ACAD_Cowboy
Well-Known Member
Speaking as a previous business owner who made very bespoke items, communication is key. Speaking as the spouse of the owner of a small family business, communication is key. Speaking as a human who buys things from other humans, communication is key.
By way of example, I recently had to order some relatively trick parts from a manufacturer of such offroad doodads, what I needed some some specific modification from their standard offering, doable but it would require taking a shelved part and taking it apart to make the needed mods then reassembling and bench testing repeat as needed. So far so good, we all felt confidant that this would be an easy peasy thing. Here, have my bag of money, I'll await the box in 3-6 weeks.
During the lead up to transaction it was the Dennis Quaid 50,000w smile and the George Clooney charm, even the tech doing the build was a pleasure to talk with. Then the delays... oh the shop that makes our reservoirs had a bad batch, the in house welder for the bracket quit, fedex must have lost the package... 3-6 weeks was stretched into almost 8. A box arrives... and only half the stuff is there, enough to work with but the reservoir and the trick wunderfluid are not... Oh and once the pump went on but the bracket isn't too terribly square, the stock belt won't work despite all the assurances and no, they don't know what size you "should" need... sigh. Oh and they are making the reservoir now, should ship end of week.
Jump forward 6 months. In the meanwhile I've done some tweaking to the pump and bracket to square it up, figured out what size belt is best belt and where the hell is my reservoir and fluid? Oh man, they must have lost the package again but that's okay because we redesigned the reservoir to make it even more trick but the fluid... somehow the drum got speared by the forklift and we have 55 gallons of it everywhere, we are expecting more and will ship it all together, like a week. Lies. So three weeks after that another box shows up with the reservoir and 4 quarts of GM steering fluid. But guys, you tell everyone how your proprietary monkey snot fluid is like GM but like quadruple the additive package and specially formulated to cure cancer. Oh well we sent you the GM because it's faster. Lies.
Everything leading up to handing over money was warm and charming and loaded with communication, everything after was surely not. And to me that's the real problem, you have my money and I do not have my product, you should be sending me photos of every step of production and emailing me to let me know it shipped and then following up with me once big brown or fedex reports delivery. You should be making me avoid your calls not the other way around. I should feel ashamed that it's not installed yet. I should feel so stuck up my own ass proud to have this gem of a thing on MY rig and the WHOLE WORLD needs to know how pimp it is.
But no. Sadly we get guys who may be very good at building or solving problems but they are worse than herpes when it comes to running a business. Working for a business is not the same as running a business, owning a business is a third step removed and even less the same. What makes you a good worker isn't what makes you a good manager and what makes you a good manger is not always what makes you a good owner.
To the OP, as you have already done, now is the time to invoke the demon AMEX and let the business owner that you've been patient and it's time to put up or shut up and give me back my money. To the others, it's not exactly the place for a dog pile, as pointed out life happens and often not in the best ways. But again, communication is key. I don't mind emails telling me it's delayed or things broke or got lost or that the powder coater blew all the money on drugs and hookers... it's all okay... just figure it out and get me my shit. The more you communicate as one human to another, the less likely I am to demand my money back, if it's late but I know why and it's a reasonable reason, done't even need to make sense just be reasonable, it's okay, only fools make travel plans around parts they don't have yet. I got a call one day telling me that my new super trick dust collector was involved in an accident, my trucker was hit by another trucker who had fallen asleep and the collector was spread across I80. Well... that's what insurance is for and AMEX and making a phone call.
As for not smearing this shop, mixed bag, obviously if they are having problems the buying public needs to know they are not a recommendation but at the same time the nature of the problems may be transient and temporary, an employee who sucks and needs to go, a subcontractor who had a major fire or it could be they grew too fast and accepted far more orders than they could fulfill or worse overestimated their ability to complete and the schedule is a train wreck. Could be any number of big or little things, a dog pile of fuck him with donkey dicks won't help the OP get their stuff. And I know we all want to get on the bully pulpit and beat it with our shoe while screaming about how they suck but it won't help the OP or the shop. I'd recommend a full autopsy once the money or product is with the OP, then lay it all out in cold clinical analysis as it's possible that by then situations have changed. Or not and then we can all yell until we are hoarse.
By way of example, I recently had to order some relatively trick parts from a manufacturer of such offroad doodads, what I needed some some specific modification from their standard offering, doable but it would require taking a shelved part and taking it apart to make the needed mods then reassembling and bench testing repeat as needed. So far so good, we all felt confidant that this would be an easy peasy thing. Here, have my bag of money, I'll await the box in 3-6 weeks.
During the lead up to transaction it was the Dennis Quaid 50,000w smile and the George Clooney charm, even the tech doing the build was a pleasure to talk with. Then the delays... oh the shop that makes our reservoirs had a bad batch, the in house welder for the bracket quit, fedex must have lost the package... 3-6 weeks was stretched into almost 8. A box arrives... and only half the stuff is there, enough to work with but the reservoir and the trick wunderfluid are not... Oh and once the pump went on but the bracket isn't too terribly square, the stock belt won't work despite all the assurances and no, they don't know what size you "should" need... sigh. Oh and they are making the reservoir now, should ship end of week.
Jump forward 6 months. In the meanwhile I've done some tweaking to the pump and bracket to square it up, figured out what size belt is best belt and where the hell is my reservoir and fluid? Oh man, they must have lost the package again but that's okay because we redesigned the reservoir to make it even more trick but the fluid... somehow the drum got speared by the forklift and we have 55 gallons of it everywhere, we are expecting more and will ship it all together, like a week. Lies. So three weeks after that another box shows up with the reservoir and 4 quarts of GM steering fluid. But guys, you tell everyone how your proprietary monkey snot fluid is like GM but like quadruple the additive package and specially formulated to cure cancer. Oh well we sent you the GM because it's faster. Lies.
Everything leading up to handing over money was warm and charming and loaded with communication, everything after was surely not. And to me that's the real problem, you have my money and I do not have my product, you should be sending me photos of every step of production and emailing me to let me know it shipped and then following up with me once big brown or fedex reports delivery. You should be making me avoid your calls not the other way around. I should feel ashamed that it's not installed yet. I should feel so stuck up my own ass proud to have this gem of a thing on MY rig and the WHOLE WORLD needs to know how pimp it is.
But no. Sadly we get guys who may be very good at building or solving problems but they are worse than herpes when it comes to running a business. Working for a business is not the same as running a business, owning a business is a third step removed and even less the same. What makes you a good worker isn't what makes you a good manager and what makes you a good manger is not always what makes you a good owner.
To the OP, as you have already done, now is the time to invoke the demon AMEX and let the business owner that you've been patient and it's time to put up or shut up and give me back my money. To the others, it's not exactly the place for a dog pile, as pointed out life happens and often not in the best ways. But again, communication is key. I don't mind emails telling me it's delayed or things broke or got lost or that the powder coater blew all the money on drugs and hookers... it's all okay... just figure it out and get me my shit. The more you communicate as one human to another, the less likely I am to demand my money back, if it's late but I know why and it's a reasonable reason, done't even need to make sense just be reasonable, it's okay, only fools make travel plans around parts they don't have yet. I got a call one day telling me that my new super trick dust collector was involved in an accident, my trucker was hit by another trucker who had fallen asleep and the collector was spread across I80. Well... that's what insurance is for and AMEX and making a phone call.
As for not smearing this shop, mixed bag, obviously if they are having problems the buying public needs to know they are not a recommendation but at the same time the nature of the problems may be transient and temporary, an employee who sucks and needs to go, a subcontractor who had a major fire or it could be they grew too fast and accepted far more orders than they could fulfill or worse overestimated their ability to complete and the schedule is a train wreck. Could be any number of big or little things, a dog pile of fuck him with donkey dicks won't help the OP get their stuff. And I know we all want to get on the bully pulpit and beat it with our shoe while screaming about how they suck but it won't help the OP or the shop. I'd recommend a full autopsy once the money or product is with the OP, then lay it all out in cold clinical analysis as it's possible that by then situations have changed. Or not and then we can all yell until we are hoarse.
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