My BendPak HD-12 Experience

[jcs_in_ky]

Part 1 of 4

My BendPak HD-12 buying experience:

This is an extremely long post, maybe a record one, but lots of you have asked to hear about what I’ve been through in the process of trying to get a working HD-12 so here is the story. I’m going to post this in a few parts because I believe it’s too long to go as one post. Hopefully after reading this you will be able to understand the frustration that I’ve voiced on the forum from time to time about this lift and BendPak. I know some of you have had wonderful experiences with BendPak and their products, believe me I wish I had too. I really do hope that one day I can be as satisfied with BendPak and my lifts as you are.

In December of 2007 I begin to look seriously at purchasing a lift. The first products I looked into were BendPak because I had used them in shops before and had a friend who used one in his shop for almost 15 years. He’d had other lifts but that was the only one he was ever really happy with it and it never let him down. Since a lift is a big purchase I looked into other brands before making a decision. I spent a couple of months researching lifts. There’s no telling how many hours I spent on the net doing reading. I also made several phone calls to BendPak sales with questions and to other lift companies and dealers. BendPak recommended I purchase from Garage Equipment Supply. I didn’t know at the time that Garage Equipment Supply is owned by one of the BendPak V.P.’s who is also the son of the owner. I guess that is why they recommend them. I called Garage Equipment Supply, spoke with a salesman there and then did a little more research. I was leaning towards BendPak because while some of the other lifts looked good I preferred to purchase one made in the USA and also an ALI/ETL approved lift. The sales people at both BendPak and Garage Equipment supply told me those were important things to take into consideration when it comes to purchasing a lift. Some other dealers had told me that BendPak was not made in the USA like the claimed but when I asked BendPak and Garage Equipment Supply about this they assured me that they were indeed produced right there in Santa Paula Calif. At this point I was sold on BendPak, had the funds together to purchase and was ready to order. I was also told a price increase was coming so I’d better order soon to save some money.

1. On January 30th I contacted Garage Equipment Supply and placed an order for one BendPak HD-12 lift, one RJ-6 rolling jack, a couple of tall jack stands and an oil drain. I was told by my salesman that I would receive an email from them with tracking information and to expect the lift to arrive at the Conway terminal in about a week. He said it would be shipping that day or the next. My credit card was charged later that day so I knew things were in progress.


2. About five days went by. I assumed the lift would be close to arriving at the local Conway terminal, given what the salesman had told me about shipping time. I called Garage Equipment Supply, and asked for Rudy, the salesman I’d bought from. He had no idea who I was and when he looked up my name / order info in the computer nothing came up. He finally decided that they may have lost my order due to “software problems” but of course they’d still managed to charge for it. He placed the order again. The next morning I checked my credit card and found that they’d billed me a second time for the total purchase price so I had to contact them to get those charges reversed.


3. After a delay of about 9 days from when I made the purchase and having my credit card charged twice my lift was finally shipped and I had a Conway tracking number for it.


4. I got a call from Conway and was told me my lift was available for pickup. I chose to have the lift delivered to the terminal since it’s difficult for a large truck to get in and out of my place. I told Conway I’d be there the next day and anxiously awaited being able to go and get the lift.


5. The next morning I made the trip to Conway. The package was kind of torn up but everything looked to be ok. In the process of loading the lift they managed to get it stuck on the end of my trailer and the forklift operator begin pushing on the bottom of the package (the top side of one of the runways) with one of the forklift forks. I couldn’t check the damage then because it was on the bottom of the package but I made them make a note on my receipt. When I unpacked the lift I found there was a gouge deep into the metal. Had it have been only paint scratched off of it I’d have touched it up but it was pretty deep. I contacted Conway and BendPak. I thought I’d need to file a claim but BendPak said they’d do it and get a new runway shipped.


6. A new runway was shipped out and approx. 9 or 10 days later it arrived at Conway. The Conway dock manager told me that the packaging was completely ripped off of this one when they got it in but that he thought it was probably ok. I wanted to take no chances with this runway being damaged so we worked up a plan for them to lower it on some furniture dollies on my trailer and then I’d take a jack and set it on blocks once it was in position on the trailer. It was snowing so I spent a couple of hours wrapping my jacks and dollies up in tarps and getting them loaded. I also hired someone to go along to help me unload. I takes about 1:20 to get to Conway from my place. We were about halfway there and I got a call from Conway. The manager told me they’d inspected the runway more carefully and it had “dents and bends” in it. He asked if I was going to accept it that way and I told him that I couldn’t use it in that condition. He told me there was no reason for me to drive the rest of the way there. He said he’d send it back. He also told me that the way BendPak was packing these items for shipping there was no way we could expect them to arrive in good condition. When I got home I contacted BendPak. They told me that they’d ship yet another runway and this time and me they’d pack it with lots of extra cardboard and shrink-wrap.

continued:

 

[jcs_in_ky]

Part 2 of 4


7. I got a call from Conway when the third runway arrived. The manager there told me he thought it would be easier for them to load it on my trailer if we could use a dock that had a ramp for a forklift to come down rather than trying to put it on long ways from the end. I did some searching and after a few hours located a company that would let me use their dock and transfer the load for a small fee. Conway agreed to meet me there the next day. I had high hopes at this point that this runway was surely going to be in good condition and I’d finally be able to set my lift up.


8. The next day came and I went to meet the Conway truck. When I got in their truck and went to inspect the runway. There was hardly any cardboard or shrink-wrap left on it. I saw some scratches but hoped that was all that was wrong with it and it would still be fine to use. Upon looking closer the straps that are welded across the bottom of the rails (I think to prevent the rails from spreading) were bent up, one was especially bad and there was a bit of a crease in the side of the runway. Unfortunately I had to refuse the shipment again.


9. At this point I was caught in the middle of the trucking company telling me we’d never get a runway here in good condition due to BendPak not packing it well and BendPak telling me that it was the trucking companies fault. I personally feel that both Conway and BendPak share some of the blame. BendPak finally agreed to ship a new runway to me on a flatbed but there was going to be a delay of a week or so before one was ready to head this way.


10. While waiting for the flatbed to go I begin looking at my lift pieces that I did have. I was looking at the post with the builders plate and operating / safety stickers. I did not see anything about the ALI certification on it. I knew there should be something on it since the lift was sold to me as a certified lift. It said it was certified on BendPaks site, as well as Garage Equipment’s and both of their sales people told me it was certified. I contacted Garage Equipment Supply to ask where the plate was and they assured me it was there. I couldn’t find it so I called the person I’d been dealing with at BendPak. He told me he knew the lift was certified. I looked again and still couldn’t find anything. I contacted ALI and they looked up my model number and told me they had no record of it being certified. It turns out that the lift was certified at one point but BendPak let certification lapse on it so it was no longer certified. At this point I was pretty angry because I thought I had bought a certified lift. I had wanted one with certification and was told by everyone at BendPak and Garage Equipment that this lift was certified and I should only buy a certified lift, then they turned around and sold me one that was not certified! BendPak still insisted that the lift was certified but after they checked into it of course they found out it was not. The person I spoke with at ALI told me that I should make BendPak take the lift back and either provide me with a certified lift or get my money back. Between the certification issues (or lack there of), having my credit card charged twice, and the mess I’d been going through trying to get a runway in good condition I was not very happy with Garage Equipment Supply or BendPak. BendPak said they wanted to compensate me. As Jeff Kritzer has mentioned in another post BendPak did send me an additional RJ-6 rolling jack to compensate me for the trouble I’d had and their misrepresentation of the HD-12 lift. I thought that was fair since so far I was out considerable time using the lift, expense traveling to Conway and paying a helper. Not to mention I thought I was getting a certified lift for my purchase price. At that time I didn’t know yet that the lift had been made in China, not California and that they’d mislead me on that as well.


11. On March 11th a runway finally arrived here in perfect condition. I’d made arrangements with a business about 30 miles from here to transfer the runway from the flatbed to my trailer. I was excited that after nearly a month and a half I finally had a complete (or so I thought at the time) lift. I took the runway home and begin assembling the HD-12 the next day.


12. When I got to the point where I needed to install the ladders in the post I could not get them to adjust low enough in the posts. I checked everything again and determined that they were too short. I contacted BendPak and they told me this was a known issue and that some were shipped with studs that were too short. They agreed to ship a new set of ladders out the next day. The next day I found out that there was going to be a delay in getting the new ladders to me because they didn’t have any and would have to make a new set for me. This resulted in almost two weeks of additional downtime while I waited for them to make a set and get them shipped out to me. They also had to ship the pin and cotter keys that hold the hydraulic cylinder in place since those were missing.


13. I finally got the new ladders and finished assembling the lift. The cables / ladders had just enough adjustment for me to raise the lift to the top position (with the lift empty). I noticed my cylinder retainer plate (a thin plate that acts as a lock for the cables) had deformed slightly but I was told that this should not be a problem. I started using the lift and was very happy to finally have it all together and working.

continued:

 

[jcs_in_ky]

Part 3 of 4


14. I used the lift for a while and everything seemed ok. I had to adjust the cables a few times as they stretched but the manual said and I knew that these cables would stretch some over time. Everything seemed fine until one day when I went to raise the lift all the way up and it wouldn’t raise high enough to get into the top ladder windows. I checked adjustment on the cables / ladders and couldn’t get it to work right. It appeared that one of my cables was too short.


15. I contacted BendPak about the above issues, they said they’d get back to me on it and never did. I frankly being to feel that due to the way they’d misrepresented their product and the other problems that it was just a poor company to do business with and I’d probably never get any help in correcting the problems with the lift. Finally a few weeks later I did get a call and they wanted me to send some pictures to them to help diagnose those cable issues. I also told them I was concerned about this plate that had bent, as well as a leak in my hydraulic cylinder. I sent them photos of the deformed plate.


16. The next day I received an email from BendPak telling me that the plate had been damaged because the Cylinder Guide Assembly, a factory installed part, had been installed backwards at the factory. There was also a large washer missing. This piece being installed incorrectly had damaged my cylinder because it allowed one of the cable ends to contact the cylinder and damage it. BendPak told me they were going to overnight me a new retailer plate, and 1” washer. Then they were going to ground ship a new cylinder. I could use the lift safely with the leaking cylinder I had and I needed to do a job on the lift the next day so I disassembled the pieces that night so I could install the new parts when they arrived the next day. At this point I even posted on the forum here praising BendPak’s customer service. They had obviously had some issues before but it seemed like they had corrected them and were really working hard to get this problem fixed ASAP.


17. The next day came and BendPak informed me that they’d made an error and shipped the parts three day instead of next day. This error caused me yet more downtime while I waited for parts. When they arrived I opened them up and found that while they listed a 1” washer on the parts list they actually shipped a 5/8” which was too small. Luckily I had a 1” in my parts room so I was able to use it. I had already reversed the cylinder guide assembly so I was ready to install the new cylinder retainer plate. When I put the plate in place it did not fit correctly. The plate was too big. I called BendPak and they advised me to grind it down to fit. I did that, put my 1” washer on and got the rest of it put back together. Now that the guide assembly had been turned around my cable lengths had changed so I had to readjust them. With the change my cables did have the full range of adjustment in them and didn’t seem to be too long as they did before with the incorrectly installed part.


18. I used the lift but it still would not reach the top windows. My ladders were as low as they could possibly go in the posts. I could adjust the cables to where the lift could reach the top windows but at that point it wouldn’t lower low enough to come all the way down to rest on the base plates. I thought I knew what the problem was but BendPak said they would send a service person out to check the lift. This was on a Friday and they told me that I could call them on the following Monday to see if the service call would be set up for Tuesday or Wednesday.


19. That Monday I was about 90 miles from here working and I got a call from my wife. She said there was a message from the service center and they would have someone at my place in one hour. They are 100 miles from here so the repairperson was already on the way. My wife was leaving so she wouldn’t be there to let them in my shop and there was no way I could come back. I called the repair company and they told me that they did not call first to set an appointment up because BendPak told them there was no need to call, just get to my place as soon as they could. I had to spend a good bit of time making phone calls to get that issue resolved. Finally an appointment was set for later in the week.


20. I still needed to use my lift so I made some adjustments to make it useable again and I also took some measurements. I determined that the lift was raising up to the correct height, and using the full travel of the cylinder. The problem was that the windows were too high on my ladders. I contacted BendPak, they got me some measurements from their specs and it was found that the windows in my ladders were about 2.9” higher then what the specs called for. They said they’d check into this and get me some new ladders sent out the next day.

continued:

 

[jcs_in_ky]

Part 4 of 4


21. The next days comes and I get a phone call telling me that the measurements they gave me were actually for new production ladders and they would get them to me but it will be a one to two month delay. At this point I’m thinking that I’m going to be lucky to have this lift working correctly in the same year I purchased it and I ordered it in January! For some reason they keep making minor changes in their ladder lengths, number of windows, etc. and the tolerances are so close that apparently they work for some people now but not for others.


22. Yesterday I got a phone call from Jeff Kritzer and he says that they are going to try to get some new ladders put together next week. The ladders will be 1” shorter which will lower my top window 1” and make it possible for the lift to get in and out of it. If they come that way, with all the other measurements the same, then it should fix the problems and I think I will finally have a lift that works as advertised.


23. At this point I’m waiting for the new ladders. I can use the lift but can’t raise it all the way up and lock it there. It seems to be a good lift and overall I’m happy with it. I just never anticipated all the time, money, frustration, modifying of parts, and testing I was going to have to do for BendPak to get this product to work as advertised. Some of you have asked me why in the middle of all of this I decided to purchase another BendPak lift (a two post XPR series). When I got to using the four post I quickly found out that while the rolling jack is a good idea it was limited for some applications and was not going to work for some jobs / vehicles that I work on. I realized I need a two post as well. One of my rolling jacks was not unpacked and Garage Equipment Supply agreed to take it back and give me credit for the full purchase price towards another lift. That gave me nearly $1200.00 credit towards the two post and because of that I was pretty much locked into having to buy from Garage Equipment Supply / BendPak again. I have not had time to set the XPR up yet but I’ve inspected it carefully and have high hopes for it. Most of the BendPak issues appear to be centered around the four post lifts so hopefully this XPR will go together smoothly. I’ll be sure to post a review on it when I get it together. I’ve got to finish a couple of other projects here and have a baby on the way the first of Nov. so the XPR project will probably be put off until after that.

For those of you that have made it all the way through this I hope that you will share your comments on it and I hope that JSK will post here about it as well. I’m going to email him a link to this posting.


John

 

[c39er]

Next logical step--- Judge Judy or Joe Brown.

 

[akdiesel]

That is too bad you had to go through all of that.
Thanks for all of the detialed information.
I hope this is just an isolated case.

 

[jay50]

WTF? This 4 part posting by jcs should be a miniseries entitlled: How not to design and market a lift
Reading this expose, jcs experienced 4 problems with this lift purchase:

1. Advertised as ALI certified when it was not: This is totally unexcuseable. Even their website (according to jcs) listed it as ALI certified. The folks at ALI that you talked with said it was no longer certifed but yet Bendpak still advertised it as such?

2) Damage during shipping: Bendpak was very responsive to ship replacement pieces at great expense to resolve this.

3) Advertised as made in USA but made in China? Totally unexcuseable

4) Numerous issues related to design/fit/functionality: The expectations of someone buying a lift, especially one advertised as ALI certifed, would be that 1) all the pieces are complete in the shipment, 2)the lift is functional as described 3) the lift is built in a consistent matter that no modifications to the lift are needed by the end user (after all, it is ALI certified).

This issues related to missing parts, fit, function,etc with this lift point to several process related failures. The biggest concern I would have with that lift is with all the modifications and functionality issues; seems like the design stage is still on-going while it is in production and the enduser is expected to provide the feedback, QC checks, and first article inspection to Bendpak to finalize the design stage.

jcs, you have much more patience than me on such an expensive purchase where the end user expects total reliability and trust in the product. I would have sent it back and purchased elsewhere.

 

[jimval]

Wow what an expeirence.

You were told Made in the USA by Garage Equipment Supply and Bend Pak?

You were told the lift was certified?

Were you told about the relationship between Bendpak and Garage Equipment Supply?


WOW.

Jeff Kritzer's got some big balls telling me not to "slander" Bend Pak with the word deceit.

WOW!

 

[rlme36]

In all honestly I think "stuff" happens, but in this instance it would appear to be too much. I would have reversed the charges on my CC, due to the product not being as advertised and walked away. Life is too short for this type agita.

 

[brownbagg]

i think alot of this is exaggeration, there has been a lot of attack bendpak on here and it comes from one person, I am very happy with my bendpak. it seem like this one person would only be happy if they refunded his money, close the factory and shot the manager. He could never be happy if everything was perfect.

there is always rotary or mohawk out there.

 

[jcs_in_ky]

Jimval,

Garage Equipment Supply and BendPak both told me the lift was made in the USA prior to the purchase. They told me that's one reason I should choose their product over others. BendPak is now telling people that their lifts are imported but they weren't at the time. I actually never did find out that their lifts were made in China until I got my two post here and found the sticker. Their were some clues that should have led me to believe that it could have been imported. One example I can think of is that prior to purchasing the lift I was on the phone with BendPak and one of the questions I asked was if the lift was painted or powder coated. The salesman said "I'm not sure what they are doing now." Thinking back if he was in the same location the factory was he should have had a pretty good idea about things like that. I still may have purchased an imported lift but I think the company should have been honest about it's county of origin. They used the made in the USA thing to persuade me to purchase their product over others that I had looked at.

I was told that the lift was ALI certified and it was advertised as such. The BendPak website said the lift was ALI approved until shortly after I contacted ALI directly. When I was speaking with them they asked me if I wanted to file a complaint. I told them I would like to do that. A couple of days after that the BendPak site no longer said the lift was ALI approved.

I stumbled upon the relationship between BendPak and Garage Equipment. I started getting sale emails from Garage Equipment Supply. I don't remember if I signed up for them or if they started sending them after I made my purchase. I got one of their emails and it had a story about their new NASCAR driver that they were sponsoring. I like racing so I read the story. The story told about their new driver and said something about the owner of Garage Equipment Supply, Gary Henthorn being proud to sponsor him. The name seemed familiar to me and I thought I remember something about it on the BendPak site. When I looked there I found this http://www.bendpak.com/senior_management.php
Upon reviewing that now I see that Gary Henthorn is the CEO, not a VP as I incorrectly stated last night. Anyway I questioned the person I was dealing with at BendPak at the time and he admitted to the connection between the two companies and told me "most people don't know that". He said it really works out well for them and makes it easy to get things done.

Brownbagg,

You are lucky if you've had such good luck with your BendPak lift and I'm very envious of you. You are also exaggerating in your post. I expect to pay for a product I receive, however I do expect it to work as advertised. I hope the company does stay open since I've got a few of their products and would like to be able to get parts from them in the future. I'm trying to work with them now to get this resolved, can't do that with them if there shot as you claim I'd like to have happen. If everything wa perfect or close to it I'd be extremely happy. I wonder if you were in my shoes if you'd be as happy as you are now. I've spent a considerable amount of money and ended up with a considerable amount of frustration. Considering everything I've been through I bet I've been more patient than some might have been. When I bought the lift I never expected to have to be testing and doing trouble shooting for the factory just to make it work as advertised. If you think I'm not happy you should hear from my wife. She's really upset about all the money we've wasted and the amount of time I've had to spend on this. Her vehicle was one of the first that I needed to use the lift to repair. She wasn't happy about it sitting there for two months or so waiting to get a lift that worked as advertised.

I do appreciate BendPak sticking with me and getting a good runway to me. Like I said I believe the trucking and BendPak both share in the blame. I don't know if BendPak was reimbursed for damage claims or not. The trucking company told me that they may not pay out due to the way the pieces were packed. They said the pieces should have been crated. I know that adds to the cost but I think I would have paid a little more to have the lift a month and a half sooner and not go through all the hassle and expense. If you sell a product you have to find ways to pack it so it can survive shipping. I'm sure given the large, awkward products that BendPak sells that packing them can be a challenge. On a much smaller scale we used to be in the antiques / collectibles business. We purchase a large LP, vinyl record collection at an auction and sold them over the internet. Out of the first batch of records shipped out, which was about 8 or 9 packages, I think about 50% of them arrived damaged. We'd shipped them through a couple of shipping companies too and both had broken packages. We immediately apologized to the customers and sent them a full refund but it was obvious to use that if we were going to continue selling that product we needed to improve on the packing so they could arrive in one piece. We worked on a better way to pack them and after that we shipped out almost 500 packages and I think there was only one damage claim. The bottom line is that unfortunately shipping companies are hard on the products they ship and it's up to the person shipping the item to package it so it survives the journey with the shipping company.

 

[jimval]

i think alot of this is exaggeration, there has been a lot of attack bendpak on here and it comes from one person, I am very happy with my bendpak. it seem like this one person would only be happy if they refunded his money, close the factory and shot the manager. He could never be happy if everything was perfect.

there is always rotary or mohawk out there.

BaggofBrown,
Show me in ONE place on the Bend Pak website where it's states that Bend Pak lifts are made in China? Just one.

 

[e-tek]

OMG - you guys are still on about this???

GUESS WHAT - I JUST GOT BACK FROM CHINA!!!!

Although I was there for the Olympic Games, I did much research on various things Made in China, for USA and Canadian Businesses. The quality of most things made is exactly what the producer specifies and the Chinese are often dumb-founded when told to cut corners or "make it cheaper"....
Everything is less expensive in China - a Coke is 50cents, shoes are $15.00, cabs are a few percent of US/Canada prices, etc. North Americans are being RIPPED off for everything we pay for, due to mark-ups made by profiteering buisnesses.

Anyways, my BendPak has also been a GREAT experience from start to end and I'm sure there are THOUSANDS of silent happy customers...and a few LOUD unhappy ones...and one - the LOUDEST - is a guy who doesn't even own one!

 

[jcs_in_ky]

e-tek, It's not so much that I'm upset about the BendPak lifts being made in China. Under ideal circumstances everything could be made here in the US like it used to be but unfortunately that's not the case now. Every day more and more companies are laying off American workers and having their products produced overseas. Unfortunately for those companies if they want to remain in business and stay competitive they really aren't left with any choice but to do what everyone else has done. My main concern with the country of origin was simply that I wasn't given an honest answer when I inquired about it. Would I have still bought the product, maybe. Would I still be as upset about the other issues I've had to deal with if the product was made in th USA, absolutely! Am I disappointed that I at the time of purchase I thought I was buying a lift made in the USA that was certified, I sure am. That's no different then if you went and bought a new car and knew you wanted one with a V-8. The dealer tells you that it has one because they know that's what you want and they know telling you that is what it takes to make the sale. You get it home, open the hood and find a 4 cylinder. Would you be upset with the company for misrepresenting a product to make the sale to you? I bet you would.

At this point I really don't care where the lift was produced, I just want it to work right. I've spent X number of dollars for a product that is advertised to be able to do certain things. It doesn't do all of those things and I'd like it to live up to it's advertising / specs. Is there anything wrong with that??

 

[e-tek]

Nope, nothing wrong with that. But most people are just a little disappointed with such things and do not write 10 page rant on it. When things go wrong and manufacturers do nothing, I'm all over it, but when they DO try to rectify, I'm generally happy and again, not intent on writing 10 pagers on them. Most products are bitched about online - few manufacturers actually read what is written and respond to it. I think you not only purchased the best lift out there, you are backed by the best VP from any of these companies and THAT is what you should be extolling.
Just my 2cents...

 

[rickairmedic]

The fact that the lift was misrepresented in the first place would piss me off . I buy plenty of HF Chinese tools but I know going in they are made in China . I walk into a tool store to buy a tool made in the USA buy it and later find out it was made in China I am a little peeved and thats what a 20-30 buck tool . Lifts are not cheap by any stretch and to me if the company said it was made in the good old USA ( when asked straight out ) and I find out later it was made in China I would be exteemly pissed off . I would also be quite pissed if I had laid out that kind of money and had a giant erector set I had to modify to make it work right . I expect to have to modify thing I buy at HF but I get them cheap knowing I am gon na have to tinker with them to get them to work right . I think JCS is quite justified in being pissed off enough to write a 50 page letter after what he has gone through and is by all accounts still going through.

Rick

 

[jcs_in_ky]

E-tek, I can't blame you for having good things to say about your lift and BendPak. It seems like you've had excellent luck with it and if I was in your position I'd be doing the same thing. Unfortunately the same can't be said about mine and you really can't expect me to be on here praising the product and the manufacturer when the product has as many issues as this one does. BendPak is supposed to be in the process of getting me new ladders out and that should fix the problems. There's really no excuse for not shipping out a product that works correctly right out of the package and there's no reason to put a customer through everything I've been through. This will be the third set of ladders I've had, counting the set that came with the lift. I understand things go wrong no matter how good a product is, and that's what the warranty is for. Typically that warranty period is not used to correct design flaws, poor quality control, etc,

Does anyone know how long the HD-9 / HD-12 series of lifts have been in production?

 

[jimval]

Nope, nothing wrong with that. But most people are just a little disappointed with such things and do not write 10 page rant on it. .......I think you not only purchased the best lift out there, you are backed by the best VP from any of these companies and THAT is what you should be extolling.
Just my 2cents...

LOL. You should interview for a job with John McCain. I could just see it.

Originally posted by e-tek:
"What are you talking about? Yeah so George Bush and the Republican deregulation experts failed but you should be extolling the great job they are doing trying to fix it with the $700 billion dollar taxpayer financed bailout"

The immediate term that comes to mind is whackjob..............

 

[e-tek]

Easy Jimval....
Not only do you go on...and on and on....about a lift you don't even own, now you're pretending posters are writing things they didn't....
...you're making yourself look more the fool than is necessary!

 

[revlover]

i think alot of this is exaggeration, there has been a lot of attack bendpak on here and it comes from one person, I am very happy with my bendpak. it seem like this one person would only be happy if they refunded his money, close the factory and shot the manager. He could never be happy if everything was perfect.

I agree...

 

[ovilla]

Easy Jimval....
Not only do you go on...and on and on....about a lift you don't even own, now you're pretending posters are writing things they didn't....
...you're making yourself look more the fool than is necessary!

e-tek - What do you expect from a guy that goes to www.garagejournal.com each day and the first thing he does is a search on the word "BendPak"?

jimval - Grab both ears and chant "Wuuuza, wuuuza!". Dude, you've got to chill out. You're going to wear yourself out and get an ulcer with each BendPak thread. I think we should all take up a collection here and get you your very own BendPak lift so that you can finally have YOUR own experience to share. Only then might you have a different point of view. Come on, they can't be that bad. Even greggsmith (where you bought your lift) sells BendPak so they must have some faith in the product line (and trust that you wouldn't have to modify each one as you always point out). This is an isolated case and not the norm. Just look at how many happy customers are out there on this site alone. Anyway, until then, just be yourself, as I would expect nothing less from you.

jcs_in_ky - Thanks for sharing. I know it's difficult to relive these events but at least it gives everyone your point of view of what's been going on and helps clarify things. Keep working with BendPak as we've always seen that they do take care of their customers. Just from reading your thread I can already tell that they're not even making anything anymore on the sale of your 4 post lift and simply want to rectify the situation. That says a lot and is rare in today's world. I still think that you bought one of the best lifts out there. By the way, you're right in that I've never heard of any issues with any two post units yet. That is quite interesting.

 

[Aahz]

WOW! I haven't been on this site in AGES.....but the topics remain the same...LOL

As much as I sympathize with anyone that has had to put up with the poor quality of some of these manufacturers...you seem to be one of the lucky few. It sounds like Bend Pak fumbled the ball all the way to the finish line!

This story illustrates why so many folks that are professional lift installers will not install Bend Pak's products anymore. Imagine if you had paid someone to install this lift ...recommended by the manufacturer of course.

That poor sucker would have been in the middle of this story and the $650.00 he was being paid wouldn't have been nearly enough to deal with all of the headaches and problems.

One other thing, if a manufacturer EVER told me to modify his product by grinding, welding, etc. to fix THEIR defect, I would ship the product back to them and say do it yourself! The minute you start doing modifications, the manufacturer can (and will) absolve themselves of any liability down the road.

 

[jezlberry]

WOW! I haven't been on this site in AGES.....but the topics remain the same...LOL

As much as I sympathize with anyone that has had to put up with the poor quality of some of these manufacturers...you seem to be one of the lucky few. It sounds like Bend Pak fumbled the ball all the way to the finish line!

This story illustrates why so many folks that are professional lift installers will not install Bend Pak's products anymore. Imagine if you had paid someone to install this lift ...recommended by the manufacturer of course.

I Know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just finished installing a XP9F for a local client who couldn't finish it himself. Here is what we found:

The pulley brackets for the single point lock release were welded on crooked.

The Cable retainer brackets were welded on the WRONG Side of the carriage.

When we removed the pulleys to route the equalization cables, the bushings fell out onto the floor on all of them.

This symmetrical lift had two different arms from front to rear. The rear arms had a reinforcement bracket which required a longer arm pin which coincidentally didn't come with the lift.

The new improved larger lifting pads are so big that in the low position you cannot turn them

If this is the "best quality lift" available, then we are in big trouble!

 

[jcs_in_ky]

I talked to two different installers in this area and they've pretty much told me the same thing. They don't like installing BendPak lifts because they have to make too many trips back to fix all of the problems. It's hard for them in this area too because they travel an average of 50 - 100 miles one way.
BendPak has a new set of ladders on the way to me (this will be my third set). Hopefully these will fix the problem.

 

[revlover]

I think more people have positive things to say about BendPak and the products they OWN than the people who come on here to bash BendPak and don't even own BendPak's product themselves.

Sounds like a lot of people are just inexperienced.

 

[jimval]

...people who come on here to bash BendPak and don't even own BendPak's product themselves.

Um yeah, that's how it works. Years ago if someone had a bad experience with a company or product, that person told ten friends. Those ten friends each told their own ten friends. This is how companies get bad reputations
over time.

Thanks to the internet, now one person can tell thousands (or more) in one shot. When a company does something wrong they have to live with the consequences.

We have every right to discuss other individual's Bendpak exeperiences. That's why people post them here. We don't like the fact that people are being misled with fancy words on Bendpak's website when all they have to state is that their lifts are made in China. We don't like the fact that some people had defective lifts from the factory. Defective as in fit and function out of the box. If you have a problem with our dislike of Bendpak for these reasons; <b>T.S.</b>

I received my Northern Tool and Equipment catalog for this Fall/Winter where U.S.A. is on all the Bendpak ads. Don't know when it was printed. I do know it is fraud.

If I ever order something that states U.S.A. and it arrives with "Made in China" on it, the first place I will call is my credit card company. Talk about a bunch of deceptive ****............

 

[e-tek]

Hey Jimval,
I have a saying - "I'm sure people are not as bad as they seem sometimes....". Which could apply to all of the people here!!

Anyways, I was looking more closely at your Sig and noted you have a Conv. Vette - any good pics to share?? Would love to see it!

 

[akdiesel]

The information we gather from the internet is a double edged sword.
We all hope that these paticular sites have value and trust in experience.

 

[revlover]

I agree with what you're saying, jimval... and I don't have a problem with your opinions whatsoever. In fact, your unbiased opinions are what people on this forum need. Non-biased product reviews go a long way.

In my opinion, BendPak's reputation relies on their customer support and the quality of their products. We've witnessed a couple of mishaps that BendPak is providing supreme customer support for and we've also witnessed much praise from many users for a quality product.

And so, the debate continues!

Btw, your signature is very clever... "no plasma cutting required" LOL