Bendpak customer service

[jcs_in_ky]

Late last night I emailed Jeff Kritzer photos of an issue with my HD-12 lift. Turns out there was a piece put on backwards at the factory that was causing me some problems. This morning they identified the problem from my photo and had replacement parts sent out Fedex next day by the end of the day. That's pretty speedy service, especially compared to the poor service some companies have these days. I'm glad to see that they are honoring their warranty, in this day and age some warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on but that doesn't seem to be the case with Bendpak. It's nice to see that while they obviously do have some quality control issues coming up with their overseas company at least the problems are resolved and replacement parts are sent out quickly resulting in minimal downtime.
John

 

[nissan_crawler]

I've said it a thousand times, every company is going to have some screwups, you just can NOT avoid it. It's how they handle it that makes the difference.

I was getting similar things from two companies.

#1. Screwed up building my part, although I probably wouldn't have ever known, because it would've been hidden. They called me, told me it wouldn't affect operation, but technically wasn't right, and if possible, would like the time to build me a new one. Sure, I was in no hurry, no problem. It took another month. They ended up upgrading me, and giving me a discount on the next thing.

#2. Had a small screwup that got to me. Very minimal, I called them about it, and told them. It could have been fixed with a $10 part that was available locally, but it wasn't the point. Their customer service was less than impressive. They suggested I buy a part locally, I told them to piss off and send me the part. I called a week later, they "forgot" to ship it. Then they sent the wrong part. I called them a few more times, never got the right part.

I put it up on ebay saying I was selling it because they wouldn't send the correct $10 part for a several hundred dollar purchase. I can't count how many emails I got, and how much business they lost due to that auction.

So, even though #1 screwed up quite a bit more in comparison, they're getting all my repeat business, due to how it was handled. They manned up, didn't try to hide it, and made it WAY more than right. Sold. Lifetime customer. I've since sent 5 more people their way, probably made them at least $10,000. The other people lost probably 20 customers over $10. Idiots.

 

[Flatmotor]

John, thats good to hear about the customer service. I've decided on an HD-12SS and curious how many QC issues you've had with it. Overall how satisfied are you are with it? Bill

 

[jcs_in_ky]

Bill, I like my HD-12. I haven't used it to the full capacity and could have probably gotten by with an HD_9 but I like having the heavier duty lift. The largest vehicles I've put on it so far are an F-350 with flatbed, and a E-350 1 ton extended van. I had two issues with the lift, none of which were due to poorly made parts. The welds and overall quality of the lift seem to be good. The first problem was that the studs on the top of the ladders were too short resulting in the ladders sitting too high in the posts. I found that problem when I was installing the lift, contacted Bendpak and they had new ladders to me four or five days later. I could have gone ahead and set the lift up with the orignal ladders and used it as long as I didn't want to raise the lift up all the way. I didn't want to go to the trouble of putting it together and taking it apart again so I just decided to wait until the new ladders arrived. The second issue with mine (the one I was referring to in my original post) was that the cylinder support bracket that slides along the bottom of the runway was put on backwards at the factory. That caused the cable retainer plate to be damaged but I should have the replacement parts tomorrow and be back in business by the end of the day.

When I bought the lift it was really frustrating because one of the runways was damaged when the lift arrived. Bendpak shipped two or three more via common carrier and each one showed up damaged. Finally a new one was shipped on a flatbed and it arrived in perfect condition. It ended up taking over a month to get a good runway but at least Bendpak stuck with it and got me a good runway in the end. I was compensated with some accessories for the delay in getting a good runway to me.

When I first started looking at lifts Bendpak was the first one I looked at because I'd used them in a shop where I worked and I had a friend who bought one for his shop. He used his lift for about 15 years and never had any major problems with it. I was dissapointed to find out they'd moved their manufacturing to China but at least they are standing behind their products and the overall quality of them is still high.

 

[Flatmotor]

John, thanks for the info. I have similar Fords to lift, a E250 138"WB, E150 138" WB, 1974 F350 138"WB Stake Bed, F250 PSD 155" WB, and F150 117" WB. I probably could get by with the HD9 but I feel more comfortable with the HD-12. Bill

 

[Nutty 5.0]

I'm happy to hear this. I've had my 2 post 10k lift for 2 years from them and knock on wood trouble free.

 

[mhm993]

I had several problem parts that needed replacement by bendpak, the largest being a main lifting cable, and smallest a rubbery spacer block. In all candor, I'm convinced the (dumba$$) installer lost or broke each and every problem part, but Brian at bendpak was great about it, and overnighted the replacements each time I called and paid for the return visits by the installer. Cudos!