New user

[Chris]

Welcome to the site  . Not long been here myself, but they seem a friendly bunch.

Hopefully more manufacturers will jump on board on forums such as this one - its always nice to have a contact in what sometimes seems to be a jungle of departments all blaming someone else!

Also seen that the articad doors package is the same as the manufacturer i use, incomplete and frustrating to work with! Glad i'm not the only one.

[Matt Hall]

I'll be the first to welcome you Matt despite that fact that the conversation we had today wasn't as positive as I would have liked. Hopefully we concluded it as well as could be hoped under the circumstances. Your dark corners comment amused me in this context!


I will also give you some advice that all new members should know.


1. Prem's jokes are not funny and it is an unwritten rule on KFF that no-one ever responds to them.

2. Stretch (the gaffer) loves Festool tools more than life itself.

3. Don't respond to Prem's jokes.

4. See rules 1 & 3.

5. See rules 1, 3 & 4.


I'm also known to post random shite in the early hours of the morning. It only tends to happen when my supply chain causes me sleepless nights!

One final thing, we've been referred to by other suppliers in the past as a tough audience!

Hi Andy and thanks for the welcome, I will bear all your points in mind but will also try to keep a fair an open mind to all things discussed!

I have been known to take a joke though, and please, no mention of our products in that part!

Cheers all, I have a few posts to respond to which may take a few days, I thought i ticked the 'email me when users reply' part but clearly not as all of these are me seeing them for the first time.

Be gentle lads and lasses,

Matt.

[Matt Hall]

Over the coming days I will do my best to reply to everyone, I'm not getting 'new posts' alerts so please bear with me.

Matt.

[Matt Hall]

Hi Matt,

Welcome to the forum.

Think you have a few customers on here as ECF's name pops up on a semi-regular basis. 

I don't know why but my perception of ECF was always one where you supplied low budget vinyl doors (ala trade mouldings) or poorly edged doors (ala BA comps) but in general I think those that use you here have been fairly complimentary with regards to the quality of your doors. I'm not really sure where my initial perception of ECF came from, it kinda just has but like I say it's from some posts on here which have maybe indicated that's been unfair of me.

Don't worry about it, the more you use us the more you'll like what we do, I'm sure we have come a long way since this initial perception, I wont hold it against you.


Sadly I don't use you guys as component wise i'm fairly well covered via LDL/Crestwood/Hafele and door wise... well I probably have too many suppliers already! Think your name pops up from time to time when a member might be looking for say a very specific colour of say a 'j' profile door. It seems your colour range is a little different to most. Think many of the usual suspects suffer from having a very limited range of colours and when they do offer a paint to order, the quality of finish drops off. Bit like TKC who do a nicely finished silk matt 'J' profile (which they took on from Uber when they went under) but if you ask for a custom colour then the paint quality is just horrible with a rough texture.

We have a lot to offer, visit www.ecf.co and have a look around, all ouf our ranges are bang up to date on there and tehres much more to come. As for Clints we compete with all the companies you mention, some directly and sometime we dont have everything others have, it would be a boring world if we did wouldn't it?

On the subject of 'J' profile doors... One of the doors i've seen on ECF is what looks like a stained veener which looks relatively nice...



But then reading through it seems you don't do this colour. Is that because you stopped doing it? Or is it that you supply the door raw/sanded and you're just showing what could be done to it? Or have I got it completely wrong and this is one of your doors which is painted to order any colour?

This looks like our HOXTON range ASKE door, painted or stained woodgrain veneer detail, take a look at our online ebrochure here http://online.pubhtml5.com/xfgu/gybt/#p=1

Lastly I suppose just an extra bit of feedback. Of course quality and price are always major considerations but next on the list for me when choosing a supplier, is ease or ordering and delivery, in that sense I use LDL a fair amount because of easy online ordering which is next day delivery for orders placed right up to 5pm. Do you guys have any plans to implement online ordering? Or maybe you already do via on online portal I don't know about?

Online ordering, in development so please watch this space, I know all of us need more time and sometimes its difficult on site to breakaway and get stuff done, we know that too.

Anyway as I say welcome to the forum.

Hi and thanks for the reply. I've made some comment above, hope it works!

Matt.

[Matt Hall]

Hi Matt

When is Ecf going to have a online portal so the customers ie me can check stock igor get the amount of times I've oder ed products from Ecf only to be told there's no stock or its been discontinued or its on the slow boat from China.

Online portal is coming. Stock levels fluctuate all the time, it only takes one good order in a slow moving article and I guarantee that'll be the one you want to order 2 of next! We do our best and stock outs are never a deliberate move.

Don't do Your doors now to me any issues with fading and delamination. 

Sorry to hear that, our GOSCOTE range now carries a 10 year warranty against manufacturing defects, maybe that would give you the confidence to give us another try? Please also be aware that we have lots of other non vinyl door ranges in standard and made to measure/order options.

Apart from that welcome
Thank you!

Hi WJS, Clints are above!

Matt.

[Matt Hall]

Hi Matt

I'm in the happy ECF camp at the moment, as I have no issues with anything i've ordered and any information requested has been given quickly etc. Rick Gurney my ECF rep has always answered any questions i've had and must like my coffee as he comes to see me on a regular basis.

Great to hear, thanks.

I must admit i am currently waiting for high-res Gaddesby images for my website. I would also love to know when a decent online portal will come along and when your new doors will be added to Articad (currently the ECF download is a mess)?

ArtiCAD, not sure but i will check with our Marketing/IT department. What i can say is our presence on EQ Software is now fully up to date bar any very recent range introductions.

Images, hi or lo res are available by emailing sales.suppport@ecf.co, please try to be selective though as a request for 'everything' will be politely declined due to the sheer size of our image bank. As for the 'decent' online portal, watch this space.

Hi Fmonster,
Please see my Clints above.

Matt.

[Matt Hall]

Matt,

Nice to have you on board. I saw your post last night, but decided to give you 24 hours or so to get settled in before I start ranting at you!

I'm an ECF customer, and have been very happy with pretty much everything until recently. In the last couple of months I've had 2 pretty major issues - one regarding the Hoxton/Arlington range (I say one, it was really several issues, see this post).
Sorry, I cant open the link to see your previous post

I spoke to my rep (Dave Starling) about these issues, who fed it back to the powers that be (don't know if you were included in that!) but the response in the end was essentially "the manufacturer has changed some things without telling us; that's how they're made now & there's nothing we can do about it". Similar response to another issue (same job, but not mentioned in that post) with some curved cornice blocks that don't line up because they're the wrong radius. Without knowing the specifics I am unable to comment further I'm afraid. Sorry you have had a bad experience with this awesome range, its going down so well from all territories. It's a very new range so I'm not sure what has changed since launch. By all means fill in the blanks to me if it helps, job ref, date supplied etc (the usual blarb).

I did get a slightly better response on the paint/packaging issue, saying it shouldn't have been sent like that, but it stopped short of an apology - not even for the extra work I had to do touching in the paintwork (which involved a 3-hour round trip & half a day's labour).
Very sorry for the hassle you experienced on this, our supplier needs to get better and we do keep a close eye on performance however our quick turn arounds and trade required lead times mean we cant strip out, check and re pack every order, sometimes you have to judge us on quick we turn around a problem.

Unfortunately I won't be using this range again unless things change for the better; yes, it's slightly cheaper than the Multiwood equivalent, but I'd rather pay a little bit more for a big jump in quality.
I'd politely argue these are isolated instances, the HOXTON range is going down so well after such a short period of time.

Then just recently I was really disappointed to be told you couldn't do some cabinets I requested because they were "too bespoke" for you to do. There were 6 in total, and all were essentially standard boxes, just with odd dimensions. How on earth they can be "too bespoke" for a cabinet manufacturer is beyond me. In the end I had to order some rips of carcase material from you, and make them myself; not exactly rocket science, but I really could have done without the hassle of doing that.

We can do a made to measure service on our Superior Cabinet range as long as the bespoke units are not more than 25% of the total job, each dimension (height, width, depth and shelving changes) charge is £30.00per change, this surcharge is discounted at your standard cabinet discount rate.

On the plus side though, Dave is a great guy, as is Tim the delivery driver (who, unlike 99% of delivery drivers, is cheery, friendly, and genuinely helpful!).
Many thanks, always good to hear!

Jonathan

Hi Jonathan
My Clints are above for you.

Matt.

[Matt Hall]

Add a meet up with Andy first thing this morning before he went to is trying day St come soft in Loughborough add a chat about ecf. General things but the subject of discounts pooed up. He's going to email me over is rates he's been given as a new customer to ecf. His rates are better than mine on some products and I've been with them four 12 years or more.
I'll be interested to see what rates the others on here gave with ecf.
As I know a local company to me have 30% of there cabs and I was offered 20 off only last week by my rep.
To Be fair there two expensive on the cabs at 30 off let alone 20 off.

Come on Matt let's have some answers to the above posts.


Apart from that Nice to meet up this Morning Andy any tips on the Easyquote software.

Hi WJS,
Respectfully to all parties, I'm very happy to reply however I won't comment on individual discounts on here, that is a negotiation between you and the TSM. 

Matt.

[Matt Hall]

I'm getting 20% off the Cabs but I use a cab company so have never purchased any ECF cabs.

40% off worktops
20% & 30% off doors depending on range
20% & 40% off Clints

If I used ECF a bit more then i would ask for better %, if I get the Gaddesby price list through and I like what I see, I will use them more *Hint Hint*

GK price list is available now, check with your TSM

Matt.