[tompoole]

Really

[8weekly]

We are all free to order poles from far Cathay if we wish. The skill is sourcing the right carbon fibre pole, marrying it to the right clamps, ensuring a continuous line of supply and most of all topping it off with the best customer service without being taken for a mug.

There are two or three posters who are at certain levels of pole supply (pipedream/doing it/thinking about doing it) and they come on here (or get a stooge to come on here) telling us how their poles are brilliant or are going to be brilliant or will change the market. And they have.

They have because the premier pole supplier keeps two steps ahead, improves his poles and reduces his prices. It's great for me.

The problem is the wannabe's cannot portray themselves in a professional manner - they lose their rag, spit their dummies out and get upset. And when the premier pole supplier (diplomat!) asks if they are prepared for their exchange of emails to be made public they lock their thread and refuse.

Also there is this envious sniping that comes across - they cannot yet produce and maintain service and back up for a pole that is better than the premier pole supplier and so they resort to unwise posts which show them up for what they are:- aspiring pole suppliers who haven't learned how to assemble and supply poles that customers want in volume.

As emails are private and confidential I didn't see the point of it being posted on here.im not here to put anybody down?I will be selling poles shortly and don't expect to sell thousands overnight but we will see how they do.
 Why shouldn't there be more than 1 pole supplier?
 Should there be only one van maker?
 I will tell you there are lots of people in China that make poles and they are not made in the uk.
 Me and Alex had a disagreement about me buying products from him after saying I planned to sell poles in the future.i then decided I wouldn't sell poles.
I made a order with alex,which was cancelled.
Which made me to decide to supply poles.
im now unable to buy from Alex which is fine so I won't be spending a penny more from him.thats ok.ive spent quite a bit in the past.
So what?
Deal with it

You decided to sell poles because Gardiner's cancelled your order? 

No I had already sourced a supplier a couple of months ago but put it on the back burner for a while whilst I get some money together having just bought a new van etc.
I was offered a affidavit to sign and be able to order aslong as I promised not to sell poles in the future which I wouldn't sign.
ive done the leg work with the suppliers and negotiated prices so why not sell them??
Do I need your permission???

No, but your posts display a level of maturity incompatible with being successful, so I would advise you don't invest too much time and effort.

[deeege]

Are you going to be selling these poles before or after the round organisation app you were promising was near completion?

[kempy]

Hey don't knock him , if he wants to try and sell poles and be a supplier where's the harm in that .
Another pole on the market - competition , he may sell a carbon fibre pole with good clamps on it .

I'm sure if he researches it , doesn't sell something that is identical to gardiners , facelift etc then he can crack on .

Wonder when the V-LITE comes out , lighter than the slx and I'd imagine superior clamps .

The new gardiner clamps are good for longevity and prolong your pole , but most buy a new pole every 2 years so I'd still peer free a good USEABLE clamp in operation . And the new gardiner clamp is a awkward operation , twisting around and adjustment all the time . Not a good upgrade , loads more having issues with it and hence the loctite bolts sent out , but Alex is dealing with it I suppose .

Competition and hard work is good for us the buyer !!

[Ben wood]

Jesus you lot are a bunch of d i c k s. What a bunch of bully's, No wonder half the forum don't post anymore as unless you are in the gardiner gang. Whats your problem. Gardiners are not all that. Ive had bad service from the in the way of late deliverys and wrong things sent. And to be honest there poles aint all that. This forum is ment to be about sharing not bullying. Get a grip. Maybe you lot should put the effort in to building a better round as you all seem to live on here.

[kempy]

Yep I'm with yo .
I buy from various suppliers
All my equipment is sourced from many different suppliers .

Gardiners stuff is ok , as is others ,
Brushes - I feel Tecbuk are built a lot more durable and better , the gardiner ones are very brittle and not long lasting .
Poles - the competition is coming and hopefully the others will have decent clamps .the gardiner clamp is poor,over engineered , too lightweight and should be made bigger to cover more cross sectional area of the pole to make it more robust . Too much obsession with making it super lightweight and this makes it weak. Is just my view .

Think is it reach it do a pole with horizontal clamps that have about 3 bolts through them and I'd imagine these would be very robust and hard wearing , but the actual pole is very heavy .
Not easy to get the perfect pole, clamp,brush etc .
Hence why there's so many thoughts

[Dave Willis]

Kempy, how many times is that you've rubbished Gardiners clamps?

Somethings not right.

[♠Winp®oClean♠]

There's a bit more to poles than just buying off the shelf tubes from China!!

Gardiners engineer the composition of their poles. The very first Xtremes were re-engineered, the new ones looked exactly the same but were more stable in use with much reduced bounce.

If someone wants to import poles from China & sell them- that's perfectly fine BUT...............let's get the facts right about the competition eh?

Am I a Gardiner fan? Yes. Why? Because in 10 years of WFP I've never bought, used or tried anything by any other manufacturer which is even equal to, let along better than theirs! My business was transformed by them-Fact!

For the WFP nappy-clad around here, it is Gardiners who are responsible for moving this industry forward at the pace in which it has done!! If it wasn't for them we'd all be using lead drainpipes with an Unger badge on them & paying £50 per foot for the privilege!!

[PoleKing]

There's a bit more to poles than just buying off the shelf tubes from China!!

Gardiners engineer the composition of their poles. The very first Xtremes were re-engineered, the new ones looked exactly the same but were more stable in use with much reduced bounce.

If someone wants to import poles from China & sell them- that's perfectly fine BUT...............let's get the facts right about the competition eh?

Am I a Gardiner fan? Yes. Why? Because in 10 years of WFP I've never bought, used or tried anything by any other manufacturer which is even equal to, let along better than theirs! My business was transformed by them-Fact!

For the WFP nappy-clad around here, it is Gardiners who are responsible for moving this industry forward at the pace in which it has done!! If it wasn't for them we'd all be using lead drainpipes with an Unger badge on them & paying £50 per foot for the privilege!!

Whilst I agree with you to a point fella, some credit needs to go to ionic I feel.
Not the others though.
Brodex
Tekbuk
Facelift etc

[♠Winp®oClean♠]

There's a bit more to poles than just buying off the shelf tubes from China!!

Gardiners engineer the composition of their poles. The very first Xtremes were re-engineered, the new ones looked exactly the same but were more stable in use with much reduced bounce.

If someone wants to import poles from China & sell them- that's perfectly fine BUT...............let's get the facts right about the competition eh?

Am I a Gardiner fan? Yes. Why? Because in 10 years of WFP I've never bought, used or tried anything by any other manufacturer which is even equal to, let along better than theirs! My business was transformed by them-Fact!

For the WFP nappy-clad around here, it is Gardiners who are responsible for moving this industry forward at the pace in which it has done!! If it wasn't for them we'd all be using lead drainpipes with an Unger badge on them & paying £50 per foot for the privilege!!

Whilst I agree with you to a point fella, some credit needs to go to ionic I feel.
Not the others though.
Brodex
Tekbuk
Facelift etc

Only system wise maybe but even then they still have you pay through the nose for it. In fact, I find it quite insulting how they over-engineer their systems to try & justify the premium charged!! They don't pass savings on to the client. Look how much Gardiner poles have reduced in price over the years, whilst also improving in design!

Pole wise- who did Ionics copy with clamp design??

[Dave Willis]

I bought some Aquadapter hose once then posted how dreadful it was. They kindly sent me another batch which was equally diabolical in my view. Some people love it some like me couldn't get on with it. No point in constantly running it down though I just changed to something else in the end and let everyone else make their own minds up. Gardiners clamps they're ok, work well and give your pole a shorter collapsed length. Are they perfect? not really but then nothing is.

Gardiners fan boys? well, there's a good reason for that, if you were wfp several years ago you would know just how bad the equipment was - the fibreglass poles on offer were diabolical, really,really bad. The brushes were all Vikans and although they scrubbed well were terribly overweight. Facelift had a carbon pole but was really expensive. I think the industry would have remained stagnant if Alex hadn't twigged just how important weight (or lack of it) was. On top of that he managed to produce quality poles at cheaper prices.
You see it's not a bunch of bully boys or a club, most just like their products. You can please some people some of the time but not all people all of the time.

There are other suppliers out there of course but nobody is comparing their poles with theirs - why is that do you think?

[ben M]

Hey don't knock him , if he wants to try and sell poles and be a supplier where's the harm in that .
Another pole on the market - competition , he may sell a carbon fibre pole with good clamps on it .

I'm sure if he researches it , doesn't sell something that is identical to gardiners , facelift etc then he can crack on .

Wonder when the V-LITE comes out , lighter than the slx and I'd imagine superior clamps .

The new gardiner clamps are good for longevity and prolong your pole , but most buy a new pole every 2 years so I'd still peer free a good USEABLE clamp in operation . And the new gardiner clamp is a awkward operation , twisting around and adjustment all the time . Not a good upgrade , loads more having issues with it and hence the loctite bolts sent out , but Alex is dealing with it I suppose .

Competition and hard work is good for us the buyer !!

the new gardiner clamp is a awkward operation , twisting around and adjustment all the time
really??? listen mate, just a bit of advice, instead of spending your time to tell everyone on every message you post that the clamps are rubbish,you should learn how to use them! nothing wrong with the clamps!!

[gary999]

actually if it wasnt for jeff brimble and his ideas that
alex gardiner originally borrowed from then moved on
we would still be using lead pipes, well the progress would
of been slower anyway

[Dave Willis]

Possibly, but Geoff had the right idea of going light but didn't progress. Fishing poles aren't ideal in the real world.

[♠Winp®oClean♠]

actually if it wasnt for jeff brimble and his ideas that
alex gardiner originally borrowed from then moved on
we would still be using lead pipes, well the progress would
of been slower anyway

Not really, it would have happened regardless of Jeff (no disrespect to Jeff)

[AuRavelling79]

People buy from people they trust. Seeing how some of the wannabee's on here behave when criticised are they going to be trusted?

If all the products were equal and the same price who would you buy from?

Even if eddie the eagle puts together a cracking pole first time and at two thirds the price who in their right mind is going to buy the larger sizes where the profit might be? You want to hear about its longevity and how it wears - may be two years in with an impeccable service record you'd consider it.

At the lower middle end -  £200 - £250 - who cares about saving £50 if the dominant supplier works well and you can get spares?

At the bottom end - yeah give it a punt - but there's no profit to sustain the business and back up is there?

The company with top service and a Managing Director that is interested in keeping his/her customers happy is where the sensible money goes. I've never known of a company with the turnover of Gardiners where the MD comes on to a forum and personally answers and actively helps a customer whether he be a complete newbie looking to buy one pole or another looking to buy dozens (perhaps he goes out in the Bentley and visits them? )

That service year in and year out is why - clamp issues and all - he is at the top of his game. He also never comes on here and spits his dummy out, or promises the earth or snipes at other pole manufacturers.

I just lament the coming day when he sells up and some megacorp takes over and the service goes to pot.

[Smudger]

Well said Gold,  I also remember those days (just) as Alex was just starting to get into his stride, looking around as a complete noob it was plain to see that other under and brodex had no idea on how to supply decent lightweight equipment  and ionics and facelift were asking the earth for poles.

Alex unlike Jeff had the drive to produce and sell top quality gear, for that we should all be grateful, others have tried but failed on many levels, usually by throwing dummies out of their pram.

In general new kit has been better than previous versions, although I found the new clamps tricky at first.  My SL2 with extreme can't be beat for ease of use 60 ft up esp with the 20" long c/f gooseneck

Some stuff I'm not so keen on, but that's my personal preference I actually like Tecbuk brushes better, they don't last as long but clean and scrub better than any super light
Tis a shame Richard was, how can I put it, "volatile" on the forum

No one product will fit every1's requirements, some are happy to use a vikan brush, other want extremes, some use c/f poles others a Harris pole.

Thing is, is windie treading on gardiners copyright patents?  And the glaring fact he has not even had a vlite pole but claims their superiority over others just blows any credibility out of the water for both parties

Darran

[kempy]

Good morning Dave Willis , I posted on this thread as my name was being branded about a fair bit and I was unaware of this post . So I defended my purchase of buying from China direct .
Out of respect of the suppliers on here I never once posted the name,number , company etc that I bought the from . No advertising etc .
I probably moan about the Gardiner clamps as much as you promote Alex Gradiners products .
Anyway life's too short to continually post about the clamps , their ok , blah blah and blah.
I read this thread and after about the 4th page in I had to respond as some stuff written about me wasn't true . The cost of import tax wasn't ? , Alex offer of taking my pole back for scrutiny wasn't true , the offer was true and kind , but theirs nothing Alex can do to alter my preference of a vertical clamp or the operation of the Gardiner smart clamp for me .

So that's why I posted on this thread , to defend myself.......again.....

Sorry for buying from china and opening up the market for others to DCEIDE where they may buy from .

As posted many times I like Gardiner Cill brushes , carbon necks , custy service and probably average £100 plus a month from them ?? , filters etc .
So Dave Willis I'd say I'm not anti Alex Gardiner or his products , just the clamps . Simple .
Are you associated with gardiners , as you seem to be very annoyed that someone doesn't like every gardiner product , ??

[kempy]

Good post Granville gold

[*Hector*]

You should be used to defending yourself and your views Kempy...

All us Leeds scum have been brought up doing it..