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Why we wont use Midland as a supplier any more
Why wont we use Midland Plastics anymore?
We had a customer that ordered a large amount of cast acrylic from Midland. There were inconsistencies in color from rod to rod and lot to lot, and size to size of the rod, unmixed areas of color within a rod, and flecks of undisolved die in transparent colors. Unbeknownst to us, the manufacturer does not have any equipment for verifying colors, and have a rather lax idea of acceptable color variance. In the end, we got to turn 11 sticks of one color of kegs 3 different times due to quality control issues with the material (different problems each time), and we also had the pleasure of turning 14 sticks of barrels 2 times and got to pay the company that we use for ID polishing for polishing 7 sticks worth of barrels that were not transparent (and it was not something that was noticable until the part had been turned and polished completely). This in turn, ended up costing us, not only about 5 days worth of labor, but we also got to pay for polishing the parts that were unacceptable, and then we got to do it again. Of course, we could only charge our customer for good parts. We asked Midland for assistance with our lost time and expense. The manufacturer replaced multiple sticks of material at their costs, but would do nothing else.
Midland gave us a song and dance about how Midland does not manufacture the material and is therefore not liable for the costs we incurred due to defective material, despite being the company we purchased the material from. And the self-proclaimed "High Quality" manufacturer implied that WEBFoot's expectations are just way too high. But when a transparent rod has black flecks in it, opaque colors have semi-tranparent 'bands' in various places along the rod, and the differences in color from the first half of an order and the second half that was back ordered and showed up a month later - we seriously doubt our expecations are too high (but we have since lowered them even more since the quality is not there). Apparently making profit on a product does not leave you with any responsibility to your customer when there are problems with what they are reselling. Its hard to imagine how long we would stay in business if we didnt take care of our customers that had issues with something we resell.
We will do our best to inspect the order when it arrives to identify any issues with the material prior to any machining. The inspection will look for things such as: color variances from stick to stick within the order or across split orders due to back order (very common), poorly mixed resin resulting in bands, blotches, or layers of incorrect color or transparencies, or undisolved die within the rod (creating flecks or flakes). The time spent inspecting the material will not be intensive. If an intensive evaluations of the material is required for certain color requirements or the like, we can do that for you at an additional cost, or you can have the material shipped to you for your own personal inspection and then ship approved material to us with a note stating that it has been inspected by you. In addition to the above, we will no longer start work on any job untile the entire order of material has been received. This way we have all the material on hand and inspect for color variances across the entire order in an attempt to avoid problems with color variances within a single color number.
If you order your material from Midland Plastics (material that is shipped by them directly to us -or- dropshipped via their supplier) - where, you the customer, will not have laid eyes on the actual material and inspected it personally, the risk and cost associated with any manufacturer errors found during machining is YOURS, and will not be the responsibility of WEBFoot Custom Calls (ie. we wont be remachining parts or machining new parts free of charge), including: color variances, material inconsistencies (bubbles, incomplete resin mix, undisolved die or other flecks within the rod, etc...), or incomplete parts due to the initial rods being bowed. WEBFoot will do our best to head off issues before the machining process starts, but there are things you just can not see until the parts are turned, or in some cases, not until the part has been turned AND polished completely.
If you intend on using Midland Plastics as your acrylic supplier, we suggest you contact us prior to placing any orders with them so that we can explain what things we will not be held responsible for and its implications for you.
We apologize for any problems this may cause, but we can just not afford to remake parts at no charge due to a defect in material and then be blown off and told that our requirements are too high. If you would like more information about this, feel free to contact us.
Why do we suggest Delvie's Plastics?
Because we have always been taken care of by Delvie's. We had another occurence of flecks in a transparent color. Delvie's took care of our customer (who ordered the material and drop shipped to us), and us in the process by compensating our customer for the machining of the bad material. Delvie's did this on their end, as the manufacturer again, was not willing to assume any responsibility beyond sending replacement material. So in the end, Delvie's understands that the customer actually needs taken care of, and when the manufacturer cant be bothered with taking care of the people that buy their products, Delvie's still feels the customer needs to be taken care of.
Of course there is always the opportunity for mistakes and errors. We are doing our best to catch manufacturer induced problems before they get to the machining stage - in an attempt to eliminate the waste of time, money, and material, but the possibilyt of something slipping through is always present. We will do our best to help keep it from balloning into big problems, but its nice to know that Delvie's isnt going to leave us high and dry.