Tears in my eyes

[cantlogin]

There’s a frost free hydrant in my barn and I discovered that if the hose isn’t disconnected water can remain in the head and allow damage from freezing. My head is cracked.

This thing is at least six years old and maybe as old as 20. I don’t know because it came with the barn. The only identification is the manufacturers name cast into the head. Searching the internet located the 50 year old company easily enough and they have an online catalog with what seems like over a thousand items. There were several hydrants listed and also a means for contacting my state’s distributor for their products. I sent an email to the distributor and they advised me that the closest retail outlet for their hydrants is about a three hour round trip for me. How this thing wound up in my barn is a mystery.

Without much hope for a positive outcome, I emailed the manufacturer with an explanation of my problem. Within hours there was a reply in my inbox inviting me to call the sales department at their home office on their 800 number. Expecting to learn that my hydrant was unidentifiable or obsolete with no parts availability, and the only way I could get it to work again would be by buying a new barn or something equally expensive, I called the number.

The phone rang a few times and I was not directed to push buttons or listen to advertising while on hold. A real live sounding woman named Donna asked how she could help. After answering two simple questions about the hydrant I had it was identified and availability of replacement parts confirmed. Name and address information provided and “We’ll ship it UPS tomorrow”. WAIT! I exclaimed you forgot my credit card info. “No, there will be a packing list enclosed, consider that an invoice and mail us a check, we use the honor system”.
I felt as though I had entered a time warp. My living color mental image of Donna and the office cubicle she was sitting in changed to a black and white movie with a metal desk covered with rolodexes and thick bound product catalogues weighing 5 pounds each.

This is the way I remember business being conducted. Just like the old days. I admit that there was a little mist in my eyes when I said goodbye to Donna.

 

[W2R]

Wow!! Don't hold your breath waiting for THAT to happen again.

I'm really glad you had such an easy time of locating the parts you needed.

 

[calmloki]

There’s a frost free hydrant in my barn and I discovered that if the hose isn’t disconnected water can remain in the head and allow damage from freezing. My head is cracked.

This thing is at least six years old and maybe as old as 20. I don’t know because it came with the barn. The only identification is the manufacturers name cast into the head. Searching the internet located the 50 year old company easily enough and they have an online catalog with what seems like over a thousand items. There were several hydrants listed and also a means for contacting my state’s distributor for their products. I sent an email to the distributor and they advised me that the closest retail outlet for their hydrants is about a three hour round trip for me. How this thing wound up in my barn is a mystery.

Without much hope for a positive outcome, I emailed the manufacturer with an explanation of my problem. Within hours there was a reply in my inbox inviting me to call the sales department at their home office on their 800 number. Expecting to learn that my hydrant was unidentifiable or obsolete with no parts availability, and the only way I could get it to work again would be by buying a new barn or something equally expensive, I called the number.

The phone rang a few times and I was not directed to push buttons or listen to advertising while on hold. A real live sounding woman named Donna asked how she could help. After answering two simple questions about the hydrant I had it was identified and availability of replacement parts confirmed. Name and address information provided and “We’ll ship it UPS tomorrow”. WAIT! I exclaimed you forgot my credit card info. “No, there will be a packing list enclosed, consider that an invoice and mail us a check, we use the honor system”.
I felt as though I had entered a time warp. My living color mental image of Donna and the office cubicle she was sitting in changed to a black and white movie with a metal desk covered with rolodexes and thick bound product catalogues weighing 5 pounds each.

This is the way I remember business being conducted. Just like the old days. I admit that there was a little mist in my eyes when I said goodbye to Donna.

Missed one thing: Who is this paragon of virtue, this American company, this deserving of free advertising maker of hydrants?

 

[TromboneAl]

Better wait until the parts arrive, they are the correct ones, and the invoice amount is correct.

 

[Wheel]

Broilmaster BBQ - Similar Story

Another company that I was so pleasantly surprised to work with was Broilmaster. The first time I lit my bbq this spring (for a soccer team party), I let it warm up, until someone pointed out that it was on fire! I got the gas shut off and upon inspection found most of the internal parts had been damaged.

Downloaded the parts list and went to work figuring out what I needed. Whan I called Broilmaster, the person I spoke with on the phone told me that where the air and gas are mixed, spiders build their webs (during non-use) or dirt can collect. If it does, a fire can start due to the disrupted flow. She also pointed out the section in the manual where it says to clean this area carefully after an extended down period!

Long story short, they sent me all the parts I needed at no charge, and paid the shipping to boot!

So, I have to give Broilmaster a hearty thank you for reminding me to read the manual and then sending me all the repair parts at no charge to overcome my stupidity.

Good to hear that there are more companies out there like this!

 

[cantlogin]

Missed one thing: Who is this paragon of virtue, this American company, this deserving of free advertising maker of hydrants?

They are Simmons Manufacturing.

Simmons Manufacturing

 

[samclem]

Not strictly related, but:

One of the big issues I run into all the time is "protecting the channel." The supply channel, that is. The link from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer (with a few intermediate nodes in the chain for various distributors) has not kept pace with the internet age. Frequently I'll run across a product I want/need, go to the manufacturer's web site to get the technical details about it, but can't find anyone to sell it to me. The manufacturers typically only have a hazy idea of who I should call, and it ends up taking a long time to actually buy the thing. This happened with a filter housing I needed when I installed my furnace: One company made the exact housing I needed (90 deg bend with the right filter size.) No one would sell it to me, I finally had to have a local tradesman order it for me from a local HVAC parts house ("we don't sell to homeowners), and I paid him a commission. He begged me not to tell them that the item was for my own use when I picked it up.

I'm smarter now. I've now got my own "home improvement business" and have even made up a groovy letterhead that I've used to request quotes. Fight dumb with dumb.

 

[Htown Harry]

My most recent positive experience was somewhere betweem samclem's and cantlogin's.

My house builder used a certain brand of spring-loaded door hinges on the door between my attached garage and the rest of the house. One of the three hinges gave out, which led to the discovery that springy door hinges come in several sizes. (And an annoying draft when I kept forgetting to shut the door.)

Home Depot, Lowes, the old-timey hardware store in the old part of town, my builder...all dead ends. The manufacturer's web site said my six-year-old hinge was fully warranted for five years. They also listed their dealers, each of whom would be pleased to sell me a case of 24 hinges...if I was a home builder.

I called the manufacturer's sales desk, explained my problem and received a sympathetic (and sincere) apology. The new hinge arrived two days later.

 

[Meadbh]

My head is cracked.

Oh, I hope not!

 

[calmloki]

They are Simmons Manufacturing.

Simmons Manufacturing

Cool - checked my yard hydrant installed in the last 5 years and it has Simmons cast into the handle - bought it at either Home Depot or Lowes. Under $50 if i remember right.

 

[packrat44]

When you said you cracked your head, my first thought was the cylinder head on your motorcycle.

 

[Jeb-NY]

My barn hydrant froze a few years ago also. I was dumber yet, I had added a screw on valve for the summer and left the hydrant on the last time I used it in the Fall. When I discovered it a few months later (it is outside on a side of the barn you can't see easily) I had a foot plus diameter pillar of ice. Luckily our water is fairly cheap, I was dreading when the water bill came, but it was only about $100 higher than normal.

I drove into the nearest city (20+ miles away) and hit all the big box home improvement places and no one had a hydrant like mine. I was on my way home thinking I didn't really want to dig up the whole thing and remembered a small country hardware that was only 5 miles from my house. They had the exact same hydrant in stock. I now stop there first when I'm looking for something.

Wish I had thought about trying to find the company but I'm not sure I even had a name to go by.

Jeb

 

[MikeD]

I once was buying a gun from a boisterous machine gun dealer in Indiana. I had driven there with a retired guy I knew at the time for company. It was a long trip from Virginia.

While there, my older friend noticed a hangun that he had always wanted in the dealer's safe. It cost over a thousand dollars and this was back in '91. My friend mentioned that he had always wanted one of those. Without batting an eye, the dealer said "Here, take it and send me the money when you get home." I was flabbergasted. My friend claimed that's the way things always used to be. He sent the money the next day.

Mike D.

 

[packrat44]

I once was buying a gun from a boisterous machine gun dealer in Indiana. I had driven there with a retired guy I knew at the time for company. It was a long trip from Virginia.

While there, my older friend noticed a hangun that he had always wanted in the dealer's safe. It cost over a thousand dollars and this was back in '91. My friend mentioned that he had always wanted one of those. Without batting an eye, the dealer said "Here, take it and send me the money when you get home." I was flabbergasted. My friend claimed that's the way things always used to be. He sent the money the next day.

Mike D.

It was definetely different many years ago. When I was 13 yo (mid '50s) the neighbor kid and I use to cruise the 2nd hand stores for entertainment. One day I saw a Winchester Model 62 and asked the price and was quoted $27.50. I said I was not really interested. The shop owner kept dropping the price which eventually went to $20.00 as I was about out the door. At $20 I was interested but I told him I would like to have it checked out prior to purchasing. He let me take it without any payment. After a gun dealer verified it was in excellent shape and a great buy at $20, I returned and paid for the rifle. Still have it and it still shoots well.

 

[Milton]

I once was buying a gun from a boisterous machine gun dealer in Indiana.

Perhaps you should change your forum name to "Rambo".

While there, my older friend noticed a hangun that he had always wanted in the dealer's safe. It cost over a thousand dollars and this was back in '91.

Korth?

 

[MikeD]

Korth?

I don't remember what it was exactly. It was a very large western style revolver in both caliber and physical size.

I am not interested in western guns and was beside myself in excitement with the prospect of picking up my very first belt-fed!

Mike D.

 

[Milton]

Sounds like you're in excellent shape to defend against an invasion of marauding grizzlies.

Are they thick on the ground where you live?

 

[mja]

I once was buying a gun from a boisterous machine gun dealer in Indiana.

I want to party with MikeD

It's been a few years since I've been to Knob Creek, but I'm itching to go again. Sadly, current machine gun prices would seriously impede getting to FIRE, or I'd own some.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

In other news, Donna was waiting until the end of the day to tell her boss she was quitting. In the meanwhile she mailed out over $10,000 worth of free spare parts to lucky customers.

 

[MikeD]

Sounds like you're in excellent shape to defend against an invasion of marauding grizzlies.
Are they thick on the ground where you live?

I like guns for the fun factor of wrecking stuff. It's a left over juvenile male thing. I would not hurt a defenseless/innocent animal in any incarnation.

Mike D.

PS - My wife and I are solely responsible for the body damage to this car. I paid extra at a shoot in Hot Springs, Ark to have them tow in a vehicle for my personal destruction. My wife concentrated on the hinges until the door fell off. There was thunderous applause from the peanut gallery.

 

[cantlogin]

Why does the phrase "shot himself in the foot" coome to mind?

 

[Milton]

I like guns for the fun factor of wrecking stuff. It's a left over juvenile male thing. I would not hurt a defenseless/innocent animal in any incarnation.

Good on you, Mike.

I enjoy target shooting (although my experience of full-auto weapons is strictly limited to my navy days!), but would never harm an animal (or a person).

 

[Westernskies]

In other news, Donna was waiting until the end of the day to tell her boss she was quitting. In the meanwhile she mailed out over $10,000 worth of free spare parts to lucky customers.

Actually, Donna's $35,000 customer service job was outsourced to India after Home Depot switched to a Chinese supplier due to the fact that most US Consumers "don't care where the products they buy come from" Her husband worked as a foreman in the manufacturing plant, making $50,000/ year and he is out of work, too. They defaulted on their mortgage, lived off their credit cards for a couple of years, and eventually declared bankruptcy, along with almost everyone else in Smalltown, USA where they had lived and worked all of their lives. And the Indians and Chinese all lived happily ever after. The end. I'm sure there is a moral in this story somewhere, but I've been told I'm too stupid to see it...

What a great Customer service story. It makes you proud to support a company like that doesn't it?

 

[Milton]

They defaulted on their mortgage, lived off their credit cards for a couple of years, and eventually declared bankruptcy

Great people.

 

[cantlogin]

Better wait until the parts arrive, they are the correct ones, and the invoice amount is correct.

Your wisdom and experience are evidenced by this remark Al. I think that it would have been prudent to wait for the climax of this tale before I got too excited.
My conversation with Donna was on Monday. On Wednesday the UPS man handed me my hydrant head in a box. Everything I expected was included plus a flow control knob that I hadn’t bargained for.
I considered reporting to the forum that I had decided to screw Simmons out of the money due them, just to teach them a lesson. Instead, I posted a check to them yesterday afternoon as soon as I finished the job of installing the replacement part.