I'd like to hear from everyone out there who should feel so inclined to give some feedback (positive or negative) regarding the customer service they received from any one of the major SVO companies (Golden Fuel(Greasel), Greasecar, Frybrid, Plantdrive, etc...)pre- and post- purchase of any SVO system or individual component. I would kindly request that the representatives of each company refrain from posting to this thread. I make this request simply because I would like a pure and honest flow of uninterrupted feedback from customers. The pure volume of knowledge regarding technical issues dealing with SVO is well represented in this forum. There are many "newbies" that, in search for a quality company with whom to do business would benefit from customer feedback. I realize there might be some who have had wonderful experiences and others who are poisoned by theirs. In any case, if you choose to give feed back, I'd ask that you approach it with a mature attitude. No flaming...Just honest assessment of your experience. Thanks!

Are you going to choose which kit to buy based on these replies of who has the best customer service?

I think this is a joke if you do. As you can see on the valve failure discussion in this forum a lot of people are in this for $$$$$ reasons. The true pioneers pay the cost while others tag along and try to make a quick buck. Choosing a kit based on customer service is a joke because that just means to me that you are going to milk everything possible out of the people you buy your kit from so that you can burn veg. I think people should educate themselves more before making these decision. I didn't know when I started doing this four years ago what I was getting into.(by the way we are trying to replicate the fuel industry if you didn't know) I still am learning. Picking a company based on customer service sounds to me like whenever there is an issue you will be taking up there valueble time when if you research the forums and apply yourself you will probably come up with the answer. Instead of advancing the vegtable oil field the kit makers time is spent answering questions thus making even less money if looking at it from an hourly standpoint per kit sold.

I am sorry to vent and nothing personal to you but I feel this is a good issue to be addressed. Everybody doing this deeply cares about it for one reason or another. Maybe your a super hippy or a severe motorhead, truth be told we all need to realize this is fun. Sure beats buying gasonline. If I go back to the phone calls I have answered on kits I have installed I bet I was making about a buck an hour after it was installed and we worked through educating people on how to run wvo(even less every time I answer those calls). That is not being in it for the money. I think the valve failure discussion should be a must read for newbies and a lesson in respect for people trying to get into this field. We all want everyone to be sucessful hence the reason we have forums. By digging in and researching it yourself you will educate yourself on the best kit to buy and understand it's components. The answers are all right here just ask.

The main problem with forums is a new topic is always being started. Things get lost in the history files. Everyone wants an answer right now, if you only look and dedicate yourself to digging for real answers will you figure out what works best for you. Experience also helps don't get me wrong. If you want I could build you a kit, but I won't answer any of your questions, Ijust tell you how to install it!!!!!

Good luck.

PS I have bought stuff from Frybrid, Plantdrive, and Golden Fuel Systems. I have not and will not buy anything from greasecar based on my own educated opinion of things.

quote:

Originally posted by greasinhappy:
I would kindly request that the representatives of each company refrain from posting to this thread. I make this request simply because I would like a pure and honest flow of uninterrupted feedback from customers.

Thanks for pointing that out Chris. I missed that. I apologize to greasinhappy.I will delete the message and start a new thread

I'm still in the shopping phase, trying to decide which way to go. I have bounced quite a few emails off of Vegistroke (Jason) and Plantdrive (Craig). They have both been very helpful and professional and answered quite a few "pre-sale" questions for me. I have sent Frybrid a couple of inquiries, but never got an answer from them. Greasel at least cut 'n pasted an answer for me from their website into an email.

I have gathered information from Dana Linscott, Chris Goodwin, Craig at Plantdrive, Omar, and Fattywagons ... and ALL have been very helpful, even though I haven't purchase anything but from Dana (plans and line heaters) and Omar (FPHE). Dana's post-purchase help has been excellent; fast, reliable, and knowledgeable. I haven't needed Omar's help, but I'm sure he'd step up and be helpful.

So far, so good. This thread has the potential to be very beneficial to all those seeking a reputable SVO business. I agree with powdrluvr that customer service isn't everything. Quality product is extremely important. The most successful business out there are competent in both areas. I just feel that the feedback on customer service has been underrepresented in this forum. Keep up the comments!

I purchased plans from Dana. He was extremely helpful and very quick to respond to emails. Thanks to his plans, and the posts on this forum, I went from knowing very little about VO conversions to being able to build my own system.

I purchased 3-way valves from Greasecar.com. The valves arrived VERY quickly and are top notch products. Lee has been very helpful and very responsive to my emails (even when I screwed up and hooked the valve up wrong!). He has been very tolerant and in my opinion the customer service can't be beat.

I placed an order with Fattywagons back in April and despite emails, phone calls and assurances that my order will ship, I never received it. I requested my money back and haven't gotten that either. John seems to be a very nice guy when I can get him on the phone but he is incredibly busy. I know that he doesn't really run Fattywagons as a "business" per-se, but it is something to consider if you are planning on buying from him. Nothing personal against him, and his line heaters always get good reviews, but i'm just posting my experiance with fattywagons.


These are the only companies I have had personal experiance with.

Let me revise that....

I have also purchased 2 FPHE's from Omar. Excellent service and a great price due to his group-buy. THE place to look first for MB parts.

the only thing i have bought, so far, are dana's prefilter plans. he doesnt sell anything else i need, but based on all the great free info he has given on this forum, i would buy from him if he offered what i needed.

too many guys fight on this forum. i dont mean dissagree, i mean fight. i wont deal with anyone who fights.

the only other company i have dealt with is plantdrive and www.leskwvo.com. leskwvo installs plantdrive kits. i am still planning my system and when i saw plantdrive offered the "vormax" i posted a question here about it. after getting the answer here, i felt plantdrive had lied about what the "vormax " can do. "plant- drive " responded here and in private email several times explaining why they felt they had done nothing wrong. in the end i had to admit, that although i didnt like the way they advertised the "vormax" they did make sure i knew what it could do before i bought it. in other words, if i had emailed them the question i posted here, they would have told that me it could not do what i thought the website said it could do. excellient customer service.
Leskwvo offered to meet with me to show me the plantdrive conversion on his truck when he was visting friends in my area, we werent able to meet, but the offer still impressed me. (both plantdrive and leskwvo are out of state.)i would deal with both plantdrive and leskwvo .

I agree with you greaseinhappy. Quality parts is what I should have stated in my other rant. Companies that are in this to advance the field and bring more to the table are what we need. This is challenging because everybody wants to run "free" fuel. By consumers placing stress on a business quality usually suffers. I have experienced this. We all can learn more and be of help to eachother.

That being said I have purchased stuff from plantdrive, frybrid, greaseworks, omar, vegpower.com, greasel(gfs, why did they change their name?), nothing from dana(but he has offered advice and answered questions of mine in emails). I think frybrid is top notch after seeing more of their systems. I bought lots of stuff from plantdrive with great service. Both could do better. Greasel is falling short, vegpower is great(I have had some good conversations with Lucas).
Hopefully I did not offend anyone, so I will not post the bad things I have seen from other companies. Nothing to be of concern if you deal with the companies mentioned above.
I am sure there are a few people that could say something bad about my business or conversions. All I can say is I am doing the best I can. I am educating myself as well as others and trying my best to be as sucessful at this as anyone else.

Good luck to all who join the wvo club, just spend your time searching the forums rather then bothering these companies.
I always tell people i am not trying to sell anyone a conversion, if you want one you have already been sold on it.

I'm a bit surprised that we don't have any more feedback than we do at this point. Nice though that for the most part it is positive. Keep it coming!!!

I have purchased plans from Dana. I have purchased his heater and his injector line heaters. I have always been extremely happy with his answers and his shipping. Excellent business person. Excellent ideas. I have purchased Fattywagons injector line heaters and found his response to my stupid ?? extremely helpful. I have e-mailed Frybird or bid but I have never received a response. Omar had a good price on FPHE and he has always answered ?? promptly. I guess I have been lucky and not had any problems whatsoever. Now if I could only figure out what I am supposed to do withg this stuff I will die happy.

Before I finally bought a vegtherm mega, Edd Beggs spoke at length with me on just about every subject related to biofuels. Most Canadian biofuel people don't really know how influential Ed has been in lobbying our government on biofuel policies. He's been huge.

GreaseCar has good customer service and ships quickly. They even pick up the phone. PlantDrive is great too - then send many emails let you know the status of your order. FryBrid - although they have great products and Chris is very knowledgeable - has the worse customer service I've ever seen. They don't answer emails or voice mails. You end up posting your specifics in forums and many times Chris won't even reply to them.

I have purchased from Dana and Plantdrive. Very pleased with what I got from both and how the sales and after sales support went.

Dana, Craig and Ed (Plantdrive) were very quick with responses to questions, technical stuff, and etc.

I found greasecar, then greasel, then frybrid and stopped there b/c a) the kits seemed superior materials/quality wise and b) the detailed level of forum discussion took my interest immediately. From there I found open discussions of many other kits / ideas / parts / people / supplies, etc which is how I found and bought Dana's plans filtration/sucker plans - which I recommend highly - how I found and decided to build a frybrid still and how I found and am contemplating an FN74 kit. Any question that I have ever asked Dana, Chris or Jason has always been answered politely and with attention to detail (must have been obvious I had no idea ). I have never had an opportunity to interact with GC or greasel so I can't comment on either - except that I've seen some of Craig's? posts and he seems knowledgeable and helpful. I have seen certain people get into heated forum debates and sometimes a little mud gets thrown - which could be seen as bad customer service - understandably so - but honestly - I respect people for who they are, and personally, I feel it adds a little flavor to the boards. Most of the time, that's where I can obtain a significant amount of information b/c things get drilled down so specifically and laid out on the table for analysis that I've benefited severely from it. Anyway, I've also had good luck with greenroadsupply - ordered a bucket heater from them w/o issue. Bought some components from fryer-to-fuel and they were great! Regardless, I think we're all in the same boat, er, fleet, sailing for the same cause and at the end of the day, it's nice to know that no matter where I bought my kit or parts, if I have a question or problem, chances are any one of you would be willing to help me out - and that for me, is the best part (except passing gas stations, or so I hear).