I have been witness to a lot of negative remarks being posted
regarding First Call Communications over the last few days. I believe
it is time to set the record straight for many comments are very much
"off the wall" or a year or two behind times. As we also noticed over
the last twelve months it was Bruce at U S Tower who got attacked, than
Gerald at Texas Towers and now I guess its back to First Call.
Before I get into certain postings it would be nice to have everyone
know that a few people who made comments on T/T never ordered nor
spoke to us about a tower but just joined in for the fun of it. . I
guess its more of a "search and destroy" mission for them as they were
probably tired of hearing about 3 in 1 oil over and over again and have
nothing else to do. Another person making a not so nice comment
purchased a NON TOWER item in September of 1999 and here he is 17
months later attacking First Call and the tower delivery problem. Why
is this person attacking First Call? Was he robbed or screwed or lost
money? Not at all, I guess just having a little fun trying to get rid
of the few remaining dealers that are left that can really discuss your
tower needs and installation.
I think we have to remember at this point that just in the last 22
months First Call sold over 1,000 towers in the U.S. However what
we're seeing on T/T are just a few people who had problems getting
their tower from the Visalia factory with promise after promise broken.
There are close to 1,000 other tower owners who got from First Call
just what they paid for but yes, many had to wait longer than expected
for delivery.
Now lets get down to the tower delivery problem with a little
background on Tri Ex over the last year or so.
In January of 2000 First Call was offered the Tri-Ex line by the
President of Tri-Ex. Tri Ex suggested that we work with their
sub-contractor one mile away from the original Tri-Ex site in Visalia
which we did.. Over the next few months with advertising and
telemarketing and with people that wanted a strong tower at a good
price the factory was loaded up with orders. Promised delivery times
(as told to First Call) went from two to four weeks than six to eight
six than 10 plus. QST, CQ and other magazines we advertised in were 5
weeks behind the real up- dated delivery time. Tri Ex tower sales at
First Call grew and grew but the Visalia factory making the towers
tried to expand to keep up but did not have the experience of handling
such growth faulted terribly and all their people were let go. Will
Burt in the mean time was making crank up towers and had everything
including fixures,jigs and tooling moved to Ohio They are presently
up and running in a building dedicated to making only CRANK UP LATTICE
TOWERS. Production is in progress and Will Burton is very much on
their way to catching up to fill all past orders plus establishing a
real inventory both for amateur radio and tower trailers. The tower
specifications did not change and this to the customer means your Tri
Ex is the strongest telescoping tower on the market today.
First Call with 16 years of experience in crank up towers had done its
best to work with each customer and there were many. First Call and
staff related to each customer truthful information it had or was told
about the delivery of their tower FROM THE FACTORY.. It came to a point
however that people at the Visalia facory did not tell the truth not
only about delivery but what was actually shipped out. This was a
horrible time for everybody but we did the best we could and worked very
closely with each customer and every customer to make them whole. I
completely understand the anger some people have but consider where the
problem started from. WE ARE NOT THE MANUFACTURER
What a few people are posting are terrible things said about First
Call. Lets face it, nobody likes long delays in getting a tower
delivered. OK, I agree but we do not make towers in the back yard,
we're 3000 miles from the factory and all these insults and lies
repeated on Towertalk are not fair to us or to Tri Ex customers. First
Call never made up the delivery schedule, this was done at the factory.
Most of you know where the problem is so go after the manufacturer or
whats left of them and give them "a piece of your mind" as some
customers have. From reading the postings it appears the previous
Visalia Tri Ex tower manufacturer is "home free" and ALL BLAME for
EVERYTHING is with its dealer, First Call. If this was true, we
wouldn't be selling towers since 1985. Please, lets cut out the insults
and tell us (not on a Towertalk posting but direct) how we can help
you. Give us your suggestion(s) to making things better especially in
your particular case. (Please send your e mail to
firstcall@cyburban.com) We will do what we can and respond directly
off Towertalk as I don't want to open up a continuous dialog for the
purpose of entertaining people.
Will Burt is starting to deliver Tri Ex towers now and all orders will
be filled as they come rolling off production. No one will lose money
as it is a matter of transition and Will Burt getting up to speed. We
ask you, the tower customer to bear with us and understand how
difficult this change over and last few months were with the previous
company in Visalia.
AGAIN, we at First Call Communications have been utterly frustrated,
took the brunt of everything for the last couple of months but the
solution is very much in hand. New and updated technology has been
added to each tower coming out of Will Burt and we invite everyone
interested to give us a call to discuss this topic and the delivery
schedules. . Our website (firstcallcom.net) is being updated to
reflect what Will burt will be bringing you in the way of Tri-Ex and
Tri-Ex tower trailers.
We hope our posting means something especially for those people who are
upset and frustrated. We hope to prove to you our devotation and
loyalty as we start the year 2000.
As they say, "time will tell".
'73
Joel Kornreich
First Call Communications,Inc.
January 20,2000
P.S.....We're answering each posting seperately but wanted to comment
about one January 19 e- mail in particular. The person that posted the
e mail stated that "First Call did the same thing when they
represented U S Tower some time ago"
Well, this person is 100% correct for we sold more towers than U S Tower
could keep up with and deliveries for a period exceded 14-16 weeks.
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