I've been following this post for two days. I feel like I've gone through some bumps in the road on my build. I've had my fair share of losses. I had some really cool stuff happen too.
I can't say enough how much I've learned just from Lateral g. It is great that the people that run Lateral g., the business and customer have said what they have to say and are informing all of us.:thumbsup: I hope in the end the customer ends up with a cool car!!!:cheers:

I hope all realizes that this is not an isolated event. We have been trying to figure a way of handling this issue for a year or longer. Glad it finally is getting discussed.

I am going to side with the hard working man that has paid his bills and little by little saved his money and dreamed about having a modern kick ass ride, and is having to wait and is maybe afraid to "rock the boat" in fear of never getting his parts or being shoved to the bottom of the list as far as delivery is concerned. Even if it perception, it's bad for us all, because in his case, perception equals reality. Someone needs to get out of his pajamas and get to work.

Something just isn't adding up here. One plus one does still equal two doesn't it?

No Scott, I do not think you are making this up. I know plenty of people have gone through this, I have acknowledged that over and over again and have made it clear why we are doing what were doing to fix it.

No it is not the customers job to call, however if somone is worried they will never get their stuff they should call. I have not heard from anyone or aware of anyone that is hung out on a order that is not in direct comunication and updated. I am working over 200 orders right now some 15 minutes old, some a few months old, so no I cannot possibly know who has contacted you. As I know right now everyone is cool and knows what their situation is. There is not a single customer that has not got what they ordered. In fact my oldest invoice right now is for a very custom motor, and he has a ton of money in it and we talk regularly. He just called and is talking about ordering more stuff. Expensive custom stuff.

So, here is the deal, if there is ANYONE worried about getting their stuff or wants a order update, pease call me.

As for manufacturers getting calls, I can think of one manufacturer last week that got a call and we had not got the order in last week and it was a case of a emailed PO going to a ghost.

Our new system will have someone following up with a phone call after every PO is sent making sure it was gotten, And the new system will remind us if a PO has not been sent.

Again, I am doing everything I can to fix it.

The number one thing that needs to be fixed is charging CC's then ordering parts at a much later date. That is a no no.
We need to protect the members from potentail issues from the vendors that are endorsed here. Bottom line.
People will understand delay in getting stuff, but when the vendor has the money already and the parts are not ordered immediately, that is not flying here.

...anything less is just a Ponzi Scheme, plain and simple. Perception equals reality and the perception is that members cards are getting charged some big numbers and having to pay interest on those charges while they wait for parts. The reality is, members are getting charged for their parts, and having to wait months with no communication from the man they gave their hard-earned, let me say again, hard earned money to without the items they were promised. Seems to me their needs to be a conversation something like this:

"OK, here's the deal, I'm going to charge your credit card in a crappy economy for the full price of your order and you'll probably not see the parts for two to six months, but I'll be sure to wait for YOU to call me about your order because it is after all, your money. But please wait until you are good and pissed off before you call, so I'll have my excuses about other peoples stuff, stuff that is obviously more important than yours, ready. I'll lament about how great I have done for everyone else but you and how rare this is and I'm moving and Vendors suck and people lie and I'm always right. Oh and by the way, you may even have to post it on a major Board like Lateral-G.net to get me moving. If you agree to those terms, we can do business"

That is what all your posts are telling me Frank. There are just too many people upset about this to be a rare occasion. You have got to stop charging folks for stuff you know you are not about to order and may not for months, period, end of story.

The customer is always right, man, he's the reason you eat and have car's and shop's and vacations and everything else. You need to wrap your brain around that.

Jim, your fired up. You say I need to wrap my brain around this? I am, I have been doing everything I can to prevent this. I am not running from any of this. The wild assumptions are just that. It is not a ponzi scheme, it is horrible overstressed disorganization, plain and simple. Under no circumstances is someone charged and it expected to go down like Carbuff. I even did not charge on Carbuffs order until I thought we had stuff coming because I knew stuf was out a while. He ackowledged that.

Now, there are situations where someone is charged knowing they are going to wait, like on our engine deals. I buy them in batches of 5 and do them group purchase style and turn them for a few hundred markup. Those people know they are waiting and we are using their money to buy them with so we can run a low profit margin with no investment. And it may take 2 to 4 weeks to get a group together and 3 to 4 weeks to get the 5 motors. Also there are specials I run were I make a commitment to take say 10 of a product to get a deeper discount I can pass to my customer, and we gather cash and order 10, gp style. But those people know they will wait.

Then there are things that simply require full payment before the manufacturer will start, no matter who places the order. Those people know they are going to wait.

But you are correct, the buyer should be aware of this situation from the get go, and I acccept full responsibility when that has happened.

And Jim, there is another side to this coin. There is the side when you only take a deposit, the parts are ready, manufacturer charges us for the full cost, and the customer becomes invisible when it is time to collect the balance. And you can wipe you butt with a CC autorization, that is about useless. How do you think I end up with so many "deals". Because someone could not pick them up.

I have a motor ready, been ready a few days, but I have not heard back from my buyer. He only owes a couple grand more but today I am upside down on the deal a good $1500. I have 2 sets of wheels ready and the buyers are not around. Maybe on summer vacation, but I am upside down $3500 in the meantime.

I am not trying to cry the blues, but there is a lot to all this.

Frank, I can assure you, I am not fired up. You have a lot of upset folks you owe either money or parts to and they are not happy. Why? Because you charged them for the parts and haven't delivered in a timely fashion, that is the recurring theme here. You are compounding the problem by saying the person (your customer) is responsible for making sure they get the stuff they paid you to get for them. If you are doing the volume of business you say you are doing, then you know the bad vendors and know their build times and it is your responsibility to steer them away or give them warning.

As for the other problems you are experiencing, I cannot address, but the ones that have chimed in, sounds to me like they paid in full.

Frank: No one else I've dealt with charges me for parts until they are shipped. No one. The issue that keeps falling off your radar is charging the customer's credit card when the order is taken, rather than when - and as - the order is filled.

For myself, I don't care how much you do to straighten out the ordering process; if it continues to be your practice to charge when the customer places the order, rather than when the parts have shipped, I'll take my business elsewhere. There is simply no reason for me to help finance your business by providing the float between when I place my order and when you have to pay the manufacturer for my parts.