What really happened at Wood Doctor – by President

I am the president of Wood Doctor and I have been doing Wood Doctor for the past 16 years. For the last 9 of these years our furnaces have been built by a Hutterite colony in Manitoba, called Silverwinds Metals. Our relationship is over and they are now building their own competing furnace, called Polar.

I had done well in the furnace business for many years.

A few years ago I also started a Nova Scotia wireless high speed internet company called Netbundle Inc. My company Outside Heating Systems Ltd. (Wood Doctor) had loaned money and cosigned the loans for this internet company. I personally co signed some of them.

The province of Nova Scotia announced that they were going to provide high speed internet to the whole province.

They put a tendering process in place. The province was divided into different bid areas. I put in a bid for the areas that I knew I could do profitably and were connected to my area and included my area. I had the lowest bid and have had the fastest wireless network in the province. However, I was not politically connected in any way.

The NS Premier’s brother was in charge of determining who got the bid.
In a meeting with all parties that had completed a bid, he made the statement:
“The way we are determining the winner is - each application will get so many points for each category. They will get so many points for the best bid. They would get so many points for each thing on this list. But in the final category we have not yet determined how many points will be allotted. If I can find anything that I do not like in the application and I MEAN ANYTHING, - I will make it bigger than the rest and you are out.”
I later received a letter simply telling us that we were out.

Who handled the finances for the premier during his election?

The Province split 68 Million between 2 companies. Neither company was involved in wireless internet before the bidding process. Neither company completed the process in the allotted time. Neither company received a fine or penalty. As a matter of fact one of the companies was later given an extra 10 Million to help them finish. This was the same company (Seaside) that received my area and came in and put equipment beside my towers and disrupted our service. We eventually had to close.
I lost close to 1.5 Million, some of which remained as loans now owed by Wood Doctor and I. One of them is BDC. On one day, in 2 separate loan agreements, I borrowed $250,000 from BDC and $100,000 remains unpaid. The other $150,000 plus interest has been repaid.

At the same time EPA were trying to enlarge their empire. State after State adopted laws allowing EPA furnaces only.

EPA furnaces cost much more to build and therefore are much more expensive. When most states went green, they made no allowances for outdoor commercial and industrial furnaces and they were simply banned as EPA will only certify furnaces up to 350,000 BTU. Many good states are no longer profitable for dealers.

A few years back I purchased my partners shares in Outside Heating Systems Ltd. He stayed on to work with me and received an override on every furnace sold in our network. I paid him over $500,000 in 2008. Oil was high and the economy was still good.
When the Hutterite Colony, Silverwinds Metals recruited my ex partner Dave McCulloch, I knew that they were planning to take a run at me to take over distribution. It only took them a few months.

That led to me going to Virginia and meeting Rick Fulcher.

We were scrambling to try to get other manufacturing going.
First we had looked at operating our own factory and were offered help locally in VA. We could have received a 132,000 sq ft factory all set up with equipment. However financing to run a factory and stockpile furnaces was not in place. We hired a CFO for this new VA company, called Creative Energy Solutions. The new CFO, Wayne Barry lost no time diverting funds to his own accounts and then ran when we discovered the fraud. The arrest warrant is still in place.

That set us back, but we had a great new marketing plan. We decided that there are many good existing companies with unemployed men. Let’s give them the work. Now we had to get new CAD plans made so that fabrication companies could bid on furnace production. The company selected and awarded the contract to make the CAD plans was a total disappointment. They were Trimech. They took months to complete the first CAD plan. They had received the contract because they had promised to put a man on it right away and would not charge overtime for weekends. We kept paying the incoming bills but we were well into the fall before they had the first CAD plan done. By this time it was too late in the season for this year.

This summer we also received another hit. Without any warning, this summer our most popular EPA furnace, the HE8000 was discontinued by the Hutterite colony Silverwinds Metals, after we had many sold.
This had been a stock item for the last three years and therefore we were not expecting this and had already spent the profit from these sales in covering operating expenses while waiting for the furnaces to be built. We could not talk Silverwinds Metals into even making enough for these orders.
We were in trouble. We went to two factories to get an EPA furnace made. We did not yet have CAD plans and we were running out of time.

We were spending so much of our energy putting fires out. The Hutterite were now making their own competing furnace, called Polar. Wood Doctor is now a company that Silverwinds wanted to be in their past. Silverwinds Metals could increase their profit if they also distributed the furnace.

Silverwinds Metals has made it plain that if Outside Heating failed that they would not pay warranty. They had promised 5 years of 100% of all repairs warranty to Outside Heating. Neil Hoofer has told our customers that they are not Silverwind Metals customers and Silverwinds Metals is not obligated to pay claims.
I am not going to let that happen. I have a separate posting just on warranty.
Plus the Hutterite already knew many of our better dealers. They had already recruited Dave McCulloch that had worked closely with me for 14 years, and a Canadian distributor.

We were surprised when we sent a tractor trailer to the factory and they did not have inventory for us and would not sell us any of their new brand. The trucker said there were lots of furnaces stockpiled.
Silverwinds Metals said the factory was jammed with furnaces waiting for parts, but the colony minister Zack Hoofer Sr. said that if we could wait, that they would eventually build our furnaces for us.
We waited and waited.

Just as the furnaces were finally made, and we had just got the first load out and were arranging shipping our bank account was hit with a number of credit card refunds. They all came at once. This took out not only the money we would have sent to the Hutterite Colony, but also the profit on all these furnaces that we had already spent in expenses. Our account was wiped out. Once it started, it happened quickly.
We were essentially out of business.
We slashed expenses at all locations and eventually only one part time employee remained.

I had also let my own personal bills fall behind and used up my own personal resources, while we were trying to save Wood Doctor.

There are some really great people caught up in this. There are loyal dealers, friends, customers, creditors and employees. I am sorry.
I am 60 years old, and have been in business most of my life. I was never involved in a business failing before. There is no hand book for that. Looking back I see how I could have protected things better and prevented this from happening with shorter leases and commitments and staying in my field of heating with another manufacturer.

I am sorry for the trouble and inconvenience that this has caused.
I will do my best to reimburse every one in the future.
Again, I am sorry.

I am also posting a copy of the warranty written by Silverwinds Metals to Outside Heating for the furnaces built these past 9 years on our website.
I am also posting claim forms on our website for repair warranty during the first 5 years.

Please refer to the top and bottom links on this page for these documents

Silverwinds is not obligated to participate in the replacement warranty offered after 5 years.
If we are able to get new manufacturing going we will also offer to fix up replacements after the Silverwinds 5 year warranty.

This following is part of a letter written to the Hutterite Colony Silverwinds Metals by president of Wood Doctor January 4, 2012:

Neil Hoofer openly did not correct stress corrosion leakage as requested around the chimney and door jamb extension, which caused leaks into firebox, then other leaks and corrosion to happen. Neil said that the cost was too high to correct them and that the price of warranty was not expensive enough to correct. Neil's exact words to me were "If we were to spend $200.00 on every furnace we built in a year, and built 1,000 furnaces, that would be $200,000. It is not worth it, as we would never spend that much on warranty." That attitude made my job hopeless.

I never found out until a few months ago, when we took a torch to one of our original furnaces WD8000 which you call SW25 that THERE WAS NO SUPPORT FOR THE FIREBOX.
THE SUPPORT FOR THE WEIGHT OF THE FIREBOX DID NOT EXIST.

ALL WEIGHT FOR THE FIREBOX AND WOOD WAS HANGING BY A WELD AROUND THE CHIMNEY AND DOOR JAMB EXTENSION.

WHY WAS NO SUPPORT PUT IN UNDER THE FIREBOX?

I could hardly believe my eyes, as a long time ago Neil Hoofer had told me that the metal around the chimneys was corroded by stress corrosion. I always assumed that it was because of heat and low water, as I was never given complete CAD drawings to examine.

It now appears that the failures may have been deliberate.
Neil Hoofer used to say in meetings "Why do we need Arthur? Why not do our own distribution?"
Neil Hoofer also used to say “The warranty to Wood Doctor is in our Colony’s name, we need it in a limited company.” I used to wonder, “Why? Are we not planning to fix up the customers?”

As failures kept happening over and over, I no longer felt comfortable selling furnaces that I knew may fail. My only hope was that maybe Neil Hoofer would finally get the promised changes done; and look at the disappointment and grief, that Silverwinds Metals are causing families and have compassion and fix and replace the defective furnaces.

When Neil Hoofer asked me, in person, 2 years ago "If Wood Doctor went out of business because of warranty, would Wood Doctor take Silverwinds Metals down with them?"
I had responded "How could it be possible that warranties could take Wood Doctor down, because the warranty comes from you?"

For the last few years I have been thinking, "If I left Wood Doctor would the customers lose their warranty, because the warranty was written to Outside Heating Systems Ltd.?" I felt trapped. I no longer wanted to sell their furnaces. I no longer had confidence that we were helping people by supplying them with a furnace from Silverwinds Metals.

We are still having problems in only 3 or 4 or 5 years. It is unnecessary. Then if a furnace makes it past 5 years, it is now Arthur's problem. These furnaces did not have to fail in 10 or 20 years.
Neil Hoofer's penny pinching has caused untold harm to our customers, dealers, and Wood Doctor.
The correction to the bushing around the pull rod took numerous requests and a number of years before happening.
I have been saying "What is happening, as we have to improve the furnaces? When will this be done?"
How many times have I heard that the 3/8 inch steel would be put in the door jamb extensions?
It never happened. Neil never got it done.

The above is part of a letter I had written to the Silverwinds Colony.

However I also want to say:

The Hutterite are very good intelligent people.
Most Hutterite are honorable people. I have a high respect for them. Many have been friends. They are friendly people.
They are extremely skilled and advanced in farming.
Possibly the most advanced coal furnace in the industry is built by Decker Colony.
There is another colony that builds air conditioning systems.
Another colony is very big in farm equipment.
For a good residential outdoor furnace I now recommend Portage and Main.
Portage and Main is light years ahead of Silverwinds Metals, that built the Wood Doctors and now Polar furnaces.
They have been busy improving their furnaces over many years.
Silverwinds started first but I remember early in their furnace business that Portage and Maine Colony hired a tractor trailer to pick up a whole load of problem furnaces. They did the right thing. They never looked back. They went on to build the best residential outdoor furnace in the industry today.
I have no animosity toward Hutterite people.
I have no bitterness towards Neil, only disappointment.

I have to protect my customers.

At this time, Neil Hoofer has been telling Wood Doctor customers that the Hutterite Colony, Silverwinds Metals is not going to cover warranty, It is my responsibility. They are my customers.

Neil Hoofer, if you had simply done the right thing and honored your warranty instead of spending all your energy spreading rumors about me, I never would have made this public. You have left me with no choice.
I have no desire to embarrass the Colony or cause trouble. There are so many good people that live there and I have many happy memories. I still see the smiling faces when I think back on my visits.

Jan. 31, 2012 --- UPDATE ON WARRANTY PROGRESS:
Rino Francoeur
Edmonston, NB Canada
Phone: 1-506-733-0751
Rino Francoeur rino5@me.com
Complete furnace corrosion failure in under 3 years.
Emailed more Pictures Dec 14, 2011
As of Jan 31, 2012 - Mr Rino Francoeur still has not received word that he will be reimbursed with a new furnace.
This furnace was designed and Patented by Neil Hoofer of Silverwinds Metals and failed from corrosion under 3 years old.
WHY has this customer not been fixed up?
I approved the replacement 1.5 months ago and emailed pictures.
How can I stay involved when you obviously will not continue to honor claims.
I will notify all customers to deal with you directly as you will obviously no longer fix them up when I am involved in any way.

We are truly sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Best regards,
Arthur Turple, pres.
Outside Heating Systems Ltd.
PO Box 1863, Truro, NS, B2N 6C7
Arthur's Cell Phone 207-745-0854