This company is about as patriotic as you can get. From Wilmar, Missouri, this company made maintenance free telescoping flagpoles in the 1980's to display memorial flags in honor of fallen veterans. The entire flagpole can be colapsed with a push of a button and stored until needed again.
Uncommon USA brags quality and values and a Scandanavian honesty that includes a strong work ethic. They promise a 90 day guarantee and a 5 year warrantee. Now, from what I saw on their website, the flagpoles start at $169.00 for a 15 foot telescoping pole.They also sell all kinds of flags from Military and Patriotic to NBA, NFL, Elks, Moose, Major league Baseball, and more. The flags start at about 20 dollars and for a 3 X 5 patriotic flag it will run you about $30.00. Check them out.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
UNCOMMON USA FLAGPOLES
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2 comments:
My father (an ex-military man, and 100% Patriot) purchased a telescoping flagpole from this company this past summer (July of 2008). When he received it in the mail, it was bent. Because he really wanted the flagpole, he didn't ask for his money back, but returned it and asked for another one. The second one arrived also bent. Again, he just sent it back and asked them to send him a working flagpole. The third one seemed to work, and he installed it as instructed (he actually built a huge concrete base for it, and bought a cast iron Uncle Sam to sit on the base). The flagpole worked great until October, when the weather got colder (my dad lives in Delaware). At that point, the flagpole stopped working. The button (used to telecope the flagpole, and get the flag up and down) froze in place, and the only way for my dad to get the flag down that night was to pour hot water on the button to get the flag down.
My father called this company to let them know what happened and they gave him the runaround for several weeks. I finally called this past Tuesday (1/6/09), and had the worst customer service experience ever.
I spoke with one person and then was transferred to someone named Tom. I explained to Tom what had happened (about the two bent flagpoles, and now the non-working button). I explained that even once the weather got nicer (we had a few weeks of 50 degree weather in early December), the flag pole would work OK, and then not work again as soon as the weather got cold. I thought Tom was kidding when he made the following suggestions: 1) just use the flagpole in the summer, 2) leave the flag up all winter (when I explained that it’s in my dad’s yard and not lit, and you can't fly the flag at night unless it's lit, he asked if we didn’t just have "lights on in our house"), 3) put a rope on the flagpole and get the flag up and down that way in the winter, 4) put the flagpole in the garage for a while so it could warm up and then keep trying it again.
When I asked Tom if he was serious, he said that he was just trying to help me with MY problem. I pointed out that the flagpole had a 10 year warranty, and Tom said that "it’s only for manufacturer’s defects". When I pointed out that the only working part on the flagpole had stopped working without any interference from us, and that that clearly constituted a manufacturer's defect, he finally said that he would take the flagpole back, but that we would have to pay the cost of shipping. He said that he would not replace the flagpole, and flat out said that we were the cause of the problems with all 3 flagpoles (“they were fine when they left here, so you must be doing something to them”), so he felt that there was no point in his sending us another one (I guess he figured we would just “do something” to the replacement one as well). When I asked Tom why on earth we would "do something" to a flagpole that my father so clearly wanted, and what we could possibly be doing wrong, he said that then maybe the flagpole just wouldn’t work in “our environment”. When I asked him what he meant by this, and pointed out that we live in Delaware (not the tundras of Russia or something), he said that other people use the flagpole all over the country and it works fine for them, so there must be something that we did wrong, or something wrong with the area where we are.
At no point did Tom apologize for having sent us 3 defective flagpoles (in fact, at no point did Tom take any responsibility at all for 3 defective flagpoles, preferring instead to place all of the blame on us, who had absolutely no reason to damage the flagpoles). There was zero attempt at customer service, and it was one of the worst experiences I have ever had with a company based here in the US. It shocked me that a flagpole manufacturer would suggest that we just leave the American flag flying outside all winter with just the “lights from inside our house” considered as lighting the flag at night. This person has no respect for his customers, and worse – no respect at all for the American flag and the traditions surrounding it. There is no way this company should be listed on anything called 'By America for America', and no American should buy anything from them.
Wow, what a horrible experience.I forwarded your email to customer service. Let's see if they do anything. Will keep you up to date.
You just never know.
Terri
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