Toten Unterhosen
Active Member
@SmartCap - For me, this is an example of what makes the whole situation über frustrating. Communication and proper expectation setting -- or lack thereof. Not having the cap is a bummer and can be (mostly) understood in light of supply chains. But the lack of good, proper and consistent communication and expectations along your distribution chain is what tips it off the edge.
Similarly, if there is a single US distributor, you must be privy to their sales volumes/orders. Likewise, you would know the type and quantity of product shipped and port arrival. Thus, while you may not be able to track a specific customer order, you should be able to determine and have handy reports based on sales vs shipments, your product backlog, aging, etc. (If it were my business, I'd want this information.)
Finally, while individual customers orders may not be on your radar, when an order has been open for 8-months, I would expect a brand to respond to direct contact via their website contact form, not just public forum posts. I might also expect that in order to help maintain the brand image, some effort might be spent trying to determine what happened, work to restore faith, and develop plans for how to handle such situations should they occur again (hopefully not, but...).
Granted, my experience may be the outlier and exception. I do feel that it may be given others positive experiences and hope that is the case. Please understand my intent is not to bash RSI, rather to point out some areas that I feel could be improved to address the experience of customers who are waiting for product and minimizing any brand denigration.
Thanks much and best!
This would indicate that, even if it changed/slipped, there was a time you felt you could quote a general timeline.
This statement appears to me to contradict your previous statement. In the first, you were comfortable supplying timelines. In the second, you can't state which shipment an order would be on (no timeline).
And this is where I feel you have work to do on your vendor/channel/distributor relationship. At this point the dealer is speaking with the distributor (assuming this is KeyStone and not an additional layer). The distributor is telling the dealer they are unable to get information from RSI. Whether true or not, RSI is being put in a poor light as RSI says the dealer will have information. The dealer seeks information from channel and is being told that RSI is the problem. It feels that no one wants to own the issue.
Similarly, if there is a single US distributor, you must be privy to their sales volumes/orders. Likewise, you would know the type and quantity of product shipped and port arrival. Thus, while you may not be able to track a specific customer order, you should be able to determine and have handy reports based on sales vs shipments, your product backlog, aging, etc. (If it were my business, I'd want this information.)
Finally, while individual customers orders may not be on your radar, when an order has been open for 8-months, I would expect a brand to respond to direct contact via their website contact form, not just public forum posts. I might also expect that in order to help maintain the brand image, some effort might be spent trying to determine what happened, work to restore faith, and develop plans for how to handle such situations should they occur again (hopefully not, but...).
Granted, my experience may be the outlier and exception. I do feel that it may be given others positive experiences and hope that is the case. Please understand my intent is not to bash RSI, rather to point out some areas that I feel could be improved to address the experience of customers who are waiting for product and minimizing any brand denigration.
Thanks much and best!
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