Is Harman giving people the shaft?

Yep -- they just told me no SF-250 until next year, but they have a Mark III in stock..........Mark III it is!

At least it won't be as much work to get into the basement & I save about $500 -- worked out good.

Im glad you'll be ok and have a stove to buy. I owe this board huge. I went today to speak with my dealer, had only spoken to him on the phone prior. I bought his last direct vent, DVC-500. He says he could have sold it over 5 times since wed. I wouldnt of called and put the $ down if I hadnt read of the order rush/shortage on here. Got to see it, she was beautiful. Im scared cause it's new to me. We are expecting our first child in Jan, and I want to have a warm safe home.
Although I was very surprised at the price for the Harmon Direct Vent, venting pipe. WOW, it's expensive. I know Im saving $ money in the end, just didnt expect it.

Thank you again,
GR

I too owe this board a huge thanks! Yesterday I purchased the last Harman TLC2000 in the area just in time. Had I not known about the shortage I would've been SOL. I've been doing research on coal stoves for about two weeks and stumbled apon this board. What a great place to learn the ins and outs of buring coal. I look forward to reading on and picking your brains.

Mantis wrote:Yesterday I purchased the last Harman TLC2000 in the area just in time.

Congrats on a good purchase....... I love my TLC2000! Don't hesitate to ask any questions & buy good coal for it. (avoid Reading Coal)

Well Harmon just lost a customer. I was on the list for a DVC500 and because of posts on this forum I called the dealer to get an update. They were told only 1/2 of the order they placed will arrive in 2008 the rest will be 2009. I realize all manufaturers are overwhelmed but I don't see the others backing out of promised delivery dates so I shopped around and the earliest I could find was January or Feb. However Reading Stove actually had one for me in their Orwigsburg store. I was really leaning towards Leisure Line but I was able to get the Reading now. Again I understand the fault is mine for waiting so long and Leisure Line is not in the same situation as Harmon. I just felt a bird in the hand is....

Congrats on a good purchase....... I love my TLC2000! Don't hesitate to ask any questions & buy good coal for it. (avoid Reading Coal)

Thank you, and BTW you, Devil, probably had the most impact on my final decision making. Very informative post made in the past. Continue the good enteries! I was lurking, like I said for about two weeks and I caught what you mentioned about Reading coal. On the way back from the Stove dealership (which selles Blaschak coal) I pulled into a coal dealership and found it to be Reading. I told him I read it didn't burn well in my new Harman and he said yeah he had heard that but shrugged his shoulders and said coal is coal. Thanks for the heads up!

Mantis wrote:On the way back from the Stove dealership (which selles Blaschak coal) I pulled into a coal dealership and found it to be Reading. I told him I read it didn't burn well in my new Harman and he said yeah he had heard that but shrugged his shoulders and said coal is coal. Thanks for the heads up!

Quite welcome & TLC's & Reading Coal don't mix!........I'll make the same recommendation to you that I just did to Siblay: Add another layer of firebrick to your TLC. It'll make loading easier & make for a deeper coal bed & thus longer burns. (best $8.00 you;'ll ever spend!)

Will do! That ugly angle iron though.... I suspect that's so the bricks don't flop? We need a better way.

Mantis wrote:Will do! That ugly angle iron though.... I suspect that's so the bricks don't flop? We need a better way.

Holds them in tight & works well. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

O its Genius, just needs a coat of black stove paint or something lol. I need to go start a new thread we're hijaking this one pretty bad

I read the article. I am 48 years old and I have been a retailer for 25 years. I have literally bought millions of dollars of goods and no one ever promised me delivery. If these retailers had written contracts that were not honored, that is a horse of a different color, but verbal promises from the wholesale or mfg businesses are better left with a wry smile. Both supply and demand conditions change without notice. No tickee, no laundree.


The retailers should take their own advice to the manufactuer, don't oversell what you can't deliver. I can tell from the article that none of the affected retailers wanted to stock too much if they could avoid it. Well, now you know why the retailer that has a full cart sells more goods.

mikeandgerry hits the nail on the head. If there was a written guarantee that dealers would get the goods, shame on Harman. If the dealer's were giving the customer a guarantee based on an ETA, shame on them.
Having been in the car business for a number of years I have been in the same position waiting on incoming orders, arrival of stock, new vehicle introductions and so on. You can never promise what you don't have. All you can do is place the order, wait and update the customer.
If I'm a dealer with all these units ordered, I'm keeping in close touch with the factory and keeping my customers up to date. I'm not sure what the delivery process is from factory to dealer, but I can't imagine that the factory is going to hold tens of units and drop them at a dealer all at once. And if I'm calling the factory and getting blown off, that seems like it would give a heads up that you might want to get ready to level with the customer and switch them to another stove. After all, they won't be getting one from another Harman dealer. At least this way the sale is saved and you have done right by the customer by being up front and getting them a unit now, not in the middle of winter.
I believe I saw a post where Liesure Line is cranking up production. I'm sure they'd be happy to sell a unit to any of these customers.
Again, I'm on the outside looking in, but I do know this. People hear what they want to hear. My guess is the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Well I think the point is that when the dealers made an order they were given delivery dates, you'd expect it to be delivered if given a date? Yes/no? Certainly Harman should have been aware that they were not going to be able hit these quotas so why give a date a date for delivery and wait so long after the fact to inform the dealers they were not going to get the products they ordered.

I don't know the full story and most likely am missing part of it. What I do know is if I ordered a product and if someone told me it was going to be there in June I'd expect it to be there in June unless there was some kind of extraordinary circumstances preventing it. For example Keystoker had a fire a year back and that would certainly be a plausible excuse for backing off delivery dates. The dealers might have some blame in this but Harman is guilty as well if what the article states and other things I have read are true.

It sounds to me like Harmon had a system with their dealers and something went seriously wrong. It doesn't sound like one or two dealers got overzealous it sounds like the root of the problem was at Harmon. They will have to evaluate how they take orders from dealers and how they assign delivery dates. Maybe when the transition to the new owners happened some of the experienced people who could have curtailed this problem were downsized (just speculation). There was some serious communication errors between the people who produce the stoves and those who take the orders. I jumped ship because even if Oil comes down in price I will still save money with a coal stove this winter. I also was worried that the new company that owns Harmon may have some transitional challenges and these delivery issues might just be the tip of the iceberg. I guess in the end Harmon makes a great stove, other than the delivery problems there are very few bad comments about Harmon on this forum. As long as they don't change the quality it is all about being patient and you will get your stove eventually.

My personal opinion is that Harman geared up so heavily towards their pellet and gas fired equipment and neglected to gear up for the increase in demand for coal burning equipment. Frankly we are a unique group on this forum. Most folks are too lazy, ill informed or just plain stupid to burn coal and Harman misread the demand. Anyone is a position to churn out decent coal burning equipment for the forseable future can take it to the bank.