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I do not like the injection foam. I mean it works good for shipping. My only problem is that I don't know how to through it away. There is so much it does not fit in the trash can. I kind of miss the old packing peanuts. I could recycle them myself. Now I have to buy them for a lot of money. My only complaint.....
I use to buy from ABR when there was no fitted foam. So much damaged glass that I switched to MGA because their packing was so superior. Problem solved 100%. I love the foam.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nomad
I have never had any problem with ABR shipping before and I order all the time. I would not switch to MGA.
I left my boxes outside for the garbage man. I guess he took the foam and the recycle guy took the cardboard. So it is all good.
Would be nice to not have to buy so many peanuts though. I pay $4.49 a cubic foot for peanuts.
thats your reason to switch right there, MGA often uses peanuts.
Mga uses those peanuts made out of soybeans. They will dissolve in water or they are edible. Taste like chessy puuf wo the cheese.
I like Mga cause I'm in Charlotte and usually get my stuff overnight for standard shipping prices. I need to save up and drive the 3 hours and load up sometime.
the best thing to do with those "soybean" peanuts is throw a few handfuls in a bag and tell your buddy that they're "white cheddar cheese puffs".
they're totally non toxic, and it's worth it when you see their faces :devilish:
I get the green biodegradable peanuts at staples for more money. I switched to a closer pack and ship store.
The anti static kind are best.
Never had the peanuts when ordering cases from mga. Got three cases of 22mm clear rod last order. Double boxed with blow in foam. That is how it has always come for me from mga. Peanuts are not good protection when the shipper trashes the box like often happens.Quote:
Originally Posted by hashmasta-kut
i just got my second amazingly sassy response from Ross over at ABR. this guy doesn't read my email, asks me for info i already gave him, then answers my question in regards to the kiln controller that i am trying to research in the most condescending manner possible. i was shocked. i let it go and here we are several weeks later placing another $380 order and he comes back with some passive aggressive bullshit response in regards to their easter egg hunt details that ARENT listed unless you go through the blog again and find the eggs again to read the promotion again (which i did because i didnt feel like waiting for the response anyways)
i received his email after i have already placed my order now i am thinking about canceling it and just shopping elsewhere. i like abr for their frequent promotions and large selection, but i dont deal with condescending idiots who aren't grateful for taking my money in quantity.
that guy needs a vacation, a new job, or a girlfriend fuckin stat.
dave you have been nothing but helpful thank you for your professional and friendly attitude. talk to your guy please. he's a complete prick to your repeat customers.
^^ Ummmm...Ross owns the company. Not excusing him, just letting you know.
I must say I have never had a good experience with Ross either, Went to ABR booth in Denver for Champs in 2013 and he completely blew me off and wouldn't respond to my questions on materials that he was at the show to SELL, instead he chatted with his friends about people at the show loud enough that i could hear that he wasn't even doing business! Left a real bad taste in my mouth for tradeshow booths and ABR in general. I've only ordered ABR a handful of times, and when I do have issues(...and i've had issues) I send a PM directly to DaveABR and let it get handled from there. DaveABR is a good guy and gets shit done but he is surrounded by bad service team; The people on the phones don't know much, Ross is a tool, and Dave I've only been able to contact via Internet.
For these reason I have been utilizing every other website I can think of before I even check to see if ABR has it.
I've emailed Ross a few times about the ABR Lathe and always felt like he was hiding something. Other than that he's been great to me.
all the more reason for him to act like he runs a business that depends on good customer service and good word of mouth. considering all the crap i hear about them, it's surprising that they're still in business.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike_Aurelius
Guess I'm not sure how you ended up with an email trail about product with Ross. He is in and out so often, that he tries to just stay out of that stuff anymore. And emailing him would be liking trying to email the owner of any company. It's hard to get through, and get timely responses on a customer service level. Probably why it comes off as short. He has 1000 emails a day to get through. Not excusing, just saying, an owner is usually not the guy to get service from unless it's a tiny one or two person operation. Which is better for everyone really. Business owners shouldn't ever be customer service, as things can get personal quickly. No offense Mike, but you know what I mean.
I really try to handle as much of this as I can. But, I realize not every experience is going to be a good one and there is sometimes clean up duty. So, I will relay this and see if I can't help your situation paulsafo. Feel free to email me dave@abrimagery.com or PM me here if you need further assistance. I am also on the road often, and am hard to get by phone these days. Though, we have increased staff in sales this month and are sending new folks out on the road this year to take some of that load off me some. So, hopefully I can handle more customer situations. I will stick up for my guys here though. Our guys who are answering phones are not lampworkers, true. But, it's very hard in this area to find lampworkers willing to sit and answer phones all day. Any of you guys want a job talking glass all day but not blowing glass all day? Please step right up!!! I'm serious about that. HA! So, we are teaching them. But, when you spend all day on the phone, it's hard to find torch time to teach. And at 5:00, these guys want to head home to the family. So, it is what is there. They do the best they can. All solid dudes here. We have a great family of people.
To address the spray foam packing.... We were told by UPS and Fed Ex here at our hub several years ago that if we didn't use the spray foam on full length tubing, they'd stop paying are claims. We use biodegradable peanuts and bubble wrap in all of our small box orders. But, for shipping full length tubing, the spray foam ensures a paid claim in the instance of damage. So, we do it to protect us and you. If you are absolutely set on peanuts, just tell us when you order. Happy to accommodate that request. We don't know if you don't ask.
We have seen significant growth for several years, and have 1000s of very happy customers. But, no one goes without road bumps. I've always had a policy of transparency and will address these things in a public online forum, which other companies have a policy against. Which I feel is basically saying, we only bury our shit, we don't pick it up. So, I'm happy to take all comers with praise or criticism. It all goes into forming the next policy or change. So, know that I do monitor this board, and take all members, professional acting or rude, seriously and with respect. You guys can always reach out to me here if you need anything. Thanks for the kind words about me, but I do apologize if anyone feels like they've gotten bad service from us. We've overcome a whole lot of that, but always improvement to be made.
Thanks everyone,
Dave
good to know. i'll go elsewhere. i was under a different impression since dave actually seems to care and ross.. well.. i've spoken my piece. way to go dave!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike_Aurelius
Quote:
Originally Posted by daveabr
i tried emailing the info@abrimagery.com and it came back with a delivery failure so i emailed the other contact on the same page rossglass. it was almost asking me to take my money elsewhere. i would expect such from an unhappy underling, but finding out he is the business owner now im extra pissed. thanks again dave you are truly helpful. tell ross to take some time off and re evaluate how he talks to ANYONE not just customers. both times i talked to him were because the information on the contact AND product page was incorrect.
rinse. and spit. this will be my last order through ABR.
None taken, however, in many small businesses (like mine), the owner is not only customer service, but accounting, engineering, production, QC, etc etc etc.Quote:
Business owners shouldn't ever be customer service, as things can get personal quickly. No offense Mike, but you know what I mean.
It's easy to say "shouldn't ever" but the truth is, it is more likely than you'd want to believe.
Absolutely. We were once that way. Used to be just me and Ross basically. But, now we have 40 people, and with that comes a lot of paperwork and things that take an owner away from the service side of the business. I'm just saying that usually business owners are quicker to get defensive than say a customer service rep. It's easy to take it personal. Again, it's no excuse for an owner to talk to a customer publicly or privately in a non servicing manner.
Good to hear you guys starting using blown in foam. I once received a double box from you guys with peanuts. UPS had mangled it and ripped the end of the outer off. The case was opened and there were razor Sharp broken 20mm rods hanging out.Quote:
Originally Posted by daveabr
here's how it should have gone - "thanks for your inquiry, i've cc'd ____ who can help you with this. thank you and have a nice day"Quote:
Originally Posted by daveabr
bingo bango you continue to get my thousands of dollars a year.
I have had some excellent service from ABR, always actually. Even with mistakes in orders they have always made it right for me. Sometimes people have shit going on in their lives, be it personal, business stress, etc. It doesn't excuse potential bluntness or what seems like rude responses, but keep in mind you are dealing with humans, not robots and they are complex. This industry is small, and often times someone might have no clue that you were invested in really talking to them or that something they did one time you met them colored your opinion of them for a long time, etc.
Anyways just saying I enjoy the hard work and the service ABR gives me. People are people n stuff, don't let it ruin your day or anything so long as things get resolved. If I ever move back to the midwest and need a job... maybe I will come a knockin' on ABR's door haha. /me ends possibly silly and useless rant.
I agree. There have been times I have been blunt when it wasn't warranted, but this was two separate questions, couple weeks/months apart, separate email addresses. This leads me to believe this is how this guy always is. Unfortunately he was the only working email address on the contact us page. Very unfortunately. I'm not here to shit on abr again, this is only this guy driving me to venom, but I guess I'm old fashioned in a sense that I give a fuck about how I run my business and what my customers are saying to my OTHER CUSTOMERS.Quote:
Originally Posted by gomilobster
I am very involved in entrepreneurship and I have helped quite a few startups in my short career-none of them glass, some of them we're raw materials supply though for the printing industry. Many of them get to right about here(Abr) and then lose because they pitfall into thinking who cares about one customer...
Aaaaand sunk.
Gomilobster I don't want you to think I stuck it to anyone. I kinda went there too thinking he's just going through some shit but still no excuse.
My reply, sadly, to a business owner:
"Thanks for the passive aggressive response that's highly professional. I already ordered the items yesterday after I re clicked through the eggs to re read the promotion. Hope whatever is eating you clears up this is the second response from you that was really kind of rude. Have good one. "
Idk what else to say other than he better figure that shit out quick. I only do business with people I like. I think the point is to make your customers like you. I think. Says the small business consultant.
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If nothing else, this was worth a chuckle.
Mountain glass has really gone out of there way to try to get my business. But like I told them I got the MGA sales flier this month and it has nothing good in it. ABR sales are stuff I actually need. Plus Dave is a good dude. So that is why I stick with ABR.
I second that Dave is a good dude. Here here! To Dave! 🍻
well I ordered some valves for a Nortel top fire back in the spring ,,,abr is like 50miles from me and after a week and a half I tracked no luck ,,,got a package two days later and it was two bowl push's NOT my vales well I called and the guy I talked to was kind of a smart a$$..well they send my stuff to wrong person so it took another week to finely I got my valves the oxy vale was new and the gas was used the way I know it was it was filthy ..and I had to take the bowl pushes to town to mail back ... after that I will never do any more dealings with them .......that's my experience with them...................I hope you have better luck than I did..............................................p epper
You live 50 miles from ABR and never thought to just hop in the car and drive there?
Sorry, but for a first post, this sounds extremely unlikely.
He shouldn't have to hop in the car and drive an hour there and an hour back to fix their screw up. I wouldn't have either if I were him, so I really don't find it too unlikely.
I live in Indiana, about 3 hours away from ABR, and the 3 times I've ordered from them, it has taken around 2 weeks for me to receive a package. 2 of the 3 times I had backordered products, and was never told about it until I received the package missing said items and called them. No note on the receipt, no phone call before shipping to see if I wanted to substitute with something else, nothing. They've sent me a few wrong colors, and the odds I bought from them when I first started should have clearly been seconds. I know cause I still have some of them sitting in my box of unusable glass.
I switched to another company almost 600 miles away, and they get me my packages in two days, every time, they let me know before shipping if stuff is backordered so I can substitute if I wish, Have been really good about sending me the right stuff, and I have never had a quality issue as bad as some of the stuff ABR has sent me.
When I've had this much issue with a company, I'm not gonna waste my time to fix their screw ups, and honestly don't blame pepper if he felt the same way, even being that much closer than I am.
It would sound extremely unlikely if it was mountain glass he was talking about!
That wasn't my point.Quote:
Originally Posted by CheeseNip
Needs valves for torch, vendor is 50 miles away. Hop in car, get there in an hour, 15 minutes at store, back home in an hour **WITH THE RIGHT STUFF**, problem solved.
Still not buying it.
If I lived 50 miles from abr I would buy 4 cases of glass on sale and fill the trunk of the car! No shipping costs must be nice. Glass is really heavy. 49.5 lbs a case I believe.
I think abr is the best! I love the new sales!
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Yeah. I wish ABR was closer. I buy from that other place in NC because I can drive there, or if I have them ship it I get it the next day. But I do buy from ABR when I can't get it from the other place and have never had a single issue with them.
I got an order that was wrong once. I don't hold that against companies. Mistakes happen. It's how they deal with the mistakes that forms my opinion. It wasn't a lot of glass so they told me to just keep it and they sent out the correct glass to me and I got it a couple days later. That's all I could ask for.
ABR still has the best prices on Asian glass. But everyplace is selling it for really cheap. I wonder if it is all the same stuff?
I have tested out the glass at ABR before I feel confident in buying a lot of it.
I'm fully stocked. All my glass is from abr.
The small boxes are cases of asian joints I got from Glasscraft. They don't sell them anymore for cheap. So I filled the boxes with asian joints from abr. I don't pay more then $1 each.
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every thing is fine now dave fixed it I am good with them ...thank u pepper
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If your story is true they will hook you up. I never had a problem.
I just placed another order also.
Odd, their customer service has always been very nice and helpful to me. Did you get names of who was rude?
No I did not I was so hot when I got up there and you guys told me that they were going to help me I didn't get the guys name he might have told me but I didn't pay no attention to that I was so pi$$ed steam was coming out my ears...Quote:
Originally Posted by FifDeez
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So you drove there and you say because it was 4:05 they made you leave? Is 4 there close time I guess?