Lenk42602 said:
Gonna have to go with jdevo2004 on this subject.
While I applaud everyone's desire to work with LR's process and admonish the need for patience, how many of you have your kits ordered, and pre-paid $800 smackaroos?
Mine was placed in april. Not several weeks, its been nearly three months now. Does anyone here think that 90 + days wait for a prepaid item is a normal and acceptable period?
That list contains nearly $10k in orders, only two of which seem to have landed in the purchasers hands.
I don't want to create additional pressure on LR here. But on the flip side, continuing to promote the "its okay to be WAY behind schedule" message does not echo all of the sentiments of those of us waiting for a kit.
Len
I'm sorry to have to provide bad feedback as well.
I too also placed my order back in April and after weeks and weeks and weeks of delays, delays, a family emergency came up which ultimately forced me to pull out of the order.
I don't think you guys are understanding the issue at hand. Many of you are too quick to take sides. But let me explain to you the exact scenario of why customers like us and others are agitated.
Back in April, on this forum, I visted the website http://www.lightningrodev.com/ and there it said in big black bold letters, "The Lightning Rods Mid Drive is now available!". I contacted Michael and the FIRST thing I asked was, what was the lead time? Initially back in late April 2014, he said he'll have it ready by 2 weeks. At the time, I was #10 in line. That sounded reasonable. 2 weeks.
2 weeks passes, and as such we all periodically check the forum. Another 2 weeks passes, and you know, his suppliers are not meeting the dates. 2 weeks passes some more and he has to find a new supplier. Each time I asked Michael for status, MIchael was very good at persuading me that the order was going to head out that door any day now. So I stayed with the order...
1.5 months passed, and we are now in mid-June. I'm starting to get a bit agitated as the bottom my stomach thinks, is this a scam? Maybe, maybe not. Continuing to check this forum always gets responses like "The kit is shipping now...", "The kit is shipping tomorrow..", "the kit is shipping next week". etc.
Each time I get a status update, I'm told just a few more days, which by now, I realize that I need to take that "few more days" and multiply it by a factor of 4 to get 2 weeks. And now 2 months in, a family emergency came up which for me was a blessing and I had asked Michael for a full refund, and he did oblige.
The problem is NOT that we are not supporting it. And I must mention Michael's service and communication is great and stuff. The problem, from a customer's perspective, is this:
1. If a customer visits your website and sees a product "is available now", then IS it really available now or is it really a pre-order? I think from the get-go, it should have been clarified that it was a pre-order. It would then have been best for Michael to give a "ballpark" estimate. In that case, based on what we know now, that ballpark estimate should be 4 months lead time starting from the day of order. As a business owner, starting out, even from all the episodes I watch on shark tank, you must be able to build inventory and provide a proper lead time.
2. If it is a pre-order, then LR should not be collecting $800+ dollars. Nobody likes to have that kind of money tied up for the full purchase price. As a pre-order, it should start with something like a non-refundable $50 deposit provided that the lead time is met. If the lead time is not met, the deposit must be refunded in full. I would have been much, more happier with that. I think this is the biggest problem is that many people have such a large amount of money tied up like that, to someone we don't know, never met, and promised us a too-optimistic delivery date. The fact that LR was collecting the full purchase price without having figured out who was machining/building those metal parts for him was a big, big red flag in my opinion. Unlike top companies where you are "pre-ordering" for a Playstation 5 or Xbox 6, you know they already have the product ready and are just preparing for shipping. A launch/shipping date is announced. However, Microsoft or Sony are not going to collect $500 today and tell you that they'll be shipping you the Xbox 6 in 3 years... no..they don't do that. They develop the Xbox 6, and when they're confident they got the inventory and product ready, then they provide a pre-order date and an official launch date. Unless the freighter boat coming from China sinks, they will guarantee to meet that launch date.
3. It is unfortunate that we have to come out like this and voice our disappointments, but I think myself and many others can take good experience from this when we start a business.
What I learned from this experience from a business owner's perspective:
1. If I don't have the products, materials, assembled, and ready to ship, then it is not considered "available now". It is considered "available for pre-order".
2. Next, I need to factor in how long it takes to order the parts, how long it takes to assemble, then add a budget time of ~30% in case of delays. So if it takes 3-5 weeks to get all the parts and assemble, then I will tell the customer, you're looking at 8 weeks. That way, the customer knows what to expect and doesn't become disgruntled about a bad estimate of delivery.
The problem was, we just kept fed the "it's almost out the door now", "it's shipping soon", "it will be shipping soon", "it's shipping next week", "it's shipping first thing tomorrow", stories all day long.
I totally understand this is a side-hobby/start-up of a company. But as a business owner, you can't string your customers along with false promises. It would have been best to just tell everyone "hey, it's gonna take about 3-4 months, but you can put $50 down to get in line. " That would've made everyone feel better.
If I had known the 2 weeks was going to turn into 2 months, and now assuming if I am still in line today, it's turning out to be 3 months now, then I would've never placed the order. What I would have done was, wait until Michael got all his production ready, sorted out, and then ordered it when he had an INVENTORY to clear out.
I just didn't know it was turning into a kick-starter project. That's not what I signed up for.
