Hearthlist Digest #343 - Saturday, September 11, 1999
 
Re: Hearthlist Digest #341 - 09/08/99
  by "Grant Darrow" <[email protected]>
 

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Subject: Re: Hearthlist Digest #341 - 09/08/99
From: "Grant Darrow" <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 11:32:18 -0500
 
Pat Said;
 
 Just wait until the do it yourselfers have to replace their 1st
>thermopile.  Talk about a nightmare waiting to happen.  Gas leaks are =
going
>to be the order of the day.  Gas stove designers have yet to fix this
little
>problem on most of their products and until they do it will not be as
simple
>as some customer tweaking pilot assemblies.
 
I've been in this business for 23 fall seasons now. Simply put,  history
repeats itself.
 
In the early 1980's I made great money as a service person, reinstalling =
and
servicing stoves sold by enities simply in the business to sell stoves. =
Any
idiot or 10 year old can set up a shop and sell a stove at  10%-20%.
 
Today I sell stoves 7 hours a week. I average a stove sale every 1.2 hours
in my shop.
 
 I'm currently competeing for stove sales with a Lopi dealer that doesn't
install, He referres all his installs to 'Independent contractors', Think
about this. Locally, unemployment is at its lowest ever, in area where
people with good labor skills are common but because of the job market are
rare. Their all working. I'm getting calls from Lopi customers wanting me =
to
install their stoves after pouring over a list of unknowns with limited
skills! And in the end I generally sweep their chimneys for life!
 
I'm also competeing with a Blaze king dealer that common vents woodstoves
into Class A chimneys on different floors!
 
State Inspectors and gas companies are crying on my shoulders!
 
Good customers, the kind you really want, will surf the net or tour your
compertitors shops  and then walk into your shop educated. These people  =
end
up buying from you because they really understand what value added  means
and trully appreciate you and your services.
 
I take great pleasure in running every prospective customer throught the
physics of just how a gas stove works without electricity or how  a proper
wood stove chimney sucks. I also take great pleasure in expounding in all =
of
the great features some of my competeing stoves have, after all a good =
stove
is a good stove. In the end  If they don't get it,  I usually referr them =
to
that competitor. Who needs a headache?
 
The other thing I see happening is that dealer that's shit canned or told =
to
share a market  because of some buy out or consolidation and some new =
bunch
steps in,  with their yearly personel turnover, to sell that manufacturers
stoves. Are they perpared to deal with all those previous installs that =
the
old dealer was religiously takeing care of, personally?
 
Without a doubt this industry is one wild and crazy place and i'm well =
paid
and never bored.
 
willieweep the chimney sweep