[modeleng] Good service and ...
- From: Harry Wade <hww@xxxxxxxx>
- To: modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 08:12:26 -0600
At 12:21 PM 12/3/04 +0000, you wrote:
>My wife doesn't understand how some of the Model Engineering
>suppliers stay in business. Some orders you wait months for and
>are still incomplete. - Ken
I was once a supplier to the small scale live steam trade here
(U.S.), mostly boiler-related fittings, castings, and materials, and my
fittings came from the well-known firm on the IOW. I am no longer an
active supplier, for several reasons, one being that I could not get
fittings. My final order to them, for a large quantity of what were his
most common and basic items, went unfilled for over a year, yet during that
time the owner called several times to say ". . your order is going out
momentarily, shall I include anything else?" In the end, the order was
never sent out at all and my customers went elsewhere.
In another case, to a supplier of castings, I placed the largest
single order for locomotive wheel castings the company had ever had, yet it
took an intervention by someone prominant in the hobby in the UK and known
to the firm to provoke so much as a "we'll look into it" letter.
These were not cases where I demanded any special treatment, the
whole lot at one go for instance, or even quantity pricing considerations
if not offered, in fact I tried in every way to make dealing with me as
attractive as I could make it, but to seemingly no avail.
I have several such experiences with British suppliers where when
offered the opportunity to sell their advertised wares, often in rather
large quantites, I was met with utter indifference and in a few cases I was
ignored altogether. I understand the differences in general business and
cottage industry, I am a cottage industry, but Americans in general do not
understand why, when presented with the opportunity to sell ones advertised
goods, every effort is not spared to make the sale and delivery.
Regards,
Harry Wade
Nashville Tennessee
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