"Both Rockler and Woodcraft struggle in…"

Both Rockler and Woodcraft struggle in the new digital economy. While most hardware stores have been run out of business by the Chinese product shucking big box warehouse stores, Rockler and Woodcraft struggle to maintain the small business facade. They try to provide the old time local hardware store model in the new age economy. I give them 5 stars because they care enough to do it. Finding knowledgable craftsmen to staff a brick and mortar is next to impossible, and yeah when you go in and need advise, you may have to work your way through the rank of newbie, clerks until you find the one or two old timers who really know the craft, but they are typically there somewhere. Is there room for improvement ? For sure. But think about it. In an economy where a skilled woodworker can pull down 10K making a custom piece of furniture how do you staff a retail store on 13-15$ an hour ? The onus is on you to know a little about what your doing today, but there are plenty of resources at these stores for the slightly intelligent.
The other piece here is they have all had to adapt to the markets. They pay the bills selling pen turning DIY kits to people with too much money and time on their hands. It's their gateway drug to building their customer base. So if you're looking for a micro lathe to turn pens, they got a whole staff of people to help you and you should be ok. If you need to know the pros and cons of badger hair brush vs synthetic sponge or the benefits of hand mixing shellac then don't go up and ask the 19 year old gal behind the register, mill around the store and look for the 82 year old guy with 9 1/2 fingers. Know your stuff. Research your big tool purchases. All the major vendors have the specs out there online. There's no reason you should go in and ask them the diameter of the sawstop blade arbor, or ask them to saw a hotdog for you. That crap is all on line. They should be able to advise you if you need the 3hp or the 5hp saws or opinions but don't expect them to be encyclopedic on the specs, that should be your responsibility. That will explain about 95% of the bad reviews you see.
Back in the day, you had one or two commercial suppliers in town that sold high end tools. You could go in, and talk to a guy like a car sales guy who could wax all day on powermatic vs Rockwell and get you setup with a professional machine shop. Those days are gone. Can you buy a Powermatic on Amazon ? sure. Good luck with the delivery. Good luck with advise if the t bars are out of alignment, good luck if it comes with a cracked table wing. And anybody buying wood from these places bigger than a turning blank is a straight up idiot, even they will tell you that. Super exotics sure. But if you go there and buy quarter sawn white oak your a fool, shame on you. That's why God created the hardwood lumber supply. If you live anywhere in the continental US within a 50 mile radius of a million dollar home you have someone around supplying fine hardwood.Do I wish it was 1965 again ? Absolutely. But in 2018 is Rockler and Woodcraft a 1 or 2 star business ? Only to an irrational consumer. Every one of these shops offers classes, seminars, and advice to the beginner to a jumping off point where you should be able to seek further skills on your own, if they don't it's a franchise/local store issue and you should take that up with corporate or the store manager.

"I'm not sure how this company stays in…"

I'm not sure how this company stays in business with how poorly they handle business relations and communication. We've had multiple missteps with them, including lost orders, cancelled orders, and a 2 month wait on a refund that they could track, but couldn't figure out how to actually issue. The people at customer service are generally pleasant, but in no way helpful.
I've never had a more frustrating interaction with any business, than with this company.

"Absolutely the worst customer service I…"

Absolutely the worst customer service I have ever dealt with. I was on hold for so long. I spoke to three different customer services and the supervisor. All three were asleep at the wheel. I will not be using this company again and I will be advising all of my shops do the same.

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"I placed an order for a product that I…"

I placed an order for a product that I needed to get a tool back on production. I paid for " overnight air". They sent it" next business day "wich means I will not receive it until Monday. I will never purchace from Rockler again.

"It takes nearly a week for Rockler to…"

It takes nearly a week for Rockler to package and handover an order to UPS. If you order from Canada the company is unable to tell you whether or not the order has been shipped - or so told me customer service. I think this will be my first and last time doing business with them.

"Terrible customer service"

Terrible customer service. Found the same item cheaper and with free shipping 30 minutes after placing my order. Called to cancel and was told the order could not be canceled. Then told I could return it, but I would have to pay shipping both ways.

"Poor service"

Careful what you order from them. They resell on behalf of other retail companies and don’t care about how you are treated. I’ve been waiting over a month for a lathe I ordered last year. Customer service won’t do anything to help or compensate for the poor service. When I ordered the estimated delivery was 10 days.

"Don't order online"

I'm sure their stores are fine, but the online order service is a joke. Placed an order last Tuesday, called Wednesday because I didn't receive a confirmation email and was told my order would was being picked but she couldn't confirm whether it would ship or not....... Called the following Monday (today) for an update and the service person couldn't figure out what was happening and said she'd call back later...... Three hours later I try once again to get an order status. This time the woman answering first said it was being picked and when I said, "that's what I was told a week ago", she put me on hold to get more info and came back and said a supervisor was still looking into it from my morning's call..... Three plus hours just to verify whether an order has shipped yet or not....really!? My own company does quite a bit of online selling and shipping and it really isn't rocket science.... Anyhow, needless to say I've totally lost faith in their online store and am now forced to drive an hour and a half to get what I needed by tomorrow to finish a project on time.

Follow up: I received an email in the evening stating that my order had shipped Next Day by UPS but, 1) Since they never called me as they said they would, I had already gotten the product somewhere else, 2) when Rockler finally called a day later, turns out it hadn't actually shipped yet, and 3) if they had shipped it Next Day UPS (as the email indicated), the address I gave was a PO Box, so it wouldn't have gotten to me......

"Rocker is tops with me."

Rocker is tops with me. Called yesterday about a problem I was having with some equipment. Their solution to the problem, “ we will send a new one to you”. They told me to keep the first one and not bother to return it. I might add, this was not a cheap piece of equipment. If it was possible to give them more than 5 stars I would. Great job Rockler. You have my business.

"Actually 2 1/2 stars. Are they being honest with reviews???"

Actually 2 1/2 stars. I usually like Rockler. They offer a lot of innovative products and their quality is usually pretty good. My beef started when I bought a product that I didn't think was too good and gave it a negative review (2 stars if I remember right along with a negative write-up). That was about 6 months ago.

Last weekend, I was looking at the product on their website again and noticed that it only had 4 and 5 start reviews. I typed up another 2 star review and when I submitted it, got a pop-up saying I'd already submitted a review and couldn't resubmit,

I sent their customer service department an email asking what happened to my review. I got an "after hours reply" stating that they would answer my email when they return to work the following day.That was 7 days ago and I still have not heard back from them. It makes me wonder if they're routinely suppressing negative reviews. I always look carefully at reviews before I buy a product. I've gotten a few thing from Rockler that really stunk. Maybe I would have been spared from these bad purchases if they showed ALL the reviews, not just the good ones.