[Hank]

ANOTHER PE baffle problem.  Well, PE shipped my three baffles for the .5 ft^3 cabinets.  They were quite loose in the outer box without enough padding.  All three had one crushed corner.  Replacements were packed better and arrived undamaged.  A week later I ordered two more, and they were poorly packed and had crushed corners.  Replacements were shipped last Friday for Saturday delivery.  Last evening I was preparing to drill jig guidepin holes when I noticed the baffles were TOO NARROW.  They are 8 inches wide!  They are obviously for the .38 ft^3 cabinets.  Their individual boxes are for the 8.5 inch wide baffles.  Among the printing on the boxes is:  "50 cubic foot..."  The prior shipped boxes were printed: ".50 cubic foot...".  That's right, the decimal point is missing on the new boxes.  This is apparently a mis-packing error at the Chinese manufacturing plant.  If you order new baffles, be sure to measure them before drilling guide pin holes.

[Hank]

more!!   Today, I came home to find a PE box shipped overnight - a big box with lots of foam to protect the two baffle boxes inside.  I opened the box, took out the two baffle boxes, pushed in the edges, and...I KNEW there was an 8" wide baffle inside.  Sure enough, one 8" wide baffle and the other box contained the correct 8.5" wide baffle.  I called PE, and Penny's supervisor took a tech to the warehouse to pull some baffle boxes and check them.  Penny called back a half hour later and said I was absolutely right - the new stock in the warehouse contained mixed baffle sizes in the same boxes!  SHEEZ!  So, the tech is making sure that the 8.5" width baffle he found, will ship to me tomorrow.  This has been a nightmare, but the PE customer service people are really cutomer service oriented.

[sbrtoy]

Another caveat on the PE boxes...the baffles often seem to have loose tolerances and you should always measure or test run on the enclosure with the baffle before wasting time drilling and routing.  I speak from experience of completing a baffle and finding it could not be wedged into the mounting flange on the cabinet.  Overall they are a great value but they do have some kinks to work out.

[Danny Richie]

Oh now, all that just can't be.

Rich Tyler said in the "Fixing the PE boxes thread" that:

Our factory is one of the best cabinet factories in the world. They have over 30 design engineers on staff using the latest CAD systems that can accurately calculate internal volume and we stand by our measurements.

I know they really do care and I am sure they do try hard, but I have had just as many or more issues in the past with them than you listed here.

[Hank]

   I suggest the China factory assign one or two of those thirty engineers to the Quality Assurance department for two months and direct them to makeover the quality system.  My experiences alone have cost PE a couple of overnight (including a Saturday delivery) charges.