Customer wants to pay extra for green wood.

[woodchip]

Quads, your customer could always buy some of our local firewood for £8-95 for 9 splits at our local B&Q, yes 9 splits........

(broken link removed)

At todays rate that's $13-85, an incredible $1-53 a split.

Now at that price, you could easily cut it to exact size, provide a counselling service, and probably even move to Yuma in a couple of years ;-)

 

[woodchip]

Woodchip, it is guys like you that keep me coming back to hearth.com. If I can help only one, it is worth the time. Besides, I started enjoying being on this forum a couple years ago.

Not only do I get loads of help here, people actually show appreciation for the thanks too.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Thanks guys! I really would like to meet you someday too!

I actually felt sorry for the guy that needed the shorter wood.....up until the point that he got mad at me when I told him I couldn't make him my priority customer. I mean, we've all had our problems (I have an electrical short-circuit in my heart that surgery never did quite fix; farmer's lung, etc. etc.) I didn't ask him his age, but I am almost certainly older than he is, and I know for a fact that I am stuck here in the cold country until the day I die, no big deal. I sold auto parts for enough years to know how bar tenders feel listening to all the problems of their customers. I guess wood sellers get their share too.

Anyway, the problem I had with the guy is that I went through all of that for $50 worth of wood (that he inspected before purchase and picked up himself) only to have him call me later and chew me out. If he hadn't done that, I might have sorted some of my odds and ends out for him as I cut and made him a great deal. But, possibly because I'm Irish, I feel that no one has a right to get mad about anything except me, and I hold a grudge forever! HAHA!

I take it that it never occurred to him that maybe he should measure his firebox and measure the stuff he was buying to see if it would fit?

People like him are why I never went into a job requiring dealing with the general public. It's great you've got such a sense of humor about it. I'd brain him with the nearest too-large split.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Quads, your customer could always buy some of our local firewood for £8-95 for 9 splits at our local B&Q, yes 9 splits........

(broken link removed)

At todays rate that's $13-85, an incredible $1-53 a split.

Now at that price, you could easily cut it to exact size, provide a counselling service, and probably even move to Yuma in a couple of years ;-)

When I first got my stove and mentioned to my very urban sister the trouble I was having finding dry wood to burn (usual newbie problem), she got to work on her computer and triumphantly "solved" my problem by directing me to mail-order sites all over the country that sell that kind of wood at that kind of price for fancy smoking in the barbecue. Far as she knew, a couple of 25-pound boxes of apple wood for 40 or 50 bucks apiece were all I'd need to get through the winter.

Most diplomatic email I ever had to write to explain to her why that wasn't going to work.

 

[quads]

Haha, yes, like Dennis says, I like being stuck in the cold country. Winter is, and always has been, my favorite season. I also agree with that muddy/slushy late winter/early spring is my least favorite, sort of like Mother Nature teasing me. But those first crocuses to bloom in the snow are sure a welcome sight.

Don't even know anybody with a moisture meter, but my seasoned stuff would be pretty good. Although, that's mostly gone and not looking too good for next year! I'm sure many of you remember all the pictures of my 'extra' wood stacks out in the woods.....ALL GONE! I'm just trying to get most of my regular customers through the winter with reasonably dry wood now.

And with that, the phone just rang....another couple loads going out now, in the dark! Unbelievable. I've sold more firewood this year than I ever even cared to sell, but I don't want to turn people away if I don't have to, certainly not my regulars. And I'm really enjoying it! If I would only get time to cut a little more again.....

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Quads, I hope you, like us, will have a winter with very little snow. That will make your work better and also will allow you to cut extra for those customers. Hey, as I write this I see some sunshine but very little snow. Just a very light cover and not even an inch.

 

[LLigetfa]

And with that, the phone just rang....another couple loads going out now, in the dark! Unbelievable...

I bet they called you after they threw their last stick on the fire. Probably another "chicken today, feathers tomorrow" customer that's been living that way for years and not a new woodburner that misjudged his first year supply.

I have a sign up in my server room... "Lack of foresight on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part". I drove someone to tears once when I quoted that after she sent me an email on a Friday evening (after I had gone home) expecting me to have a training room ready for Monday morning. She knew weeks in advance that the trainer was coming but failed to give any advance notice. The problem with email is that with return notification, one cannot pretend to have not seen it.

 

[quads]

And with that, the phone just rang....another couple loads going out now, in the dark! Unbelievable...

I bet they called you after they threw their last stick on the fire. Probably another "chicken today, feathers tomorrow" customer that's been living that way for years and not a new woodburner that misjudged his first year supply.

I have a sign up in my server room... "Lack of foresight on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part". I drove someone to tears once when I quoted that after she sent me an email on a Friday evening (after I had gone home) expecting me to have a training room ready for Monday morning. She knew weeks in advance that the trainer was coming but failed to give any advance notice. The problem with email is that with return notification, one cannot pretend to have not seen it.

You are correct! Almost all of the people I sold firewood to have been heating their homes with wood for many, many years, some their whole lives. "Chicken today, feathers tomorrow" are my "bread and butter"! HAHA! I asked one guy about the lack of smoke from his chamney as I was unloading firewood in his yard. He told me; "no, that's not because of an efficient burning stove, it's because I am out of wood and it's only 45° in my house."

I tell everybody that I cut firewood all year long and that I also always have firewood available for sale throughout the summer. Some people this year have indicated that they plan to buy firewood from me this spring and stack it themselves so that they are ahead of the game by next fall. We will see....

 

[woodchip]

A couple of my friends here who supply firewood advertise a discount for summer deliveries between May and August.

Of course, the winter prices are a little high, but it is a question of training the customers.

Actually, I sometimes suspect it is easier training a dog.........

 

[LLigetfa]

You just need the the right training tools.

[youtube]www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAKEedAuybQ[/youtube]

 

[quads]

I talked to my wet/green wood customer to see how it's going and they tell me that it is exactly what they wanted. They said from now on they don't want anymore of my dry/seasoned wood, but I should just bring them the greenest/most recently cut wood that I have when they order firewood. OK with me. I aim to please....

 

[Lighting Up]

I talked to my wet/green wood customer to see how it's going and they tell me that it is exactly what they wanted. They said from now on they don't want anymore of my dry/seasoned wood, but I should just bring them the greenest/most recently cut wood that I have when they order firewood. OK with me. I aim to please....

Man!...what's his pipe look like ?
md

 

[benjamin]

I, considering myself an expert on how people do things around here, propose two absurdly obvious solutions to your customer service dilemas.

#1 the customer wants green wood, you prefer to cut only dead wood... give them fresh cut dead wood, just don't split it.

#2 the customer can't get his stove door to close... what's the problem, isn't the door supposed to stay cracked open?

Those are free but next time you have to hear about my testicular problems.

 

[quads]

I, considering myself an expert on how people do things around here, propose two absurdly obvious solutions to your customer service dilemas.

#1 the customer wants green wood, you prefer to cut only dead wood... give them fresh cut dead wood, just don't split it.

#2 the customer can't get his stove door to close... what's the problem, isn't the door supposed to stay cracked open?

Those are free but next time you have to hear about my testicular problems.

HAHAHA!

 

[quads]

Man!...what's his pipe look like ?
md

They have a couple feet of single-wall pipe that goes straight up to a stainless insulated chimney, which goes straight up through the metal roof. That, combined with as hot as they have to run it to get any heat in the house, should keep the creosote from getting a chance to build up. Even if it did, and a chimney fire started, with the metal roof etc. hopefully nothing would ever happen. So, as much as I dislike seeing them want to burn unseasoned wood just to get longer burns, I guess they will most likely not be in too much danger.

 

[Thistle]

I, considering myself an expert on how people do things around here, propose two absurdly obvious solutions to your customer service dilemas.

#1 the customer wants green wood, you prefer to cut only dead wood... give them fresh cut dead wood, just don't split it.

#2 the customer can't get his stove door to close... what's the problem, isn't the door supposed to stay cracked open?

Those are free but next time you have to hear about my testicular problems.

:lol: Brilliant.