The strangest thing happened to me this weekend. As I have mentioned, I seal my pieces with an outdoor concrete sealant - but I am always looking for a better one! So I found this company online - Top Secret Coatings, Inc., and it looked to me as if that might be just the thing, except that the various products ranged in price from $60 to $115 a GALLON! Well, nothing's too good for my customers, so I sent the company an email - this is the unabridged email I sent-
Hi Peter,
I am an artist in Toledo, Ohio, and my primary media is concrete (if you look at any of my websites or information, I use the word "cement", which I know is incorrect, but I like the way it sounds more- I guess you'd call it artistic license!).
I cast leaves and flowers in cement, handpaint them in acrylics and seal them with a concrete patio/floor sealer. The sealer I have been using is fine for most of my pieces (It does stay slightly tacky, though). However, recently, I have been forming them into birdbaths, and I have had some problems finding sealers strong and waterproof (and clear) enough to really protect the paint itself. Some of your products may be just what I am looking for, but some are fairly expensive. If they work for what I need, the price is a non issue, but if I purchase them and they DON'T work, I would hate to waste the money or have to ship a gallon back! I know this is an odd application, so you probably could not recommend any of the sealers - in the past, when I do ask it a certain product would work, I am always told that it is not recommended to use over paint. I just have to try them myself, and, surprisingly, I have not found any that really DON'T work, just some that work better than others.
My question is this: is there any way I could purchase samples of your products? If not, does anyone carry your products in my area? That would make it easier to determine what may work for me,
THanks in advance for your time!
OK, was that a impolite, mean email? After what happened next, though, I'm even doubting myself.
Here is "Peter's" whole reply:
Nancy,
I don’t like dealing with people that tell me up front they plan to send products back if they don’t like them. We just don’t need the business that bad.
Sincerely,
Peter Harrett
Top Secret Coatings Inc.
WELL! What did I do to deserve THAT? Don't they like to stand behind their $115 per gallon products? Doesn't he like women? Or is it that maybe I'm "small potatoes" and he only wants large corporations' orders? Despite what I wanted to email back, which would go something like,
"Dear @#*&$#%,
You can take your sealer and (&#^*%$#^ with ?{(#$^*%@ and #$)*&@$ and the horse you rode in on, too, you &^%#$*&^!"
...I didn't.I didn't think that would be very ladylike! So, instead, here was MY reply,
Hmmm... well, I guess you're the ONLY company in the U.S. in this economy that doesn't really need new business!!! I would only send it back if it could not work for me (not if "I don't like it"), and ONLY if that was your policy - I pretty much only said that to point out WHY I was wondering about SAMPLES. Maybe if you had read the whole email you would have figured that out...
That's O.K., though - I do not want to deal with a company that is as blatantly nasty as you apparently are! I will make sure to mention this on my websites, blogs, newsletter, Facebook and Twitter (and to the Better Business Bureau) how much you DON'T need the business! I wouldn't want you to be bothered! .Thanks for nothing.
Time out!...................A nice, soothing picture to calm me down!.......................
...It's not over yet! One more jab from Pete:
Your threats are proof I pegged you right on. What?! NOW I'm starting to think I'm dealing with a total paranoid!
So I wrote back:
Pegged as what? A customer? They're not threats - I will not lie or change anything I wrote. I can't see where I offended you in the first place. I will just send the complete correspondence (including this last one!) between us and the BBB can sort it out.Which is exactly what I have already done. So, as I promised him, here it is, and remember, ladies and gentlemen, Top Secret Coatings doesn't need the business, especially from women and small businesses - leave poor ol' Pete alone! :o)
Well, the holiday's over, so that means vacation's over! I have at least 40 cast leaves inside and outside, waiting to be painted. Every year I swear I'll have everything finished before the new leaves are ready to cast, but I always have a few left! So there are 3 leaves waiting for their final coating of sealer waiting for me right now in the studio (i.e., the laundry room), and I need to buckle down and paint at least one each day especially before March, which is when seed starting season begins! That is when I have to fit yet another purpose into the studio/laundry/cat's room! But that is hopefully when I will be able to transition some of my "leafin" work back outside! So my New Year's resolution is to get the paints out and continue with this commitment I began 4 years ago!
