Dri-Stixx Sticker Order - Customer Experience

dcg4403 · May 02, 2018, 10:22:34 AM

51 days and counting to see product from our original ~$3000 order......

I wanted to share my on-going experience with Dri-Stixx for other folks and honestly hope this ends up being a positive experience. As a small business owner, I love to support fellow businesses in the industry and help promote their products through our videos and social media posts.

  So we recently opened the TX Urban Sawmill LLC just outside of Austin, TX. It is the largest thin-kerf sawmill in Texas and the southern US. After careful research, we choose to order plastic extruded stickers from Dri-Stixx. As an engineer with a plastics injection background, I have been very excited to receive this product. It has potential to be one of the best stickers on the market. The durability / life of the sticker is unmatched IMO (in theory).

So on March 12th, we placed our 1st of what we hoped to be several orders for 2018. We wanted to test these stickers before purchasing more stickers. It was also great to learn that the "FE3" sticker profile that we ordered was being molded in Dallas (only 3 hours from us). So inexpensive freight and we assumed rather quick delivery!

Well, upon the order, we were told that fulfillment would take 4 weeks. A bit surprising as the website says "Orders are Shipping Now, Get Yours today!" Oh well! No problem as we were informed about the delivery timeline at the time of order. Personally, I would not make a marketing claim that my businesses could not back up. But I'll assume most their products are truly ready to ship today. So just an early observation about a claim versus realty.

We waited a few weeks & received no order status communications. So we called twice about delivery, just to get a status report. It was rather difficult to get anyone to call us back or specific information about shipment dates. When we finally spoke to our salesman, Eric, we were told the order would be fulfilled as originally planned. A ship by date has NEVER been committed to.

Fast forward, to April 12th. Still nothing, frustration is growing. Still no pro-active communication about our order status from ANYONE in the company. We called to find status. Left a few messages...nothing. I eventually again spoke with the salesman, Eric, and was told he would call the Dallas factory & get immediately back with me. Guess what? No returned phone call. So I continued to chase him down (almost daily at this point). I had a very honest and open conversation about the lack of communication and call-backs from Dri-Stixx. They were received with apologies and understanding. So that was great to HEAR but I really wanted a committed delivery date. The basis of our sawmilling operations is now being 100% impacted by this order.

  Eventually my concerns were forwarded to the CEO / Owner, Scott. He called me directly and has been very proactive in communicating with me. I was then told that Dri-Stixx was having production issues with their tooling. They were trying to resolve the problems and over 20 orders were on back-order.

At this point, I appreciated Scott's honesty and he followed up with me almost daily for the 1st week.

Fast forward again to present time. Tuesday, May 2nd. We still have not received our order. Worse, we still have received no freight / shipping information!!! I was told that our order would be produced by Monday, May 1st. I cannot confirm nor deny that.

At this point, I just know that we have a $3000 order on our books, yet, have no product. And I'm seeing a pattern of promises that come with continual excuses. I do NOT feel that Dri-Stixx is a dishonest company. I absolutely DO believe that are dealing with molding issues & they are NOT very experienced in plastic injection molding. This is fine as plastic molding is as much art as science to be honest. BUT my business is now suffering, and I am very tired of chasing down Dri-Stixx for accurate information & their statements are validated by ACTION or results. Frankly, I'm tired of hearing about excuses & simply want to receive the product that we rightfully paid for!!

So that's where things stand today. We have delayed cutting of about 30 logs so they can all receive Dri-Stixx stickers too!!! We had hoped to offer great feedback on these stickers & I still maintain a small chance of hope that this will actually occur.

Come on Dri-Stixx, learn from this experience and make us all very happy customers for a premium product! I expect premium service from a premium product!

I will update this thread with new information later this week. 51 days and counting.....

dcg4403 · May 02, 2018, 10:29:08 AM

The irony.....so I just receive a call from the plastic molders of the Dri-Stixx located in near Dallas. I was just told they would be shipping our order today to be received tomorrow.

Keep our fingers crossed and post updates on delivery.

More importantly, I will provide feedback on the product itself.

Once again, I do believe that Dri-Stixx ran into manufacturing problems. Just stinks that I had to inherit those problems and spend many hours of my valuable timing in chasing them down.

Southside · May 02, 2018, 12:21:23 PM

Just under 7 minutes from the time you posted the first post until you got a call on the order being ready to ship - see the POWER of the Forestry Forum!!! :D Hopefully it works out, I did check out their product and want to see how it works out first.

Crusarius · May 02, 2018, 12:55:02 PM

I keep wondering about buying some composite deck material and cutting that into stickers

Brad_bb · May 02, 2018, 05:41:44 PM

I would have cancelled my order after 6 weeks and all the lack of communication. Let them work their issues out and try them later. I wouldn't buy from then unless they have the product in stock and ready to ship. Use conventional wood stickers for now and get the milling done.

The problem is, if they are having molding problems, who's to day they won't squeeze your order out even though all the mold issues are not all worked out? The Chinese mold shops didn't care if they sent us parts with mold issues. They'd just send them and hope we'd accept them so they didn't have to eat the cost.

Their communication signifies that they are not good at customer service. Any company no matter what they do or sell, their number one job should be customer service. If you can't do that, it doesn't matter how good your product is.

Savannahdan · May 02, 2018, 05:56:14 PM

You sure do have a the of Patience of Job. I had something similar with getting a Kohler motor repaired by the "authorized Dealer" locally. In the end I was the one who sourced the parts, bought them and had to get another repairmen to repair the bad fix made by the "authorized Dealer's" mechanic. Needless to say I can't and won't recommend that dealer. I also have had a bad experience with a certain cnc router that is sold by prominent woodworking stores. Their support folks don't even bother with responding or following up unless you post something negative about them on a forum. I don't like doing that but we the purchasers aren't at fault. I hope you get to the original expected outcome on this.

dcg4403 · May 02, 2018, 07:24:45 PM

Thanks for all the remarks and suggestions. All valid. Only reason I gave them such a benefit of doubt is frankly ONLY because I really like the idea of heat resistant, ridged plastic stickers that will not deteriorate & can be stored outside, etc. I'm honestly tired of replacing wooden stickers so I expect these stickers to be a long-life replacement.

Anyway, so the power of the Forestry Forum shows again (lol). I just received a tracking number for the shipment which is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

At this point, I am a bit hesitant to believe all the Dri-Stixx claims as I've already disproved their products are ready to ship today. But I will give them some more benefit of doubt here. I know their CEO, Scott, means well and is trying to resolve this situation. Just sad it had to come to this. Regardless, as long as they stand behind their 7-year warranty, I feel ok about the purchase. Quite a sour taste in my mouth considering all the time I've spend trying to hunt my order down.

My biggest concern now is related to the quality of the product considering the molding issues. Hopefully they were not idiots and made a resin change without significant product testing. You have to really know what you are doing and have a very good quality system in place to ensure that molding manufacturers are NOT changing raw materials / resins without written approval. It is common for molders to change to an equivalent resin to save money or reduce their tooling costs. Changing the process controls of molding can also result in bad parts and the process MUST be re-validated if the tooling is significantly changed. I've worked with some of the largest injection molders in the world and have seen many, many parts fail due to poorly controlled processes or new resins that were unproven or not tested adequately. A plastic sticker isn't a medical component but I'm paying a premium for a high quality, long life product!

I will keep everyone posted. We likely won't have our 1st kiln cycle completed with these stickers completed till about August / September.

Oh, once the stickers arrive, I will do an inspection of overall flatness and uniformity across N=30 randomly pulled stickers. Give you guys/gals feedback there. This is something their molding facility should be doing across all lots of parts, regardless.

D

goose63 · May 02, 2018, 07:53:49 PM

You Sir are a better man than I am I would of blew up a long time ago I just don't have the patience for that

YellowHammer · May 02, 2018, 11:03:53 PM

I got some as a sample about a year and a half ago, three ridge design. I don't know what they have now. They were pretty nice, but expensive. I didn't get sticker stain, but I did get some liner fiber compression under the ridges on heavily stacked softwood that I didn't like, (poplar). They seem sturdy and stable enough. I only took them to 160°F, once.

The warranty was, if I remember correctly, only against defects, not against breakage. I may be mistaken, or they may have made it more comprehensive.

I'm interested in your results and observations.

boardmaker · May 03, 2018, 09:43:02 AM

I wish they would advertise their price on their site. I'd love to know if their even worth looking at, but I hate giving out my contact info and then getting bombarded with advertising.

Brad_bb · May 10, 2018, 12:17:53 AM

Bump. Well did they come?

Crusarius · June 05, 2018, 12:24:08 PM

maybe not. I am still really interested in knowing how these survive but also wondering about composite deck material cut square for stickers.

Wondering cost difference to.

Brad_bb · June 05, 2018, 12:35:23 PM

He must be too mad to post about not getting them or getting the wrong thing ....

4x4American · June 05, 2018, 09:20:55 PM

Quote from: Brad_bb on June 05, 2018, 12:35:23 PM
He must be too mad to post about not getting them or getting the wrong thing ....

Well his profile says he hasn't logged on since May 2 so that might have something to do with it lol

dcg4403 · February 04, 2020, 04:08:25 PM

Sorry for the MASSIVE delay on this. We've been more than swamped trying to get our business up, running and profitable!

So the Stixx came finally. Huge delay and nothing but poor manufacturing related excuses.

I do think they are a good product, especially for dimensional lumber. We do a lot of live edge slabs so I'm not going to buy again as I'm seeking more of an air gap. The Stixx provide a 3/4" air gap. They seem very durable. We have broken a few of them but this was our fault when picking up bunks.

But honestly, I don't think they are worth the money. And I tend not to do business with anyone who can't get their manufacturing issues resolved. And I'm still *pithed off about all the time spend trying to chase them down.

So it is a good product. Just not sure it is a good company. And not suited for thicker lumber where you desire 1"+ air gaps for better air flow.

Thanks!

ronwood · February 04, 2020, 05:54:09 PM

Looks like they may have filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June 2019

Brad_bb · February 04, 2020, 07:42:58 PM

Chapter 7 is a liquidation bankruptcy I think. According to the interwebs:
"A chapter 7 bankruptcy case does not involve the filing of a plan of repayment as in chapter 13. Instead, the bankruptcy trustee gathers and sells the debtor's nonexempt assets and uses the proceeds of such assets to pay holders of claims (creditors) in accordance with the provisions of the Bankruptcy Code."