From the BE@NAB blog:

"Has anyone out there had any problems getting batteries rebuilt at Rathbone Energy? I sent them eight Anton Bauer Trimpacs last December and there is no sign of them. Rathbone no longer answers their phones or responds to their emails. Are they even still in business? Am I just out $1132.00? Any information will be very helpful. Thanks.

Harry"
 

 

I am having the same problem, I sent them 2 Anton bauer Hytron batts in Feb 2008 - finally April 4, 2008 - received email and call about worker problems,

and bank problems - gave benefit of doubt and paid the bill in full. Now three weeks - several emails - phone calls - can get no response from

Rathbone Energy. Toll free number - gets not connected. In fact I have sent an email to the following address - requesting info by April 30,2008 or I am going to start legal action.

What I can help with is Lisa Bolden - cell number and supposedly personal email.

lisa.rathboneenergy@yahoo.com.

LisaBolden@spamarrest.com

The following number will at least give you an answering machine of Rathbone Energy 865.803.6498

I, too have had problems with deliveries of ordered goods.   I tried calling Rathbone today and got the "Boo-Bah-Beep" of a disconnected number message for both their toll-free and main telephone numbers.   I think I'll try to contact Lisa at the e-mail contact listed in the other response to your post.  

Rathbone provided a valuable service at a great price and we worked with them this past year after seeing them at NAB in 2007.  Delivery times have quite often been an issue, but we took it in stride because they are a small company.  

I also got several ear-fuls about labor problems (Ron complained incessantly about phone calls interrupting assembly-line operations) and the rants that were distributed to customers (i.e. "Credit Card Charge Backs"(5 pages), "Order Process Procedure for Rathbone Energy Rebuild Service"(3 pages) and "TURN AROUND time for Rebuilding/recelling your batteries VARIES." (5 pages) ) were pretty indicative of the problems they were encountering.   I sure hope they can turn things back around..... 

I heard from a friend that Rathbone had a big damage in the existing building from the storm and they are trying as fast as possible to start the bussines in another place. How soon I don't know yet.

Business practice still dictates, especially with paid clients, that you respond to emails and redirect calls to an answering machine - explaining the situation.

At the present I am very frustrated with lack of knowledge from this company.

If I had any knowledge that my batteries where going to take 3 - 4 posibbly longer months to return, I would have gone to a different company.

I was also lookinjg at buying one of their Lion battery and charger packages - but now I am forced to go elsewhere.

Plus if the building was damaged by storm -what will happen to customer products - in the building as well as papershipping documents with insurance added etc.

When you get no response from company - rumors start and eventually - larger customers will respond with litigation and the snowball effect starts.

It would also help if Rathbone advisedclients to the situation, via their website - this would at least calm some fears.

     It should be noted that whenever you DO get hold of someone at Rathbone, they are always very informative and conversational; even if they pour their hearts out about their work woes.   I think its fair to say that they are a small, struggling company, but their intentions are certainly noble.   I think they may be the only company that is performing Li Ion or Dionic re-cell jobs.  From what I've heard there are alot of strict requirements for working with Lithium-Ion materials (Safety, Environmental, International trade reg's. etc.) and keeping up with those new restrictions can be daunting.  

      The good news is that evidently they are NOT out of business, so hopefully they can get their assembly lines rolling again and get product shipped out the door real soon.  They are a valuable service that I think many in our industry appreciate, let's just hope they can get back on their feet.   I've got a bunch of batteries waiting for re-cells too, and some new ones on-order.  

       I agree that some sort of notification for customers of their predicament would be nice, and a web-page posting would certainly be the easiest (and wouldn't interrupt their recovery efforts like a phone call might) course of communication.

 

Received and email from Rathbone Energy today - they are back up and running - well everything will be running within the next couple of days.

This is extremely good news - we will at least get our batteries back.

Rathbone if you are reading this - Best of Luck and speedy recovery.

 

Hello all. I too am looking for Rathbone energy as he has some items that belong to me. I spoke with the sherrif's department in Jefferson County and they said that there had been a payment issue between Rathbone and the people he rented the warehouse from.They told me where to find the leasors. I called them and they seemed quite surprised to hear that the building had supposedly collapsed due to a storm. The nice lady on the other end could not give me any information as to why Rathbone moved from their building or where i could find them, but she assured me that their building was in perfect condition and had not collapsed and that Rathbone had taken everything when he moved out.

This is an email I recieved from Rathbone on May 5th, 2008

Click to view this email in a browser Valued customers, As you are all aware our building was damaged during a storm a few weeks ago which required us to move everything out of the building and into storage containers while we were securing a new building. Unfortunately the whole process was a little more difficult than we first expected. We do now have a building. It required some updating and improvements before we were able to move in. The floors had to be redone to create a static free environment for the assembly area so as not to damage the circuitry in the batteries. It also required some other upgrades. During the time this was taking place A T & T supposedly had the office phones forwarded over to my work cell phone. However due to either a glitch at A T & T or human error at A T & T the forward was taken off several times and allowed the calls to go into a cyber hole never to be seen again. Each time this happened and they had to reset the system it also lost all of the voice mails left. We would like to apologize for the problems everyone has been experiencing in contacting us over the last few weeks. Now for the good news. The upgrades to the building were finished on Saturday. Ron intended to start moving in on Sunday. It started raining on Sunday and continued into Monday which made it impossible for them to start moving and installing equipment. He was however able to start the moving process on Tuesday. The moving process will take several days to complete. The equipment must be installed first, then the work stations will go in. Then the storage and shelving will be installed. Once the storage and shelving is complete we can start moving smaller equipment and open battery shells into the building. Unpacking and putting away the battery shells will be a time consuming process. Each battery shell was securely wrapped and stored into boxes for the move out of the building and must be unwrapped and inspected during the unpacking. We had several hundred open battery packs that have to be unpacked. They then will have to be re-staged according to the date they were received. Ron is hoping to have everything ready by Monday or Tuesday to move in the office equipment and get it set up. At that point the phones will be no longer be forwarded to the cell phone and we will be much easier to contact. While I am working strictly from the cell phone we have multiple phone lines going into 1 phone. This makes it difficult to catch every incoming call. Added to that we have a handful of customers (you know who you are) who feel they need to call repeatedly at 10 minute intervals which creates even more of a bottle neck and makes it more difficult for the majority of our customers who are trying to be patient and work with us through this difficult time. Once the office is set up and I am again working from there I expect it will take a couple of days at least to get all of the batteries unpacked, inspected and re-staged. While I am working on that someone else will be working on the battery inserts. The more time I am able to spend actually working with the batteries the sooner this will be complete. As soon as all batteries are unpacked, inspected and staged we will sit down together and work out a schedule for shipping. As soon as we have an estimated shipping schedule laid out I will contact each customer with an open order individually with an estimated ship date for their product. We understand that a number of you have urgent situations that you are dealing with. We will do everything in our power to accommodate your needs. Until the equipment is installed and the battery shells are unpacked and staged we will not be able to give you an estimated ship date. The more time I spend on the phone telling individual people this the longer it will take to get everyone's batteries back to them. PLEASE if you have a question or concern other than when your battery will be ready send an email to sales@rathboneenergy.com. I understand that everyone is concerned about the status of their batteries. It takes a good bit of time to answer the 100+ emails per day that I am currently receiving asking for status. I will not be able to give an estimated ship date until we have the battery shells unpacked and staged. The status on all rebuild orders is they are on hold until the battery shells are unpacked and staged. Those of you who are sending multiple emails and leaving multiple messages daily (and again you know who you are) will not only be delaying their batteries but everyone else's as well. If this practice continues I will not penalize our customers who have shown exceptional patience and consideration through this whole ordeal because of a few people who feel that harassment will get their batteries pulled in front of everyone else's. Those who are sending multiple emails daily and calling repeatedly every day will be moved to the back of the line on the schedule. Again this does not apply to the majority of you. 98% of our customers have been wonderful and supportive throughout what has been a difficult time for all of us. If you have a time sensitive situation send 1 email to sales@rathboneenergy.com (please do not cc to lisa@rathboneenergy.com or lisa.rathboneenergy@yahoo.com as all three emails currently forward into the same mailbox which means I receive 3 email to read instead of 1 which triples the time I spend reading email and cuts down on the time I am able to spend helping to get your batteries ready to ship back out). I will print all of these emails out and we will go over them and take them into consideration while we are doing the scheduling. In addition to the inconvenience to our customers this has been a expensive situation for us, personally and professionally. It has cost me personally a great deal in lost income while I was not able to work while we have been locating and setting up a building. It has cost the company in lost business of new rebuilds coming in as we have been advising customers calling and emailing about sending in new products for rebuild of our current situation and asking them to hold the product and send when we have everything moved. It has cost me personally and the company overall in damage to our reputation. We do understand and feel your pain. I volunteered to handle as many emails and phone calls from my home as I am able to in an effort to accommodate my customers. For any of you who also have open orders for new batteries and chargers the move will not affect these product lines as they are manufactured for us at a different location rather than in house. If need be as the new batteries and chargers arrive I will turn my kitchen into a shipping area and pack and ship them from here. If any one has pressing or time sensitive needs for batteries this might be a viable option for you. I would like to thank everyone for their continued patience and understanding through out this whole nightmare. We think we have the best clients in world. You guys are the greatest. I promise to do everything in my power to help get everyone's batteries back to them as soon as possible. Sincerely, --Lisa Bolden and The Team at Rathbone Energy, Inc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please reply to this message with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line or simply click on the following link: Unsubscribe Rathbone Energy, Inc. 143 Old Huff Hollow Rd Newport, Tennessee 37821 Read the VerticalResponse marketing policy.

So, finally having internet access at home and doing what work I can from home for now, I discovered this thread and want to thank you so much for your efforts.

Each communication in this thread helps greatly with our documentation for upcoming events.  You state that you actually talked to our landlord.  This is great.

I used to know every client.  Now, I do not and as for the last few months there has been too much stress and distraction to remember every person I have talked with.  So, I do not know you and may not recognize if I did know your name.

In reading your email I was hoping more had been stated but the conversation you list was benign. 

Damages.  Yes, there was damage to my facility, assault on me, and I have massive documentation and, fortunately, several witnesses.  The three year history involved cannot be discussed over the telephone, in person, or in email.  The events on March 24th were the final straw that broke my back.  Although it will take three to five years for me to be remunerated for the damages and expenses to me, my staff, and my business it will be pursued. 

Once again we CANNOT discuss an ongoing issue.  And once resolved still will not be able to discuss the issues.  My staff is still just as angry, nerve pills were not helping any of us, but some of us said our prayers of blessing.  Talking about it just upsets and angers us all to an extreme.  There is three years of documented history in this relationship. I cannot place it completely behind me because I am out about $60,000.00.  I drive a 1999 Trooper.

As they discovered what had happened it was very comforting how many strangers, neighbors, and friends came to my ad After the events on March 24th,  I do not believe in supporting attorney firms.  But several attorney firms have passed their business cards to me through friends, employees, and others in the area that heard or saw what happened.

Because of those events I have had to make several trips to the Sherriff's department and those guys have been great.  I also picked up a new client for bulk radio batteries.  They have given me good guidance, steered me clear of bad legal advice, and nudged me to others that are more appropriate for my needs.  However, with the several legal cards passed to me I have pretty much decided on the appropriate firm to take care of my needs.  

Nonetheless, we now know that you have have communicatred with them at it may be necessary to call upon you in the future to give testimony.  You may have no idea what you really stepped into but it is a blessing for me.

I had to hire several additional people and it took from March 24th through April 5, 2008 to remove my equipment and store everything in 48 foot cargo containers.  We had to work quickly, pooring down rain and storms, but much more pain was taken packing the shells of client rebuilds than with my equipment.

We have increased our footprint to help produce sales and profits to cover losses, hopefully, quick. 

Fortunately our new lithium ion battery packs, battery chargers, and to studio and broadcast lighting, camera bags. and soon, broadcast monitors are shipped in, not built in house.  So, we can sell those and generate profit.  It will take a long time to cover the losses so please send us any referrals for new batteries, chargers, and lights.

AT&T placed all of our telephones on remote call forward on or around April 07, whenever I had time to call them, AT&T placed all of our telephones on remote call forward to one cell phone that is in the hands of Lisa Bolden.  Since then someone at AT&T has taken our telephones off of remote call forward four different times sending them into LA La land.  Each time this happened we also lost all incoming calls and calls on the Remote Call Forward Voice Mail.  AT&T works 8-5 M-F.

I hope everyone understands that you gave me trust and you have an investment in me.  It is in my best interest but also in your best interest that our sales volume increase greatly, increasing our profit dollars greatly, allowing us to more quickly address your products after we are back up and running.

My staff makes an average $20,000.00 per person and has no health insurance.  Several people were put out of work with lost income.  Besides by us, this is also being frowned on by community leaders.

But in closing,

We need your business.  Even though it is very late, I am very tired, and a few are making me grouchy right now, we really do need and appreciate your business. 

We are completely capable of processing orders for new V mount and Gold Mount lithium ion batteries, battery chargers, broadcast and studio lighting, camera bags, and broadcast monitors.  Yes we are trying to develop a larger footprint to help overcome the losses taken since January 2, and especially since March 24th.

Our quality is excellent.  Our prices are very fair.

Every order gets a 5% discount for paying via bank wire, company / cashiers check, and money order.  After what these guys done in January, February, and March, we will NEVER again accept a credit card.  I may loose a few orders from some who have to live from credit card to credit card but I and my clients cannot afford the chance of more charge backs on credit cards.  They destroyed my merchant account and my bank relationship.  However, the bank is a bank.  They had a choice.  Just like a snake by nature bites, a bank by nature steals.

Thank each of you for your encouragement.

Ron L. Rathbone

 

 

Yes, after the removal of many tree limbs, digging a trench, and waiting I have internet access at home through a wireless network.  As we work on our replacement structure we will also have this same wireless internet there.  In this area we have NO DSL or Broadband.

We will turn things around.  Thank you so much for the encouragement.  Actually, after making a decission to drop the merchant account and the now destroyed relationship with my long term bank, and hiring several new people things were looking up very nicely.  I have more good news about lithium ion.  We struck a new arrangement here with another manufacturer and have now been able to reduce our pricing and increase our volume on lithium ion batteries.  I gave up on trying to get injection moulding donme in the US.  I am not happy about having them built to my specification in CHina but I have to stay in business.  Even though I did not give these jobs to bench technicians in the US, the fact that our volume will increase will allow me to hire more shipping and receiving staff.

Yes, Sorry, I admit I have been very frustrated this past year with labor.  I am beginning to hear from clients they too are beginning to have labor issues.  When I do get a good lady or guy they quit because of the stress placedon them by a few people who call daily trying to get placed ahead of otheres in house before them.  The ladies would come into assembly stressed, stress a good worker, anxiety attack, and poof.  Both are gone.  Then there are the ones who work one day, do not show up for two days, work two days, and do not understand why you let them go.

Fourth quarter I was so put out I worked in assembly by myself working through Christmas day and News years day.  But, in February I hired six new technicians and two sales people.  They were excited, we were catching up, had lots of new sales in lithium ion, and things were looking up.

My rebuilding product is THE BEST in the business.  I cannot help the events that have happened.  Since 1991 I have provided the broadcast industry with a GREAT SERVICE.  However, I have to admit that I am not happy with the events of the last year.  Also, not only myself but others I talk with within our industry are noticing a great lowering in the caliber, not just of the employee, but others in the business.  On the other hand, even when I now go to a vegetable stand people would rather complain than be happy things are not worse.  People are stressed, worried, extremely overworked and some cannot handle this as well as others. A few are simply extremely pampered.

Staffing:  Yes, staffing had become a major frustration.  Finally, the third week of February we hired six great people who were there on March 24^th and who have all stated they want their job back.

Assembly.  That is NOT going to change.  When we are back up and running and those in assembly will NOT be interrupted by a few who constantly call trying to be placed in front of others.  A lot of people received late delivery because of that last year and it was also an issue with the staffing I did have.

The Sales Contract and Credit Card Authorization.  I have been easy on this for years.  It is a shame I have had to insist on signing the paperwork and cannot insist from one unless you insist from all.  All of it similar to paperwork I have had to sign for years, a standard in most business environments.

The turn around page.  No grey area. As has happened to us, Poop happens.  I hope no one thinks we get enjoyment out of this unnecessary drama and stress.

 Well, I just have a lot of pinned up frustration.  Before the heart atacks and bypass surgeries I could go swing on a bag or get on the mats.  Not so anymore.  Anger just cannot be a player or I will be out for the count.

Anyway, thank each and everyone of your for your encouraging words.

We need your business.  Even though it is very late, I am very tired, and a few are making me grouchy right now, we really do need and appreciate your business. 

We are completely capable of processing orders for new V mount and Gold Mount lithium ion batteries, battery chargers, broadcast and studio lighting, camera bags, and broadcast monitors.  Yes we are trying to develop a larger footprint to help overcome the losses taken since January 2, and especially since March 24th.

Our quality is excellent.  Our prices are very fair.

Every order gets a 5% discount for paying via bank wire, company / cashiers check, and money order.  After what these guys done in January, February, and March, we will NEVER again accept a credit card.  I may loose a few orders from some who have to live from credit card to credit card but I and my clients cannot afford the chance of more charge backs on credit cards.  They destroyed my merchant account and my bank relationship.  However, the bank is a bank.  They had a choice.  Just like a snake by nature bites, a bank by nature steals.

Sincerely,

 Ron L. Rathbone    rathboneenergy.biz

 

Encouraging words have been few.  People are just stressed.

Lisa and my other staff really need to see this encouragement.  I will advise them of this forum next week.

Thankfully we have a complete new line of rechargeable lithium ion batteries and the first shipment arrived late Friday evening, May 09, 2008.  Now I will take a couple of days to take pictures of the new batteries and chargers before shipping out all of them.  The challenge here is to set up a make shift shipping area, the server, and a printer so that we can get these out the door.

Obviously, like any small business, we HAVE to generate money to pay basic bills such as inventory, telephones, etc.  They come whether we have sales or not.  We HAVE to generate money to purchase inventory.  If you have batteries in our facility for rebuilding they are open shells.  It is in MY best interest and your satisfaction that I continue to generate more sales now than ever.  So please give good referral for our new line of lithium ion batteries, and chargers, broadcast and studio lighting, camera bags, and broadcast monitors.

Again, we cannot give you exact details of what happened on March 24th.  Because this will be ongoing for years we cannot give detail now and will not after it is settled.  I would LOVE to give detail, really, I would really LOVE to give detail.  Lisa was one of several witnesses, understands the gravity, and did as instructed in her email.

Hopefully, within the next two weeks the necessary 240 wiring will be run for our compressor and other equipment.  This week I hope to pull the telephone wire through the building and get the telephones back up and running so a couple of people can get back to work generating new sales in lithium ion, lighting, and chargers. 

My rebuilding product is THE BEST in the business.  I cannot help the events that have happened.  Since 1991 I have provided the broadcast industry with a GREAT SERVICE.  However, I have to admit that I am not happy with the events of the last year.  Also, not only myself but others I talk with within our industry are noticing a great lowering in the caliber, not just of the employee, but others in the business.  On the other hand, even when I now go to a vegetable stand people would rather complain than be happy things are not worse.  People are stressed, worried, extremely overworked and some cannot handle this as well as others. A few are simply extremely pampered.

Expect to see more email advertising from Lisa as she has broadband at home.

But in closing,

We need your business.  Even though it is very late, I am very tired, and a few are making me grouchy right now, we really do need and appreciate your business. 

We are completely capable of processing orders for new V mount and Gold Mount lithium ion batteries, battery chargers, broadcast and studio lighting, camera bags, and broadcast monitors.  Yes we are trying to develop a larger footprint to help overcome the losses taken since January 2, and especially since March 24th.

Our quality is excellent.  Our prices are very fair.

Every order gets a 5% discount for paying via bank wire, company / cashiers check, and money order.  After what these guys done in January, February, and March, we will NEVER again accept a credit card.  I may loose a few orders from some who have to live from credit card to credit card but I and my clients cannot afford the chance of more charge backs on credit cards.  They destroyed my merchant account and my bank relationship.  However, the bank is a bank.  They had a choice.  Just like a snake by nature bites, a bank by nature steals.

Sincerely,

 Ron L. Rathbone    rathboneenergy.biz

 

Well, the latest (This is May 28 now) is I haven't been able to get ANY response from Rathbone Energy for two weeks.   No responses from e-mail inquiries, nobody answers their phones (either line) and today I got an "Error 404" (Server un-available) when I tried to log-on to their web-site.   This doesn't look good at all, no matter how you might spin it.   I had to pre-pay for a new battery order months ago and all I've received are promises that never get followed through.  I hope this isn't the "End" of Rathbone......... 

You are not the only one. I have tried to get ahold of anybody at Rathbone since April 4th, 2008 when I paid for my rebuilds - since that April 4th - I have only gotten automated responses form emails and have been unable to find any phone number that works. Seriously getting upset with no knowledge of my batteries where abouts.

I did look at their website and recently and found a remark - that if your batteries have not been received by 12 weeks after payment, phone this number or contact them through this email - since Rathbone is in the midst of relocating and upgrading the new facilities so production can continue - I will give them the benefit of the doubt until the 12 weeks have passed. Which is June 27, 2008. After that, I will assume that my batteries have disappered into never never land and will be forced to look at other avenues of acquiring my batteries or replacement there of.

Please Rathbone if you are reading this forum, at lease contact your paid customers and let us know that you are still aviable entity - something more personal than an automated response. 

Again if this is all because Rathbone has been struck with some unfortunate acts of nature, then best of luck and a speedy recovery.

The faith to move mountains, comes to those that have moved little hills.

Hello.

I have also been waiting a long time for my batteries.

Can anyone suggest an alternative to "Rathbone" in the mean time.

 I still have several other batteries that need repair.

 

Thank you.