Gutchess Lumber Stands by Our Products

Gutchess Lumber Export Manager Brian Conklin just returned from a two week business trip to Asia where he was visiting customers. It was a Saturday evening in November of 2015. On Monday upon returning to the office, he received a product quality claim overseas from a customer. The customer sent pictures at Brian’s request. It was evident to Brian that “something wasn’t right and whether that happened before it shipped or while in transit, didn’t matter as it was our lumber pack with our logo on it”. On Wednesday, he was back on a flight, this time to Europe, 4 days after returning from Asia. He personally inspected the lumber with the customer and resolved the claim with the customer on Thursday and was back on a plane to the states on Friday. He then met with other management regarding how to prevent this from occurring in the future.

The customer was surprised that Gutchess Lumber would go to such distances to address the issue but it also gave the customer the confidence to continue buying from Gutchess. According to the customer “I have dealt with Gutchess for a few years now and never had any quality issues as they have been the most consistent supplier I have dealt with. When I received this lumber from them some of the packs in the container had some issues so I notified them not really knowing what to expect to resolve the claim. I sent the pictures as requested and the next thing I know was Brian asking me if I could pick him up at the airport on Wednesday evening. I knew he had just returned from China. It’s nice to deal with a company that if they don’t get it right that they will make it right and it made me look good in my customer’s eyes too”.

We strive to get it right 100% of the time, but in the rare occasion when something does happen, as President Matt Gutchess has said “We will make it right, we have for over 100 years and will continue to do so”. Going the extra mile in this case was over 6000 extra miles which is what you do when your brand is all about quality. That is why we say “Be sure it’s Gutchess”.