[David Gerard]

It’s cold an lonley at the top! I don’t think the new rack has hit our showroom yet. Sometimes I wonder if we dont get all the used outdated stuff from you guys on the leading edge of things. I was handed a chip of Formica “Black Microdot ” ( thats laminate Dave) and funny thing it didn’t come of our rack…….. because it dosn’t exist on our rack! Must have gotten it from HD

[Fred Atwood]

David…don’t feel too bad. My area of Florida is treated just about as remote as Alaska. Well, maybe not quite, but I am originally from Los Angeles area, so it feels that way.

[Reuben Hoff III]

Well if you guys want I have a baord seting in the corner gathering dust. I am very sure I will not ever see the new board style either so only see the 2 times in 4 years now. So anyone want to buy a WA rack ???

Reuben

[Mark Urbaniak]

I think we should CHARGE them rent for taking up wall space in the showrooms……after all it there product we are trying to sell…and there charging us for samples

[Carla Thornton]

Here’s a novel concept, why don’t you ALL refuse to sell the product till they correct this problem? 1 at a time means nothing. Together, the suits and ties will choke on their decisions!

[Tom M]

Please click here for additional info on this. I had a very nice conversation with WilsonArt regarding this matter.

[Fred Atwood]

Something must have changed. When my rep was in and changed us to the mini board she told us it was the only one we could have. After reading this thread, I left her a message last Friday saying that some other FabNet members had both boards. This morning the WA truck had my new Commercial board. The power of FabNet is always amazing!

[Tim Atkinson]

Thanks for all the honest feedback on the new Wilsonart merchandising system. Let me start by apologizing for the frustration that some of you are feeling with our new program. It seems that you may not be getting the whole story about what is happening with Wilsonart and I hope you’ll let me do a little explaining.

First, please understand that our program was developed with the end-customers that we all serve in mind. On the residential side: consumers were telling us they were confused and sometimes overwhelmed by all the options we showed on our one-size-fits-all wallboard. They wanted us to help them narrow down the options by showing them only the best designs for countertops. That’s what our new Wilsonart Home board is intended to do.

On the commercial side, for those of you who work in that world, designers want lots of options, but they told us there were too many residential designs on our board, and not enough of what they could use. The new Wilsonart Contract board offers them more of what they wanted. Together, the two lines offer the whole range of end-users more Wilsonart options than ever before – 282 items with 72 new designs.

We realize that some of you live in both worlds, which makes it challenging when we break things out as we have. We’ve tried to develop some tools that help you bridge the markets. I hope you’ll give us time to figure out what is going to work best to meet your company’s needs.

We realize we didn’t get everything perfect right out of the box. This has been a big change for all of us. But we believe that, ultimately, it will mean more business for us all. We’ll have to work through some of the rough spots, and your input is very helpful as we move forward.

Thank you all for your comments. I hope you’ll give us the opportunity to work with you as our program evolves.

Tim Atkinson, Vice President/Sales, Wilsonart

(Post edited by admin to remove the bold, all content stayed the same)

[Andy Graves]

Thanks for the response. We all appreciate the input from the people that make the decisions. Nothing beats a solid explanation.

[Andy Graves]

BTW, welcome to the FabNet forum.

[Tom M]

Mr. Atkinson,

First, thanks for responding to what I thought would be a less popular thread than it turned into. It was encouraging to see so many more guys in my shoes. I have always known WilsonArt to step up and take the fire when it was time to. That shows here as well. On another thread I thanked Mr. De Gaetano for the contact. It was something not often seen in any industry, let alone this one.

I understand you have to respond to the end-user or designer for the end-user. That’s just good business. I wonder, though, if it would not have been smart to ask us as well. I just recently found out that I still am a partial board short of the full load and need to correct that. We could have told you to design a home board, and an everything board. It would at least take up less space.

A customer and fabricator himself was in my showroom and we got discussing the board. His beef is that he used to hand his customers chains and said “Pick anything, it’ll all cost the same” which worked fine until the HD series came out. For him, a board that is split by price would make more sense.

We understand you can’t please everyone, but the decisions you guys make tell us who you are catering to. Once upon a time, that included fabricators. It seems less so now. Please don’t forget us. We have opinions and ideas that may not fit your outlook, but isn’t that what diversity is for?

Thank you, again for taking the time to respond.

Tom Mather

[Author]

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