It is with much regret that I have to inform you all that the demand for my assembled products has outgrown my ability to fill orders in a timely manner. This has been going on now for around two years. I tried to address the problem about 6 months ago by raising the prices of the assemble parts, but it has taken no effect. I now have to take more drastic measure or loose business due to my failure to fill these orders.
There are several reason for this. One is the increase demand for my products, two, as I increase in age my ability to spend time working is reduced and finally I am losing the interest in sitting and a bench putting parts together, for most of you this is fun, but when you have to assemble the same parts over and over again it becomes hard work.
I am going to make changes to the way I except orders in the future, this I hope will greatly reduce the time I spend assembling parts or give me a more prolonged time to assemble them. If this works it will give me the time I need to complete projects that are way over due and time to produce new products that I need to continue in business for the foreseeable future. Also give me some free time for myself in my older age, which I do not have at the moment.
As an example of my problem, I received a order for just about every thing I make for a Tiger 1 assembled nine months ago, it was agreed that I would send parts to the customer as they are finish, I have delivered 7 parcels to the customer and still have a final one to send. This customer paid in full for the order and it is now ten months and his order is not complete. This is the same with many orders, and I am not happy about it. It also adds stress to my life that I do not need.
As of Dec 1, 2012 the new policy will be put into effect. I still have a few things to iron out, but here it is at the moment.
1. All parts will be offered as kits. I do not intend to raise kit prices in general, but some kits may be increased due to the work involved, some kits have pre-assembled parts and I have increased costs of photo-etching and raw materials to cover which I have not applied for a couple of years.
2. Customers that require assembled parts will pay up front for the kits, followed by a service fee for assembly, to be paid as and when order, or parts of large orders are ready to ship. This will be an agreement between myself and the customers as to when the order will be completed. Depending on the size of the order I may apply a overall discount on the service fee.
3. The price of the assembly service fee will depend on the parts and size of order. In general you will be looking at 125% to 150% of the price of the kit. I know this may seem rather high, but my time is becoming more valuable to me in my old age, if you want to use my skills and take up my time the price is high.
(This is a opportunity for a enterprising person to offer a build service for my parts, especially in the UK and Europe were the import of my assembled parts is expensive, what you save on import duty and my service should pay for an assembly service with money to spare.)
4. All current orders that are paid will be honored.
5. New orders received until Dec 1, 2012 will be at current prices in my catalog.
6. New orders received until Dec 1, 2012 which require my assembly service will be billed at current kit price and the service fee will be the balance of the current assembled price due to be paid when order is ready.
7. I will no longer be accepting a 25% deposit on orders. Kit orders are to be paid in full. Once this new policy starts to take effect all kit order should be shipped in less than 3 weeks.
I currently have 23 orders that are more than 3 months old and I have had no payment or communication from the buyer. I the future orders will require payment within two weeks. If I do not receive payment I will send one reminder with a one week notice to pay. After that the order will be cancelled and no further orders will be accepted from that person. I have no time for tire kickers, especially those that cannot give me a courtesy contact e-mail. At least saying: No thanks.
Order status since Jan 2012
Order roll over from 2011 about 50
Orders received 143 (14.3 per month average)
Orders shipped 186 (18.6 per month average)
Current orders 46 (Most of these orders will be completed in the next month once 20 ton Jacks and Blowtorchs are ready)
Orders pending 8
To give you some idea of time spent assembling parts. Here are three Tiger cupolas I spent 22 hours assembling last week., that was 6 days at around 7 hours per cupola., plus another 6 hours to finish Tiger 1 stowage bin that I started a while ago. That's a whole working week devoted to just 4 parts.
Please bare with me while I try to get things sorted out. Don't forget you can save money now by placing your orders before Dec 1. I am allowing this month before the change as I think it is only fair to customers.
Regards
Mike