D.W. Electrochemicals - Company Policies
A Note from our founder
Credit Cards
We do not accept credit cards in payment for any order. In our experience, we could not insure that when other currencies are converted into Canadian funds, this would be consistently trouble-free. There have often been discrepancies caused by the double exchange involved. The result is that the customer's credit card was billed a different amount than what we had quoted. The rectification of this incurred other costs as well as problems for our accounting staff.
New Orders
Unless a company is well known in the field, we reserve the right to request that a "Credit Application Form" be submitted to us, and receive approval, before we ship. On all orders from outside North America, this is a mandatory requirement that has set by our board.
Thereafter, we reserve the right to ask that payment be made in advance. This may be accomplished, either a Letter of Credit Guaranteed by a Canadian Bank, or by a bank transfer. In either case it should be payable in United States Dollars.
Please note that any price we quote does not include duty - bank transfer charges - letter of credit fees or charges - or any charge levied by any bank or any other institution. When we quote a price in US Dollars, it is the amount we expect to receive less any discount that we offer (and quote) for prompt payment. It is the responsibility of the customer to make sure that their accounting office or officers are aware of this policy.
When a customer pays us, and we find that any such institution has charged us any fee, we reserve the right to bill the customer for that fee plus a nominal fee for handling.
Shipping Considerations
Some potential customers wish to purchase Stabilant materials directly and transship it to another country. As Stabilant products are classified as strategic materials, we require these customers to complete an Export Certification which lists the Country of Destination. Where transshipping is involved, it can create a problem for us.
In these cases, we suggest to the potential customer, that they have it shipped to a bonded warehouse where it can remain in bond until it is exported to the Country of Destination. This avoids double payment, as only the rate of duty for the Country of Destination will be levied, by Customs in that country.
Responsibility remains with our customer (or their customer, as applicable) to certify that the shipment is NOT in contravention of any strategic material ban. It is our responsibility as the manufacturer, where we might reasonably believe that there may be a conflict, to obtain, in advance, notarized copies of these documents prior to our shipping any such order.
We reserve the right to refer customers to our distributors, many of whom have undergone their own acceptance testing before they carried Stabilant products. This respects the distributors' work and investment.
In keeping with ISO 9001 quality assurance, our invoicing and shipping software will print-out any needed forms that our customers request, including any printed Safety Data Sheets, Certificates of Compliance, Certificates of Shelf Life, NAFTA certificates and Commercial Invoices.
Please note: Several times payments have been delayed because essential documents were removed by the customers receiving staff. Please advise your staff that if we supply SDS's or Certificates with the shipping documents, these must be retained because some companies require them in order to process any payment to D.W.
Where customs clearance is required, we cannot ship "Customs Prepaid". In a similar manner, insurance will be charged to the customer's account. Where arrangements can be made well in advance, we may be able to offer assistance in the method of shipment.
A note about Customs clearance and charges for some countries:
We have noticed that unusually long delays occurred when using some customs brokers.
In some cases, a customer's insistence on using their own broker had resulted
in a wait of up to four months for D.W. to finally receive payment. In any such case,
we reserve the right to make the choice of customs broker (e.g., brokers for Federal Express)
to ensure timely clearance of our shipments.
Harmonized Control Number for Stabilant products for customs - 8541.50.00.80
Product Returns
D. W. Electrochemicals Ltd. has always encouraged a field trial of any of their products before any large purchase is made. Our staff is always available to advise the prospective customer on any problems they may encounter in the use of any of our materials. As we state on all our technical and application notes, it is the customer's responsibility to test the product first. Our technical staff is available for consultation.
As we maintain strict quality assurance procedures, any bottle of any product that is opened either for customs inspection or by the customer, has to be teated as contaminated. This has to apply to goods retured for any reason whatsoever. For these reasons, we have to scrap any returned goods.
We frequently offer a reduction in price when Stabilant products are purchased in large quantities, because we have less paper-work. (this also applies to the cost of sending out samples). We pass part of these savings on to the customer.
We think that anyone will find these policies reasonable.
Nevertheless we occasionally recieve a call from a customer who has not read any of the pertinent Technical or Application Notes. We find that almost all of these calls result from the misapplication of our materials. The most common of these are "flooding" equipment with Stabilant, with the misguided theory that "if a little works, much more should work better!"
All this accomplishes (besides increasing our sales and our having to take the time to advise customers to use less), is to make the whole contact area "greasy" and accumulate more dust.
For over eleven years, we have supplied well over twenty thousand customers, operating in many diverse fields, with our products. In consequence of this, our technical staff has an immense amount of experience in dealing with connector and/or contact problems.
For these reasons, if any potential or existing customer cannot find a solution on our web-site, please contact us!
Packaging and Notes Regarding Hazardous Chemicals:
Heavy Metals
D.W. Electrochemicals Ltd. has a policy of not allowing any intentional addition of any heavy metals, such as lead, cadmium, mercury, or hexavalent chromium, or their compounds, to be used in inks or in the labels on our packaging and requires the total concentration of these materials, if present, to be so at a level of less than 100 parts per million and we so certify.
Ozone Depleting Chemicals
Because of our corporate opposition to the use of ODC's either in the manufacture of, or as an inclusion in any of our products, D.W. Electrochemicals Ltd. has consistently refused to provide any of our products in aerosol-spray packaging and/or to supply any of our materials diluted with any Class 1 ODC, and we so certify.
PCB's
We certify that any material used in our packaging has been subjected to tests capable of detecting PCB's to a level of less than 2 parts per million and no PCB's have been found.
RoHS Legislation
Article 4(1) - pertaining to Heavy Metals other prohibited components: D.W. Electrochemicals Ltd. has a policy of not allowing any addition of any heavy metals, such as lead, cadmium, mercury, or hexavalent chromium, or their compounds, to be used in Stabilant products and requires the total concentration of these materials, if present, to be so at a level of less than 100 parts per million and we so certify.
Re: Packaging: New standards are in place in an attempt to reduce the amount of plastics, tape and/or adhesives used and to ensure that our packaging may be reused or recycled. If any distributor of any of our products is out of compliance with any regulatory law or ordnance, we would request that we be notified, in writing. As they are under the jurisdiction of their local authorities, we cannot be held responsible. Notwithstanding this disclaimer, we will attempt to have any situation such as this, rectified, but any customer must appreciate that we do not have the legal resources to enforce compliance with any law or ordinance outside of Canada or the United States.
Global Warming and Ozone Depleting Chemicals
D. W. Electrochemicals Ltd. has consistently supported policies designed to save all types of energy and to reduce pollution. We have refused to allow any our products to be sold in spray cans, as propellants have ozone depleting potential and/or global warming potential in ranges we could not justify. We designed our packaging to include recyclable polyethylene bottles/caps, and bio-degradable cardboard tubes with non-toxic inks, also minimizing Mylar™ labels.
We update our labelling as needed to comply with all regulations such as GHS and other standards, involving warning symbols and other important information.
In short, we have striven to produce products that are not only safe and efficient to use, but are cost effective and represent long term values.
We have, as a result, been issued Standard Stores or Part Numbers by many companies we supply. They recognize that the use of Stabilant products saves them money, not only in servicing, but in the increase in their product's reliability. We are finding that a steadily increasing number of manufacturers have developed the assurance to specify Stabilant 22 for use in the manufacture of their own products, many having subjected our products to field-trials of up to six years.
Energy efficiency means much more than saving money. It also requires that we make every effort to insure that our customers have the knowledge to apply our products in such a way as to make a given amount of Stabilant be most cost-effective. Our technical staff have always been ready to work with clients to reduce problems with connectors, sometimes inspiring engineering changes in their products.
Confidentiality Policy
Collection of Information
We comply with PIPEDA (Chapter 5) in regards to the collection and storage of personal information that is relevant to the sale and shipping of any materials we manufacture, (all the various Stabilant products are included).
We do not disclose any information about who we supply. As we are privy to customer-supplied information, it has always been our policy not to disclose any data of this type. By maintaining the strictest control over this information, we have been able to generate confidence. We are on occasion, asked for references on how or why Stabilant products are used by different manufactures or maintenance personnel. Our policy has always been that when we are asked for an 'endorsement' by another user. Where it is applicable, we first will contact the end-user and, if they are willing, we will contact the person that made the request and set-up a contact between the two parties. In this way, we can let the two parties involved decide for themselves what information that they can exchange. In this way, we remove ourselves from the exchange.
Obviously when we sell Stabilant products, we have to collect various forms of information, such as Company, Address, Shipper, telephone number and fax number, etc. Where required, we supply information requested on such customs forms as are needed.
We never give out this information.
All our staff and officers have signed confidentiality/nondisclosure agreements.
We never disclose any employee tax or unemployment data unless required by law.
Our present policy of not accepting credit card orders ensures that there is no security issue in that regard.
However we reserve the right to assist potential customers to locate a local outlet or a stocking distributor for Stabilant materials. Ask for the customers telephone number, their Postal code or Zip code, so that our staff can locate someone nearby who has the material in stock (or can order it).
A Note from the founder of D.W. Electrochemicals:
Our Documents and Webstite vs. Stress in the Workplace
With all of the downsizing taking place over the last several years, stress in
the workplace is an ever-present threat to employees in any company. At D. W.
Electrochemicals Ltd., we recognized this in 1988. This is why we decided, at
that time, to organize any of our company publications (which now includes the
web-site you are reading) to make them understandable by the average reader.
This is reflected, as an example, in our original Material Safety Data Sheets
(MSDS's) which are repetitive in that subjects such as "First Aid"
can be found immediately.
As of June, 2015, our new Safety Data Sheets are structured according to
GHS standards. While the new format is at first unfamiliar, it also places
an emphasis on finding the type of information you need quickly.
We believe that the same should be applicable to our web-site. So, rather than attempting to dazzle the viewer with all the tricks-of-the-trade, we have (and are) attempting to make this an easy site to use.
Too often, when I try to get information from the web-site of a company, it has taken me far too much time paging through endless files. This is also a problem that plagues internet users. It is a problem that, at times, is difficult to solve, even by using the search-engine provided. It can take far too long to find a specific product and/or distributor . This sometimes extends to trying to find an e-mail address!
Some of our customers are with companies have had to downsize. As a result, these people have had to deal with this situation. We realize that some people are being asked to do the same jobs that were formerly handled by several people. With downsizing, too many well trained staff are no longer available. The result is even more stress!
If there is anything we, as a company, can do, within reason, to assist our prospective or existing customers, please call, fax, or send us an e-mail!
Wm M D Wright, CEO
D. W. Electrochemicals Ltd.