Stoker - are they in business ???


 
T

T Gill

New member
Ordered a unit in May, can't get any followup, return calls or response to email.

Are they in business?
Is there another email address or web site?

Based on the comments on this website, they are up and running.
 
They are still in business. If you ordered in May you should definitely start calling. The Stoker is an awesome product but a 2 month wait with no reply is not cool.
 
They are not good at returning calls or emails. Your best bet is to call them within a few minutes or two after they open and speak to a human, preferably Jon. Simply call them over and over until you get satisfaction. They are really nice folks and really want to please the customer but followup is just not their thing.

Hope this helps.
 
T, Rocks isn't known for their customer service but I've never heard of someone waiting this long for their unit. Have you confirmed they charged you for it? At this point I'd start wondering if they received your order as this is extreme even for Rocks.
 
I just received mine in the last 2 weeks. I ordered on July 20th and it came in on July 24th.

Good Luck
John
 
They are in business. Remember they are small business. Jon does most everything. Which means if he is talking on the phone answering email or whatever, he is not making and shipping product.Call him in the am and talk to him.I have had product shipped fast and slow it depends what the work load is like I would assume.
 
I ordered on July 13, and got mine July 31. Used it yesterday for the first time. Very pleased with the product, but I left a couple of messages and 2 emails and nobody responded to either.

Finally called early in the morning and Stoker was sent out that week...
 
I forgot to mention that I upgraded to 2 day shipping to have it in time for the weekend. He wasn't able to ship it until Thursday and upgraded me for free to overnight shipping. I have no complaints but maybe I was lucky.
 
I've had a few unanswered emails and a voice message from Rock's too. I almost gave up on Stoker when they didn't return my call. Decided to give them one last chance and called again; they answered the phone. Why post an email address if they don't intend to use it? I wonder how much business they've lost because of that practice.
 
Yes, they are still in business.
I recently ordered my stoker and rec'd in less than a week.

I do agree with others, maybe a little lacking on the customer service.
I did send an email that went un-replied.
Then I called and talked with someone in person. They told me it would ship within two days....I had it that afternoon. Why didn't they just tell me that it already shipped?????
 
I ordered mine in early April and didn't get it until mid- July. The mix up with mine was me wanting to get 6' probe cables.
Definitely call them and speak to Jon. His cust. service may be slow but he'll straighten things out.
 
Customer service with Rock's is, uh, not stellar. I've never had any phone call returned, nor any emails. I sent my Stoker in for a repair June 30 and haven't seen it yet. Called John about ten days ago and he said he was sending it. Called him again 2 days ago and he said "I'll send it today." I liked it when it worked, but it crapped out in less than 3 months. Mine had a common fault, which just appeared after 3 months of working fine. The fan would blow and never shut off. Several people have had this problem. Powering it off and back on did not help. Changing the pit set temp also no help. So John said send it back, which I did. 40 days ago. I will post and update here when I get a final outcome...
 
They could have a gold-mine on their hands if their customer service didn't suck.

I'm sure they've lost quite a few customers because they refuse to return phone calls and answer emails. Maybe they have enough business and don't care. Nice product, but what a shame.
 
I talked to him last week on the phone. He mentioned to me he was having some supplier problems but was getting some alternate vendors to eliminate some of his problems.

I have had bad luck ordering with him on the internet, but via phone he has always taken care of what is needed. He mentioned to me that a change in his online store is occurring and to improve the online orders that wasn't running so smooth.

I am still a fan of the Stoker!!

Cheers...Jerry
 
Just spoke with John. He admitted he has poor customer service, that he is an engineer, he works the business solo with occasional help from his wife. At present he can't afford to hire a customer service person. He was very apologetic and admitted he can't always answer the phone or emails. He was quite sincere in his desire to help me. I'm satisfied. He offered to throw in a few freebies because of the long delay in servicing my unit. He also reported he is aware of the posts all over the various BBQ forums regarding his customer service and is doing his best as the sole employee of the company. Being an independent entrepreneur myself, I am accepting this level of service for this product. Others may not. It's true I get immediate, happy, helpful service from the BBQ Guru folks and I appreciate that, but I am not quitting Rock's.
 
I'm surprised that there aren't more companies putting out products like this. Obviously, there is a demand for these products. Rock's is so hard up that they can't hire a single employee to help with procuring/customer service? Really?
 
I would think that they could hire a high school kid to come in for 2-3 hours twice a week and package/ship the units. I would think that would be worth $50/week.

Note: I did NOT stay in a Holiday Inn last night.
 
Originally posted by r tapia:
I would think that they could hire a high school kid to come in for 2-3 hours twice a week and package/ship the units. I would think that would be worth $50/week.

Note: I did NOT stay in a Holiday Inn last night.
Click to expand...
I once had an electronics consumer device business same size and scope of Rock's. As you suggested, we did hire a high-school kid to help us. My partner's mother was a principal at a school and they had a program where they would take straight "A" students and find them part-time job.

We interviewed one of the kids and he seemed like an ideal employee. He learned everything fast and really helped us improve throughput in addition to answering the phone and such.

A couple of months goes by and I get a call from my partner (he ran the office). He tells me he just found out someone had been forging our checks and taking money out of bank account!

Well, the story got better. My partner grilled the kid and he confesses that he has a drug problem and was buying the goods at our store, and forging checks to pay for it!

Wait, the story gets even better. He says that he told the drug dealer that he was buying the drugs for us and hence the reason he was using company checks!

We call his father and he tells us that the kid had a serious drug problem and they had moved to our area just to get away from it!

Needless to say, we let the kid go and went back to doing everything ourself. And boy, was it a lot of work, seeing how I had my "day job" in addition to designing and manufacturing the goods.

It sure is a pain to run a small business and rely on help like this...
 
So, Amir, how long have you been a drug addict?
icon_biggrin.gif
 
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