New England Pellet L.L.C. - Part VI

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Wet1

Minister of Fire
Apr 27, 2008
2,528
USA
Since the last thread was locked, I thought it was important to keep this topic active on the top of the board so folks can continue to put pressure on NEP LLC and continue making sure the word spreads. The last thread is located here:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/25743/


I received an interesting call tonight from a woman at NBC ch30 regarding a followup to one of the emails I sent out. Even though I received my pellets, they still wanted to do an interview with me on this matter. I had to decline because my left eye is bandaged up from an eye surgery I just underwent and I can't take any amount of bright light. Anyway, it sounds like they have done a lot of snooping around and I was told the AG has received numerous letters as of late complaining about fraudulent business practices from the folks at NEP LLC. It sounds like there is indeed strength in numbers. Ironically, I was told they have been unable to get in touch with the owner.

For those of you who still have not received a refund or your pellets, getting in touch with the AG is a very wise move at this point. You also might want to contact the folks at ch 30...

NBC (ch 30) in CT is running a story tonight on the nightly new at 11 PM regarding New England Pellet L.L.C., I don't think this will be the last we hear about them...
 
WVIT NBC 30 made this the lead story. They even showed this forum as they scrolled down the thread. :)
 
I am not affected by this but I have followed the threads and found it very interesting and POWERFULL. I viewed the video on the CT news station and it nice to hear the AG appears ready to take legal action.

I also noticed that the news story by showing Hearth.com in the clip has generated some new members for this forum. I hope everyone gets pellets, refunds or compensation. Good luck!
 
"failed to respond to our(AG) office"
This guy is in deep doo doo now. This guy should have responded and "stoped the train" at the AG's office. He could have told his side of the story and negotiated without going to court. Now it's gonna cost him some attorneys fees. Gonna get interesting now.
 
This clarification was buried down deep in the previous thread, but I think it is worth repeating since I was momentarily confused.

"Just to clarify I am talking about a pellet retailer with the name of New England Pellet LLC, not the Pellet manufacturer New England Wood Pellet LLC."
 
Webmaster said:
To be more clear - this is not a reflection on the manufacturer of pellets with a similar name who is HQ in NH.

It is an outfit which sells and delivers pellets that they buy from various makers, and according to reports works out of a Garden Center in CT.

To the best of my knowledge, NEP LLC is only supplied pellets by NEWP, I have not heard of anyone else supplying NEP LLC during 2008. NEP LLC is also (currently) an authorized dealer for NEWP.


I'm very happy to see we have made such a difference. Just a couple of weeks ago it seemed there was very little activity and a lot more people w/o pellets. Our actions have clearly made an impact! Let's hope the AG gets the remainder of this mess taken care of...
 
Mike J said:
This clarification was buried down deep in the previous thread, but I think it is worth repeating since I was momentarily confused.

"Just to clarify I am talking about a pellet retailer with the name of New England Pellet LLC, not the Pellet manufacturer New England Wood Pellet LLC."

glad someone did clarify that i was a bit confused myself. NEWP (the manufacturer) has had a very good reputation among customers i have spoken with and i hope this similarity in name of 2 separate companies doesn't damage the reputation of the manufacturer guilt by association(of similar name) wouldn't be fair.
 
I have been waiting since July for my 5 tons of pellets. After many e-mails and phone calls not being returned I got in touch with a girl in the office who stated" your pellets are scheduled for Friday delivery" ( like I have not heard that before) . She goes on to tell me that they will not be supply pellets to the general public any longer. She states" we have to stop selling pellets because our customers are so difficult to deal with". I almost laughed out loud to her, but not wanting to appear like any other difficult customer who has waited for 4 months for their pellet delivery I simply said " I agree, I just wish all my customer would just go away and stop bothering me for what they contracted for. I got an immediate silence at the other end of the line, her next comment was killer, " we have had a truck break down and we are now running behind in delivery by at least two days". She then states that " we also have not gotten our pellet delivery for this week". Well, if that's not covering the bases for no delivery again , I do not know what is.
Where is the States Attorney when you need him. I expect the next comment to be , we will cancel this order and re-fund your money so you can go out and buy pellets for $100.00 more per ton. I guess they should be thankful for my $1300.00 interest free loan. My next call is to the states attorneys office , i think that this is a clear case of fraud! I have no doubt that one less customer for these guys is exactly what they are looking for. What that saying, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
 
Wet1 said:
To the best of my knowledge, NEP LLC is only supplied pellets by NEWP, I have not heard of anyone else supplying NEP LLC during 2008. NEP LLC is also (currently) an authorized dealer for NEWP.
.
Once again, I think you are muddying the waters - whatever relationship the vendor has with others is something we cannot gleam. We don't know if he gave bad checks to his suppliers nor whether he has multiple suppliers, etc.

We don't know what his contracts are, etc.- nor should we. Nor do we need to.

We only know one thing...and that is NEP has been misleading their customers and not calling them back - and not responding quickly to demands for refunds.

Although you may not be trying to muddy the facts, making assumptions that it is his vendors fault is over the top. For some reason, this seems to be one of the few outlets having as big of a problem...yet the manufacturer supplies thousands of outlets.

Let's keep the speculation out of it because it does not have any bearing on the issue.

The problem and lesson as I see it - never have anyone charge your credit card for goods they cannot immediately deliver......that is, unless you 100% trust them (maybe a stove shop which has been there 20 years, etc.).

Also, if you do, note that some cards and paypal, etc. only allow you to dispute for a fixed amount of time (30 days), although they often have appeal processes that can kick in after that.

Most importantly, get a supplier who is reasonable and has a spotless reputation.
 
what a nightmare... I was in this way back in june/july when I pre-ordered only to find out that they didn't deliver to me, and it took a good 3 weeks of every other day calling and emailing to get my money back from them.

Sorry for all those that are still in the dark with this company. I hope they come through on their deliveries.
 
cmsbruce said:
I expect the next comment to be , we will cancel this order and re-fund your money so you can go out and buy pellets for $100.00 more per ton.

I would bet that if you were to cancel your existing order, then re-order at today's prices ($100 more per ton) you would get your pellets quite quickly.

There's no way that they couldn't have filled your JULY order by now.......... that is, unless the pellets that they got between then and now went....... oh, I don't know......... to people who paid more per ton.........

Why fill all those standing orders you already took payment for when people are willing to pay more today? Just give them the runaround until they cancel their order.
 
Webmaster said:
Thanks for keeping it going!

I guess Hearth.com became famous for a couple seconds there!

So, Craig, you gonna get some bucks for allowing them to show the website?????????
 
Webmaster said:
Wet1 said:
To the best of my knowledge, NEP LLC is only supplied pellets by NEWP, I have not heard of anyone else supplying NEP LLC during 2008. NEP LLC is also (currently) an authorized dealer for NEWP.
.

Once again, I think you are muddying the waters - whatever relationship the vendor has with others is something we cannot gleam. We don't know if he gave bad checks to his suppliers nor whether he has multiple suppliers, etc.
Sorry, I fail to see how I have muddied the waters. What I stated is very accurate. Throughout 2008, NEWP has been the sole pellet supplier to NEP LLC. Up to this point, they have not been getting pellets from anyone else. Also, as confirmed by NEWP, NEP LLC is an authorized dealer for them. That's all I stated and I don't think you can argue any of this is untrue. I also fail to see anything "muddy" about this, it's actually very clear and true.


We don't know what his contracts are, etc.- nor should we. Nor do we need to.
Well we know NEP has a contract with NEWP and we also know NEP has already received all the "Warm Front" brand pellets they were allocated to distribute within CT & MA. This has also been publicly stated by NEWP.


We only know one thing...and that is NEP has been misleading their customers and not calling them back - and not responding quickly to demands for refunds.
You certainly don't have to tell me anything about this. I've easily placed 100-200 calls to NEP from May to Nov. trying to get in touch with them. I think they called me back twice, and one of those two times was to take my order (they were VERY responsive about taking my money!)


Although you may not be trying to muddy the facts, making assumptions that it is his vendors fault is over the top. For some reason, this seems to be one of the few outlets having as big of a problem...yet the manufacturer supplies thousands of outlets.
Where in this thread did I make ANY assumptions???? Where did you get that out of "To the best of my knowledge, NEP LLC is only supplied pellets by NEWP, I have not heard of anyone else supplying NEP LLC during 2008. NEP LLC is also (currently) an authorized dealer for NEWP."??? There are no assumptions there. I think you are reading into something that certainly isn't there. Your earlier post said "It (NEP LLC) is an outfit which sells and delivers pellets that they buy from various makers", I was just clarifying the actual situation. NEWP is their only current supplier and they are an authorized dealer for them. Simple as that. If you want to call that "over the top" so be it.

To be fair, I have in the past speculated that part of NEP's problem with failing to deliver pellets might have been because NEWP was not supplying them pellets fast enough. I don't know what the actually status was or is on that, but NEWP has stated more recently that NEP has now already received all of their CT & MA Warm Front brand allocations... Anything they receive from this point on should be labeled with their NEWP brand label and NEP LLC is only authorized to sell these pellets in NY and NJ. Despite this, the 5 tons of pellets I recently received (in CT) from NEP LLC, were NEWP's Green Supreme brand label...

Either way, you're right, we don't hear about other NEWP dealers having so many problems... It's quite clear NEP LLC is managed very, very, poorly. In fact, I think these clowns have taken poor customer service to a new low level.


Let's keep the speculation out of it because it does not have any bearing on the issue.
No speculation here, although if you want to read into my words, I guess you could make a case that I did hint or speculate that NEWP might drop NEP LLC as one of their authorized dealers after this year...


The problem and lesson as I see it - never have anyone charge your credit card for goods they cannot immediately deliver......that is, unless you 100% trust them (maybe a stove shop which has been there 20 years, etc.).
So true.


Also, if you do, note that some cards and paypal, etc. only allow you to dispute for a fixed amount of time (30 days), although they often have appeal processes that can kick in after that.
Good point, although it should be noted Paypal's dispute process is almost useless and it very heavily favors the seller.


Most importantly, get a supplier who is reasonable and has a spotless reputation.
Good suggestion.
 
newf lover said:
I found the video at-
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Customers__Where_are_The_Wood_Pellets__Hartford.html

If that fails, do a search on the site, keyword "pellets".
Well, it seems everyone should all feel better now - the reporter said that the owner has assured her "that he is doing everything possible to make his customers happy and will eventually make all this right".

I'm reminded of all of those TV murder mysteries where the killer finally confesses and says "I just needed to kill him, it just wasn't possible to let him get away with what he did to me."...in this case, we need to understand that calling customers back, returning emails, delivering pellets just isn't possible. He's doing everything that is possible...he said so. Framed that way, it's no wonder he feels put upon by all the unreasonable customers. It all depends on how you view reality. :)

This guy really needs a Clue card.
 
it's a shame... i feel bad for everyone involved... people who ordered in may june should have theres by now.. i can only imagine how many tons this guy actually tried to order...
interesting though i got a call from pelletsales telling me about the demand for pellets is very high because evryone bought stoves this year and so forth
he mentioned that they are the only reliable company as many others ordered more than what they could get from the mills and since they order from mills nationwide the have better supplies for now then most others... you think he hasn't heard about this guy?!?!?!?! especially since he called me from new hampshire!!!!
i truly feel bad for those who are still waiting for pellets... and this guy shoulda done things differently.... he should be getting it from kentucky instead of trying to get newp exclusivlely to fill his orders at this point!!
 
The AG in CT better get the name right. He called them "New England Wooden Pellets". Hope the investigation is a little more percise.
 
How do I file with the AG ( any links?)? And would I need to file with both CT and MA (I'm in MA)
 
iceman said:
it's a shame... i feel bad for everyone involved... people who ordered in may june should have theres by now.. i can only imagine how many tons this guy actually tried to order...
interesting though i got a call from pelletsales telling me about the demand for pellets is very high because evryone bought stoves this year and so forth
he mentioned that they are the only reliable company as many others ordered more than what they could get from the mills and since they order from mills nationwide the have better supplies for now then most others... you think he hasn't heard about this guy?!?!?!?! especially since he called me from new hampshire!!!!
i truly feel bad for those who are still waiting for pellets... and this guy shoulda done things differently.... he should be getting it from kentucky instead of trying to get newp exclusivlely to fill his orders at this point!!

Why wood pelletsales call YOU out of the blue to tell you this!
 
they were doing a follow up on an email they a week or 2 ago that supposedly talked about deman and ordering ...but since i haven't read it i asked it what it said .. and thats what he told me... so he wasn't calling out of the "blue" he was calling people they send emails too..
 
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