Busy Bee Tools

I'm sure the local staff are great, but online orders are a mess. I ordered a tool, paid, got an order confirmation followed by a week of radio silence. I had to call both Concord and the local store to confirm that the order was out of stock, despite being confirmed and still showing as in stock online a week later. I was told the local store had stock but couldn't/wouldn't ship as it would somehow cost $200. I was also told by the Concord office that only the local store could ship large items. Which is it? They even got a bit annoyed at me for asking, seemingly suggesting I should know how their ordering system works. A representative of the Concord store/online orders told me she would call me back with an update but she never did. I ordered the tool for the same price from KMS Tools instead, it arrived in 2 days, free shipping. A couple of days later Busy Bee finally refunded me, no explanation or apology, a full two weeks after my order. What a mess.

7 warranty claims on my Craftex CX600 in 5 months of use. It sounds like a problem to me but I've been informed otherwise by the Busy Bee team. I'll go back to the beginning. I originally purchased a CX612 after being reassured by John at Busy Bee Tools. It has a 3 year warranty. Why would anyone back up their product with a 3 year warranty if they knew it was a piece of garbage? So they take my money with a smile as they always have. Couple months down the road, the t-slots on the table literally rip out of the table. So I call John. I then get passed off to Bev, the store manager. It was "shocking" and a "first time" that she had seen that happen. She calls up her co-worker in the Concord store, Robin, their Customer Service Manager. He very reluctantly offers a replacement because the table were so far away. 6 months or something around that time line I recall. I simply asked to pay the difference to upgrade to a CX600. My offer is accepted. I once again am reassured that I am buying a quality machine and that my incident was nothing they have ever experienced. They take my money and away I go. The Craftex CX600, also known by me and my friends as the nightmare that never works. As I mentioned earlier, 7 warranties in 5 months of use. 1. Variable speed controller dies (2 week turn around) 2. Digital rpm read-out display starts flashing and scrambling numbers (1 week turn around) 3. Variable speed controller goes again (2 week turn around) 4. Digital read-out sensor stops working (1 month turn around) 5. DC motor dies (1 month turn around) 6. Plastic gear driven off the motor melts (2 week turn around) 7. Steel arm that holds the control box falls off (still waiting) #7 was my line. Obviously there is a problem with the machine. I have been more than patient. I ask about a replacement machine after explaining my position. If a person connects the dots it is pretty easy to see that the problems are a snowball effect. The variable speed controller dies, and then all of a sudden the motor fries. The motor fries and all of a sudden the plastic gear it drives melts? I have a machine that is literally falling apart. The steel flange to the steel tube holding the control box falls off. It is common sense that the flange should be welded to the tube. But instead of that, they are glued together? I continue to inquire as to my options and I get the run around. I've spoken to both Bev in Calgary, and Robin at customer service and I get told that I need to send my machine away for a MINIMUM of a month to get inspected. I am also informed that because I have had the machine for longer than 3 months, I now have to pay for the labour required to inspect it. At $50 an hour, with no specific time line, and no guarantee as to anything, I'm trying to figure out why I need to spend significant money on top of the hefty price tag that came with a 3 year warranty. I asked Robin to speak with someone else and I get told "Nope. I'm the guy. Bye" and hangs up the phone. I now have thousands of dollars invested in tools and machines from Busy Bee that without a functional machine turned into thousands of pounds that are nothing more than a paper weight. Bottom line is if you want a machine backed with a warranty that is actually honoured, Busy Bee is not the place to go.

While trying out the mechanisms on a Rikon band saw at the Pickering location, an employee ripped into me for contaminating it. Bought it at Lee Valley instead. A much better customer experience. Lee Valley staff were courteous and helped with the shipping charges.

Totally incompetent staff. I recommend everyone ,to do your own research before you buy anything and don’t trust their recommendations. The people on the floor have no Idea about what they are selling. I particularly described for the guy on the floor what I need the tool for. He surely gave me the only one from the many options ,that did not work. When I came back they sent someone from the back who right away seen that it is not the right model I need for my work. I had to pay 15% restocking fee and I have lost another half a day going back and forth with the tool assembling ect. They have a great store with complete clowns as sales people. The people who have knowledge about tools are back in the offices. Im disappointed beyond imagination.

Tools are decent for the price and have dealt with several locations and received great customer service except for one time. Try ordering replacement parts. Called at 9am for a replacement for the conveyer on my drum sander, unit is out of order without the belt. Gentleman was hard to hear and got annoyed when I asked him to repeat himself. Excellent customer service skills. Called back at 3 pm since they said they would call once they figured out the part and did not. One day gone. Asked about quicker shipping will pay the extra told it’s Canada post and it gets there when they deliver it. Had missing parts from the same sander took two weeks for the part and an air cleaner that had a bad board out of the box both were annoying but can deal with that. Shop is down until who knows when as the sander is critical to our current orders. Unit is less than two weeks old. Will not purchase another craftex machine due to the parts and service being sub par, too bad because the machines are decent for the price in a small home shop. Will source the belt locally as it can be made anywhere. Also parts are not listed on their site (wear items) makes it difficult to order on weekends and holidays when most of us get time to work in our home shops.

What a Great Store ! Very informative, helpful and polite staff. Had a small problem with a purchase that was solved in what seemed like instantly. Super fast service. We (my wife and I) have been a loyal Busy Bee customers for over 25 years and they have never let us down. I travel 147 kilometers from Quebec to Ottawa just to buy my woodworking needs. It is a visit that has always been a pleasure. I am planning our next trip soon (despite the high cost of gas). Even though I could get my items online , We still like the personal touch Ottawa give us. See you soon Busy Bee !!

The Busy Bee brand Craftex is very poor quality and even worse customer service. They do not stand by their products. I had purchased the 8” jointer CX08HC. Straight out of the box it needed to be aligned. Not a huge problem as this could be expected. I would follow the manuals directions to align the jointer beds. After several days of attempts, I came to the conclusion that there could be another issue with the machine that would not allow alignment. I called Busy Bee few days after the purchase to have the machine brought back for alignment. The machine was brought back to the Busy Bee location in Ottawa so it could be sent back to the Toronto warehouse for repair. 3 weeks later I got a call that the jointer was fixed and I had a few hours of labour to pay for. I laughed off the part of having to pay for a repair job on a defective machine. Before spending more money on transporting this heavy machine back and forth I would show up at the Ottawa location with a straight edge and feeler gauges before excepting it back. In the 1st & 2nd picture I show 5000th of an inch easily sliding under the in-feed and out-feed table. The 3rd picture shows a square in the middle of the fence that does not allow my thinnest feeler gauge through. 4th picture shows 6000th of an inch would slide through the bottom portion of the square. This jointer is clearly not aligned, It’s twisted. A video was made and sent to customer service as I now requested a refund. Customer service ignored my emails and calls for awhile. Then Chris from customer service reached out to explain the jointer was perfectly aligned when it left their shop. Chris implied the jointer must have fell out of alignment after I transported it back to my shop. I informed Chris the jointer never left the Ottawa Busy Bee location. Chris then said he will have to call me back. A week later Chris returns my call and states he can not trust my brand new straight edge in the video. Funny thing is I use a Busy Bee square in the video as well. The next phone conversation with Chris he explained that 6000th of an inch is their acceptable factory tolerance. I explained to Chris that it’s not possible to straighten lumber on a jointer this much out. I asked Chris to inform me the factory tolerances so I can have it on record. Chris got very temperamental when I requested this and said “I don’t have to tell you anything” before hanging up. This phone conversation was on November 1, 2021 at a approximately 11:30am.

I wasn't sure if my shop needed the Craftex CX425 air cleaner. But what a difference it has made. It has greatly reduced the amount of fine dust in the shop. Just look at the pre-filter, it was green just 2 months ago. There is also a fabric filter behind that. The timer feature is great. After I finish working in the shop, I set the timer for a hour to clean all the dust in the air.