BendPak & Garage Equipment Supply

[SilverCoyote]

Just wanted to give anyone thinking about buying a BendPak lift from Garage Equipment Supply (GES) a heads up. Outside of the scenario I'm going to describe, the customer service from BendPak and GES was awesome...

I sent several emails to the BendPak website asking some questions, and they were answered by GES. I asked GES, why are you answering emails that I sent to BendPak. Their answer was something like.. well we're their largest distributor ..... etc etc... so I thought... ummm okay.


I picked a lift out (9000 lb) and also ordered the "low profile" aluminum ramps assuming that I would need them because me car is lowered. I paid an additional 300 dollars for the low profile ramps. I get everything put together and the ramps work fine. To be honest the ramps are a little flimsy, my 3600 pound mustang caused them to mis shapen a little, but they work. You would have to be on crack to drive a 9000 pound vehicle on them though....lol....

Anyway.... I realize.. where are the steel ramps at?? I was going to check them out and just see if my car would work with the steel ones. The steel ones are not there. I'm starting to get a little annoyed at this point. I contact GES at this point and run all this by them and say hey... go ahead and send the steel ramps, they were not in the shipment. Their response was like.... oh that was an "upgrade", basically you "traded" your steel ramps for the aluminum ones. I was like.... oh..?? I traded the steel ones plus gave you 300 dollars also...?!?!

My response..... okay we had several phone calls and emails over all this before I purchased and this was never mentioned anywhere. It is not on the website or on any paperwork that I was not getting the steel ramps.

The conversation kept coming back around that I should have known this. I got more annoyed with this answer... how in the hell would I know that if it is not posted or mentioned anywhere... ?!?! (300 is plenty for the flimsy aluminum ramps without trading anything ... !!)

I contact BendPak about it. They said I need to deal with the seller. I say... GES is answering your emails and you don't feel any responsibility in this...?

So just be aware of this trick from GES if you purchase a lift there.

 

[SilverCoyote]

Oh.... GES did say that for $400 they would send me the steel ramps.....lol....

 

[Blk04Snake]

Myself, I like Rotary and Mohawk lifts A LOT better!

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

i would have thought for $300 you were buying an additional set of ramps as well.

 

[SilverCoyote]

Well... as far as the quality of the lift, it is fine. Just about any shop you go to has a BendPak lift in it, so the quality is good. I was just sort of shocked that BendPak wouldn't make good on this.... and what was most annoying... was that GES implied several times that I should have somehow been able to "deduce" this somehow from their website ...??

 

[oldmodman]

I have had nothing but GOOD experiences with BendPak too.

I have an older 7000 pound 4 post lift and it started looking a little tired after the first six years sitting outside in my driveway.

I called them up to ask them if they sold the blue paint that they are sprayed with at the factory and the girl I talked to just sent me SIX CANS for free!

And yes, if I was made of money and had the ceiling space I would have preferred a Rotary two post lift but it would have cost a whole lot more.

 

[Blk04Snake]

I work in fleet maintenance. 2 of our shops locally have Bend Paks, the rest have Mohawks and the one I work in mainly has 1 Mohawk and 1 Rotary. The Mohawks are built like brick shithouses and we have very little issue with them. They are the most expensive lift though. The Rotary has been mostly trouble free as well but we've had a couple switches fail on the "In-Bay" controls. Both Bend Paks have had cylinder failures and other quirky things go wrong with them. Also they are made in China where the Rotary is USA and so are the Mohawks (NY State even). Now our lifts are a little bigger (12k-20k) but principle is the same on all of them. Compare the Bend Pak 18k lifts to the Rotary 18k lift and you can clearly see it's not built to anywhere near the same standard. You get what you pay for. With that being said... In my personal garage I have a Direct Lift 9000lb lift (made by Dover, parent company of Rotary.. and made in China) and it does OK for what it is, but you can tell it's a cheap lift compared to it's Rotary counterpart.

 

[kirks5oh]

I've had zero issues with my 9000 lb bendpak lift. I got it from the same place. Didn't go with the low profile ramps. The steel ones are solid dude. Sorry for your experience. Offer to give them the aluminum ones back in trade for the steel ones. The only time I have an issue is with my vette. And I simply slide a 3' long 2x8" under the steel ramp and it's fine. The lift has been perfect, and with the casters I can move the lift with no help

 

[SilverCoyote]

Well... it's going to be okay. It was just annoying. The only problem with sending them back is that we're on the opposite sides of the country..lol.... The ramps would be a bulky nightmare to ship back. The steel one's probably weigh a ton and they didn't offer free shipping .......so. The aluminum ramps will probably last me a long time since I'm pretty much only using them for my cars........ I got the casters also, but I haven't really moved the lift around much.

 

[SilverCoyote]

LOL....!!!!! I just received a flyer from GES in the mail. Thought I would thumb through it real quick. I noticed the aluminum ramps and take a closer look. There are 3 different types of "optional" ramps. The flyer has each picture with "Optional Upgrade" in it's corner. The funny thing, neither of 3 ramps have its price listed. I looked further and noticed those 3 types of ramps are the only thing in the entire flyer that don't have a price ??? Everything in the flyer is priced except the optional ramps. No mention of "trading" your steel ramps in when you purchase the "Optional Upgrade".... lol.... No price just seemed odd.......

 

[Madlock]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I too have had a difficult experience - albeit with another BendPak distributor which curiously also claims to be BendPak's largest...

I bought three HD-9 series lifts last year and all of the accessories that go with them like the air/power station and have run into the Chinese wall the manufacturer sets up to insulate themselves from direct accountability by trying to direct as much flak at the vendor.

Although one of the issues was transit damage - which I also later discovered involved an audible called on Bendpak's end which they hadn't disclosed at the time, the lifts actually work very well. I especially like how they can be rolled around very easily.

Unfortunately, resolving more substantive issues can be a huge practical and logistical nightmare because of the cost and inconvenience assembly, let alone disassembly, replacement and reassembly can require, something I suspect the relevant parties know full-well and haven't hesitated to use to their advantage - and at my expense. Furthermore, because BendPak doesn't keep a stock of all models at all times - or even components, I've been given three month lead times on top of exorbitant costs to resolve what never should've happened to begin with.

I'm sorry for your frustrations. It's lousy when, rather than doing as much as they can, a vendor tries to get away with doing as little as possible. I'm a year-plus into trying to square away the situation and had hoped to do much further business with them in the meantime. I have no idea if any other vendor or manufacturer will be better, worse or the same, but I'm hopeful my luck of the draw will be better with a different deck.

 

[MG0h3]

One way or another, this thread will reach someone that may have bought from them.

They just lost more than the 300 bucks they scammed you for.

 

[bdcardinal]

We have BendPak and Rotary at my work. Shops buy the BendPak lifts because they are cheap. Ours are constantly having issues and the repair guy is out a few times a month. True we have like 15ish lifts so there are lots of chances for something to go wrong. The Rotary lifts have only needed reservoirs when certain techs somehow break them.