New Pellet Co in Fitchburg, MA $225/ton for one day

ok... so where is this article now? Does the Sentinel frequently pull articles?

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_14072961

people's comments are there, but the article is not.

oh... and I hate this company.. so much it isn't funny.. each article I read like this just makes my blood boil!! and anger just rolls up from my feet to my head.

Another article in the paper today. I think it would be interesting to go to the meeting Thursday night thats if they let people in. I am not sure if the public can attend these meetings.
http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/ci_14221142?source=rss_viewed

Check this article out. Very interesting.
http://www.wbjournal.com/news45465.html

It looks like the meeting on Thursday night is their public city council meeting, as such, it should be open to the public.
http://www.ci.fitchburg.ma.us/meetingsched.html
7:30pm.
It looks like they may video tape some meetings as well. (work has streaming media blocked so I can't see if any past City Council meetings are posted)

It sure is amazing what can be done with a bit of spin. In reading the article in WBJ I see the same thing being presented to us on TV recently. Not only did they fail to deliver but there are a lot of people reporting their product is crap.
If they had been more forthcoming in dealing with customers and refrained from shipping contaminated product they might be better off. Unfortunately, they thought that it was going to be a lot easier than it turned out to be.

Pieterse said the trouble started even before he and Bell bought the plant, during the December 2008 ice storm. The plant, which the entrepreneurs had previously toured and liked the looks of, went without power for more than a week, and the outage left the sprinkler system running for days. The outcome, he said, was not just that they ended up buying a flooded building complete with bloated rat corpses, but also that some of the equipment they planned to use was damaged before they even touched it.

Later, practically constant rain for a long stretch of the summer prevented the local utility from installing a power upgrade for the company. And that, in turn, meant a piece of equipment that handled the first step in the production process didn’t get started up for an extra month and a half.

“Until we were able to grind stuff we had no idea what expect from everything else,” Pieterse said. “We weren’t able to tell what kind of issues we were going to run into.”

There are so many things he says in this article that makes me mad all over again. First he blames the ice storm, then all the rain we got in June. Ok so there were a lot of things against them. But they should have never taken all those orders or peoples money back in June when they were not even sure if the equiptment could even run. Then in Sept when they knew they were having problems still, and they took more orders at the Mason grand opening. And don't tell me that if someone walked in their office today who has no clue of the problems or is willing to take a chance with them that CB would not hesitate to take their money for an order that they are still not sure yet if they can fill it. We have been listening to the same excuse (since Oct.) about some new piece of equiptment they are suppose to be getting that will solve all their problems and everything will be perfect including their pellets that are far from perfect.

I guess the lesson learned here might be "buy from a reputable mill/dealer".......and you dont get to be reputable by hanging a shingle out on the sidewall.....this is a lesson rears its ugly head EVERY year.....and a lesson that ends up being relearned by many EVERY year

The question to them,how can they make things right.With the lies,and the creative jack n the biomass.

More lies from CB, it's the same thing they were telling us back in October. Then it was they had gotten a new machine that was going to fix all thier problems and we would have our pellets in a week, but then someone burn up the machine because they didn't know what they were doing. And the arrogant attitude that they don't need those customers that are complaining, not a way to mend fences! If it was only a few unhappy customers then it shouldn't be a problem to refund the money to them, if they can't run the plant without the cash it sure sounds like a lot of unhappy people to me. It's not likely that they will win back those customers, even more so now that they says they don't care! Shawn lied to me at the Open House in Mason told me they would have pellets available all the time, and according to this article he knew he couldn't produce them and he sold them anyway, isn't that against the law?????? Because of thier attitude to me the customer, CB has lost me as a customer I will never purchase from them again!

I was talking to someone this morning who had seen the articles in the newspaper these last few weeks. He told me a couple of weeks ago when driving by CB he noticed dumpsters full of a lot of christmas trees. Are they using christmas trees now to make pellets? That blows my mind if that is what they are doing. You can't make pellets from christmas trees. I thought maybe they let their employees just dump the trees there to be able to get rid of them with the next garbage pick up but he said they was way to many trees for that to be the case.

rcarr10525 said:

I was talking to someone this morning who had seen the articles in the newspaper these last few weeks. He told me a couple of weeks ago when driving by CB he noticed dumpsters full of a lot of christmas trees. Are they using christmas trees now to make pellets? That blows my mind if that is what they are doing. You can't make pellets from christmas trees. I thought maybe they let their employees just dump the trees there to be able to get rid of them with the next garbage pick up but he said they was way to many trees for that to be the case.

Click to expand...

Spruce is used for pellet manufacturing... the Uncle Jed's I use are a pine/spruce mix. If the trees are delimbed and debarked what you have left is wood... the raw materials for pellets.

Has anyone taken them to court yet? I have a pending court date and hope to walk away with my money back. From what i've read I don't want their promises or pellets.

I hope you will post ,the out come of your court date!

BTU said:

krooser said:

rcarr10525 said:

I was talking to someone this morning who had seen the articles in the newspaper these last few weeks. He told me a couple of weeks ago when driving by CB he noticed dumpsters full of a lot of christmas trees. Are they using christmas trees now to make pellets? That blows my mind if that is what they are doing. You can't make pellets from christmas trees. I thought maybe they let their employees just dump the trees there to be able to get rid of them with the next garbage pick up but he said they was way to many trees for that to be the case.

Click to expand...

Spruce is used for pellet manufacturing... the Uncle Jed's I use are a pine/spruce mix. If the trees are delimbed and debarked what you have left is wood... the raw materials for pellets.

Click to expand...

To make GOOD pellets, you need to remove the bark and dry the fiber. If you are going to use used Xmas trees, trying to remove the bark would be like trying to eat those miniature corn on cob you get in a jar...what you would have left over, would be enough to only make a couple of toothpicks....but if you used the whole tree, limbs and all, it would give you more volume but a lousy product..IMHO

Click to expand...

With the track record of this company I would not be surprised if they are just throwing the whole tree in the grinders.

rcarr10525 said:

With the track record of this company I would not be surprised if they are just throwing the whole tree in the grinders.

Click to expand...

And most likely lots of pretty color pellets instead of the occasional blue streak through one you'll get all sorts of colors from stuff in the trees that people don't see.

ducker said:

rcarr10525 said:

With the track record of this company I would not be surprised if they are just throwing the whole tree in the grinders.

Click to expand...

And most likely lots of pretty color pellets instead of the occasional blue streak through one you'll get all sorts of colors from stuff in the trees that people don't see.

Click to expand...

Maybe you will find tinsel and xmas decorations in their bags of pellets for xmas next year.

I will let all know the outcome If u want to come and show some support you can meet me & them @ the courthouse in Leominster January 26, 2010 @ 8:30 a.m. 25 School Street Leominster.
It's getting a lil chilly here at my house had to buy a ton of pellets and they are almost gone. Creative Biomass didn't care.

shleru said:

I will let all know the outcome If u want to come and show some support you can meet me & them @ the courthouse in Leominster January 26, 2010 @ 8:30 a.m. 25 School Street Leominster.
It's getting a lil chilly here at my house had to buy a ton of pellets and they are almost gone. Creative Biomass didn't care.

Click to expand...

If I did not have to work I would be there.

Those pellets did have smell to them like Xmas trees. Alot of clinkers to.As to the court date I can't make it .

Shawn Pieterse has spoken!! Check out his letter to the editor.
http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/letters/ci_14237315

And one of our former presidential candidates didn't father a love child. Shawn can say anything and some are sure to believe him. He should consider a run for political office, he sure can spin.
I feel sorry for those that didn't get their money back and had to make another purchase elsewhere.

so the result from last nights City council can be seen here:
http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_14245780

Another controversial petition, meant to rescind the tax increment finance, or TIF, granted to Creative Biomass, was discussed Thursday, before it was sent to the Council-as-a-Whole Committee for further consideration.

Councilors-at-large Conry, Tran, and Marcus DiNatale, and Ward Councilors Kevin Starr and Solomito, submitted the petition last week, in response to the company's failure to fully deliver wood pellets for homing heating to its customers in recent months.

"I have had numerous complaints regarding their customer service, and I think we need to have the Creative Biomass owner attend the Council-as-a-Whole meeting, so we can get the facts from him," Conry said.

The petition to the rescind the TIF, and the petition to draft a resolution against Planned Parenthood, were troublesome for Ward 6 Councilor Jody Joseph.

"The way the petitions are written is what I have a problem with," Joseph told his fellow city councilors, after referencing the language of the Planned Parenthood petition and the TIF petition.

Joseph said Creative Biomass has had production difficulties and the city should ask the owners if there is any way it can help, rather than rescind their TIF.

"Do we want to be that city that doesn't let them do business?" Joseph said.

Click to expand...

In his letter, Shawn wrote:
"and for the past three months ... CBI has been manufacturing high-quality wood pellets"

THREE MONTHS. So he just admitted that he was taking orders for MONTHS before they had even started production but initial customers were told they would get product in August. If his customer base is so loyal, he shouldn't have a problem giving refunds to that obviously insignificant percentage of his customers that request them (sarcasm).

I am so glad I ended up not being able to make it to their open house that day in June.

Well needless to say Shawn or anyone from CBI showed for court today. More wasted money on my end. I guess another court date is to be set; and another waste of my time and money. Thanks for showing up Shawn!