Due to the increasing cost of energy Bristol Bronze is forced to increase the price of our Cape Dory Builder's Plates from $35.00 to $40.00 as of 2/1/01. Any orders received prior to that date will be shipped at the old price.
Bronze melts at about 1800 degrees F and we pour at about 2200 degrees. This takes a lot of energy. The local gas company here in Rhode Island has already implemented a 30% price increase and another 20% increase is only a week or so away. The price increase is not something that gives me any pleasure but..... there is just no way around it. Anyone wishing to place an order can do so through my web site bristolbronze.com or can call me at 401-625-5224.
rogerw@meganet.net
Bronze CD Builder's Plates - Price Increase
Moderator: Jim Walsh
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Eric
Re: Bronze CD Builder's Plates - Price Increase
HI,
Does anybody else have a funny feeling about this company? I placed orders twice on their web page but they didn't go through. After months I called and didn't get an answer for days. Then I emailed and received a very polite letter saying that I must have done something wrong. When I wrote back to suggest that their website must have done something wrong (I build and maintain a giant e-commerce website for a living), I was told just to phone in my card #. There couldn't be anything wrong with their website, they never make mistakes, I was told.
That was it for me. I don't deal with compainies that ask for my credit card # 3 times but don't deliver the product and insist they don't make errors. By the way, he wouldn't bill me for the work, he just wanted a card #.
I'm sticking with my cracked plastic emblem.
ew
woodman_eric@emc.com
Does anybody else have a funny feeling about this company? I placed orders twice on their web page but they didn't go through. After months I called and didn't get an answer for days. Then I emailed and received a very polite letter saying that I must have done something wrong. When I wrote back to suggest that their website must have done something wrong (I build and maintain a giant e-commerce website for a living), I was told just to phone in my card #. There couldn't be anything wrong with their website, they never make mistakes, I was told.
That was it for me. I don't deal with compainies that ask for my credit card # 3 times but don't deliver the product and insist they don't make errors. By the way, he wouldn't bill me for the work, he just wanted a card #.
I'm sticking with my cracked plastic emblem.
ew
Bristol Bronze wrote: Due to the increasing cost of energy Bristol Bronze is forced to increase the price of our Cape Dory Builder's Plates from $35.00 to $40.00 as of 2/1/01. Any orders received prior to that date will be shipped at the old price.
Bronze melts at about 1800 degrees F and we pour at about 2200 degrees. This takes a lot of energy. The local gas company here in Rhode Island has already implemented a 30% price increase and another 20% increase is only a week or so away. The price increase is not something that gives me any pleasure but..... there is just no way around it. Anyone wishing to place an order can do so through my web site bristolbronze.com or can call me at 401-625-5224.
woodman_eric@emc.com
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Ken Coit
Re: Bronze CD Builder's Plates - Price Increase
Eric,
Perhaps you need to communicate with Roger directly. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him, but we have certainly not had any problem working together via email. In spite of what you may have been told by their sales dept, their web site has been suffering from ISP woes. Here's a notice that is currently posted at http://www.bristolbronze.com
"Important Notice to our customers: AS of January 12, 2001 our web site may be off line for a short time due to our ISP's telecommunications provider going bankrupt. Our ISP is in the process of restoring communication for us and we will be online again as soon as possible. In the mean time you may still contact Bristol Bronze by email for your marine fitting needs at: ROGERW@MEGANET.NET"
In my limited experience with suppliers of small parts for Cape Dorys, Bristol Bronze seems to be ahead of the crowd in terms of responsiveness.
Ken Coit
S/V Parfait
Raleigh, NC
parfait@nc.rr.com
Perhaps you need to communicate with Roger directly. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him, but we have certainly not had any problem working together via email. In spite of what you may have been told by their sales dept, their web site has been suffering from ISP woes. Here's a notice that is currently posted at http://www.bristolbronze.com
"Important Notice to our customers: AS of January 12, 2001 our web site may be off line for a short time due to our ISP's telecommunications provider going bankrupt. Our ISP is in the process of restoring communication for us and we will be online again as soon as possible. In the mean time you may still contact Bristol Bronze by email for your marine fitting needs at: ROGERW@MEGANET.NET"
In my limited experience with suppliers of small parts for Cape Dorys, Bristol Bronze seems to be ahead of the crowd in terms of responsiveness.
Ken Coit
S/V Parfait
Raleigh, NC
parfait@nc.rr.com
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B. Andrews
Re: Bronze CD Builder's Plates - Price Increase
Dear Eric: We ordered our plate by telephone. Roger was very courteous and we recieved the plate within two weeks as promised. By the way, the quality of the finished product exceeded our expectations. Good luck.
and10128@aol.com
and10128@aol.com
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Eric
Re: Bronze CD Builder's Plates - Price Increase
I ordered 2 plates for my CD25 from the website and just received them. They look fantastic and exceeded my expectations! No problems here, I am a satisfied customer and will buy via Bristol's web site again.
Eric
CD25 #654
eric_delagarza@yahoo.com
Eric
CD25 #654
Eric wrote: HI,
Does anybody else have a funny feeling about this company? I placed orders twice on their web page but they didn't go through. After months I called and didn't get an answer for days. Then I emailed and received a very polite letter saying that I must have done something wrong. When I wrote back to suggest that their website must have done something wrong (I build and maintain a giant e-commerce website for a living), I was told just to phone in my card #. There couldn't be anything wrong with their website, they never make mistakes, I was told.
That was it for me. I don't deal with compainies that ask for my credit card # 3 times but don't deliver the product and insist they don't make errors. By the way, he wouldn't bill me for the work, he just wanted a card #.
I'm sticking with my cracked plastic emblem.
ew
Bristol Bronze wrote: Due to the increasing cost of energy Bristol Bronze is forced to increase the price of our Cape Dory Builder's Plates from $35.00 to $40.00 as of 2/1/01. Any orders received prior to that date will be shipped at the old price.
Bronze melts at about 1800 degrees F and we pour at about 2200 degrees. This takes a lot of energy. The local gas company here in Rhode Island has already implemented a 30% price increase and another 20% increase is only a week or so away. The price increase is not something that gives me any pleasure but..... there is just no way around it. Anyone wishing to place an order can do so through my web site bristolbronze.com or can call me at 401-625-5224.
eric_delagarza@yahoo.com
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yves feder W1UX
Re: Bronze CD Builder's Plates - Price Increase
I have to say my experience with Bristol Bronze is very positive. Response by e-mail and telephone both have been extremely rapid and most helpful. Faster than I expected in fact.
Order handling (two bronze plates) has been excellent. Not only no complaints, but here you're dealing with an extremely knowledgeable and committed maker of really fine hardware. Often when dealing with an artisan of this caliber you have to put up with indifferent or worse yet, cantankerous "customer relations" - definitely not so in this case! Roger is as committed to customer relations as anyone I've ever done business with. A true pleasure.
Yves Feder
CD27 "Alphee" Hull No. 4 (1977)
saltwater@tinyradio.com
Order handling (two bronze plates) has been excellent. Not only no complaints, but here you're dealing with an extremely knowledgeable and committed maker of really fine hardware. Often when dealing with an artisan of this caliber you have to put up with indifferent or worse yet, cantankerous "customer relations" - definitely not so in this case! Roger is as committed to customer relations as anyone I've ever done business with. A true pleasure.
Yves Feder
CD27 "Alphee" Hull No. 4 (1977)
saltwater@tinyradio.com
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Bill Goldsmith
Re: Bronze CD Builder's Plates - Price Increase
Eric,
I, too had a fine experience with Bristol Bronze. I placed my order thru their website when Roger first advised on this board that CD owners should place their orders so he could get an idea as to how big a production run he needed to make. Then, a couple of days after he reported the CD27 run was finished, the two beautiful plates I ordered arrived.
The combination of custom design, service and a remarkably fair price for these plates leads me to give Roger THREE CHEERS.
It is too bad that you had a negative experience. You are right that companies that seem to be fly-by-night with poorly run websites should be avoided and viewed with skepticism, caveat emptor. However, not every upstanding small business is going to have a website equal in quality to the "giant e-commerce" sites that you design. Let me venture a guess that those "giant e-commerce" webhosts probably wouldn't have been interested in our custom bronze casting project. Let's encourage small businesses to use the web successfully, and let's not drum out good quality small businesses like Bristol Bronze, particularly with the references available on this website, just because of errors like you mentioned.
Finally, I encourage you to give them another chance. You'll be proud of the plate, proud of the group effort and selflessness of board contributors who volunteered their creative efforts and time and their plates, and maybe even develop your first "not-so-giant" e-commerce client along the way!!
Just my $0.02
Bill
goldy@bestweb.net
I, too had a fine experience with Bristol Bronze. I placed my order thru their website when Roger first advised on this board that CD owners should place their orders so he could get an idea as to how big a production run he needed to make. Then, a couple of days after he reported the CD27 run was finished, the two beautiful plates I ordered arrived.
The combination of custom design, service and a remarkably fair price for these plates leads me to give Roger THREE CHEERS.
It is too bad that you had a negative experience. You are right that companies that seem to be fly-by-night with poorly run websites should be avoided and viewed with skepticism, caveat emptor. However, not every upstanding small business is going to have a website equal in quality to the "giant e-commerce" sites that you design. Let me venture a guess that those "giant e-commerce" webhosts probably wouldn't have been interested in our custom bronze casting project. Let's encourage small businesses to use the web successfully, and let's not drum out good quality small businesses like Bristol Bronze, particularly with the references available on this website, just because of errors like you mentioned.
Finally, I encourage you to give them another chance. You'll be proud of the plate, proud of the group effort and selflessness of board contributors who volunteered their creative efforts and time and their plates, and maybe even develop your first "not-so-giant" e-commerce client along the way!!
Just my $0.02
Bill
Eric wrote: HI,
Does anybody else have a funny feeling about this company? I placed orders twice on their web page but they didn't go through. After months I called and didn't get an answer for days. Then I emailed and received a very polite letter saying that I must have done something wrong. When I wrote back to suggest that their website must have done something wrong (I build and maintain a giant e-commerce website for a living), I was told just to phone in my card #. There couldn't be anything wrong with their website, they never make mistakes, I was told.
That was it for me. I don't deal with compainies that ask for my credit card # 3 times but don't deliver the product and insist they don't make errors. By the way, he wouldn't bill me for the work, he just wanted a card #.
I'm sticking with my cracked plastic emblem.
ew
Bristol Bronze wrote: Due to the increasing cost of energy Bristol Bronze is forced to increase the price of our Cape Dory Builder's Plates from $35.00 to $40.00 as of 2/1/01. Any orders received prior to that date will be shipped at the old price.
Bronze melts at about 1800 degrees F and we pour at about 2200 degrees. This takes a lot of energy. The local gas company here in Rhode Island has already implemented a 30% price increase and another 20% increase is only a week or so away. The price increase is not something that gives me any pleasure but..... there is just no way around it. Anyone wishing to place an order can do so through my web site bristolbronze.com or can call me at 401-625-5224.
goldy@bestweb.net
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D. Stump, Hanalei
Re: Roger posted a warning about....
Eric,
Roger W. of Bristol Bronze posted a warning about troubles with the web-site probably about a month ago. Seems the real problem was with telephone lines right in the local neighborhood.
Roger has always struck me with the fact that he is very knowledgable about casting bronze. He will talk to you for a very long time about any concern you have about a cast bronze fitting. He is not a "fly-by-night" operation!
As far as billing you for a product, what would you do, if you ran a small business and someone said "Send me the part, and bill me later"? Honestly, I don't think you would do it either.
Call Roger again, tell him what you want, give him the CC# again and wait for the delivery of a very fine Cape Dory builders plaque. It is worth it! FWIW....
Dave Stump
Captain Commanding
s/v Hanalei CD-30
Roger W. of Bristol Bronze posted a warning about troubles with the web-site probably about a month ago. Seems the real problem was with telephone lines right in the local neighborhood.
Roger has always struck me with the fact that he is very knowledgable about casting bronze. He will talk to you for a very long time about any concern you have about a cast bronze fitting. He is not a "fly-by-night" operation!
As far as billing you for a product, what would you do, if you ran a small business and someone said "Send me the part, and bill me later"? Honestly, I don't think you would do it either.
Call Roger again, tell him what you want, give him the CC# again and wait for the delivery of a very fine Cape Dory builders plaque. It is worth it! FWIW....
Dave Stump
Captain Commanding
s/v Hanalei CD-30