Wiardgroup

Paul,

Thank you so kindly for sharing your hard won experience. It is always an honor when you 
can join the discussion and share your rich experience, which I am certain came at great 
pain and expense to you.

Grant Richter
Wiard Synthesizer
and MOTM module owner (two also)

--- In wiardgroup@yahoogroups.com, Paul Schreiber <syntht@...> wrote:
>
> I'm going to do a 'strange' thing, and sort of jump in this discussion (sort of a 'What is 
*he* doing here?' thing). Mainly because a previous statement Grant made that I'm sure 
everyone didn't pay any attention to certainly struck a nerve.
> 
> There are a LOT of people that decided to 'jump in' to our little sandbox (and believe 
me, it is LITTLE) the last 5 years or so. I'm not saying that's a generally bad thing, last time 
I checked none of us joined the Ferrari Club of America. But what they have discovered is 
the following:
> 
> a) the tolerance for waiting for stuff (and some of my customer waits are the stuff of 
legends) has DRASTICALLY reduced, especially the last 2 years or so. The current mindset 
is "if you have a web store, then it had better be like all the OTHER web stores. I want to 
order on Monday, get a confirmation email, a tracking email and a PACKAGE delivered by 
Friday. If www.dogtoys.com can do this WHY CAN'T YOU??!?"
> 
> b) being an old fart (52) I always saved my money and didn't buy *anything* unless cash 
was in the bank. I have customers that have placed 5 orders on 5 *different* credit cards. 
It seems that buying modules is not 'planned and saved' as 'look! a cool thing! GET IT 
NOW!' Because people can buy something NOW they want it NOW.
> 
> c) Grant & I have had LONG phone talks about how we both mapped our *personal 
feelings* into the hardware and then have it tossed back into our laps. In one case, by a 
person that *NEVER OWNED ANY MODULES* but felt compelled to expound (at great length 
and with quite....errrr...colorful analogies) about *perveived* defects in both our designs. 
If you think this was not harmful, guess again. Not only is it directly harmful (loss of 
business) but emotionally harmful (I went through some crap 8 years ago on AH that 
literally made by ill).
> 
> d) No matter how hard a vendor tries, in the actual product or the support afterwards, 
SOMEBODY will be REALLY PISSED OFF and tell the world just how much you SUCK. 
> 
> e) If you think that we don't notice you selling off your gear that you hounded us for 
MONTHS to ship, guess again. My personal 'favorite' was a guy that ordered ~$6K of 
assembled modules, which I produce in few numbers and they are generally last priority 
(well, when I had the kits). This individual gave me a tight deadline, but paid up front in 
full (which, BTW, does NOT allow you to hammer us ANY MORE that someone who 
DOESN'T). I busted my ass, I took 2 days of *vacation* from my day job, I has 17 of the 19 
modules done by the agreed day and he called and wanted to CANCEL. Did he have a 
show, a recording deadline, anything REAL? No, just a dickhead. Well, I told him NO, I was 
NOT going to cancel, and I shipped his 2 modules the next day with all the others. And the 
deadline was 26 days, and in that time he sent me *9* emails about shipping status. 
> 
> 10 days later, he puts it UP FOR SALE on Craigslist. I called him up and he said that he 
used it for 4 days, he really liked it but decided to get a CS-80.
> 
> Now, it is totally within his 'rights' to do whatever the hell he wants to after he gets it. He 
can paint it pink, take a dump on it and bury it in the backyard for all I care. But, DO NOT 
ANNOY THE LIVING CRAP out of me BEFORE you get it if that is your end game. Just sit 
QUIETLY and WAIT.
> 
> The moral of the 'story' is:
> 
> Please wait and we PROMISE to deliver unique, high quality, hand built, years dreaming 
about, 10s of THOUSAND of dollars spent, THOUSANDS of PERSONAL hours spent all for 
YOUR BENEFIT, NOT OURS modules. We do it because we are insane to think we 'love it'. 
But in reality we do it because we like sincere, positve comments and little music demos 
made on our babies, even if it is bug music :)
> 
> Paul Schreiber
> Synthesis Technology
> and Wiard module owner (2 of them, actually!)
>