In hard times, watch out for scams

It seems this recession has sent scammers into overdrive. Maybe they hope that companies struggling to stay afloat during the slow economy will be easy targets for scams, perhaps taking business they would avoid during better times. Or maybe the scammers themselves are feeling the economic pinch (not that my heart bleeds for them).

These scammers are stepping up their efforts to steal from legitimate business owners, often using a fake shipping company scam, and companies need to be on the lookout. The recession is hard enough already—don’t make it worse by losing thousands of dollars to these folks.

On average, I receive two emails a week from business owners reporting they have been targeted with fraudulent orders (for the most part, they have identified the scam in time). Jorge Morales, general manager at Dimensional Plastics Corp., Hialeah, Fla., wrote in a recent email, “I get hit by these scammers at least two to three times a day. … Today, one actually called me!”

Rich Yergovich, sales and marketing manager for Kingston Printing, Eudora, Kan., said, “I got two in one day. Both smelled bad from the start, but I responded with a polite estimate. When I got a response with a request to contact Mobo Shipping in order for my product to be shipped to Singapore, I knew there was a rat in the kitchen. The very minute someone wants to send printed material to a foreign country you have to know something isn’t right.”

The scammers have even started to email me directly, trying to place glass orders supposedly for orphanages, churches or schools in other continents.

If you know the warning signs, the scams are easy to identify. At Glass Magazine, we set up a Scam Alert page listing the red flags for fraud. Make sure you and everyone at your company knows the warning signs. And, most importantly, trust your gut. If it seems fishy, it probably is. Legitimate customers won’t be hesitant to provide basic additional information. Legitimate customers won’t insist on the use of their preferred shipping company when it costs thousands of dollars more to do so. And legitimate customers won’t force you to take a great financial risk to complete their order.

To learn more about the red flags, read examples of fraudulent orders and get information about reporting scammers, go to the Scam Alert page. To read more in-depth information about the shipping company scam and see numerous comments from business owners who have been targeted, click here.

--By Katy Devlin, commercial glass & metals editor

What will the next six months bring?

A recent survey of senior U.S. manufacturing executives examines their midyear outlook for the U.S. economy, attitudes toward the proposed cap and trade legislation, and current international presence and expansion plans. Baker Tilly commissioned the survey and KRC Research conducted it. Overall, the survey indicates a tale of two manufacturing sectors: the winners and the losers.

Three-hundred senior executives of small, medium and large U.S. manufacturing companies participated in the survey through telephone calls between June 2 and June 22, 2009. Here’s a snapshot of the survey’s key industrial economic outlook findings:

Cautiously optimistic – Nearly six in 10 senior manufacturing execs (57 percent) have a positive outlook for the U.S. economy over the next six months, but slightly (51 percent) more pessimistic about the outlook for the manufacturing sector.

Rightsizing – Over the next six months, 70 percent of manufacturers said they plan to keep staffing levels the same.

Brighter days ahead for some – About half of executives (49 percent) expect their firm’s performance to decline, with 12 percent (disproportionally small businesses) saying their firm is in danger of failing. Customer demand is cited as the top challenge to growth, followed by access to loans and credit, over the next 12 months.

Economic survival strategies – Over the next 12 months, the majority of manufacturing execs expect to reduce costs across the board, such as operational (80 percent), supplier (65 percent) and labor (51 percent).

Staying the course – Despite pressure to reduce costs, executives are continuing to invest in their companies. The most common investments are in quality improvement systems (51 percent).

Bargain hunting – Among executives with plans for M&A activity, 85 percent report no change in their plans, 12 percent plan to increase and 3 percent plan to decrease it. Among executives whose firms derive some revenue from outside the United States, 80 percent said most of their new customers over the next three years would come from domestic markets. However, more than one in four executives from large manufacturers cited most of their new customers will come from outside the U.S. during the next three years. For companies that conduct business overseas, China (44 percent) and Mexico (40 percent) were cited as countries that will play an increasing role in their global growth strategies during that same period.

The survey also showed that most manufacturing executives (59 percent) generally oppose legislation that includes a greenhouse gas emissions cap and trade system, but a sizable pocket of soft support exists among some executives (32 percent), especially those who are more optimistic about the U.S. economic recovery and the manufacturing sector.

See the executive summary of the report, and let me know your thoughts for the next six months. Are we done with the worst yet, or have we still not reached the bottom? Are we ready to take off and soar high? Will it be an easy or difficult takeoff?

—By Sahely Mukerji, news editor/managing editor, Glass Magazine

A glazing mission

Every Memorial Day for at least eight years, my wife, Linda, and I have traveled to Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras, for a week to be part of a medical and missionary team from our church, Fellowship Bible Church of Little Rock. We go out into the city and set up a site with doctors, dentists, an optometrist, a pharmacy and a children’s area. The peoples’ physical needs are the draw we use to then address their spiritual needs, which are our true focus.

This year is particularly special, as we will travel to Honduras at least three times to help build a new mission home for World Gospel Outreach, our yearly host.

On July 14, Linda and I traveled to Tegucigalpa with two ACE Glass Co. associates, Blake and Isaac; our good friend, Johnny; and our middle son, Chris. Amidst the political turmoil, we set out to install the aluminum, single-glazed windows that had been sent a few weeks before our arrival via an emptied Dole banana container going back to Honduras.

In 3-1/2 work days--with occasional help from two very energetic Honduran men, Antonio and Caesar-- we installed 200 window units. Isaac, being bilingual, instructed four Honduran men, believed to have some caulking proficiency, how we wanted the backerod installed and the bronze GE Silpruf applied. They turned out to be pretty good caulkers and are reported to be doing a fine job in our absence. We’ll find out personally when we return in September.

We have about 40 remaining windows units to install in the basement and two other buildings; the holes weren’t ready in July. We will then install a beautiful executive office entrance provided by Alpha Door & Rail and M3 Glass Technologies with DecoTherm logo and 18 Vistawall Oldcastle aluminum doors, frames and sidelites.

These trips are very rewarding personally, and the Hondurans are vocally appreciative to have us help their country and them. Their smiles and laughter are infectious. You can’t imagine how economically poor they are until you experience it.

By Newton Little, executive vice president and co-founder, ACE Glass Co., Little Rock, Ark.

Learning from others' mistakes and successes

I just got back from a two-day trip with my two partners to visit a colleague in the glass business 1,500 miles away. Some would say that now is not the time to spend money on flights and hotels, and that they can't spend time away from their businesses when times are tough. I say that it has never been more important than it is now! None of us can just keep doing what we have always done and hope to thrive, or even survive. Now is the time to tap your network for all kinds of ideas: new products, new applications for old products, management techniques, efficiency improvements and more.

Some business owners fear they will send the wrong message to their employees if they travel while tightening the belt on most everything else. These fears are easily assuaged, however, when you return with ideas that you can immediately implement to save money and improve the business. Share what you find with your managers and employees and make sure they see that the positive changes are a direct result of what you learned from your contacts. Every time that we have done this--and we typically do it two or three times a year, including attending GlassBuild America: The Glass, Window & Door Expo--we bring back pages of good ideas that justify and pay for the trip.

For these trips to be successful, you need two things: someone who is willing to share openly with you and a willingness to reciprocate. The latter is most important, and if both parties believe that, the exchange will be the most fruitful. While some things are taboo--pricing for example, if you are competitors--don't put up any walls and don't hesitate to share ideas and experiences that will help your friend! It amazes me when people in this industry think they have discovered something that no one else has, and that they can best benefit by closing off their operation like a secret military base. If your focus is on openness and listening, you will always leave having gained more than you shared, and having profited more than you spent.

Time away from the daily routine and pressures also clears and frees your mind to see your company and people in a fresh light. You will return refreshed and energized. Start with GlassBuild America Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Meet up with friends there, and make some new ones. Attend the seminars and take notes. Before you leave, make plans to exchange visits with another company, or to visit a valued supplier. Doing so will grow your business faster, improve our industry and even contribute to overall economic recovery!

--By Chris Mammen, president, M3 Glass Technologies, Irving, Texas

NFRC's site built rating system not ready for rollout by Jan. 1, 2010

—The following is the transcript of a July 27 letter from Chuck Knickerbocker, curtain wall manager, Technical Glass Products, Snoqualmie, Wash., chuckk@tgpamerica.com, to officials of NFRC.

I appreciate the work the National Fenestration Rating Council has done with regard to getting the residential window industry playing on a level field as it relates to ratings for energy performance. I have misgivings the same can be said for the planned rollout of the site built fenestration rating system as described in the July 15, 2009, NFRC-hosted Webinar.

I have no doubt that energy is a prime concern. As an architecture major in the late '70s, I took both passive and active solar energy design courses in school. That was avant-garde then, and things like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the high cost of energy, and long gas lines of the '70s have made a lot of us conscious of the energy side of the products we build and sell. I drive a Prius. I know the issues, and NFRC’s planned rollou--and more immediately California’s requirement that site built fenestration be certified by Jan. 1, 2010--does not appear to be ready to respond to actual, everyday conditions as they presently exist.

Having 28 years in the glass and glazing industry, as a subcontractor, a consultant and now as a frame supplier, there appear to be many loose ends. Can you help me with some answers with the questions herein, please? And thank you.

1. The NFRC size for modeling may or may not represent actual conditions on site. Certification of a window of an arbitrary size that doesn’t duplicate the site built conditions may lead to:

a. A unitized wall panel, for example, with its varying framing methods, which cannot be accurately modeled in the CMAST program as demonstrated at the Webinar.

b. Certifications of walls that may perform better or worse than the NFRC size expose the qualifying entity, most likely the subcontractors, to huge liability issues.

c. As a result, NFRC certification may or may not indicate actual performance of a given wall product.

d. Is this a possibility, and what do we do if we encounter this? What is NFRC prepared to do to assist the glazing subcontractor if this occurs?

2. Fenestration rating for curtain walls: does this just cover the glass industry? What about the other “curtain walls” (non-load bearing building skins) that are out there? Does NRFC have a say in rating precast concrete and window systems? How about Stucco? Masonry? GFRC? Stud-built systems with either terra cotta, stone, brick, or EIFS? How do we get those rated come Jan. 1, 2010?

a. Should we just be concerned about the glazing portion of these walls?

b. What about other glazing materials that get mounted into any of the variety of steel or aluminum curtain walls? Composite metal panels for one, or granite? How do we get a California building inspector to accept a certification in January that NFRC is not presently prepared to offer? Architects aren’t going to stop designing these systems with these components.

3. Has the NFRC involved the one entity that has to pay for all of this, the building owners? This includes federal, state, and local governments, who can fob it off to the taxpayers, but:

a. Time to schedules will be required to allow testing of custom curtain walls not previously built to be tested and certified. The response to this question in the Webinar was it could happen in as little as two months. If it takes longer, then what?

b. What happens if the designed custom wall the owner’s architect has put in the drawings doesn’t get rated or certified? Is that the glazing subcontractor’s problem? The architect’s?

c. The owner’s going to be impacted, that’s for sure. Do the building owners realize that a huge cost impact to their projects just got dumped on them?

d. And do they know that a certificate of occupancy can hang in the balance should the certification not meet the building inspector’s expectation?

4. NFRC is out there trying to alert the one entity that will be charged with getting the certifications, that being the glazing subcontractors. They’ll enlist the help of the glass or frame suppliers, but they have to include the cost and schedule impact into their estimates.

a. The Glass Association of North America has been trying to clue the glass and glazing subcontractors in, but they haven’t been made to understand the impact. They won’t until they have to experience it first hand.

b. Jobs being bid right now for 2010 will miss a significant cost in their estimates. That’s never good for owners or subcontractors. They’ll be burned on the cost of the first one, and then the owners will feel the impact on the next job.

c. Except there will be one glazing sub on the next project being bid that won’t know what they are about to walk into, and their price won’t include any of certification, and they will get the job because they were the low bidder. The playing field will not be level at bid day. And delays will be incurred while they absorb the cost impact to get certification.

d. All while at or near the end of the job, when the owner’s trying to get the CO, the owner, architects, general contractors, as well as the sub’s bankers and bonding company will be breathing heavily on their necks to get the certification.

5. TGP’s in a unique position. What has priority: fire rated partitions or the energy requirements, both of which by code are required? The issue comes down to public safety or energy code compliance. Who gets to decide the fate of that issue if a fire rated fenestration product can’t get certified as being compliant with the energy code?

I don’t think I’m overstating the case as it presently stands. And NFRC may have plans to implement and eventually deal with the contingencies. But what do we do in the meantime? Seems the only resort is to plead our case for the building inspectors of the world to grant us an exemption. That’s a risk, too. It can be naïve to think they may approve the exception, and worse, the consequences when they won’t. It’s also naïve to think the NFRC CMA certification will cover all conditions after Jan. 1, 2010.

There appear to be too many loopholes. How we can work within what appears to be a very difficult situation is of extreme interest to us. I’d be curious as to NFRC’s reaction to all this. It may help us plan and implement TGP’s approach a little better.

The opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Glass Association, Glass Magazine editors, or other glassblog contributors.