A reader’s email about International Tool has me concerned, as I have shopped there are recommended the retailer in the past.
They wrote:
Hi love the site and all the guidance you offer! I saw that international tool is a shop that’s often mentioned here and bought something a few weeks ago. However after calling their number, there is simply an automated message saying their location is closed. Unless I’m misunderstanding something, you may want to give your readers the heads up.
I called the 800 phone number on International Tool’s website, and an automated message conveys that their Florida location has permanently closed and that customers can shop their website.
They give a text message number for customer service inquiries, or you can email them at a zendesk email address.
There doesn’t seem to be any other valid customer service phone number to call.
I emailed a couple of people at International Tool, but have not yet received any responses.
So, I started calling people. One voicemail box is full. Someone else’s office and cell phones went straight to voicemail. A third contact’s phone rang and rang until the call disconnected with a Verizon “your call cannot be completed” message.
International Tool’s website still features July 4th tool sales, more than 3 weeks later. Their social media accounts are still posting about summer sales, but I cannot tell if they were scheduled in advance.
I called their parent company’s corporate phone number as a last resort, and was informed that the parent company is in the process of merging right now, and that email addresses are changing and might not work.
They redirected me to one of the people I tried calling, as their status indicated they were available, but the phone kept ringing with no answer.
I tried calling back to speak to the person who informed me about the temporary systems issue, but could not reconnect.
All that said, it looks like International Tool is simply going through some backend complications right now, which at least explains why nobody has emailed back yet.
But, if I can’t reach an independent retailer’s customer service by phone, and my only recourse is a text message or email to 3rd party ecommerce customer service for existing orders, I’m not going to place a new order at said company.
And if I’m not willing to place an order at a particular retailer, even if only temporarily, I can’t recommend them.
I should add that International Tool has been fantastic in the past, and extremely responsive anytime there was an issue.
I hope that this can all be explained by backend systems complications due to the corporate merger.
However, I still have to put my recommendation on hold, hopefully temporarily.
I’ll update this post if or when I learn more. If anyone has any insights as to what’s going on here, please let us know in comments or with an email!
