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Posted: 12/8/2009 10:42:50 AM EDT
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So is Lee Precision customer service useless? I got a bad case trimmer, cuts too short when tight in the cutter, and they want me to send it back? A $4 part, really? RCBS or Dillion would have just sent a replacement.
And when they responded to the first email they just sent me the blurb from their website about the warranty. No greeting, no thank you for being a customer, no here is our number if you have further questions. |
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So is Lee Precision customer service useless? I got a bad case trimmer, cuts too short when tight in the cutter, and they want me to send it back? A $4 part, really? RCBS or Dillion would have just sent a replacement. And when they responded to the first email they just sent me the blurb from their website about the warranty. No greeting, no thank you for being a customer, no here is our number if you have further questions. I also give their CS a 5/10. I had to spend $5 to send in my 223 dies to have some scraping fixed ......... and it scrapes further down the body (though less deep overall) than before lol. Works fine regardless fortunately. Maybe I'll size 5-6 steel cases to smooth it out for sure 
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| I lost the lid for a powder dispenser, I contacted lee and asked how much one would be shipped I got a email back from them with a price of the lid and shipping and they also said they would just send me the lid for free. I didnt have to pay shipping or for the part. I know it was a very cheap part, but I did loose the thing and they sent me a new one free. So I think they have decent customer service. |
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I don't know for sure and I'm not speaking directly to your situation.............
But maybe, LEE wants to checkout claims of "defective part(s)?" Maybe, just to check the specs? Do you remember? The posts where someone claims that they have a "defective die" when all it was.............was that the person didn't read his instructions or didn't KNOW HOW to make the correct adjustments to get the desired results? Then not to mention, the posts from those that have abused their dies and expect a FREE replacement. Or guys who break a de-capping pin (doing Berdan brass) and expect the manufacturer to send a free replacement. _______________________ As for the other stuff.......... Well, yes.........some manufacturers are BETTER than others with, "being nice." So...........now that you KNOW and since you're not happy.........you're always free to buy from someone else. I figure............ Manufacturers can make mistakes. I can accept that some things can slip by. Though, IF a manufacturer continues to have problems........maybe, they won't (or shouldn't) continue to be in business. Or maybe............I'm just easier to please? Whatever. Aloha, Mark |
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I don't know for sure and I'm not speaking directly to your situation............. But maybe, LEE wants to checkout claims of "defective part(s)?" Maybe, just to check the specs? Do you remember? The posts where someone claims that they have a "defective die" when all it was.............was that the person didn't read his instructions or didn't KNOW HOW to make the correct adjustments to get the desired results? Then not to mention, the posts from those that have abused their dies and expect a FREE replacement. Or guys who break a de-capping pin (doing Berdan brass) and expect the manufacturer to send a free replacement. _______________________ As for the other stuff.......... Well, yes.........some manufacturers are BETTER than others with, "being nice." So...........now that you KNOW and since you're not happy.........you're always free to buy from someone else. I figure............ Manufacturers can make mistakes. I can accept that some things can slip by. Though, IF a manufacturer continues to have problems........maybe, they won't (or shouldn't) continue to be in business. Or maybe............I'm just easier to please? Whatever. Aloha, Mark I completely agree if they wanted to double check their QC and asked if I would send it back and they would immediately send a new one but that wasn't the case. I have been using their trimmers for .223, 7MM mag, 30-06 and .444 for quite some time so I can tell if it wasn't right so can my calipers, seriously if you can't use a Lee trimmer you should not be reloading. Of course if you can't read instructions in general you should not be reloading. Point taken with the die set but there are a tad bit adjustments than their trimmer set-up, so I can see checking equipment on that. Maybe it was just the non-personal email that was just a reply and cut and paste from their warranty section. If they would have said sorry about that, please send it in so we can check our work and we will send a new one I would have been happy. |
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I just got a new six caity mold after having good success with two other lee molds. This mold was out of spec and dropping bullets .006" over the stated size. I tried all the tricks in the book to drop smaller bullets but the smallest bullet I could drop was still .005" over.
I emailed them and ask for a call tag to ship the mold back for another one. They say they don't do call tags and I end up spending $9 to ship it back. It's lame that I had to add an additional $9 to the cost of the mold, not to mention the hassle of sending it back and not having a product that was defective from the start, at no fault of my own. I understand that they want the item back to inspect it, but I shouldn't have to foot the cost of shipping on a product that should never have passed qc and left the factory. So yeah, as someone mentioned: 5/10 |
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I'm in the 50% that have had nothing but good service from Lee.
I broke the pin off of my decapper due to a stuck case. I sent an e-mail with the explanation of how I broke it along with a picture of the broken decapper. No problem, they just sent me a replacement decapper at no charge. |
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I like the email them a picture idea. I recently sent a broken de-capping rod and a hand primer handle to Lee. Nine days later I had replacements in the mail. The only reason I did it was to make sure we were on the same page on the part I was looking for. Their return e-mail said they knew what part it was and one would be in the mail that day. It's probably been two years since that happened. |
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It seems to me (no confirmation from them) they view their stuff as cheap enough to be disposable if there is a problem. IOW, throw it away and buy another one and hope for better results.
It is understandable to not want to pay $6 to ship back a three dollar part, but you can also understand THEY don't want to send a return ticket which costs them $6 to return something they made a nickel on. If you buy the cheapest equipment there are going to be occasional problems. Most of their stuff works well and is made better than the price would indicate. I strongly recommend against their pot metal presses, but everything else is GTG. 
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| I read this and posted in it the other day. Then the night before last, I broke the same part again; the handle on my lee auto prime hand primer. I read in here that someone took a pic and sent it to them, so I tried that. They responded saying since I sent a picture of the damaged product, they would send me the replacement part for free and not to worry about shipping the broken item to them. They get a +1 from me on this transaction. |
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As for the broken part on the LEE hand primer tool..........is it this part?
http://www.leeprecision.com/graphics/parts/1003.jpg If your answer is YES. Well, YES, they do break when overstressed. It's $2.50 plus shipping. They are made of "pot metal." Years ago I had one break and ordered several replacements. I also suggested that they improve their product with better metal. So, years have gone by and I haven't broken the replacement part, yet. Anyway, I figure that they may be engineered to fail in order to protect the main body of the priming tool. So, think about WHY......... Perhaps, it's beacuse the brass wasn't properly prepped (was the primer crimp completely removed)? How was the alignment of the shell in the shell holder? Was the brass made properly........perhaps an off centered primer cup opening? Also, have you noted that some primer brands (like CCI) are harder to seat vs. another brand? Are these situations LEE's fault? Then............also check for "wear" on the part. On mine, I've seen that over the years it wears. So, I'm having a little more "movement" of the handle vs. when the part was new. The "efficiency" is somewhat lost (if you know what I mean). But, it still works. Anyway, at this point (after all these years).............IF, I break mine...........I won't be complaining to LEE. Just my .02. Aloha, Mark |
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As for the OP............
Are you talking about the Case trimmer - Cutter and Lock Stud (90110) and Case Length Gauge w/ Shell Holder (90114) as found on this page? http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1260469981.2597=/html/catalog/casecon.html If your answer is YES. Well........you can screw it ALL THE WAY IN (I really got that sucker tight)...........and you might get your cut case length, too short. I've done it. But........just uncrew it alittle and "viola." It's now a little longer and you'll get longer cases. Loc Tight the threads and it stays where you want it. Aloha, Mark PS...........some people, may not want to loc tight the parts together. Afterall, it was meant to be "multi-caliber" friendly. But..........I figure that it's cheap enough to have one for every caliber. Your thinking may be different and I respect that. |
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As for the broken part on the LEE hand primer tool..........is it this part? http://www.leeprecision.com/graphics/parts/1003.jpg If your answer is YES. Well, YES, they do break when overstressed. It's $2.50 plus shipping. They are made of "pot metal." Years ago I had one break and ordered several replacements. I also suggested that they improve their product with better metal. So, years have gone by and I haven't broken the replacement part, yet. Anyway, I figure that they may be engineered to fail in order to protect the main body of the priming tool. So, think about WHY......... Perhaps, it's beacuse the brass wasn't properly prepped (was the primer crimp completely removed)? How was the alignment of the shell in the shell holder? Was the brass made properly........perhaps an off centered primer cup opening? Also, have you noted that some primer brands (like CCI) are harder to seat vs. another brand? Are these situations LEE's fault? Then............also check for "wear" on the part. On mine, I've seen that over the years it wears. So, I'm having a little more "movement" of the handle vs. when the part was new. The "efficiency" is somewhat lost (if you know what I mean). But, it still works. Anyway, at this point (after all these years).............IF, I break mine...........I won't be complaining to LEE. Just my .02. Aloha, Mark It was asctually this part.... http://www.leeprecision.com/graphics/parts/1002.jpg I think it was due to the mil crimp not all the way removed. I have since got a Dillon Super Swage and it seems the problem with the mil crimps have disappeared. I wish they made the parts out of something stronger, but either way, Lee has stood behind their products no matter what the cause of the failure is. Same can be said for Dillon. |
| I've always found Lee to be about average for CS. They don't seem to go out of their way to always make things right as quickly and easily as possible, but they seem to eventually. The first thing they always seem to say is that they need you to send the defective parts to them. Sometimes you need to ask them if they can just send out a replacement part (especially if it is only a few dollars and would cost more to ship). I guess it all depends on how you interact with them. If you expect them to just offer Dillon like CS, you will probably be quickly disappointed. If you dialogue with them and explain your situation, they may just surprise you with adequate CS. |
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I ordered a replacement decapping pin and afterwards realized I needed the collet that holds it too(gift dies from a buddy). When I called the lady said the had already shipped my order(fast!) but she put one in an envelope for me free of charge. A+ service for me....
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I have all lee stuff, I have not however dealt with their customer service.
I've only been reloading for 6 months. So far, I've considered everything I have broken to be my fault (including mangled brass, bullets and primers in the early days). As for the customer service thing, I always give a company a few chances and then I move on. First time it breaks I usually evaluate if it's my fault or not. My fault I buy a new one, their fault I contact them. If they satisfy me I will stick with them for now. If I end up with two bad interactions with customer service, I will contact them and ask to speak to management. I let them know that they are about to lose a paying customer. Tell them that it's no skin off my nose either way, I just thought they should know why this particular customer would not be buying their products anymore. The outcome of this dictates if I move on or not. This is what I would want if I ran a business. The information and opportunity. And as for shipping, try living in Alaska. That's why I more often than not just end up going and buying another one. |
Hilarious 
Within 24 hours of posting that I had not ever needed Lees customer service, I broke a piece on my new Challenger Breech Lock Press. I was sizing and one of the linkage blocks (unsure if that's what it is called) breaks. A crack near the connection point of the pull lever. As I had just seen it in this thread, I took pictures and emailed them to lee with an explanation and a screenshot of my midway invoice from last month. I mentioned that I was hoping to get a replacement piece, also mentioning that the identical piece on the oppoite side was probably part of the same lot as the bad one. I just got an email from Lee saying they are sending me two replacements immediately. Free of charge. This is filed under a positive interaction with customer service. I like lee because I'm hard on stuff and it is inexpensive. So far, the only time I felt it was Lee's fault, they immediately fixed it. That's all it takes to keep me as a customer. |
| I had the same thing happen to me with RCBS. I had defective mega tumbler and they made me send it back, $26 to ship so I was out as well but that's the chance you take. I called Lee one day and asked if I could order a new decapping for my 223 dies (well past the 2 year mark), yeah they just shipped it, no charge not even handling so I can't really say anything bad about Lee, they don't even claim lifetime warranty. |
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UPDATE -
So I took the advice here of sending a pic of the trimmer post and I threw it in my calipers thinking that would be an easy way to see that it was out of spec. I also sent the receipt showing purchase within two years. Unbelievable - they wrote me back and said I measured the post wrong not tip to tip but the base to the tip. Really are you kidding me? The engineer couldn't subtract the length of the threads to get the shorter length. Maybe they were thinking the threads were out of spec too? WTF? That does it for me.... I'll stick with RCBS and Blue Koolaid from now on. Sinclair upgraded Wilson micro trimmer was calling my name anyhow. Maybe it is the luck of the draw for me, but they lost this customer. |
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I have only broken two things made by Lee (almost all of my equipment is Lee). The first was the decapping pin from a universal decapper. Apparently a 22 LR case fell into a 30-06 case I was depriming. It punched clean through the bottom of the 22 case and punched out the primer. I broke the pin trying to get the damn .22 case off. I bought a couple of replacements from Midway. Certainly not Lee's fault that I managed to snap the pin. The other item was that same pot metal piece of the Lee Safety prime. |
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Just about everything I own that isn't electric is Lee. Great stuff and much less expensive than the alternatives.
You are upset because a professional engineer whom you set to a problem is asking for more info? That is like being pissed at your mechanic when he asks you when your last oil change was. I highly doubt the Lee employee would have wasted his time and yours without reason. Lee has never, ever, failed to honor their equipment above and beyond for me. Even on occasion when I send them something I broke (through my own stupidity) and a check I usually get a Lee pamphlet, a new part, and my check back! I had an issue with my Loadmaster and when I couldn't figure out what the Lee engineer was asking me to do he sent me a series of photographs that he took on a new press and wrote me a step-by-step guide explaining what to do (it was clearly not a canned response)......never once accusing me of failing to read the instructions properly (which was the problem all along). Darn bullet feeder was kicking my ass! |
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Another big +1 for Lee Customer Service. I sent them my .223 die with a broken decapping pin (yeah, should have just sent the pin) on about the 10th of December. Today I got a box with my die and a new decapper. They cleaned my die, installed the pin, and put in a Merry Christmas post-it-note.
I'll be buying Lee stuff in the future. There C/S is a LOT better than S&W, Bombardier (Evinrude), or Dell. KA |
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