Handling Complaints About Firewood Sold

[JimMorrison]

Expand your product line and make some extra money. Offer some of those starter sticks, kind of like a road flare. That and a well written info/ instructional sheet, should do the trick. For the few having trouble, a different species won't help.

 

[ArthurB]

Printed info will negate most probs

Incl. instructions on how to build and feed a fire, and the different sorts of wood available

Also worth pointing out that different open fires and SC heaters breathe differently - I provide split hardwood for SC heaters in three houses, and one has to be split much finer to get a good burn - something to do with the design of the fire box I guess

 

[Wood Doctor]

Oak is rather hard to get the fire started, especially if a little green. It takes forever to dry and it's hard to tell when it is dry. I usually deliver mixed hardwoods that help the oak and locust get going.

Consider my other solution. Deliver some scrap or small split sticks of really dry kindling along with your truckloads. I bundle it up like a campfire bundle and offer it free. People love this and never complain. They even throw in a tip on occasion. Give it a try!

 

[JimMorrison]

You sold 95 cords, delivered and stacked, 1/3rd cord at a time, and you just started. You are obviously doing an excellent job. Build on and protect that good start. This is what selling retail is like. A small percentage will take more time and work then they are worth, but they will always be there. Do what ever it takes, with a smile. If you take the wood back, they will buy somewhere else. In the meantime they will figure out what they are doing wrong and build a good fire. Very few will ever admit their own part in what happened. They will just blame it on your product. Sell them some wood and make sure they are burning it. There may be one or two you end up losing but you can handle 98% of them.

 

[sb47]

The best and easiest way I have found is very simple.
When you clean out your ashes, leave a little in a little pile.
Take about a quarter cup of diesel and soak the ash pile. (I use a squirt bottle)
Stack your logs on top and light the ashes.
The diesel will not flash, in fact you have to hold your match to for a few seconds.
Diesel burns hot and for a long time, long enough to start your logs.
I have a Dawn dish soap squirt bottle that works great for applying it to my ash pile.
I sometimes squirt the logs on the ends where it will soak into the grain.
Diesel has a very low flash point and will not flash like gas or charcoal starter.

 

[sb47]

Do not, and I repeat do not use alcohol.
I had a rubbing alcohol bottle with one of those flip up tops that you could squirt without opening the cap.
My fire was out (so I thought) and I squirted a little alcohol on it to start it back up.
Evidently there was a spark or enough heat to make it flair up.
In a split sec the flame traveled up the stream and into the bottle, turning it into a rocket, witch shot across the room spewing alcohol as it went.
Luckily there wasn't much in the bottle and alcohol burns up fast and it didn't burn anything.

 

[muddstopper]

I had a single lady wanting some wood once. I sold her a good load, delivered and even stacked it on her porch. Got a call a few nights later said she couldnt get the wood to burn. Well, I had a bunch of old heart pine lumber I had hauled in for kindling so I filled up a large paper bag with finely split kindling and headed to her house. I showed her how to use the kindling to build a fire and had a fire just a roaring in a few minutes. Everything was fine and dandy. Well the next day she called and wanted to know if I had any more of that good firewood I used to start the fire. Instead of feeding the good split oak to keep the fire going, she had fed the whole bag of kindling to her fire in one night. Cant fix stupid, aint going to try. I did go back to her house and I walked around her yard picking up sticks and breaking off dead pine limbs for fire starters and I made it clear the kindling was for starting the fire, the split wood for keeping the fire fed. I built a fire before i left and never heard from her again.

 

[Mike Van]

Hey Gary, here in new england in a lifetime of wood & logs, i've yet to see oak dry in the log with the bark on or off outside, it'll rot first. You should use the meter to start the next finicky fire. I think mixing species will help your cause a lot -

 

[mohick]

Heck muddstopper you said she was single, prob widow?? She just wanted to keep you coming back !!! hahahah

 

[muddstopper]

Well, she was good looking, but at the time my wife worked for her, which is the only reason I put up with her ignorance as long as I did.

 

[stihl sawing]

Tell them to get a box of these, if they can't get one goin with these then they don't need to burn wood.

 

[sb47]

Tell them to get a box of these, if they can't get one goin with these then they don't need to burn wood.

You read my mind. lol

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

I've always Built fires the 2 ways my Dad taught me when I was a kid.

Outside campfire type: Stand them on end with bottoms out and tops together like a teepee. Smaller splits or rounds once first few are in place then Stack around leaving a door if you will. Stuff paper with small twigs or spits in and light. Feed paper if needed into the door.

Inside or stoves: 2 larger pieces laying length wise with open center, Paper first then twigs or small splits on top. Then lay smalls 90 degrees to sides and full length, Spaces are good. then criss cross wood layers up. This way when the fire starts the flames hit more wood surface area and starts fast as it's slowed down.

My grandmother always used whole corn cobs when I was a child to start her parlor stove. Always had a large jar that was 3/4 full of kerosene. She use 1 or 2 and put a couple more back and screw the lid back on. Little turbo starters if you will and took very little paper that way. Finding corn cobs wood be difficult anymore but it sure worked nice. You can do similar by soaking charcoal brickettes in either kerosene or grill starter. Better option for todays crowd.

As other said. Either find a viideo or make one so buyers can see an example. Explaining it sometimes gets lost on folks who have no experience.

 

[ropensaddle]

Hey Guys thanks for all the advice so far,

Mike- My father is a logger and has had logs sitting for several years that I busted up this spring and are showing 18-20% moisture content now, and also had 30 cord split up that's reading a few % lower, and the rest I've got from buying and reselling in better markets, again making sure it's good on moisture.

I would agree going the mixed hardwood route may be one way to avoid this, but the oak brings a premium and I'm one of the few supplying 100% Oak (maybe that's a sign to switch) And it's a lot more difficult to get mixed hardwood firewood than it is to get oak firewood in my neck of the woods.

I wish there was a better way to show to unhappy customers that it's not the wood than just saying I've had very minimal complaints and the wood is showing good moisture content. But like mentioned some people just never are happy.

I go out and look for roten pine stumps to pull out and chop into small bricketts which I hand to the customer explaining the use. One brickett is all it takes if there is draw and you have a fire. Pine knot if you have it is the solution to fire starting for beginners. Of course I can start a fire with one little piece of cardboard and well seasoned twigs until coals are sufficient to put logs on. Many customers are ceetie slickers and would starve if left to the elements