Napoleon Customer Service....Any Good?

[BurnIt13]

Hello all, I've been considering a Napoleon 1400/1450 and I've found some pretty good deals. Unfortunetely the few Napoleon dealers around me mistake cast iron and steel for gold and want to charge rediculous prices for thier stoves. Thier are a plethora of online sellers of the Napoleon stoves that offer unbeatable prices. I've also found some good deals on craigslist for almost new stoves.

My concern with buying a Napoleon stove used or on-line is what treatment I might expect from Napoleon if I was to require service. Do they work with the customer or are they the "Sorry, call your dealer" type of company?

How have your experiences with Napoleon's customer service been? Thanks!

 

[double-d]

Napoleon has a good stove, and has been around awhile. There are a number of great stoves, and I'm sure you will hear from them. It's has a lot to do with what you are looking for, price, size and quality. I had one, and found that Napoleon does has have a technical support staff, but will try to send you to a local dealer more times than not. I think they are helpful to a point, but it's the dealer they would rather have you work with. I don't think you will deal directly with Napoleon (Canada), but from one of their large distributors like BAC sales out of New York. Good luck, lots of deals this time of year!

 

[BurnIt13]

The main thing I'm worried about is that Napoleon will say "Call your Dealer", and the dealer will say "Sorry, you didn't purchase it through us...call the people you bought it from". Then I'll call the internet people (i.e. northlinexpess, ventingpipe, etc) and they will say "Sorry, we don't provide service....call you dealer".

And I'll end up in a continuous loop of point the finger. Or I could just buy the stove from a local dealer and pay double the price.

 

[robalp]

I have found them to be unhelpful and will only refer you to a local dealer. My local dealer seems to be less than knowledgeable regarding my stove (pellet). I suppose if I looked around, I might find someone in the area who might be more helpful, but this website is a better resource than spending time and money with people who are learning as they go.
I bought my pellet stove second hand, and would buy from a dealer if I was buying new. I think that a pellet stove has a lot of "parts" that are likely to fail at some point. Having a relationship with a good dealer would be valuable. By good, I mean they should be familiar with the models they sell, and have on the shelf, parts to fix common problems.
A wood stove has a lot less parts and will likely not need much in the form of service providing that it is cleaned and maintained properly. Most parts like gaskets, are available just about anywhere, so I am not so certain the dealer will be of any great value. There are a few on line retailers on this site, who seem to get pretty good feedback from people who do have service issues...

I looked at the Napoleon Stoves when buying a wood stove, they seemed pretty nice and got generally good reviews. I ended up with another make. I am not very impressed with the quality of the Napolean Pellet stove, though there are many on here that have no issues...

Hope that helps.

 

[robalp]

The main thing I'm worried about is that Napoleon will say "Call your Dealer", and the dealer will say "Sorry, you didn't purchase it through us...call the people you bought it from". Then I'll call the internet people (i.e. northlinexpess, ventingpipe, etc) and they will say "Sorry, we don't provide service....call you dealer".

And I'll end up in a continuous loop of point the finger. Or I could just buy the stove from a local dealer and pay double the price.

When I was shopping for a wood stove, and considering the Napoleon, I told the local guy what I could get if for online, and he came very close to matching the price, tax not included... It never hurts to ask, and if you are standing in his store with cash in hand, they just may say yes...

 

[ControlFreak]

I agree that Napoleon (Wolf Steel) expects their distributors to support the products in the field. Maybe not the best approach for the consumer, but that's the way it is. On the other hand, the stoves are so simple they don't really need much when it comes to support. What's in one of these stoves? A heavy steel box with a hinging door. Add to that, glass in the door with a gasket, a gasket around the door, a secondary manifold with refractory baffles. Two blowers with a snap disk and a rheostat. Seriously, there's not much there that needs support. I've heated with my 1401 for nearly 15 years now. I've replaced the blowers with computer fans, replaced the glass about every 5 years, the door gasket once, and I use my own speed control for the fans. My stove originally came with firebricks instead of the light refractory panels, The bricks lasted about 5 years before falling apart and needing to be replaced, the panels were installed in 2006 and don't seem to wear except for the gouges from being hit by wood. The stove performs much better with the panels vs the original light fire bricks.

Seriously, the best support for any stove is going to come from people here on this site after your first year and the warranty has expired. The best thing you can do is find a stove that has the fewest wearing components. The Napoleon stoves are some of the simplest and most reliable you'll find, in my opinion. Above all, in my opinion, avoid the everburn stoves. I know, I have one. It does work, but not any better than the much more simple Napoleon.

 

[Fsappo]

Thats why you buy from the thieving dirty local dealers who have the nerve for make a 35% margin on the purchase...so when you do have a problem, you have an actual person you can go in and talk to. If you want a cheap stove and good phone service, buy an englander.

 

[BurnIt13]

Thats why you buy from the thieving dirty local dealers who have the nerve for make a 35% margin on the purchase...so when you do have a problem, you have an actual person you can go in and talk to. If you want a cheap stove and good phone service, buy an englander.

Funny you should mention the Englander. Its been a toss up between the Napoleon 1400/1450 and the Englander 30.

 

[Fsappo]

Judging by your initial post, I would go with the NC30

 

[jadm]

My first insert was the Napoleon 1101. I didn't know about this site and was new to burning with an EPA insert. I bought from a dealer in our neighborhood trusting they were knowledgeable because I was not.

I ran into trouble with the blower the first winter. I found out they knew nothing about maintenance issues but knew how to be deceptive....ie not returning phone calls etc....Trying to get through to the company was impossible.

I finally found a local stove store that was willing to work with me and they referred me to a 'repair' man who came and inspected and diagnosed my problem....Took over a year for that to finally happen.

If I had known about this site my problem would have been solved in a day....

I second and third what others here say. A lot of people here know their stoves and are more than willing to share their expertise. I suggest you buy at whatever price you are comfortable with and use this forum as your place to really learn how to maintain your stove. As others have said - it really is pretty basic once you know a few things.

 

[Install fire 1]

Napoleon service is brutally scary and thier products are not much farther behind.

Just an opinion though.


Service hundreds of units a year, and have enough problems with this brand.

 

[dafattkidd]

I owned a Napoleon and like the stove very much. It was just undersized for my house. If you are going to go napoloeon I recommend going with http://www.dynamitebuys.com They had the best prices on the web and very good customer service. Sean will be your middle man and get whatever you need from Napoleon- should you need to contact them. However judging from the folks on this site, the Englander is probably going to put out the most heat. Those Englander guys swear by their stoves. Good luck! Regardless of which stove you get you need dry wood. Get that wood now for next year. Even the best stoves on the market burn poorly with unseasoned wood.

 

[KB007]

With something that is almost certainly going to require some expert knowledge, I will pretty much always buy it from a local dealer. That doesn't mean take the first price tho. I'd go find a local dealer you think you can trust, take them a couple of online adds and see if they will come close to matching it. Mfgs do crazy discounting to dealers all the time, or they might have a dealer promo that the online won't. In this brave new world, the key phrase seems to be "don't ask, don't get".

I'm happy with our 1450 and the dealer who sold / installed it and our Regency I3100. I simply mentioned I was looking around and online before getting price quotes and the quotes were fairly close. In principal, I don't mind paying a small premium to support my local guy, as I have had questions. The other day I took the door of the Regency in to get him to look at the gasket for the glass. He said it was fine, but frayed at the end (that's what I thought might have become a leak) and he simply replaced the glass gasket - no charge.

Many Manufacturers use their dealer network to provide service, it's a good way to build strong local relationships and assist in follow on sales. I'd hate to have to call Ford in Michigan everytime I had a question about my Mustang.

 

[Fsappo]

With something that is almost certainly going to require some expert knowledge, I will pretty much always buy it from a local dealer. That doesn't mean take the first price tho. I'd go find a local dealer you think you can trust, take them a couple of online adds and see if they will come close to matching it. Mfgs do crazy discounting to dealers all the time, or they might have a dealer promo that the online won't. In this brave new world, the key phrase seems to be "don't ask, don't get".

I'm happy with our 1450 and the dealer who sold / installed it and our Regency I3100. I simply mentioned I was looking around and online before getting price quotes and the quotes were fairly close. In principal, I don't mind paying a small premium to support my local guy, as I have had questions. The other day I took the door of the Regency in to get him to look at the gasket for the glass. He said it was fine, but frayed at the end (that's what I thought might have become a leak) and he simply replaced the glass gasket - no charge.

Many Manufacturers use their dealer network to provide service, it's a good way to build strong local relationships and assist in follow on sales. I'd hate to have to call Ford in Michigan everytime I had a question about my Mustang.

Thank god for people like you at least making the effort to keep small brick and mortar businesses afloat. I could easily slide into the "hide behind a computer screen, sell stuff at 10% margins and let a guy in Tibet handle the customer service" route if I needed to. I would miss terribly meeting my customers in person, looking them in the eye, shaking hands on a deal and making friends with them. (lots of my customers have nice fishing access points and fishing secrets they are willing to share if you give em a good deal)

 

[WhitePine]

Napoleon service is brutally scary and thier products are not much farther behind.

Just an opinion though.


Service hundreds of units a year, and have enough problems with this brand.

Can you be more specific about the problems? Are they related pellet stoves, wood stoves, fireplaces, or what? What kind of problems?

 

[dafattkidd]

My experience has been they simply will not speak to you (the customer) They will only work with dealers. That can be tremendously frustrating.

 

[BrotherBart]

That is what I cannot understand about Nap. They will sell through any Tom, Dick and Harry online or storefront. And then expect the online customer to wade back through a online dealer with problems. That is just nuts.

My local dealer tried'em and dropped'em real fast. I will need to ask him about that. But I know from the past if he has any problems with a line it is out of there. He tried PE this year and the distributor was un-responsive and he blew them off after two sales.

 

[Ricky K]

Just a word to the wise. STAY AWAY FROM NAPOLEON!! Their is a reason there arn't many dealers and Great deals/. They don't stand behind anything they make ( The Manufaturer) theirfore they don't support the Dealer leaving him holding the bag. We bought 2 pellet stoves and 1 insert 2 years ago. One stove smoked because they only put silicone on flange, Dealer replaced it and got stuck with stove because factory wouldn't back him. The replacement stove will not heat a 10 by 12 room (120 degrees out of heat exchanger) because factory wouldn't do anything the dealer wouldn't. Stuck with stove that won't heat. Insert fan quit in a few months they did relace the fan motor but I had to put it in. The other stove heats ok, Not Great. but factory left a bolt in hopper with bound up screw. Dealer wouldn't fix it because factory wouldn't pay him so I had to fix it. Warranty is no good because the factory will not pay them. You are on your own. Do yourself a favor Stay Away form Napoleion