Grow Mediums Shipping issue with AP website

[Son of Hobbes]

Been trying some since yesterday to order the things I need. Now I’m waiting for Monday to come and them to open for business again.


Yes in my years before retirement I had been a small business owner and in those days the only way you stayed ahead of the big boys was to have a superior product and exceptional customer service. In addition, I never knew they were a small business, in two years of buying from them I always saw a company with locations on two continents with a blog that shows them traveling the world setting up autopots. My small business never had all that.

Sorry I brought up my past experiences with them as I obviously still have some strong feelings about being hung up on in the past by the US store and I won’t bring it up again. I think they have a great product, heck I’m on my sixth grow with them four of which I posted here and willing to expand my purchases even further to test out their products in my greenhouse, but still think they could improve their customer service even if the are a “small” business. There are several small businesses on this forum that do provide great customer service and I guess they spoiled me. BigSm0 & Biotabs F69 just a couple of fine examples.

Hey brother you're welcome to share your experience and definitely encouraged to do so; but I do think our mileage and experience as business owners varies though lol (and we can both be our own judge of our own success.) Believe me, I do understand the value of good customer service (I've spent a good chunk of my life in CS,) but I do know boundaries too and how demanding customers can be with peoples time (and hey I get it, but there's a lot of ways to run a business, not just the way a consumer demands it to be.) I don't know what your experience was with the company prior (and that sucks if it was negative,) I've simply always had a good experience with them (and I'm an autopot user myself.)

It's not a requirement for vendors to actually represent on here. @lunarman hit the nail on the head; forums are typically a time sink and most companies don't have the time/staff dedicated to staff them like we all would love to see. Some companies I talk to actually have dedicated social media people that help run accounts like these; others are just more interested in showing the products off in the hands of growers (and in virtually all cases, contacting the vendor direct through their own channels is going to be preferable, of course.)

We encourage all vendors to participate on the board; but it's up to them how time they can put in (and we don't hold it against them if they don't, life's a busy mother F'er, most people get that.)

 

[HemiSync]

Hey brother you're welcome to share your experience and definitely encouraged to do so; but I do think our mileage and experience as business owners varies though lol (and we can both be our own judge of our own success.) Believe me, I do understand the value of good customer service (I've spent a good chunk of my life in CS,) but I do know boundaries too and how demanding customers can be with peoples time (and hey I get it, but there's a lot of ways to run a business, not just the way a consumer demands it to be.) I don't know what your experience was with the company prior (and that sucks if it was negative,) I've simply always had a good experience with them (and I'm an autopot user myself.)

It's not a requirement for vendors to actually represent on here. @lunarman hit the nail on the head; forums are typically a time sink and most companies don't have the time/staff dedicated to staff them like we all would love to see. Some companies I talk to actually have dedicated social media people that help run accounts like these; others are just more interested in showing the products off in the hands of growers (and in virtually all cases, contacting the vendor direct through their own channels is going to be preferable, of course.)

We encourage all vendors to participate on the board; but it's up to them how time they can put in (and we don't hold it against them if they don't, life's a busy mother F'er, most people get that.)

LOL im not even sure how we went down this rabbit / worm hole from where I started this thread. I understand completely how much of a balancing act it is running a business and trying to have a life.

On a brighter note the website appears to be working for people and I have been contacted by one of their IT guys who is looking into my issues.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

One thing we are working on doing is creating a more detailed "contact information" thread for all vendors; listing out as much of their contact/social media info as we can find or they provide. Perhaps a proactive solution would be to ask our vendors as they come on, what is the best/preferred way to contact them quickly and directly as well (and that's easy enough to do, and eliminates some guesswork when they are represented on a board like this.)

 

[lunarman]

@HemiSync I hope you don't mind me taking this off topic now, but I'm sure its more fun to talk about what autopot toys you're getting! What are you buying next?

 

[Son of Hobbes]

LOL im not even sure how we went down this rabbit / worm hole from where I started this thread. I understand completely how much of a balancing act it is running a business and trying to have a life.

On a brighter note the website appears to be working for people and I have been contacted by one of their IT guys who is looking into my issues.

All good dude; I think we've kept it pretty civil lol. And I meant no offense if any context was taken that way; just offering my personal perspectives (and to drive it home, working on getting their autopot butt cheeks on the forum.)

 

[BigSm0]

I have been looking into autopots myself but was turned off since there aren’t any sensors. It just seems like on and off no matter what each plant needs right?

 

[lunarman]

I have been looking into autopots myself but was turned off since there aren’t any sensors. It just seems like on and off no matter what each plant needs right?

There is some flexibility but as far as I know its basically on or off. You can put a shutoff valve in front of each pot if you want turn off the feed for a plant and not others. And you can have multiple reservoirs so the feeds can be varied. I have 2 of the stock one pot kit reservoirs and have had grow and bloom nute mixes in them at the same time doing different duty. I also just made a res out of a 5 gallon bucket for when I want to run water thru plants using the autopot irrigation and valve system instead of hand flushing/watering. So you can have shut off valves and multiple reservoirs, which is all the flexibility I need for sure.

For a guy like yourself, I'd probably just stick with what is obviously already working great. But then again, autopots and autocobs has a nice ring to it.

 

[midIN]

@BigSm0 I think u would like a couple auto pots in ur setup just have as extra play toys obvious ur setup is par but who doesn't need new toys from the canna world. And with ur setup knowledge u could very easily make on/off manual or automatic for the autopots to work with ur setup and schedule. I added manual on offs to each of mine and still can add to it with control of each line.

 

[Screwauger]

Unfortunately they don’t sell everything that autopots sells and the couple items I can purchase from eBay are actually more expensive than on their site.

I will add that I ordered some stuff on ebay. It didn't ship as planned and I got pissed. The ebay seller blamed it on autopots USA and explained that he's like a marketer/middleman and anything ordered on ebay is relayed to autopots and they ship it. I got two calls recently from autopots wanting me to accept their apology and continue the purchase through ebay. I said no way, I don't have that kind of time and had already ordered from autopots. Screwy.

I wouldn’t be so quick to defend them either. Some of us got very negative responses from the US shop in the early days, circa 2016, and were not allowed to ask anything that might be considered aiding cannabis growers, they even would hang up on you if they thought you were using autopots for cannabis. In addition, the fact that they can’t take the time to come on here and at least introduce themselves and pass around an AFN coupon every now and then does not represent good customer service to me. There are several folks here that have sold quite a few units for them just by the grows they posted.

Here here. I was a victim and I have heard they have come around but I agree, they should promote the growers and users on AFN. I've been responsible for at least 6 growers switching to their product in the past 12 months.

 

[HemiSync]

Here here. I was a victim and I have heard they have come around but I agree, they should promote the growers and users on AFN. I've been responsible for at least 6 growers switching to their product in the past 12 months.

I doubt if I’ve swayed anyone over to the autopots side with my journals, but I have always given credit to their systems ability to grow cannabis while I’m not even home. My current ordering problem was cleared up Monday morning and have since received the items I needed. Another testament to my faith in their autovalve, I’m converting my greenhouse garden to trays and the Easy2GO setup. No more digging in the dirt, just put the plants in fabric pots, drop into the tray, and let the autovalve do its job. So I pulled up my raised garden and replaced it with this setup to begin with. Once I can get a couple 4x4 trays locally, they cost too much to ship, I will replace these dishwasher trays with them. So far they seem to be working well the way they are right now.