[camcojb]

Originally Posted by ProdigyCustoms

Jody, I have taken my time answering this thread initially, and then after your response because I can give a dozens reason why this has happened on SOME orders and no matter what I say it will just fuel the fire. I could throw a employee under the bus, complain about being to busy, blame it on the way payments are received, blame it on bulk purchases, blame it on group buy, blame it on timing orders, blame it on automatic order system failures.

It does not matter what reason I give, I can break down every scenario as I have here and in the past and whatever that answer is will still be seen as BS by my witch hunters here. In the past I have accepted responsibility and explained every problem in detail only to get absolutely mugged for say "I screwed up"

How many orders is it? 10?50? 100? orders. We do THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of orders! And when I point that out someone jumps in and says I am bragging. Just last night I got my dinner completely botched at one of our favorite most consistent restaurants.

I cannot answer this and win. I try to give comfort in the fact we are debt free so people are comfortable we will be here tomorrow, and I get my head ripped off for bragging about being debt free.

I get accused of ripping people off but there is not a single documented case of someone getting ripped off and NOT getting what they paid for. Not one person has never gotten what they paid for.

I will tell you this, it is a small percentage of our orders. I will also tell you that not many people run out an brag about things that go as they as supposed to go, as expected. Not many people go into work and brag, "Just want to let everyone know I got my Egg McMuffin in 2 minutes this morning just like I was supposed to". But if someone gets their Egg McMuffin in 20 minutes that guy will bitch and bitch and bitch. Now if you combine that basic thought process and create a atmosphere where people are allowed to back slapped for saying something positive, like here on this forum, it makes it even more unlikely anyone will say anything. I have emails and text for people saying. i still love you man! hold you head up, but they are afraid to speak up because they will get mugged!

And I see you deleted Ummgawa's post, but when the moderators lead the mugging like they have in the past, they are leading the choir!

And you Jody in particular are 100% blaming me for something that is 100% not true and not as you state it to be, And I have emails to back it up. But you are carrying a torch for me for something that did not happen.

Jody, how many other orders did you and I do that went just fine?

So I will TRY to explain how someone can order something and the PO not be sent but the card is charged. This is a PERFECT example that can documented right here and now. I will give you a perfect example of how this can happen. The nicest guy in the world has posted in this thread a couple times and had a problem order he has not mentioned, in fact he has tried to slow the flame without bringing it up.

Lenie came to visit us at out new shop. Wanted to see the shop, wanted to buy some stuff while he was here. He hung out and we talked for a couple hours, My phone blowing up like it does all day, me answering every call all the while. Lenie commented many times on how amazing it is I take everyone calls, he stuck through it. All of a sudden Lenie has to go, we realize time is up, I also have to leave, Lenie wants to order some stuff real quick before he goes.

I write a hand written note, 10 items, multiple manufacturers. Give him some pricing, Lisa runs the card while Lenie is there, we all leave at the same time. hand written note on my desk. Lenie calls 2 weeks later, just checking on my stuff. Oh ****, where is that note? Can't find it. Find it 2 weeks later under a chair in my office, ceiling fan must have blown it off. Frank TOTALLY forgets because it is not in his face Monday morning. Call Lenie, Lenie is cool. We start getting his stuff to him, but I send Lenie a 69 dash instead of a 67 dash. Lenie calls, OK, I will handle it, phone rings. That gets forgotten.

BUT, 2 weeks later I DO remember literally in the middle of the night and write to Lenie, Lenie, I forgot about your dash. Lenie handled it direct with the company with out me even knowing. The point is WHEN I remembered, I tried to fix it right away.

So how does it happen. I wrote a hand written note, leave, lose, forget, transposed one digit and sent a 69 instead of a 67. In the end Lenie got everything he was supposed to get. And I think he is to nice a guy to mention he was not THRILLED with the way it went down, but I THINK he also understands how it happened as he was wittiness to just how busy we get. Lets forget the fact that I was probably the only person on the planet capable of specking out some parts of Lenie's order. Lets forget the fact I actually had living projects available for him to see exactly what he was wanting.

Let me tell you something else. A year ago there was a thread about not getting what boiled down to a transmission kit. It was the huge thread I said, oops, tried to time the order and no trans was available. No matter how hard i tried to accept responsibility, I got mugged! Well needless to say i jumped all over getting that transmission problem fixed. The OP was privy to every email between me and the supplier going forward. I specifically asked that this kit go complete, as it is too hard to chase little parts that do not show up to drop ships. Trans kit ships, shows up missing 4 or 5 parts. Send a note, 3 of 5 parts ship. It took 6 weeks to finalize that order and no matter how hard I tried I could not make it end. And the customer was courtesy copy on every email. When it was all done I said, OK, so you have got a snapshot of how damn difficult this can be sometimes. He never came back in and said ya know, I can see how this can happen. It is not the nature of the beast. But at the end of the day there was a SPECIFIC reason I had not sent that trans kit.

I will tell you another thing. There was another customer that jumped on that thread, has a almost identical problem, ripped my head off and pucked down my throat. And rightfully so. In the meantime in the year past I have made constant contact with that customer, checking up on him, seeing if things were OK, how his project was going. A issue came up he DID NOT mention to me 6 months later, I saw it in a post (Not in a negative way) hi m trying to solve the problem on his own. I found out it was something my supplier did wrong. I sent parts, and gave credit to cover the labor. I have bent over backwards after he blew my head off on the thread to give service after the sale, me initiating the service. It would have been real easy to bail on that one. Not many people get their ass whipped and come around seeing if they can help after the fact. And I do not expect him to say something, but you do not see him chiming in saying, got to hand it to Frank, he sees things through.

So in the end, it is a small percentage, I cannot give a satisfactory answer, and nothing I say will change the direction of this thread.

Frank, as you know, I have first hand experience of you taking money and holding it months before placing the order with the manufacturer. You did it to me. The fact that my other orders went well doesn't matter.

I have no problem with you making a mistake here and there. You're busy, you're human, it happens. You'd think that you'd come up with a better way than "writing notes" and stuff to eliminate the issue, but that's not the real problem. The real problem is that in many cases usually involving large dollar purchases you have taken the money up front and held the order for a long period of time.

Here are the facts that I have personal knowledge of. Not second hand knowledge from a member in a thread. There are tons of those if a person wants to read threads here and on other boards.

You held the $5K order from my friend and I for 2 months before placing it, even with us checking on the progress along the way. (could not have been a mistake in ordering)


I have spoken directly with other manufacturers/dealers who have had the same scenario done to them on orders they placed with you.


There are other examples, but the point has been made. I've been self-employed for 25 years of my life. I know what cash flow issues do to a business. I spent over 10 years with my own speed shop and working retail and wholesale in the performance car parts industry. I know exactly how difficult your job is, I know you'll get blamed for things that are not your fault. But we are talking about something different here.

I hope you are truly over the hump with your business, and you've corrected whatever was causing you to do this. If so, these threads will disappear. Otherwise, we can expect this to be an on-going issue.