Nexel Shelves.... the worst customer service I have or ever will encounter.
So the other day my boss is talking about remodeling a room and I suggest to him we use the shelves we had at our last place. They are sturdy and easily adjustable. He tells me to look into it. Here is the humorous saga that ensued.

"Nexel shelves, can I help you."
"Can I talk to a sales rep about shelving? I have specific needs and want to figure out the best solution."
"Have you looked on our website? Everything is listed there. You can put together an order and enter it into the web form and we'll fax you a quote."
"Yeah, I am on your page and have put together a possible order but I just want to talk to a sales rep to be sure that I have it right."
"Well, what are you concerned about?"
"I will be putting aquaria on it and want to be sure that I order the correct type to be sure it will not rust and can hold the weight."
"Okay, well that info is on a pdf on the website. Go to the top of the page and click on catalog. On the third page it will tell you the weight loadings. Then enter it into a form and we'll fax you a quote."
"I would rather just talk to a sales rep."
"Just look at it on the website first then send us the info and a sales rep will call you."
"Uhh, ok."
"Ok, good-bye" Dial tone.....

Now continues the email dialog that continued-
The web form data I submitted:
We need 9 48" wide, 24" deep, 72" tall shelving units each with 7 > shelves on them. So my count is 63 shelves and 36 poles. Their most demanding function will be to hold 10 gallon aquaria filled with water. I think the EP series is what we will need. In essence, we have three walls 144" wide and are looking for the best solution that will support aquaria. Can you please give us a quote including tax and shipping? I tried calling to talk over options but was met with an abrupt woman on the phone who insisted I use this web form. If there is a salesperson that can call me, I would appreciate it. We are budgeted to spend $2000 including tax and shipping, so the closer you can get to that number, the more likely we will choose you to order from. THANKS! -Jake

The reply:
Not a good application for this shelving 10 gallons = 110 lbs including tank

Yeah, that's it. No phone call, no fax, no alterative solution. So I follow up...

"Nexel Shelves"
"Can I talk to a sales rep?"
"Have you been to our website?"
"Yes, I have. I submitted an order but was met with an abrupt reply that was not helpful. I would like to just talk to a rep to figure out a solution."
"Maybe I can help you?"
"Ok, well I need shelves for aquaria. I used your shelves at my previous University and they held up well so I just need a quote. The catalog you sent me to said that the shelf could hold 600 lbs and even by your estimate I can only fit four tanks on a shelf so this comes in at 440lbs. Truthfully they will not even be completely full, so this is worst case scenario."
"Well that estimate is for an evenly loaded shelf, so they are not designed for supporting aquaria"
"Well I would have four aquaria on a shelf evenly loaded?"
"Um, ok- well just resubmit a form with your order and I will make a note. Where are you from?"
"Washington State University"
"Ok, bye"
Dial tone.....

So here is the SECOND web form:
I emailed earlier about ordering some 48" shelves (see below). I have used these shelves for water before at my previous lab (UC Davis with Andrew> Sih- perhaps you could verify the order even). They seem to hold up fine and by my estimate we'll only be able to fit 4 10 gallon tanks on a shelf so if there were full (which they typically will only be half >full) would weigh less than 500 lbs. The shelves are rated for 600lbs, so by my calculation they should be fine. If you could fax me (509-335-3184) a quote (including tax and shipping) I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks, Jake Kerby Washington State University

The reply:
PLEASE FIND ANOTHER VENDOR FOR YOUR SHELVING / THANK YOU

That is it... Nothing else...
Then 3 hours later another email.

PLEASE FIND ANOTHER VENDOR FOR YOUR SHELVING / THANK YOU PS 500lbs x 7 shelves = 3500 lbs on a shelving unit that is rated max load even distribution of weight across each shelf total 4 shelves in a unit = max per unit 2400 lbs not 3500 lbs Again you are taking a very risky chance and if your doing it now on existing shelving better take extra precautions a disaster may be on the way!!

Ummm.... So since I am using a web form and not talking to a person- they don't know that I am ordering 7 shelves so that we can alternately use them to put small cups on for certain experiments. It is not even possible to fit 7 shelves of aquaria on the order I submitted. So I reply once more a bit frustrated...

Are you kidding me? Please just send me a quote! This could have gone much faster if I were able to talk to a sales rep like I requested last week! We are ordering 7 shelves because we will primarily be using smaller containers that are much shorter (that will weigh much less because of far less water). You cannot fit 10 gallon aquaria on 7 shelves... Again, I am estimating a worst case scenario but our tanks are typically only half full and so this falls far under the weight limit if we use 5 shelves (although most typically we will be using four shelves when aquaria are on them). Please just send me a quote...
Jake

And their reply:

Sir
I am Not Kidding You
Again Please find another vendor for your shelving.


You think it is time to give up? I have never encountered a company that worked so hard to not get my business.

Sorry for the delay in blogging- lots has been going on. I'll start by finishing the satellite story, since so many of you seem amused by my obsession with it. The Dish network folks came out last Thursday and hooked it all up. I thought it was going great until I realized I wasn't getting a bunch of my High Definition channels. So I went out there myself and adjusted it to pick up most of them, but not all. So they are coming back out on Thursday to adjust it right. Why is this so hard????
Now for the real drama. I thought I was going to get fired last week. So there is an undergrad that has been planning an experiment for her honors project and raising animals for the past 2 months. This means spending 9 hours every Weds to change the water on nearly 700 cups. Well, despite my caution in calculating the proper pesticide concentration for the experiment, I screwed it up by a factor of 10. So basically 120 animals died the next day. I nearly totally ruined the entire experiment but luckily had lobbied to make the different dilutions by 10x instead of 2x. That is just science talk to say that instead of ruining everything I only ruined a part of the experiment. I was totally pissed, devastated, depressed, you name it. I really thought that I was going to get killed by the prof I am working with and by the undergrad. Needless to say, they were both disappointed- but they have not killed me yet. So dumb. It was the one thing that I had to get right and I screwed it up. Ahh, I am still not over it.
Other than that, I have been working on getting everything flowing smoothly. Working on revamping the lab's website. Working on getting this dissertation over with. Working at home. - I mowed the lawn for the first time!!! We bought a lawn mower and I assembled it and put it to use this past weekend. The novelty made it fun- I assume that will wear off quickly. Rachel has been working on the planters. Pulling out the weeds that the management promised to do. We bought some plants yesterday- we'll see if she got to put them in today. I'll have to post some before and after shots of the yard. Rachel did an amazing job. Our bed is coming on Friday. We should have found a place up here to get it. We were so worried that this place would be total hickville and we wouldn't be able to find anything. It clearly does not have the selection, but so far we have found everything we need not too far away, if not in town. The people here are incredibly nice. We have gone to a few churches now and all have been welcoming. I think they are pretty used to new people coming into town and do a good job of welcoming them. Rachel actually was supposed to do something today with a mom from one church and another mom from another church. So hopefully Rachel enjoys their company. That's it for now. Hopefully you all are doing well. Shoot me an email at jkerby@wsu.edu or just leave a comment.