Where do you shop?

[dynamisoz]

I thought it would be interesting to see where you guys shop for lab products.. Do you have a shop that you prefer for certain materials /equipment..
And why do you shop there.? Good service, cheap price...

As a pretty new lab, i find my self spending a lot of time comparing supplier b4 i purchase.

 

[desertfox384]

I use Nowak. They are one of the only smaller family owned supply companies left. I don't like giving my money to a companies right hand while their left hand is trying to put me out of business.

 

[NicelyMKV]

I use Nowak as well. Great prices, great service and I'm not worried about them competing against me later

 

[dynamisoz]

How is Us dental depot?.. They seem to have very good prices on many items.

 

[desertfox384]

How is Us dental depot?.. They seem to have very good prices on many items.

When I was younger and a newer lab I did a lot of comparison shopping, and generally went with the cheapest price I could find regardless of who it was from. Looking back I realize that was a waste of my time. My advice: Don't always shop on price (don't we all hate it when dentists do this?). Do business with like minded people, it will pan out much better for you in the long run even if you pay a few extra bucks now and then. Finding a good company and a good sales rep can save you a lot of headaches down the road.

 

[Affinity]

Used nowak once and had a bad experience and havent since. would love to find another small supply store in the west. pearson is good too. would love to get away from the zahn conglomerate

 

[doug]

Used Nowak once and that's it? Did you call and tell them about your bad experience? No going to defend them, but if they don't know that you had a problem they can't fix it. I'm a relationship based consumer. My vendors get the good and bad from me. It took Jensen a long time to recover from losing my rep of 20 years. They had to work for me to refer people to them.

 

[Affinity]

its like this: I placed a large (to me) order when I was starting my lab.. this was back in 2005.. I ordered a honeycomb tray, it wasnt in the box. I called to ask where it was, and they said it was shipped. I said it wasnt in the box, which it wasnt, and I was told they wouldnt replace it or give me my money back. Yes its silly, but Im also not a liar. Trust is what relationships are built on, mine was questioned, so.. Not bashing nowak at all, they have great prices and theyve grown a lot since then.. but sometimes its the small things that matter

 

[Doris A]

The only thing I don't like about Nowak is their delivery time. When I order from Zahn, I have my order the next day, when I order from Nowak, I get it the next week, so I stopped dealing with them.

 

[doug]

I understand completely. Aren't you in Florida? I'd like to see your scan/mill setup sometime.

 

[Affinity]

From FL but now in N idaho but youre still welcome anytime!! its only a 48 hour drive!

 

[JohnWilson]

Wow these negative stories about Nowak is so far from my experience. We are exclusive wit them and have developed a wonderful relationship. Shawn picks up the phone overtime and is very receptive to feedback. I am sure he would love to hear these issues.

 

[Nowakdental]

Used nowak once and had a bad experience and havent since. would love to find another small supply store in the west. pearson is good too. would love to get away from the zahn conglomerate

I can tell you a lot has changed in eight years. We are all about customer service it's what I preach to all my employees. We do our best to treat all of our customers as they are our biggest account. I would love to gain your business back.

Also on a side note we are about to begin adding another warehouse onto our current building giving us a total of 20,000 sq ft of warehouse space to reduce back orders.

-Shawn Nowak

 

[Affinity]

Im not trying to be negative, its just one instance, maybe it was a misunderstanding.. but I paid for merchandise I didnt receive and was treated like a liar for asking for a replacement or money back. I would never tell anyone not to use nowak, its just not for me, and I would rather have someone out west for shipping purposes.

 

[desertfox384]

I placed an order on Monday with Nowak and it came in today (Wednesday) at 1:00.

 

[Tom Moore]

Im not trying to be negative, its just one instance, maybe it was a misunderstanding.. but I paid for merchandise I didnt receive and was treated like a liar for asking for a replacement or money back. I would never tell anyone not to use nowak, its just not for me, and I would rather have someone out west for shipping purposes.

Maybe you have a shady phone voice or maybe the UPS driver was trying to suck the honey out of it and you didn't notice. Don't make it so easy to live in your head without paying rent.

 

[user name]

Im not trying to be negative, its just one instance, maybe it was a misunderstanding.. but I paid for merchandise I didnt receive and was treated like a liar for asking for a replacement or money back. I would never tell anyone not to use nowak, its just not for me, and I would rather have someone out west for shipping purposes.

Sounds like a great opportunity for them to get things square with you right now....make you a happy customer right in front of all of us, and win you back. Shawn has done right by me. No complaints.

 

[Doris A]

I placed an order on Monday with Nowak and it came in today (Wednesday) at 1:00.

This was never my experience with them. I've never had an order delivered in less than a week.

 

[sidesh0wb0b]

i use many small suppliers quite often. i stuck with Lincoln for the bulk of my orders because i have a long standing relationship with my rep there.....sucks that zahn had to scoop them up. it does make it hard and some of my business is back on the market.
ive used nowak some (not much and not recently),us dental depot, dental emporium, pearson, canyon state, and a handful of others.

a lot of my hangups with little guys is shipping.....time and cost. shipping is already a huge burden via cost, and it only gets worse when things take a long time to make their way to the lab. pearson and canyon are too far to make reasonable purchases so i only use them for a few items that only they carry.
us dental depot and dental emporium have a bunch of my monthly items for about 50% less than zahn does (shockingly) listed on ebay...so they get that business. and nowak, its been awhile but i keep hearing good things. biggest issue is spending the time to sift through the website and decifer their item listings vs the normal items i buy and make my order. they dont correlate so its time consuming without a catalog. time is a precious commodity right now, there is not enough to spend doing that, this was my 5 min break for the day. back to work! lol

 

[TheLabGuy]

i use many small suppliers quite often. i stuck with Lincoln for the bulk of my orders because i have a long standing relationship with my rep there.....sucks that zahn had to scoop them up. it does make it hard and some of my business is back on the market.
ive used nowak some (not much and not recently),us dental depot, dental emporium, pearson, canyon state, and a handful of others.

a lot of my hangups with little guys is shipping.....time and cost. shipping is already a huge burden via cost, and it only gets worse when things take a long time to make their way to the lab. pearson and canyon are too far to make reasonable purchases so i only use them for a few items that only they carry.
us dental depot and dental emporium have a bunch of my monthly items for about 50% less than zahn does (shockingly) listed on ebay...so they get that business. and nowak, its been awhile but i keep hearing good things. biggest issue is spending the time to sift through the website and decifer their item listings vs the normal items i buy and make my order. they dont correlate so its time consuming without a catalog. time is a precious commodity right now, there is not enough to spend doing that, this was my 5 min break for the day. back to work! lol

To be honest, I pretty much use Nowak exclusively and I didn't even know they had a website. We just email them our stuff we need...and most times if not all times its Shawns direct email. If they don't carry that exact product they have something very similar or most likely even better. We continually do cost analysis with them for equipment or certain products all the time, did it last week on a sintering oven. With suppliers, shipping is preferably 'ground' to save you and them shipping costs. It takes three days for me to get stuff from Nowak. We order once a week (tuesdays),this forces all my employees including myself to do a quick inventory of what you will need in the near future before running out. I suggest this for everyone if you don't do it because it really makes you and your staff make sure you have enough supplies to do what you need to do in the lab and save yourself next day shipping. Some folks might like Shein for this reason, but if a time arises I need something next day, I'll call or shoot an email to verify Shawn has it in stock and I will get it next day. When you start adding up your supply costs and compare it to what you would pay with that big supply monster you will quickly realize a simple inventory check once a week will save you thousands by the end of the year...it has for us.