At Air-O-Lator, we’re family. We believe customer service is a given, and we’ll go out of our way to deliver an aerator or do repairs on equipment.
In November, Air-O-Lator customer Barbara Henry called our CEO Roy Watkins, to see if she could get her Air-O-Lator fixed on her way to visit her new grandchild.
Barbara has owned her deicer since 1997. “It has worked very well during most of that time,” Barbara said. She replaced the cage that surrounds the propeller over five years ago. “The newsletter email that Air-O-Later sends out helps remind me to check on how it is doing.”
“We have a large farm pond on our land in Hinton, Iowa,” Barbara said. “I hang our Air-O-Lator under our dock and mainly use it during the winter to keep some water open for the migratory birds, our water birds, and as a breathing hole for the pond and the fish. I will also run it when the algae bloom to help clear it away.”
Last winter, the deicer stopped working. “I believe the freeze-thaw cycles with the ice breaking and the wind blowing the ice chunks took a toll on the wiring,” Barbara said. “That was my best guess,” she added.
Barbara contacted Roy and asked if she could drop the deicer off on her way from the Northwestern corner of Iowa, to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to see her newly born granddaughter. This was at the beginning of November 2019, and ice was already covering the pond.
“Roy was so accommodating!” Barbara exclaimed. “I gave him an idea of the day and time I would be driving through the Kansas City area, and he just told me to call him at home when I was close, and he would meet me. It happened to be a weekend night.”
“I thought I would just drop it off, and, if repairable, I would try to pick it up on my way back home,” Barbara said. “But Roy decided to see if he could repair it. He ran a test on the deicer and told me he would fix it right then and there so that I wouldn’t have to stop on my trip back home!”
Roy was able to fix the deicer within 30 minutes. All Barbara needed was a new wire. So Roy replaced the propeller, spliced the wire, and sold Barbara a de-icing kit. Even the dog traveling with Barbara got to run around and enjoy the detour. Roy was able to get Barb’s deicer working quickly, and soon she was on her way to meet her new grandchild.
“I don’t know too many companies that go that far out of their way,” Barbara said. “Roy explained everything and the costs as he went. I felt comfortable with his knowledge and ability to diagnose and repair my Air-O-Lator. He has a real personal interest in Air-O-Lator, the product, and the company.”
Once Barbara returned home, she said she was very excited to re-hang her Air-O-Lator under our dock and plugged it in, and it’s working like it’s brand new.
