Not that I am aware of, but I have never had any distributor ask us to give them Gardiner brand products at cost.
what do you mean by your second phrase? Why does whether or not a distributor has ever asked you for Gardiner products at costs relate to Simpole’s guarantee, or Gardiner’s guarantee (or lack thereof)?
How about below cost? 
ha ha.
What I mean is, after 1,000 or so Gardiner poles sold in the US by RHG distributors, I can’t recall having one come to us and ask for something at our cost or the manufacturers for that matter.
RHG’s role is to support our distributors and in turn we support the window cleaner and window cleaning community.
Having seen that it’s influential to some window cleaners for other companies to offer that level of service (replacement at cost) do you have any plans to pursue offering that to your customers/distributors?
We’ll give it some thought. Interestingly enough I saw today that another pole manufacturer is stating that they will give you a section FREE if you break it. So we’ll have to keep an eye on how things progress.
Influential? How many SimPoles have been sold? How much pent-up demand is there where a low price and “guarantee” are the real deciding factors?
First it was soap wars. Then came Ecover and I think they will win.
Now WFP wars.
Can’t argue with that, my Gardiner is Chinese as well
Ok as a business owner here is my stance, cost is key and everyone has different needs. Simpole is a great product in certain ways such as price point, durability and the guarantee. Gardiner is a more refined product and in turn it is more money.
We have a Gardiner CLX 22, a Gardiner CLX 18, Tucker 45, Brodex 35 CF and a Gardiner 61 CF. I love every pole and every one is good in different situations. I love the Gardiner 61 product which I got a killer deal on and consider it the better piece of equipment than the Simpole however I could not see spending full $3000 retail for it, no way
It might be similar to cleaners offering a rain guarantee to set them apart from the competition or telling a customer you aren’t the cheapest and not the most expensive. It’s all in how you look at it sometimes.
I have no idea in regard to your latter two questions. However, two window cleaners referenced the Simpole guarantee in this thread alone. Chances are that others may have taken note of it, who haven’t said so here.
Interesting. I wonder if you can almost overplay yourself w/ too much “guarantee.” I sometimes think “why are they spending so much time telling me how they’ll replace it if it breaks? I’ll just buy one that doesn’t seem to break so often.” Not in relation to WFP necessarily, but just in general.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Shawn. I always look forward to your posts.
Larry loves nothing more than Gardiner, except Primus. You can’t reason with love. Just gotta except it. 
I bought a Gardiner SL-56 back in Jan 2009 from Shawn at RHG (back when it was still called Reach Higher Ground, and before I’d ever even heard of WCR), back before there was a telescoping SLX, at least in the states as far as I know. I loved it, it was super-duper lightweight and I used it for everything. Being that I never ended up doing windows over 2 stories the whole time I’ve owned it, the only sections to even get use were #1,#2,#3, and once or twice I got to use #4. Unfortunately the #1 pole got broken when my van got stolen. Shawn sold me a replacement #1 pole. Thank you. I continued to use it up until I found WCR in early 2011. The #1 section got broken a second time when my employee was shaking the pole (#1 section only, with a brush head on the end) to get the excess water to run down the hose. I’ve posted about that before but i’ll try not to make an issue about it again. None the less, at that point I personally felt like the pole wasn’t strong enough. So I searched on this forum and found and heard good things about the Simpole. I contacted Phil (owner/designer of the Simpole WFP’s) and arranged to try out one of his products. He drove from Prescott to Phoenix to meet me, and I drove up from Tucson. I demoed it on a 5 story bldg. that easily took 60’ of the pole to reach the top windows. I felt it was too heavy for me. Turns out that was because I was comparing it to using the SL-56 modular Gardiner pole (the lightest pole in the world I believe, for it’s height). Others often say the Simpole is light, so I guess it’s relative to whether you’ve been working with a heavier or a lighter pole first. I tried it out again back at home, and found it was great (had the new clamps) and easy to use, especially the ability to drop off sections of the pole when only needing to use a section or two at a time, but when extended to 30’ it was still a little heavier than I wanted it to be. Anyway, the Simpole helped me complete a large job that I made $2,000 on and I believe if I had to put the same stresses (cleaning glass on a 45 degree angled upside down pyramid building) on the SL-56 that I had it would have broken again most likely. I contacted Phil about the issue of it’s weight and he actually let me return the pole. Not only that he gave me every last penny back that I had paid for it. The best news though was that he had another buyer ready to take the pole as a used item. I know he lost money on the deal and I feel bad about that, but I appreciate what a great person he is and will most likely buy another Simpole from him in the future. Since then, Alex Gardiner and I have spoke about the issue I had with the SL-56 and because I wasn’t totally satisfied with it (not realizing it wasn’t designed for ground level work), he gave me a great deal on the new Gardiner 48’ Xtreme. I was very impressed by Mr. Gardiner as well as Phil Alexander. Both are good businessmen but also seem to have hearts where many men only have wallets. I have mixed emotions about my new pole though. It doesn’t feel as light as I thought it would, I didn’t know before having bought it that the clamps can only be closed when each section is either fully closed or fully extended (really didn’t like that feature), and being that this pole has positive stops (which can be helpful when extending it) you can’t drop sections while working with it like you can on a Simpole. I’ve been using the Gardiner Xtreme for the last 5 months now, and while it’s a very nice pole I too would never have shelled out the full retail price for it. It has some nice features (shorter length when fully closed down,lighter when fully extended), but so does the Simpole (you can only use as few or as many sections as you need, but it’s still telescopic, and you can close the clamp thereby adjusting the height of the pole incrementally on every section). If anyone wants to buy a SL-56 that has brand new #1,#2,#3,(I replaced those three) #5,#6,#7,#8,#9,#10 sections (these have never been used) and a #4 section that has been used once or twice contact me. 
Hopefully this gives you some input on what it’s like to use these poles. I’ve never used the SLX’s though. I will say I hear they are much sturdier than the SL-56. I was very impressed with the durability of the Simpole, as I am of the new Gardiner Xtreme also. I have to say, I’m a fan of both companies.
The reality is I recommend what i have purchased and used successfully.
I demo’ed a 45’ Tucker several years ago, and even though I has nothing to compare it to, did not care for it’s weight and flexibility. Later, I tried an Unger CarbonTec with Streaky and loved it except for the price.
I purchased an SL-X 30 as a pre-sale when they first hit the US market. I did not use it for 6 months until I purchased an RHG RO/DI electric cart. Again on the basis of online recommendations. Half-way into my first low-rise project, I purchased an SL-56, which I have used at extreme angles – even horizontally with only 2 or 3 sections – without issue.
Both WCR and Shawn have been extremely helpful on the customer service end (quick turn-around on parts when Fedex damaged the cart during shipping, for example.)
I’m happy with what has provided my company profits and me with ease of use.
Shawn: I understand that sections 1-8 of the Xtreme are not adjustable (lockable only at fully closed or fully open), but that section 9 IS adjustable.
In addition, I’ve read that because the Xtreme is so light, dripping sections us of no concern – it’s easily usable at 1 or 2 stories.
Yes Larry, that’s correct - section 9 is the only adjustable section. But as far as I know I was the first in the U.S. to buy one and at that time Alex Gardiner hadn’t yet made a video showing how it was adjustable and not adjustable. He did make one later though, and it’s quite helpful for those who are considering buying one of the Xtreme poles. Dropping sections is totally dependent on the user. I bought a #5 pole butt-end cap, and I’m going to take off sections 6-9 because I don’t like the extra length, weight, and I will not need them until I have a 3-4 story building to clean. Again, “actual weight” of the pole is not subjective to each user, but “relative weight” is.
By the way, speaking of Alex Gardiner’s videos, he has a nice one detailing the different brushes they sell now (been out a couple of months), and I’d been asking for a video or better pics on their site for months before that. I also bought some of the scrapers that go on the WFP and I like them. Just wanted to tell ya’ all. (ya’ll for you southerners.)
I just read that too Larry.
Shawn - can you tell us why sections 1-8 can’t be closed in other positions than open or closed?
That’s the design, Tony.
