What an epic hassle dealing with bad thrust bearings on the bandsaw has been. Today I will be discussing my experience with Amazon Warehouse and not the guide upgrades that I had ordered. I think that it will be clear when I am done why.

First, for the uninitiated, Amazon Warehouse is a division of Amazon that resells returned items from Amazon. These items are supposed to be inspected, cleaned but otherwise in ‘like new’ condition.

In my case, the Jet JRBG-14 were bandsaw guide upgrades that cost $153 from Amazon. I noticed that Amazon Warehouse had them for $112 with Prime Shipping. Rather than trying to see if they were stocked locally or find a replacement thrust bearing, I decided that I would work around the problem for four days while I waited for a significant upgrade, according to reviews.

When the package arrived on Thursday, I eagerly opened the package and to my surprise there was a problem.

  • Top Guide
  • Bottom Guide

I wont make you guess or wait too long to get to the point. So, upon closer inspection, I was sent two parts that do not match the diagrams or my expectations. And worse, the bottom bracket was missing the blade guide as well. What it appears to me is that someone ordered this upgrade and returned the OEM guides back to Amazon. The dope that supposedly inspected this clearly did not do their job.

Needless to say that I was pretty PO’d. I lost four days waiting for this to not get a usable part. To top it off, some dishonest actor got away with this. And quality control at Amazon Warehouse must be very poor. This has got to be one of the few items that is returned with a diagram of what the item is supposed to look like. The next day I drove up to Portland to solve my problem for good, costing me about three hours to get the replacement bearing (but not the upgrade).

I think the Latin phrase Caveat Emptor should be put into place when buying from Amazon Warehouse. I would be skeptical ordering anything complicated or expensive in this manner. Unfortunately, you cannot actually see what you are buying and there is no guarantee that getting what you bought.