Local stove shop needs to put down the pipe

[nate379]

Crack pipe that is.

I called for prices on a 3 and 4ft length of 6" stainless stove pipe.

$180 for the 3ft and $225 for the 4ft.

Funny cause I checked Metalbest direct. 3ft is $126. The 4ft is $160.

(broken link removed)

Someone is making some $$$!

 

[CTburning]

Those are good prices and free shipping on orders over $899. Anyone ever use this company?

 

[Fsappo]

Damn them to hell for trying to make a 40% margin! They should sell stuff at a 15% margin like the online whorehouses do. They can just tell the bank they will cut the mortgage payment by 70%, fire 3/4 of their staff, stop making the payments on their service vehichles and direct all their customer service calls to Amazon.com

That will set them straight. Evil profits.

It's not like small business does anything good for the economy anyways, they should just close up shop. Heck, they arent in my town, why should I care if they close.

 

[leeave96]

Damn them to hell for trying to make a 40% margin! They should sell stuff at a 15% margin like the online whorehouses do. They can just tell the bank they will cut the mortgage payment by 70%, fire 3/4 of their staff, stop making the payments on their service vehichles and direct all their customer service calls to Amazon.com

That will set them straight. Evil profits.

It's not like small business does anything good for the economy anyways, they should just close up shop. Heck, they arent in my town, why should I care if they close.

Get use to it. In my neck of the woods, good dealers/small businesses that give a crap about the customer are few and far between. Open the wallet - they're happy. Browse, ask questions, try to get a warranty claim, return an item, get a part and depend on them to have a clue on how to look-up a part number, or have much of any product knowledge about what they are selling - good luck.

When I find a good dealer, I absolutely support them, but it's getting harder and harder to find them around here. BTW, it ain't no sin for the consumer to want to keep a little margin in their pocket too for other expenses - like food for the next meal or bill that shows-up in the mail.

Bill

 

[Shane]

That same thing used to happen to me alot at my store. Big box sold the duravent for a couple more dollars per ft. than my cost. Lost some business to it, but people still bought pipe from us. I think where it gets insulting is that somehow the hearth retailer is made out to be gouging their customers for charging list price and in some cases the shipping charge.

 

[fossil]

Bill, I think maybe Franks' sarcasm sort of whooshed right over your head. He is in the business. Rick

 

[leeave96]

Bill, I think maybe Franks' sarcasm sort of whooshed right over your head. He is in the business. Rick

I wish he was in my neck of the woods - I'd be a regular customer and forward as much business to him as possible.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[BrotherBart]

I would call him all of the time. From Lowe's. :lol:

 

[cmonSTART]

Crack pipe that is.

I called for prices on a 3 and 4ft length of 6" stainless stove pipe.

$180 for the 3ft and $225 for the 4ft.

Funny cause I checked Metalbest direct. 3ft is $126. The 4ft is $160.

(broken link removed)

Someone is making some $$$!

It looks like that works out to a 40% margin which is pretty typical of a lot of stores. They're not trying to rip you off.

 

[gdk84]

Small local businesses just cant compete with box stores... and that includes everything from pipe down to hardware and building materials. I however am willing to spend a little bit more and get the service and support that is sometimes priceless. I will give you an example, recently i purchased a new washer machine from Lowes. It was cheaper than what my local appliance store could do. It lasted about 3 months and then filled the basement with smoke from the motor. I went through the aggrivating process of calling Lowes 800 warrenty number which didnt work at the time for some reason, just rang. Well, after 2 trips to the store and many phone calls i finally was able to get an appoinment for a service. Meanwhile I couldnt do my laundry for over two weeks...oh great! Next time my business is going to the local appliance store. 1 phone call and instant service. That is what I want and im sure many others do too. Thats just a small example.

 

[PLAYS WITH FIRE]

+1 ^

 

[nate379]

Well I'm not seeing any service. I have had a poor draft condition from day one when they did the install. It's "ok" when it's under 30* but over that and it's a real pain, almost impossible to get a fire going. I am hoping another 3ft will help. That will make my chimney about 18ft

I don't mind paying for the pipe though it's still way overpriced, but also paying $125 on top of that for a guy to come out and install... honestly it's not much fault they didn't get it right the first time.

 

[greythorn3]

pay up or shut up, support local buisness, alaska aint cheap. if your gonna stay here pay up.

 

[Fsappo]

I would call him all of the time. From Lowe's. :lol:

Bastardo!

My rant was not to condemn folks for trying to save money. Heck, I'm just about ready to start a chapter 7 for myself. I save where ever I can. Back when I was rollin in the money, I would ONLY buy from small local shops. Now, the dollar rules.

My rant is towards the idea that a small retailer is on drugs for trying to maintain a healthy margin.

 

[firefighterjake]

From what I know about Alaska . . . just about everything is more expensive to get up there.

 

[nate379]

Perhaps before the advent of the internet it was doable, but in this day and age, not so much.

Example I bought tires for my truck a while back. I got them from Tire Rack. Including shipping to here on the barge it ran me $900. The local shops all wanted $1400-1500 for the same tires and they had to be ordered in as well, so it's not like they were on hand.

I don't mind helping out the local guys when I can, not worth the trouble to save a few $$s some times, but if I didn't shop around instead of being able to eat hamburg and steaks once in a while I'd be stuck eating Spagetti Os and Ramen everyday.

The Metalbest guys are selling that pipe on teh site I listed and obviously making some money... I have to wonder what the stove shop is actually paying for the pipe? Probably less than I'd pay.
The thing that pisses me off is they know about the problem as I have talked to the guy that runs the place a few times and I was under the impression that they would do what they could to make it right. I was expecting to pay for the pipe and have the install taken care of.

 

[Fsappo]

Fair enough. You may have been more inclined to give them the business or see if they can work on the price if they have givin you stellar service.

 

[branchburner]

I have to wonder what the stove shop is actually paying for the pipe? Probably less than I'd pay.

You have to remember that by working lower margins, the big stores are going to do more volume. This enables them to get better wholesale pricing than little guys, and charge even less. Not sure how it goes in the stove biz, but some biz is built wholly on volume discounting - without a massive wholesale purchase, you can barely profit.

 

[gdk84]

I have to wonder what the stove shop is actually paying for the pipe? Probably less than I'd pay.

You have to remember that by working lower margins, the big stores are going to do more volume. This enables them to get better wholesale pricing than little guys, and charge even less. Not sure how it goes in the stove biz, but some biz is built wholly on volume discounting - without a massive wholesale purchase, you can barely profit.

You hit the nail on the head on that one. More volume equals lower wholesale pricing equals lower consumer pricing. Thats just the way the cookie crumbles.

 

[greythorn3]

is that the wood stove blazking shop in palmer your talking about?

 

[North of 60]

Crack pipe that is.

I called for prices on a 3 and 4ft length of 6" stainless stove pipe.

$180 for the 3ft and $225 for the 4ft.

Funny cause I checked Metalbest direct. 3ft is $126. The 4ft is $160.

(broken link removed)

Someone is making some $$$!

:coolhmm: Hmmmm, looks like you got the shipping for free to me. I kinda like to make a profit when I go to work too.
It helps me feed my family.

 

[nate379]

Ray you can stop posting, I set you to ignore a long time ago.

Sorry I didn't put the whole story. I wrote the first post on my phone and it's a pain to type on that thing.

The 180$ price I could deal with if the install was free... since the chimney too short is their fault. I bought the stove, OAK, chimney (everything) from them last year. They did the install. Right away I said poor draft.

They came out, checked to make sure no screwup in install, all checked out.

Well it got cold by then and draft was fine till spring. Anything over about 35ish and I can't get a fire going in the stove worth a darn. Even kiln dried lumber scraps barely will burn. Talked to the guy at the stove place for a while about what do to. Draft inducer, extended pipe, etc.

I wasn't going to be around for a while and I had other things that $$ needed to go to so I put it on hold for a bit. Now that I want to get it fixed they want me to pay full price for the labor.

Maybe I'm wrong in my thoughts, but when I paid for install, that was paying for a stove and chimney that burned correctly. I paid close to $5000 for the stove, piping and install. In the end it was not setup to my satisfaction. Yes I realize that chimney lenght/setup is a guessing game at times, but after installing stoves for years I would expect they would have an idea?

They WERE going to just install a 4 ft out the roof, for a chimeny length of only about 13ft. I requested they install another length. I wanted another 4ft but they only had a 3ft on the truck, so that's what I got.

 

[greythorn3]

sometimes you just gotta do things yourself if you want them done right.

 

[Choppedliver]

13 feet can be a little short for some stoves, but am I reading the above right are you taking off a 3 footer for a 4 footer or adding 4 feet?
4 Feet will most likely help but 1 foot will not be noticeable

 

[turbocruiser]

This is an interesting thread. I'll throw in the 2 cents I have here and say that in general I make a particular point of supporting locally owned and operated businesses and I am convinced that it is not only the right thing but also the smart thing. In specific with wood stove shops I am so happy to have a locally owned and operated stove shop with people who are careful, courteous, super helpful and super knowledgeable. I would happily pay to support the shop even if it is a 40% price premium (not the same thing as a 40% operating margin by the way) and that's NOT because I like to get screwed but its because I'm trying to actually avoid getting screwed up using some online only setup (or even the three local big box stores) where nobody would be able to address the things I need addressed prior to putting the equipment in, provide the service and support in the present and in the future and otherwise advocate for me if it is necessary for warranty work.

Now keep in mind the context of what I wrote up there is that unlike most of my projects where I am 100% able to do them myself, I'm so new to stoves that I am not able to do that myself so paying the premium for all the assistance is well worth it. When I'm working on my own vehicles or my own residence I get materials/parts at the lowest possible price and DIM (Do It Myself) and in that case then I don't mind dealing with online only setups where I wouldn't need nor expect everything you get when going local. Even for these things though, if I can choose between buying online and having accounts at local electrical supply, hardware supply, plumbing supply places that are locally owned and operated, I still do that because I basically prefer shopping them over the big boxes. After awhile the relationship that you have with those folks even for weekend warriors like myself pays off in other ways; as an example at all three of the electrical/hardware/plumbing supply stores we have here I am accounted for as another contractor meaning that I pay lower prices than "the public". That just came from project after project going in for materials/parts and them asking me if I was a contractor ... my response was always the same, "No just a weekend warrior but I prefer to support your store over the big box". Without me even asking them they all offered an account as contractor. The appreciation there obviously was mutual. Anyways, just 2 cents.