Anyone deal with Griffin Exotic Wood?

[pescadoman]

I can't understand that this person says he'll never buy from Griffin Exotic Wood again. He clearly improperly handled the wood and we have extensive drying instructions (there is a link on every page for "common questions") and the wood was not marked dried? I admit this is one of my frustrations when customers blame the business when they didn't do the right thing. We still haven't lost a single piece like the one he received, not even a check out of 50+, after well over a year on the shelf. I guess a responsible and reasonable customer is what we want, but it is natural to be frustrated when you ruin a nice piece of wood. We go to great lengths to mark all dried pieces and we stand behind that, but all you guys with experience know, even a dry piece could crack when put in a garage with no protection. This just makes me appreciate the good customers more and wish that people like this would give us another try rather then drop us over something of this kind. Anything we can do to make this drying issue more clear on our site, please let us know . . .

Maybe if you treated the "irresponsible, unreasonable, and 'poor' customers" differently they might give you another try.

Considering the general consensus is that he dried it too fast, I'll suggest you could have taken a different approach with your reply.

I've spent 10 grand in wood over the past year and I'm really just getting started. You must be glad I bought it elsewhere because I don't have much experience... Can you see where I'm going here?

Then again your first and only post on here was merely to slam a guy when there was opportunity to be helpful and earn more customers. Doubt you will ever be back....

 

[LGSM3]

hmmm

Im betting this specific piece of wood, regardless of the supplier was never meant to be. The crack as shown is a bit extreme imo. That pc obviously had a ton of stress in it as evident by the twist that comes with crack. Lets not forget its wood, its going to do what it wants sometimes. This wood could have just as easily been sent out by any number of suppliers. I think even if it didnt crack at present, it would have eventually gave you problems.

Just comes with the territory sometimes....not really anyones fault.

On the other hand, maybe you didnt read DPKs book and stored this wood next to other wood that was screaming....this pc freaked out and cracked so you wouldnt hurt it?

 

[Dave38]

Maybe if you treated the "irresponsible, unreasonable, and 'poor' customers" differently they might give you another try.

Considering the general consensus is that he dried it too fast, I'll suggest you could have taken a different approach with your reply.

I've spent 10 grand in wood over the past year and I'm really just getting started. You must be glad I bought it elsewhere because I don't have much experience... Can you see where I'm going here?

Then again your first and only post on here was merely to slam a guy when there was opportunity to be helpful and earn more customers. Doubt you will ever be back....

Actually Randy, the whole purpose of this thread, IMO, was to paint Griffen Woods in a bad light by the OP, not to find out how or why the wood cracked. I think it is only fair for James to respond. His response could have been better worded, But I do see his point. I myself would be a bit upset if someone publicly blamed me for the results of what appears to be their own mishandling of the product. His business rep is put in a bad light due to operater error. It is heavily implied by the OP that he believes it was the suppliers fault, not his. There is no mention by the OP that he called Griffens about this issue and see if they could work it out, instead a public statement was made. What makes this sad is it's all about what amounts to $40-$50 worth of wood. Griffens may have given a refund or a future discount just to not lose a customer, but it doesn't sound like that option wasn't even explored and it may be too late for that now.
Hopefully a remedy can be found for this issue
Dave

 

[carguy]

Sorry, but seeing James Griffin take heat over this is too much. He is an absolute square shooter.

I have no beef with Joe, and I'm sorry he has a problem. Life is good with no problems. And I'm not on here to bust his balls. Joe is OK in my book. I don't know him but you know, pool..cue guy, and all that. I really do feel a kinship. We all go through the same stuff.

If I put 4 cues in my trunk on a 90* day, and the xxxx cue warps but the others don't, what do we get out of this?

Is it "xxxx cues are crap! I called the guy I got it from and told him what happened and he didn't want to replace it. I've been putting my cues in the trunk for years and this is the first one that ever warped. Boy, I'll never deal with him again. And I'm going to go on the internet and bad-mouth him."

And the guy who sold the xxxx cue comes on line for the first time ever to defend himself and says "Are you serious. Ya just can't DO that to cues and expect them to stay straight! They're you know, wood!! You aren't really being reasonable."
Is this guy being a dick for not replacing an admittedly molested cue? I don't think so.

Sorry Joe, that you have previously gotten away with torturing all that poor wood is no proof of anything, certainly not that this is a sound practice, and certainly not that Griffin sold you "bad" wood.

Look, I know you can see this. Again, I'm not on here to bust your balls, I'm just encouraging you not to cut off your nose to spite your face. Why throw away a good source? Oh yeah, and alienate a good guy?

I suspect Jake is correct here. I think those pieces of wood were not meant to be pool cues. This is not the first time in the history of the world that a seemingly sound piece of wood split or turned into a banana. We ALL have plenty of those. Plenty. And if I could predict which ones those were....well, that would be nice. Ahhhh, dreams......

I think Joe and James should kiss and make up. Both good people. No drama needed here.
James has been selling wood quite a while and has some good advice to offer, and Joe, you've received lesson on what happens sometimes if you don't give your wood the happy home it (usually) needs. Get over it. No need to be pissed off. These things happen.

Robin Snyder

 

[snipershot]

Dave, i wasnt trying to badmouth James at all. The purpose of this thread was to see if others had bought wood from him and had similar results. Most on here said he was a stand up guy and treated his customers good. I personally dont feel like I did anything wrong, and that the wood should have been replaced, but thats just my opinion. If it had sat for months and cracked, then i would take full blame, but after a couple weeks, this "dry" wood, should have been ok. Im not mad or resentful, and like I said in an earlier post, i had chalked it up to bad luck. I doubt James purposely lied or set out to decieve me, maybe he just didnt know the wood was still very wet. I should have double checked and probably sealed it asap, but like I said earlier, with my other suppliers, Ive never, not once, had to do that. I was totally over this whole thing, and havent said a bad word about James, but then months later, out of the blue, here he is with his first post insulting me. Im still not mad tho, water under the bridge as far as im concerned, but im still not spending one more penny with the guy.

Joe

 

[pescadoman]

Actually Randy, the whole purpose of this thread, IMO, was to paint Griffen Woods in a bad light by the OP, not to find out how or why the wood cracked. I think it is only fair for James to respond. His response could have been better worded, But I do see his point. I myself would be a bit upset if someone publicly blamed me for the results of what appears to be their own mishandling of the product. His business rep is put in a bad light due to operater error. It is heavily implied by the OP that he believes it was the suppliers fault, not his. There is no mention by the OP that he called Griffens about this issue and see if they could work it out, instead a public statement was made. What makes this sad is it's all about what amounts to $40-$50 worth of wood. Griffens may have given a refund or a future discount just to not lose a customer, but it doesn't sound like that option wasn't even explored and it may be too late for that now.
Hopefully a remedy can be found for this issue
Dave

Actually...that is my whole point. I'll agree 100% that the OP should have contacted Griffin, but he didn't. What happened was he posted here instead and, from what I infer, everyone said Griffin wasn't to blame in any way. I don't know why that wasn't the end of it...actually Joe said he DID contact Griffin and they said "it sat on a rack for a year and didn't crack"

Enter Griffin who, in lieu of taking the high road and offering a resolution, grabs his keyboard and with his first post insults the guy, implying that he doesn't care to do business with guys who don't share his experience because they don't know sh**.

IMO a golden opportunity to show good character and earn quite a few new customers. I WILL say that I needed to refresh my memory of Griffin Woods, so I visited their website.

I suppose all press is good press, but I personally won't be buying from them(90% because of his post here).

Robin, I never never really thought Joe was implying the wood was junk. That just isn't what I got out of his post and it didn't deter me from using Griffin, Griffin's comments did. Until he started typing all I got out of this was Joe stored it improperly or it was just bad luck.

I don't see Joe as the one burning bridges here. I also don't see myself as someone who owes any of my suppliers ANYTHING. I spend lots of money and they deliver a product....simple. If they no longer want my business I'll find someone else. If you went to a restaurant and the waitress was rude(and NOT smoking hot), would you ask for her the next time you ate dinner there?

 

[carguy]

"If it had sat for months and cracked, then i would take full blame, but after a couple weeks, this "dry" wood, should have been ok."

Joe

Joe- That just plain is not the way it is with wood here on earth. It may seem logical to you but it's simply incorrect. A couple weeks in a really dry, warm place can EASILY warp or crack damp wood. You will say really bad words. Ask me how I know.
You can often, perhaps even usually, get away with such bad practice, but then you get that one piece of wood that does not want to hear about it, and POW!

A hygrometer/thermometer (~$30) and a wood moisture meter (Ryobi pinless ~$40) take most guesswork right out of it. I can't imagine life working with wood without these basic tools.

I think you will be stunned when you see how dry your heated garage is. This is not at all unusual, so you have to take precautions like sealing or wrapping the wood, or humidification. All this is a pain but it really is Wood 101. This is where it starts, not with machine tools.

I have received wood (not from Griffin) that was 35%+ moisture content. Why did I get it? It was beautiful and I couldn't find it dry (until a month after I bought the wet stuff. Grrrr...).
The Griffin website offers good advise on how to treat the wood. If you do it right, you will probably get good results, but if you don't, milage may vary.
I just don't see how ANY wood dealer can guarantee that wood he has sold will not misbehave if mistreated, and NONE that I know of or have ever heard of do. None. It's just not reasonable to expect it. Do your own research...it's just not happening.

It's kind of like buying a puppy. The breeder can do a great job, but after that, it's future is in your hands.

Yes, I DO treat my wood as pets. It's probably the OC thing....

I presume that James Griffin just recently heard of this thread and responded, basically, that he can't be responsible for someone's actions when they didn't follow commonly known (among woodworkers) necessary procedures. He expects minimum reasonable conduct from the customer and that is not too much to ask.

Sorry, I think it's like being pissed that a cuemaker won't warranty a cue which was obviously badly abused.
" Well, you didn't say it wasn't waterproof, could I get a new one?" "Hmmm...well, no."

Time to man up and put the responsibility where it belongs.

Robin

Randy- I think my suppliers are as important to me as I am to them. For the ones I use, respect is mutual. I make no unreasonable demands and they treat me great. Just as it should be. I think James felt disrespected, and reasonably so. If you over-rev your car's engine and it takes a dump, sorry, no. It's not under warranty, you abused it. Case closed.
Reasonable treatment is not too much to ask.
James pointed out that instructions for successful drying were right on his website and if those (simple) instructions are not followed and someone is unhappy because of this, it isn't his doing. Sorry, but I fail to see where he did or said anything wrong.
R.

 

[JoeyInCali]

It will only take a few days to crack a wood if it's wet and the air is really dry.
When I was apprenticing with Kerry Zeiler, one day when the winds from the desert was coming in. I saw a Zebrawood check really deep after a few hours when we had the door open. Humidity that day was less than 15%.
This Zebrawood was aged for a long time and was already turned a few times when it was under 8% mc.
My humidifier was constantly on last week .

Time to shop for a humidifier, if you don't have one .
http://www.discounthumidifiers.com/

 

[Dave38]

It will only take a few days to crack a wood if it's wet and the air is really dry.
When I was apprenticing with Kerry Zeiler, one day when the winds from the desert was coming in. I saw a Zebrawood check really deep after a few hours when we had the door open. Humidity that day was less than 15%.
This Zebrawood was aged for a long time and was already turned a few times when it was under 8% mc.
My humidifier was constantly on last week .

Time to shop for a humidifier, if you don't have one .
http://www.discounthumidifiers.com/

I got one for the shop from a Savers, a re-sale store that people donate their old stuff to and the profits support the homeless shelter and emergency relief groups. Paid about $15 for it and another $20 for a new wick. They also keep your sinuses from drying out too.

Dave.

 

[CLAUD]

I sometimes forget there are places that dry. My humidifier begins with the letters DE, as in Dehumidifier. It's all about environment.

 

[Dave38]

The summers up here in mass go as high as 90% humidity and drops to 15% in winter.... I guess we get the worst of both worlds I have a dehumidifier and humidifier. If I turn them both on at the same time, I found I can magically transfer 20 gallons of water from one machine to another thru the air....:smile:
Dave