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Having dreamed of creating beautiful works of artistic furniture for the last 30-40 years, I have finally reached retirement. With my children educated and grown, I decided to "go-for-it”. But like most in this economy, money is always a problem (although I could probably have built and outfitted a shop with what I've spent on books and magazines, and the time I've spent reading them and studying on the internet). So, when I saw an ad for the highly touted Elu router from Rockler, I really took a hard look. A $349.99 router for $199.99 was a great offer. Being on a fixed income, the purchase was tough, but I couldn't imagine a better router for the dream-table I've been researching and planning to build. On 03/23/2010 I ordered it and received same shortly thereafter. When I opened the box, I loved what I saw, but was surprised that I didn't see an external speed adjustment. Since I am an absolute novice, I thought I'd find out how to do it later and went back to researching the router table. Several days ago I came across an article on the Elu that talked about the speed adjustment knob. After opening the box again - Yep! No external speed adjustment. (I thought, well, this is probably a new design where you pull the trigger multiple times or something.) But it kept eating at me. Surely Rockler would have caught any error in the shipment by now, recalled and replaced their mistake!? So today I called and asked. After explaining my purchase and question, I was transferred to technical. Needless to say, I was shocked when I was casually told, “Yes, there was a mistake back in March. We made a special purchase. Your router isn’t a variable speed.” When I asked if they would replace it with what I had ordered and paid for, she curtly said, “No, if you can’t use it, you can send it back, but we won’t replace it.” Having read that a speed control is a safety issue on routers (large bits should be run at slower speeds), I can’t help wondering how many novice woodworkers like myself have bought one of these routers and will end up hurting or killing themselves. Isn’t there a law against this type of false advertising?
Having dreamed of creating beautiful works of artistic furniture for the last 30-40 years, I have finally reached retirement. With my children educated and grown, I decided to "go-for-it”. But like most in this economy, money is always a problem (although I could probably have built and outfitted a shop with what I've spent on books and magazines, and the time I've spent reading them and studying on the internet).
So, when I saw an ad for the highly touted Elu router from Rockler, I really took a hard look. A $349.99 router for $199.99 was a great offer. Being on a fixed income, the purchase was tough, but I couldn't imagine a better router for the dream-table I've been researching and planning to build. On 03/23/2010 I ordered it and received same shortly thereafter. When I opened the box, I loved what I saw, but was surprised that I didn't see an external speed adjustment. Since I am an absolute novice, I thought I'd find out how to do it later and went back to researching the router table. Several days ago I came across an article on the Elu that talked about the speed adjustment knob. After opening the box again - Yep! No external speed adjustment. (I thought, well, this is probably a new design where you pull the trigger multiple times or something.) But it kept eating at me. Surely Rockler would have caught any error in the shipment by now, recalled and replaced their mistake!? So today I called and asked.
After explaining my purchase and question, I was transferred to technical. Needless to say, I was shocked when I was casually told, “Yes, there was a mistake back in March. We made a special purchase. Your router isn’t a variable speed.” When I asked if they would replace it with what I had ordered and paid for, she curtly said, “No, if you can’t use it, you can send it back, but we won’t replace it.”
Having read that a speed control is a safety issue on routers (large bits should be run at slower speeds), I can’t help wondering how many novice woodworkers like myself have bought one of these routers and will end up hurting or killing themselves. Isn’t there a law against this type of false advertising?
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jimbo,
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Al Wolford. I manage the Tech Dept at Rockler Woodworking and Hardware. I apologize for the inconvenience caused by ...and the flat out poor handling…of your recent purchase of an ELU router.
The router was in fact a one time buy of the ELU router that was accompanied by wrong technical information. As soon as the error (single speed vs 5-speed) was discovered we changed our advertising to reflect the correct description. The error was human and not an attempt to falsely advertise the item.
Attempts were made to contact purchasers that bought the item before the advertising could be corrected. Obviously we failed in our attempt to contact you.
When you called us recently we did not have the option of offering a ELU Variable Speed router, but we should have offered you two options :
1) Replace the ELU router with a Porter Cable 7518 model 3-1/4 HP Variable Speed (Our item # 43786) or
2) Pick up your router at no cost to you and refund the total amount of your charges.
Please contact me. 800.260.9663 or awolford@rockler.com I would like the opportunity to make up for our errors and get you back on the road to making the artistic furniture.