The Cyndustries List

Howdy Matt!

Yes, we do actually have the VC Tablas shipping as an actual product,
they take a few months to get the parts from Bengal India and then
meld them into modules. The demand for them is sporadic, so these
kind of get released in sporadic batches. It is time to do another batch
I just got distracted by the move and all of the other stuff going on!

When ParcelFarce started handling our shipments in the UK
it was a disaster, that, and the customs people were going crazy
over new paperwork and we were getting shipments returned here
back to the USA - many months later with no explanation.

For over a year we would only ship exclusively via Federal Express
to England, ($$$) and for the most part after raising ~everyone's~
shipping rates a tiny bit in an attempt to compensate - we then paid
the majority of the burden, only charging such customers the
standard rates.  

Thankfully, it seems that the shipping situation is back to normal
now for the past seven or eight months we have been back to using
the good old US Postal Service at this end... and whomever is
handling things at the UK side of the equation is doing alright now
(We heard there were scandal over there about Parcel Force and
the post about a year or two ago?)

Now it is of great concern that you speak of not being able to
contact us from England via eMails lately... 

cynthia.webster@gte.net        This is our primary USA address.
cynthia@cyndustries.com      Emails simply get routed to the
                                               same address above via 
Canada,
                                               so try both addresses if 
you are
                                               having trouble contacting us.

For whatever reason maybe the system will accept your email
from one and not the other?  Or try contacting us through our
incredibly fantastic WebMaster Les Mizzell via
lesmizz (at) bellsouth.net
                       
Verizon is our email host, but we have been with the company
since they were GTE, and at times they've been known to "help"
us subscribers by screening and blocking eMails and on occasion
throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so who knows?
(We are open on all hailing frequencies and modular synthesizer
user groups, and minimize firewalls and spam blockers here
on our computers at every opportunity), (or for a good time call
001 (310) 573-1936).

Please right now, double-tap us with two identical emails sent to
us with the subject, "Hey Cynthia PLEASE TEST THIS"
to make sure that your connection across the pond to us is working,

Anyways; hope this helps and thanks so much!


Cynthia

http://www.cyndustries.com/








(PRIVATE)  Cyndustries Update        mattishq@yahoo.co.u

Cynthia wrote:
>
> Hi Matt!
>
> Basically all of us modular manufactures are artists doing something 
> we love
> to do and believe in. We are not large companies, and if any single 
> one of us
> companies were to present our business plans to a banker then we would
> be totally laughed right out of the bank.
>
> This would all be much easier for us if we just sold clay pots or 
> something
> fairly simple, but instead we choose to create complex products each using
> hundreds of unique parts, and there are times when coordinating the 
> flow of
> all of these different parts for numerous different product designs can be
> challenging.
>
> Due to an extremely loyal, but tiny customer base - we are unable to 
> simply
> throw money at our challenges like other industries do, but must 
> instead surf
> the waves of parts availability, chemical compliance with new 
> environmental
> regulations, price hikes, and cash flow in order to get products 
> shipped out the
> door. Perhaps it is easiest to think of it like biorhythms, when all 
> three curves
> actually align together, then we have a clear LAUNCH window and a product
> will finally ship.
>
> In the past I have explained that I never had any training in business 
> or in
> manufacturing, (I was a Cinematographer for many years with an absolutely
> ~perfect~ record of filming (43) independent feature films on-time and 
> on-budget)
> however I took a bold step in starting Cyndustries and then spent the 
> next two
> years learning on the job just how complicated this business really 
> is! During
> that time we had a lot of wonderful ideas and lots of orders, but I 
> was very
> disorganized, so at that time I brought Sabrena into the company as 
> Accountant
> and Business Manager and over the following two-years of working together
> we got an awesome computerized accounting and order tracking system in 
> place
> and really got our act together!
>
> So you see, there are orders from the early totally disorganized days, and
> newer orders that have been handled much more efficiently. (It is the 
> older
> orders that you see mention of in these two recent posts).
>
> Other events and trends that have thrown us curve balls have been some
> outside Engineers who have either flaked-out on us or caused 
> horrendous cost
> overruns, my throwing my back out for several weeks, my Parents long 
> illnesses
> and my Father passing away, then moving the whole company in order to
> take care of my Mother, and the imposition of new international shipping
> restrictions on the chemical composition of all of our thousands of 
> tiny parts!
>
> To put this in perspective, we actually ~did~ accomplish all of these 
> things,
> and we expanded our website to include Synapse Magazine and other
> community resources such as the Bug Music Contests and starting this 
> User Group.
> We also designed, engineered, and delivered on the Zeroscillator and 
> did it in all of the
> popular modular formats, submitted a whole system to Electronic 
> Musician for evaluation,
> inspired an article on the latest modulars making the front cover of 
> the magazine and then
> ultimately getting their 2007 Editors Choice Award for Best Analog 
> Synthesizer.
> We also started a distributorship through Analogue Haven, and made our 
> first
> presentation at a NAMM show,
>
> AND...
>
> we did all of these things while shipping ~hundreds~ of new modules
> to happy customers right on time as promised.
>
> Forgive me, but I am somewhat proud of that record and would like to
> repeat it for emphasis to us all,
>
> we did all of these things above while shipping ~hundreds~ of new
> modules to happy customers in fifteen countries right on time as promised.
>
> In the midst of close to (700) orders representing several thousand 
> modules
> there are naturally a few shipping horror stories (unfortunately), but
> thankfully they are very few and have to do mainly with the earlier
> generation of orders before getting our act more together.
>
> Please don't get me wrong, we still have ~more~ improving to do
> and we are making many necessary adjustments behind the scenes.
>
> For example, after looking at the fact that we spend a lot of time fussing
> with custom circuits and custom changes for people, and then realizing
> that all of this intense labor and brain draining represents only 2.5 
> percent
> of our ~entire~ company profit, then we realize that it is unquestionably
> in the best interests of the whole customer base that we simply can no
> longer do any more custom work.
>
> We can still change the colors of the jacks or LEDs or in some cases
> change the actual type of jack, however we will charge a minimum of
> $100.00 extra per module, and only do it with the understanding that IF
> we accept a custom order, THEN there is no guarantee on delivery time.
> The timely processing of regular orders is our number one responsibility.
>
> When we officially discontinue a module, it has absolutely no affect on
> any existing orders that have been placed on that module design.
> If you ordered an Electric Pencil Sharpener module, and then see that
> we have later discontinued it, then in all cases you will still get the
> Electric Pencil Sharpener module that you ordered, unless we contact
> you specifically about that item in your order for some reason.
>
> Well after discontinuing the Milton Sequencers for example, a customer
> literally begged me to build one for him. I explained that it was a 
> totally
> custom, custom at this point and that it would take considerable time
> and he agreed. When later I hear this customer complaining here about
> the length of time, I just feel that it simply isn't fair.
>
> So, no more (new) custom work any more.
> (Naturally I'll finish up what has already been started and agreed to).
>
> We actually do ship most orders well within the five-week period that
> is advertised on the website, often much sooner even, but some designs
> take longer to realize than we expect and for this I really do apologize.
> Sometimes it is just the fact that we've gotten clobbered on a rash of
> large expenses all at once and cannot move until we get another few
> orders. There are days when I am ordering tens of thousands of dollars
> worth of parts, and other days when it seems that I don't have two pennies
> to scrape together. This business is a very stressful high wire act at 
> times!
>
> Remember that this forum is where people blow off steam and
> share their frustrations and that for every one of these anguished 
> posts...
> there are also sixty other orders that were shipped perfectly on time!
>
> Should you be worried? Hell no!
>
> The biggest single new factor in correcting the problems of the past
> has been our new policy change towards no longer announcing anything
> new on the website until it is built, tested, and in a box on the shelf
> ready to ship in quantity.
>
> Have you noticed that we have not announced ~anything~ new
> in well over a year? That is not because we have run out of any ideas
> I assure you, instead it is because we will no longer announce
> ~anything~ until it is already built, tested, and in a box on the shelf
> ready to ship to you in quantity. We are firm on that now.
>
> Ok, so we are learning in our old age of 4+ years as a company.
> I really do not want to have to write out long responses like this in
> the future (for any reason, LOL!) and I also realize that it is up to 
> me to
> listen to criticisms and make adjustments to streamline the company
> so that ~everyone~ gets their modules on time.
>
> We have the utmost respect for our customers, but as a tiny company
> cannot spend the time writing individual emails to all five hundred
> of you. Please accept our promise to honor each and every order
> and to continue making necessary improvements to our methods in
> your behalf.
> Thanks to all of our wonderfull customers out there in ModularLand!
>
> So, in the future if you feel that you should be getting more attention
> or a better level of service for any reason, would you please pick
> up the telephone and actually ~talk~ to us before making a big
> public fuss? (310) 573-1936
>
> Respectfully and most gratefully,
>
> Cynthia
>
>