carsmovies, check your p.m's
as for email contact only...... my pm box is cleaned up a bit, but the real problem for me at this time is One phone line coming into my house, and dial up only for internet options. This means that the majority of the day and late evening, it wouldn't help to call me anyways, as if i'm online..... the phone doesn't ring.
For those folks that had late items, carsmovies, wildphil, submoa, J.F.B. and N.Grant , for the most part there is only one or two that contact me more than once a month. While i do try and get to all the dozens of emails i get everyday, I do not espond to weekly requests for updates unless i have time...... most often I do not.
my day consists of getting up at 5:30 a.m.
drive the 45 mins to town and drop the wife off at work.
if I have a load for the post office, which i do most days, I grab breakfast at ricky's and wait it out till the post office opens.
then it's a good hour at the post office most days, picking up and dropping off
then it's home to run the dog, organize everything that just came in from the post office...... try and find time to notify folks thier items arrived.
try and find time to send tracking numbers to people
unlock the shop, unlock the tools, unlock the rifle cabinets
and my bench time starts around noonish either on the rifle bench or the stock room.
2:30 rolls around and its lock up anything that needs it and make the 45 min drive into town, pick up the wife, grab a timmies, post office again if needed, or grocery shopping if it's that day.... then 45 mins for the drive home.
so i'm back in the shop around 4:00 ish for a couple hours..... have some dinner..... then it's back to the shop till about 11:00 when i like to watch the news and have a coffee..... then at midnite i either log onto the internet or go back to the shop and work till 2 a.m. then it's up at 5:30 a.m. or if it's the wife's day off...... i sleep in till 9:00 and spend the entire day in the shop.
This has pretty much been my schedule since April last year, with very little time off in between.
If you Know your item is late and I have told you that you will be contacted once the item ships, I see no reason to continually email me weekly. I'm not trying to be a ####, it's just the reality of the business i am in. When everything is custom AND I am dealing with chinese parts and trying to achieve a certain level of consistant quality in my work , for evry single customer i deal with...... there will always be the possibility of things that will come up that will cause delays for folks. Bottom line is, not one of my customers will be forced to endure a delay for no reason, as in me being lazy, or putting thier work aside in preference for another client.
I also realize that i can not keep everyone happy and that while my customer service and communication may not be even up to the standard I expect..... The consistancy of the quality of work i perform will not suffer or be compromised.
I have heard so many horror stories from clients and folks i've conversed with about gunsmiths and stock makers who have had guys items for well over a year and in the end, many of those folks were still happy, but there was an equal number of folks who were not happy with the work performed for the delay they endured. Matter of fact, a neighbor here had a custom walnut rifle stock made for his Sako 338mag bolt gun, paid 685.00 AND tax up front, 7 months later and 6 weks into hunting season, the gunsmith from william's lake, an hour and half drive to pick up, called and said it was done. Buddy made the drive to pick it up. First time shooting it, the stock cracked on the side of the barrel channel near the forend cap. He brought it by my place and i checked it out. It felt like it wasn't even finish prepped properly, lots of micro burs in the finish over the entire surface of this high end walnut monte carlo, the ction was not sitting true and in fact was near 4 millimeters out of alignment from center of stock to center of barrel and this caused barrel contact on the right side where the large 1 1/4 inch x 1/4 inch chunch of the stock cracked away and parted itself from the stock.
He took it back, the guy basically told him tough luck ..... and that removing the micro burrs and properly oiling the stock was another 175.00
told him he would fix the chunk that fell off and further relive the barrel channel and he would not even notice the repair.
paid his loot....... so that's 685 plus tax...... and now another 175.00 plus tax.....
got the rifle back..... stock was sticky, nothing done about the micro burrs..... and that cracked off piece was simply glued back in and it has a dark line all around it making it stand out like crazy. The stock still has barrel contact due to the bedding job originally done that set the action off center to begin with.
The stock is a total write off..... it's firewood, and the cash it cost and the near year wait it took to get it all done.... is now time and good money flushed down the toilet. He is not getting any satisfaction from the outfit that performed this work..... they have basically told him to get lost.
so, I will be making him an M14SA2 stock...... but with a twist so it will fit his Sako 338 mag.
anyhow, I have piles of work on my plate, and am booked solid for at least 2 to 3 months. While some folks might think these threads are detrimental to me and what i am doing....... in fact, from what i have seen, everytime one of these threads pops up..... my requests for quotes on work increase.
if there is one thing this past year has taught me, I can not be everything for everyone all of the time. As a result of this, I have developed the practice of shutting my bench down when the work load reaches a certain level of bookings. It is my hope that this will allow me to better structure my time to maintain a prescence on CGN , keep up with emails and p.m.'s and deliver quality work in a reasonably timely fashion......
I'll add this as well..... I am not on CGN to scam or rip folks off, this is evident in my years of past dealings here. It should be plainly evident by now that I am a trustworthy individual with hundreds of CGN dealings both as 45ACPKING (my former handle before i became a dealer) and as M14Doctor. Perfect track record with 100% of those i've dealt with? Nope..... there's a couple folks who weren't happy when some personal issues interepted some deals a couple years ago. These situations were entirely out of my control and were sales of a personal nature.
Anyhow, long and short, delay or not, slow communication or not, I am dedicated to what I do and that is to serve the CGN community as best as I can and learn from my mistakes and shortcomings and apply that learning to improving my business practices.
as for email contact only...... my pm box is cleaned up a bit, but the real problem for me at this time is One phone line coming into my house, and dial up only for internet options. This means that the majority of the day and late evening, it wouldn't help to call me anyways, as if i'm online..... the phone doesn't ring.
For those folks that had late items, carsmovies, wildphil, submoa, J.F.B. and N.Grant , for the most part there is only one or two that contact me more than once a month. While i do try and get to all the dozens of emails i get everyday, I do not espond to weekly requests for updates unless i have time...... most often I do not.
my day consists of getting up at 5:30 a.m.
drive the 45 mins to town and drop the wife off at work.
if I have a load for the post office, which i do most days, I grab breakfast at ricky's and wait it out till the post office opens.
then it's a good hour at the post office most days, picking up and dropping off
then it's home to run the dog, organize everything that just came in from the post office...... try and find time to notify folks thier items arrived.
try and find time to send tracking numbers to people
unlock the shop, unlock the tools, unlock the rifle cabinets
and my bench time starts around noonish either on the rifle bench or the stock room.
2:30 rolls around and its lock up anything that needs it and make the 45 min drive into town, pick up the wife, grab a timmies, post office again if needed, or grocery shopping if it's that day.... then 45 mins for the drive home.
so i'm back in the shop around 4:00 ish for a couple hours..... have some dinner..... then it's back to the shop till about 11:00 when i like to watch the news and have a coffee..... then at midnite i either log onto the internet or go back to the shop and work till 2 a.m. then it's up at 5:30 a.m. or if it's the wife's day off...... i sleep in till 9:00 and spend the entire day in the shop.
This has pretty much been my schedule since April last year, with very little time off in between.
If you Know your item is late and I have told you that you will be contacted once the item ships, I see no reason to continually email me weekly. I'm not trying to be a ####, it's just the reality of the business i am in. When everything is custom AND I am dealing with chinese parts and trying to achieve a certain level of consistant quality in my work , for evry single customer i deal with...... there will always be the possibility of things that will come up that will cause delays for folks. Bottom line is, not one of my customers will be forced to endure a delay for no reason, as in me being lazy, or putting thier work aside in preference for another client.
I also realize that i can not keep everyone happy and that while my customer service and communication may not be even up to the standard I expect..... The consistancy of the quality of work i perform will not suffer or be compromised.
I have heard so many horror stories from clients and folks i've conversed with about gunsmiths and stock makers who have had guys items for well over a year and in the end, many of those folks were still happy, but there was an equal number of folks who were not happy with the work performed for the delay they endured. Matter of fact, a neighbor here had a custom walnut rifle stock made for his Sako 338mag bolt gun, paid 685.00 AND tax up front, 7 months later and 6 weks into hunting season, the gunsmith from william's lake, an hour and half drive to pick up, called and said it was done. Buddy made the drive to pick it up. First time shooting it, the stock cracked on the side of the barrel channel near the forend cap. He brought it by my place and i checked it out. It felt like it wasn't even finish prepped properly, lots of micro burs in the finish over the entire surface of this high end walnut monte carlo, the ction was not sitting true and in fact was near 4 millimeters out of alignment from center of stock to center of barrel and this caused barrel contact on the right side where the large 1 1/4 inch x 1/4 inch chunch of the stock cracked away and parted itself from the stock.
He took it back, the guy basically told him tough luck ..... and that removing the micro burrs and properly oiling the stock was another 175.00
told him he would fix the chunk that fell off and further relive the barrel channel and he would not even notice the repair.
paid his loot....... so that's 685 plus tax...... and now another 175.00 plus tax.....
got the rifle back..... stock was sticky, nothing done about the micro burrs..... and that cracked off piece was simply glued back in and it has a dark line all around it making it stand out like crazy. The stock still has barrel contact due to the bedding job originally done that set the action off center to begin with.
The stock is a total write off..... it's firewood, and the cash it cost and the near year wait it took to get it all done.... is now time and good money flushed down the toilet. He is not getting any satisfaction from the outfit that performed this work..... they have basically told him to get lost.
so, I will be making him an M14SA2 stock...... but with a twist so it will fit his Sako 338 mag.
anyhow, I have piles of work on my plate, and am booked solid for at least 2 to 3 months. While some folks might think these threads are detrimental to me and what i am doing....... in fact, from what i have seen, everytime one of these threads pops up..... my requests for quotes on work increase.
if there is one thing this past year has taught me, I can not be everything for everyone all of the time. As a result of this, I have developed the practice of shutting my bench down when the work load reaches a certain level of bookings. It is my hope that this will allow me to better structure my time to maintain a prescence on CGN , keep up with emails and p.m.'s and deliver quality work in a reasonably timely fashion......
I'll add this as well..... I am not on CGN to scam or rip folks off, this is evident in my years of past dealings here. It should be plainly evident by now that I am a trustworthy individual with hundreds of CGN dealings both as 45ACPKING (my former handle before i became a dealer) and as M14Doctor. Perfect track record with 100% of those i've dealt with? Nope..... there's a couple folks who weren't happy when some personal issues interepted some deals a couple years ago. These situations were entirely out of my control and were sales of a personal nature.
Anyhow, long and short, delay or not, slow communication or not, I am dedicated to what I do and that is to serve the CGN community as best as I can and learn from my mistakes and shortcomings and apply that learning to improving my business practices.
