Wiardgroup

I love you Paul! If you and Grant were sitting here with me I would  
give you both cakes.

Of course, you would have to wait for me to make it.

HA!

If anyone here wants to buy my Wiard modules, you'll have to pry them  
from my cold dead fingers! Soooo worth the wait, which was quite  
reasonable, I might add - MUCH shorter than many others who don't even  
put thief phone numbers on their web sites. It's a safe bet Grant  
would have even answered the phone had I ever felt the need to call!

I pronounce this thread finished. Paul wins "best post" trophy (golden  
QWERTY keyboard), Grant wins "we don't deserve you" trophy (golden  
earplugs).



On Jul 14, 2008, at 4:45 PM, Paul Schreiber <syntht@yahoo.com> 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!)
>
>
>