about feed up with Lee

[compass will]

I need one of those little square index parts for my rotary press. part number Part TF3567, 75 cents. so I was going to order 2.
mine is not broken yet, but is sloppy. I know I replaced it at least once in the past.
But Lee wants $10 for shipping and refuses to drop it in an envelope for 60 cents. the 10 bucks ain't going to kill me, its just the point.
one option is to send back the old one (mind is worn, but but not broken) and they might replace it. mean while I am down for reloading for weeks or ever how long it takes.

Did I once see where someone else was making these that were better than the plastic ones?

[schutzen-jager]

personally will have nothing at all to do with LEE after my last terrible customer service event - they just sre not reasonable or rational anymore -

[Scorpion8]

It's not just Lee. I've had a LOT of experiences with shipping issues living in Alaska. Especially those that refuse to use anything other than "next day air" which doesn't work here, and they want $90 to ship a $6 part the size of a package of gum. Better places earn my business, and lots of these types don't. I'm not above telling them they lost sales.

[foesgth]

Titan reloading has them. I am sure they are going to charge you for shipping but at least Lee won't get the money. Who knows you might find another toy you need at Titan. Their shirts are pretty nice for 12 bucks!

[compass will]

I see a bunch that were run on a printer, and they say they don't hold up. I just need to put an order together somewhere else. Midway has them, but I had enough of the crappy sure post shipping where ups sends it to the post office and they delever it 4 days later smashed.

[megasupermagnum]

Well you can't possibly expect them to put it in a letter envelope, the USPS won't even accept that. It would be broken when it got to you. A small padded envelope is currently $9.65. That has nothing to do with Lee, that's what USPS charges. That is as cheap as you can currently ship anything.

[la5676]

They are like this to be non-competing with the retail outfits who well their product lines. It's always been like this. Never order direct from LEE if someone else has it.

[megasupermagnum]

They are like this to be non-competing with the retail outfits who well their product lines. It's always been like this. Never order direct from LEE if someone else has it.

For the price of most products, absolutely. For parts though, Lee can be cheap, in fact every plastic part I've ever needed has been completely free, you pay shipping. I don't understand how people can honestly expect Lee to soak up that $10 for every worn part you need.

[jetinteriorguy]

I don’t buy much equipment anymore, but when I used to order stuff from Titan I’d go through all the small parts list and add anything I might ever need to the order to save shipping. When I ordered my Turret press and extra turrets I had them toss in a half dozen of the ratchet thingies. Six years later and about 15000 rounds I’m still on the original one. You should see all the extra parts I have for my Loadmaster that will never see the light of day again.

[Half Dog]

I understand your pain. I bought $30 worth of shotgun hulls. I ended up paying about the same amount to receive the hulls and send a money order. I’m about done with the post office.

[jmorris]

What I don’t understand is why I could buy something off eBay, from China, that ships to my house like these switches (first link) for $1.58 and shipping is free. Not just the boat ride across the world but once it gets here, our taxes must be covering shipping for foreign goods…

Now, once they get here, if I drove into town and put them in a padded flat rate USPS envelope and ship it back to my house, again from the closest post office, they would charge me $10.40 (second link)…

https://www.ebay.com/itm/29550733677...Bk9SR5KhuJPGYQ

https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail.htm#flatrate

[15meter]

What I don’t understand is why I could buy something off eBay, from China, that ships to my house like these switches (first link) for $1.58 and shipping is free. Not just the boat ride across the world but once it gets here, our taxes must be covering shipping for foreign goods…

Now, once they get here, if I drove into town and put them in a padded flat rate USPS envelope and ship it back to my house, again from the closest post office, they would charge me $10.40 (second link)…

https://www.ebay.com/itm/29550733677...Bk9SR5KhuJPGYQ

https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail.htm#flatrate

We have been subsidizing shipping from around the world for decades. In my faulty memory, I seem to remember reading an article where the battle to renegotiate a treaty(treaty!!!!) regulating postal rates started under Reagan. I purchased lawnmower deck gauge wheels a couple of years ago, ordered them from Amazon. When they got here the packaging said they had been shipped from Ireland, the wheels themselves had made in China stamped on them. And I paid less for 4 of them delivered to my door than I paid Monday to ship a padded envelope of brass to Texas.

And the bag of brass had to be reshipped out to Texas yesterday because the post office couldn't discern the difference between a return address and a ship to address.

And the green cost has got to be horrendous. I order a bag of 100 E-clips from Amazon delivered to my door for less than the local hardware store will sell me 5. And they are here in 2-3 days.

Why are we wasting jet fuel like this? Because the government allows almost completely free access to our internal postal system.

Package is clearly marked that it originated in China. Only way it got here was via air. The chinese can run 747's with trinkets around the world for less than I can ship a parcel across town.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

For the price of most products, absolutely. For parts though, Lee can be cheap, in fact every plastic part I've ever needed has been completely free, you pay shipping. I don't understand how people can honestly expect Lee to soak up that $10 for every worn part you need.

I don’t buy much equipment anymore, but when I used to order stuff from Titan I’d go through all the small parts list and add anything I might ever need to the order to save shipping. When I ordered my Turret press and extra turrets I had them toss in a half dozen of the ratchet thingies. Six years later and about 15000 rounds I’m still on the original one. You should see all the extra parts I have for my Loadmaster that will never see the light of day again.

I do as msm and jig mentioned. If I want one small part, if find some other things I want, so shipping (per item) isn't too painful. Lee will give you The plastic ratchet for free, Do you have a Lee melter...maybe order some replacement parts to rebuild it, do you use Lee's on press priming, there is plastic wear parts with them, order some spares of those.
Good Luck.

[Soundguy]

Titan reloading has them. I am sure they are going to charge you for shipping but at least Lee won't get the money. Who knows you might find another toy you need at Titan. Their shirts are pretty nice for 12 bucks!

That's lee's one big downside.. making stuff out of non durable plastic or soft metals.. If I ever use or help someone set up their turret press.. I always remove the indexing rod... plastic gears.. really?
But in general.. I like Lee's stuff. The biggest thing is die and mold cost. most molds are 25$ with handles.. and many dies are under 40. I remember wanting to do low volume safari / big 5 reloading. RCBS dies would have been well over 100$.. lee were 30$ at the time... And the molds... for non production work and home fun shooting.. a 2 hole with handles for 25$ is a winner for me. The molds cast easy.. and if you don't abuse them you can get decades of use out of them... for 1/2 to 1/3 the price of another brands handles only.. For many.. lee is fine.. if you pick and choose what you buy. If I made ammo for a living.. probably not. for the average hobbiest... sure... if I can spend 15$ on a tool vs 70.. and it is 95% as usefull.. that's 55$ I can sink into materials or other goodies. For instance.. lets look at rcbs and lee hand primers... the rcbs now uses a uni-jaw design.. it works decently.. but on shells with small extractor grooves and no rims.. it is useless.. it has problem 30% of the time on 32acp.. and pretty much won't work on anything under that.. and is decent on 32 rimmed and up.. except.. again.. for some rimless semi auto cartridges.. especially ones with tight pockets. Lee on the other hand.. yeah.. those universal shell holders aren't perfect.. but work enough even if you fidget with a shell or 2.. and the hand primers may miss a primer feed once in every 15 pulls.. so no biggie.. just pull again. They are so cheap that I got 2 and leave one setup as large and one setup as small... Any time I get cartridges that are finicky on the spendy rcbs.. they hit the lee and work fine.... go figure. For instance.. I can ONLY prime my 25acp on lee gear...

[mdi]

I have had zero problems with Lee products or customer service and I certainly would not join the "Lee Haters" club and complain, on a large forum, about my perceived problems. "Excessive" handling charges are prevalent with most vendors/dealers of all products. I was looking to buy a box of 20, 32 Long ammo yesterday. Price of ammo was fine but shipping was $5.00 more than the cost of the ammo so I would have to pay over double for a box of cartridges. I checked with a couple other vendors and shipping was much the same. Blame it on Covid, blame it on Biden, but don't single out Lee for doing something everyone else does...

I worked for a motion picture lighting company doing some customer service. Many callers would not be satisfied even if I bent over backwards, kissed their behind and shipped them $500.00 parts, with overnight shipping at no cost...

[jdgabbard]

Compass Will, I'll send you a PM. I might be able to help you out...

[redriverhunter]

I have purchased a few lee items some good some not so good, the not so good just never worked well, but kind of worked. I purchased the lee app press and I am pleased with it. About a year ago I lost a piece to the app so I went on to lees' web page and found the part I needed, then I thought while i am here, I added a few more plastic parts that I would lose, break or wear out. To my surprise about half of the parts were free so was not a big loss for me.

[elmacgyver0]

What I don’t understand is why I could buy something off eBay, from China, that ships to my house like these switches (first link) for $1.58 and shipping is free. Not just the boat ride across the world but once it gets here, our taxes must be covering shipping for foreign goods…

Now, once they get here, if I drove into town and put them in a padded flat rate USPS envelope and ship it back to my house, again from the closest post office, they would charge me $10.40 (second link)…

https://www.ebay.com/itm/29550733677...Bk9SR5KhuJPGYQ

https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail.htm#flatrate

That would be a good question for President Biden. One he knows the answer to but will never answer.

[243winxb]

Amazon? https://www.amazon.com/Stash-n-Sight.../dp/B083CYJYYP

[john.k]

The Chinese advantage in postal rates goes back to the Bush era......they are supposedly a "developing " country........from what i know,the Chinese sender is in 'export business zone' (port)....and simply has to deliver his stuff to a export containerisation facility....where the stuff is simply loaded into a container and shipped to the US.....then its dumped into the USPS system for a 2,000 mile deliver for the share of the 10c value China postage..........its the same all over the world.....China is bankrupting the postal system of every country.