Welcome to The Grumble Bob. La Marche has a great looking line, it sells well, prices reasonable for the product they sell.
That was the good stuff about them.
Everything you have read on The Grumble is absolutely true. La Marche is well aware of these posts and they give the impression that they are trying to deal with them.
Number one complaint is their reluctance to answer their telephones in a timely manner. There has been a change in that department. They are now playing a tape in the background that sounds like hundreds of operators are processing orders, or thats what it seems like, wouldn't surprise me.
It takes anywhere from four to twenty minutes to place an order by telephone with them. Since all this has come out on The Grumble recently, the longest I've waited is six minutes. When you have a bunch of companies to call on ordering day, six minutes seems like forever, but for them, one heck of an improvement.
The second biggest complaint is they can not seem to keep their magnificent line of product in stock, or have a clue as to when it will be available again. An out of stock item can take months to be back in stock again. This kind of leaves you looking like an idiot to your customers. Most people do not mind having to come back to your shop to select a different moulding, but it is a pain, and should not be happening.
Someone stated on The Grumble that the reason for the unknown arrival dates was due to 9/11 homeland security. Containers being tied up at customs forever, etc. If that is the case, La Marche should still be able to tell us that is the problem, they have not.
The owners seem to avoid talking to customers at all costs, if you ask to talk to an owner, the farthest you will get is someone in management. You will be left with the impression that their managers have little authority to actually solve the real problems.
Overall, it is an erratically managed company. People complain, things improve for awhile, then it goes to heck again.
I would proceed very cautiously with your involvement with them. They do have some wonderful mouldings, that alone may make it worth it for you to go to the extra hassles involved in dealing with them. If you have a really long fuse, should be no big deal for you.
Ask them how they will be handling out of stock items. How long will an item be out of stock, and will they be able to give you a positive answer of when to expect it.
We continue to have their product on our walls, however, we are replacing them with other companies as quickly as we can. We are reluctant to even show their mouldings to our customers.