Today has been the worst experiance delivering fireplaces i have ever had it has been a nightmare, as most of our customers know we deliver fireplaces and stoves all over the UK using our own fantastic delivery service.
Well as we have been so busy and the snow had slightly disrrupted our normal service i was today heading to Esh Winning near Durham.
I set off at 5.30 am this morning and followed the gritting lorry right through to the A38 the road was fine and i carried on to M1,M18 A1 Etc.
All was going nicely and then i took my turn off to Esh Winning the roads again were fine until i came to the road i wanted and im not joking a foot of snow was in my path.
Luckily i wanted number one so i parked on corner and unloaded Firefox 12 onto our wheels and away i went 5 minutes later it was sat in customers house and i was on my way again splipping and sliding back to the main road.
So of to Durham i thought this was going to be easy 5 miles and 15 minutes on the sat nav it said which turned out to be a complete joke.
The road was black iced over all over cars were skidding and smashing into each other and going through peoples hedges and walls i turned straight round and took another route this turned out to be much safer but had the whole of the northern population on this road and it took me 1 hour 24 minutes to travel 5.2 miles.
So i arrived at drop number two to find snow blocked road again with around 400 yards to go so out came the barrow again and i carried a Tulip and Bedford Fireplace Gas package to the customers house in three trips this took me around 25 minutes as cars tried in vain to get off this road ive never seen ice and snow packed in like it it was like a scene from Scandinavia.
Anyway sweating like a pig i was sat back in my van dreading going to Billingham which was clear and then Maunby where i crawled at 10 miles an hour into a the Village which had snow and ice on the road, i thought at this point of RAC advice are fireplaces and Stoves really a neccesary journey but hey im here now and im not going back with them.
After this drop i was now 1 hour and 45 minutes late but it was all plain sailing after here with clear roads to Wetherby and finally home.
So that was my morning and half the afternnon from Hell i hope Stuart fairs better tomorrow in Swansea and Cardiff fingers crossed then.
Posts Tagged ‘Fireplaces’
Worst Fireplace Delivery Day i Have Ever Had
Thursday, January 14th, 2010Customer orders fireplace and set of tiles from California
Thursday, January 7th, 2010As most of our customers know we do offer a Mainland Uk delivery service and we have a few times before delivered items to shipping agents for them to be packed and sent abroad.
This is not something we advertise but if asked will wrap and palletise these items to be sent this way.
Anway early this evening we had a customer email us asking if we wrapped and palletised a fireplace and some tiles could he arrange to have it collected from our factory by his shipping agents when he next attends the Newark Antiques Fair.
Now i dont think we have dealt with him before but we have had a few orders from a lady from Kansas do this and had goods delivered to a shippers near Newark for them to be crated and sent to the USA.
This is fine with us we do not promote sales of Fireplaces or Stoves to any other country than the UK but it may be worthwhile looking into exporting them.
We do have forklift facilty and plenty of crates so ill investigate the option of sending itemsother than mainland UK.
We do have a fiar amount of items go to Northern Ireland and we use a very good company for delivery who charge around £125 -£150 for delivery but there the same as us Blanket wrapped and individually wrapped with a two hour timed delivery service. Believe me im not sure how some of these companies go on sending everything on carrier and by pallet the damages they must incurr and customers being let down.
Anyway thats not the way we do it our delivery service is the pride of our company.
I will return again to featured items on Friday i just thought i would share the thought of exporting fireplaces and stoves with you
Buy an new Fireplace or Stove in the New Year
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009As 2009 finishes we all reflect on what the past year has brought us all and i must say with things in our personal lives im glad to see the back of it.
Workwise i dont think things could have gone any better i know times have been tough and money is short for people but we have come through this terrible turbulent times in a new factory which we are in the process of buying and our Fireplace stocks have grown hugely.
Yes profits are down slightly but being house orientated people have mothballed projects and a few developers we deal with have dissapeared.
It could be alot worse i know of 6 local fireplace companies finishing business this year and i have noticed a few website firms shut too.
So as we await the new year and get things ready for what are normally a few busy months for fireplaces and stoves as the weather starts to get really cold i look back and think yes we have done ok were all intact our company is well known and has respect in the trade and im sure that here at Castfireplaces we have a very exciting 2010 ahead of us.
Im really looking forward to getting back to work and making progress in our aim to be the best known company on the internet and the 1st choice for buying all your fireplace products and im sure with all our staffs help and in particular our customers help we can achieve some real big results this year.
Log Splitter arrives and i am at the Fireplace Factory making logs
Thursday, December 24th, 2009Im like a child when it comes to new things arriving and yesterday my Log Splitter came by pallet delivery and was sitting on my drive when i got back from washing the vans at our local Valet company (Full valet in mine looks like brand new)
Anyway i was told it would arrive between 9 and 5pm there not as good as us with our 1 hour time slot and it duely arrived so i loaded it straight on to me van and rushed off to the factory to play with it.
God it was cold in there the showroom and canteen are the only places with heat in there anyway unpacked and assembled i thought right lets get one of the tree trunk rings in and give it a go
Quick read of the instructions and start it up im not joking it cracked it in to with no effort at all and i spent the next ten minutes splitting it in to fire size pieces this was so much easier than the axe attempt i tried a few days ago.
It made such short work of it i was there for around 40 miutes and split up enough to 3/4 fill a tonne bag which i loaded on my van with the forklift.
I was getting carried away thinking of all this wood to burn in my Gallery Fireplaces Tiger Plus Stove Rhian then rang to ask if i was coming back (told her i was only dropping it off) as she knew i would be playing with my new toy it was getting dark and we were going out at 6pm so i finished off a ring and added them to my bag which was now on the back of my van
So if you do want to know anymore about where i bought it from just let me know and ill point you in the right direction
1 More sleep till santas here cant wait for that too
We can now offer logs for sale for all our Stove and Fireplace Customers
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009Cast Fireplaces can now offer loads of logs for sale via one of my very good friends who has loads of experience in the gardening and log supply industry.
Now im sure you are aware there are differnt types of logs ie hard wood and soft wood and what he supplys is a mixed load so it burns better.
We have been having logs of paul for ages and i can personally guarantee how good they are the latest batch he dropped me off were cherry and they were in tree like form as he had not split them so ill tell you more tomorrow how i got on with that.
He offers the logs he supplys in either tonne bags or as a full load on his transit tipper which is better value for money.
As he is one of my ggod mates ive said ill add him a section on our new website so customers can order and pay for them online.
However at the moment he only sells within a 20 mile Radius of Ripley as this is where we are based and its not economical to send out by Pallet service.
So if you are within 20 miles of us give him a ring on 07970 958432 and im sure he will be more than happy to help you out and if you have ordered a stove from us recently there will be a leteer offering his services coming through the post to you
We are running low on Lytton and Jubilee Fireplaces and Firefox 5 Stoves
Monday, December 7th, 2009Well what a mad month we are having and the gallery group the people whose range of Fireplaces and Stoves we stock are very busy too.
As always at this time of year we always seem to run short of certain items due to stock shortage us here at Castfireplaces are in a better position than most fireplace shops as we do hold large amounts of stock at our factory.
However this has not proved enough and again we have run out of Firefox 5 Stoves, we also only have 2 Lytton Highlighted fireplaces and 3 Jubilee fireplaces left till after Christmas infact the new year.
Gallery themselves also have none of these items till January so thats it really 1st come 1st served gets the last of thses items.
Im not 100% sure why they have run out im told it is down to order levels and they did not expect to move some many in the Credit crunch crisis.
Well that seems not have hit our trade too hard and as we have seen a large shift again to solid fuel stoves and fireplaces this seems to have carried on right through “Heating Season”
Last week we had hearth deliverys to replace all our sold stock and these arrived just in time as we were down to the last few in stock.
Still only two weeks to go till Party day with the Fireplace Lads looking forward to it again a full day boozing in my home town of Nottingham.
Anyway if we do run out completely of any fireplaces or stoves i will let you know and offer an alternative to the option you have chosen so fingers crossed it wont be too bad but at the rate there going we will be out of lyttons and Jubilees by the end of this week but what can i do about it they are on the way from China.
Firefox 5 Stoves are due to arrive tomorrow
Sunday, November 29th, 2009Hooray at last we are due to have another 12 Firefox 5 Stoves arrive on monday after having 4 delivered on Friday that we were not expecting, this allowed us to deliver two today to customers in London who were very pleased to get the stoves earlier than they and we expected.
Now we do have 12 coming into stock but we only have four left available to purchase as we have been taking pre orders of the Firefox 5 since we knew we would run short and we had presold the 12 we had allocated to us.
So these four are available and they are probably not going to be back in stock again untill early January after these have gone so if you are looking for a new multi fuel stove we do have stocks of all the others and do not expect to run out in the mad rush but you never know.
On another note it is again the last day of the month on ” Cyber Monday” and it again is time to feature some of the other items we sell on on our website that you might not be aware of its called our featured items section.
So keep your eyes out for these new posts and see what we have to offer
We Offer Late Night Viewings at our Fireplace Factory
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009Customer service comes as standard when shopping at Cast Fireplaces and we do go out of our way to make sure our customers are happy.
As alot of you may know we do offer viewings at our Showroom which is based on North Street in Langley Mill by appointment only which makes sure you have our full attention and we can dedicate as much time as you need sorting through your fireplace options i dont think there is anything worse than a showroom with loads of customers and no one to offer them advice in choosing a fireplace or stove which will be the main feature of your room.
It is a big purchase and once fitted you have to look at it every day there may be questions you need answering thats why when you visit us at Cast Fireplaces you will only ever get Mark who will explain all the options available to you.
I have numerous years of knowledge of the fireplace trade and im 100% confident there is not much i do not know about our gallery fireplaces so i can always give honest correct free advice.
As part of our exceptional service we offer late night viewings and tonight at 7pm when other showrooms and fireplace companies are closed i will be at our factory showing customers a Pembroke black gas and solid fuel package they rang earlier today enquiring about viewing and he said he had read some of our articles about viewing after hours.
So if you do wish to come and see us please make an appointment so we can help you source the Fireplace of your dreams and create a focal point for your room
Late Night viewing and Collection of our Fireplaces and Stoves
Monday, October 26th, 2009As a lot of our website visitors know we do late night viewings at our showroom in Langley Mill and tonight we have had a customer come and view a Firefox 5 Stove and then take this item home with him in his car. Earlier today a customer drove from Northampton to view and went home with a Firefox 8 Stove
I have also done an out of hours delivery in Derby of another Firefox 5 so I am now sat in my office writing this article before I switch pc off.
It has been local delivery day today and I have been to Heanor to drop off Pembroke Full Polish package and then back to the workshop for a building contract company from Slough who came to collect a Coronet and Brompton package so I have had a busy little day running round delivering and arranging collections.
I have done some price alterations later this afternoon on our website update so another few days doing that and it will be ready to go live I could do with starting to work nights too to get it all done.
We normally try and finish for 8 pm but its now 9.30pm and I still have a couple more invoices to do before I switch off and open up a tin of Jupiter beer that Nina brought me when I got to work this morning I had this comment from her
Hi Mark,
We had a great trip to the UK, it was an easy to find meeting point and it was indeed lovely to see you as well.
We arrived late at home (11 pm Belgian time).
Thanks Mark, see you later.
Regards, Nina
I thought I worked late sometimes but it’s all in a days work here at castfireplaces
Right I am off to get a beer now then walk the dog.
Extra Hour in bed this weekend before we deliver our Fireplaces and Stoves
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009Hi there just sat at my office desk at 7.30pm ringing round to confirm the final delivery runs for Fireplaces and Stoves this Sunday when it struck me the clocks go back so what seemed like an early start at 5am is not so bad now.
We have also had some good news today that the website update is all ready and under final testing before so next week I have to finally tweak the sections and add a all our new products after photo session on Friday so fingers crossed it will go live around the 1st week of November.
I do have full access to this update and believe me it looks fantastic and the simple shopping experience is fantastic I just can’t wait for it all to happen.
I have had a very busy day today and have not stopped since 8am this morning when I left home to go to the factory to sort out large delivery of Multi Fuel Stoves which was well timed as I had just loaded yesterday the last Firefox 5 Stove we had in stock onto our van for North Wales and Cheshire Run.
As luck would have it Rhian rang me at 4.30 pm and added another Firefox 5 to tomorrows delivery in Winsford which we can do on the way to Stockport. It is now balanced on strapped down on the top of some limestone mantels that we are delivering so the van is fully loaded.
Ok I’m off to take the dog a walk and shut down pc for the evening as I’m shattered today it is always the same in Winter long hard days but that’s what we do here at Cast Fireplaces we never lower our standards no matter how busy we are.