With all do respect ja if I had to guess between a random google search coming up to my post or one of several pissed off topic responders I know where my bet is. I don't care about google. One thing it doesn't take into consideration is how many members search for something that directs us to this site. It has some real world value and a lot of false hits too.

In addition I'd rather take my chances blabbing on a semi-anonymous board over the local coffee shop any day. And judging from your response I obviously rubbed you the wrong way too.



Good day

Not a good mental picture lol.

Well it has to be one of the few who commented that I was the devil and the sole reason society is the way it is and cheap china exports etc etc etc.

I was reading through a forum on that Discovery channel show gold rush or whatever. It amazed me the number of people calling child protective services on those cats for what they subjected their kids too. A few made threats and claimed they did turn them in. Not even realizing it was filmed ages ago.

Everyone wants to try to fix the world. It's funny how much activity that post got compared to other posts from people with genuine problems over the sole purpose of this forum. People came out of the woodwork to put me in my place. I find it hard to believe Lowe's stumbled upon my post. It had to be someone from here that tipped them off.

It isn't a felony in Indiana and even me coming out and telling you the story isn't an admission of guilt. Lastly I have spoken with the manager of the store since then and all has been worked out both to my advantage and Lowes. I welcome the call from legal. I still have a bone to pick with them.

Well PM me if they would like my phone number.

Wonder who the tattle tale is. I feel like I'm back in 1st grade again.

It's awesome. Thanks for asking.

Don't worry I am thick skinned. I can take it and dish it.

I'm glad I got to speak my mind. Got to end on a good note.

Here I was worried sting was afraid I was gonna get to his karma level on one topic

Anyone? Should I be worried ATF is in the bushes watching me right now?

Pete- I agree. However if it did happen a second time I would have shredded his stuff and given his money to someone who needed it; like a struggling single mom.

Sting, that reminds me of the Howard Stern hate club. It blows my mind how many people call in just to complain. If you don't like what he has to say don't listen. It's your right to not listen.

This was my what goes around came around. We spent a lot of money on a new roof in 2009, 50 year warranty etc. Money we didn't have. We were expecting our first (and only) and had just taken over the farm. My business had just taken off a few weeks before and this was what I spent my first big job check on. Lowe's hired the contractor. Two weeks into it we had nasty rain. The entire second floor of my house had major water damage. Insurance took care of everything except for the roof. There was a defect with the new shingles, the Owens Corning rep came out to the farm and looked and determined there was a flaw in the materials. They were going to foot the bill for the whole deal until they found out that the crew who Lowe's hired wasn't a OC approved contractor. So the deal was Lowe's was supposed to be responsible for reimbursing me for the labor. Their exact words (on paper) were to go out and get one of the OC recommended installers to do it and send them the bill. Well the crew I called wanted paid up front (I assume they wanted to stay as far out of the mess as possible and I don't blame them). So I paid them, they came out and removed the old roof installed the new one and off they went. I sent the bill to Lowe's per our agreement.

I got a letter in the mail a little while later from their legal department basically telling me that it was my fault and I should have verified who the crew was before letting them work on my house. Well I did, I verified they were Lowe's and the people Lowe's hired to do it. I still couldn't tell you what the contractor's name is since I never found out (it was Juan, and Juan, and Juan and Juan and Jose). Not odd since most of the roofers around here are of latin decent. So now what? I went back and forth with legal for weeks. I showed them the letter I had signed from the store manager telling me they would reimburse me. I contacted my attorney who basically told me that it was him against the giant and that even if I did win I would basically be out more money fighting them and I should just put a mark in the loss column and move on.

Do you have any idea how hard that was for me to swallow? The worst part about it is that I'm serious when I say that we don't really have a choice around here. It's them or Homer Depot. Both equally as bad in my eyes. I can call hundreds of friends who would all tell you the same thing; they would rather cut off both their nuts before dealing with them, but with over 20 of each within a 30 mile radius there aren't any mom n pop shops around here any more worth going to. The ones who did survive the flood of new stores are so overpriced only the rich can afford to shop there. I really have no idea how they are in business (actually I do contractors do use them and pass the upcharged items along to their customers.)

So in my book I may have gotten $500-$600 back from Lowe's but I'm still down over $6000. It's so bad that my grandfather went out 3 years ago (at 85 years old) and built himself a saw mill so he wouldn't have to go there any more to purchase lumber for his little craft projects. He spent probably well over 10 grand to avoid going to one of the giants. It's real sad.

I could sit here for hours and rant and rave about them but I won't. On to the good part.

Like TC said "you can only be hung once" right?!

I did send a buddy down to get the original load I was after a few days ago. Then had another take them back without a receipt and got in store credit. Ok so maybe my tally is down to $5500 now. Still a loss for me.

That's how I'm justifying it. I know many many people around here who would pat me on the back and say "right on man". Is it right? Well I'm the wrong person to ask. I'd give a friend the shirt off my back. I stop along side the road to help strangers regularly. I personally don't care who likes me or not for what I've shared on this board but I do sleep at night. And my parents are both very proud of me. Even knowing what I have done. You better believe if that was Mr. Knox's store down the road and it happened the same way I would have carried the wrong pellets back myself and got the right ones. I would never steal from a friend, and I would never turn my back on someone in need. But screw me and I promise I will get mine. My wife was 3 months pregnant standing there in Lowe's with me crying her eyes out trying to figure out how the hell we were going to come up with the money to pay for all of that mess and if I knew I wouldn't leave my kid without a daddy I would have ripped that idiot's sack through his throat when he looked at me and said "it's out of my hands". It sure wasn't out of his hands when he sent me that letter in the mail telling me what to do.


Tell that to your shareholders.

And yes I probably wouldn't share with a few buddies over some beers but on a forum in "make believe Internet land" around a bunch of people who feel the pain each year when stocking up yes I will share.

Ok so I'm taking votes. Who wants to hear part 2?

Finally an honest man...

Ha ha ha. I can't believe I ask a question and get a few helpful responses; tell a story and get it shoved up my arse. 

So I guess you all don't want to hear about the second load I got then? It's better than the first one. 

I'm not even going to begin to explain myself and my hatred towards Lowes I think at this point it would be a waste of time. I'm a man and I'll stand here in front of the firing squad until it's all over; no new screen name here. Keep the negative karma coming. 

I know for a fact that the manufacturer isn't the one to eat the loss it's a combo deal worked out on the front end of the deal when purchased. Neither here nor there. I happen to be friends with several friends who work for Lowes advertising department and also someone who sells pellets to them. I have actually told both of them what happened. They shrugged it off and basically told me how it was. The same helpful people who loaded me up also misguide you due to lack of expertise when you ask them a question. 

I do know that there are many people out there who would have done the same thing. They are just too chicken sh!t to speak their mind. I've personally been f'd out of several thousand of dollars by the same store when I had my roof put on a few years ago. They hired an inexperienced crew to install and guess who was stuck paying for their mistake; me. If I had a choice of shopping anywhere else I would but round here they have drove them all out of business. 

So keep the negative karma coming. I love it. I have also consulted with an attorney and asked and basically it's on them to load the right product. Yea morally I probably should have said something but guess what you have proven in your comments who I am already. 

So what about the guy who said if there were a few good bags mixed in he wouldn't have said anything? Either you have morals or you don't. Not only because it's a few it's ok and the whole load is wrong?

Personally I don't give a crap what the moral rangers here have said. I have also been back to the same store several times since then and will continue to shop there since I don't have a choice. 

I guess God will decide my punishment. I'm sure I've done worse in the past. 

Thanks for the comments. It's like Christmas morning every day to get up and read my email. I'm loving it. 

tallcorn wrote:


I hear ya. If that was a 'mom & pop' outfit I would definitely have said something. Kinda hard not to when it's Lowe's or WalMart. I've watched Lowe's put many friends out of business in the past 10 years. Good guys with good advice. It's hard to get someone to help you get something off a tall shelf at Blowe's not to mention good advice.

I'm not a horrible person. Just slightly misguided at times. I have to feed my family too.

tallcorn wrote:


¿Por qué?

It's no different then the truckload I have watched them sell over the past few months incorrectly priced. The guy even said tonight they sold 15+ skids of the cheap stuff for $2/bag more than they were supposed to.

Not to mention there is another Lowe's about an hour from here with 1800+ bags of Somerset pellets they will sell at a loss in 4 weeks to make room for new inventory.

That's the way to do it. Find a store who doesn't move product an wait for them to sell out their stock when it goes out of season.

Would you have corrected their mistake? This stuff is like gold around here. Especially when the temperature drops. Is it right to charge $3-$4 a bag more because it's 20 outside? How many customers do you think they have incorrectly charged something at a higher price than posted?

You take 'at

What's your's mean?

I just had to share this with people I know will appreciate it. My wife kinda did but not as much as I know this board will.....

So back in September or October I purchased a couple of tons of animal bedding pellets produced by a local recycler. The guy there advertised fuel pellets on craigslist and when I called he talked me into these bedding pellets they make on site. They are $150/ton and the price never changes. They are real dusty and require a ton of cleaning but not any worse than anything else I don't think. Don't really know actually that's all I've really burned for any lenght of time. Well I'm almost out and I needed to restock.

I have bought a few bags from Lowe's over the past few months when I was trying to troubleshoot a heat output problem with my stove. The Lowe's near my house had two different brands for the same price $5.87/bag $5.37/bag with purchase of a ton or more. The Somerset pellets are great and IMO worth the price. The other brand were real crappy. I was going to bite the bullet and buy a ton of the expensive Somerset pellets from Lowe's this weekend so I went in to see what they had. There were only about 20 bags of Somerset left, so I asked if there were more. The guy said they had about 3 skids of the good stuff, then he had 3 skids of the crap which were mispriced all winter long. Someone had helped themselves to the crappy ones with one of the fork lifts and knocked the 3 crappy skids off the rack. About 15-20 bags of the 3 skids were damaged.

They decided to send back all 150ish bags but would sell me the load for $0.50/bag. I thought "holy $hit even if they are crap thats only $75 for 3 tons of pellets. I don't care if there are 30 bum bags I'll take it. All of it."

Well since they have had the crappy ones mispriced they all rang up as "Premium pellets". I bought my skids earlier today and went back tonight with the trailer. My receipt said "Pick up later" and $0.50/bag for 150 total $75.

Wouldn't you know it there was a different crew tonight when I got there. I told him where I parked the truck and trailer and he went to get my pellets and meet me outside. He brought the first load up of the brand new Somerset pellets, not a bag damaged. I wasn't about to say a word, in fact it was hard to contain my excitement. I proceeded to watch him go get two more skids and load them on my trailer. I walked out of there with about $805 worth of the best pellets I've seen yet for $75. I'm not about to tell them their mistake. I didn't load it up.

Best part is I was originally going to only get a ton at a time since my truck isn't really the best for towing. I squatted it all the way home, hazards on going up hills at 25 MPH on the interstat just to get home with 6000 lbs on a real small trailer (for that kind of load). I wasn't about to risk going back and getting the ones I paid for.

I'm sending my neighbor down there tomorrow for the original load I was supposed to get. HA HA!!

UTAKAT Lowe's

This coming from someone who repeatedly dodges the question about his personal choice of heating preference. Hmmm, the purpose of this forum is?? Oh yea Science.

Occam, why don't you man up and answer the question. I spent hours yesterday reading through anything you were a part of just because I wasn't in the mood to work. It was amazing. You seem to have all this knowledge however you can't take a simple trip to the basement or wherever the heat in your house originates from and look to see what you:

A. dump in
B. grab another piece from the wheelbarrow and shove inside
C. call your local propane/oil company, take out a loan from your local Credit Union and get refilled (take your pick)
D. receive a bill in the mail, hold your breath while you open it as if you have won the lottery however it is the complete opposite. Damn last month it was only $390 why did it jump up to $500 this month? And they jacked the price up because it just so happened to be cold as hell this year...
E. Shove a long pipe in the ground because someone said it was real hot down there and collect steam


For your information I was the second funniest person in my 6th grade class. Tommy Mallow was the funnest by far. He's a scientist now too.

Answer the question. Everyone is just on pins and needles to know more about you.

[quote="Harrison Fire" post=4844]Providing more hits, that's me!
Whatever happens, it will be difficult to match Sting's karma.
How do you heat your home, Occam?


He doesn't heat with anything. He is running his air conditioning at full blast with the windows and doors open standing outside with a little glass thermometer and a

clipboard sweating bullets.

I was wondering about the tax credit I heard so much about when I was shopping for a burner. All of the places I went to talked about this tax credit and that one. I know this extends beyond a stove but anyway...

I shopped around and didn't really like anything I found locally, not to mention any of the dealers around here seemed to be extremely helpful past giving me an estimate for a million dollars. I decided to buy one used. I spent $1200 on it and have a receipt for it from the lady I bought it from. I also saved my receipts for all of my installation materials etc.

Can I claim this for the credit? Is it even worth it? Does anyone know?

Thanks!

40 down/2 up is $79 50 down/2.5 up is $99 for residential

20 down/1.5 up for business is $299/month but they give you 20 static ip addresses (cause everyone needs 20) I use 1 of them.

Not real fair if you ask me. That's why they forbid servers on residential accounts.

I'm trying to get my neighborhood to let me install wireless mesh throughout. We will all be able to share 2 or 3 Internet accounts. I want to be able to listen to Internet radio while I bush hog lol.

Yea we have 50 meg coming out in a week. I own a technology company. I live on the internet. It is amazing fast.

The stupid thing is they offer such fast service but if you put a server in your house it violates term of service and they will disconnect your internet indefinitely. Stupid if you ask me.

I honestly can't believe they (DirecWay and Wildblu) can offer such a lousy product for so much money. However I do understand that the distance that signal needs to travel just to get from your house to the satellite then back down is tens of thousands of miles. It is actually amazing that it works at all. Pretty sad in this day and age that slightly better than dial-up is as good as it gets. Oh well

Sorry MaryB, this is kinda distracting from your for sale ad. I'll stop now.

Awww Mary I just noticed the DirectWay dish. I'm sorry!!!

When we first bought the farm (literally) in 2001 that was all we could get other than dial up. Two months later we got the local broadband company to give us a $15,000 bid to run coax and cable with high speed internet up our driveway. Found some good ol boys with a trencher to do it for $750. We had to use DirectWay for like 3 months. It was plain awful. We have 40meg service here now. Fastest internet I have ever seen for half the cost of DirecWay. How is it working for you?

I'll tell you what I have found in the last week that has just really made my quality of life (and stove life) a million times better.

Until I figured out that my dirty cheap pellets were causing problems with my auger and I started using graphite lubrication on a regular basis I had to take my Envirotec down daily and completely clean it out. I mean dump the pot, vacuum out the inside of the fire chamber and use a long brush on each of the heat exchanger tubes etc. It was taking me 45-60 minutes EVERY day. Then I solved my heat problem with graphite.

So I started an experiment this week to see if I could make it even better. If I leave my pot untouched I can get 1.5-2 days tops out of it before I have to take it down and dump it.

My stove is VERY simple. All rheostats and switches. I have a fuel feed setting (1-10) a blower fan speed setting, a prime button and the master switch (on-off-auto off). I added a rheostat on my combustion blower so I could mess with the airflow manually. Before it was on or off. There are no safety switches (except overheat switch) no control board, it is a real simple setup (and I love it that way). So what did I do?...

I'm adding a bag of pellets every 10-16 hours. About the same time I turn off the feed and turn my combustion blower down pretty far. I want airflow through the burn chamber but not so high that all of the ash and coals come flying out in my face, carpet floor etc. I have an old fire retardant rug that I put down under the door (I usually do make a mess). I have a small nail ripper that I use to churn up the ash and loosen up the big chunks. I then use a pair of long kitchen tongs and take out the big chunks and dispose (I have room next to my pot to put it ((not a big fan of ash bucket))). I churn up the rest so all I have left in the pot is a ton of hot coal and a little mess but mainly hot coals. Turn up the blower and prime it a bit to get some fuel burning again and voila! I haven't taken anything down or cleaned since 3 PM on Sunday. Everything is still going strong/hot toasty warm. Plus so far I have saved at least 3 hours of what I would normally spend cleaning. I honestly think I can get it to go at least 2-3 days more.

I don't know how much more work I'm gonna have when I do clean it since I'll have 4-6 days of ash instead of 1 but I guess I'll see.

Hope it helps you a little. I know I was getting real frustrated cleaning daily (not to mention my wife who was NOT happy giving one of her few hours of me home to the stove.) She doesn't complain about the 80 degree temperature in the house though. Good luck

Ok so I have a little issue and want to see if anyone else has tried or knows if it will work.

I'm real anal about cleaning out my stove. It doesn't make it more than 3-4 days without a good cleaning (I mean clean it out entirely.) My problem is that I am going through shop vac filters like crazy. It is so much easier for me to replace the filter than deal with the fine black mess building up in the shop vac.

I have heard that ash is NOT water soluble. If I made a water filter setup (similar to a water pipe that I um er saw some friends use in college) and let my hoses run through it first before going into the shop vac would it work? It seems very simple to me and in my head seems to work.

Anyone know? Is there a better way? Shop vac hose is expensive. But I'm really willing to give it a try. I'm sick of dealing with this black mess all over my house. After a while if I don't keep the vac clean it will eventually penetrate the filter and come out the exhaust. I started off the season with a "bucket head" ($20 5 gallon bucket vacuum from Lowe's) It didn't make the cut. Not enough filtration with the cheap paper filters. However for the price of the big shop vac filter, I'm tempted to get a new bucket head every few weeks rather than a new filter. For $23 or so I can have a new vacuum and throw the old one out.

What is everyone else out there using to clean?