NEI Handtools: bad service or... ?

762mm

762mm

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The Maple Carneyval
About two months ago, I have ordered a custom mold from NEI Handtools to feed my 1892 French Lebel revolver (.330, 116 gr). I placed the online order, added the RCBS mold handles to the order and, with shipping, it came out to $188 USD, which was promptly billed to my credit card.

I waited about a month and there was no news - nothing came in the mail and no one notified me of anything. I wrote them a message (to their hotmail address) and was told that, since they don't have them shelved, the mold would have to be custom made and shipped, which should take a few extra days at most. Ok, fine... I am a reasonable guy and fully understand that my order may be a bit unusual and therefore not in stock. Still, a month is a long time to make a mold, but anyway.

Well, another month went by since and still no news from them. I wrote a second message last week, but received no reply whatsoever... Today, I just wrote them another message to the e-mail address supplied on their website (nei@colcenter.org) and the message was returned saying that the e-mail address is no longer valid! So, I guess that their hotmail address is my only hope now as far as e-mailing goes (another message was just sent).

I am wondering now... did these guys go belly up or something all of a sudden? They advertise customer service and customer satisfaction as being their prime goal, but the service is pretty lousy from what I can see. If they don't reply by tomorrow, I will be calling them long distance directly. I just feel that I shouldn't have to run after them to send me something I paid for two months ago... :mad:

Thoughts?
 
I haven't heard of them going under. Given the current run on reloading gear of all kinds, I would expect any order for custom anything to take 6+ months, so I would not be ready to accuse them of stealing your money yet.

I would however, based on your story, readily accuse them of bad customer service. They should not be charging your credit card for a product not ready to ship, and should not be quoting you "a few days" for a job that will clearly take the good part of a year.
 
I bought a mould from them a few years ago and after a long wait it finally arrived. You can imagine my disappointment when I found that it would cast bullets with a different diameter on every driving band mostly being too small to true up when lube-sizing.
When calling to discuss my problem I was more or less told " too bad so sad".
They have lost my business....
 
Do not do business with nei

NEI SUCK!

I had the same issue as 762mm, though mine took twice as long. I got the BBB involved and finally heard it had been shipped. Overall it was decent but it was a hollow base mold and quality was heavily lacking on the hollow base plungers. It was useless as is but I have a lathe at work and reworked them. I made it useable though I ended up selling it at a huge loss (cost me $240 or something) to a guy just getting into antique handguns.

Just read this:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=68771

If they don't reply by tomorrow, I will be calling them long distance directly.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I highly doubt this will get you anything but yelled at.
 
Damn... :mad:

Thanks for the replies guys, but this doesn't sound promising from what I read (here and in the thread mentioned by 41 Colt in the above post).

So, NEI really seems to be going down the gutter, huh? It is a shame, as in the past I've heard they were a very good & highly recommended mold company.. therefore I didn't hesitate to dish out almost $200 USD for one of their molds. If I only knew then what I know now...

Honestly, I could've went with a similar RCBS mold for less money, but decided to go for the "ultimate quality" from NEI, which might become the "ultimate screw-over". Beautiful.

Right now, after reading up on others' experiences, all I want is for my mold to produce the proper diameter & proper weight bullets.. as apparently that can be an issue too, according to some accounts.

:confused:

Edit: Just received an e-mail from Joel (guy in charge). He tells me my mold was shipped out on the 15th this month and gave me a customs ID number, which I don't believe I can verify on the internet (please correct me if I'm wrong).

I guess maybe things ain't so bad after all... but let's see the mold before passing judgment. Stay tuned for updates...
 
762mm said:
gave me a customs ID number, which I don't believe I can verify on the internet (please correct me if I'm wrong).
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I got a customs ID number because my mold was returned by customs to him and he had to re send it. :confused:

I couldn't verify the number he gave on the net but my mold did arrive within a week.
 
41 Colt said:
I got a customs ID number because my mold was returned by customs to him and he had to re send it. :confused:

I couldn't verify the number he gave on the net but my mold did arrive within a week.
Click to expand...

Hmm... well, it's still no cigar on my end. No mold came in the mail yet, 2 weeks after it was supposedly sent (on the 15th).

By the way, since NEI is an American company and we have a free trade agreement, should I pay duty for something that was made & shipped over from the States? The last time I received a 200$ package with all kinds of Lee reloading stuff in it, I had to dish out like 35$ extra to pay for our useless border "services". The package had a clearly identified customs tag that specified the item was made in the USA.

:confused:
 
On the cast bullet web site when they were doing their group buy's from Lee it got to the point of a YEAR WAIT fot he moulds and that was usually orders of 20 plus moulds.
They have started using Night Owl Industres.

Border services some of the stuff that I have had shipped from the states has taken up to seven weeks to arrive.
I always anymore figure 4 weeks from the date of mailing down there to me getting it.
That allows Customs to play with it for a while.

You will pay GST on the mould plus if it actually gets opened at Customs there is a Five Dollar Fee for them doing that also.

Don't fret so easy you will get use to the delays.

Ken.
 
No, no taxes were charged... since my Lee stuff was bought directly from the seller. I didn't know they actually charged GST at the border when stuff was sent through the mail (this was a private sale, btw). I guess it makes sense. What about provincial tax? Do my socialist comrades of Québec also feed off the reloading stuff I buy in the good'ol US of A? Kind of ironic that these parasitic asshats would feed on me purchasing such 'evil' bullet-making tools, no?

kodiak1 said:
You will pay GST on the mould plus if it actually gets opened at Customs there is a Five Dollar Fee for them doing that also.
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What?? 5$ for them tearing the sh*t out of my package? What if I don't want such a "service"?

This is f*cking bananas... they're going through the stuff to find anything else they can charge duty on or tax, and I have to pay for their efforts even if nothing is found? This is like the Chinese government sending a bill to the families of executed prisoners, because the execution bullet needs to be paid for! (true story.. they actually do that in China)


Thanks for the info though. Yet another example of how we get financially raped every day. All hail national socialism! :mad:
 
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Update: The envelope with the mold came in today. I found it in my mailbox in the afternoon (no signature required). I'm not complaining though, as didn't have to pay anything extra for customs "services"... seems like NEI knows how to ship properly up here (quite ingenious, actually). ;)

As for the mold itself, it seems like the blocks are well made. There is some tooling marks and a small chip on the outside of the blocks, but the inside finish is quite good. I think it will produce nice bullets (I'll give a try soon).

Overall, it wasn't a bad experience, but the wait was quite long. I guess it could've been much worse though, especially with some of the horror stories going around. I'm not going to rule out NEI just yet as far as custom molds are concerned though, as my experience turned out good in the end... and I'm probably going to need some custom molds in the future as well.

:)
 
I am in on 2 group buys on Cast Boolits, one commences in July, the other in October, and yes Lee was taking a year. There has been alot of NEI bashing lately and I agree that they have gone downhill since walt ran it but, they use excellent materials and that's half the battle. Top grade aluminum and tool steel sprue plate, just the opposite of Lee which uses the softest aluminum which galls badly and their sprue plate is made of aluminum.
 
unreasonable tax grab!!!

Not to highjack a thread but the govt. charges at will , I just received warranty repairs from Dave Corbin and it was clearly marked on the package and still paid gst&pst plus a " handling charge for delivery and the package wasn't even opened ! Apparently it happens all the time or there would not be contact info for the (casual refund center) on the back of the customs forms . If you act like the average sheeple and accept the charge like they expect it's your loss and their gain! I will second the motion for the group buy's from NOE on cast boolits , I just received one group buy mould for .303 and in the que for two more and can't wait.
 
^ Oh man, that sucks... you actually sent them in for repairs and they jacked you extra border fees? I hope that form has been already filed and that they won't d*ck you around too long before giving back the money they stole from you. This whole border watch thing is ridiculous... their agents are busy ripping apart packages with Barbie dolls and charging tax\duties on them, meanwhile truckloads of cigarettes and full auto Uzi's & AK's are being driven through reservations every day without even being checked (because our governments are too scared to do anything about it, fearing another Oka standoff).

Anyway, luckily it's still common for some of them to do their job properly, as in not taxing things that aren't supposed to be. It just sucks to hear whenever the opposite happens...

:(


ben hunchak said:
I am in on 2 group buys on Cast Boolits, one commences in July, the other in October, and yes Lee was taking a year. There has been alot of NEI bashing lately and I agree that they have gone downhill since walt ran it but, they use excellent materials and that's half the battle. Top grade aluminum and tool steel sprue plate, just the opposite of Lee which uses the softest aluminum which galls badly and their sprue plate is made of aluminum.
Click to expand...

I've got quite a few Lee molds too (recent purchases for various calibers), but haven't had a chance to try them out yet. Any tips on using them, since they're so soft? Also, what do you mean when you say that their aluminum galls? I'm not familiar with this term, but it sounds interesting...

Also, would you say that Lee molds are perhaps made by a bunch of Lieberal workers at the Lee plant, which might explain this phenomena? I mean, who else would make anything so soft that it's actually pretty much useless, haha! :D (it's been a long day)
 
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