Here are a few letters we received from readers of Supply House Times.
I want to pass on to other contractors my experience with online purchases so they can avoid the same problems I experienced. I needed a Steamist SM-4 steam generator for replacement in a customer's house. The local supply house told me that model was no longer available, but I went online through Amazon and found it. I ordered it, but then was notified that, in fact, it was no longer available. Because I was already online, I went ahead and purchased the SM-5. It was delivered, but then the customer postponed the job because they were away. They didn't come back for a few months.
When we went to do the replacement, we found out the steam generator sent to us was 208 volts instead of 240 volts, which we needed in a residential house. When I contacted the online vendor I was informed that we could not return it because the distributor they had purchased it from would not accept the return. So I got stuck with a steam generator I will never use, which cost more than $1,000.