Rutlands Warning!

[Chris Hawkins]

FWIW I have not used Rutland for many years ( buy direct from Banggood now). I found their products to be either poor or barely adequate (kind of expected). However found their CS to be quite good.

 

[Renegade]

Sometimes people are either upset about something or are trying to discredit a company that they join multiple websites, post the same comment and are never seen again.

Actually I joined a while ago….I didn’t realise there was a prerequisite amount of posts I needed to make or post on other topics before being ‘allowed’ to give my point of view!
If I’d have had outstanding service from a company and wanted to share it with the ‘community’ would I have been so unfairly maligned?
This kind of response isn’t particularly endearing me or any other ‘newcomers’ to post at all.

 

[Renegade]

Ok. But is there any evidence of that here? Seems like the OP is being prejudged and I think we might offer the benefit of the doubt and a warmer welcome. Just my 2p's worth.

Thank you.

 

[RobinBHM]

Yet another new member joined to leave a bad review for a tool supplier.

Clearly that is untrue.

the OP joined on the 18th May

 

[RobinBHM]

Actually I joined a while ago….I didn’t realise there was a prerequisite amount of posts I needed to make or post on other topics before being ‘allowed’ to give my point of view!
If I’d have had outstanding service from a company and wanted to share it with the ‘community’ would I have been so unfairly maligned?
This kind of response isn’t particularly endearing me or any other ‘newcomers’ to post at all.

You don’t need to justify yourself, you clearly joined quite a while ago. Lots of people join this forum but spend more time reading than posting - you were obv upset by Rutlands attitude which you wanted to share, that’s totally fair.




Rutland have a bit of a reputation, they have a fantastic website, photography is excellent, delivery is generally pretty quick, but they spend their whole time doing ”special,offers” and their customer service isn’t great.

 

[aforjeh]

Being a noob I bought a few things from them. They tend to present as ‘premium’ to the beginner but as noted a lot of stuff is available elsewhere with different stickers and different prices. I’d imagine with worse CS, in some cases e.g. bought direct from overseas.

Some things I bought were OK value and quality, especially if on offer at the time which is pretty regular. Not ‘premium’ IMO, just OK.

I had some QC issues with the two machines I bought. One was a trivial ‘fix it myself quietly’ one, and the other I raised with them. Basically a poorly extruded saw track that didn’t match the other in the pair. I fairly apprehensively raised it via email (having read up on their repuatation) but they responded well and replaced it overnight..

Just my experience!

 

[Nic Rhodes]

Expecting my Rutlands delivery today but the thing that winds me up the most is their offers. I would buy far more from them if they changed. Some offer just reduce the price which is fine. I don't have an issue with that but far too many are BOGOF. These aren't for useful consumable or things that wear out but are specialist tools you use a few times in your lifetime / or lifetime supply of say carpenter pencils. You don't need two lifetimes supply or two identical tools most of the time (some exceptions). RANT mode off

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes, I've always wondered the wisdom of offering bogofs on tools that we need only one of.

 

[aforjeh]

Yes, I've always wondered the wisdom of offering bogofs on tools that we need only one of.

I just got one now from BenchDogs, you can get a half price rail square with your rail square.

 

[NosamLuap]

I must say, I've limited experience with Rutlands, having only bought two items from them, but in both instances their support was excellent... first, I bought a lathe chuck and jaw set in one of their 'daily deals' - it was a great price, and came with all the jaws I thought I'd need. A few weeks later, the first time I came to use the button jaws, I realised that instead of having 2 sets of 'pins' for the jaws (8 small and 8 large), I had 9 small and 7 large... pinged an email, and a replacement was in the post and arrived a day later. The second, I saw another of their daily deals for a tracksaw. It wasn't clear from the description whether this was compatible with standard pattern rails, so again I mailed them and got a fantastically detailed reply within an hour, so ordered the saw on the back of that and it's brilliant. It's a shame that the OP had problems, so clearly they have a way to go in terms of consistency, but I'd certainly use them again on the basis of the experiences I've had.

 

[akirk]

I have only had good service and very fast delivery and good prices from Rutlands.

I would be interested to know from the above responses what people's expectations are built on - what size company do people think they are? one man, a dog and a tin shack in cornwall, or a behemoth stretching across the globe?!

A benefit of the internet is that you can present your business however you wish, and as long as you can back it up then that is fine - but equally it can be a weakness in that the punter can't always understand the nature of the business they are dealing with - if you walk into a shop you can tell whether it is run by husband and wife on a shoe string / is part of a multi-national chain / is somewhere in-between, but a website is tricky to read.

Looking at their company accounts for last year makes interesting reading:
- owned by husband and wife
- employing a further 9 people (2 more than the previous year)
- c. 2.5m of stock
- c. 600k cash in the bank (plus a further 1.8m in cash owed to their suppliers / tax man, but cash is there for it, just pre-accounted.)
- equity value of c. 3.4m
- £110k of £138k in value of assets is in motor vehicles
- they paid over 500k in tax
- their property is leased from another business they own with investment properties valued at 2.5m

How does this read then?
A successful business which is making them some serious money - a very slim operation with minimum overheads, a slick website, overall - a company I would be proud to own, if we were advising them professionally, there is little change we would / could advise.

So, what about customer service? They have removed the ability to phone them, however I am sure they worked out the logic behind that - and while for some people it is not ideal, using email allows a business to track the communication etc. they have other options for communication and when I have emailed them I have had a fast response. I don't know what balance of staff they use for fulfillment / customer service / buying etc. and I am sure that there are times when they get it wrong, but people are very quick to post negative comments about businesses and that is what others see - they have sent out over 1m parcels since starting c. 13 years ago so on average they are sending out 300 parcels a day (or assuming it is ramping up over time, presumably many more than that now) - I suspect that their ratio of getting it right to wrong is pretty good.

As for the complaints about quality of what they sell, or that you can buy the same elsewhere for less / re-badged / etc. - sorry, but those are pointless complaints! there is a simple answer, don't buy from them - buy from China if you want to, if you want the hassle of dealing with companies not regulated under UK law, with hassles if you wish to return goods, if you want to do all the legwork, if you want to wait 3-4 weeks for delivery - however, for those who want the convenience of buying from a British company with stunningly fast delivery, from a website that is easy to use, and where everything is made simple - then I reckon that Rutlands is not a bad supplier...

It is arguable that a company shouldn't have negative feedback, but I can tell you from running businesses for 35+ years, and a management consultancy for c. 20 years advising hundreds of businesses - every business has times they mess up and every business has clients for whom nothing is good enough and who will rant and rave about their issues with that business, because it makes them feel good. To grow a business, there comes a time when you have to ignore the very few who complain publicly and get on with serving those vast majority where you have a good commercial relationship.

As punters there seems to be an expectation now that no responsibility lies with the punter, the supplier gets blamed for everything - but it is a balance and punters do also need to take responsibility for who they deal with etc. If someone wants the top end service / supply / etc. then there are companies who prioritise this, but almost universally they are slower to deliver, have a less mature business and are less successful financially - it is all about balance and choices...

NB All of this information is in the public domain - companies house etc.

 

[isaac3d]

Surely, Rutlands have the contract with Parceforce to deliver the item, so they should sort out any problems. It has been my experience, that if packaging does come adrift during transit, then Parcel Force usually stick it in a bag and put a brief explanatory note on.
Also it's not wholly unheard of for couriers to split up packages to make them easier to handle. I had a Belfast sink sent to me that was removed from it's pallet for easier delivery. they then managed to break it.
As the other posters have noted, the cutter could well be upside -down , it's so easily done if you're not focused properly - even on spindle moulders.!
I purchased a small router from Rutlands, recently and it was all packaged neatly in its box. When ordering machine tools such as this it's not unreasonable to expect it to arrive in a box.

This is exactly the point.
Lets give Rutlands the benefit of the doubt for the moment. Lets assume that they purchased the item in good faith from what they thought was a reliable manufacturer/supplier and then sold it and sent it out in proper packaging to the OP. Lets assume that the fault is with the delivery company in terms of the packaging damage and also assume that the item is faulty causing the poor performance.
On the first issue, packaging damage/ damage in transit: Rutlands made a contract with the delivery company to deliver the item in good order. If the item is not delivered in good order then Rutlands should be the ones dealing with the delivery company. This is definitely not the responsibility of the end customer.
So on issue one, Rutlands should arrange for the damaged item to be returned and replaced or repaired.
On the second issue, faulty item: Rutlands made a contract with their supplier to provide goods in good working order. If the item is faulty then Rutlands should arrange for it to be returned and replaced or repaired. This is definitely not the responsibility of the end customer.
So in either case Rutlands should have arranged for the item to be returned and replaced or repaired.
This is their legal responsibility and it makes eminent business sense to do so. Their reputation is on the line. Bad reviews like this carry a lot of weight.
I for one will think twice about buying from Rutlands now.

 

[Thingybob]

Bought THIS from Screwfix, cost £60.00 -- good enough for me !

And £40 in yer bin as well as seeing before you walk away or thier returns policy if bought over internet no brainer

 

[Thingybob]

It must affect their business you would think. The seem to be operating a policy of "Treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen". They're being arrogant with their reputation, and thats never going to end well

I have a simple ethos with companys that rile me i never ever use them again . A very large insurance company who doubled my premium for no reason who said over the phone " I know its terrible but thats the way it is " been with them for 12 years with no claims never used again that was 15 years ago along with many other companys who are arrogant it makes me feel good and thats what counts . Just love it when they go belly up just feel sorry for the people that work for them If more people rejected them they might just change but i am living in cucoo land

 

[Spectric]

Two sides to a coin,

How does this read then?
A successful business which is making them some serious money - a very slim operation with minimum overheads, a slick website, overall - a company I would be proud to own, if we were advising them professionally, there is little change we would / could advise.

Being a sucessful business means they are making money but it does not mean they are giving customers a good experience. You can make a lot of money by selling throwaway tack and that is fine if that is what the customer is after but making money at the expense of the customer is an issue. Maybe they have got to big and cannot keep there eye on the ball and things slip but if a customer complains that a £100 tool has not met expectations then there is no excuse for making excuses, just accept it back and refund if you value every customer. It could also be a case of we have plenty of customers and losing a few is irrelevant, this happens in tourism areas where in say a restaurant they don't have to be great, just good enough not to get bad feedback because many customers are just one off's .

 

[bertterbo]

Rutlands are very shady. If you look at the reviews they're ALL 4/5 star.

 

[Spectric]

I have a simple ethos with companys that rile me i never ever use them again .

Yes voting with your feet is the right thing to do, it is bad enough to be peed off once without going back for more. Trouble is that even with companies like the RAC, AA and many other service industries they really don't care, they see it as losing a customer and not having lost say a dozen customers in a week and there is nothing now with loyality, this also means jack shieette to most. This is why it is important to highlight companies that do go the extra mile and value your business, ones like Pete at Woodworkers workshop who go out of there way to make sure you are happy.

 

[Spectric]

Rutlands are very shady. If you look at the reviews they're ALL 4/5 star.

Perhaps they have a filter which blocks anything less! The laws of probability tell you that you will always get a negative even if it is not justified because there are so many factors involved and people will blame the supplier for their own shortcomings.

 

[Thingybob]

Perhaps they have a filter which blocks anything less! The laws of probability tell you that you will always get a negative even if it is not justified because there are so many factors involved and people will blame the supplier for their own shortcomings.

Just have to think of a man who on Wednesday was being told its time to go by 5 or 6 people and held on then on Thursday over 50 said the same thing and voila bye bye So if more people refuse shoddy workmanship,poor CS,arrogance,etc it will make a difference just give it a try and lets see . These are strange times we live in now

 

[thetyreman]

Rutlands are very shady. If you look at the reviews they're ALL 4/5 star.

see post #5