I hear this a lot, but I don't know why people have such a hard time reaching John. It's true that he doesn't respond to e-mail for whatever reason. But if you pick up the phone and call him, he almost always answers. I've had numerous 15+ minute calls talking about the stoker and smokers.
I have no affiliation with them, just get tired of hearing him get bashed.
Brew - you know I respect you buddy.
Well I must come to the defense of Shane. I will try and remain respectful to both John Jackson and this forum in doing so.
I will also speak as a
pro-product user and as an
ex-internet content and service manager.
I like the product, but here is the point. If you run a business that DEPENDS on internet word of mouth, internet product presence, and internet Forum presence, and your product is the most sophisticated web based fan assist there is, capable of emailing you your temps and conditions, perhaps your E MAIL ETIQUETTE should be at least as good as your inanimate product. You should answer your emails in a timely manner not ignore them, if you cannot do that you should UNPLUG THE ADDRESS and the web site.
If John Jackson can make a BBQ fire device that can email you (using Stoker Log) why can't he email you himself. Or make a toggle on his web site that emails you.
It actually is kind of an endearment... but only to die hard fans.
Many on here see how great the product is, go to his web site and ask for a response and get none. They end up having to call. Problem is, with that style you nix the "impulse buyer" from your product sales... I think it would be safe to say most of us fat, lipitor and simvistatin popping, bbq brethren here give in to our impulses. LOL
Email is often efficient as it can get a product problem or order into the ether to be handled by a company or rep while you sleep. He is also on the west coast and my frustration as a business owner was when I was in the thick of things he was closed. When I ordered the product in Nov of 2007, I got no word, no call, no confirmation, no thank you, when I placed the order over the net... it just showed up after 3 weeks of me worrying about who had my card number. This is not proper ordering response protocol. Phone is not sufficient when you operate as national web based business. At some point you need to hire someone to field the calls and handle the silly stuff like... order and service.
John is brilliant and I am thankful that he made the product and when it comes down to it he stands behind his product. I have had my Stoker replaced three times at his cost when I first got started. BUT - in the same way brilliant guys may not be able to run a business, business guys sometimes are rarely brilliant.
Now below is just how strongly I like the Stoker and I made some videos that defused some myths about it. I put the stoker through the ringer if you will. At the time I bought it it was thought the stoker was too light duty for large stick burners. I made this to prove it is not the case.
Click Here
I OWN THE GOOGLE VIDEO PAGE ON THE STOKER SO YOU CAN SEE I LOVE THE PRODUCT
Still, I liked the product so much I wanted to order two or three more to see if I could design a GRILL fan assist and another one for keeping computer grids on all my cold and hot items... yes the product can do that. When I had my trailer I could sensor up to like 15 cold or hot items and record them on my stoker log for the health department.
I dispatched an email for 2 more stokers, sans fan assist, and never heard back from him. After dealing with this same problem in getting it fixed, I said I was through with Stoker (unless this Genius designs something new) like linking it to the the 5 volt automatic charcoal dropper I designed, I am through with the Stoker. So in my case, great product, great service, bad communication makes the first two traits irrelevant.
