Tools Plus

Full review
Hello to the woodworking crowd! I placed two orders with Tools Plus (tools-plus.com), both in January of 2008. I do not have any prior experience ordering tools off of the Internet, so I am pleased to share my initial experience with this particular vendor.

The first tool I ordered is a big one. It is the Delta 43-495X Shaper. MSRP on this unit is $2,199. In a competitive bidding process (otherwise known as comparison shopping), Tools Plus came in with the lowest bid, at $1,905.50, including shipping. I did try to place their bid against another firm offering this machine at $1,899, but they could not beat Tools Plus's offer of $1,905.50 ($1,899 + $6.50 for shipping). Offline stores in Minnesota would have assessed sales tax for this item and were not competitive. In addition, this machine weighs approximately 300 pounds, so hauling it back from an offline store would have been a job. Tools Plus delivered it to our door.

I must correct myself. The order for the Shaper was actually placed on 12/28/07. It arrived from the freight company on January 16 (2008). I was told that an item like this takes some time to get moved from place to place and when I saw it in our garage post-delivery, I could see why. Also, it should be noted that this time period included at least one official holiday (New Year's) and likely some other time off by their staff since I placed the order during the week of Christmas.

I must also note that taking delivery of an item like this shaper needs assistance from the customer (me), else I would have had to pay Tools Plus additional shipping charges (in the range of $150) to have the delivery company literally drop it off onto the ground. I live on a farm site and so there are people here nearly around the clock. Somebody here signed for it and needed to use a Bobcat with a fork lift accessory to lift the two pallets off of the freight truck. The driver refused to deliver the item without assistance, although he didn't say what this meant. I knew we had the help here to deal with it, so it wasn't an issue for me, but my educated guess is that your average Joe Suburbanite would need to pay extra to take delivery of this. Because of the value of the item and its size, it needs to be inspected on the spot before the driver leaves, else it is - in my case - my responsibility for any discrepancies or damages. Obviously, it needed to be signed for.

Now with all of that out of the way, I would like to talk about the customer service experience portion of the order and using the website.

I actually placed the order over the Web before consulting with Tools Plus and I think that was a mistake, but I say that only because I think for most people, it would be wise to talk to these people before you go ahead and place an order for a 300 pound machine. I was naive, but in the end it didn't hurt me. Tools Plus has been just excellent to work with. After placing the order, I talked to somebody over the phone and she was especially assigned to handle Web orders, which was nice because I talked to her three times in sum, I believe. I called in initially to talk about the shipping and she told me about the process. Very straight forward approach and reassuring. And when I followed up the next week and one final time for shipping updates, she knew exactly what the situation was and the ETA she gave me for delivery was exactly when it arrived.

Tools Plus's website is not flashy, but it is very functional. Probably stuck in 2002-2003 technology, their website isn't interactive in any way, no closeups available for photos of machines, etc. But I obtained that information at other websites, so I was just shopping for price. The website has descriptive product pages and is easy to navigate. Its prices are accurate and up to date. The checkout process is streamlined and effective. I promptly received a confirmation email - in HTML - with my order number and full description of the order.

So in summary, their Web interface is perfectly adequate. Plenty well enough for the shopping experience I was looking for. You CANNOT however create an account at their website for use of, say, order tracking. This is where the website is dated. They would obviously benefit from customer loyalty if they let people sign up for accounts and have a more personalized experience. So that is not an option. But since their confirmation emails are very good and their phone support is excellent, this wasn't an issue for me at all. I didn't have to wait on hold at all during any of my three calls and spoke to the same person each time (no direct extension or direct line).

After I received the shaper it was clear I needed the mobile machine base. I went about pricing this out on the Internet and once again Tools Plus had the best price. This time, the item arrived within a week. So my guess is that the shaper just took much longer because the freight company was outsourced, while I believe UPS took care of the mobile base, which is an $86 item and not heavy or especially large.

Tools Plus could update their website with some added Web 2.0 functionality, but their service is outstanding and they have the best prices on the planet. Normally one expects some hassles with the low-ballers, but Tools Plus was excellent to me. If I need to order tools in the future, I will definitely lean towards them if the price is competitive.

I highly recommend Tools Plus.