PARAGON: usually not one to complain, but..

i ordered parts from paragon in november and had to call last week to ask where my shipment was (after ignored email), they then were kind enough to send out my order, i received it yesterday and the entire order was incorrect.

i emailed the serial number twice.

twice.

now a kiln that should have been down for a couple weeks has been down for over a month and i cannot let my client be without his kiln any longer so i have to what? cut all these bricks down to make it work somehow? possible, yes, fer sher, but exceptionally annoying and not something i want to spend time on at the present.

i emailed the serial number twice. did i mention that?

twice.

See if you can speak to Ashley there. She's on point and one of the best customer service reps there. She was my go to when I worked at MGA.

Hopefully they can expedite the parts and get this fixed for you soon.

thanks, but this kiln is going together this weekend so they could never get them to me in time and at this point i'm not going to rely on them for anything. i had a similar issue with them 5 or 6 years ago. i'm officially anti-paragon from this point on.

people make mistakes i understand, but when you already made one 3 week mistake, then maybe double check to make sure you don't make another.

Jimi, I'm very sorry about the error in your parts order. I just spoke to a customer service rep, who said your order is shipping by 2nd Day Air probably today. This means you should have it by Monday.

Sincerely,

Arnold Howard
Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA
ahoward@paragonweb.com / www.paragonweb.com

Arnold, I greatly appreciate that, just saw the email from Ashley. I'll hold off on putting it back together until early next week. Though I certainly know that mistakes happen, multiple mistakes in a row sour the milk, However, fixing the issue can always sweeten the milk. Thanks.

I'm sorry your order went south. Adding my own personal experience with Paragon just to show the flip side -

I have had exceptionally good customer service experiences with paragon and would recommend them to anyone. The numerous times I have called them they have always answered the phone right away, are knowledgeable about their products, are knowledgeable about troubleshooting their kilns, and have been extremely friendly.

Since paragon is looking why are the doors on there kilns so small . The f120 is so small. The opening on other brands go almost full width of kiln .

The bluebird has great in and out space but the mid size guillotine doors all seem wierd.

Punty doors not main door, my only reason I don't buy them . Otherwise they seem great

i'd like to know the same thing in regards to the doors. i love my bluebird xl.....but hate the doors on it. makes it impossible to fully utilize the height of the kiln....although buying a bluebird i knew i'd be limited, height wise.

probably going to get another paragon next....maybe an f240.

Go with the f - 500 and keep the bird .


That way your pretty set for the long haul .

In fact almost every year a great deal on a 500 from a show pops off .


Also the bigger kilns will surprise you with power use .

When I got my scarab my available cubic feet almost quadrupled but my electric bill did not raise a crazy amount.

A friend of mine also had a bad experience with Paragon. When starting his glass hobby he bought the entry level Quikfire kiln from their website. Turned it on, came back to check on it, the heating element in the top had burned up or exploded or something, it had fallen out of the top of the baffle and was melted onto the floor of the kiln. Paragon will not replace, refund, and now won't even answer emails. He never even got to use the thing. Can't really say who was at fault though, that kiln needs to be constantly monitored, as it has no control unit. Needs to be unplugged and plugged back in to keep a certain temp. Absolutely stupid design IMO. But on the other hand, even at full operating temp, the thing shouldn't have broken apart on the first firing.
I am currently contemplating purchasing a Bluebird XL, but am very weary of their customer service & warranty, if something were to happen

I'm sorry about your friend's experience with the Paragon QuikFire 6. It is an odd little kiln that is designed for extreme speed. It will reach 1000F in five minutes. Consequently, it must be watched continuously during operation. You cannot leave it for even five minutes, because if it gets hotter than 2000F, the element will burn out. I know, because I burned out five kilns in a row here at the factory. That was shortly after we introduced the kiln. I figured out that firing the kiln hotter than 2000F burned out the element, so I added a cautionary label to the top of the kiln.

Sincerely,

Arnold Howard
Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA
ahoward@paragonweb.com / www.paragonweb.com

Update: I received the correct parts very quickly, two day air and got this kiln back up and running and back to daily use. It's nice when a company in this industry steps up to solve an issue rather than sweeping it under the rug (see my eu glass review) Arnold helped me out and I greatly appreciate that.