supplier: Product Questions / Help / Feedback

[Lucy Tasker 82]

Hi everyone!

 

This has been set up for you to ask us directly about any queries regarding Ecrotek products. We're not here to push product at you - we're here to engage in the community and listen to what you guys have to say. Whether it's is a 'how to use...', a product you'd like to see us stocking, or a problem you've come across, we're here to listen and help you out.

 

I look forward to speaking to you!

[tristan 3857]

very good to see a supplier taking a bold step.

 

i don't think i got back to staurt who gave me a couple of plastic drone frames to trail at the first rotorua conference.

i cut them down to fit in 3/4 boxes. despite not having a bottom bar they work fine.

so far it seams to reduce drones in the other frames.

just wish there was 3/4 sized drone frames.

[Lucy Tasker 82]

very good to see a supplier taking a bold step.

 

i cut them down to fit in 3/4 boxes. despite not having a bottom bar they work fine.

so far it seams to reduce drones in the other frames.

just wish there was 3/4 sized drone frames.

 

Hi Tristan, The reason we don't currently do 3/4 Depth Drone Frames is that a majority of beekeepers run full depth brood boxes, and the cost of tooling currently isn't justifiable. However, it would definitely be something we consider if the demand is there - I'd be interested to know if there's others after these?

Edited July 26, 2017 by Guest

[Shaun 1480]

 

i cut them down to fit in 3/4 boxes. despite not having a bottom bar they work fine.

so far it seams to reduce drones in the other frames.

just wish there was 3/4 sized drone frames.

I did the same a number of years back and glued a timber bottom bar on the frame, seemed to work just fine.

I now run wooden jumbo frames and leave a frame foundation-less for drone brood.

[Daley 4129]

Very brave indeed Ecrotek (y)

[ChrisM 717]

Hey Trev has Lucy put you out of a job?

You go overseas and just look what happens

[Trevor Gillbanks 6058]

Hey Trev has Lucy put you out of a job?

You go overseas and just look what happens

You might be correct. She is a lot better looking than me and she might start doing the videos.

[beefree 291]

Hey Lucy,

Can I make a suggestion to keep the Christchurch shop much better stocked? At least have them order more stock well in advance so it gets restocked before it runs out. I do realize last season you guys had some issues from the suppliers when it came to large gear, such as boxes and foundation, I understand that. But when it comes to small items, like queen cages or queen rearing gear or other bits there seems to be a large delay from when there is nothing in the shop to when more stock arrives, yet there is often sufficient stock in Auckland. It seems the stock does not filter down to CHCH very well, these parts are critical to me in order to run my operation, I have learned to order well in advance to avoid this issue, but sometimes i still get caught out and need something on the day. I often end up having to courier it down from Auckland at my expense, which still can take a few days.

I suggest if you guys don't have things in stock you cover the courier cost, at least for your commercial customers who need things ASAP.

I can't help but feel us CHCH people have been forgotten about now Auckland has taken over. I've talked to many other customers in chch and they feel frustrated too by this as I have sold a lot of nucs to hobbyist and they often need gear at that point.

Thanks

Edited August 15, 2017 by beefree

[Lucy Tasker 82]

Hi @beefree,

 

Firstly this is very valuable feedback and something that we clearly need to get right.  I’ve had a discussion with the team and we recognise your frustrations.  We have recently installed a new stock management system that gives us better visibility on stock and its location, which ultimately will enable us to get the right product to the right location. 

 

We actually do have a freight subsidy on items that should be available in Christchurch but are shipped from Auckland so it was disappointing to hear that you were charged freight on stock from Auckland that should have been available in Christchurch.  If you message me your order details or name, I can have a look and credit you back the difference you were charged.

 

We’re keen to see improvements in this area because we do like to keep our customers happy, our South Island customers are just as important to us and we have no intention of forgetting you. ?

 

Thanks again

Lucy

[GoDamit 44]

Hi @Lucy Tasker. I've mentioned this to you before, after a recent trip to your Chch branch, I found myself again wondering how you can run a sales shop with such a painful payment system.

The small shop and frequent out of stock items doesn't bother much at all, but 5 minutes to make a transaction is ridiculous. Hope you sort this out soon, I guarantee you'r loosing customers because of this.

Edited October 1, 2017 by Trevor Gillbanks
Fixed your tag to Lucy

[Lucy Tasker 82]

Hi @GoDamit,

 

Our Christchurch shop is about to be renovated, so you'll hopefully see some layout changes soon. I've just spoken to our Branch Manager in Christchurch, Melissa, about the transaction time, she says:

 

"While the POS system we now use is a lot faster than the old system, the printer is incredibly slow (up to 2 mins sometimes). We are currently looking into what we can do to resolve this.  I suspect new data cables may help and this would be addressed as part of the shop reno.

 

There are delays in the sale transactions when we have 3 or 4 customers in at once – which is escalated because of the printer issue.  As for the stock outages – I’m reasonably confident that 90% of the time it will stock that is outside our control. The slow printing issue will be given top priority as i’m sure this will be the complaint comes from."

 

As you can see we are addressing these issues as a top priority, but please let me know if there's anything further I can help you with

 

Lucy

[Aquila 614]

Warehouse stationary, epson3520, $200 (cheaper when you claim the gst back)

[Lucy Tasker 82]

On 10/21/2017 at 1:55 AM, Aquila said:

Warehouse stationary, epson3520, $200 (cheaper when you claim the gst back)

 

Hi Aquila,

It's not the actual printer, it's to do with the internet transfer speed, and cabling in Christchurch. As mentioned we're looking into the issues as top priority with the shop refit

 

Lucy

[GoDamit 44]

Sounds  like your priorities are misplaced and I call shenanigans on internet transfer speed and cables.

We have fibre in this area, ethernet cables and cable ties are dirt cheap.

[yesbut 5430]

5 minutes ago, GoDamit said:

We have fibre in this area

What area is this, yours ? If so, I am also in New Zealand, and I don't have fibre...

[GoDamit 44]

1 minute ago, yesbut said:

What area is this, yours ? If so, I am also in New Zealand, and I don't have fibre...

 

Christchurch west side. Sux to be you

 

@Lucy Tasker When I said "your" I meant Ecrotek. I realize you're just a PR person.

[Tony Greathead 48]

Same, not all of New Zealand including parts of the city centres are on fibre. Part of Hastings and Napier cities are still not on fibre. I am sure the company eroteck use for POS are adept in the technology they use for POS given most card swipe systems and the printers are pretty much universal across the country. Calling Shenanigans ( reads to me basically stating she is lying or making up excuses) and that she is just a PR person (she is actually an employee who chooses to use this forum to engage directly with the customer base) seems a bit off. Plenty of other companies do not bother to engage on this level via forums. We can be grateful she does and at least take what she is saying on face value and that is truthful and not shenanigans.

Edited October 25, 2017 by Tony Greathead

[Rob Stockley 3414]

Thanks @Tony Greathead well said. Probably nothing else need be said on the matter.

 

Please consider the "shenanigans" side bar closed and leave this topic for constructive support questions and feedback.

[tommy dave 876]

lucy - i've seen some feedback on the plastic queen excluders that have been modified to allow a spacing and an entrance - basically stating that the entrance is on the wrong side. Is there a version 2.0 in the works?

[tristan 3857]

30 minutes ago, tommy dave said:

lucy - i've seen some feedback on the plastic queen excluders that have been modified to allow a spacing and an entrance - basically stating that the entrance is on the wrong side. Is there a version 2.0 in the works?

i guessing that it gives a top entrance to the 2nd hive in a double queen hive. to do a bottom entrance you need an excluder with double bee space.

i got a couple of samples in after seeing @Trevor Gillbanks video. trailing one at the mo.

[tristan 3857]

45 minutes ago, tommy dave said:

lucy - i've seen some feedback on the plastic queen excluders that have been modified to allow a spacing and an entrance - basically stating that the entrance is on the wrong side. Is there a version 2.0 in the works?

i forgot. they do have them https://www.ecrotek.co.nz/product/usa-excluder-plastic-gated

[Alastair 6583]

Hi Lucy I have a question / issue about Ecrotek pre waxed frames.

 

The last couple batches of frames I've bought have been pre waxed with 30 grams wax per FD frame. I have not purchased these before. The bees don't like them and are building heaps of burr alongside them rather than draw the frame. This is even happening with frames placed tightly, mid brood nest.

 

In the past I've purchased Ecrotek frames unwaxed and waxed them myself, at 50 grams wax per frame, quality cappings wax, and the bees have taken to them real well, no problems at all.

 

Just wondering if you have had any other feedback about this, or any solutions. I'm told you can also supply frames with more than 30 grams wax applied, if so, are these getting better results?

 

Some further info, some of the frames are waxed rather unevenly, however even the thicker waxed parts of the frames are not being drawn properly. Also, the boxes of frames have a rather manky smell, not the nice beeswax smell one would expect. They smell like slumgum.

 

 

Edited November 7, 2017 by Alastair

[Lucy Tasker 82]

22 hours ago, tommy dave said:

lucy - i've seen some feedback on the plastic queen excluders that have been modified to allow a spacing and an entrance - basically stating that the entrance is on the wrong side. Is there a version 2.0 in the works?

 

Hi @tommy dave, 

 

The bee space queen excluder should be placed with the bee space on the bottom. The benefit in this is that the bees will not have to move through 1 or 2 full brood boxes during the flow, but I agree, they will not have quite as much benefit as with the gated plastic rimmed queen excluder, where they also bypass the excluder.

  

We’d like to have all options available for Beekeepers but the reality of tooling costs mean that there are limitations, and having the entrance on top is currently not possible with how we manufacture.

 

Also, sorry everyone if I'm taking slightly longer than usual to reply - I don't seem to be getting email notifications at the moment.

[Lucy Tasker 82]

8 hours ago, Alastair said:

Hi Lucy I have a question / issue about Ecrotek pre waxed frames.

 

The last couple batches of frames I've bought have been pre waxed with 30 grams wax per FD frame. I have not purchased these before. The bees don't like them and are building heaps of burr alongside them rather than draw the frame. This is even happening with frames placed tightly, mid brood nest.

 

In the past I've purchased Ecrotek frames unwaxed and waxed them myself, at 50 grams wax per frame, quality cappings wax, and the bees have taken to them real well, no problems at all.

 

Just wondering if you have had any other feedback about this, or any solutions. I'm told you can also supply frames with more than 30 grams wax applied, if so, are these getting better results?

 

Some further info, some of the frames are waxed rather unevenly, however even the thicker waxed parts of the frames are not being drawn properly. Also, the boxes of frames have a rather manky smell, not the nice beeswax smell one would expect. They smell like slumgum.

 

 

 

Hi @Alastair,

 

Thanks for taking the time to leave a message and feedback. This is certainly something we have never heard before and given the amount of 30g waxed frames we have sold, it is a real surprise that you are having this issue. We will certainly try and work with you to help out but I am afraid I do not have any immediate solutions – as this is the first time we have heard of this happening.

 

Given you are in Auckland, if you could please bring the frames you have into our showroom, we will take a really good look and smell to ensure they are exactly as they should be. 

 

The smell is also difficult to understand so to have them on hand would be a great help. All our frames are sprayed with 100% NZ cappings beeswax, so their is no reason for them to smell like anything else.

 

Is there a day in the coming weeks that you could come in to show us?

Edited November 8, 2017 by Lucy Tasker

[Alastair 6583]

If traffic gets bad and I can never tell before leaving, it's a half day round trip. Could I courier them? What's the courier address?

 

I'll send a couple of unused ones, plus an improperly drawn one as an example.

Edited November 8, 2017 by Alastair