A reader wrote in, asking about if or how Lee Valley has been affected about the current COVID-19 closures, or at least that’s how I interpreted it.
Lyle wrote:
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Do you happen to know if Lee Valley Tools is operating? I tried calling both their toll free numbers and both give me a recording that the mailbox is full and I can never reach anybody. There is no message to indicate that they are closed during the pandemic or anything, in fact once I heard a recording indicating their phone support hours being reduced but I am trying to call during those times.
I emailed them but I get an automated reply saying that it will take 6 days to get back to me. Just frustrated that I can’t get them on the phone. I even tried calling a few of their stores but no luck there either. Just curious if you heard anything. Thanks.
I have not heard anything specific about or from Lee Valley, but perhaps the following personal experiences will help:
First, they do have a COVID-19 status update page, with the last update being dated 6/23/20:
These are not normal times, and while we continue to adapt to changes in operating conditions, we are not hitting our normal turn-around times for orders. The physical distancing necessary to protect the health and safety of our staff makes it difficult for us to scale our operation to handle volume peaks. Our carriers are also experiencing delays which are beyond their control. All of this means that it will take longer for your order to arrive.
We know your tools and supplies are important to you, and we want you to know our staff are working as hard as possible within safety limits to get them to you as fast as possible.
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Thank you for your patience and understanding – it is not going unnoticed!
Call volumes are very high, and we have reduced staff
Emails are being answered continuously. Due to the high volume of messages, we continue to have a backlog.
(Emphasis is my own.)
I placed several orders from Lee Valley over the past few months, after COVID-19-related closures went into effect, and they shipped all the orders in a relatively timely manner.
I contacted customer service on 5/14/20, about a rather unusual problem with a product I purchase in the not-so-recent past. They responded with a personalized email on 5/21/20, as opposed to a canned boiler plate response.
Lee Valley sells tools, hardware, gardening supplies, and home supplies. Especially with stores closed, they must have seen incredible volumes of sales, inquiries, and customer service requests.
More demand plus fewer staff = huge backlog. Large companies can barely cope with higher volume and reduced staff, and smaller companies are probably even more affected.
Yesterday I heard from a different company, regarding emails I had sent them starting in April. I was told they received maybe 60,000 emails and only have 25 associates to handle all this. That would mean more than 2,000 emails per person to handle, each requiring a unique individual inquiry or problem requiring their attention.
Back to Lee Valley. They were open, and I’m reasonably certain they are still open.
Part of their reply to me read:
Our Special Order group that normally handles request for parts like this is temporarily shut down due to reductions in staff levels and business hours caused by the pandemic. [Removed for brevity.] We are currently backlogged with processing orders but hopefully this will be shipped out sometime next week.
We all have to try to be patient.
With Lee Valley, they’ll make it right for you if they can. It might take some time, but their customer service has always been excellent, raising the bar to standards few other companies can hope to reach.
I could try to find out more, but I’m nearly certain I’d just be a bother and that it wouldn’t lead to learning anything different.
Voi Shan
I’ve done curbside pickup with Lee Valley maybe twice in the past two weeks in Toronto & the experience was pretty much flawless, with the order being ready to pickup in less than a day, & the curbside delivery response taking no longer than 5 minutes.
Barry Crowe
There seems to be a trend downward at Lee Valley. Their smug way of retailing their own way is hurting them. They have also seemed to priced themselves right out of the market too. I could go into my personal issues with the retailer, but that would be like a sucker punch. I have over twenty years worth of catalogues from them and used to enjoy the place and products. But, the stuck up way of doing business on their terms has soured existing customers and certainly does not help bring in new ones.
Hilton
Fear not they’re definitely open. I know this and I’m all the way at the bottom of the world in South Africa. I’ve had four shipments from them since April and I’m about to place another small order. Whilst the auto response to an email is that ‘six days to get back to you’, an agent actually replied within 12 hours which is pretty good considering I’m about six hours ahead of EST.
Best client service ever!
Flotsam
i hope they remain open. I don’t buy stuff from them all the time, but they do seem to have some unique offerings not readily available elsewhere
Kg
My recent, post-covid experience with a support inquiry about an open back order on a credit card that had recently been replaced for too fraud went as follows.
Emailed my question
Got the 6 day auto response immediately
Got a call back about a week later, where we sorted the new card, combined 2 open orders, switched to an in stock product
Received my order 3 (actual, not business) days later
They’re still open and in my opinion seem to be operating pretty well under the restrictions and increased volume all things considered. Agree with the post, based on this and past experience – they will make it right, if they can.
Tom
Aren’t they based in Canada? If you called yesterday, they were off for Canada Day.
JoeM
Quite true. But, their Headquarters are in Ottawa, the Nation’s Captiol. They are subject to the Covid-19 emergency orders for economic shutdown here in Canada as well.
I think they’re balancing those two pretty well, last I checked.
Bob Le
I’ve been a long time customer of Lee Valley. I’ve placed 2 orders with them since COVID-19 shelter in place started in California back in March. Some of my items were not in stock so they put them on back order without charging my credit card (they only charged me once an item finally shipped). They’ll take good care of you, I’m certain.
Plaingrain
Ordered an Incra product from them. I had to wait a little for it. But it was the best price around. Delivered last month.
Jon
Lee Valley is awesome. I try to order from them regularly since they go above and beyond. I did notice recently that they’re apparently out of the neat Allit storage cases ( see https://toolguyd.com/allit-modular-storage-cases/ ) — or at least, they’re no longer available online. That might be due to Allit changing the design this year, though.
fred
Their Veritas manufacturing arm make some very nice planes and other woodworking tools in Canada.
They seldom do sales – but do sell off discounted slightly blemished items – usually starting around midnight on or about Cyber Monday. At that time they also usually offer discounted gift cards for sale. If you have an interest, its good to get on their email list to be alerted.
Graham Howe
Good experience here too, my recent orders look like this:
Order placed / shipped
Feb 28 / Mar 03
Mar 18 / Mar 20
Mar 20 / Mar 23
May 28 / May 30
Jun 13 / Jun 17
In all cases order shipped in full and I would consider all of them being within an acceptable time frame. I didn’t keep a record of when they got delivered, but I think all went out via UPS and I don’t remember any being delayed.
Honestly way better response than for example Rona and Lowes, both of which I have cancelled pick up orders recently because they couldn’t provide me with notification to pick up something in stock after waiting for days.
JoeM
The Canadian Government put the nation on Lockdown in January. Essential Workers only, and Online Purchasing only. Lee Valley’s STORES were closed, but they had minimal staff for online orders and customer service reasons. This staff has also been cleaning and sanitizing every store, old and new, from top to bottom, and even in crevices unseen by human eyes since the buildings were built.
That’s where the backlog comes from. Nation-Wide Lee Valley is operating on a Skeleton Crew, including their Manufacturing staff located at the Ottawa “Warehouse”/Home Base. Their Veritas line is being manufactured at 10% the rate it usually is, because the machinists who make Veritas tools, and verify quality control on the few factory-made components they use, have been reduced to 10% their usual staff for the sake of social distancing and rotating sanitization.
The Home Office is located in Ottawa, The Nation’s Capitol, but more importantly, on the ONTARIO side of the border between Ontario and Quebec. Ontario’s Premiere (An Idiot, and practical Canadian Clone of a certain Orange-Painted troublemaker you Americans know very well at this point.) has recently started “Phase 2” of the Lockdown release here. Lee Valley is allowed to open its doors, but has to limit numbers of customers, and continually clean. Their Manufacturing can step up to Social-Distancing standards, but that will still limit Lee Valley to between 40-60% their full capacity in the Manufacturing area of their Head Office.
To get around a great number of all our collective orders, they’ve been pulling stock from shelves in inactive stores, and shipping from that store to all of us.
You might have noticed, while surfing the site, that many of their products say “Out of Stock, Expected (Date)” at the Warehouse. But, if you order online, you can still get it if one of the stores across Canada (There’s somewhere between 9 and 12, depending on how much you count certain warehouses.) has all of the items on your order. And they will ship it directly from that store, rather than stock it in the warehouse.
To those of you who have received a Lee Valley package in the past 3 months, you would notice this by the different address listed on the shipping label. I ordered some leather and woodworking mini chisels, and some small brass Veritas malets about a Month ago, both listed as “Out of Stock” online, but I got them in 2 days. Why? They shipped from the Saskatchewan store. (That’s a Province, not a City, don’t worry if you get confused. There’s only one Lee Valley store in all of Saskatchewan, and you can fit 5 US States in the landmass of the Province of Saskatchewan. Regardless of where in Saskatchewan the store is located, they call it their Saskatchewan location. That’s what happens when a country is so low on the population density, and so high in natural resources. Little Cities, HUGE territories.)
But Lee Valley is just backlogged, like every other business operating during the Pandemic. The difference is, up here in Canada, we have lower population sizes, and fewer infection rates, and we also grounded all air travel, and stepped up testing and quarantine proceedures. If you look at a current Confirmed Covid Infection Rate map of North America, there’s a relatively small spot in each of Canada’s capitol cities, and zero cases near the border. The US looks like it has a case of the Measles, and almost has more red spots than empty space, even in states like Texas or Montana, where they have so few towns or populated areas it seems ridiculous to think it could spread at all. And yet, these states still have high infection rates, and the densely-populated North-East is an absolute plague zone, with red spots so big they threaten to cross the border into Canada, simply due to the sheer numbers of infected IN the densely populated areas.
Lee Valley Head Office and Warehouse/Veritas Factory currently sit in Covid-Free zones. They are simply waiting for the go-ahead to open that head office for full staffing again. That is something outlined in Canada’s roll-out Pandemic plan for “Phase 3″… Since Ontario has only declared the rollout at “Stage 2”, we’re just now starting to see businesses open to the public again, and mandatory wearing of masks and the like.
It is also not over. We’ve started to see a resurgence of Covid-19 cases, due to over-excited social people going crazy at the thought of being indoors any longer. They’re going out without PPE, they’re contracting Covid in public gatherings, and ending up in Quarantine instead of Safe at Home Lockdown. I have seen from some American friends and family, that THEIR States are completely dropping the Lockdown, even with the infection rates RISING. So, expect your own Covid-19 experience to get far worse, far faster, than we’re seeing up here in the North.
But if you’re TRULY that bored, and need to order from Lee Valley… They’re in a safe place right now, and can still fulfill your order safely. Just, LEAN INTO THE ONLINE PURCHASING… Their Phone staffing is still limited by Phase 2.
Hilton
You know one of these days I’m going to organise a trip to Canada, even if it’s just to visit Rob Lee. Expensive flights from South Africa but I’d love to have coffee with that guy.
Joe
My order took about 5 business days. Not always the best for price but the selection is very good. Customer service has been excellent for me.
Username taken
all you need to know is the country of origin. that should answer reader question. while i am a huge fan of veritas hand tools….Canadian government is WACK
JoeM
Uh huh… You say that, and yet we have some of the fewest cases of COVID-19 in all of North America because of that “WACK” Government of ours.
Our national infection rates daily are slumping down to the double-digits right now. Remind me what’s so great about a nation’s government that has allowed their infection rates to reach the 4-6 digit range?
The Lockdown worked. Nothing “WACK” about our government preserving the people over the economy. The economy can, and is, bouncing back immediately. I, PERSONALLY subscribe to an expectation of another 18-24 months of dealing with Coronavirus, and its impacts on all sectors of the global economic stratum, but for what it’s worth, Canada wasn’t hit anywhere near as hard as other countries without the sense to do the full lockdown that we did.
And just to be clear… I have Americans in my Family, and I both love them unconditionally, and worry for their health and safety during this time. I have a few scattered Family members, biological and adopted, all over the world, and I feel the same. I’m worried about their health and safety, and I love them unconditionally.
Hell, I would extend that entire sentiment to Stuart and the entire ToolGuyd community at this point. I don’t care where you’re reading this, I care, and I have nothing but positive, affectionate sentiment for all of you. I would use the sappy “I love all of you” but that makes some of you uncomfortable. For those that DOESN’T offend, see the quotes.
Jennifer
Just go down and open the door ( if you are in Kelowna) They continue to be helpful, intelligent and great staff with skills to go with it.
Simon Rubin
Lee Valley is operating now and was operating during worst days of COVID. Indeed temporary closing of stores created a huge backlog, more than 10 000 orders at times. Now things are gradually back to normal, but system still quite busy. Eventually we’ll be all right
Julian
All working fine in Downtown Toronto. I have picked up two online orders in the last couple of weeks from their King St West shop. Ordered online and received an email within a couple of hours that the good were ready for pick up. Super helpful staff even called when one item was out of stock – I told them I would collect it when it arrived later. In my experience Lee Valley have also had customer care at the front of their thinking.
Take care everyone.
JoeM
I LOVE that particular store! All the antique wooden cabinetry, the maintained original hardwood floors… And the original Brick! Man, I love that OLD Toronto architecture, and Lee Valley did a GREAT job of openly displaying it when they moved in there, and they do an amazing job of keeping it up to this day!
I just don’t get to go downtown very often anymore. But, wow! Thank you for the memory jog, Julian! You just made my day!
Koko The Talking Ape
I ordered some stuff in May, it arrived quickly, no problem.
Lyle
Wow, a whole post dedicated to my question. I asked the question because for 3 days I tried to get in touch with Lee Valley. I live in Hawaii and I knew there was quite a bit of a time difference. The first time I called I heard a message that said something about limited hours due to the pandemic. Ok I thought, good, I’ll just call earlier the next day. The next day the phone systems seemed like it had some kind of problem. No message saying reduced hours or closed (thank you to someone for pointing out that it was Canada Day – I had no idea). I can’t imagine that this was on purpose. The phone would ring it would answer, and put you into an endless circle with no ability to leave a message or get in touch with anyone. The next day I experienced the same thing. I tried calling several stores as well, both in Canada and one in the US. There was no answer, no we’re closed, or whatever. Just no answer. I thought this was odd.
I had written to them and I understand that there was a delay due to reduced staff, but with the phone problems, that’s when I decide to ask what was going on. I even searched Google to see if something happened.
They have since replied to my email inquiries. It really does seem like they are a great company. Hopefully whatever was wrong with their phone system was just a glitch. Thanks for all your comments and feedback.