Friends,
I need to ask for two big favors, but I’m not sure how to do it without sounding like an ungrateful horse’s rear-end. So, I’m just going to say it:
Please stop asking me to help you with your research before you place your orders!
Look, I know I used to do my best to help with these things, but I can’t do that for you — not anymore. I’m doing good just to keep up with what is on my plate now, I can’t answer emails about which version of this goes on that tank for this campaign — etc. I’m barely keeping up with the email as it is. It makes me feel like some sort of traitor to say this, but I just can’t do it anymore. I’m sorry, honest, I am. It’s just that I too busy to do it anymore and I need you to understand this.
The other favor is: if you need your order in a hurry, either email me before you order to see if I can accommodate you, or don’t order. Maybe a lot of guys still haven’t heard the news about my closing, but I am starting to get people emailing and asking when their order will ship. I made this as clear as I could when I announced my closing: NO ONE WILL LOSE THEIR MONEY WITH ME — PERIOD! But I also told you that shipping times will be W-A-Y down. I am doing my best, gents, but I am one man and you are ordering at nearly two times the usual rate. I am going to fall behind and there is nothing I can do about that. But, if you keep emailing asking where your order is or when I expect to ship it, you’re just going to slow things down that much more. Again, I do not want to sound like I am ungrateful. I’m just begging you to understand that I was open and honest about how things were going to work from now until I close on Dec 31 and I need you to take that into consideration before you order.
Seriously, if I didn’t care about all of you, I’d have just closed the doors. I’m taking on this load for you guys — to give you time to collect whatever TMD products you want before TMD closes (because, so far, it does not look like I will be selling the company, just packing it away — forever). So, if you are in a hurry, honestly, you shouldn’t place any orders with me anymore. Consider me closed already. It will be better that way. It will allow us to part on the terms I’d like to part under: as friends
Now, that said, the orders are still coming in, but not as fast as before. For three weeks in a row now, I have been able to ship about twice as many orders as I received. However, I still have some 45 orders to fill, and all but three came in with the first rush after I announced my plans to close TMD. I am getting to the second tier orders now. In general, these are those orders between $150 — $250 to $300-ish. I have 30 of them left to fill and I am going to do my very best to ship them by the end of next week — 1 week from today. It is am ambitious goal, but I will try to make it.
If I succeed, it will still leave me with 15 orders from the initial rush, all over $300 in size. Some of these orders are the size of my dealer orders. This last 15 will slow me down — a lot! But I am going to do everything possible to handle them by the end of October. I will keep you updated, but these posts will be the easiest way to do that. As I said, sending individual emails every week is just not going to happen. I could use that time to get 1 more order shipped.
Finally, I meant it when I said I do not want quality to suffer. Some of the orders I have left to fill require a lot of new molds. I’ll be ordering more rubber Monday, but those molds take 3 days to make and bring on line. It just slows things down all the more. So, if you know you placed a larger order, please, hang in there. The goal is to get everything shipped out by the end of October, no later than the last day of November. That way, the only thing I need to do in January is ship out whatever orders come in during December. It will also give guys time to let me know if I made any mistakes or need to replace anything.
OK, that’s all I have this week. For more details, please read the older posts on our TMD BLOG PAGE.
Thank you and stay safe,
Joe