Badger airbrush customer service--is anyone home? (UPDATED 3/11/14)

I must say that I have had several lousy customer service encounters with Badger, especially Ken. I still think that they are good products and I will keep using them. I just would not say that they have great customer service as a reason for their purchase. the airbrushes are very good.

I have had Iwata. Just as good as Badger in results, far more expensive including extra parts, great customer service. You have to decide if it is worth the extra money for the customer service portion.

Chris, Glad to hear that you got your airbrush back. I agree with you completely that their customer service remains excellent despite a glitch in their system. I like my badger's very much and I do not feel that because they encountered a hiccup that I need to simply drop my excellent airbrushes and fork out more $$$ for another brand that may or may not have better customer service.

Heh. I just got an email from Candy at Badger. "Chris, your airbrush has been serviced and is on its way back to you."

   Yeah, Candy, I've had it a week now, but thanks anyway.  :/

Yep. I found out online they use a Teflon seal inside the brush, so it should be fine. This is good news because I was planning on switching to more lacquer based products, especially clear coats and primers.

I have been using lacquer thinner to clean the AB for as long as I can remember.  Lacquer thinner will dissolve any dry or caked paint, period.

UPDATE

     Well, I finally got the airbrush back today. I haven't shot anything with it yet, but it looks as if all the repairs were taken care of. According to the service ticket that came back, the repairs were actually completed the same day they received the airbrush, back on February 14th. According to Ken, who is apparently the owner of Badger, their mail guy went on vacation and the fill-in mail person would pick up incoming mail for Badger, but not send out the outgoing stuff. Stuff happens and this is understandable, I suppose.

   In my letter I sent along with the airbrush detailing the repair requests, I asked them if lacquer thinner was okay to use in the airbrush. I also asked them to contact me when they received the brush as I wanted to purchase their super-fine needle upgrade kit and have them send that back with the repaired brush. The lacquer thinner question was never answered (I finally discovered it's ok by searching the 'net) and no one mentioned the needle upgrade until after I had raised heck about their communication methods. And even then I had to mention it again to get an answer. They did send me two different needle upgrade kits (Fine and Superfine) after a series of tense emails back and forth where I expressed my dissatisfaction with their communication methods. And they comped the shipping too, so there's that.

   Overall, if someone were to ask me, I'd say Badger's service is indeed excellent when they have all their ducks in a row. What is most certainly lacking, in my opinion, is their communication. I have a pretty solid background in customer service (in the automotive service industry while working at a GM dealer). This is the 21st century. Because of the internet, commerce moves much faster than it did even 15 years ago. I don't understand how they've gotten this far with so little communication with their customers. I wonder how much of this issue is due to their policy, and how much is due to their customer's expectations. I myself had much higher expectations. I told them as much and urged them to consider changing their policy a bit, but I don't think it'll happen. Maybe I've been too uptight about it all along. Who knows.

   I'll try shooting some paint through the brush tonight. We'll see what happens.

Chris

Well I have to give them credit for holding on to the small family size business that is quite difficult to find nowadays.

I have a Badger Patriot and love it but as many have said, never called or sent anything back. While I certainly appreciate their desire to stay small family run but wonder if that business model may be a bit dated? The fact that they're still around though does seem to speak well of them.....

Oh, thank you so much. Let's hold that thought until I get the brush back. I'll let you know. Thanks again for the kind offer, Geezer.

Chris

dirk,

pm me...I have an extra upgrade kit.

Well, I finally got a response. Here is what they said:

"Chris,

we are a small family owned business - that is what we wish to be.  we always have and always will do our best to handle service matters as quickly as possible.

Although our website does provide some level of expectation for an airbrush to be serviced - our service is provided on a best of our abilities basis.  Sometimes a service matter can be turned around in two days - sometimes two weeks - in some unusual circumstances it may take two months.  (But we'd usually come up with an alternative remedy in a two month situation).  In any case, we do our best to service and return sent in airbrushes as quickly as possible.

In answer to your question - we have one service technician - just as we have had for 50 years.  He works Tuesday through Friday.  Service technician is not his only job function.

Our only standard for service acceptability is to provide the service to the best of our ability as quickly as possible - always striving for customer satisfaction in the performance of their Badger Air-Brush Co. product.  Our reputation of conscientious service and product support is unmatched in the airbrush industry.

I apologize that you ended up in voice mail -  I was the person who answered the phone when you called.  I was the reason you ended up in voice mail as I did not know the service tech was on another call at the time you called.

I believe your airbrush service was completed last week, and shipped back to you on Friday."

No mention of the request I sent in along with my brush that I needed them to include the fine needle upgrade kit and that I needed them to contact me when my brush arrived there for service. Their service may be ok, but their communication skills are terrible.

 I've always regarded Badger as one of the "Big Ones" along with Iwata, Paasche, Grex, etc. I guess I expected that Badger was a much larger company given the popularity and international reach of their product. I guess this isn't true. Considering they are operating the same way they did 50 years ago, with a single service technician, I'm amazed they've survived this long.

    They have a Twitter, but it's been quiet for a couple years as far as I could tell. Their last Facebook post was back in January.

--Chris

I have heard only very positive things about their customer service, but that a couple of years back and hope they have not changed their policy. I had never needed to contact them for anything and my airbrush that I bought back in the late 1970's is still functioning like a brand new one. I too hope this is a momentary thing.

I sent them an e-mail about a month ago just asking a question about my airbrush compressor.  I never got a response.  As that was my only interaction with them I was not impressed.  One thing that seems to work well (with most companies) is taking to twitter.  I would imagine the company has a hashtag (#badger) or something along those lines.  For some reason businesses seem to be much more responsive to negative twitter feedback than anything else.  It works well with places like Domino's and Pizza Hut!

Groot

I agree.

"Warning!  Warning!  Danger, Will Robinson!"

This is the new world we live in now . I hate to say . I alot corporation are cutting back on CS these days .

I call it American Greed . Cut back on the important jobs to keep CEO top pay and bonus.

sad to say.

I hope they get it taking care of .  

Rick

Yikes Chris, That is Not Good! It is certainly cause for concern. I absolutely love my Badger airbrushes. And I am not in the market nor need to change. I can only hope that this is a momentary lapse in service. I may very well follow up on your issues in order to get some clarification. Thanks for keeping us updated on your endeavors.

        Joe

No call back today, so I sent them a pretty serious email detailing my disappointment so far. I got a reply which I can only characterize as either an auto reply, or a dismissive sort of blow off. He said he was behind on emails and playing catch up. I guess I'm in the  market for a new airbrush. Looking at the Grex pistol grip style ones. They look pretty sweet.

I'll be interested too. They did answer the phone when I called, but transferred me somewhere and then the call went to voicemail. Not impressed so far. We'll see if they call back tomorrow.

Hmm, That is indeed disconcerting. I wonder if they have experienced a change in customer service management or something. I am certainly interested what you find out with your call.

See, that's what I've read, but also most of the reviews I've seen are two years old or thereabouts, so nothing recent. Badger has a Twitter and a blog which hasn't been updated in two years or so either, and their last Facebook post was about a month ago. You'd think such a big name company would be up on current communication methods.

  I'm going to try calling them here in a few minutes. For some guys like me though it's much easier just to shoot an email off. Wish more companies recognized this.

  Chris

I have to admit that is rather odd Chris. I have had excellent customer service from Badger. In fact it is one of the main reasons I use Badger airbrushes. It's been a couple of years ago since I sent a Badger airbrush in that I got off ebay dirt cheap for refurbish. They charged me for the parts only and had it back to me in a timely manner. Have you tried calling the direct?