Posts Tagged ‘buyer beware’

Not all polymers are created equal

Posted on July 16th, 2010 in Dust Control, Environmental, Soil Stabilization by Bob Vitale

Simple statement I know. Just take a look at the images below. Talk about a picture being worth a thousand words! Here’s the quick story. The first image was the customer’s work done with Midwest product. This was a Midwest customer for about ten years. The second image is the same project/customer done with a competitive product this year. The customer put this out for bid, specified our product or equal, they received a lower bid price, but really did not realize what they were buying – in part because the vendor provided them with what was thought to be credible information but was in fact intended to mislead. I’ve written blogs on “Buyer Beware” and this is again another example. All the cliché’s… you get what you pay for… clearly an issue in the dust control industry. When you put a project out for bid, you must be sure you are receiving estimates/prices that not only completely match regarding the formulation of the product, but that the company you are buying from guarantees that you will be satisfied with the result.

Pad Treated with Competitor's Product

Pad Treated with Competitor's Product

Pad Treated with Competitor's Products

Pad Treated with Competitor's Products

Pad Treated with Competitor's Product

Pad Treated with Competitor's Product

Shoulder Treated with Competitor's Product

Shoulder Treated with Competitor's Product

Pad Treated with Midwest Products

Pad Treated with Midwest Products

Shoulder Treated with Midwest Products

Shoulder Treated with Midwest Products

No Comments

Buyer Beware

Posted on November 12th, 2009 in Dust Control, Industry Watchdog, Soil Stabilization by Bob Vitale

I would like to share an interesting story with you. It represents an example of why I believe independent testing of company claims is very important for the purchasers of products from companies within our industry – during the bidding stage, and then again during the delivery stage.

For many years we have been supplying a customer with their requirements for a dust palliative and soil stabilizer. Our multi-year contract just expired and the user has issued a notice of solicitation for current bids to fulfill their requirements. Their solicitation included a detailed performance requirement for the product to pass CBR lab testing for a specific soil type to meet the standards for the customer’s needs. The specification matched our specific product, which they have been using for many years.

In the bidding, a competitor quoted a price approximately 20% below our quoted price. Part of the competitive vendor’s bid information included marketing and test data to prove that their product was equal to the product called for in the specification.

Shortly after the competitor was awarded the new multi-year contract for the delivery and installation of their brand name product, based on being the low bidder, they began communicating with producers of the basic raw materials stating they had just received a multi-year contract and needed to source significant volumes of a non-prime polymer emulsion. Within these communications there was no product chemistry specification that might indicate that what they were trying to source would meet the requirements as called for by the purchaser’s specification.

So here is the issue; since testing and documentation for the specification requirements is typically only required at the bidding stage, and product sampling is NOT required at the delivery stage to assure the exact product specified in the bid is being delivered, the bait and switch can take place and the customer will never know.

It will take due diligence on the part of the customer to catch this bait and switch activity. It will also take significant due diligence to confirm that the environmental soundness of whatever is actually delivered and installed on public roadways is in fact what was represented.

We know that price is an issue and customers need to assure their constituencies that they have done everything possible to obtain the best product solution for the lowest price. We also know customers do not want to “buy price” and close their eyes to product deficiency and possible environmental issues.

This is why it is in the best interest of both the community of users and principled industry leaders to expose such bait and switch activities. This is needed for both the protection of people and the environment in which these products might be used.

No Comments