What Would You Like Changed/Added on the LL Website?

gerry_g wrote:This may be already being addressed.

A far more reliable Bulletin Board. It seems nepacrossroads.com does not seem to have a robust internet connection.

The reliability of a support forum reflects somewhat on the manufacturer that uses it.

what the hell does that mean. a robust internet connection. Maybe its on your end

This forum and the manufacturer are both top notch. You wont and cant find a better coal forum on the internet and you wont and cant find better owners of a coal stove company in the world. Matthaus and Flyer5 are awesome individuals who would do anything to help a customer or a potential customer. Take it from someone who knows.

gerry_g wrote:This may be already being addressed.

A far more reliable Bulletin Board. It seems nepacrossroads.com does not seem to have a robust internet connection.

The reliability of a support forum reflects somewhat on the manufacturer that uses it.

This server has been almost trouble free for 2 years and the site was trouble free for 3 years before that with my first host. It's just recently this issue has popped up and I haven't decided what I'm going to do.

More here: Reporting Problems with the Website

brckwlt wrote:

gerry_g wrote:This may be already being addressed.

A far more reliable Bulletin Board. It seems nepacrossroads.com does not seem to have a robust internet connection.

The reliability of a support forum reflects somewhat on the manufacturer that uses it.

what the hell does that mean. a robust internet connection. Maybe its on your end

It's not on my end, many times a trace route to this forum dead ends at 209.51.131.90 owned Global Access. "More robust" means a more reliable (redundant) internet connection for the forum. I've been on the phone with Matt (not about the forum) when he stated "the forum is down again" At the same times I could not reach the forum I could reach LLs site. Also I could not reach the name servers for this forum ns1.nepadigital.com and ns2.nepadigital.com, so they essentially didn't exist.

LL uses a totally different set of name servers and I don't trace any similar route.

brckwlt wrote:This forum and the manufacturer are both top notch. You wont and cant find a better coal forum on the internet and you wont and cant find better owners of a coal stove company in the world. Matthaus and Flyer5 are awesome individuals who would do anything to help a customer or a potential customer. Take it from someone who knows.

I never made any such criticism as you imply! They (and the forum) are great. I only mentioned internet access to the forum.

[quote="Richard S.

This server has been almost trouble free for 2 years and the site was trouble free for 3 years before that with my first host. It's just recently this issue has popped up and I haven't decided what I'm going to do.

More here: Reporting Problems with the Website[/quote]

Their is a serious issue when one can't even get the name servers for the BB. Without access to the name servers, no site using those name servers "exists".

okay

my bad i got a little jumpy

brckwlt wrote:okay
my bad i got a little jumpy

Jeez Brock, no more coffee for you

yeah ... i misunderstood what he was talking about, now i feel like a douche

because i have been having the same problems with the forum timing out

gerry_g wrote:Their is a serious issue when one can't even get the name servers for the BB. Without access to the name servers, no site using those name servers "exists".

The Nameserver's are on the same machine so when the site is down due to offline server so will the nameservers, it's standard setup for VPS and since I don't have failover server in place really irrelevant. In any event it looks like problem has been fixed, assuming it has been fixed feel free to enjoy one the fastest sites you'll find. Onto hopefully another 2 years of trouble free operation.

If you have any more comments this isn't the topic for it, post them in the feedback forum.

Thanks.

Not sure if it was mentioned, but how about the ability to purchase parts through the website.

Fans, gaskets, glass, etc..

Neal

Great idea Neal, we have considered that ourselves. The challenge is allow the dealers a shot at getting the recurring revenue from parts and service. We have not quite figured out how to limit online sales to only those folks too far from a dealer. The bottom line is that we don't want to cut our dealers out of their fair share of sales, after all they are at the front line for keeping our customers satisfied.

Well that sure makes sense, never considered the dealers. I guess that's why you guys are going to do well.

Neal

You could have the dealers link their website to the factory, so they still get their percentage from the sale. So a local guy could just go to his dealers site, click on the part he needs (which will then come right from the factory), & the dealer will be credited for the sale. This is how some bike shops operate.

SMITTY wrote:You could have the dealers link their website to the factory, so they still get their percentage from the sale. So a local guy could just go to his dealers site, click on the part he needs (which will then come right from the factory), & the dealer will be credited for the sale. This is how some bike shops operate.

Car dealorships do this too. Great Idea Smitty!

Hey Sting - good call on the TJERNLUND SS2. I have two Poconos/SWGs and am not convinced that the SWGs are quality units. Cooling fan wears out quickly, those little plastic blades will soon be nubs. One came unit came unlubricated from the factory and whined badly and yes I am using the platinum oil - least at that price it had better contain a lot of platinum. Now one unit is noisy and I have serviced it again. Of course, I don't know the TJERNLUND SS2s are any better but thx for the heads up on the choice. Perhaps earlier SWGs were made better. Remember every day somebody comes to work thinking of how to make things cheaper. Wrong corporate culture - wrong product.

As a perspective buyer looking for info on your stoves, using a Mac with Safari. Also a quick mention the site looks much better then when I first came across it a couple of months ago. However overall the site looks like it was created with FrontPage or a theme from FrontPage or some cheep website template, no offense intended.

IMHO

Get rid of gmail and hotmail address's, use site domain email address.

Each of your pages except "New FAQ" are a "number.html" page, ie for Products page it is "698400.html", "products.html" would make more sense and help with the search engines.

The index page.

Blue font is hard for me to read, white fonts too small, as it looks like you are trying to cram too much info on one page. Get rid of the hit counter, no one browsing the site needs that info. Email address, company address/info should be on a "contact us" page. Logo doesn't match anything, looks like it doesn't belong where it is. Also might want to consider a menu across the top of the page as Menu on the left too small.

Menu on the left, link to "Manual/Warrantee" opens a pdf file, I would change that to just a regular page in html of the warrantee info and then with links to the warrantee/manual pdf download option. "NewFAQ" should just be "FAQ".

FAQ page.

Either FAQ numbers are too large or the FAQ questions too small. Should also be a blank line between questions and answers. And maybe add a more FAQ's as I am sure you could probably fill up a few pages.

Products page

Maybe change the name to "Stoves" and just have the stoves on that page or like a Products page with a link to stoves, also divide up the stoves a bit something on the line of two or three stoves on each page instead of one four page Long... one, along as mentioned in earlier posts more photo's etc. of each. Mix of font size, black and white fonts makes it look a little messy, and again the blue font.

Clearance, SWG and Coal-Trol, should each have their own page, also linked from menu and Products page.

Retail Outlet Location page

This link "Web site:www.valleystoveandfireplace.com" should be clickable and open in a new window. Again fonts, size, color and type. Karen should have something better than a yahoo email.

Why?/Updates page

Get rid of the bold an regular font mix. But really should be two separate pages, one "Why" and one "Updates"

Dealer Listings

Rename to something like "Dealer near You". Page is way tooooo long, but as someone else mentioned some kind of dealer locator page, or at least a state listing on the top of the page to bookmarks below. And again the blue color font...

Hot Air Jacket

I like that page, simple and easy to read and understand, should have more like it.

Please don't take what I wrote the wrong way, as I believe your product is a good one and I want to see you guys succeed having a quality product and wish you all the best. As I blame "Leisure Line" for getting me started with coal, as when I went to a local stove dealer to get wood pellets I spotted two of your stoves in the store, looked the stoves over, asked a bunch of questions and liked what I saw and decided to pick up a couple of cheep used stoves first to see what it would be like burning coal, and to convince the better half, and then found this site. Just wish the dealer had at least one of your stoves running and I probably would not have wasted my time in used stoves... but then....

Oh and yes I like seeing some kind of parts page, parts manual, at least when I need a part I can look at a picture to see what the part is supposed to be called before I order the part.