Wiardgroup

Paul, Grant, Roman,

As another old fart let me say I feel your pain. Fast delivery of
factory generated stuff ordered online is what people are used to now.
You really have to go out of your way to lower people's expectations
with respect to turnaround time. Grant was very clear about it when I
asked him about something a few months ago. 

As much as there are new customers who can be real jerks when ordering
from cottage industries, there are also some well intentioned vendors
who sometimes fail badly when it comes to delivering the goods. I've
been hearing "real soon" from somebody since March of '07 and after
more than a year of patience I started getting cranky about it. I try
to have faith in that person but it's very hard not to feel like a
sucker and I wonder if the business is scraping along on the cash from
prepaid unfilled orders like mine. Maybe I am a sucker.  

It's both interesting and very sad that Grant's concerned about
possible legal liability resulting from providing updates to older
modules. His reasoning is clear but think of all the great old
instruments we wouldn't have today if instrument makers had been
scared out of working on them. I wonder how many Guarneri violins
would be around today if the business of law had gotten off to a
faster start.

If too many customers get overly litigious and too many vendors abuse
their customers' trust and if people can't get help maintaining and
improving these unique instruments the whole wonderful scene is
doomed. To end on a hopeful note, I think good communications is the
key to dealing with these problems though I'm not sure what to do
about problems arising from a lack of scruples.  

Steve

--- 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!)
>