Introduction
Hello everyone, wanted to create one of the first manufacturer reviews, and whilst I’ve never been a customer, I felt I could share my experience as an ex-employee of a manufacturer and current dealer. This is going to be kind of a long gossipy post, but there will be a review at the end.
A Brief History of Northedge Steel
To my knowledge, Northedge Steel has been around for about 20 years, but has only been in the tube-frame manufacturing industry since they purchased All Steel Carports in 2022. It’s actually quite a sad story why All Steel sold.
All Steel Carports had just finished crafting the most beautiful sales lot this industry will probably ever see. All Steel was planning to move their main headquarters from a small shop in Muncie, Indiana, to the new facility in Yorktown, Indiana. Well, right up until “federal officials charged its owner, Ignacio Chavez-Castillo, with "conspiracy to harbor aliens and to encourage and induce illegal aliens to enter and reside in the United States," and "conspiracy to commit money laundering."
From what ex All Steel and current Northedge employees told me, this was, for the most part, lies. Allegedly there were a total of 2 illegal immigrants. One contractor who installed buildings, and one guy who worked in the manufacturing shop. Fun fact that not everyone knows, HSI (or some other 3-letter agency) had a CI within the company. He worked in the office. The day of the raid, he was apparently freaking out, pacing back and forth all day, right up until the feds burst into the office with semi-auto rifles and shotguns and demanded everyone walk outside, single file, with their hands on their heads. He was never seen again after everything went down.
Okay, back to the owner’s story. When you’re arrested, have all personal and business accounts frozen for months on end, and are actively being slandered by the media, there is not much you can do to afford keeping the lights on. If I remember the story correctly, 2 weeks after selling, the owner of All Steel was told he could return to work as normal. The media has since issued some small corrections, but it’s hard to take back something like that. I had customer’s come into Northedge, years after all of that went down, still asking questions that were always phrased along the lines of “man didn’t the old owner get busted by the FBI for trafficking illegals or something?” You could always tell which people were big into gossip. I rememeber one day, I had a guy straight up ask me if the old owner was trafficking little girls in and out of the country.
My Time Working for Northedge Steel
Anyway, bit of a tangent there, but an interesting story (depending on your definition of interesting). Back to Northedge Steel. Now, I originally heard about Northedge on LinkedIn. It was right after I left a sales role at a fancy tech company. It was actually this listing right here that put me on to them. The $45,000-$65,000 salary + commission sounded fantastic for a job that close to home, plus I was young, so it would be a little bit more than I was making before. I applied, interviewed, and eventually got the job.
Well, the $65,000/year turned out to be a massive stretch, but I gained something much more valuable, a foot in the door of the industry, and a lot of knowledge. I knew basically nothing when I started. I had never even looked at a carport up close.
Over time (a very short time), I realized I strongly disliked my boss and the owner’s daughter who were both way too hands on for my liking. They conducted an extraordinarily long interview process and went looking for a sales rep with experience. They found exactly what they were looking for (me). Then, they couldn’t stop micromanaging.
This drove me nuts, I have been in sales since the day I turned 18, have worked for both large and small companies, and knew more about crafting a quality sales funnels than they did. I even knew more about their own Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) software than they did. I could go on a very long rant about everything with the way they wanted to run their sales process, but I won’t bore you. The three sentence summary is that they wanted to have the sales team spend less time actually selling/following up, and more time ensuring adequate management data was available to track prospects through the sales funnel better, this would have been fine if the sales team weren't the ones expected to go back through years of data. Additionally, they wanted to completely change the quoting process in a way that would have more emails end up in spam, and take significantly longer to actually send a quote; what might have been a five minute job could have became a 45 minute job. To top it all off, they wanted to offer a whopping five-days of vacation time, that don't roll over, and I had to be there for at least a year to be eligible, it's the worst vacation day policy I have ever heard of.
Eventually, I realized I could start my own dealer, make more money, and have a better sales process, so that’s what I did. Actually, it was both myself and my “manager.” I don’t want to call him a manager, because that wasn’t technically his job title (they refused to give it to him, that was his biggest reason for leaving), but he was the one who trained me and the one I went to for help. After we formed the LLC, I got to work on the website and our advertising strategy. I stuck around for around for another month, right up until my boss disrespected me in front of all my co-workers.I resigned immediately
At Northedge, they have a very elaborate pipeline that new customers follow Sales > Quality Control > Confirmations > Scheduling > Manufacturing > Installation. It's actually an incredibly good process and how most companies in the industry run their new customer process. Basically, the reason I quit is because I had sold a building, the customer was supposed to be scheduled in 2-3 weeks, but 2-3 weeks later, the customer reached out to me asking what was going on, he still hasn't heard from anyone, etc. I looked at the notes in the system and saw the customer had gone from Sales > Quality Control > Confirmations, but went no further. I asked in our team group chat about this and was informed no one had ever done his confirmation call. My manager said something along the lines of "InsiderKnowledge, do the confirmation call. Take care of your customer."
It might be a small thing to some, but in my mind, my boss had just implied that I wasn't already taking care of my customer, that I had somehow messed up. No accountability had been taken from the person who failed to actually call the customer. I was already at the end of my rope, so I left on lunch and never returned.
My partner stayed for another 2 to 3 months. We've been in business together ever since.
What Happened After I left Northedge Steel
Northedge Steel did eventually find out I had started my own dealer. It was only a matter of time, though I wish it would have been longer than it was. What happened was we had a lead inbound to our dealer, which I quoted. Eventually the customer informed me that it was between us and one another company, said we were in the lead currently, but was waiting on hearing back from the other company one last time. He came back later with an even lower price, which I beat again. At some point I realized we were truly in a bidding war with some mystery company, and it started to feel too personal. I was mainly interested in closing the sale at this point just to get a positive review on Google. Eventually, I went as low as I could possibly go on price, but could go no further.
Well, the reason the bidding war was so aggressive is because this customer had shared the quote I had sent him with the other company. The quote included my name, my company name, and my contact information. Northedge Steel was the one at the other end of the rope. Specifically, my old boss from Northedge Steel, the one who disprespected me in the work groupchat with all my coworkers.
He realized what I had done, and wanted to ensure I lost a sale. He basically (literally might be a better word here) sold this customer a structure at cost. It was incredibly personal. I kept my exit extremely professional. I did not retaliate or get into any confrontation when leaving. I simply said “I have designed to resign, thank you for the opportunity.” I didn’t take any leads when I left, and this guy is just a manager there. He’s not related to the owner, he doesn’t own a single percent of the company, and he’s not even paid that well. So, why does he care so much about ensuring I suffer? I mean, at this point, I’m doing it full time and barely scraping by. I think he was just pissed/embarrassed because he made the decision to hire me and his investment turned out to be a failure.
Would I Recommend Northedge Steel to Buyers?
Would I recommend Northedge Steel to buyers? Absolutely. I think they are probably one of the best companies in the industry. Most manufacturers around Northedge’s price point have around the same build quality, but Northedge offers better warranty, and some of the best customer service in the entire industry. Now, I’m not allowed to sell for them, for obvious reasons, but I’m not the type of person to talk down on someone, or in this case, a business, just because I can’t get everything I want. Northedge’s warranty on 14-gauge steel might actually be the longest in the industry at 5-years. Most manufacturers either don’t offer a warranty on 14-ga steel, or if they do, it’s only 1-year. Now, just like every other manufacturer, any modifications to the structure will void all warranty, so I don’t think warranty alone is enough reason to choose them.
Many of the employees that worked at All Steel stayed on throughout the entire buyout process. Those employees who have been long-time employees are really the one’s making Northedge Steel so great. They are some of the hardest workers I have ever met, and the only reason I say Northedge is one of the best companies in the industry. It was truly impressive working there and seeing how into their jobs the people were. I believe eventually those people will leave, Northedge will continue to expand into other states, and they will lose what makes them great, but for the next few years, they should remain as a great option to choose.
Disclaimer: The content of this post reflects my personal opinions and experiences and should not be construed as factual or authoritative. The information provided is intended solely for informational purposes and does not constitute professional advice. I do not claim the accuracy or truthfulness of any statements made herein. Any resemblance to actual events or entities is coincidental. I do not intend to defame or harm any individual or organization. Readers should independently verify all information and consult relevant experts before making any decisions.
