Researching is a pain in the butt

cms or bernardston are going to be your best bet

brockton ice and coal is a little cheaper but wont be after you factor in the drive.

jim

btw: i plan on getting my rice at the breakers when visiting in pa

BearKnot wrote:

Coal Jockey wrote: “I've found this sort of thing quite common with email inquiries. Frankly I think that companies get so much garbage email that they don't take seriously the legitimate email they receive.”

I’m confused, CJ.

Why would Alaska Stove Co., or any other company for that matter, invite potential customers to “Contact Us” if they are not going to take such e-mail seriously?

Since your email was serious, & so was mine, why not deal with it in a timely fashion?

.

Because many companies are still geared towards the 80's and early 90's. The fact that there is a "contact us" on their site does not mean in any way that they will actually get back to you in that fashion. Some put up token websites to give the appearance of "new" or "modern" or "cutting edge". They don't maintain or support the website. They either don't have the personel to handle it, won't hire someone to manage the daily flow of traffic or simply don't take it seriously yet. This happens quite a bit in many industries. Websites are a "me too" type of thing to some.
Yeah, it ticks me off too.


But what's worse, is when you do call them.... and they refuse to speak to you! (HARMAN)

"Gotta go to a dealer"
"I have a problem with my dealer..."
"Gotta talk to the dealer"
"But that's the problem, they've been here 6 times ..."
"I won't talk to you. Go to the dealer..."
"May I talk to tech support please?"
"NO. There is no tech support. Go to your dealer"
"Ok. Guess what manufacturer my furnace WON'T be coming from.... See ya! "

BS! The consumer is in charge, NOT the manufacturer. As such, we demand better service and attitudes. If you won't provide them, we will go to someone who does.

Given how basic a stove is what would most need to talk with the manufacturer for.

In the early days of computers we detested phone support we wanted computers that worked period, same with stoves.

coalstoves wrote:Given how basic a stove is what would most need to talk with the manufacturer for.

And there lies the crux of the issue, they don't but will anyway. The biggest issue with any company providing support is they get buried in non-support requests. Instead of questions like "I turn the computer on and it beeps then goes off" they get questions like "My friend didn't receive the email I sent" or other nonsense. It's akin to buying a car and calling up GM to find out how to drive it.

Email support is another issue entirely because now you're not only dealing with non-essential questions but also dealing with a boatload of spam, you can hide an email address as I previously posted but it inevitably gets out.. And yea I talking to Mr.AOL'er that CC's every piece of email he ever gets. That is how many people get on spam list.

Besides you can get better support in a forum for any product, including coal stoves now.

Walk in the office at Keystoker and it's what you don't see that I find amazing yet refreshing....a computer.
I really think that for EFM, Keystoker, Harman, and Axeman Anderson, in the heart of coal country, word of mouth is their best asset. Sometimes it can be their worst enemy too!
The further away you get the more valuable good info and support on the web becomes. If you want word of mouth the forum is great for that.

My idea of good web based support is a downloadable manual .

Now showing your product is a whole different story, I want everything from pdf brochures to high quality color close ups and some video a MSRP is nice also along with the ability to side by side compare across the product line and updates more often then 2 or 3 years apart .

Researching Is Fun !!

coalstoves wrote:My idea of good web based support is a downloadable manual .

Yeah none of these have a downloadable manual; Alaska, Keystoker, Hizter has one but it's very minimal and Leisure Line which leaves these guys behind the eight ball. Harmon has left all of these companies in the dusk when it comes to information available to the consumer through their web sites. But still none of them have a MSRP on their sites which pretty much leaves the consumer grabbing his/her ankles when they enter a dealer's shop. People need to get with the times, why wouldn't you as a company want to do all you can to advertise your product to as many people as you can? Isn't the whole point of a company is to sell as many as they can so they can make a lot of money? By not having the information available you're pretty much handing the customer over to the computation.

Ed.A wrote:Adam, CSM bags their own as well. Cost wise...255 per ton, I don't know what brand it is but I bought a ton of theirs and a ton of Blashak and I can honestly say that I see no difference in burnability ( is that even a word?) CSM sells 50lbs bags in lieu of 40lb Blashak wetted bags. Can't go wrong either way IMO.

I'll have to ask CSM when I'm there next week to see what brand they are using. My only problem with them is they are well over twice as far (closer to 4 times) away as the company is in Worcester that wont deliver to my area, but I'll have to ask. Thanks for the information Ed.

LsFarm wrote:Trying to compare products from website info is pretty thin and iffy... do your best to go see, touch and feel the product..if you don't like your local dealer, or can't find one, call the factory.
seeing and speaking with the factory or your local dealer, or seeing a product in operation is invaluable.

Greg L

I think the two go hand in hand (Websites and Dealers) along with time researching here in the forum, I think I proved that hands down in my post " Talking with Dealers " almost every time I have visited a dealer there was some information not presented, misrepresented or the poor folks just didn't have a clue and thats a FACT not an opinion .

As far as speaking to the factory I would have to agree with Richard on that one, I would no more expect a factory rep of a stove plant to speak with me about Baro settings as I would GM HQ in Detroit to talk with me about Tire inflation.

From your location in Winchendon, Massachusetts, I'd recommend Complete Heat in Nashua, NH. They have a nice selection of Keystoker and Alaska units on display. They perform top notch installations; and, they're a Blaschak dealer too. Coal delivery on the other hand becomes the tough part. I'm assuming you don't have a vehicle suited for hauling 'yer own? I'd recommend renting an appropriate sized U-Haul truck for a day...

http://www.completeheatnh.com/

LsFarm wrote:Axeman Anderson is still in the 1950's as far as doing business... they don't even take credit cards.. They ship parts COD.
If you want to get a response, you need to call them. That 's the only way I ever got a response.

Greg L

I didnt know axmen Anderson sold anything directly to the public. I had the big tour of there site in South Williamsport many years agao when I worked for the big OIL man (whom I dont like any more). I had to buy my oil boiler from a midldle man.

watkinsdr wrote:From your location in Winchendon, Massachusetts, I'd recommend Complete Heat in Nashua, NH. They have a nice selection of Keystoker and Alaska units on display. They perform top notch installations; and, they're a Blaschak dealer too. Coal delivery on the other hand becomes the tough part. I'm assuming you don't have a vehicle suited for hauling 'yer own? I'd recommend renting an appropriate sized U-Haul truck for a day...

http://www.completeheatnh.com/

I went to this website and clicked on " Alternative Heating Syst" pretty nice write up and photos.

watkinsdr wrote:From your location in Winchendon, Massachusetts, I'd recommend Complete Heat in Nashua, NH. They have a nice selection of Keystoker and Alaska units on display. They perform top notch installations; and, they're a Blaschak dealer too. Coal delivery on the other hand becomes the tough part. I'm assuming you don't have a vehicle suited for hauling 'yer own? I'd recommend renting an appropriate sized U-Haul truck for a day...

http://www.completeheatnh.com/

I've looked at their website. The only problem is they are over an hour and a half away to get to Nashua from here. I only have a ford explorer. I wonder what it would cost to rent a big truck and get 2-4 tons in one trip? Anything under 10,000lbs is a class c license right? I don't know what they charge per ton for Blaschak coal but there is a place in Worcester (National Coal Co.) that sells it for $300 a ton. They're actual a few more miles away then Nashua but it's all highway and can get there in just a little bit over an hour.

I sure am glad I'm spending all this time calling and searching around and getting an idea of how this process is going to be finding coal and getting it here and all. It sure would stink not getting everything in order before the season started.

Adamiscold wrote: Anything under 10,000lbs is a class c license right?

26,000 in PA and I'm sure that applies to where you live too but I could be wrong. That's combined weight of both truck and trailer and the trailer by itself cannot exceed 10,000. Truck cannot be equipped with air brakes either from my understanding. There's special section of test for that when you're taking the CDL test to get restriction removed but I' never see that restriction listed on regular licenses so I really don't know exactly what the law is...