Bad Stoker experience


 
Hi. I'm new to the site. Found this when I was doing a Google search for "Stoker customer service issues"......how great is that? I have a Stumps smoker that I love, it's an older CM223 (charcoal maze). I received a Stoker for my 40th birthday in the spring, and have had nothing but issues and problems, first and foremost the absolute lack of contact with the company, unless you are ordering. I'm in a customer service industry (institutional equities) and am amazed at how a business can treat it's customers the way they do and still stay in business. If you read here, or on other sites, everyone says that "yeah, I knew going in that Stoker customer service is zero"......how they continue to do that is beyond me. I wish I could box the system up, and send it back.....but I'm afraid I would never hear from them again!!!!! lol
 
I've considered buying a basic pit minder system also, but based on what I'm reading I would never buy a stoker. I know I've been a little spoiled by Weber when it comes to customer service, but holy cow-- it sounds like there is absolutely no support for the system in question here. I can understand that there is no need for flaming, etc, and I'm in 100% agreement there, but poor quality and service seem to be a re-occurring theme with the stoker. I'll certainly have to investigate all the options before I pull the trigger because things certainly don't seem to be as they first appear.
 
The Stoker sucks,thats all there is to it ! I have read dozens and dozens(no exagerating here)of threads about problems and that John is totally unwilling to address the problems or help anyone in anyway ! I got the DIGIQ II and have already found it to be 199% better than the Stoker unit.I only use these units for comps and for cooking at home sometimes and I can already tell you that the DIGIQII hands down blows away the Stoker ! I would like to see John get a handle on his bussiness and get improvements on his units,but I will not hold my breath,in fact I have have solid info( from solid Ca. people ) that John may not be making the Stoker units after the first of the year,good by,good riddence !Go DIGIQII,nothing better !
 
It would be truly a sad day if John stops making these wonderful devices.

Really folks. Once you get a machine, you will have a level of capability you cannot replace any other way. I have two units and other than the one bug noted, they are rock solid.

There is also a great network of people here to help you along any questions you might have. And I have a link into John and the software developer and provide feedback to them on regular basis.

No, I am not here to make excuses for them. But the situation is no where nearly as bad as recent posts imply.

Now, if there were a replacement for this product we could all go there. But the Guru is not it....
 
Amir--

At times I love the Stoker, and think it's the best thing since sliced bread.......but the only thing that frustrates me is the cost versus customer service. For what I've invested in the system, it should be near flawless or the company should be very supportive. Just think if we didn't have you working FOR the company and supporting everyone here!!!!!!!
 
I have had my Stoker for a little over a year. The only problem I have had was something I did wrong -- I put the fan in upside down which allowed the heat to slightly melt the fan blades. But a couple of attempts to contact John, and I was able to reach him. He told me to send it back in and he'd fix it -- he did. I had my Stoker back in a week or so.

Otherwise, this has been a great product. The only problems I'm having now are wireless issues between my router and my laptop (I sometimes lose connection due to the distance and weak signal) -- but the Stoker runs perfectly. Once I get a connection again, I am monitoring great again.

I think the biggest problem with John's customer service is he has grown his client base much bigger than he can handle on his own. That's great news for him as an entrepreneur, but it does affect his ability to address each customer inquiry. I'm sure there are reasons why John has not expanded his business and hired more help. But only he knows what that might be.

It would be great if a larger corporation would just buy John out -- give him what the business is worth and then grow the business even more. I think the product is great, but it has outgrown a little one-man operation. Kudos to John for coming up with this great product. And Kudos to you Amir for your excellent program that allows us to easily use the Stoker. You could very easily sell this program, but you have continued to make it available for free.
 
In the beginning I too had my issues with Rocks (well documented), however, once they finally got a working unit in my hand I've never looked back. For me, the additional capabilities of the Stoker far outweigh the early frustration, and I knew this going in. Doesn't make it right and it makes no sense, but if you go in with the right expectations then you'll be very satisfied in the end.

I'm with Amir, it would be a sad day if this product goes away. There's just so many great things you can do with it when you combine it with Stokerlog. In fact, I'm taking advantage of the feature set of the Stoker and ordering a new blower, pit probe and food probes for my new cooker so I can run my WSM and my Kamado at the same time. You cannot get this flexibility with other units currently on the market. I'm ordering well in advance of when I'll actually need the parts, it's all about expectations, right or wrong.

I've run my Stoker side by side with a DigiQ II (Ed C's) and both preformed flawlessly. I was running in what I would call "low-tech" mode similar to the DigiQ II without the added features of Stokerlog, or running wireless and other than the larger readout on the Guru, you couldn't tell a difference in how they ran the WSMs.

If you desire added features and functionality of Stoker/Stokerlog, go in well informed and with the right expectations and in the end you'll be very satisfied. I love my Stoker/Stokerlog combination, there's nothing on the market that compares to it, period. Being able to monitor/control your smoker from your SmartPhone at the car wash, golf course or church is fantastic. The graphs provided for review, awesome! Being able to run multiple cookers without having to buy new controllers, sweet. For me was it worth the initial pain, yes.

Right or wrong these are the facts when getting a Stoker.

If you don't need the additional bells and whistles of the Stoker/Stokerlog or don't want the exposure to some of the customer service issues, the DigiQ II is a fine product and up until just recently I'd never heard anything negative about their customer service.

Steve just caught your post and I will second your Kudos to Amir on his program, it's amazing that he offers this for no licensing fee.
 
I'm almost afraid to say that I have yet to have any problems with John. I did have issues with stable temps while using my Stoker last year and John quickly offered to exchange it, but a little tweaking led me to the conclusion that my issue was caused by temp probe location not a faulty Stoker so no exchange was necessary or justified. I ordered a new fan and adapter setup from John a week and a half ago for a recent build and he went out of his way to help me fashion fan connection to the new smoker, as I type this my package is in Hodgekiss, IL.
 
I have never had any issues with my Stoker or the service and support that John provides. As a matter of fact I just got off the phone with him (he answered right away on the first attempt).

I understand that it has taken some time to receive product for some people but I believe it has more to do with availability of parts than scaling the operation. I'm aware of two separate issues that created delays. A while ago the blower motor was out of stock by all of his suppliers. Recently a chip that he uses in the probes were discontinued. He needed to find a new chip, update the design and the way the new chip works he needed to update the firmware to support it. All items that would delay production. It truly is a great product and John is a stand-up guy in my book. I will say that it seems his preferred means of communication is the telephone.
 
Joe and A. bring-up something that hasn't been discussed; the number of Stoker users who have had no issues at all, and clearly there are some, here's just two in a span of a single morning posting. Unfortunately, the majority of the people (myself included) who post about their experience with a product are doing so to 1) to vent 2) try and get some resolution from the company by going public 3) commiserate with others experiencing the same issues. Very rarely will someone just post to say, "hey, I called XYZ company and someone answered the phone and helped me" or "my unit arrived and worked first try." This is what we expect so if we have no other frame of reference we just go about our day as if everything is normal.

Thanks for the posts guys.
 
I realize I haven't had or used my Stoker as long as many of you, but so far mine is working like a champ, I didn't even buy it from John, and haven't had to go to him for a thing. I did upgrade my unit right after I bought it, but it's been going and working fine.

The web server is just too cool! The potential to these units with 3rd part software is left to the imagination, and that in itself is great.

I have even been booting <gasp> Windows on one of my laptops to use Stokerlog, and it works well. I want to get Ruby on Rails installed to look at Tony Buser's program. It's on the list of things to do...you can be sure I won't want to boot Windows any more than I have to...
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My 2 cents worth: My Stoker is probably one of the earliest ones. When they first came out, John ran a contest and gave 3 away; I was lucky enough to win one of them. Soon after, they updated the unit's firmware, and I made an error in installing the new firmware, requiring me to send the unit back to have it updated. Later, I left the lid off the WSM for too long and the fire got hot enough to damage the insulation on one of the probes. In both cases, John took care of my problems (which were caused by my errors, and not due to any fault of the product) quickly, even though I had not paid them anything for the Stoker. So, I am more than satisfied with the product and the service I have received.
 
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