Cindy,

May I get a contact number or email for Tropar? I looked at their website and like what I saw.

My experience with Tropar has been very positive. In fact, I've even written a "praise" thread in this forum about them...and specifically Margaret in their Texas office.

As with most any supplier, there have been a couple of times when an order took a day longer to arrive than I had expected, or when something was damaged.

In the one instance that I recall that something was damaged, Margaret got the replacement material to me the very next day (at no charge, of course).

Tropar continues to be one of my favorite suppliers, and I have a link to their "retail" site on my website.

All that being said, I had a slightly different experience today....

I was lasering a P2924 plaque plate today (with the same settings that I've used for the last 18 months), and I noticed that the area immediately around the letters looked "shadowy"...similar to smoke residue. I tried to wipe it off with a cloth, but it wouldn't budge.

I then tried to wipe it off with an alcohol swab. BIG mistake. The shadows came off, but so did a LOT of the black silk screen. After the alcohol evaporated, the plate was very dull-looking...and very ruined. Note that I've been able to use these same swabs on this same type of plate before, and the finish did NOT come off on the swab like this.

Long story short, I called Margaret to tell her about the issue. Once I explained that it was clearly a deficiency with the plate, she told me that she'd get a new one out today.

She also told me that she didn't think Tropar had switched suppliers for this plate, but it's obvious to me that SOMETHING has changed with it.

The poor quality of this plate caused me a little frustration:
1) If I use enough power to fully vaporize the lettering, the surrounding silk screening melts/discolors.
2) If I cut my power back enough to NOT melt the screen, it doesn't completely vaporize the lettering. There doesn't seem to be a happy medium.

The end result is that I'm having to engrave these plates TWICE at low power to get the job done. Luckily for me, this job has only 14 plaques.

Cody

Tropar - NJ - headquarters
(973)822-2400
(973)822-2891 FAX
tropar @ airflyte .com

Tropar - TX
(972)875-5831
(972)875-4701 FAX
txoffice @ airflyte .com

Just to put an end to this thread - perhaps - I wanted to add a P.S. to all the postings and let you know I received a letter today from Gregory Della Badia at Tropar. He is aware of this discussion, so I'm guessing someone has mentioned it to him from here. Which is fine with me and I'm glad he contacted me.

In his letter, besides my refund check, is an explanation of how their accounting system works (Tropar salespeople in TX didn't seem to know their own system from what they told me would happen in getting my refund to me), and an assurance that Tropar does not sell to the general public and they do their best to only sell to authorized dealers.

Mr. Della Badia assures me, and I would think all of us, that the management of Tropar truly does care about us as retailers and values our business.

I would encourage anyone who has posted here with a problem with Tropar to contact Gregory directly to find out what solution can be found. I, for one, am very glad he contacted me to clarify the situation that has been causing me problems. I think they will be looking very closely into the Texas warehouse, and would not be surprised to see some changes happening there. Time will tell and it will be interesting the next time I place an order to see if there is a problem or if things are back to normal.

Whoever passed the information in this thread to Tropar management - thank you! I've been a bit overwhelmed this summer with some personal stuff and I've been really shorthanded here at work. It was on my list to do to contact the management to get some direct answers. This really saved me a bunch of time and energy.

Cindy M