Companies that Stand Behind Their Products

[SeaNymph]

I'm always interested to hear of the experiences others had, good or bad. Like you said, it's nice to know which perform well and which don't.

[SeaNymph]

That sort of non stop hassle is frustrating. Luckily, I don't think I've ever had anything go so far south.

I was worried about the gun safe when it was delivered. The guys who brought it backed their truck and trailer down my driveway, which is not an easy task. They had the safe in the house, unpacked and set in place in a matter of minutes. They explained what needed to be explained and asked me if I wanted them to remove the box. I said no because we wanted to keep it for our grandson.

After they left, I called the moving company and told them that these guys were excellent :)

[Ed Pawlowski]

If it is that sleepy kind of chain they have a lot of BBB complaints. I'd not set foot in their store.

[Don Y]

No, it's not that FIRM. ;-)

[Don Y]

We try not to complain (nor praise!) over the phone. It's too easy for your words to end up on the "wrong" ears.

If it's worth griping (or singing!), then we take the time to compose a letter. In our experience, people seem to give more credibility to something that's taken "visible" effort to prepare (i.e., anyone can dial a phone and rant; taking time to organize your thoughts into a "presentation" shows some extra value).

It also gives us a record of what we said, etc.

[Joe Jones]

On Wed, 17 Feb 2016 12:00:01 -0700, Don Y wrote in

Thanks for the long story. Without knowing the "national chain" so we can benefit from that story, it's useless to me.

[SeaNymph]

I think you may be right about that. I was asked recently to put my thoughts about a company in writing so they could share it with their employees. I did.

[DerbyDad03]

There is a local chain of gas/lube/wash locations in my area. I have been using a particular location for many years. In the past year I have experienced 3 different issues with 3 different vehicles involving

3 different employees, all related to services at the lube shop. (Grease on my carpets, a billing issue and possibly the use of the wrong oil).

While each of the issues (other than the incorrect oil) are minor when viewed individually, 3 problems caused by 3 different employees could indicate a systemic problem with the management of the shop. To put my concerns in writing, I used the feedback utility on the company's website. After I submitted the form, there was a message saying "Thank you for your feedback. One of our representatives will respond within 48 hours."

It has been now been 5 days and no one has contacted me. I will be following up, this time adding their non-responsiveness to my list of issues.

[Don Y]

If/when you "go looking", you will quickly discover who they are; based exactly on my comments!

[Paintedcow]

I want to mention a company that does *NOT* stand behind their products, and that is Sioux steel company. This probably wont affect many of you, because they make farm gates and other steel farm supplies. Anyhow, they advertise a "Lifetime Warranty" on their products, but are not clear about the details. About 4 years ago, I bought several of their gates. These were their lower priced model, which is generally fine for small animals and horses. (Cattle need heavier duty gates). I got them for INDOOR use, on stalls for horses, ponies or goats. They cost around $80 each. Within 2 years they were falling apart, after 3 years, one of them literally completely fell into pieces, and the horse even walked out of his stall, because the gate was in at least 5 pieces, and the hinge portion just rusted off.

I contacted the company and was told the gates I bought were their economy gates, and those did not have the lifetime warranty. I told the guy that I understand the warranty may not be "lifetime", but these gates are totally falling apart after only 2 to 3 years, and went on to tell him I have bought other brands of used gates at auctions, which were at least 10 years old when I bought them, and have used them for at least 10 more years. I also told him that even those 20 year old gates might be rusty on the bottom rail, but I have never had any other brand of gate literally fall apart, except theirs. I also told him they were used indoors, which should make them last longer.

THe guy told me there is no warranty at all on the gates I bought and they could not do anything. After I clearly told him that if that's the kind of junk they sell, and have such poor customer service, he told me to buy their top of the line (expensive) gates and hung up on me.

I then went to the farm supply store where I bought them, only to find out they stoppd selling that Sioux gates because too many people were having problems with them. I pushed this issue a little further and said "dont you stand behind the products you sell". He said they do, but they could not get Sioux to assist with problems, and that is why they no longer sell that brand of gates.

In total, I bought 4 of their gates, which cost me $320. They should have lasted at least 10 years. Four years later, only one of them is still in use. The bottom rail has fallen off and the center support is gone, and I welded it in a few spots (and found the metal is like tinfoil in thickness). But its still working for a stall that only is a place to store some hay bales. But I doubt it will last another year.

This is the worst gate I have ever used, their customer service is about the worst I have ever gotten, and if I was to rate them, on a scale from

1 to 10 (10 being excellent), I would give them a MINUS 10 in all categories.

I will never buy another product made by that company.

[DerbyDad03]

Kohler has been doing the same for me for years. For some reason, my kitchen faucet loses "flow" every few years. I call Kohler when it starts to slow and they send me a new head. I'm getting ready to call for my 4th head. Other than this inconvenience, we like the features and I don't feel like dropping $250+ to replace it. As long as they keep sending me free heads, I'll live with it.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I don't imagine you will be goin back either. Certainly sounds like they don't care.

[DerbyDad03]

Not unless they send me a ton of free oil change coupons. At that point I'll try a different location to see how it goes.

The grease and the billing error were kind of acceptable mistakes...things happen. The only real downside was that it took 2-3 times longer than it should have for both oil changes and I am not a patient man.

The most recent error was a bit more serious. It was the first time I had taken SWMBO's Honda Element into that location. That meant that they had to add the vehicle to my account. When he came out with the bill, he told me that he had entered the wrong model but that it didn't matter, because the engines are the same and they use the same oil. I calmly (as much as I could) told him that a Honda Pilot does not have the same engine as a Honda Element, nor does the Element use 5W-30 oil. "Oh, I used 5W-20, not 5W-30, it just says that on the bill."

I then calmly (sort of) handed him the keys back and told him to re-do the oil change (including the filter) and to make sure that the next bill he gave me had all the correct information on it. I keep all the maintenance records my vehicles and I didn't need a bill showing an oil change for a vehicle that I not own.

When I got home I (calmly) logged into their website and informed them of my experiences. I'll give them one more day to respond. If I don't see a response by tomorrow morning, I'll be on the phone with their corporate office.

[Tekkie®]

[e-mail] posted for all of us...

You get what you pay for. You wanted economy not warranty gates and that's what you got. What's the problem? Just replace them. The critters banging against them when you declare 'love time'?

[Tekkie®]

Don Y posted for all of us...

I don't have a clue either. Just tell us.

[Muggles]

Awesome! I'd probably respond in a similar way about contacting corporate.

[DerbyDad03]

An update:

I just called their corporate office. When I explained that no one has contacted me since last Sunday, the (very nice) gentleman searched for my feedback by last name, telephone number and email address, all of which were required fields on the feedback page. He was not able to find my feedback.

In an effort to ensure that I hadn't done anything wrong on my end, I entered a short "feedback test" on their website while he was on the phone. When I was done I saw the same "Thank you for your feedback. A representative will contact you within 48 hours" message. Since this message does not appear until after the form has been submitted, I felt comfortable that I done everything correctly on my end.

Once again the (very nice) gentleman searched for my feedback by last name, telephone number and email address. He was not able to find my most recent feedback. "There seems to be a problem with the link between the website and our claims department. I will report that issue immediately."

I (calmly) explained to him that it does not make his company look very good when feedback is submitted, a response is promised, and the feedback apparently ends up in a digital shit can.

He apologized profusely and gave me an email address directly to the claims department with the promise that if I sent my feedback to that email address it will not be ignored. I (calmly) told him that not only would I send them the feedback about the issues at the specific lube shop, I would now include some feedback about the inner workings of their feedback site.

It appears that the sloppy management practices that I hoped were limited to a specific lube shop may indeed be a much bigger problem.

[Tekkie®]

DerbyDad03 posted for all of us...

Well, you are making progress. Is this a franchise place? The owner for your area-he may own one or several-determines the quality. They can be subject to web site vagaries same as any company. See what happens next and report back...

[DerbyDad03]

From their FAQ:

"Are the locations franchised?

No. We are a family owned and operated business headquartered in City, St. Remaining family owned allows us to maintain the great service and quality we've become famous for."

Something is slipping, both at this specific location and on their corporate website.

[>>>Ashton Crusher]

Physter sent me a new cartridge which works fine. The old one had gotten really hard to move with the handle. I took the old one apart and it seemed like all it needed was some new grease on the surface of the ceramic disks. I wiped the disks clean and they are so perfectly smooth that when I put them together I could hardly get them back apart they stuck so well to each other because of the perfect smoothness. Almost like magnets. I greased it and if feels like new but the real new one is already installed so now I have one more "part" to store.