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Comment
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Old School
Apr 23, 08 - 11:33 PM |
What happened to Pilkington
Is it just me or has that company competely left the company of old. Everytime I turn around one of their managers, supervisors, middle managment, etc either quits or gets let go. Now when I call there I get people that have no clue what they are talking about or even know what they are selling! It seems that they are replacing their people with people who they don't have to pay well. I know in my market(Minnesota) that they sell off of price and nothing more. Heck their competitor in the cities has told me that the current Ops Manager is great for business and hope they don't get rid of him. Wow what does that say for Pilkington. Everything changes with time but come on already! What happened to the idea of that your people make your company. Doesn't appear that Pilkington feels that way. Had to vent!
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howie
Apr 23rd, 2008 - 11:37 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
I wish I had no clue, but because of pricing concerns they have had to compromise their entire mission statement. Welcome to the global economy....wish i could post a sad face.................
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Old School
Apr 23rd, 2008 - 11:41 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
Just makes this business a little less fun. Miss the good old days. Lots of good people have been thrown away while guys on the top who are worthless have covered their own butts.
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howie
Apr 23rd, 2008 - 11:44 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
Horribly, they are capitulating. SOLD OUT. they could have made the difference. Hope it was worth it (for them) and not just reactionary. They really serenaded America right off the pier. Our Bad.
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PAG
Apr 23rd, 2008 - 11:50 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
I agree, Pilk was our number one supplier for years. All the good guys/gals have been fired or demoted. It's really too bad.
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atech
Apr 24th, 2008 - 12:09 AM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
the MN branch we get glass from is doing well for us--personell has not changed (much). their website sucks for ordering though- hope they update soon- I hate convincing a customer on quality and then getting shipped a chinese part or another ATI P.O.S. door glass!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like seeing what brand I am buying on a competitors site- hint hint- do that PLK!!!
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xs
Apr 24th, 2008 - 12:31 AM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
I agree Howis I wish I could post smilie's again............LOL.............................
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GM
Apr 24th, 2008 - 6:03 AM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
Thank God Paul is driving the short bus in North Charleston. If he wasn't then we wouldn't even deal with them. The new people don't send parts you order but do send if you call and check on availability. It has gotten sad.
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Webmaster
Apr 24th, 2008 - 9:21 AM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
xs - if I remember correctly, it was partly your fault that the smilies were disabled in the first place. I might be mistaken and I apologize if that is the case but I'm pretty sure it was you and the other dude who went crazy with them.
Sorry to get off topic.
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...
Apr 24th, 2008 - 11:35 AM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
pilk has definelty dropped the ball on service. for the longest time we were one of their top clients in our area. then the service began to down go south. i guess they got to comfortable with us as a client. their staff was more concerned with service new smaller clients. they'd sent us all the new driver and also these contract drivers. these so called drivers would not only deliver us scratched glass, these would scratch our inventory parts also. we tried and tried to get our service issues resolved, but nothing would happen. go figure. to make a long story short, we now buy maybe one or two pieces, if any from pilkington. the two vendors we mostly use are giving us excellent service, there is an open line of communication( never realyl did with pilk. if a part was not there or was damaged we would not find out until after our next scheduled had come and left), and most importantly the customer service is there.
i guess pilkington expected us to buy from them and felt they did not have to earn our business.
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jacko
Apr 24th, 2008 - 12:08 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
Yes they have fallen apart when it comes to service. I think that they think their name is good enough to scrap their service. I am seeing the independents as alot better supplier now then both the big boys. Quite honestly the quality of their glass really isn't that much better or even better than other companies like APtech anymore. Heck almot all their tempered is ATI which you can buy at a salvage yard these days.
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gonna luv it
Apr 24th, 2008 - 4:29 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
i was worried that the problem with pilk was limited to just our area, misery loves company, sad to say!
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jacko
Apr 24th, 2008 - 4:38 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
Nope it is country wide from the way it looks.
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larry D
Apr 24th, 2008 - 6:11 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
This is very weird I think (not that anyone gives a toot what i think)...
That pilk has come around to me. In the south they are outstanding, willing to get mass quanitys of glue in for me in bulk, more than competive.. I will agree that thier web site stinks on ice...
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Mr.Glass
Apr 24th, 2008 - 10:40 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
You will know when they are hurting because they will suddenly act like you are important to them. Thats how they work. They will drop prices and become the price leader. The funny thing is I used to work for them a few years ago and was told my upper management when I was trying to match the competitions pricing that at Pilkington "We sell on service, not price". Well that was told me by another ex Pilkington employee. Go figure.
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Larry D
Apr 25th, 2008 - 4:20 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
I went to them they did not come to me, they never have. Sales reps are like strip clubs I have no use for them :)
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Bama dog1
May 2nd, 2008 - 11:30 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
Strip clubs.....in Alabama their old salesman could not stay out of them!!! As an ex employee...I could type anything on here and he would never know...he was to busy looking up porn sites on Pilk computers!! Company had good employees...just none in management/sales!
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Yep
May 3rd, 2008 - 1:08 AM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
Yep as another ex employee I even went to the man in charge and he ignored all the info I gave him about the middle management that was destroying my branch and he didn't care. It is a good ol boy management style over there. If you kiss the right backend they don't care what you do or how bad you mess the business up. I am proof of that. Its pretty sad. I should right a public letter and tell you the story and give names and see if that turns any heads!
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Yep
May 3rd, 2008 - 1:13 AM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
Ooooops, how about write a letter.lol
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AHAG
May 4th, 2008 - 1:56 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
Same b.s. in our markets, charging for parts you never ordered but delivered to other shops. local office says you owe one amount while corporate shows you owe less than half of what the local branch shows.
Pilk branded parts not fitting properly in the corners on sedona vans, refuse to send other brand to help fix problem. Refuse to pick up returns after many reminder calls ( oct2007 I still have the part ) one csr says it cant be returned while the other says b.s. yes it can be returned.
PILK is one of the worst in our markets
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AGN
May 4th, 2008 - 2:36 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
I'm not having great luck here so far...I have bought five parts from them and I have had one break on install and another with a bad bend. On top of that the pricing and availability on some of the more popular parts is terrible.
AGN
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dick hertz
May 10th, 2008 - 9:21 AM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
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Sierra
May 10th, 2008 - 10:23 AM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
Pilkington will not even deliver to my area.. PPG Mygrant and others deliver here multiple times per day and their warehouses are all pretty close to one another.
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atech
May 10th, 2008 - 10:47 AM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
horrible lately. almost pathetic...
at least I have PPG to fall back on! LOL
Hopefully the stock starts improving at the indie distributer here soon!!! we need in stock glass w/o scratches and chips delivered in a timely manner.
I know the customers we work hard for would appreciate good service with quality products. If we can't get them serviced, I'm sure a belron shop will be able to get the job done. I don't know if the big distributers understand the importance of holding up their end in this fight. Belron is taking a lot of glass sales away from them.
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ExPilk
May 10th, 2008 - 12:21 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
They brought me in because of my retail experience and to clean up the place. After one year I turned the place around and increased profit and quality of service. How did I do this?? By ignoring my boss and bypassing my sales rep. My sales rep wasnt worth a **** and was let go from Pilk once before. They got her back with an Old Dominion buyout. She was a horrible sales rep. My boss had no clue what retail side wanted, he was a corporate sheeple. Every step of the way to bigger profit and better service was a fight because it wasnt the corp way. After one year I gave up and left to go back to retail. Now the place is returning to its old self. They no longer have a branch manager and service sucks. And how did you know Paul drives a bus??
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CONCERNED
May 13th, 2008 - 1:44 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
POPULAR PARTS ARE OUT OF STOCK, THEIR PRICE MAYBE CHEAPER, BUT IF NOT IN STOCK IN SERVICE CENTER OR COLUMBUS, DOESN'T DO MUCH GOOD TO BE ANY CHEAPER, NEVER KNOW WHEN THEIR WAREHOUSE TRUCK IS GOING TO SHOW UP WITH THEIR STOCK SHIPMENT. I CAN UNDERSTAND NOT STOCKING A LOT OF FOREIGN TEMP GLASS, BUT YOU SHOULD AT LEAST KEEP THE FRONT DOORS AND BACKGLASS IN STOCK. DOMESTIC TEMP IS ANOTHER BIG PROBLEM WITH PILK. MAYBE SOMEONE WAY UP THE LADDER SHOULD TAKE A LOOK AT PPG'S INVENTORY AT THEIR BRANCHES AND USE THIS AS AN EXAMPLE. NOT PERFECT BUT A HUGE!!!! IMPROVEMENT OVER THEIRS.
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Lee
May 13th, 2008 - 3:57 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
At our Pilk a DW1658 GBY is $4.00 less than a GTY but the DW1659 GBY is $85.69 more than the GTY and on both #'s the GTY cost is the same. Mygrant sells the GTY & GBY Pilk's at the same price. Dummbbbb
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confusious
May 15th, 2008 - 3:23 AM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
regular gtn part not in stock but sure the mopar is for 4 times the cost!! this is friggin retarded. there is no way im putting a window in for less than what i can make for mowing my neighbors lawn.
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j
May 15th, 2008 - 12:42 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
Stopped at a car lot once. Gave the guy a price and he said shop down the street was 10.00 cheaper but out. I told him when we were out we were 40.00 cheaper. He had us put ours in.
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potato*
May 15th, 2008 - 7:52 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
sly like a fox j
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...
May 16th, 2008 - 3:24 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
the pilkington location that services us has gone down hill. about four years ago it was one of the highest producing warehouses in the nation. they had three of the biggest iny accounts in our region(we were one of them) in the last 6 months or so our company and another began buying from a different distributor. now i have heard from a reliable source that the remaing big account it fix to buy from a competing distributor. all of have left because of extrmemly bad service and inventory. around four years ago these three accounts reprensented 50-60 percent of this locations totla sales and volume. now they are close to having no major accounts.
what i do not understand is how can a company afford to loose such big accounts? all there opps and sales people do is blame eachother and they can not do anything about it. i guess no one in that company can do anything. what was once such a great supplier has gone down hill.
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........
May 16th, 2008 - 5:41 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
I figured when the Japanense bought them they might get some smarts from above but noticed they still have the same old brainless yuppies as Ops managers and Sales managers. The funny thing is most of them don't know crap about the glass biz down in the trenches where the profit is made.
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howie
May 16th, 2008 - 7:40 PM |
Re: What happened to Pilkington
My guess what happened to pilkington is , even though it was attempted, they could not please most of us who need to shop based on price (cost concerns).
. Because we (pilk and us) could not convince a majority of the consumers that their glass was better and worth more.
.They , the consumers, and their insurers, accepted other cheaper brands of glass.
.Which in turn , because of cost concerns, OR conflict of interest, Pilk decided to distribute glass of lesser quality.
.Perhaps produce it too.
.If the economy at large decides to shop based on quality,
.Or the general quality of glass diminishes below "acceptable" levels,
.A new or renewed market could open for a "pilk" type manufacturer.
.WHO will produce the perfect auto glass.
.And provide it to the "AFTERMARKET"
. AND MOST IMPORTANT- Who would be willing to pay for it?
.IS DEALER GLASS PRICED FAIRLY WHEN IT CAN COST TEN TIMES MORE ?.
.IF SO, QUALITY AFTERMARKET GLASS HAS A HUGE UNTAPPED MARKET.?
.
How come no-one fills this void?
Hmmm....
.JMHO
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