carbatec contact is Rod Bonham:
CARBA-TEC

I had a complaint a couple of years ago that he handled very efficiently. Since then I have just accepted their "business model". You could suggest to him that he do a search of his business name on the forums, but advise him to take a strong sedative just prior.

I have mixed thoughts about them! The positive is there is an agent for them close by so I go through him now! As one person in the Sydney Carbatec needs an attitude adjustment to customer service!

Rod is no longer at Ctec.

Talk with Simon or Travis

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Originally Posted by L R P

Rod is no longer at Ctec.

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That could be the problem :?

If you do not know the name of the person to write to, you can always address the letter to "The Managing Director" and mark the envelope "Private and Confidential".
I have done this in the past with a couple of companies and it works.

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Originally Posted by Mobyturns

I agree with most of delbs comments. There is no point having a whinge here if you are not prepared to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard to compose an email or letter re your experiences with Carbatec.

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I don't think Carbatec is one of those companies that does much with complaints. I got a "sorry" and no undertaking to fix the problem.

I also doubt that the complaints get past their operators or through the middlemen. Realistically, competition-wise, there's not a lot easily and quickly available, what is a disgruntled consumer really able to do?

They might be surprised.

I dealt with a US company that had operators who figured that I couldn't do anything about my complaint. After failing to get past the operators to talk to a manager, I posted a complaint about Bongo US on "The Ripoff Report"

Ripoff Report | Bongous - Bongo International - Bongous.com Complaint Review Internet: 571856

Bongo US were in a big hurry to contact me and get me to remove my report when they saw where I had posted my complaint.

Mind you, in my case with Carbatec, they wasted time and some money on long-distance calls, and not the quantity that Bongo US was holding to ransom on me. In Australia, there are other options for publicly posting complaints that will come to the attention of anyone doing a bit of repetitional management.

Craig

I'm a loyal person who really appreciates good customer service, I am by no means demanding in anyway when it comes to making purchases. I don't haggle the price is the price and I always smile and say please and thank you. So my local carbatec in Sydney has always been my preferred supplier. I have only ever purchased off the one carbatec employee, his knowledge is excellent & have always waited for him to finish with other customers. We both greet each other on a first name basis.

So a couple of months ago I went and saw the employee and told him I was looking to purchase a powermatic 600mm wide spiral head thicknesser, powermatic dust extractor and a festool belt sander along with other bits and pieces, the total was upwards of $7.5k. Did the deal they had everything in stock I was extremely pleased with the whole deal.I went and unwrapped the toys
That night when I got home I was greeted with a carbatec brochure with a spend $500 receive $100 in store deal starting the very next day. The next day I drove to carbatec and spoke to the employee, enquiring wether they would maybe honour the deal considering it was the very next day! The employee informed me he wouldn't be able to do that.

I promptly told him it would be a cold day in hell before I set foot in,recommended or spend another cent with them.

Just vote with your feet there's plenty of other options if you look.
cheers
Dave

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Originally Posted by Dangermandave

Just vote with your feet there's plenty of other options if you look.
cheers
Dave

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I would like another option in Melbourne, and I have looked - any suggestions?

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