Harmans New Website

 
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coalkirk
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Post by coalkirk » Tue. Nov. 22, 2011 8:45 am

Harman launched a new website a couple of weeks ago. It is riddled with errors and I've emailed them several times with absolutley no response. For instance it lists the venting requirements of it's mark I, II, II, Sf250 and mag stoker as a B vent. As I'm sure most of you know a B vent is for gas fired appliances and would be a dangerous thing to use with coal. I called them yesterday on the customer service line and spoke to a nice but very frustrated Harman employee. He said that the new website came from corporate (Hearth and Home) and that they had no control over it. When I complained about emailing with no response, he said those emails don't come here, they go to corporate. He took down the error info and said he would send it along. So undeterred, I looked up corporate in Minn. and called them. I explained to the person who answered that I wanted to speak with someone there who was responsible for the website at Harman. Before I could get all of the words out of my mouth, bingo, she connected to you...you guessed it..Harman in Pa. Called again and said I do not want to be connected to Harman but to a vp at Hearth and home who oversees Harman. Click...reconnected to Harman. It's a cluster f***. :mad:
Last edited by coalkirk on Sat. Apr. 01, 2017 4:17 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Moved to: Energy, Coal News and Discussion


 
titleist1
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Post by titleist1 » Tue. Nov. 22, 2011 8:51 am

coalkirk wrote:Harman launched a new website a couple of weeks ago. It is riddled with errors and I've emailed them several times with absolutley no response. For instance it lists the venting requirements of it's mark I, II, II, Sf250 and mag stoker as a B vent. As I'm sure most of you know a B vent is for gas fired appliances and would be a dangerous thing to use with coal. I called them yesterday on the customer service line and spoke to a nice but very frustrated Harman employee. He said that the new website came from corporate (Hearth and Home) and that they had no control over it. When I complained about emailing with no response, he said those emails don't come here, they go to corporate. He took down the error info and said he would send it along. So undeterred, I looked up corporate in Minn. and called them. I explained to the person who answered that I wanted to speak with someone there who was responsible for the website at Harman. Before I could get all of the words out of my mouth, bingo, she connected to you...you guessed it..Harman in Pa. Called again and said I do not want to be connected to Harman but to a vp at Hearth and home who oversees Harman. Click...reconnected to Harman. It's a cluster f***. :mad:
Somehow that doesn't surprise me at all!! :roll:

 
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MURDOC1
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Post by MURDOC1 » Tue. Nov. 22, 2011 10:05 am

On a bright note in favor of Harman, I just yesterday picked up the replacement feed gear motor covered under warranty an only took a matter of 5 business days total, from time I dropped off the leaky bad one to my dealer till yesterday when my dealer called and said come pick up the new one its here waiting for you!!! Actually a great experience... However, if I would have purchased a brand new unit from my dealer the cost would have been $ 466.00 + tax!!! Ouch, can be had (and actually before I dropped off the bad one I purchased and picked up a new unit from Grainger) from Grainger for $285.00 + tax= $302.10... So now I have 2 brand spankin' new gear motors to start the season off with... I now have a spare for each motor on my Mag...

 
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I'm On Fire
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Post by I'm On Fire » Tue. Nov. 22, 2011 11:16 am

After reading all of these Harman related threads; I have been following the DVC-500 threads closely these past few weeks and hearing all of the horror stories about their customer service and what-not it is official, I will never buy a Harman product.

 
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MURDOC1
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Post by MURDOC1 » Tue. Nov. 22, 2011 11:47 am

I'm On Fire wrote:After reading all of these Harman related threads; I have been following the DVC-500 threads closely these past few weeks and hearing all of the horror stories about their customer service and what-not it is official, I will never buy a Harman product.
Not in support of how Harman does business whatsoever, I feel that they are wrong in not providing their customers direct access to their knowledge base/support system, but, I also feel that a large portion of all of the nightmares are at the dealer level from the start... I for one have absolute confidence in my dealer as they have proven to me from literally day one (unpackaged the parts upon delivery and the hopper and lid were smashed and tiles painted crooked) when they immediately honored without question sight-unseen via phone call a damage warranty claim and with speed and accuracy shipped out replacement items and allowed me to keep the damaged stuff, never ever having seen any of it or even wanting to see it... Very fair people they are and have proven it again with replacement of the gear motor under warranty without a hitch!!! Lets face it, most anyone of us here on this forum could walk into just about any "stove shop" and without fail teach the sales team in there a thing or two about a coal fired appliance!!! So it pays to do your research up front and be aware of what you are getting into from the start... I for one would never consider a direct vent coal appliance (DVC-500) especially not coupled to Harman's JUNK timer box!!! On the other hand, a Mag Stoker with a Coal trol is a premium trouble free ironclad efficient setup and worth the extra coin to make the conversion... Again, you gotta realize what you are getting into from the start... Make adjustments as prescribed and you're in the business of burning coal trouble free year after year...

It also pays to have a "special" phone number when things go wrong!!!

 
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anthony7812
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Post by anthony7812 » Tue. Nov. 22, 2011 11:55 am

I was wondering what was going on with harmans website. It now states the Mark 3 can heat up to 4900 square feet?! Oh well. At least its a handfired so I shouldnt have any major mechanical issues to need to call harman. Plus you guys are around here from time to time ;) :rockon: . Too bad costumer service isnt the quality of the stove, puts a question whether or not to purchase another Harman stove again.

 
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ValterBorges
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Post by ValterBorges » Wed. Nov. 23, 2011 12:02 am

They don't want to deal direct, they want the vendors to pimp and do the support. Better have a good vendor because otherwise your up shiz creek.


 
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Post by coalnewbie » Wed. Nov. 23, 2011 4:40 am

Harman stoves as a quality vendor died Dec 31 2007 when HNI bought them. Older MAgnums and even the DVC was designed and brought to market by the guy that built the business and made the best quality products. The newer Magnums look pretty but I think have now plastic gears from the pellet stoves (please correct me if I am wrong). Why? to save money. Why should the gear motors fail at all under waranty - hmmm, let me guess. So now this poster is happy he got a new crappy motor that will last another three years or so until he comes across the first rock in his coal pile. The average Joe will call in the dealer and get soaked for repeated expensive maintenance (and many cold weeks of waiting). Reminds me of GM products.

The business model of only going through the dealer works if you have rock solid products. Under that scenario the dealers should scoop up the small business of keeping quality running and trying to get people to buy more stoves. There are very good, honest, Harman dealers (not my local band of thugs) out there but they can only sell what they are given. The website is indicative of the amount of care HNI gives to the product line and coal stoves are the bottom of even that list.

There are new energy sources coming. I am not allowed to put a fire in a garage for very good reasons. So if a want a fire in my garage park I will buy a Chevy Volt instead.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I crack myself up.

 
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Post by cowentz » Wed. Nov. 23, 2011 9:36 am

Has anyone else noticed the heating capacity increases on Harmans website. I was on there today and now they say a Mark II will heat up to 3,800 sq ft. I thought I remember in the past a Mark II heating capacity was 1800 sq ft. Also now a Mark I will heat 2,600 sq ft, and a Mark III will heat 4,900 sq ft. What gives with the heating increases? I am sure the stoves have not changed.

 
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Post by EarthWindandFire » Wed. Nov. 23, 2011 10:15 am

My hope is that Harman will go private again in the future. Until then, I would not buy a stove that I could get from someone else. The only "unique" product they have is the SF-2600-SS triple-fuel furnace.

 
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Post by EasyRay » Wed. Nov. 23, 2011 10:36 am

Holy cow! Your right...My stove used to be about the same as the Mark 2 and now its listed as 3000sf. I can see one stove being a misprint but all of them have been changed. Is this what is called marketing today?

 
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. Nov. 23, 2011 10:37 am

anthony7812 wrote: It now states the Mark 3 can heat up to 4900 square feet?!
The keyword is "up to". You can heat "up to" 4900 sq. ft. with great heat distribution if you live in Florida.... Seems it's quite a common practice, I've seen a lot of pellet stoves listed like this. The problem is if company A does it company B has to follow suit. The consumer has no clue and only looks at numbers without understanding them.

 
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Post by Rob R. » Wed. Nov. 23, 2011 10:43 am

Richard S. wrote:ou can heat "up to" 4900 sq. ft. with great heat distribution if you live in Florida....
:funny:

 
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I'm On Fire
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Post by I'm On Fire » Wed. Nov. 23, 2011 11:08 am

There is a post about this over in the stoker section too. I feel Harman has to make up for their shoddy customer support to sell more stoves. Why not increase the BTU output of all the stoves on paper as a way to generate more revenue?

Of course, I could be way off base.

 
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I'm On Fire
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Post by I'm On Fire » Wed. Nov. 23, 2011 11:11 am

Richard S. wrote:
anthony7812 wrote: It now states the Mark 3 can heat up to 4900 square feet?!
The keyword is "up to". You can heat "up to" 4900 sq. ft. with great heat distribution if you live in Florida.... Seems it's quite a common practice, I've seen a lot of pellet stoves listed like this. The problem is if company A does it company B has to follow suit. The consumer has no clue and only looks at numbers without understanding them.
I'm sure you can do it in northern states too. Of course, it'd have to be glowing red to do it and it'd only be for a few minutes before you'd need to call in the dudes with the re-breathers on.


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