Gun's E-Z Own: Winter Safety for Deliveries

Greetings all.

In 2008 we placed a delivery policy that stated that our delivery people have the right to refuse delivery if they feel it is unsafe. How and why did this policy come about.

Today I am tackling a subject that is one of my pet peeves. People who ask Gun's E-Z Own to deliver a product to their home, but they don't shovel or spread ice melt on the path we would take for the delivery.

Let's go back in time when I was a mere regional manager.

One winter we had a rental furniture delivery to a gentleman from Texas. The day before the delivery there was an ice storm and this gentleman was not prepared for a Minnesota winter. He did not have ice melt or a shovel for that matter. While I was checking the path we were going to use for the delivery, I stepped on a patch of ice that cause my feet to slip right out from under me. Like you would see in a cartoon. I fell on my back and hit the back of my head hard on the concrete driveway. Fortunately I had a stocking cap on that was folded over and gave extra cushion. I came out okay, but still got a headache. Two days later, I heard on the news that some guy slipped on some ice like I did, He did not have extra cushioning on the back of his head and died from severe brain trauma from the fall.

During another winter after the previous paragraph, 2008 to be exact. I had slipped and fell three times. Once hurt my back, another hurt my hip and third one, well the third one I will tell you about.

The third time we were delivering a sofa and a recliner. The main side walk going to the customers sidewalk did not have ice melt on it and was slippery. The customer's sidewalk was not shoveled. Now some recliners, the backs come off for ease of delivery. I had the bottom part of the recliner and my assistant had the top half. Well I slipped and fell with the bottom part of the recliner landing on top of me. I was fine. We then carried the sofa, We both slipped a little and the sofa got a little snow on it from the piled up snow bank. We got the sofa into the town home.

The customer then started to complain that we got a little snow on the sofa. This was just a little bit towards the bottom. Like 3" wide by maybe 6" long. It was all I could do not to snap. I told the customer that if he was not happy with it, we will take it back and refund them their down payment.

Now for my tirade. Really, dude. You were too lazy and too inconsiderate to shovel the sidewalk for an appointed time for a delivery and then complain that we got a little snow on the product, that would not do any damage to the product. In which, from the fall, we could have done a law suit for improper maintenance of your sidewalk. That with us falling, could have done severe physical damage. Just dust the snow off and carry on.

That was the last straw. I had enough. I don't need any of my delivery people to get hurt. I got permission for a Delivery policy from the owner of the business and he agreed.

This policy reads:

DELIVERY POLICY

Gun’s E-Z Own Staff Reserve the Right to REFUSE DELIVERY if they feel there are safety issues.

Customers are asked to:

1.    Make sure the furniture purchased will fit down pathway and through doorways of their residence.

2.    Keep possible delivery pathways clear of snow, ice, toys and any other items that may cause an E-Z Own staff member to slip or fall. During the winter make sure pathways are sanded and/or salted.

3.    Stairs must be deemed as safe and not rickety.

4.    Have vehicles moved out of the path if furniture may have to be lifted over head to clear vehicle.

Gun’s E-Z Own staff will inform the customer of the safety hazards. If the safety hazards can’t be cleared immediately the delivery will be cancelled until the safety hazards are cleared.

The customer may chose to pick up the purchased items themselves and have a portion of their delivery fee credited to their account.

#   #   #   #

So what is the moral of the story? Please be considerate of service people who are coming to your home. Have the sidewalk cleared off, have a path to where the service person is going cleared. Yes, They are being paid for their service but you may end up paying a lot more if that service person slips, falls and does severe damage or death because a path was not cleared.

But the business has workmen's Comp. Yes, True, but the workmen's comp will go after your insurance to get repaid if they find that it is the fault of the customer.

And to avoid this process, Gun's E-Z Own reserves the right to refuse delivery.

Phew, I said my peace. Now I will need to go zen and settle down.

Thank you for listening today.

Have a blessed and safe day.

Gun's E-Z Own: What NOT to do around your TV

You may have heard the Jim Croce Song with the lyrics, "You don't tug on Superman's Cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't pull the mask of the old Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with Jim."

Well today I have three stories of what you shouldn't do around your TV. Another title could be: Kids, don't do this around the TV to anger your parents.

Story 1: 

One our customers came into the store very upset. We asked what happened? Her 11 year old son was playing with his BB gun. (Oh, yes. You already know the ending) He was cleaning it and pretending to shoot it. He had thought it was empty. (Of course it was empty.) He had moved to the living room and placed the BB gun down. 

While placing the BB gun down on a table, the BB gun was pointing towards the TV. His finger got stuck in the trigger and bang. Cracked TV screen. A TV that was less than two years old. 

Needless to say, BB guns are now banned in the house*

Story 2:

An family member recently went to a local home improvement store, who were handing out helium filled balloons to all the kids. To help weigh the balloons down, the balloons had a washer tied to the bottom of the string.

The daughter got home and was so excited about her new balloon, she was swinging it around and around in, . . . you guessed it, . . . the living room. Her father told her repeated times to stay away from the TV with the balloon. She lost hold of the balloon and it floated over the TV cabinet. Now the TV sits in a TV cabinet where the doors can close over the TV.

Thinking the daughter couldn't get to the floating balloon, the father who had a broken foot in a cast at the time, decided to take a long hot bath. Being as that it was easier than taking a shower.

After the bath, he entered the living, hmmm, the ottoman was by the TV cabinet and the TV cabinet was closed. Odd, but ok, He opened the cabinet, sat down, used the remote to turn the TV on and HOLY CRAP, there was a rainbow colored, spider web patterned crack in the TV screen.

A loud, "Get over here now!" to the very upset and nervous daughter was called out to found out what happened. She pushed the ottoman to the TV cabinet, that was open, climbed up to get her balloon. In the process she banged the washer into the TV screen. She got scared, closed the TV cabinet to hide the damage and ran away to her room. 

Moral: Never assume that your determined child CANNOT do something. Especially when it comes to cool balloons.

Story 3:

A customer's daughter enjoys the scented candles. On this particular day, she had lit a candle on the TV stand. Of course the TV is sitting right by the lit candle. What happens to candles when lit? They melt and while still warm there can be a puddle of wax. 

The daughter was being responsible, didn't leave the room while the candle was lit, but when she was ready to leave the room, she picked up the candle to blow it out. She lifted the candle up, in front of the TV, took a deep breath and (Yes, she did) blew the candle out and blew a bunch of hot wax onto the screen of their new TV. The hot wax melted spots into the screen and the spots that didn't melt, left a mark from cleaning it. 

Moral: Wax on not so easy to wax off.

At the time of the incident it's not so humorous but these are memories that we can look back on and smile about.  Remember that time when . . . broke the TV? Yea, how did that happen again?

Ladies and gentlemen, I am more than happy to sell you TV's, but if you like to save some money you don't play with a loaded BB gun, you don't swing a balloon with a washer on the end, you don't blow out a lit hot candle into your new TV and then you don't have to visit Gun.

*Just a side note for Story #1. A few months later, That boy's older sister, by 4 years, decided to play with the BB gun in the house and blew out the glass window of there stove. Face palm here.

I hope you enjoyed today blog. Please remember to view our Facebook page and visit our website at gunsezown.com.

Have a safe and blessed day. And if I don't blog before then, Have an awesome Thanksgiving.

Gun's E-Z Own: Doing Collections - Door Knocking

Here at Gun's E-Z Own, because that we are giving loans out for our customers to purchase furniture and using that furniture as collateral, we must do collections. That is we call customers, we send notices and letters to customers, we door knock customers and we take customers to court and get Sheriff's replevins (legal term for repossession).

We do have a matrix that we follow, and we are not looking for Neo either. With this matrix listed below, it helps keep customers payments timely and losses down:
Courtesy Phone Call
Letter / Phone Call
2nd Letter / Phone Call
Door Knock
Final Letter
Door Knock for Repossession
Court

I have been doing this for almost 20 years. (20 years in Feb of 2017) and dealt with all types of customers when it comes to collections. Today, I am going to do an overview of what Gun's E-Z Own does when out and about door knocking.

You may have noticed that I said Door Knocking. That is the phrase we use when we go to a customer's place of residence and, wait for it, . . . knock on their doors.

In the great state of Minnesota, there are laws that allow finance companies to do "self help" repossessions. Which in turn means, we are allowed to go up to customer's doors and ask for payment or the property. This does NOT mean we kick the door down and break in. Which, to be honest, I would like to at times. But I don't and won't. First off let me say that we reserve door knocking for those customers who refuse to call us back or make a payment. So if a customer has been contacting us we don't go to there doorstep unless they just have not come through with their five broken promises to pay us.

And when we door knock, it is not nearly as exciting as what you see on TV. If the customer can't afford their payment any longer, they are more likely to give up that Sofa. Those guys on TV repossessing a car if a different story. Take away a person's car and you pretty much take away their lively hood.

When going to a customers home, I always look at (not into, because that would just be creepy) the windows to look for curtain movement and listen for sounds for someone moving around or maybe a TV on. We look at the surroundings to make sure someone is still living there. Why is that? Because we have people move on us and we want as much information as we can get.


We also have to look out for mean dogs. Most of the dogs are friendly and I can get them to settle down and maybe pet them. Maybe.

From there I have a little carrying case that has my notices and envelopes in it. I knock on the door and listen for movement. I love it when the dog inside goes off on protecting the home. Then I know if the customer is home, they can't say they didn't hear me, because that dog will wake them up and/or let them know someone is there. If I don't hear anything, I will knock again and begin writing out what I need to on the notice. As you can see we use two different notices depending on how far behind the customer is. We have created a fill in the blank notice that makes it quicker and to get the legalize wording correct every time.

So then if there is still not anybody answering the door, Like Sheldon Cooper of the Big Bang Theory, I knock a third time. At that point I will leave the notice in an addressed envelope on the door knob or something that will hold the envelope.

Now if you are using this blog for help hints, DO NOT leave the notice in the mailbox. That is a Federal Offense. Just don't do it.

Once I hang the door notice, I just go back to my vehicle and head off to the next door. But what if someone answers the door?

If someone answers the door, I politely ask for the person I wish to speak to. If they are not home, I introduce myself and leave the door notice in an envelope with that person.

Now if the customer is home, I have a cordial conversation with them, and let them know why I am there. (They already know) Sometimes I get a payment, sometimes I get the property, sometimes I accept a promise of payment. Each situation is different.

The key to face to face collections is to treat people with respect. Everyone has a bad month. Bad things happen like car accidents and surgeries. If you poke the bear, all you get is a big load of nothing, and angry customer who is still delinquent and now you are in a upset state. Life is too short to go down that street.

Just talk to the customer with respect and explain to them what the next step is if they don't pay you. There is no reason to get all up into someone's face. If things do escalate, remember DO NOT BREACH THE PEACE. If you feel you are going down that road, Just listen to Kelly Clarkson and Walk Away.

Once again I just gave an overview of how I handle door knocking for collections. I live in a small town and this works for us. If I were to write everything down, this blog would be about 10 pages long and you would have lost interest before the end of page one.

I hope you found this interesting. Remember to find us on Facebook and visit our website at www.gunsezown.com for specials and see what we have in stock.

Have safe and blessed day.

Gun's E-Z Own: Cleaning your TV Screen.

Hi, there everyone. I know its been a little longer than usual from my last blog. I took some time off from the business side to try and rejuvenate the old noggin. I'll let you know if it worked.

Today, I am going to discuss about cleaning your TV Screens.

This topic came up recently when a customer was telling me about how his sister used a glass cleaner on her flat panel TV screen and put a haze on the screen. Her husband had noticed and had asked what happened. Since the TV sits by a window, she told him that the sun did it.

So some of you already may know this but I'll use this opportunity to remind people what not to do.

In your old tube TV, the screen was made out of glass. That was easy enough to clean. Any good glass cleaner would work.  Spritz a little glass cleaner on the screen and wipe it down with any rag or paper towel and your done.

For today's TV's, the flat panels, you can't do that. The screens on the newer TV's are made of a plastic. Have you ever sprayed Windex on a plastic item and afterward you have a haze on that item. WHY? you may ask.

DO NOT use glass or multi-purpose cleaners to clean your TV Screen. Glass Cleaners have chemicals in them that are not meant for plastic, only glass. Those chemicals in your favorite glass cleaner will slightly melt the plastic and that slight melt causes the haze.

One more thing, DO NOT use a paper towel to clean your screen either. What are paper towels made of? Well paper, of course. What is paper made of? Wood. There are small wood fibers in the paper towels. Those small wood fibers will scratch your TV screen. You people wearing glasses out there with plastic lenses. Were you in a pinch and used a paper towel to clean your lenses? How did that work out for you. you got at least one little scratch didn't you. Same thing with your TV screens. You get little scratches on your screen.

So what can you use? If your screen is just dusty, you can simply use a feather duster to dust it off. Or a micro-fiber cloth will work too if you lightly dust it.

You know how we try to put our TV's up high enough so that our little ones can't reach the screen and get there dirty little fingers on the screen. We all know how that works, right? Finger prints!! How do they do that!??

If you are looking at finger prints or the like, You have a couple of options:

1) Use a micro-fiber cloth. Spray some water on the cloth or the TV screen and wipe down your screen. Make sure your micro-fiber cloth is clean before using it.

2) Don't have a spray bottle you can use for water? Moisten your micro-fiber cloth with you tap water and is that on your screen. The cloth just needs to barely be wet. Remember you don't want water to accidentally drip into your TV and create a short.

3) You can purchase a cleaner made specifically for cleaning today's TV screens. We sell the Monster Screen Cleaner at Gun's E-Z Own. You can spray it on the cloth or the TV screen and wipe the screen down. No Scratches, No melt, only clean.

The argument for purchasing these glass cleaners specifically for your TV Screen is that there are no harmful chemicals in them that would hurt your TV screen. Water does have chemicals in it to keep the water clean and bacteria free like chlorine and the like. But the screen cleaners don't have any of that.

We use the Monster Screen Cleaner to clean, my glasses, laptop screens, the laptop casing, TV screens and anything else we don't want to use glass cleaner for. We don't use it for our windows though, it gets a little tiring pressing that little pump for a 8 foot by 4 foot window.

I hope you have found this to be another helpful idea.

Thank you for reading my blog today. There will be more to come. If you like my blogs, please send the links to your friends. And remember you can find us on Facebook.


I hope you have a safe and blessed day.

Gun's E-Z Own and Upholsetry Cleaning Codes

When you are out and about shopping for furniture, have you ever wondered how easy a sofa or love seat is to clean?

You can ask the sales representative how to clean or look for the cleaning code on one of the many tags that is on the furniture. But what do those cleaning codes mean? Today, I will answer that question for you.

There are four common cleaning codes in the industry. They are W, S, WS or X. Below are what each letter means.

W - Clean only with water based shampoo or foam upholstery cleaner. Do not over wet. Do not use solvents to spot clean. Pile fabrics may require brushing to restore appearance. Cushion covers should not be removed and laundered.

S - Clean only with dry cleaning solvent. Do not saturate. Do not use water. Pile fabric may require brushing to restore appearance. Cushion covers should not be removed and dry cleaned.

WS - Clean with shampoo, foam or dry cleaning solvents as desired. Do not saturate with liquid. Pile fabrics may require brushing to restore appearance.

X - Do not clean with either water or solvent based cleaner. use vacuuming or light brushing only.

What happens if you clean your fabric upholstery the wrong way? Your fabric can begin to fall apart or unravel. Or you can make the dirty area worse. So you will want to read the cleaning code on the upholstery and then the ingredients of your cleaning products.

For those who prefer a professional to do the cleaning, any prominent cleaning company can clean the products for you.

We have used cleaning services before on really tough items. We had a white sofa & love seat with a cleaning code of S. Well we didn't have the proper equipment for proper cleaning and hired out to do this. Cost us over $200 back then.  That was like 16 years ago.

More recently, we had a five piece sectional that the structure was in really good shape but the fabric was filthy. We hand washed and then used a steam cleaner to pick up the dirt. This usually works, but this time around it seemed like all we did was move the dirt around. We tried three times but just couldn't get the dirt picked up. We hired the cleaners from across the road and they did all five pieces for only $189.00. They did an excellent job. After the cleaning, we sold the sectional within two weeks.

What about leather? Any good leather cleaner will work. You can go to the automotive department of your local store and find a leather seat cleaner. That will work just fine to get the body oils and dirt off of the leather.

Around here we do like the microfiber fabrics because they all have a WS code and makes it much easier for cleaning. And if you get a little line of ink from you pen accidentally on the arm of that sofa of yours, just get some warm soapy water and use a fingernail brush to clean it. Use small circular strokes and, tah dah, you will get that ink mark out. I know it works because I've done it.

I hope you found this information helpful. To the right is a sample of wear you can find the cleaning code on the model number tag. In this example you can see "W".

Remember you can follow us on Facebook and visit our website at gunsezown.com.

Thank you for reading. Have a safe and blessed day.

Gun's E-Z Own Delivery Stories

I was going to blog about Lamps, but wasn't a bright idea. (ugh) It seemed like it might have been shady, (Stop) So I tabled it. (STOP!!!)

Ok, so I got you to roll your eyes. I'm one who enjoys a good pun. (Those are nothing like a good pun.)

I had mentioned in my last blog about some delivery war stories. Today I will elaborate on a couple of those stories.

I had mentioned that I had gone through a second story window. How was it that I got to that point. This was an upstairs apartment in an older house. The sofa was a long sofa with big arms. Which does not make for a good combination for easy deliveries.

The door was on the side, so you go in the door, go immediately right then up a couple of stairs then immediately to the left and then up the stairs. We got into the door without much of a problem. There was a wall that forced us to stand the sofa up on end. Then we tipped the sofa slightly to try to get it around the corner. Well we got it started around the corner and there we sat, The ceiling was too low, the hallway was too narrow and it was not going through. (By the way, why the heck did the builders of some of these homes build a stupid low ceiling in a stairway that you can bump your head on? I guess people were shorter long ago.)

So I begin thinking how this might work. I had gone through a first story window before but never a 2nd story window. Across from the house was a retaining wall. I went upstairs and measured the window, then measured the sofa height. We had a 1/4 of an inch on each side to get it in.

We took the sofa on end and used the retaining wall to get it as high as we could to the window. My assistant then ran upstairs and grabbed onto the sofa. I was military pressing the sofa over my head until he was able to get a good hold on the sofa. We got the sofa to the window. I left my spot and ran upstairs to help my assistant. We pulled the sofa through the window with little problems. Delivery done.

One more delivery story. I like to call this the delivery from hell.

It was in August. How do I remember what month? It was your typical August day. 95 degrees and the humidity was like 90%. It took us almost three hours to finish up that day because the heat was getting to us. We were delivering a short term rental for an Xcel (NSP) contractor. This was like 15 years ago. And it was a full house of stuff. The downstairs was not a problem. But once again going upstairs was a problem.

We got the bed room furniture upstairs with little issues except things were getting really heavy. Now for the mattresses. A little tight but yes, they went upstairs. Now for the foundations. The stairwell was an up some stairs, to the left and to the left for a complete u-turn. We tried to get a queen foundation upstairs. It wouldn't fit. So back down the stairs. Then we tried a Full size (double) foundation up the stairs and it wouldn't fit.

Not to be out down by a stupid foundation I pushed a little too much and BAM, there is a hole in the the drywall. &$&$&*#*!!. So I called it a day for that foundation and back down the stairs.

I told the customer about the wall and what I had to do for a beds for them. That afternoon I ran up to the cities and got two queen split foundations. Red Wing to the distributor in St. Paul was an hour one way. Hurried  on up then hurried on back and delivered the split foundations with no problem.

What about the hole in the wall? Me and construction don't get along to well. My forte is electronic stuff. I sent Marcia, my Office manager, who had done drywall repair before, over to the house and repaired the hole.

What was my point of this blog? Just to point out that when you purchase something from Gun's E-Z Own and want it delivered, we do our best to get the job done. We DO NOT drive to your house and drop it off on the curb and tell you you, "Here you go." We place that item where you want it. Upstairs, downstairs. Ahh, but the less the steps the better. (insert a smiley face here)

Some time I will tell you a couple of Repossession stories. Although they are not as exciting as what to see on TV.

Now that I have enlightened you, (I see what you did there) Thank you for reading. Have a safe and blessed day.

Shopping for Furniture at Gun's E-Z Own

Have you ever stopped in a furniture store and the sales rep asks you some questions that you hadn't thought about.


Well in this blog, I will be going over a few questions for you to think about while shopping for furniture. 

1) How much room do I have? 
When you visit a store, everything looks like it will fit perfect, then when you get it, there is now room for walking around the furniture.

We have seen this often enough that we can give some insight. The reason items look so small in the store is because the store is big. We have 3,500 square feet of show room floor. You most likely have less then 200 square feet for your living room.

Remember when Lily Tomlin sat in that huge chair. Yup, It's like that.

One tip you can use is once you have been to the store and get measurements of furniture would like to purchase, take some cardboard and cut it into those dimensions, lay it on the floor and see how everything would fit. Don't have card board? Ask us if we have some to spare.

2) How big is my doorway?
With most furniture we need at least a 32" wide door for deliveries. Some Sofas & Love Seats have larger arms which require a slightly larger doorway, but in general, if the doorway is 32" wide, the delivery should go well. .

Now I can tell you that I have delivered items with many different obstacles and I remember of only two times in almost 20 years I couldn't complete the deliver. 

Been through a second story window, put it on a second story terrace, taking doors off, taken windows out, walked on roofs. So Gun's E-Z Own does it's best to complete the delivery. But hey, I'm getting older and it's getting tougher for me to crawl through a second story window.

3) Do I want stationary or reclining furniture?
Just something to think about. If you like to lay across your furniture for that much desired afternoon nap, I would not suggest a reclining set.

If you usually nap sitting upright and you like that fact to can recline to read or watch TV, a reclining set would be for you. 

It's kinda of like the right tool for the right job. Those naps are important you know.

4) Do I want a Sofa & Love Seat or do I want a sectional?

Why think about this? Because some people like to rearrange their living rooms regularly. With a sectional there is not much of a choice for rearranging.

If you are one who likes to rearrange, I would not suggest a sectional. A Sofa & Love set is much easier rearrange.

The advantage of a sectional is that with some sectionals you can add seats. So if you think five seats is good, and once it is delivered and you wished you had 6 seats, we can order one more. This of course depends if the model allows additional seating.


5) What kind of "Look" am I Going for?
Modern, country, urban, Victorian. Big arms, small arms, straight arms. This will help you select a frame model. 

We realize that some people don't know what they want until they see it. Many times customers have come in the store shopping and when they see it, they know it and that is what they want.

6) What color scheme do I want?
With Ashley what you see is what you get. With Klaussner, if you find a look that you like there are many different fabrics to choose from.

Most people go with earth tome colors because color scheme goes with just about anything.

7) How soon do I want my new furniture?
It depends on who the distributor is that you picked out your furniture from. With Ashley it takes about a month. With Klaussner it takes 6-8 weeks.

However, if you find something you like in the store, That is what you would get and in this latter case, it would take 1-3 days depending one our delivery schedule.

We have had some people browse the store and want to order something and get it the next day. 
Sorry to say it, but when we order something, that won't happen until transporters are invented. And I can't wait for that to happen. No more second story windows or roof tops. Score!!

I hope you found this helpful. If you have any other question you can contact us at gunsezown@gmail.com. To see what furniture we sell check out Gun's E-Z Own's website and select products.

Until next time be safe and be thankful for the day.