What Grinds My Gears

[Waxman]

First of all, before my complaint, let me state the following: I like doing business with Kleen Rite very much. They are normally helpful and knowledgeable and professional.

However, I just spent some money with them on a 3-column electronic vendor, locks for it, a cover for the bottom lock, product to fill the machine, plus a few other items I needed. I realize for some operators this represents a minimum typical expense, but for a new guy like me it meant something.

I received the package and opened it with excitement. Armorall, glass wipes, my decals. It was all there.......except the drying towels I ordered. They were, according to the packing slip, backordered. What?! Backordered? With no less than 50, yes 50 ( I counted) other choices besides the one I ordered, why was I not told at the time I placed the order that that item was not in stock?

So I installed the vendor with 2 out of 3 selections full and hand-written note explaining that the blue towels were 'coming soon'. Ugh!

I called and voiced my complaint. They apologized and offered to ship a replacement for free. Good, but I feel this one aspect of customer service could and should be improved.

 

[Jony82]

I have the same problems with them. I ordered a part that I needed within a week on one of my first orders with them. The shipment came and the most important piece of the order is backordered. I called, they said it would be shipped as soon as they got it. Called a week later, "They are backordered and we expect them in in late Feb." This was early January...

 

[DavidMD5]

kleen - rite, they do there best, they actually seem to try when they can to take care of me, they actually seem to the cheapest on alomost everything i buy from them, but yes they do occasionaly drop the ball, but compare those prices. I usually use kleen rite then when they make me mad, i go to windtrax, but then after a few orders at windtrax, when you compare prices they are cheaper for almost everything i order. gotta be patient, i guess, hope that helps

 

[Waxman]

Yeah, I know, Eric; good point about being patient.

I'm no Peter Griffin, so maybe I'll simply double clutch, find a new gear and ease on down the road.

 

[Randy]

Dave, don?t let such little things get to you. I?ve been buying from Kleen-rite almost 20 years. Every once and awhile they?ll make a mistake, but they are always quick to make it right. Which drying towel did you order, the on back order? Which one of the window towels did you get?

 

[Mel(NC)]

I ordered trash can covers from Kleenrite in mid December and I am still waiting for them. I had to call them several times to find out they were back ordered. Cost is certainly very important but I have reached a point where I would rather pay a few cents more to get better service. That's why I am going to quit shopping at Walmart too.

Okay, I'm lying. I'm not going to stop shopping at Walmart. I'll just keep whining about the place.

 

[Ben's Car Wash]

Dave,

How many blue towels do you want? Send me your address. I have boxes of them from the Hospital I get for free that I'll give you so the vendor isn't empty!

 

[Eric H]

Doug, How is it that you get "FREE" towels from the hospital? If I go to my local hospital do I just walk in and ask for my free box? Or is there a department there that is in charge of giving out free towels? Do I have to show proof of insurance so that they know I paid for the free towels to sell at my wash for a profit?

 

[Waxman]

It's okay, Doug. Thanks for offering. You know, I've got plenty of blue surgical towels I could put in there, too. I use em for windows at the detail shop. Didn't even think of that cause I was too busy grinding up a pound of first gear~or was it reverse???

 

[Waxman]

I ordered the 'big blue' drying towel and have the wet towel window towels.

plus armorall original, of course. I remember how excited I was when I was a kid and discovered armorall. Man; I'm getting old!

 

[Ben's Car Wash]

Doug, How is it that you get "FREE" towels from the hospital? If I go to my local hospital do I just walk in and ask for my free box? Or is there a department there that is in charge of giving out free towels? Do I have to show proof of insurance so that they know I paid for the free towels to sell at my wash for a profit?

Eric,

after every heart case I save what surgical towels I don't use that are on my scrub table and throw them off to the side instead of in the trash can! I do from 7-16 heart caths a day and every pre-packaged surgical case has about 15 towels, I use about 6 on average unless it's a little BLOODY...or messy! So I have boxes of blue non lint surgical towel at the car wash instead of throwing them away. Everyone in my department takes turns when then want rags for cleaning. If we can decrease the number, we do.

 

[Waxman]

Saving the environment by reycling and making money. I'll take a case a month!

 

[Ben's Car Wash]

hospitals generate tens of thousands of tons of recyclable garbage everyday. American Hospitals are VERY BAD at this. I can tell you that every day I see this. I inplant permenant pacemakers also, usually 1-2 a day in my department. When I talk to the reps about going overseas, most of the equipment is re-used. Same with our catherters that we use to take pictures of the heart. After each case they are dipped in bleach water and hung up to dry. In many countries a patient is given 1 rag (or towel) as a bandage and they clean it and re-use it.

We tried to start a aluminum can recycling program in my department and in the cafateria but it creates a pest problem. We recycle tons of paper, every day for a small hospital. For a while we used re-sterilizable gowns, towels, bowls and other products. The towels (greens instead of blue) lasted about 6-10 X before the napped up and lint became a problem getting into our flush fluid...becoming a FORIGN OBJECT THAT COULD GET INTO THE BLOOD STREAM! So I don't think Eric would like for me to recycle those blue towels! I'll try to post a link to some pick of the OR and what I do and the table with the towels so you have a better idea of what the cost are to the "tax payer".

 

[MEP001]

I've had a number of similar problems with Kleen-Rite - order a new product and a decal for the vendor, they ship the product but backorder the decal. Nearly every time I order a bunch of Cat parts to rebuild something like a 390, they backorder at least two. I ordered Fragramatics shampoo concentrate and they sent their label instead (which smells like a bar of original Dial bath soap) and still billed the higher price of the Fragramatics. Nearly every time I order something online that's not a usual stock item by adding it into the notes field, they get it wrong.

Their prices may be good, their customer service is always quick to correct the problem, but their internal decision-making abilities are horrible.

 

[Earl Weiss]

I recently made an order with Sonny's . Got everything except the swivells for my bay booms and called. Seems the item i wanted was discontinued or they no longer carried it, but there was no explanation with the order. So i told them give me a substitute shown in the catalog. Well, they no longer had that one ither so i picked the next one. Unfortuneately now I had to pay a seperate shipping charge.

So, it seems this is not unusual. But, lets face it. that's life. Ever order something in a resturaunt and be told they are out of it? Or, better yet, are you telling me you NEVER ran out of something at your place of business?

 

[scott]

A good tip for kleen rite, order about a years worth of vending when they have free shipping in august- it saves a little more than the cost of money, for sure..

 

[Waxman]

If you read my original post, my complaint was that I wasn't told at the time of the order that the blue towels were out of stock. If I had been told, I would've chosen another of the 50 choices they have for drying towels!

But I wasn't told the item was out of stock. So guess what? The order came thru without that item and I'll pay shipping and handling again. Well, I think that's bogus. So I called and complained and the company will ship a replacement with no shipping charge.

See, the cynic in me thinks that it benefits a company financially to ding me twice for shipping and handling rather than once.

From now on I will ask when I make my order if all items are in stock.

 

[Earl Weiss]

You should ask. I think I have had tthem eat the shippikng in this situation. BTW I had the same issue with Sonny's. But Kleen Rite seems to call me if there is an issue.

 

[MEP001]

The order came thru without that item and I'll pay shipping and handling again.

In most cases you'll pay the same shipping per box, unless you have a huge order that either goes on a pallet or exceeds 200 pounds, so the overall difference in shipping won't be more than a couple dollars.

I used to run the warehouse for a smaller car wash supply company, and I'd take the orders over the phone and ship them myself. In most cases I wouldn't call if something were backordered, but if for example they ordered towels and a decal and we were out of the decal I'd call and ask if they wanted to hold the order 'til it was complete. Kleen-Rite is far too big for that level of customer service and, no offense, it's unreasonable to expect it from them.

 

[Waxman]

Totally disagree!

It's unreasonable to expect high customer service because a company is 'too big'??? Sorry, but I've gotta emphatically disagree here. There have got to be dozens of examples of much bigger corporations providing excellent customer service.

In my mind, the order taker at Kleen Rite is punching the request in on their computer terminal at the time of the order; it must say somewhere on the computerized ordering system that an item is out of stock and must be backordered. All I'm saying is why not tell me at that time that the item is out of stock and give me the option to order something else?

If this notion is the height of customer service in the car wash supply business, then that's a pretty sad statement.