Good experience with Sherrill Tree

[gf beranek]

The big three, Bailey's, Wes Spur and Sherrill's all compete for market share. And between them they have pretty much cornered this market.

I know first hand how Bill Bailey built his business up from scratch. He was a timber faller with an idea that he could do better, and after work he would drive around to the landings and sell saw chain, bars, wedges and the like out of the back of his truck. A couple of years later Bill started advertising and had simple flyers printed to mail out to all the local woods workers .

Tobe's father run a lawn mower repair shop in Greenboro, and Tobe, having a vision similar to Bill's took that repair shop to where it is today.

I don't know the roots of how Wes Spur come to be what they are today, but I'll bet they did it the same as Bill and Tobe. Hard work and an idea to do better. They are all very successful.

 

[Gord]

Wesspur offers price matching now. Sherrill's awful website turned me off originally, and wesspur's website, customer service and selection is great. I won't be switching anytime soon.

 

[squisher]

Wesspur rules. Great service I've had from them. Once quite awhile back when I ordered one of their rigging kits (along with some other gear) the duffle bag was left out/missed with the order. I phoned them up and let them know and just asked if they could send me one with my next order. Boom before I knew it and long before my next order it was sent to me. I appreiated the quick service to set something right and for being taken at my word.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I love WesSpur's Service and such. They really go the mile. I had ordered some rings for a couple false crotch slings I was going to play with. They were short two of the rings and called me right up. Asked if the order needed to wait for the other rings. I asked... More shipping cost? They said no. Rings were only a week apart on the BO. I was impressed to be personally contacted and given a choice in the matter. Baileys has never done me wrong nor has Sherril. But I swear by WesSpur.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I've done a lot of bizz with Baileys over the years, including mucho chainsaws when they had Husky on-line sales going. Since having to go international with them, they can be really slow, and sometimes I have to ask for a catalog like four or five times. That's my only complaint.
I cut their international sales guy a lot of slack. He seems overworked.

 

[stig]

I have used both Sherrill and Bailey's a lot over the years.
I have had no complaints about sherrill over the years, always good service. As for their website, it has just been changed completely.

When US mail stopped sending class 4 mail ( surface) it got too costly to have stuff shipped over here, so I asked Sam Bailey to find me a cheaper way. Now I buy oil, chains, bars etc in bulk, and Bailey's ship me a whole pallet at a time.
That way it only costs me 800$ to have 1½ ton of stuff send over. A great deal, especially as the $ to kroner rate is very low right now.

The first pallet they shipped took 3 weeks more to cross the Atlantic than promised. To make up for that, Bailey's paid to have it delivered right to my door, so I didn't have to get it through customs. They paid the custom duty on it, too. That came to about 450$.
Talk about good service!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Man, that's a lotta stuff.

 

[stig]

We are primarily a logging outfit, only climb trees as a sideline.
We go through a lot more gear in a season, than you do in the treetops.
Also I team up with some guys and order together.

 

[rumination]

I have never gone wrong with Wesspur and Baileys, both have great customer service. I order most of my gear from them. That being said, I never had a bad experience with Sherrill, but their website is so painful to navigate that I gave up on them.

 

[SkwerI]

I hate to say it because he really is a nice guy, but Toby would do well to hire somebody to undo all the changes made to the original catalog and website about 2002-2003. The very best catalog Sherrill's had was about 2001. And the old website was much easier to use before the redesign.

 

[treetx]

I just ordered from www.treestuff.com because they had the obscure product I needed. In their treestuff blog, they even link to Butch's Groundy Guide.

I like to phone in my orders. At Sherrill, they always have friendly people plus it lets me know my order is being processed or is at least sitting on someone's desk rather than being lost in cyber space.

I order from he who has what I need. I hate price matching and find it inherently dishonest.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Where is that blog?

 

[SkwerI]

Click on the link then click on the word 'BLOG' up in the top right corner.

 

[Tobe Sherrill]

Thanks for the frank chatter here guys. Two things;

treetx- thanks for the business and sorry about the "dishonest impression" regarding price matching. It's not a SherrillTree invention, rather something borrowed to keep the wolves at bay. In tree trimming, just once perhaps, you've enjoyed the opportunity to keep a good customer who took a quote from "the underbidder." You know, the guy who's never cracked a book on tree care, thinks safety's a crock and operates without insurance. Well, in my world this type shows alergic reaction to the mere thought of industry involvement that cost time, effort or money. We HAVE TO price match (or in our case, I believe, do better) to combat the underbidders price-snipping tactics. It's life in retail.

skwerl- you're tough dude. Sean is in no way at fault for whatever negatives you perceive about OUR catalog or web site. If anyone's to blame, it would be me. Sean is not only extremely creative and talented but holds a killer work ethic and, perhaps most surprisingly, would cross a bed of hot coals to help you in a pinch. We've worked closely together to adjust our brand over the past several years and i am personally quite comfortable with it. Our web site, on the other hand, was another matter. But now, after more blood, sweat and tears shed than folks can imagine, we've cracked the lid on a site that, i think is a good start on great potential.

Y'all stop in!

And hey, when you do, and if ordering... let's say $100+, just for reading this nonsense, enter this private code at our new "code-worthy" check out (good for a week, between March 27th and April 2nd) and receive a free Deluxe Fold & Hold Cube - a $59 dollar value. Nope, this is not the red & black SherrillTree knock-off that's floating around, but the Heinrich Haussler-approved and licensed (Faultimer inventor) Sherrill-tweaked version. Enjoy folks!! ...and safe climbing.

 

[SkwerI]

Hey Toby,
I apologize if I sounded harsh. I sometimes write in half thoughts and was distracted by a phone call in the middle of that post. I hit the 'submit' button rather than deleting it until I could finish my thought.

I'm sure Sean is exceptionally talented, but unfortunately his first crack at redesigning your catalog many years ago was an astonishing disappointment for me and many other customers. The catalog went from a smooth flowing, well organized catalog with a natural progression from beginning to end and turned into a jumbled mish-mash of gear thrown up in no discernable order. Then a year or two later he jumbled up the table of contents (using a picture of a tree) where it wasn't even in alphabetical or numerical order any more. I think that was the last catalog I ever kept. I've thumbed through a couple at the Vermeer dealer since, but by that point you had lost me.

You see, my fall-back method was using the website to order. Very easy to go find exactly what I needed, click the mouse a couple times and type in my credit card number. ezpz. Then came the new 'improved' website which had lots of Flash and razzle-dazzle but it took forever to find what you wanted, especially if you knew exactly what you wanted and just wanted to click the link. It would take page after page of menu after sub menu to find the item. And half the time the search function resulted in dismal failure as well.

Luckily I have a local Vermeer dealer and about that time you joined forces with them to market your products. Fantastic! I could walk in and grab what I wanted instead of waiting a week. I did that for a few years and was mostly satisfied. Once in a while I'd have a problem with an item but Rick at Vermeer always seemed to convince me it was my fault and there was nothing he could do about it. The final straw was a stupid little throw bag. I had already tried to return one that had split open after 2 weeks use, but he refused me. I bought two new bags and the next day I used one of them. I overshot the top of the tree and it swung back, smacking the trunk of the tree and breaking open. Once again Rick refused to refund or replace it, saying I must have busted it on concrete. :roll:

At that point I walked out and made it a point to seek out other suppliers. I had no easy way left to give you my business. Other companies didn't offer the range of products, but their catalogs were easy to read and their websites were easy to navigate. Perhaps Sean has improved over the years (I'm sure he has), and he's the nicest guy in the world (I met him personally several years ago), but his first efforts at 'fixing' your catalog and website were both dismal failures. I still buy from the local Vermeer once in a while but they have completely lost my loyalty.

Maybe the website has been tweaked but I still see that same front page asking me to log in or make a decision as to what category of gear I'm interested in before I can even enter, so I haven't browsed it in a while. Mayber the catalog is better organized with a natural progression of gear and products from beginning to end, but I haven't looked at one in at least 2 years. And maybe the local Vermaar guys are willing to finally warrantee a defective product, but I don't know because I won't bother trying to return anything there any more.

Sorry if I sound bitter or set in my ways, but I'm bitter and set in my ways.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I will say that as a first time user of the website, and unfamiliar with the previous one, it did take me some time and head scratching to figure out how to use it. I don't know if that translates into lost business, but I did get a bit frustrated and went to bed, only to attack it again the next day. Perhaps a small point, but some of the catalog numbers didn't work with the search function. Presumably, bugs are still getting worked out....

 

[Gord]

I think the new website is a huge improvement over the last one, although it still has about 50 unnecessary categories/divisions.

 

[SkwerI]

Gord, how new is 'new'? I remember the old website from 7-8 years ago. Never got the hang of the 'new' site after that. I've been there a couple times over the years and it's always been a mess. I guess I made a mental block and have avoided it ever since. I'll call and describe what I want rather than look it up there, if I can't find it on another website.

 

[treetx]

Tobe -

Thanks for the feedback and as always, the great customer support.

In the economics and antitrust literatures, price-matching guarantees have a bad name. They are seen as a way to facilitate cartel pricing. The argument is that the guarantees are in effect commitments to respond automatically to any attempt by rivals to undercut the cartel price. This argument is so compelling that it is now the dominant account of price matching.

A second theory is price matching as a means of price discriminating among consumers. Firms offering price matching guarantees provide discounts selectively to customers who are aware of lower prices in the market while charging a high list price for nonsearchers.

Yet other theories could explain firms like Sherrill need price matching as they have higher overhead (and customer service) but still want to provide lowest price to searchers.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Thanks for the frank chatter here guys. Two things;

treetx- thanks for the business and sorry about the "dishonest impression" regarding price matching. It's not a SherrillTree invention, rather something borrowed to keep the wolves at bay. In tree trimming, just once perhaps, you've enjoyed the opportunity to keep a good customer who took a quote from "the underbidder." You know, the guy who's never cracked a book on tree care, thinks safety's a crock and operates without insurance. Well, in my world this type shows alergic reaction to the mere thought of industry involvement that cost time, effort or money. We HAVE TO price match (or in our case, I believe, do better) to combat the underbidders price-snipping tactics. It's life in retail.

skwerl- you're tough dude. Sean is in no way at fault for whatever negatives you perceive about OUR catalog or web site. If anyone's to blame, it would be me. Sean is not only extremely creative and talented but holds a killer work ethic and, perhaps most surprisingly, would cross a bed of hot coals to help you in a pinch. We've worked closely together to adjust our brand over the past several years and i am personally quite comfortable with it. Our web site, on the other hand, was another matter. But now, after more blood, sweat and tears shed than folks can imagine, we've cracked the lid on a site that, i think is a good start on great potential.

Y'all stop in!

And hey, when you do, and if ordering... let's say $100+, just for reading this nonsense, enter this private code at our new "code-worthy" check out (good for a week, between March 27th and April 2nd) and receive a free Deluxe Fold & Hold Cube - a $59 dollar value. Nope, this is not the red & black SherrillTree knock-off that's floating around, but the Heinrich Haussler-approved and licensed (Faultimer inventor) Sherrill-tweaked version. Enjoy folks!! ...and safe climbing.

So hey, do you think you might ever wanna do anything with my Excellent Groundman article?

 

[Gord]

Skwerl the sherrill site is just a month or so old.

http://www.sherrilltree.com/

 

[SkwerI]

That does loook a whole lot better than before. I like it.

 

[Gord]

The old one was truly awful. If more websites were modeled after craigslist the net would be a whole lot quicker to get around (and a less nice to look at too.)

 

[sotc]

So what was the code?

 

[Stumper]

Willie I also wondered about that.