The Life of an Order

Orders are taken very seriously here at Comstar Supply. From the moment you talk to your outside sales, call into the office, or place an order via our website, we give strive for nothing less than perfection.

If you live in the north eastern part of the United States, there’s a good chance that you have an outside sales rep covering your area. We have an outside sales rep covering the Maryland and Virginia area as well Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Recently we expanded our outside sales rep coverage to New York and New England. Our outside sales force is very hands on and knowledgeable about our product line and the equipment we sell. They are available for demonstrations and instruction if needed. They are a tremendous resource for our local customer base and are able to handle your orders personally.

Back at the office, Comstar has a strong and personable inside sales team. These are the people answering your questions over the phone, the faces you’ll meet if you stop in the office. The inside sales team is knowledgeable and proactive in handling every order that crosses their desk. Website orders are handled by the inside sale teams as well. The inside sales team works with the outside sales reps as well as the warehouse and manufacturers to make sure that your order is completed properly.

Once your order is established and if the item is in stock, it’s passed off to the warehouse. Comstar’s warehouse is staffed by a group of hardworking and dedicated workers who strive for one hundred percent accuracy. Most orders are filled and shipped same day. The warehouse personnel handles all custom cuts and parallels for innerduct and fiber orders. They also arrange for all deliveries ranging from orders sent on the fleet of Comstar trucks to those shipped LTL and via UPS. Comstar delivers locally to customers in the greater Philadelphia area.

Sometimes the item you order is not available at our facility. Fortunately, we work with a great group of manufacturers, many who happily drop ship product directly from their facilities to your location. These orders are always processed quickly so that there is no hold up in your order.

The billing end of your order is handled by our accounting department. They strive to have a seamless paperwork process that insures that your order is billed in a timely and effective manner.

Ultimately, everyone here at Comstar is dedicated to making sure we offer the highest level of customer service. We strive for perfection and when there is a problem, we work tirelessly to make things right for you. We value the relationships that we have established with our customers over the year and love developing new relationships with our new customers.

So give us a call – let us help you out with your next outside plant project!

Comstar Supply trained in Triple D Products!

Last week the Comstar crew packed our bags and headed to New Jersey for a road a trip that involved a two day intensive training session on everything Triple D Enterprises has to offer!

Triple D Enterprises, Inc. is a manufacturer of HDD, Vibratory Plowing and Trenching products. Comstar Supply has had a great relationship with Triple D for years so our entire staff was eager to get some formal training and become industry experts!

The training session consisted of two parts – a classroom session and field session. In the classroom, we went in-depth over all the aspects of directional drilling as well as plowing and trenching. The day started with a video demonstration on directional drilling. The Comstar Supply team the learned about the different types of bits offered by Triple D and how to choose the right bit for the right machine as well as for the appropriate soil conditions. The training then covered backreamers , crossovers, starter rods and drive chucks for directional drilling.

During the vibratory plowing and trenching portion of the training, we had the opportunity to learn about key selling points for the different types of plow blades. The Comstar staff also reviewed the importance of using a Lost Motion Assembly in the plowing process. Throughout the second half of training we reviewed compaction bits as well compaction reamers and how the compaction boring process differs from the directional drilling process.

After touring Triple D’s manufacturing facility, we were opportunity to see these products in action! This was especially exciting for the Comstar Supply staff that spends most days in the office helping customers! The Triple D staff arranged for a demonstration of both the vibratory plowing/compaction boring process as well as directional drilling.

So consider Comstar Supply, partnered with Triple D, to be your one stop shop for all of your plowing, trenching, and drilling needs! We have everything from plow blades to back reamers to rock bits to get your job done!

Hot Product Sno Shoes

Here in Philadelphia we have had some crazy winter weather lately and while I am sure plenty of people on the east coast wish they had snow shoes to help them get around, the only thing we stock here at Comstar Supply is fiber optic Sno Shoes!

Fiber Optic Sno Shoes are used as a fiber optic storage system. They provide an convenient method for storing extra length of fiber optic cable. We are proud to be a distributor for Opti-Loop brand sno shoes!

Our most popular sno shoe is a 17 inch plastic model. These sno shoes retail for $58.00 per pair and can accommodate up to .90 inch outside diameter in a single wrap. The Opti-Loop sno shoes enable you to maintain the proper minimum bend radius to protect your cable from damage.

These sno shoes also feature:

• Unconditional lifetime warranty
• Radius end to ensure no sharp corners
• .950 Channel Width
• 25.25 Overall Length
• 17.50 Diameter
• OD up to .90 single wrap
• Each pair individually boxed
• Stainless steel mounting bolts, nuts and washers included

Other sizes and specification of sno shoes are also available for direct shipment from the manufacturer so if there is a specific part number or size that you need, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to help you out!

Hot Products Cable Reel Trailers

omstar Supply Inc. is proud to be a distributor of Roose Reel Trailers. Roose Manufacturing, located in Pella, Iowa, is a in its 36^th year of business. Roose manufactures quality utility trailers designed to handle cable and innerduct reels.

All of Roose reel trailers come standard with a one year warranty. Trailers are typically painted either yellow or white although other colors are available for an additional cost. Trailers come equipped with your choice of hitch and electrical connectors.

Roose manufactures a variety of trailers to meet your needs. Their smallest trailer, the RR-33, is a single reel carrier with a 2000lb capacity. This trailer is non hydraulic and requires you to use a forklift or other means to load the reel but the price makes it affordable for contractors. The RR-33 can accommodate reels up to 96 inches in diameter.

The two most popular trailers that we sell are the RR-135 and the RR-160 single reel carriers. These models both offer hydraulic controls for easy reel loading. The RR-135 has a 3500lb capacity and can accommodate up to a 125 inch reel. The RR-160 can also accommodate up to a 125 inch reel but has the added ability of handling up to 6000lb capacity. Most contractors working with HDPE and fiber optic cable find that these two model s meet their needs. We generally stock several of each of these trailers at our Collegeville, Pennsylvania facility and easily drop ship the trailers to non-local customers directly from Roose Manufacturing.

If you are looking for a more rugged model trailer, Roose also offers their RR-185, RR-200 and RR-114 models. The RR-185 has a payload capacity of 8500lbs and the RR-200 can handle 10000lb capacity. The RR-114 can accommodate up to 14000lbs. All three of these trailers are equipped to handle up to 125 inch reel.

Roose also manufactures a line of multiple reel trailers including their RR-250 Self Loading Hydraulic Cable Trailer that can handle two reels up to 125 inches in diameter with a payload weight of 5000 lbs per reel. Other options include both the SL-35 and UL 335 trailers which can accommodate up to 3 reels at a time and the RR-330 Roate-a-Reel trailer. The RR-330 is specially designed to rotate the reels into various positions which can be locked with a spring loaded latch. If you’re interested in any of the multiple reel trailers, please contact us directly for pricing, availability and shipping.

Accessories are available for all trailer models including a hydraulic power reel drive. Replacement parts are also available for all models, insuring years of usage!

Anyone interested in purchasing a trailer should contact us directly! We are happy to answer any of your questions and look forward to equipping you with a quality Roose reel trailer!

Safety First!

From the time we are very little, our parents drill this into our head. The safety first mantra hits us on all aspects of our life and working in the telecommunication industry is no exception. Even though we often assume that we are safe, it is important to sometimes step back and reexamine how we do our job with a safety conscious mind.

Even in the winter months, it is important to remember to wear sunscreen. We offer a great sunscreen towelette by PT Technologies that is compact, quick drying, non greasy and protects against UVA & UVB rays. The towelettes have minimal odor and do not contain any alcohol. Also, the formula will not stain clothes!

Comstar Supply also stocks a wide range of safety signs as a courtesy to our customers. We like to think of ourselves as a one stop shop and that includes your safety materials! We have signs ranging from reflective flagman to left lane closed and right lane closed to work area ahead and men working. We also stock a variety of sign stands like the traditional four leg stand, the compact sign stand, and the stacker sign stand. If there is a specific sign you need and do not see on our website, just ask! We are usually able to meet specific state and local sign requirements!

Other safety equipment we keep in stock includes reflective cones and vests. We also stock reflective stop/slow paddles and a variety of caution tape. In the past we have even helped our customers purchase arrow boards!

Here are Comstar, we have even taken measures to make our operations and facilities safer. Over the past year we have formed a Safety Committee which meets monthly to review how we can improve aspects of our operation. The Safety Committee has reviewed and made changes with our forklift safety, warehouse safety, first aid procedures and more!

So next time you are on the job site, take a minute to step back and make sure you have everything that you need to keep yourself and your workers safe and if there is anything we can do to help you do your job while keeping safety first, just let us know!

Thanksgiving Wishes

The long weekend coming up means an excited buzz in the office. Everyone is anticipating a delicious dinner tomorrow with all of the fixings including good times with family and friends. But before we go off on our holiday, I thought it would be nice to thank the people who make our job here at Comstar possible each and every day.

I am thankful for the opportunity to work with a group of manufacturers who are there to support our endeavors and our customer needs. Dealing with company reps, account managers and customer service personnel on a daily basis, I rely on them to give me the information I need to help my customers. They do this time and time again and while I make a point to regularly say thank you, I can only hope that they know how much I appreciate them and everything they do for us.

I am also thankful for my co-workers. As I mentioned in a previous post, we are truly like a family. I have never worked any place where the employees had such great relationships as we do here at Comstar. I am thankful that my co-workers make me laugh when things are stressful; I am thankful that they help me when things are busy. I am thankful that the warehouse staff works extremely hard to move product out the door and almost always come through when I am in a bind.

And of course, I am extremely thankful for the wonderful group of customers that we get to deal with everyday. The relationships that we build with our customers are one of the most important aspects of our business. Comstar is truly grateful for every order – big or small – and I hope that we can continue to build our relationships and gain your confidence and business.

So to our manufacturers, co-workers, and customers, I wish to say thank you. I hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday and I look forward to helping you in the coming months and year!

Family Orgins Make All The Difference At Comstar

What makes Comstar Supply different and stand out in a crowd of distributors? I would like to think it is the family atmosphere that motivates us all to have that whatever it takes attitude to get a job done, and get it done well!

Webster offers several definitions of a family, one being a group of things related by common characteristics. Comstar Supply is a family in every sense of that plus the traditional definition of the word.

When Earl started Comstar in 1994, he did so with the support of his family. His son, Chad, grew up surrounded by his Comstar family. Now serving as President of Comstar Supply, Chad works closely with his mother, Gwen, to ensure the success of the business.

The Punchard family roots extend deep into Comstar. Andrew Constagliola serves as the Senior Vice President of Operations and Adam Rogers serves as Project Manager at Comstar Supply.

The family ties go beyond just the Punchard’s. Patti Bellino, Adminstrative Assistant, is also the aunt of Ralph Del Conte, Inside Sales, and Rich Del Conte, Driver. Allen Thierolf, our Warehouse Manager and his brother Kevin both work hard in our warehouse to move orders and supplies and Mike McGovern, Vice President of Finance took over the position when his sister vacated it several years ago.

Beyond the intricate blood lines of Comstar’s family tree, there is also the implied family that comes from working together as a team. The unique relationships that exist between the staff at Comstar allows us to joke around and tease each other one minute and work hard and lean on each other to get the work done the next minute. We support each other in many aspects of life. This allows everyone to help one another when needed which in turn enables us to work harder and more effectively to serve our customers.

We take pride in the fact that we do things a little differently (and hopefully better!) than our competitors! We will happily custom cut and parallel any HDPE order up to 1 ½ inch diameter and beyond that, we can order the custom reel lengths and put ups from the manufacturer at no additional charge. What does this mean for you? If you call up and want a 3 way parallel times 250 feet of 1 ¼ inch Corrugated innerduct, no problem. If you need two of the runs to be orange and one to be green, also no problem. We will custom cut fiber optic cable at no additional charge so whether your run is 1000 feet or 10,000 feet, we will happily serve your needs!

Most orders of items that we have in stock are turned around and shipped out same day. Our shipping department has great relationships with reputable national freight companies to make sure your order arrives on time to your location. If you require special shipping arrangements such as an appointment, lift gate or pallet jack, also not a problem, just let us know! Our warehouse staff is made up of hard working, dedicated individuals who often come in early or stay late just to make sure our customer needs are met! It is not unusual to see them taking a box to the UPS box after our regular pickup or seeing them stay late to wait on a truck because a customer needs their supplies. They truly embody the whatever it takes attitude that drives the Comstar family.

Our customers are, of course, the most important part of our family! We like to take the time to know our customers personally and often times we learn about their own families and lives. Our customers truly are an extension of the Comstar family! And just like we would with our own families, we all strive to make sure that everyone’s needs are met and fulfilled and everyone is happy!