Leader Inc. Pathetic service issues

[HazensNotchSugarShack]

Has anyone else had as bad an experience with getting service from leader in swanton. Paid $11K for set of pans that when connected together the float box gets pulled two different directions and is at about a 15 degree angle. I have talked to at least 5 different people from leader about this on several different occasions. Including several different open houses. Oh we will take care of that is what I hear. We are busy the month of may with open houses. Oh we need time to un tap our own woods. Oh Dave is on vacation the first two weeks of August! I am tired of the excuses. Leader you just need to get out hear and fix it!
UPDATE!!!!!
There is light at the end of the tunnel!!!! Leader got in touch with me and met me at the sugar house, in a few minutes figured out I had been given the wrong pipe (too short) to connect flue pan to syrup pan. Randy had brought replacement part with him. He also took care of getting me a second syrup pan. In the long run I guess it was worth the waite because Leader came thru in the end. Thanks to all involved!!

[lew]

Sorry to hear about your situation. I, on the other hand have had great success with service from Leader. I ordered a 5x6 revolution pan at their open house this spring. They called the last week of July to say it was ready. I took my 5x10 max flue pan up the next Friday and they made changes to the flue pan so that the new flat pan would fit while I waited. They were insistant that we hook the two pans together while we watched and sent us home with pictures, just in case. EVERYONE there treated us like gold. I was very impressed. I should say that I would expect that considering the prices they charge. But I made the decision to buy from them and have been very pleased.

[sjdoyon]

When we purchased our evaporator (23k), they dropped it off to our sugarhouse and drove off. We ended up having to brick it and set it up (December, was supposed to be delivered in Oct). Had float box issues the whole first season. Finally figured out we had a slight bend on the post which we corrected. We are happy with the evaporator but learned our lesson. When making a large purchase we first look for customer service. Highly unlikely we'll ever go with any future large Leader purchase based solely on the lack of customer support. I'm more than happy to pay more but expect the customer service. I order plenty of small items (fittings, tubing, check valve, etc). Again, great products but we had a similar experience.

[Moser's Maple]

Bruce Gillilan
vice president
802 868 5444 x13
Bruce@LeaderEvaporator.com

give him a call, just be polite and plead your case. hope this helps you out

[tuckermtn]

I have had good luck with Leader customer service, but admittedly it was because of their mistake that I needed their service. Ordered a roof jack for 14". Came and it was 15"- despite have 14" written right on the slip and in Sharpie on the back of the jack.
Had a new one three days later. This was in the middle of March.

[GeneralStark]

I have been purchasing equipment from all the different dealers through the years but I have decided to stick with CDL for my next big purchase which includes a 20k evaporator and other equipment. I contacted all the companies to get prices and info on their equipment. La Pierre never returned several calls, Leader was friendly and helpful as was CDL. In the end it came down to preference for the intens-o-fire over the vortex and how well I have been treated by CDL through the years. That may be partially due to the fact that I work in St. Albans and go directly to the store and the salesman have gotten to know me. I know their support will be good as well as I have had good luck in the past.

[unc23win]

I have found in today's world when purchasing anything customer service is whatever that particular dealer makes of it some are better than others. It's no different in the maple industry than farm machinery or cars and trucks or anything else. I have had good luck with Lapierre both at my local dealer and Swanton.

[Bruce L]

When Leader delivered our new evaporator, it came in the pouring rain and the two of them worked most of the day without breaking for lunch to get it into the sugarhouse. Once everything was in they left, but I had no issues with that as I had to then do the brickwork, moving wood etc. Bruce came to boil with me the first day the next spring, we determined the blower was not large enough, to which he made another trip up(4 + hours) to exchange the blower no charge, then spent the afternoon walking through the bush showing me how to make improvements with no guarantee I would be making my purchases from them. The other "contender" for a new evaporator lost their sale when they were rude to my wife when she started quizzing them about evaporation rate, firing time, etc. Do they not realize most sugarmakers not only have a partner that helps out, but also sometimes helps with the funding of a new purchase?

[killingworthmaple]

This year I needed to order a set of 2x6 pans. So I took a trip to upstate Vermont to take a look at the different manufactures and what they had to offer. I was leaning toward Leader before I went, they were very nice and showed me all around the factory but I was disappointed in the craftsmanship on the showroom floor. Other manufactures had people in the showroom that didn’t know what they were taking about, I knew more about their pans than they did. Yet another didn’t even have a 2x6 setup to look at. I am sad to say I went home disappointed and with the money still in my pocket. All I was looking for was a quality product and someone to satisfactory answer my questions and I was ready to purchase. But I refuse to spend thousands of dollars for ok quality work or a hope that it will fit because they don’t know the answers to my question.

[HazensNotchSugarShack]

I have been purchasing equipment from all the different dealers through the years but I have decided to stick with CDL for my next big purchase which includes a 20k evaporator and other equipment. I contacted all the companies to get prices and info on their equipment. La Pierre never returned several calls, Leader was friendly and helpful as was CDL. In the end it came down to preference for the intens-o-fire over the vortex and how well I have been treated by CDL through the years. That may be partially due to the fact that I work in St. Albans and go directly to the store and the salesman have gotten to know me. I know their support will be good as well as I have had good luck in the past. What a similar experience I had but in reverse. I was trying to do business with CDL but local support on east side of mountains has been lacking (I am told that will improve this season). La Pierre support has been great for me both the Orleans location and Swanton. Several sugar houses in my area deal with CDL from outside my area. I am glad to hear that CDL as well as La Pierre is satisfying sugar makers in Vermont. I will say this for Leader the Revolution Evaporator is a joy to operate as swapping the draw off takes seconds. I don't know if I would go with the max flue pan again just based on the fact that I have not yet achieved the evaporation rate it is supposed to be capable of. I am still keeping an open mind on that to see what I can get out of it in my second season with it but I am currently firing a lot of oil at it which seams to contradict the claim of better efficacy but again I am keeping an open mind till the end of this next season because I think I am still in the learning curve of the rig. Rick

[HazensNotchSugarShack]

This year I needed to order a set of 2x6 pans. So I took a trip to upstate Vermont to take a look at the different manufactures and what they had to offer. I was leaning toward Leader before I went, they were very nice and showed me all around the factory but I was disappointed in the craftsmanship on the showroom floor. Other manufactures had people in the showroom that didn’t know what they were taking about, I knew more about their pans than they did. Yet another didn’t even have a 2x6 setup to look at. I am sad to say I went home disappointed and with the money still in my pocket. All I was looking for was a quality product and someone to satisfactory answer my questions and I was ready to purchase. But I refuse to spend thousands of dollars for ok quality work or a hope that it will fit because they don’t know the answers to my question. One thing us sugar makers need to keep in mind is that for approximately 4 months a year we need lots of man power assistance from these manufacturers than the remaining 8 months of the year we need very little. Tough situation for us, the manufacturers and the part time help. Add in the fact of how quickly everything has been changing lately. Killingworth if you are looking for a standard set of pans in the Vermont area I would lean toward the large manufacturers. if you have a problem mid season you have a better chance of getting it resolved quickly. If it is a custom set of pans no matter where you go you probably will have a tough time getting resolved quickly. Just my opinion and I am sure some other sugar makers are better qualified to speak on this issue! Best of luck to you!!

[HazensNotchSugarShack]

When Leader delivered our new evaporator, it came in the pouring rain and the two of them worked most of the day without breaking for lunch to get it into the sugarhouse. Once everything was in they left, but I had no issues with that as I had to then do the brickwork, moving wood etc. Bruce came to boil with me the first day the next spring, we determined the blower was not large enough, to which he made another trip up(4 + hours) to exchange the blower no charge, then spent the afternoon walking through the bush showing me how to make improvements with no guarantee I would be making my purchases from them. The other "contender" for a new evaporator lost their sale when they were rude to my wife when she started quizzing them about evaporation rate, firing time, etc. Do they not realize most sugarmakers not only have a partner that helps out, but also sometimes helps with the funding of a new purchase? Bruce can I ask how your evaporation rate on your max flue compares to the manufacturers numbers?

[Bruce L]

I am not exactly sure, might help if I had a flow meter, but this being my second year with the rig there was a definite improvement over the first year. Our best day I calculated we were at either 300 gallons per hour or darn close to it, as I was trying to calculate how much sap had been brought in from the other bush, and how much had been pumped up from the holding tanks. We made 37.5 gallons of syrup in 6 hours, boiling raw sap with no preheater or hood, going to try tweeking a little more this year to see if I can maintain the rig at 300 gallons per hour or even more.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

I saw the Max flu at the boil off and for what they say they are supposed to get and barely beating Lapierri with Lapirrier using a quarter of the wood PUFFF I wouldnt buy the max but no one in the industry comes close to the revolution.
I think evap rate is more in the arch design, sure flu size matters (HAHAHAHA and other things)
Watching Rajean fire that force five during the boil off was an experiance with in itself.

[Bruce L]

Correcting my earlier post, the 6 hours of boiling was actually from the time I lit the match until I walked out the door, I would rather burn extra wood and be done quicker than conserve wood and watch the sap bubble away.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have always had tremendous customer support over last 10 years from Randy, Brad, Bruce and others at Leader and in numerous interactions I have not been disappointed. Besides nice to buy made in America.

[Homestead Maple]

They are very polite people to do business with. Is there a mistake once in awhile, oh sure, but once it is brought to their attention they will go out of their way to take care of it. Think of the tens of thousands of sales they have dealt with and I'll bet they have a customer satisfaction rate that's got to be in the high percentage rate.

[Bruce L]

Our pans were also delayed from promised date, something about plasma cutter broken down or something. I had already taken the bank draft out(U.S funds), and date was pushed off by about 1 month I think. I complained to Leader that I would be making payments against the loan for the month I didn't have the new rig, they threw in stainless steel fittings to hook up to the head tank, fittings to hook up to the sap float, extra stainless steel ball valves, etc to a total of over 250 bucks!!! Not too many would bite the bullet for that much to keep the customer happy.

[Ekrueger]

I put in my order for a 2x6 Lapierre in April of last year. The pans arrived early in December but were damaged in shipping. I am still waiting on the new pans. They were supposed to be done last week. We haven't been able to get a response from them. Anyone else still waiting and not getting answers?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I bought a 320 gallon stainless tank from them a few years ago and got a lot of run around from them and delivery delayed significantly too.