New user

[Matt Hall]

Good evening everyone,
My name is Matt and I am the National Sales Manager for ECF Ltd.

One or two customers have mentioned recently they use this forum as a resource so I thought I would register and have a wander around.

I little to no time I have seen some posts mentioning my company and I have to say I'm (initially) flattered. That said I'm sure in dark corners there is less good news but I'm not just here for the Clints, I'm very happy to help (as are all of my sales team) with issues you may have so please feel free to drop me a line.

In the meantime I will keep looking for the bad news 

And if anyone knows me personally drop me PM and say hello.

Cheers, Matt.

[andy5405]

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!

[Colour Republic]

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.

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.

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?

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?

Anyway as I say welcome to the forum.

[wjskitchens]

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.

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

Apart from that welcome

[Fmonster]

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.

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)?

[jonny round boy]

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). 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.

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).

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.

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.

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!).


Jonathan

[wjskitchens]

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.

[emo_luke]

If I buy doors and cabs I'll get 30 off both, normally 20 on cabs.

28% on doors though

[Fmonster]

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*