After a few emails I made a deal with a shop to make some Lake style headers for me. At 5 weeks and counting, im starting to get that feeling I may be out some dough. After 3 weeks they emailed me that he got the parts and would be starting on them. That was 2 weeks ago and havent heard from them since...Just wondering if its normal for it to take this long.
Did you pay parts AND labor in advance? Just wondering, when that happens it seems to compromise incentive to deliver promptly
I would rather not give the name of the shop just yet. Not looking to discredit anyone quite yet. I have emailed them several times over the last several days, no response. Yes, paid all up front with PayPal
Sounds like it. For comparrison I built the headers on the Raven's roadster in a day and had to cut up an old set of headers to do it, hie are eauwl length 4 into 1. lakes headers are real simple and one should be able to make up a set in a couple of hours especially if they were using a kit which it sounds like. How long until you can't dispute the payment with pay-pal? it seems to me like you have a window which they are trying to run out on you.
Hope you didnt buy because the price was low.....in all industries, there are marginal operations that dont know how to bid, how to manage a project, nor how to communicate with a customer. These are the risky outfits to deal with because they will get into the project, find they are upside down, and just quit working on the stuff. A reputable outfit is up front with the customer, quotes based upon experience, and answers emails (irate calls and emails get answered first).
They have sold items to fellow HAMBers and seem to do good quality work so I thought I would give them another shot. I have purchased from them before and though it took awhile, I did recieve the product. Just didnt take this long... Just wanted to know if I was being impatient, or if I should move forward in trying to get may money back.. Its a small bussiness and I trully believe in supporting the little guy, but dont want to get taken advantage of either.
There was just a program on the radio the other day about how we are losing our ability to communicate face to face or voice to voice with other human beings any more. People are even breaking up with their GF and BF via texts and emails. Pretty soon we will even have robots doing that for us. For Gods sake, pick up the damn phone and call the guy ! Emails only go so far, and you have no way of knowing if he got it or not. At least with a phone call you can leave a message if they don't answer, or get someone else to relay your message. We just had another guy on here bitching because some company was not answering his emails, but I was able to pick up the phone and reach them in 30 seconds when I tried. This digital age is driving me nuts. Don
I did call the other day and left a message. I will wait the weekend and try again on Monday. Didnt have any problems getting my emails when I asked for price and address to send payment..
Don, Im not bitching, just wanted to know if it trully takes 5 weeks to build headers or if Im just being impaitent.
Thank you for stating it well. I say the same thing to my kids all the time. Pick up the phone and make the call. All the crap with texting and sending e-mails does not get the same thing done as a phone call with actually communicating by voice. The texting and e-mails is the easy way out or as I see it, lazy. Neal
I am going to back up and regroup on some of what I said earlier. I am not going to delete it because I think that what I said is valid and should be taken into consideration. It could be that the vendor is just overwhelmed with work right now, while that sounds like a good thing for a vendor it can be devastating because it can ultimately destroy their reputation. While the proper thing for a vendor to do is communicate with a client it is hard for many to do. There seems to be a modern school of thought that you can ignore a client because they are going to get served eventually, for others it is not that school of thought entirely it is just that they cannot admit publicly that they are overwhelmed. If I were emailing someone and not getting any response I would next pic up the phone someone will no doubt answer and when they do you can put them on the spot. Probably a far better way to get an answer than to ask us. You actually got that answer but it may have been lost in the verbiage so in simple English, NO it should not take 5 weeks for the average shop to turn out a set of headers.
Sorry, it just bugs me that people rely so much on impersonal means of communicating any more. I am old fashioned and either like to look a person in the eye or hear their voice. I can get so much more done in a 30 second call than I can in 10 emails. But as for the time it is taking, 5 weeks might seem long but headers do take some time to make, especially if they are not off the shelf ones. You also have to realize he is probably building more than just your set and it has to get into the schedule. Good luck with your headers. Don
Thanks Don. Im sure he is working on stuff other than mine. I have never built a set of headers so thats why I posed the question in the first place. Its also why I didnt wat to mention any shop names because they maybe overwhelmed and I dont want to hurt anyones bussiness. Just was looking for another perspective other than my own.
If my lead time was 5 weeks, I'd be out of business in my industry. Design to delivery in 3 weeks on new stuff. No kits here.
Call again, leave a message and tell them if you don't hear from them in 24 hours and they can prove the work has been started, you'll be looking for a refund from Pay Pal. This should get you an answer. Bob
while a phone call will get you answers quicker, if you can get them to pick up the phone, an email and or emails will give you a recorded log of all the times you have tried to contact them plus written accounts of all communication.
I have a program or application if you prefer that if you have a land line all calls get routed through the computer and can be recorded with a time stamp. I haven't used it in years but I used to use it all the time, it worked real well for telemarketer calls back when your long distance server would get changed even though you told them "NO!!!"
How far are they from you? How about just going over there if a reasonable drive? Nothing like a real face to face when possible. Better yet, e-mail or call them and tell them you need them done by X day and that you will be coming by then to pick them up.
When having someone do work for you part of the communication should be a reasonable timeline on both ends. I think people often think they are the only one putting an order in. If the build quality is good then it's worth waiting a while. Did you discuss a deadline with the shop? Did you tell them you needed by a certain date? Did they give you any idea of their workload? I have people calling wanting design work done and many do not understand that I'm booked out for a while. I always try to help on tight deadlines but sometimes its not possible. Sent from a pay phone
I'd much rather deal via E-mail. I have ordered and answered many E-mails while waiting on a phone call. If a shop is busy, every phone call takes them away from the work they are trying to get done. A guy sitting at a desk all day thinks nothing of making or receiving a call. It's not only the time it takes to answer a call but leaving what you're working on and going back to it can lead to expensive mistakes. One of our mechanics was just putting the drain plug back in an oil pan and was just about to tighten it when the phone rang. He rushed out from under the truck to get the phone before it went to voice mail with the wrench in his hand. One call lead to another and by the time he got back to the truck, he forgot that he hadn't tightened the plug. That call cost $12,000. Most of the work calls are from salesmen or people asking for free advice.
He already did call, and email, and wait 5 weeks. I think he should send one more email and make one more call telling them they have 24 hours to get back to him, then he will be getting his money back from Paypal. If they do not respond in 24 hours, get your money back from Paypal. By the way a satisfactory response will be "we are working on your order and you will have it in your hands within a week". Make them name a time when you will have your order, and it has to be a time you can live with. One day after that, if you don't have your goods or they are not satisfactory, get your money back. DO NOT let them run out the clock on a refund. If you find that is going to happen, get your money back first. If they do come through you can always pay them again. But don't let yourself get ripped off, whether by accident or on purpose.
Contact pay-pal.......NOW!! If he doesn't keep in contact with his customers he shouldn't be in business any way and he's prolly gonna give ya a screwing.
yes, get the PayPal ball rolling right away. They have time limits and you don't want to go over. You should tell the vendor that you're going to cancel that payment and ask for a refund - as someone has already stated - that should get you a quicker response. I find that most people just flat out don't know how to communicate with clients/customers/etc. And they NEVER know how to say "We're really busy, it could take awhile". Solve this yourself, to your own benefit. dj
I can understand 4-6 weeks as seeming like a long time, it IS a long time in today's instant age. But if this is a one man operation and the quality is there (like Eric said), than the timeline for one off, crafted product is in line. With no communication, however, everything goes off the table.
Yeah, Paypal will put a hold on his account, that should piss him off to not be able to send or recieve any payments until he resolves the issue, should get your answer quick too.
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