Jack's small engines Bought out

[bertsmobile1]

I like the looks of that little K&T Saw Shop ! Thanks for the tip, Two-Stroke !;-)

. . *stepping up on soapbox * . .

My last order from Jack's - was last summer 2020 - when I ordered a JD air filter base + some other misc parts. As had previously always been the case, the prices were very reasonable, as were the shipping charges. Their phone & email customer service were both fantastic. The items were dispatched promptly and arrived right away in just a few days.

But ten months on, after JSE sold-out to NorthernTools in April, when I tried to place an order earlier this summer, the so-called NorthernTools/JacksSmallEngines customer service was non-existent;

1) They never answer their so-called customer service phonelines anymore.

2) They plaster prompts all over their website to 'contact' them via their website 'message' form - if you have a parts related question &c; which I did, twice, with a very simple little question (e.g. did they have/stock a fuel shutoff solenoid for our Kohler w/Walbro carb #xxxxxx ?). But zero response both times !! =( Not a word; zip, zippo, zilch, nada, nix, nil, nothing! That was 3 months ago.

3) Rang them again; it rang forever; still no answer !

4) Another e.g. - They raised the price on their JD/Kohler replacement carb kit - over $50 more than it was last year ! Same exact carb kit; manuf in USA; probably old stock. As if, Hey, every manufacturer, transporter/shipper, and supplier in north america is price-gouging the general public in the neighborhood of 25~35%+ (900% for OSB !:-{ )... so we, NorthernTools/JacksSmallEngines might as well too ! We're an american company, right! So like all american companies, lets jump on the price-gouging, fleecing of the general public bandwagon !! ?
. . * steps down off soapbox * . .

Yep
Jacks have lost my custom as well
For a start every time I attempt to connect I get a message they are "checking my browser " and that can take better than 5 minutes .
So obviously they are snooping on my computer to attempt to mine data from my browser.
Just to check it was not an old technology thing, I connected using a fresh copy of Brave Browser with nothing in its history or cashe and that never made a connection.

 

[winmod21]

Yep
Jacks have lost my custom as well
For a start every time I attempt to connect I get a message they are "checking my browser " and that can take better than 5 minutes .
So obviously they are snooping on my computer to attempt to mine data from my browser.
Just to check it was not an old technology thing, I connected using a fresh copy of Brave Browser with nothing in its history or cashe and that never made a connection.

Yeah I forgot about that. Same here. Was getting that 'checking your browser' message every time I refreshed or woke-up my notebook. And I was wondering the same thing, Checking my browser for what ?! :~\ If my browser needed checking...my Windows Security / Virus & Firewall threat protection would let me know; or our Bing/Windows Edge or Chrome or Startpage Search Engine &c would let us know !:~\ And yeah it'd stay busy a ridiculous long time. I shut it down. Shut it down to Chinatown !

No Tracks . . .lead to Jacks . . :~\

 

[7394]

Seems everything today is personal information based. Like getting mine.

 

[StarTech]

When It comes to Jack's they are using Cloudflare which is doing this. It has caused me to stop supporting the Jack's Forum as I can't even start to login. They want me to prove I am a Human everytime. Plus I am limiting my use of their business website too as a result of this checking of the browser. They have lost several orders because of this. The setup they are using is unnecessary as my RBI distributor uses Cloudflare and I never see anything like this. Jack's is paranoid about being attacked.

I use "NoScript" as to block most unwelcome scripts. Even now on this site I am blocking 7 scripts. I just don't see the need for all tracking software sites are using. Besides Amazon don't need to know what I doing here.

BTW I also use Adblock Plus as I just don't want to see a lot BS ads.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I used to let adds run on forums and occasionally click through on some because it is the adds that are paying for foum hosting.
But I added this forum to my Add blocker list about 18 months ago when they went subscription to google adds.
This was because the adds ate up my entire download quota for 4 months in a row I had enough and added them to the list
The adds accounted for better than 15 Gb of downloads a month and of course Sloooooowed down the page loading to a crawl .
It took a while to nut that one out.

I run Snoop all the time to monitor CPU use and identify who is using it.
While Cloudflare is checking my browser the CPU uses maxes and the routines running go that fast that all I see in the command line window is a blur of text.
As you said totally unnecessary they can put a key or cookie in or even an authentications routine that has to sync with their server and that would take a milli second.

Companies who outsource their IT are asking to be attacked and it they outsource to the cloud then they are begging to get attacked .
99 % of what cloudflare is offering are only needed because the data is stored remotely on the cloud and the cloud very much insecure .
It is not hard to set up your own servers to be resistant to attack .
And even easier if you do off site real time archiving with incrimental back up which these days can be done after each & every transaction so the worst thing that can happen is you loose the last transaction then use a separate system & server for all internal computing so it is a one way data flow .

 

[SamB]

I always like these types of threads.
You can easily see the people who have been in business for themselves and also those who have never been in transport / warehousing or distribution .
The warehouse I go to most regularly has 2 sales staff, 3 order pickers , 3 order packers & a dock supervisor .
so around 1/3 of the staff do nothing but wrap & pack orders and their wages have to be accounted for, let alone the time spent manifesting the goods, and the packing materials used .
Mower parts are not like books that can be slipped into a book bag , have the computer printed docket stuck on the front then tossed into a bin waiting for collection.
And as Pete often jokes, he can pack 4 pallets of parts in a day and no two will be the same, from decals through to complete transmissions .
Each one has to be packed according to the delivery companies regulations which also varies and because he is good every one despatched via the best value transport operator.

As for stored part inflation
A warehouse space has a price on it per hour / per day / per week / per month / per year and stuff that has been sitting there for 20 years will have accrued 2000 x its actual value in space costs.
Some bigger warehouses have computer programes that add this to parts that have been sitting unsold for X years.
And then there is funny tax laws in some places in the USA where tax is levied on the inventory in stock on a particular day, which is why we get millions of remaindered books sent down here from the USA for less than the actual printing costs.
On top of that there is oppertunity costs because the $3 they paid for the $ 7 retail part 20 years ago has prevented them buying $ 50,000 worth of fast moving parts over that time .
Then there is the space costs, that pallet of slow moving parts sitting there gathering dust can be taking up the space that fast moving parts could be using gathering profits .
And finally the wages & bonus system used to renumerate management often uses the P:E ratio as a measurement so keeping the minimum amount of stock on hand reduces the Equity so boosts the Profit to Equity ratio . Accountants all think ( or rather don't think ) the same .

I've been educated a bit and by this post and appreciate the insight into shipping and warehousing costs. While I have been in business for myself,it did not involve shipping and receiving and warehousing. But yes,when I had some item that had a birthday,as we called a shopworn,been there a year or longer item,it was marked way down,sometimes below our cost to free up that money and space for something that would sell and bring in a bit of profit. I needed that 'DiNozza' slap! :-D