3 month old Englander 55SHP-10... already a dissatisfied customer...

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Emac68

New Member
Jan 2, 2012
10
Dayton, OH
Before purchasing I did what I thought was a significant amount of research. I read some bad reviews on this model of stove in particular & Englander's Cust Service but the overwhelming research showed low risk/high value in my purchase.

I am sitting at home on an unpaid lunch break, 40 mins into a hold, waiting for someone to tell me how to reprogram the feed rate on a unit that is less than 4 months old. So not only am I not getting paid, but since I chose to use this as my cheaper main heat source, I am forced to go to a 2nd source of heat which is much more expensive.

Since I purchased this from a big box, national chain store, what's wrong with this picture? Yesterday, my call took 10 mins to get into the hold queue and another 10 mins for someone to tell me "Oh yeah you are on A and should be on D." This is a new problem, why did this happen? "Oh well it just happens." Nice.

I teach business concepts, and I have a very bad taste in my mouth for this business - based on both product design and investment in a world class customer service department.
 
Emac68 said:
Thanks... I am normally pretty patient, but having CS hours of 8-5 is not very customer friendly to begin with.

But with Mike H. you have an after hours outlet here.

There customer service is 2nd to none. Try contacting Harman or Quad....... Good luck getting ahold of someone. "Call your delaer" is all you will get.
 
They do have email support too.

From the englander website.



EMAIL SUPPORT

Thanks again for your support of an American-made company!

If you are emailing us, please follow these short instructions so that we may provide the best possible service in the shortest amount of time.
We try to answer all emails within one business day if you can provide this information.

When you click the link below to email Technical Support, your email program will open.
In your email, please be sure to include:
1. Your stove's model number
2. Your stove's manufacture date
3. Your stove's serial number
4. AND a phone number(s) at which we may reach you if necesary
The model number, manufacture date and serial number can be found on the metal tag that is attached to your stove (i.e. inside the hopper lid of your pellet stove, for example).

Click Here to email us: [email protected]


ALSO - Please remember, you may be able to save yourself some time if you try our click-through Troubleshooting Guide before emailing us:
Click Here to try our Troubleshooting Guide.
 
I appreciate the tone of encouragement... thx. My word of mouth to friends and family has been thumbs up until I had this problem on the coldest day/night of the season so far and couldn't contact anyone.


I have PM'd him.
 
Jeremy at Englander got me registered (sent the card in?!) and my call took a total of 1 hr 7 mins. We got the board reprogrammed - how did all that get so jacked up?

Thanks, Jeremy. Here is to hoping it works tonight when my wife gets in - maybe even better.

Thanks to the forum! *salute*
 
GrahamInVa said:
Out of curiosity, what is the problem with the stove? There may be some members here that could help you.

I had posted an issue the other day about overfeed. I left last Friday with it working quite well. Came back home on New Year's and it was overfeeding then of course, overheating and shutting down with an E-3 code.

Somehow - the feed rate was at A and should be at D. In the process of trying to dianose and fix the problem, I was hitting the preprogrammed buttons and may have inadvertently messed with those, but they were WAY OUT of wack. 9 1 9 and should be 6 4 1.

Thanks again to everyone.
 
Emac68 said:
.....In the process of trying to dianose and fix the problem, I was hitting the preprogrammed buttons and may have inadvertently messed with those, but they were WAY OUT of wack. 9 1 9 and should be 6 4 1.....

IMO, I think you owe a bit of an apology to Englander after bashing them for a problem that YOU most likely caused. Their stoves are solid, and their customer service is the best. But you still expected instant phone call response during their busiest time of the year and right during a cold spell.

As someone above mentioned, I'd like to see you get Harman or Quad to even talk to you......ever.
 
I appreciate you posting your opinion, and many have been helpful on this forum. I am new to pellet stoves, but I am not a new consumer. I am a business professional and my investment of time & money is as important to me as anyone else on this forum.

When speaking with the Tech Support, my discussion with Jeremy was that I did hit the factory preset buttons in the last few days. That introduces the fact that yes - I could have moved those settings around - but this was only after reading all the FAQs and Self Help online. I realized these were adjustments and I was careful. However, one preset was off by 9 settings. I am quite confident I did not make that big of an accidental adjustment. POSSIBLE? Yes - so if I made the situation worse, MY APOLOGIES - sincerely.

The bigger issue of feed rate changing from what should have been D as a preset to A was not my doings. I did not know how to do that and it would have required multiple buttons pushed after completing the correction today. When I purchased this, I wanted it to be easy to maintain and low interaction as my wife is often the one that fills and starts the unit (she has her grad degree - so she is no dummy - just wanted simplicity). Hence, I do not benefit from screwing around with the control panel.

Finally and foremost as it pertains to your posting, I appreciate the time of year it is. That is exactly why I did the research, purchased, and properly installed this unit prior to mid fall. I have had some minor problems previous to this (which may be connected to the settings being off) and the emails were short - one being almost rude. No names were ever attached to the emails. I found out today that the card I sent in for registration was never entered.

I appreciate the comments made about other manufacturer's response of "see the dealer." However, most consumers should expect NOT to have a problem with a unit, especially in the first 5 months. World Class Customer Service is not based on other manufacturers: you base it on World Class Customer Service and then you define that however you like. Its not just have a toll free number or an email, its making it customer-centric which means hours that are at least some what more convenient than normal business hours (8-5 EST). If its busier, you staff higher. Good business reacts to customer needs to remain competitive and profitable.

My expectations are reasonable, I believe. Just like I expect a $7 McDonald's order to be right and fresh when I go through a drive through, I also expect an investment of this type (in the 4 digit range) to be mirrored by quality and followed up with World Class Customer Service, as I have always given that as a Customer Service/Operations Manager.

Thanks again to this free forum and the people that monitor it.
 
You would have better off with a simpler stove, all pellet stoves don't have the numbers game.
The easier to run pellet stoves cost more.
 
Emac68 said:
My expectations are reasonable, I believe. Just like I expect a $7 McDonald's order to be right and fresh when I go through a drive through, I also expect an investment of this type (in the 4 digit range) to be mirrored by quality and followed up with World Class Customer Service, as I have always given that as a Customer Service/Operations Manager.

Thanks again to this free forum and the people that monitor it.

Wow, consider yourself lucky you got an Englander then... As has already been said, just about any other stove manufacturer and you would have been waiting for a dealer to come out and service it, and your OP did sound extremely harsh and unwarranted.

In any event, hopefully you got it straightened out and it works much better for you.
 
sb81 said:
Wow, consider yourself lucky you got an Englander then... As has already been said, just about any other stove manufacturer and you would have been waiting for a dealer to come out and service it, and your OP did sound extremely harsh and unwarranted.

In any event, hopefully you got it straightened out and it works much better for you.

Yeah, the OP went and bought the least expensive stove you can buy that is meant for a typical DIY'er, at a discount big box store, but expects their customer service to be "World Class". Funny thing is that it's better than ANY OTHER stove company that I know of, but he still isn't satisfied.

I can't imagine what he would have said if he'd bought a "world class" stove like a $4000 Harman and had these problems.....Harman won't even talk to you.....just tell you to "call your dealer". (hint: look at all the current threads from people with Harmans that are having problems)

Yes, it's interesting that OP hasn't indicated how the stove is running now after Englander helped him fix the stove settings. But IMO, I'm sure that if it wasn't running well, he'd have been trashing them again, so I guess it's running OK.
 
Yeah, the OP went and bought the least expensive stove you can buy that is meant for a typical DIY'er, at a discount big box store, but expects their customer service to be "World Class". Funny thing is that it's better than ANY OTHER stove company that I know of, but he still isn't satisfied.

I can't imagine what he would have said if he'd bought a "world class" stove like a $4000 Harman and had these problems.....Harman won't even talk to you.....just tell you to "call your dealer". (hint: look at all the current threads from people with Harmans that are having problems)

Yes, it's interesting that OP hasn't indicated how the stove is running now after Englander helped him fix the stove settings. But IMO, I'm sure that if it wasn't running well, he'd have been trashing them again, so I guess it's running OK.[/quote]

Ok - wow - really?... OP posted what OP was experiencing as a customer who has an item that is less than 4 months old. A customer is a customer, no matter if that person is a DIY'er or not. I don't get that - DIY'er. Is everyone on here a professional pellet stove installer and user? If so, then I am in the wrong place. I thought this forum was used for feedback and tips. Its consumer driven, yes? Actually, I find the Wood Pellet and bio-fuel market fascinating and growing.

Next, feedback is just that - FEEDBACK. I am not trashing anyone, I am stating the difficulties I am having with a product that is quite new. My hope is that Englander will see these posts and understand that "HEY - we have room for improvement!" Companies will not grow, improve on process and procedure, produce better products unless there is feedback which includes - as you termed it - trashing.

And the OP has not posted how its running because the OP had to go back to work. The OP expects that this did solve the OP's problem and hopes not to have any additional issues the rest of the season. But the OP was quite frustrated to have the unit not working on the coldest night of the season to this point.

Again - the OP appreciates everyone's opinion and that is what I have given: my opinion at a given point in time. I will be more than happy to change that opinion as my experience changes.
 
Having the board programmed to run as an A instead of a D by the factory has been un heard of by me until now. It should be written on the back of the board with a Sharpe by the person testing them at the factory. If enough problems occur I would image this is going to happen.
Personally since it has been posted how to change this on the Internet, I would not doubt that it got changed after it left the factory. At least it was an easy fix but possibly not the complete fix for the customer. Pellets stoves depend on the environment that they are installed in and often take a bit of tweaking to get the performance desired.
I have an Englander and have been running it for years. I did all the tweaking myself without the help of tech support. I have it programmed to extract the most amount of heat from the volume of pellets possible. But this comes at the cost of having to do more cleaning. That is my choice, not the manufacturers fault. Burning wood is dirty. Plain and simple. My Stove does't pollute the inside are or dirty my house. Of course if I open the stove door while it is running then it would blow ash all over the place.

Good luck with your new stove.
 
slls said:
You would have better off with a simpler stove, all pellet stoves don't have the numbers game.
The easier to run pellet stoves cost more.

I know not everyone will agree with me but I have to state. I have the same stove as the op and it requires more effort. That said I paid 625.00 for it new and I have gotten out of it more than I put in. Englander has been more than helpful (sending me simpson multi-vent pieces that I could not obtain in this country). So I must say that buying a stove at big box outlet were it says on the box don't ask vendor about the stove (I'm paraphrasing) I understood I might have a problem with servicing. I must agree with imacman that perhaps an apology is warranted. There is nice guy (named Mike) who stops by and helps people out, I wouldn't want him to think that this forum is slagging him with a complaint like this.
 
Emac68 said:
....But the OP was quite frustrated to have the unit not working on the coldest night of the season to this point.......

Yep, that is frustrating. I understand that and it's unfortunate that the problem occurred just prior to the cold weather, but that wasn't the fault of the manufacturer.

A couple of questions....when you bought the stove, did you pick it up at the store, or have it shipped to your home? Was the stove brand new and still in the sealed carton, or was it a customer return stove that had been used and returned? ( I have seen these in my local Lowes, and (unbelievably), they had the stove priced the same as a new stove).
 
Boy, I hate to see when he gets ahold of a bad pellet brand & ends ups with tons of ash, build up & no heat.
 
I feel the need to defend 2 companies here.

1. Englander: I owned a 25epi until 2 months ago when I got sick of the amount of attention it needed on a daily basis. It was MY decision to sell the stove and replace it. While I did have a few parts fail over the 2 years I owned it Englander's customer service was fantastic! Maybe I lucked out but the longest I ever waited was about 20 minutes.

2. Harman: If you track down their phone number you CAN speak to a technician, I waited about 10 minutes on hold the other day to have a conversation. He adressed ALL of my questions and concerns, never telling me to call my dealer. I feel that I received great customer service from Harman.

That said it's time to throw a few more barefoot's into the hopper and bunker down for a cold night. I am really liking these barefoot's! Great heat and VERY low ash.
 
fmsm said:
2. Harman: If you track down their phone number you CAN speak to a technician.....

Just curious....where did you find that number?? I looked at your owners manual and didn't see it.

If it's any harder than looking in there to find the number, it's pretty obvious that they really don't want to talk to a customer.

Englander's phone # is printed in very clear lettering on the front cover of the owners manual.
 
imacman said:
fmsm said:
2. Harman: If you track down their phone number you CAN speak to a technician.....

Just curious....where did you find that number?? I looked at your owners manual and didn't see it.

If it's any harder than looking in there to find the number, it's pretty obvious that they really don't want to talk to a customer.

Englander's phone # is printed in very clear lettering on the front cover of the owners manual.

You simply need to look it up either 411 or yellowpages.com
 
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