Pennsylvania Firm Makes World's Strongest Epoxies...
and Customer Relationships Too!
By Greg Platt - WebMaster and Online Publisher, Steppin Out New Mexico
http://sonewmex.com/banners/PCEpoxy_Logo2.jpg
Socorro, NM - April 2, 2007 - Every word of this article is true. I swear it is. - Greg Platt WebMaster and Online Publisher, Steppin' Out New Mexico
Bear with me a moment while I turn the clock back 35 years and tell a story from my youth...
The year was 1972. I was 22 at the time. I had worked a deal with a friend. He owed me money and had an old air-cooled motorcycle I wanted. We agreed to exchange his debt for the bike and suddenly I was the owner of a Honda Super-90 with a small piece broken out of its crank case where the oil drain plug was supposed to screw in. My friend was a horrid mechanic. One day while changing the bike's oil he tightened that plug too tight and damaged the motor by cracking off a chunk of the crank case making it impossible for the bike to hold oil...
I tried everything I could think of to fix that crankcase. Glues were my primary tools of choice; but no glue I tried would hold up to the intense heat generated by that small engine. When I ran the bike, the glues all melted and the drain plug fell out and with it went the oil. I was faced with a seemingly unsolvable dilemma. Nothing I tried would work -- not even the much touted JB-Weld would hold up to those engine temperatures and keep that drain plug from falling out. Then one day in an obscure hardware store, I stumbled on the solution in the form of a little-known epoxy called PC-7. The stuff was unbelievably strong. It was impervious to heat up to 400 degrees or more. Miraculously, my bike was fixed and I was soon riding my new toy mercilessly on off road trails around Lafayette Indiana as PC-7 relentlessly held my oil drain plug (and my oil) in place.
Little did I realize back then that I had formed a lifelong relationship with a totally unique adhesive -- an epoxy so strong and heat resistant that no glue in the world has ever been able to top it.
Over the years since then, I've never been without cans of that totally amazing epoxy on my workbench. I've often given it to repair-stymied friends as gifts; I even recommended it to my dad once for an impossible repair project he faced at the time. Nothing ever bested that amazing epoxy. No one I recommended it to ever failed to sing its praises afterwards. And in each case, everyone who used it successfully for one repair, found dozens of other repair situations where PC-7 was the only solution.
The sole dilemma with the product for decades was that it was nearly impossible to find. Like the quirky fans who used the stuff, only a few specialty hardware stores carried it. I still laugh today about how two years after I sent the stuff to dad as a gift for his "impossible repair" project he called in a panic one day and pleaded "Where the HELL do you find that stuff? I've looked everywhere and nobody seems to have it." I laughed long and hard and replied, "Dad, now you know why the first fix was FREE!" Then I went to my local PC-7 supplier and bought him a pair of large cans of the stuff. Dad has been gone for years now. But the last time I looked the remnants of those 2 cans of PC-7 were still in his toolbox. I never had the heart to take them away...
About 20 years after I started using PC-7, I discovered the manufacturer had created a new and -- believe it or not -- even stronger epoxy designed for marine and underwater repairs that they call PC-11. As you can tell, these guys are engineers and not particularly great at choosing sexy product names.
Fast forward now to 2007...
My baby sister and her husband are retired these days and live down in Baja California on the Sea of Cortez. They visited us in February and sis mentioned they had a pool repair dilemma that was causing them fits. It seems their pool leaks from a couple of places and no one in Mexico has been able to figure out how to stop those leaks. After sis explained the problem and asked if I could make any suggestions, I instantly recommended -- what else? -- PC-7 and PC-11 and then I told them the stories I've related above about the stuff and several more remarkable tales as well.
Fortunately these days, PC-7 and PC-11 are much easier to find than they once were. Several years ago both True Value and Ace Hardware started carrying the stuff. So now almost anyone can walk into their local hardware store and grab a supply of the world's strongest epoxy off the shelf.
That's what my brother-in-law and I did the next day. In fact we spent nearly $60 and bought the entire local supply at both hardware stores. My brother-in-law was taking no chances. He wanted enough of the stuff to fix his pool permanently!
That's where the customer service part of this story begins. The next day I took sis and Steve to the airport and put them on a plane to Houston. Their treasured supply of cans of PC-7 and PC-11 were tucked away safely in their checked baggage. Except that the next day when they opened those bags all 6 cans of the stuff had vanished! In their place was a form letter from the Transportation Safety Administration informing them that they had removed "prohibited flammable" items from their suitcases. If the note had ended with something like "Sorry but smuggling the world's strongest epoxy into Mexico is an act that could effect National Security." I could have understood that... but flammable?? Gimme a break. Not this stuff I knew better!
Needless to say, sis and Steve and I were pretty upset. Say WHAT?? This stuff doesn't burn... heck it doesn't even MELT at temperatures far above those that would have rendered everything in that suitcase into ashes.
Obviously some employee of the TSA had a home repair project he needed that glue for.
The next day, I hopped on the web and went to the manufacturer's web site. I dug out the specs on those products and just as I assumed the flammability rating assigned to these epoxies basically means "They'll burn if you use a torch on them but as soon as the torch is removed the flame goes out. In short, the stuff is basically NOT flammable except under the most extreme conditions. Heck, even aluminum and steel will burn under such circumstances. And trust me, if the jet's baggage compartment gets THAT hot, the passengers up above are definitely not going to be sitting quietly in their seats wondering what the strange odor is! They're sure to be diving out every available exit just as fast as they possibly can.
That same day, my feisty sister wrote the following irrate letter to the TSA:
"On 2/22 I traveled on Continental airlines from ABQ to IND with a connecting flight out of IAH. I had 4 cans of PC-11 epoxy and 2 cans of PC-7 epoxy in my luggage. When I claimed the bag in IND there was a note saying that TSA had taken the product because it was flammable (even though it clearly stated on the cans that it was not flammable). They did not take my 2 bottles of perfume (which are 90% alcohol and extremely flammable). According to the product web site (which is www.pcepoxy.com (http://www.pcepoxy.com/) the product is not flammable). I had purchased the hard to find products in order to do a repair to my swimming pool. The 6 cans cost me $57. I would like to know how I can get a reimbursement from TSA for incorrectly taking things from my luggage. If TSA can take anything they deem flammable from a passengers luggage should I next time expect my clothing to be gone? After all - if you hold a match to it - it will also burn."If anyone at TSA ever read that letter, I assume they tossed it in the trash immediately. After all, TSA is America's newest untouchable bureaucracy. No American can ever dare to question their divine judgment. God help my sister, they probably have listening devices scattered around her Mexican home already. She questioned their judgment. Clearly she’s a dangerous subversive and possibly a terrorist too.<br><br>Being more jaded and sensible than sis, I took a more practical approach and wrote a letter to the product's manufacturer, "Protective Coatings of Allentown, PA" in which I recounted my anecdotes about their product and included sis' humorous note to the TSA. Believe it or not, the next morning I got a personal call from Steve Long their Sales Manager asking for an address where he could send sis a replacement supply of their product at no charge!<br><br>Yep, it seems Mr. Long has had the same experience himself more than once. He or one of his sales reps would head off to a hardware show somewhere in the US with a case or two of their product tucked away in baggage and arrive at the other end only to discover that some over-zealous airport security agent had seized their supply of the product "for security reasons". In this case Mr Long obviously realized he could get more mileage out of replacing the seized product for free than he could by mounting an education program for the agents at the TSA. I'm sure he realizes that’s a hopeless cause anyway.<br><br>In short, the Sales Manager at Protective Coatings did an exceptional thing. He reached out to a customer in distress and replaced their lost product without charge. Out of that act of customer service evolved this article and as a result a few thousand more potential customers will know about PC-7 and PC-11.<br><br>For me there's a lesson in this experience I figure is worth retelling. For small businesses providing exceptional service is often what makes the difference between success and failure. Having a great product always helps of course, but over the long term, success is made up of much more than that. Taking great care of your customers always comes first. Over the long term everything else is a byproduct of providing a great product and great service!<br><br>Since that's the way we try to operate here at Steppin' Out New Mexico, I felt it was appropriate to begin to acknowledge such exceptional service in other companies as well.<br><br>So, now you know my absolutely true tale about the small Pennsylvania manufacturer named Protective Coatings (www.pcepoxy.com (http://www.pcepoxy.com/)). They've made the world's strongest epoxy products since the distant dark ages of the 1950's and they're still providing amazing products and World-Class Customer Service 50 years later.<br><br>They win Steppin' Out's Exceptional Customer Service award for April-May 2007.<br><br>Our hat is off to you guys. Thanks for making a great product and for providing World-Class Customer Service too!
and Customer Relationships Too!
By Greg Platt - WebMaster and Online Publisher, Steppin Out New Mexico
http://sonewmex.com/banners/PCEpoxy_Logo2.jpg
Socorro, NM - April 2, 2007 - Every word of this article is true. I swear it is. - Greg Platt WebMaster and Online Publisher, Steppin' Out New Mexico
Bear with me a moment while I turn the clock back 35 years and tell a story from my youth...
The year was 1972. I was 22 at the time. I had worked a deal with a friend. He owed me money and had an old air-cooled motorcycle I wanted. We agreed to exchange his debt for the bike and suddenly I was the owner of a Honda Super-90 with a small piece broken out of its crank case where the oil drain plug was supposed to screw in. My friend was a horrid mechanic. One day while changing the bike's oil he tightened that plug too tight and damaged the motor by cracking off a chunk of the crank case making it impossible for the bike to hold oil...
I tried everything I could think of to fix that crankcase. Glues were my primary tools of choice; but no glue I tried would hold up to the intense heat generated by that small engine. When I ran the bike, the glues all melted and the drain plug fell out and with it went the oil. I was faced with a seemingly unsolvable dilemma. Nothing I tried would work -- not even the much touted JB-Weld would hold up to those engine temperatures and keep that drain plug from falling out. Then one day in an obscure hardware store, I stumbled on the solution in the form of a little-known epoxy called PC-7. The stuff was unbelievably strong. It was impervious to heat up to 400 degrees or more. Miraculously, my bike was fixed and I was soon riding my new toy mercilessly on off road trails around Lafayette Indiana as PC-7 relentlessly held my oil drain plug (and my oil) in place.
Little did I realize back then that I had formed a lifelong relationship with a totally unique adhesive -- an epoxy so strong and heat resistant that no glue in the world has ever been able to top it.
Over the years since then, I've never been without cans of that totally amazing epoxy on my workbench. I've often given it to repair-stymied friends as gifts; I even recommended it to my dad once for an impossible repair project he faced at the time. Nothing ever bested that amazing epoxy. No one I recommended it to ever failed to sing its praises afterwards. And in each case, everyone who used it successfully for one repair, found dozens of other repair situations where PC-7 was the only solution.
The sole dilemma with the product for decades was that it was nearly impossible to find. Like the quirky fans who used the stuff, only a few specialty hardware stores carried it. I still laugh today about how two years after I sent the stuff to dad as a gift for his "impossible repair" project he called in a panic one day and pleaded "Where the HELL do you find that stuff? I've looked everywhere and nobody seems to have it." I laughed long and hard and replied, "Dad, now you know why the first fix was FREE!" Then I went to my local PC-7 supplier and bought him a pair of large cans of the stuff. Dad has been gone for years now. But the last time I looked the remnants of those 2 cans of PC-7 were still in his toolbox. I never had the heart to take them away...
About 20 years after I started using PC-7, I discovered the manufacturer had created a new and -- believe it or not -- even stronger epoxy designed for marine and underwater repairs that they call PC-11. As you can tell, these guys are engineers and not particularly great at choosing sexy product names.
Fast forward now to 2007...
My baby sister and her husband are retired these days and live down in Baja California on the Sea of Cortez. They visited us in February and sis mentioned they had a pool repair dilemma that was causing them fits. It seems their pool leaks from a couple of places and no one in Mexico has been able to figure out how to stop those leaks. After sis explained the problem and asked if I could make any suggestions, I instantly recommended -- what else? -- PC-7 and PC-11 and then I told them the stories I've related above about the stuff and several more remarkable tales as well.
Fortunately these days, PC-7 and PC-11 are much easier to find than they once were. Several years ago both True Value and Ace Hardware started carrying the stuff. So now almost anyone can walk into their local hardware store and grab a supply of the world's strongest epoxy off the shelf.
That's what my brother-in-law and I did the next day. In fact we spent nearly $60 and bought the entire local supply at both hardware stores. My brother-in-law was taking no chances. He wanted enough of the stuff to fix his pool permanently!
That's where the customer service part of this story begins. The next day I took sis and Steve to the airport and put them on a plane to Houston. Their treasured supply of cans of PC-7 and PC-11 were tucked away safely in their checked baggage. Except that the next day when they opened those bags all 6 cans of the stuff had vanished! In their place was a form letter from the Transportation Safety Administration informing them that they had removed "prohibited flammable" items from their suitcases. If the note had ended with something like "Sorry but smuggling the world's strongest epoxy into Mexico is an act that could effect National Security." I could have understood that... but flammable?? Gimme a break. Not this stuff I knew better!
Needless to say, sis and Steve and I were pretty upset. Say WHAT?? This stuff doesn't burn... heck it doesn't even MELT at temperatures far above those that would have rendered everything in that suitcase into ashes.
Obviously some employee of the TSA had a home repair project he needed that glue for.
The next day, I hopped on the web and went to the manufacturer's web site. I dug out the specs on those products and just as I assumed the flammability rating assigned to these epoxies basically means "They'll burn if you use a torch on them but as soon as the torch is removed the flame goes out. In short, the stuff is basically NOT flammable except under the most extreme conditions. Heck, even aluminum and steel will burn under such circumstances. And trust me, if the jet's baggage compartment gets THAT hot, the passengers up above are definitely not going to be sitting quietly in their seats wondering what the strange odor is! They're sure to be diving out every available exit just as fast as they possibly can.
That same day, my feisty sister wrote the following irrate letter to the TSA:
"On 2/22 I traveled on Continental airlines from ABQ to IND with a connecting flight out of IAH. I had 4 cans of PC-11 epoxy and 2 cans of PC-7 epoxy in my luggage. When I claimed the bag in IND there was a note saying that TSA had taken the product because it was flammable (even though it clearly stated on the cans that it was not flammable). They did not take my 2 bottles of perfume (which are 90% alcohol and extremely flammable). According to the product web site (which is www.pcepoxy.com (http://www.pcepoxy.com/) the product is not flammable). I had purchased the hard to find products in order to do a repair to my swimming pool. The 6 cans cost me $57. I would like to know how I can get a reimbursement from TSA for incorrectly taking things from my luggage. If TSA can take anything they deem flammable from a passengers luggage should I next time expect my clothing to be gone? After all - if you hold a match to it - it will also burn."If anyone at TSA ever read that letter, I assume they tossed it in the trash immediately. After all, TSA is America's newest untouchable bureaucracy. No American can ever dare to question their divine judgment. God help my sister, they probably have listening devices scattered around her Mexican home already. She questioned their judgment. Clearly she’s a dangerous subversive and possibly a terrorist too.<br><br>Being more jaded and sensible than sis, I took a more practical approach and wrote a letter to the product's manufacturer, "Protective Coatings of Allentown, PA" in which I recounted my anecdotes about their product and included sis' humorous note to the TSA. Believe it or not, the next morning I got a personal call from Steve Long their Sales Manager asking for an address where he could send sis a replacement supply of their product at no charge!<br><br>Yep, it seems Mr. Long has had the same experience himself more than once. He or one of his sales reps would head off to a hardware show somewhere in the US with a case or two of their product tucked away in baggage and arrive at the other end only to discover that some over-zealous airport security agent had seized their supply of the product "for security reasons". In this case Mr Long obviously realized he could get more mileage out of replacing the seized product for free than he could by mounting an education program for the agents at the TSA. I'm sure he realizes that’s a hopeless cause anyway.<br><br>In short, the Sales Manager at Protective Coatings did an exceptional thing. He reached out to a customer in distress and replaced their lost product without charge. Out of that act of customer service evolved this article and as a result a few thousand more potential customers will know about PC-7 and PC-11.<br><br>For me there's a lesson in this experience I figure is worth retelling. For small businesses providing exceptional service is often what makes the difference between success and failure. Having a great product always helps of course, but over the long term, success is made up of much more than that. Taking great care of your customers always comes first. Over the long term everything else is a byproduct of providing a great product and great service!<br><br>Since that's the way we try to operate here at Steppin' Out New Mexico, I felt it was appropriate to begin to acknowledge such exceptional service in other companies as well.<br><br>So, now you know my absolutely true tale about the small Pennsylvania manufacturer named Protective Coatings (www.pcepoxy.com (http://www.pcepoxy.com/)). They've made the world's strongest epoxy products since the distant dark ages of the 1950's and they're still providing amazing products and World-Class Customer Service 50 years later.<br><br>They win Steppin' Out's Exceptional Customer Service award for April-May 2007.<br><br>Our hat is off to you guys. Thanks for making a great product and for providing World-Class Customer Service too!
http://sonewmex.com/banners/PCEpoxy_Logo2.jpg