New BendPak HD-9XW & Lift Comparison
Hello everyone. We just finished installing our new BendPak HD-9XW lift and I wanted to share my experience regarding both the BendPak company and their products.
The story begins like many others with the decision to purchase an automotive lift and then the hours upon hours of research to decide on a manufacturer. Several lift manufacturers exist today but many have also gone out of business. So, not only was lift design and quality a concern but also whether or not the manufacturer would be in business five years from now to support their product. BendPak officially started in 1979 and has been growing ever since. The long history of quality and good customer service gave me peace of mind that they would be around in the future to provide support for their products. After reviewing and evaluating many lift manufacturers on product design, company image, quality of documentation, ease of contacting, promptness of replies to questions, and costs we decided on BendPak as the supplier of our new automotive lift.
There were some hiccups along the way in the ordering, delivery, and installation process which I’ll touch on briefly next. After contacting several BendPak distributors, some good and some bad (one even hung up on me to avoid answering product questions), we decided to make our purchase through Garage Equipment Supply (GES). Both Sarah and Joe of GES were very helpful in answering questions and troubleshooting order issues.
An important part of the order was scheduling. Receiving a lift is not a simple effort unless you happen to have your own personal forklift and of course most freight hubs are not open for pick-up on the weekend. So, for us it took careful planning, rental equipment, and time taken off from work for everyone who was helping. As such, the delivery date of the lift was a critical item. We ordered our lift, had a delivery date identified (with two extra weeks added for cushion), and confirmed that the lift was in stock when the order was placed. The weeks went by and the lift, surprisingly, did not ship. As it turned out the HD-9XW was in demand and the inventory was not matched to the orders. Although the lift was in stock when ordered we did not get allocated one of the in-stock lifts. Initially we were very concerned about how it appeared that BendPak was managing the ordering and inventory process. However, after speaking with BendPak directly I was informed that BendPak’s sales were up 30% and they were working very diligently to not only upgrade their ordering and inventory control software to SAP but also building a huge new $65 million dollar 480,000 square-foot manufacturing facility that would nearly double the size of their current capacity. BendPak also made every effort to rush the order upon receiving new HD-9XW stock to try and meet the original delivery date as closely as possible. Although we had to reschedule the time off from work and rental equipment BendPak’s personal attention to our order and explanation of efforts to improve their ordering and delivery process satisfied our frustration with the ordering error.
Overall BendPak did a great job of packing the lift for shipping. Each runway was its own separate shipping piece and served as a base to which the other components were added. Each piece was wrapped in several layers of card board to help avoid damage to the powder coat and where necessary extra steel angles were used to keep parts separated. The entire runway package was then wrapped in several more layers of cardboard finished with many layers of shrink wrap plastic. We were very pleased with BendPak’s attention to detail in the shipping packaging. There were a couple of items that did not ship well as they were packed but after providing feedback, including photos, to BendPak they corrected the issues and made changes to insure other customers did not experience the same problem.
After unpacking the pieces several part issues were discovered. We notified BendPak of the part errors and they were promptly corrected. Assembling the lift took some time as each installation has it unique design challenges. However, along the way the BendPak representatives were readily available to answer questions in a prompt manner. Throughout the entire process BendPak really did a great job of making us feel like we were their only customer, providing a personal connection to our order and lift installation project. That is no small effort considering their large customer base and vast product line. It is difficult in today’s age to find a large company that can afford to provide that level of customer service.
We are very happy with the decision to purchase our lift from BendPak. When considering a lift purchase the decision cannot be based solely on cost alone as any savings can easily be lost in wasted time, cost to correct problems, or sheer frustration in not being able to get the manufacturer to respond to questions. And don’t forget that the shipping cost is included in BendPak’s lift cost. With other manufacturer’s you must add the shipping costs to the lift list price. In the end, we got a great quality lift, were provided with prompt personal courteous customer service, and have the peace of mind knowing that the company that made our lift will be around for years to come to provide support for their products. We highly recommend considering BendPak for your lift purchase.
I hope you find my story helpful when making your purchase decision.
Regards,
Jim
Hello everyone. We just finished installing our new BendPak HD-9XW lift and I wanted to share my experience regarding both the BendPak company and their products.
The story begins like many others with the decision to purchase an automotive lift and then the hours upon hours of research to decide on a manufacturer. Several lift manufacturers exist today but many have also gone out of business. So, not only was lift design and quality a concern but also whether or not the manufacturer would be in business five years from now to support their product. BendPak officially started in 1979 and has been growing ever since. The long history of quality and good customer service gave me peace of mind that they would be around in the future to provide support for their products. After reviewing and evaluating many lift manufacturers on product design, company image, quality of documentation, ease of contacting, promptness of replies to questions, and costs we decided on BendPak as the supplier of our new automotive lift.
There were some hiccups along the way in the ordering, delivery, and installation process which I’ll touch on briefly next. After contacting several BendPak distributors, some good and some bad (one even hung up on me to avoid answering product questions), we decided to make our purchase through Garage Equipment Supply (GES). Both Sarah and Joe of GES were very helpful in answering questions and troubleshooting order issues.
An important part of the order was scheduling. Receiving a lift is not a simple effort unless you happen to have your own personal forklift and of course most freight hubs are not open for pick-up on the weekend. So, for us it took careful planning, rental equipment, and time taken off from work for everyone who was helping. As such, the delivery date of the lift was a critical item. We ordered our lift, had a delivery date identified (with two extra weeks added for cushion), and confirmed that the lift was in stock when the order was placed. The weeks went by and the lift, surprisingly, did not ship. As it turned out the HD-9XW was in demand and the inventory was not matched to the orders. Although the lift was in stock when ordered we did not get allocated one of the in-stock lifts. Initially we were very concerned about how it appeared that BendPak was managing the ordering and inventory process. However, after speaking with BendPak directly I was informed that BendPak’s sales were up 30% and they were working very diligently to not only upgrade their ordering and inventory control software to SAP but also building a huge new $65 million dollar 480,000 square-foot manufacturing facility that would nearly double the size of their current capacity. BendPak also made every effort to rush the order upon receiving new HD-9XW stock to try and meet the original delivery date as closely as possible. Although we had to reschedule the time off from work and rental equipment BendPak’s personal attention to our order and explanation of efforts to improve their ordering and delivery process satisfied our frustration with the ordering error.
Overall BendPak did a great job of packing the lift for shipping. Each runway was its own separate shipping piece and served as a base to which the other components were added. Each piece was wrapped in several layers of card board to help avoid damage to the powder coat and where necessary extra steel angles were used to keep parts separated. The entire runway package was then wrapped in several more layers of cardboard finished with many layers of shrink wrap plastic. We were very pleased with BendPak’s attention to detail in the shipping packaging. There were a couple of items that did not ship well as they were packed but after providing feedback, including photos, to BendPak they corrected the issues and made changes to insure other customers did not experience the same problem.
After unpacking the pieces several part issues were discovered. We notified BendPak of the part errors and they were promptly corrected. Assembling the lift took some time as each installation has it unique design challenges. However, along the way the BendPak representatives were readily available to answer questions in a prompt manner. Throughout the entire process BendPak really did a great job of making us feel like we were their only customer, providing a personal connection to our order and lift installation project. That is no small effort considering their large customer base and vast product line. It is difficult in today’s age to find a large company that can afford to provide that level of customer service.
We are very happy with the decision to purchase our lift from BendPak. When considering a lift purchase the decision cannot be based solely on cost alone as any savings can easily be lost in wasted time, cost to correct problems, or sheer frustration in not being able to get the manufacturer to respond to questions. And don’t forget that the shipping cost is included in BendPak’s lift cost. With other manufacturer’s you must add the shipping costs to the lift list price. In the end, we got a great quality lift, were provided with prompt personal courteous customer service, and have the peace of mind knowing that the company that made our lift will be around for years to come to provide support for their products. We highly recommend considering BendPak for your lift purchase.
I hope you find my story helpful when making your purchase decision.
Regards,
Jim
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