FedEx 1: Rockwood 0

mgoblue0484

Amen Brother.

Nanook

@stlcharcoal. I wouldn't worry about it too much. You can't please everybody. No sense beating your head against the wall. Haters gonna hate. 

DieselkW

@stlcharcoal agreed, but as a valuable vendor you have the leverage and the responsibility to have FireCraft adjust their packaging methods because it directly affects your bottom line. Right or wrong, the average consumer will blame ROCKWOOD for this because it's your company name in a thousand point font, and FireCraft on the return address label in 12 point font. Do you want more customers (that are unhappy but don't complain where you can see it) to blame Rockwood for this kind of delivery? Completely up to you. When I buy Rockwood, I buy it at Ace Hardware in excellent condition.

I've been in sales my entire adult life, and I'm here to tell you that showing hostility to the consumer is counter productive. Everyone reading this thread is a potential customer and your public pissing contest with one angry dude has an affect on all your potential customers, only some of it is positive.

I repeat, it won't hurt to talk to FireCraft, tell them you're seeing a limited amount of feedback on their packaging methods, and what can be done about increasing the level of customer satisfaction for both companies?

If it cost an extra dollar a box, are you willing to drop your per bag price by 25 cents to compromise?

I'll tell you this - If my FireCraft deliveries showed up in a tight box, protected better from the gorillas at UPS/FedEx, I will give Rockwood 100% of my lump purchases that are now going to Amazon.

Because Amazon is not perfect, but they ship better faster and are far more responsive to complaints than FireCraft is. And they do it for $1/lb. no minimum dollar value.

Lit

What he said above ^^^^. Go look at fogo reviews on Amazon. The majority of the negative reviews have to do with shipping. People aren't rating Amazon as crappy though they are rating fogo. Their crappy packaging is a direct reflection on your brand when it comes in like the OPs. Right or wrong it affects your brand.

Nanook

Lit said:

mtbguy said:

Plus life is to good to worry about small stuff. 

I agree with this. I am as over talking about this as others are hearing about it. 

Thought you were over talking about this.....

Lit

Nanook said:

Lit said:

mtbguy said:

Plus life is to good to worry about small stuff. 

I agree with this. I am as over talking about this as others are hearing about it. 

Thought you were over talking about this.....

Did I post anything negative about Rockwood? 

Lit

And did you notice I didn't respond to stlcharcoas last comment? 

Legume

Free bag of Cowboy lump to the first person to put their keyboard away.

stemc33

Legume said:

Free bag of Cowboy lump to the first person to put their keyboard away.

I'll take it if you pay me to take it off your hands. Just untied a new bag of rockwood last night from firecraft. Ripped up dusty bag of rockwood is the best compared to some other brands. Lump was good and cleaned my egg up nice. 

SkinnyV

Legume said:

Free bag of Cowboy lump to the first person to put their keyboard away.

Ha ha I gave away like 10 bags....i thought I scored a deal once I tried it big mistake!

flynnbob

Y'all need to move to Georgia.  I get my RW at Ace and it is always in perfect condition.  They keep sending me discount coupons for being a rewards member so I still get a pretty good deal on it. OO is good too.  Between those two, that's all I need and I am a Happy Egger!

johnmitchell

Hey lads.....
Giada is on the Food Network....

Legume

johnmitchell said:

Hey lads.....
Giada is on the Food Network....

Now THATs funny.

DoubleEgger

mgoblue0484

Sweet mother of Joseph

MaskedMarvel

In my line of work, if someone complains about their entree we give it to them for free with an apology and an invitation to come back and try us on another visit.



Not trying to stir the pot here, I like @Lit and @stlcharcoal and am sad that I only have a half bag of my Rockwood left from the last drop shipment. It's clear the issue is with the shipper here. I've gotten lump from Amazon and it was fine when I opened it up and it wasn't packaged like a faberge egg.

4Runner

more Giada please   

stlcharcoal

DieselkW said:

@stlcharcoal agreed, but as a valuable vendor you have the leverage and the responsibility to have FireCraft adjust their packaging methods because it directly affects your bottom line. Right or wrong, the average consumer will blame ROCKWOOD for this because it's your company name in a thousand point font, and FireCraft on the return address label in 12 point font. Do you want more customers (that are unhappy but don't complain where you can see it) to blame Rockwood for this kind of delivery? Completely up to you. When I buy Rockwood, I buy it at Ace Hardware in excellent condition.

I've been in sales my entire adult life, and I'm here to tell you that showing hostility to the consumer is counter productive. Everyone reading this thread is a potential customer and your public pissing contest with one angry dude has an affect on all your potential customers, only some of it is positive.

I repeat, it won't hurt to talk to FireCraft, tell them you're seeing a limited amount of feedback on their packaging methods, and what can be done about increasing the level of customer satisfaction for both companies?

If it cost an extra dollar a box, are you willing to drop your per bag price by 25 cents to compromise?

I'll tell you this - If my FireCraft deliveries showed up in a tight box, protected better from the gorillas at UPS/FedEx, I will give Rockwood 100% of my lump purchases that are now going to Amazon.

Because Amazon is not perfect, but they ship better faster and are far more responsive to complaints than FireCraft is. And they do it for $1/lb. no minimum dollar value.

I didn't say that I wouldn't talk to them about it, I just said it's ultimately up to them how they do business.  I'm not going to cut them off because of "all the complaints", of which I formally have ONE.  Their sales have increased every month for the last few years, and then they doubled in March when another brand went off the market.  A vast majority of their customers are obviously happy with their orders, or we would see a drop in sales (and an increase in complaints to them and to us......hasn't happened).  Like another said though, the "free" aspect of the shipping could go away if these beat up bags become an epidemic.

I've looked at Amazon for fulfillment and you would be looking at $25-27/bag.....not gonna happen.  If they had a fulfillment center locally, it would be much less and make sense.  As with everything else, SOMEONE is paying for the shipping.

I've been in sales my whole life, since I was a kid.....things change a little when your name on the product.  The customer is always right--but when someone is not a customer, has no intention of being a customer ever again, and acts in a vindictive manner toward the company/product that feeds my family, the gloves come off.  I'm not going to hide or try to appease someone who has not even given me the courtesy an email/call and the opportunity to fix the problem for them.  If anything, potential customers are going to see that I handle these issues personally and am passionate about the product I sell--and perhaps encourage them to contact me directly rather than making passive aggressive / anonymous posts on the internet. 

stlcharcoal

MaskedMarvel said:

In my line of work, if someone complains about their entree we give it to them for free with an apology and an invitation to come back and try us on another visit.

I bet you guys appreciate those customers voicing those concerns and letting you handle the issue promptly and personally.  Let's you pinpoint problem spots and hopefully fix the issue.

On the other hand, I bet it's troublesome when "Mr. Anonymous" goes off with a post on Yelp, Facebook, etc.  You have no way of knowing who/what/where/when or if it's even authentic......plus you have to monitor all those site to find it.  Guilty or not, they're out to punish you by driving people away from your service/product.

FATC1TY

I buy my RW locally at my Ace Hardware. They started to carry it on my request, and it's become a very popular item, as it's the only place I can find in South Atlanta that will carry it with ease.


I won't use anything else, and use 3 bags a month between my eggs.

It's lump coal folks.. use it, or use something else, it's not the end of the world 

ChillyWillis

FATC1TY said:

I buy my RW locally at my Ace Hardware. They started to carry it on my request, and it's become a very popular item

I tried this approach as well. Apparently the distribution center that supplies the Ace Hardwares in the North East doesn't stock Rockwood, so I'm out of luck. 

BYS1981

Fight fight fight

DoubleEgger

4Runner said:

more Giada please   

Here you go @4Runner

Durangler

johnmitchell

Now we talking...This thread rocks...

Pacuare

I have had similar issues as the OP with RW from Firecraft.  Both times I ordered 5 bags, the bags looked like that.  For the first order the lump still was decent sized but smaller than when I purchased part of a pallet through a group buy.  I chalked that up too shipping.  

For my second Firecraft order, I am through just one bag and it had tons of dust and small enough pieces that a lot fell through the XL grate.  I have really liked using RW but that bag was bad enough that I am thinking I may not order from Firecraft again especially if the other bags are similar. 

I will open up the second bag sometime next week.  I will try to remember to document what it looks like.  

xiphoid007

I ordered 10 bags of OO a while ago. The bags looked bad and were dirty/dusty but I was very pleased with the bags overall.

If anyone is upset with the bag of lump, email firecraft and complain. I haven't heard one person say they spoke with firecraft and were told to shove off.

I plan to order some RW soon, and if I get lousy bags, I will email and complain. I could care less if they're dirty, I just want good lump.

Now, speaking of good lumps, how about some more Giada pics!!!

Durangler

xiphoid007 said:

Now, speaking of good lumps, how about some more Giada pics!!!

Durangler

Philly35

Ive never ordered lump from firecraft. But, when I run out of the sixty pounds I have, I will be getting it from firecraft. I'm sick of paying 27 bones a bag for it. And, if it arrives all beat up, I will contact them and let them know. Sounds like some of you should probably give that a try. It's kind of tough to fix a problem if you don't know it exists. I'm sure my one phone call won't make them change anything. But perhaps if they keep getting calls from multiple customers they will.