Woodstock Soapstone Company: An Open Letter to Customers Awaiting Stoves

I just saw this on Woodstock's Facebook page, and thought it might be worth sharing here:

Woodstock Soapstone Company

An Open Letter to Customers Awaiting Stoves

Dear Pending Soapstone Family,

We ask for patience with our production delays.

We are in full production with our Progress, Fireview, and Ideal Steel woodstoves, and limited production of our Keystone/Palladian woodstoves after a series of difficult changes and challenges. I am writing you today with a respectful explanation of the status of our production schedule and its impact of the delivery of your new stove.

We have had a series of supply chain problems over the last few years, but our worst problem/interruption occurred in June, 2014 when one of our most important suppliers, a 100 year old foundry in Belgium and our primary cast iron supplier for the last 26 years, went bankrupt and closed after struggling financially for almost a year.

During their final months we were on a roller coaster with them; first they were closing, then not closing. We stayed with them out of loyalty and appreciation for their supply of high quality castings over many years, but they were unable to continue in operation.

Immediately, we sought alternative solutions. Woodstock Soapstone uses three other foundries in addition to the foundry in Belgium, but all of them have experienced financial problems and/or shutdowns in the last few years. Finding a replacement supplier for the high quality castings Belgium had supplied was not an easy thing to do.

Finally in late July 2014 we successfully moved all our Belgian foundry tooling (two full tractor trailer loads) to another European foundry. We paid to modify our tooling to fit new, larger automatic molding machines. We flew to Europe and approved sample castings in early September. Our first container shipments were scheduled to arrive in early October. Relief had come! We were slightly behind schedule, but were poised to catch up.

Instead the first container arrived November 17 due to unforeseen delays with not only the initial shipper, but also with the steamship line, the port of New York, customs (homeland security!) and land transit.

This has been incredibly frustrating and demanding for all of us at Woodstock Soapstone, and for our customers, but my objective, as always, is to keep producing state of the art quality stoves and provide the best customer service in the industry. No one can interrupt, delay or hinder that aspect of Woodstock Soapstone. We are always here for our customers.

I cannot apologize enough for any and all delays and inconveniences caused by our recent supply interruptions. It’s a chapter that’s taken a toll on all of us. Our staff in both the factory and office have been working well beyond their 40 hour weeks to get stoves to you as quickly as possible.

It’s clear that we have let many of you down. I am humbled and very sorry. This has been one of the few times in my career at Woodstock Soapstone Company where having a long backorder has not been a happy event. Even though we have received more orders than we ever forecast, a significant part of our backorder is due to supply problems and we take full responsibility.

There is always some good news. We are back in production with our cast iron/soapstone stoves. We are backordered, and now that the above problem with casting supply has been remedied, we are back on track and building stoves every day.

To all the IDEAL STEEL Hybrid family, I want you to know that the development of an all steel stove (your model) was a part of this story I’d like to further share. The IDEAL STEEL’s initial design was on the drawing board as another cast iron/soapstone stove (not named IDEAL STEEL at the time), when the Belgium foundry first began to experience financial problems. We could see that our other sources of cast iron were also experiencing difficulties. Time for a change.

The solution? We decided we would make a steel stove and have it manufactured in the United States... right here at our NH factory out of 100% domestic raw materials. In the past year we have installed laser and water jet steel cutting equipment, several large press brakes, and added many new full time welding and fabrication positions. We are growing jobs with our new product. I am very proud of our completely USA based new product and manufacturing.

We are doing the very best we can to fill orders and keep you on schedule and happy. I am very aware this is the time of year people need their stoves and very sensitive to all of the aspects of bringing a wood or gas stove into your home. I realize there can be much involved with logistics. Any inconveniences from us I also apologize for.

Many backordered stoves will be shipped in the next few weeks, but certainly not all. For customers whose stove shipments are deferred until January, we will pay half of the freight charges. For customers who are willing to wait until February for shipment, we will offer free shipping (business or terminal delivery in the 48 contiguous states).

Lastly, I understand your frustration and take responsibility for not ramping up communication about this with all of you at an earlier time, but I truly thought our supply problems would be resolved in time to meet all scheduled shipments.

If you can wait until January or February for shipment, please let us know and we will adjust your shipping charges accordingly. If your shipment is time sensitive, and immediate shipment is critical, please let us know and we will see if we can meet your needs. Woodstock Soapstone Company will immediately refund any and all money paid to us for any customer who wants to cancel their order. Of course, we hope you will patient and understanding, and we think that you will find that our stoves are worth the wait.

Very truly yours,
Thomas Morrissey, President
Woodstock Soapstone Company
1-800-866-4344​

 

I feel lucky to have got one of the last PH's they had in stock.

 

I knew I bought the right stove from the right company.

 

Great company response. These things happen, glad to see "they're on it". When I pull the trigger, Woodstock is still at the top of my list.

 

nice to keep folks in the loop.
Good truthfull information is golden

 

Too bad they had problems with their cast iron supplier. I would of like to see the IS in cast.

 

Sure is nice to read a letter from a hands-on big company owner who still cares enough to inform their customers about issues totally out of their control. Especially in today's social media world of bash the evil greedy company owner. This guy is alright. Bet he buys his headache meds by the case.

 

I got that email myself yesterday At 630, was wondering what it was going to do to my mid January delivery date.
How long has the delivery date been pushed back for those of you who have recently received IS stoves?

 

They are a good company BUT there are some great artisan foundries in this country. Some of them are struggling and an order from Woodstock-Soapstone would probably help save them. It would also drastically cut their lead time on parts by cutting out shipping & homeland security. They might want to bring the molds back here one stove at a time so the label can say Proudly made in USA with American made components.

Just my 2¢.

KaptJaq

 

Sounds like a good idea. I wonder if any added costs (if any) would be more than covered by the American Made sales incentive.

 

Good point. I was really impressed with the letter but this post really makes me wonder. How proud are they of their american heritage when they are company hopping in europe instead of moving that production here. Are they willing to say that the american companies are not capable? Either move two trailer loads of molds within Europe or move trailer loads of castings here forever.

 

Prolly has more to do with production costs than pride. I like to think all American companies would only use American vendors and American work forces. Hard to compete though in a world wide marketplace with other companies paying pennies to their employees and suppliers.

 

I'm not a huge "made in america" or nothing type of guy. I understand that we are in a global economy and that most of the things we need are not going to be domestic.

This implies to me that the WS company feels that leaving Beligium and/or europe will result in poor quality castings. If anybody knows of a foundary in the US that they think will make castings that are good enough then perhaps Woodstock needs to be marketed.

 

Some of those European foundries have been operating for hundreds of years. My old hearthstone stove was cast in Spain and had the cleanest castings I've ever seen (although I admit I know very little about the process).

 

There were and are some great foundries in Vermont & New Hampshire. Some are gone, others are struggling, and some still do excellent custom castings. Jotul has had its cast iron components made in Vermont for the North American market. I'm sure somebody from Woodstock Soapstone could find one of the small foundries near their factory. Another option would be to buy a struggling foundry and save those jobs. That way they could be in complete control of production and quality.

KaptJaq

 

I was slated to receive mine toward the beginning of December. I called two weeks ago just to finalize the design and they projected the build date was last week into this week. I haven't heard about a ship date yet, but I have a working stove (pre-epa) so I am not in too much of a hurry.

 

I ordered mine Aug 4th, I was promised Nov 10th, I recieved Dec 8th. First break in fire yesterday! Stinky!

 

Real good point.
Seems they had a good time to switch to a USA steel foundry .
Several high tech casting companies .
Several foundries in N America.

Must be a $$ reason.
I've always wondered how shipping it thousands of miles is cheaper than hundreds of miles. ?