[TowerTalk] TRI-EX RESPONSE

Wed, 30 Aug 2000 16:42:32 EDT

First Call believes because of the large volume of Tri-Ex towers 
sold/installed over the last eight months coupled with comments and postings 
recently made on Tower Talk that a response be forthcoming. Some people have 
requested a response as there
were questions regarding First Call Communications and tardiness of the 
delivery of
Tri-Ex tower. It is certainly not going to be our intention to defend each 
point-by-point
past TT commentary, but illustrate as best as we can what is happening with 
the enormous growth of Tri-Ex, and how "GROWING PAINS" are associated with 
this is affecting you, our customer. The following paragraphs cover some of 
the commentaries or questions previously posted in August on Tower Talk 
concerning Tri-Ex. 

                    TRI-EX TOWERS IN THE AMATEUR RADIO COMMUNITY
By referring to First Call's web page (www.firstcallcom.net), it was clearly 
explained that Tri-Ex's past sales effort before January 2000, was not 
directed very much to the amateur radio community. Advertising, customer 
service, and the sales effort for the past few years were minimal at best. 
During this period however, sales of commercial, military, cellular, and 
tower trailers made the Tri-Ex company quite large and financially very 
strong. When the decision was made by Tri-Ex management to regain what they 
had a few years ago as the largest manufacturer of ham radio towers, certain 
steps were taken in December 1999. Nearly overnight, big changes were 
implemented and tower sales took off. A few of the changes were new tower 
designs, discontinuance of certain tower models, plans to expand to a second 
facility, hiring of additional people (now 27), structural design changes, 
new distribution channel, long-term advertising and marketing plan, and new 
product development (e.g., rotating tower). 
In addition to the above, earlier this year, Tri-Ex sold part of its non 
amateur tower lines to Spectasite/Will-Burt. The product line sold consisted 
of military type towers, specific mobile tower trailers, and the big 
broadcast towers stretching up to and over 2,000ft. The amateur radio tower 
manufacturing remained at the same facility and run by the same people. 
Robert Vargas and his engineering group, the entire production staff are 
still manufacturing the same high quality Tri-Ex towers at Visalia, 
California and has been for the last 30 years. 

                                MANUFACTURING AND DELIVERY
When new Tri-Ex tower designs/prices were announced in January 2000, sales 
went through the roof. People who knew Tri-Ex over the years came out of the 
woodwork and placed their orders for a new Tri-Ex for what they were now 
getting was a stronger tower and for less money than the nearest competitor 
and real customer service. In one week alone, 27 tower orders were taken from 
the amateur community. Slow delivery of towers started to become a problem 
and advertising unfortunately, had already been placed at that time in six 
major magazines (CQ,QST, etc.)
stating a delivery time of 2-3 weeks. This 2-3 week period was initially 
based on built up tower inventory, which lasted a matter of days. No matter 
what was done, the factory was completely over run by Tri-Ex tower orders for 
the W, LM, DX and even a few of the Sky Needle series.
To alleviate the problem, Robert Vargas, the president of the manufacturing 
facility,
hired more people and delivery times were extended. Promises of delivery were 
broken and certain remedies put into affect did not take care of the problem 
completely. More orders came in and piled up as the factory worked feverishly 
to make their delivery promises to people a reality. Contrary to a few 
comments on TT, First Call did its best to disseminate delivery dates and 
relay 100% of information to the customer from the factory. When deliveries 
started to catch up to projections, First Call was informed that the new 
manufacturing time is 4-6 weeks after an order is taken. However, another 
problem of parts shortages and long lead time to acquire items like the 40:1 
gear box set in and the factory again had to tell customers through First 
Call that the delivery time would not be met, hence another black eye for 
First Call. 
A few unfortunate people were given numerous dates and those past without 
their tower being shipped. These people were kind enough even though waiting 
a long time, stayed with us for they understood the great price of the tower 
and the strength of a Tri-Ex was worth waiting for.
To complicate things more, when Tri-Ex announced that the "level wind 
mechanism" on certain towers were no longer a costly option and included, 
additional buyers put their orders in. This additional option now being made 
a standard item again threw the production planning a few days. 
In addition to what's being done about the delivery situation (explained in 
our Aug. 2 posting), more production people are being hired now. Inventory of 
tower sections are being made at the additional facility, which will 
drastically bring down the delivery time. As mentioned previously, a second 
shift and parallel manufacturing lines are now a reality and will be expanded 
substantially as the new additional facility gets up to speed. 
As of this posting, we have been informed until the factory gets up to speed 
on the second facility, that 7 weeks is the time it takes to get a tower out 
the door. 

                              EXPLANATION OF PAYMENT TERMS
A couple of people commented on how payment is made against a tower purchase. 
First Call's terms are clearly laid out on our web page and have been since 
January of this year. Terms are as follows: 
For the Tri-Ex "W" series and the LM 354 tower we require 100% down. 
For the Tri-Ex LM 470 (70 ft.) series, DX series and up through the Tri-Ex 
Sky Needle series, terms are 60% deposit and the balance due right before 
shipping.
It is interesting to note while on this topic, that other steel crank-up 
tower companies require 100% full payment when your order is placed. 

                                          GOING THE EXTRA MILE
There was a particular time when First Call had gone overboard to please and 
it backfired royally. An example of this is the TT posting of Aug. 2 where a 
customer placed his order on September 21, 1999, for a Prosistel Big Boy 
rotator. The customer referred to the rotator on his posting as "something." 
This "something" is a Big Boy rotator that was just starting to come into the 
country from Europe at that time. We were lacking inventory, had a lot of 
orders, and to keep customers happy we elected to expedite delivery from 
Europe by the "drop-ship"method. This idea to please our customers backfired 
and we lost control of the rotators and hence, did not look very good as 
illustrated by that posting. First Call did not give a run around to a 
customer for we had to determine where the rotators were, were they shipped, 
and did the customer receive the rotator at all. The customer with the TT 
posting
canceled his order. We established where the rotator was, which turned out to 
be at the freight forwarders at Kennedy Airport, and paid the customer back 
in November (with our check#1784). There was NO CREDIT CARD CHARGE BACK, as 
the customer mentioned. Now with the exception of a few (two) checks received 
in advance, complete Big Boy rotator systems get charged the day it leaves 
our office. First Call has an install rotator base of just over 200 units and 
are all done in this method. 

                                               ANSWERBACKS
Another one of our customers commented with his posting titled "No value 
added." While he certainly has merit to some of his comments on tower 
delivery, he does fail to state that no where else he can go where he can get 
the customer service he received from us on a continuous basis.
The customer was completely advised and brought up to date continuously on 
why his tower was delayed and progress thereof. This is indeed a value added 
service. First Call prides itself on having the best customer service that 
cannot be matched by any company in the telescoping tower business. This one 
example is the prime reason of our success where you can get knowledgeable 
answers, and talk to us at
anytime. 
There was a question on TT concerning the size of First Call. First Call is 
indeed a small company located in a multilevel office building devoting all 
its business to the sales and marketing of Tri-Ex towers and Prosistel Big 
Boy rotators. First Call employs 6 full-time personnel selling crank-up 
motorized telescoping towers since 1985 (16 yrs). We are not a manufacturer, 
we do not need a large facility, nor a lot of
people. 
To respond to another posting, we do not close completely during the summer 
vacation time. We chose to keep two employees on our 800 toll free numbers
 (800-HAMTOWER) to be the liaison between you the customer and Tri-Ex 
manufacturing. During the vacation period of 7 days, only customer service 
was available and we apologize to the few people who were perturbed by this. 
Those of you that know my office people, very much appreciated the tremendous 
assistance given by Heather and Mona in customer service that some of you had 
the opportunity to work with. 

                                         TRI-EX TOWER RATINGS
There were a few interesting comments concerning the Tri-Ex tower ratings 
(sq/ft, etc.) set forth on First Call's web page, literature and magazine 
ads. We understand where this came from but will comment on it anyway. 
Tri-Ex's decision to go early this year to 60 KSI steel tubing on all tower 
legs along with other structural changes, indeed brought Tri-Ex to a new high 
in structural integrity (a Tri-Ex exclusive). As
mentioned previously, the 50 mph sq/ft rating used by other tower 
manufacturers will no longer appear on our literature as it is not a standard 
nor minimum accepted by UBC and most municipalities. Tri-Ex will only utilize 
in advertising, 70 mph UBC, which is the minimum UBC accepted number. 
To answer another TT inquiry, yes, the LM 354 HD stress analysis is certified 
(like all the Tri-Ex tower by a California professional P.E.) to handle 60 
sq/ft of antenna at 70 mph (another prime example why Tri-Ex is doing so 
well). 
The web pages and ads are 100% correct in the stress analysis figures. Of 
those wanting a certified copy of stress analysis it can be ordered from 
First Call directly. We hear moans and groans about the sq/ft subject and the 
strength of the new design of the Tri-Ex tower. We hope this puts the subject 
to rest and we tell our customers to compare, compare, compare. 
To address another TT comment, a few of the old 47 page instruction manuals 
were recently shipped out in error with incorrect numbers. This was brought 
to our attention and was immediately corrected via a direct letter by the 
president of the company to the customer. "GROWING PAINS"bring many problems 
and some errors do happen. 

                                            THE WORD GOT OUT
To keep up with today's technologies, many changes will be incorporated in 
the Tri-Ex tower line. With this in mind, we proudly announce the 
introduction on Sept.14 of the "SKY TOWER SERIES." This new series will be 
initially incorporated on the LM and later on the DX series with certain 
advances based on today's new technologies. A major exclusive change will be 
a direct drive gear box on specific LM series models and later the DX86. This 
major change will extend the life of the system and couples the motor 
directly to the gear box as one unit. The fly wheel,
drive belts and mechanism associated with it will be gone. This change will 
not affect the characteristics or stress analysis figures in anyway. Other 
changes will be announced as they get incorporated. 

                                      THE GROWTH OF TRI-EX
Both First Call and Tri-Ex are not in the most comfortable place through its 
present growing pains. Tri-Ex although in the tower business for 40 years is 
now going head-to-head with a competitor that has had pretty much the entire 
market place to themselves for 10 years. Rumors continue to fly as Tri-Ex in 
a sense, is the "new guy on the block." Tri-Ex now has to prove to everyone 
once again why it was #1 for so many years, and re-establish for the second 
time a repour and trust with the amateur community. 

                                  DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER
It is NOT going to be our intention after this posting today to open up a 
continuous back and forth dialogue on TT. The information provided above was 
to clear up any misunderstanding/question that were brought on by the 
unbelievable rapid growth of Tri-Ex and any inconvenience in shipping it may 
have caused the customer. If one is compelled to respond to the above, we 
strongly request that you do it "off-line" to Tower Talk and I will respond 
as best as I can pertaining to the products we
sell and the delivery associated with them. We also request that you direct 
your comments, if any to First Call e-mail (firstcall@cyburban.com) and not 
to my K2QBV e-mail address previously used. 

We strive to please and ask for your further indulgence and loyalty through 
the "growing pains" and most important, don't shoot the messenger. 

Joel Kornreich,K2QBV 
President, First Call Communications, Inc. 
firstcall@ cyburban.com 
www.firstcallcom.net 

Authorized distributors/suppliers for M2, Hy-Gain/MFJ, Force 12,
Prosistel/Big Boy and Yaesu rotators

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