tree stuff, its been real....

@bonner1040, not trying to gang up on you. However you have effectively reduced your product diversity in half, by purchasing from vendors thank cannot keep up with your demand. Or not being able to meet minimum purchase requirements, or what ever it is. Personally I have never been a loyal TS customer, sure I bought some items fairly consistently but after dealing with some minor issues, with less than satisfactory results in went back to my go to PWN supplier.
Sure they don’t have the selection but they will match any price, and coupon. Send me 3 pairs of boots with free shipping so I can get the right size, and when their out of stock or on low stock the website lets you know the quantity available. If out of stock they will honor coupon codes, and email you the next day letting you know when it will deliver, or drop ship at no extra cost.
 
Wow, sorry you feel this way Paul.

As I recall, you were always determined to sell Wraptors direct (around dealers) and did so to anyone who called your number. Please admit that. You also offered a minuscule discount to resellers. There was also no incentive to buy multiple units, therefore a dealer with 1 unit paid the same as a dealer with 4 units, a discounters dream. We talked about it then. You had your reasons. It was your business.

David Driver is welcomed to speak for himself about Xrings. I think it may sound different than you describe.

Fact is, for people with good ideas and reasonable expectations, we’ve been a solid partner. Perfect partner? No. But we do our best.

Hope the Wraptor is selling thousands still!
pctree said:
Tobe I'll tell you what got me pissed at you, when I was first trying to get the Wraptor to market I called you about it and you told me there was no place in the arborist market for such a device. 1000 working climbers disagree. I guess this was your idea of supporting innovation? You wouldn't carry the HH s because it didn't have your industry highest mark up built into the price. Because you didn't sell the Wraptor one of your employees sent out an email to Isa saying they had a near incident using one , neglected to mention it wasn't a fall or anything but a screw came loose.
Funny you mention supporting the x rings since xman told me himself you guys went behind his back and tried to buy direct from antal.

When work slows down this winter I will address more of my grievances and hopefully do something positive for working aborists and hopefully hurt the scourge that is Sherrill
Click to expand...
 
Steve Connally said:
Here’s the amazing thing. Luke was able to create something that made me, hundreds of miles away, feel like I was part of something. It created a brand that empowered the customer to be a spokesperson. Part of a community. Made us all feel like rock stars. That’s what’s missing.
Click to expand...

I have had some pretty bad feeling about TreeStuff....mainly due to the fact that items don't gets shipped to me. Im still waiting for stump grinder teeth....where are they? I have to call 5 times to get an answer? Oh no...I forgot their flying off the shelves at record pace.

Luke is what TreeStuff was all about. No one will replace him....it was his baby. Nick, Toby, and whoever else in involved can attempt the duplicate this.....but its been shown that things have changed and it will never be the same. I now voice my vote with my money!

EVERYONE! Go to Shelter Tree in Attleboro MA! They are in a position to step up and be the nations next BEST tree supplier.
 
As this all continues let's remember that this is the internet...and everything is "permanent". Think of it as if everything you said hovered over you so everyone else could see it when they looked at you. It could serve as a warning to others which could help in a huge way, but as insults and monkey turds are flung at each other people start to see a lot of dirt and ugly hanging over you. Now everyone has to sort through all of that before that you can be seen clearly again. You should decide if those turds are worth hauling around advertising.

Now I am not saying everyone should keep quiet. I merely suggest putting it out there, if it is justified, in such a spirit as to offer constructive change rather than egging someone's house. I think a lot of good change can happen if we all keep this attitude.

I see delicate steps that they are taking in trying to merge the operations of two big operations without hurting anyone, but honestly something has to change. Obviously they are not going to want to spend the same money twice to offer one service...combining those operations and streamlining as best as they can. In the long run it will save the consumer money if they are saving money by minimizing redundancy.

Now, they have promised that they are keeping both places up and running as they both serve a purpose. "Our two stores serve unique sets of customers, and our goal is to invest, support, and grow both while absolutely making it a priority to not screw up or do any harm to either of them along the way."

I believe Tripp has good intentions and is working to create the best situation out of what he has. Now if this creates a Treestuff that no longer serves me then I can go elsewhere, but they are trying.

Sheltertree is awesome. They are excellent and well informed. They know their stuff and have the strongest dedication to their customers I have seen since my man Luke. They are working on their website, which has been the biggest hang up for me. Without knowing their inventory, it is hard to know what shiny thing I want to buy next :D. But if you call them you will not regret it.

To sum up, be kind rewind! Don't let the past hang around you, and don't create a scene that we can all see. Be kind to your fellow tree people. We all like the same stuff. Let's look to those similarities rather creating 'ities of other kinds.
 
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I bet there are a lot of hard working, dedicated employees at TS and ST. People trying to work hard, and provide for their families. To them, we should say thank you, regardless of what our views on management are. They help us get our job done, same as our own employees/ co-workers work hard for us to get our jobs done.
 
Tobe thanks for clarifying things for us

"As I recall, you were always determined to sell Wraptors direct (around dealers) and did so to anyone who called your number. Please admit that. You also offered a minuscule discount to resellers. There was also no incentive to buy multiple units, therefore a dealer with 1 unit paid the same as a dealer with 4 units, a discounters dream. We talked about it then. You had your reasons. It was your business."

Yes believe it or not but I developed a motorized ascending system as I saw many of my aging peers having difficulty with ascending trees on a daily basis. At the time I released the product the next cheapest ascender was $8500 which I knew arborists couldn't afford. For years I sold them for $2500 and didn't offer you your desired HUGE mark up because Ma and Pa tree crews couldn't afford it. You basically just admitted you don't give a shit about them, you just want to make Sherrill share holders more profits . Your team constantly badgered me to get preferential treatment just because you are Sherrill the big guys. Fuck That. You talk of your minuscule discount, at the time I quit selling to you you were selling them in the range of what $2850 or so, so for taking a phone call and having a web add you got $600, yes I would rather sell direct and let the working man keep that rather than pay your rich share holders to stay home.

"12 years ago Paul apparently formed a grudge against us for refusing to buy home-modified Petzl helmets with his Sena com systems installed. We were told explicitly (by Petzl) not to modify helmets. What would you do? Regardless, one competitor was willing to trade Paul's altered helmets, so they did. No complaint from me. Eventually Sena developed a product that could be used without alteration and Sherrilltree offered it to tree professionals."

OK Tobe get the facts straight, it wasn't 12 years ago and I have never sold Petzl helmets, I was selling Kask helmets with the exact same system installed that you now sell and have bought exclusive distributorship for so I cant even sell them now. I sold them for $310. As I actually do tree work I realized that these were an invaluable addition to a crews safety and unlike you realized just because I was "modifying" a helmet it was worth whatever perceived risk you are alluding to.

"As stated in a list of posts before, the tree care industry, and entrepreneurs there in, are, and have always been our inspiration. You are why we spend long nights and weekends (and many other spare moments) developing products and publishing catalogs"

I used to be able to pick up the phone and talk to Luke and if I needed something he would just send it or get it spliced, whatever , he genuinely tried to help out the tree care industry and entrepreneurs , Sherrill would always charge me 100% even when I was trading with you WTF? The worst thing you guys did was kill TreeStuff because they were eclipsing you. Shame on you!
 
Why is Tobe even here. I wish someone would just tell him to stay the xxxx off. Paul clearly shows Tobe is such an amateur.
Thanks Paul your the shining light here.
 
I've been watching these ST/TS threads for a while and there's some really good customer sharing here.

Seems that the good service TS has been famous for has had some challenges thrown at it that has caused some rocky roads.

I believe Tripp is listening and his process detail indicates he's well engaged. I'm sure the competition is listening too and that ultimately, the arb customer will be better off either at ST/TS or somewhere else. We all have choice where we buy and retailers have choice in how they develop their processes and procedures used to the sell products & services.

That said, how did the basics of a splice order not get passed correctly to the reorganised splicing dept? I'm not asking for an answer, I'm just saying this as someone who works with business processes on a regular basis. Maybe an analyst wasn't involved or if there was, they didn't have arb specific knowledge. I would expect that the passing of splice instructions from a customer to a splicer is basic information sharing that splicing requires. Opps and Ouch on that.
 
I am not one to post on forums but thought I might be able to provide a different perspective. My name is Brandon and I have worked at SherrillTree for about seven years now. I have met a few people from the Buzz throughout the years and was present when several of you visited SherrillTree. I’m not a manager or director but I do have the opportunity to work with many of the departments in the company. To be totally upfront I have been a member of the buzz for some time, but only have less than a handful of posts. I have been reluctant to post as I did not want to mix the personal aspect of forums with the business side of working for SherrillTree. Sean has been a great asset for our team when it comes to these types of things and he is known by the majority of members here but I thought now is a good a time as any to introduce myself to everyone.

TreeBuzz is something I frequent on a daily basis. I have gained a ton of knowledge from everyone here so I thank you for that. My passion for this industry grows on a daily basis, and it has become a way of life for not only me, but my wife and our four boys. I climb every chance I get and sincerely enjoy tree work. I still have a vivid memory of the first time I took the top out of a pine on my property. I was hooked from that point on. I raced motocross for many years and this is the closest thing I have found to experiencing the same adrenaline rush and excitement as motocross. My boys enjoy climbing and that has been an awesome thing to be a part of. My family and I traveled to Indy last year for Jambo and I had the opportunity to compete with some amazing climbers and met some awesome people. This year the family loaded up and went to Jambo again so I could take photos and videos and my boys are already asking about the next Jambo.

I have read many posts that make me cringe and even sting at times in regards to SherrillTree, but at the same time I recognize they are legitimate posts made out of frustration. You all have a job to do, and our job is to assist you with making that possible. I understand that if I were to doing tree work as my full time job that I too would need my gear in order be successful and provide for my family. No way can I argue against that or make excuses. If we jack something up, we need to make it right. I expect the same thing from places I purchase products.

My Co-workers in Indy and Greensboro and myself are passionate about our jobs. We are trying to do our jobs and make a living much like everyone here. From a customer’s perspective that has experienced issues it is understandable that you might not feel that passion, but I don't think anyone at either company is happy about the issues we have caused any of our customers. I certainly am not proud of it. Every day I do my best to help our teams assist you, our customers. I am currently in Kentucky at a tradeshow which makes the ninth trip away from my family this year. Being away from my family is difficult especially having a nine month old. But it is a sacrifice that my family and I make because I want to be able to provide for them as best I can. I think anyone can relate to that. I’m just a guy trying to provide for my family. When it comes down to it, if we don’t have customers I don’t have a job, so I am passionate about providing the best experience for any customer.

If any of you ever need anything, have questions or concerns feel free to PM me or email me at bnance@sherrilltree.com.

I hope to meet more of you at some point in the future. If any of you are going to TCIA, feel free to stop by the booth.

Stay safe out there.
 
I generally don’t trade reactions in this manner. I will, however answer to
Paul once and for all, because most viewers/entrepreneurs are savvy enough to get it. Hereafter Paul, feel free to discuss anything with me face to face or by phone.

Like any retailer, Sherrilltree generally tried/tries to turn a profit. It’s the capitalist way. Like any smart tree service, you probably don’t work for free. If so, you don’t last very long. In retail, there’s a mark up threshold for survival (15-40%), and then there’s ridicules margins (100-300%) that simply don’t exist in general business-to-business transactions. With the Wraptor, based directly on Paul's recollection, Sherrilltree attempted a 26% markup, as did those dealers who we followed, or those who followed us. If a tree service is selling hard goods to a homeowner, like say Bug Barrier or Alturnamats, I’ve always recommended the same general formula.

It’s really that simple.

Thomas and Paul- good luck with all you do.
 
@moto252
I remember meeting you at tcia last year. You were a huge help and I enjoyed talking to you. You gave me a really positive feeling about Sherrilltree, just like now when you contributed to this thread. Thanks.

Also, take care of your family. That is so great you have four boys. I have four boys and a girl. (2 boys, a girl, and 2 more boys.). I really enjoy climbing with them. One of the only industries you can come home and share with your kids.

Thanks for contributing and helping us all see the whole picture.
 
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Tripp Wyckoff said:
I’ve been following this thread closely and would like to jump in.

I am sorry it took starting a new thread to get our full attention, but it worked. Thanks to Jason for launching this and to Alan for adding his detailed experience. As already mentioned by them, their issues have been resolved, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have work to do.

Alan’s post about his completely screwed up September order brought attention to the fact that we had a breakdown on how we handle custom built spliced items. The short story is that we changed a process in September that caused the ‘hand off’ between systems to not carry the full details of his custom lanyard order. A solution is now in place and it’s working on new orders. The backordered t-shirts on Alan’s order were discontinued by the vendor. We should have disabled them from the site sooner and not taken the order on that no-longer-available item.

Alan, I’m sorry that we learned about this problem at the expense of your order, and I sincerely apologize for the strain that this put on your business. I hope that this recent experience doesn’t send you away forever, and I hope that we made it right.

Having out of stocks is no way to get ahead in a competitive marketplace, and we’ve taken many steps to improve here. The business has been growing at a fast pace and we are reacting accordingly. Safety stock levels have been increased, we have hired new people in our purchasing department, we’re investing more dollars in overall inventory, increasing our stock of regularly manufactured spliced items, and investing in technology that will help us to better forecast each of the 10,000 individual items that we stock. We measure ourselves every day on a metric called “On Time In Full”, and we report on this internally while identifying opportunities for continuous improvement.

Regarding the concern that we are consciously trying to run TreeStuff.com into the ground, I’d like to point out that it’s been almost 16 months since the acquisition. If we had any intention to shutter TreeStuff, we would have done it by now. Our two stores serve unique sets of customers, and our goal is to invest, support, and grow both while absolutely making it a priority to not screw up or do any harm to either of them along the way.

We have an amazing team of ridiculously passionate employees. We always work to get everything right, and we take it personally when we screw up. We welcome and appreciate everyone’s feedback, good or bad. Other than saying thank you for your support, that’s what I’ve got for now.


Regards,
Tripp
Sherrill, inc.
Click to expand...

After reading all of this,

It seems you would be better served to allow TreeStuff to operate semi-Independent of Sherrill Tree for The short term, while you & your staff correct the issues within Sherrill.

Allow Bonner & Co to run TreeStuff like they were before 16 months ago, & have Sherrill’s people take notes.

The TreeStuff website, customer service, on hand availability, customer loyalty, etc., is what we assume was so appealing to Sherrill, least we forget TS being the Competition.

I Ask You To Allow TreeStuff to get back to that position, & your company take steps to achieve their level going forward.
 
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@Steve Connally "Dude He even took his own gear apart to give me some replacement parts! Who does that?" I will say Bonner does that for me every time we visit. It's a safety thing.

Luke had the magic that made everyone feel so safe, important and special for so many years. I think its wonderful that Luke and Erin's dedication and sacrifice has put them in a place that is best for them. For us in the small world of TreeBuzz it's important to remember that Luke is still there, so it should even be more special when we do see him.

TreeStuff is pretty much the same it's just serving a ton more people, everyday. I'm confident that the TS staff continues to work on maintaining the foundation that Luke built TS on and appreciates your loyalty and continued support.
 
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