Reminds me of the good old days when Popular Science & Mechanix Illustrated were both open for shorts, one page or less, often one column and one photo. Used to love those things and they paid a lot of bills. Sure, I'd have made a lot more money if each article had been a feature, but that wasn't the way the world worked back then. If I pitched a feature idea and the editor wanted a short, I did a short. Next time around, he might have been more agreeable to seeing something longer from me, possibly even felt obligated for my helping him fill a hard-to-fill spot.
It works the same way today, much of the time, though with different magazines.
Charlie Self
"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal." Alexander Hamilton
Renata has as much right to rant about a lumberyard's new policy as you do to rant about Renata's rant.
I think Renata's rant was more on topic and contained useful information for quite a few people, but sometimes that's not the yardstick. However, I think Renata was right to rant and ranted rightly, while you have the right to wrongly rant and ranted wrong. But not long.
I see nothing off topic in my post about business practices, Dan. You are stretching a bit to say that I'm not on topic, in my opinion, worthless to you as that may be.
I stick by every word in my previous post. You are free to argue the merits of the case...
So far you have offered nothing "on topic" about business practices.
No problem with that, and you have every right to set your own policies. I, for one, don't like the policy, and that is my right, and I will express my displeasure with my wallet.
What I think people are objecting to in this thread is your treatment of a past/current/future/potential/whatever customer in a public forum. Frankly, your attitude sucks. But again, that is your right. I see it as how I might be treated if I ever did choose to do business with your company, and again, I will express my displeasure of that with my wallet.
LV is growing, because they know how to treat a customer, big or small, and they go out their way to make customers want to come back. I even take my dog into their store, and they treat her better than some stores treat their paying customers.
I have spent several thousand dollars at LV (and yes, I have even bought some of that project wood you list), and I have no doubt that I will be spending several thousand more over time. Even though I have occasionally (rarely) paid more at LV than I would have elsewhere, I have never once felt like I was being ripped off by them. I put a value on customer service, and LV's customer service is second to none.
Good luck with your business, but I think you have done some major damage here today.
One of the nice things about e-mail and electronic communications is that it is immediate and quick. One of the really bad things about e- mail and electronic communications is that it is immediate and quick.
The e-mail from Advantage Lumber bears the marks of something typed in haste and anger (I will avoid remarks about banging fingers flying over the keyboard, spittle flying). That is almost OK if you are having a political discussion with someone far away and emotions get the better of you -- it is not a really good idea if you are the owner of a company that does business with people like those you are berating. I suspect that someone taking a little more time than immediately flying into an electronic rage would have stepped back and reconsidered what was about to be made public to the world.
Oh? Not long ago you were discussing the difficulties of getting a dental appointment... And not knowing your work schedule... And having to get a load of yuppie furniture to its destination, no matter the weather... IIRC I got the impression you thought your bosses valued your life less than getting the cargo to the destination on time.
I humbly suggest you *DO**NOT* like it that way!!!!!!! ;-)
I had lunch today with someone whose friend got out of the stock market in January 2000 and put the money in treasury bills. It was just dumb luck. Never has to work another day of his life. Another guy at the table, in his early 40's, is apparently getting somewhat close to being able to spend his time sailing around the world. The oldest person at the table (early 50's) mentioned being owed > $300K by an internet company that had difficulties in the .com crash. Unlike many companies, they are still in business and have a settlement package on the table with him > $100K.
There are trillions and trillions and TRILLIONS of dollars out there. The question is, how do you get your hands on the amount that lets you live the way you want to live?
If you want to amass $1M & live off the interest you probably have just three options: - The lottery - Starting a business which becomes successful - Study & emulate people who "made it." I have met and talked with just one billionaire in my 44 years on this planet, Peter Daniels. He claims to have read and taken notes from over 500 biographies. (IIRC. He could have said "> 5000 biographies" in his talk. In 40+ years he could very well have done it.)
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I have read of bus drivers who were able to meet their financial goals. Instead of wasting time when they weren't driving they studied companies & made appropriate investments. Sure, they started small. Over a period of
25+ years, they paid off their homes, put their children through college, and built up a retirement nest egg.
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I have dreams I expect to achieve. My contributions to the "The Perfect Shop" threads indicate some of my expectations...
To rub salt in an open wound there is a tiny minority of people who have such services come to them at their convenience. Remember in the early days of the Clinton administration when a haircut aboard Air Force One shut down LAX?
I have met people who lived in California and: - Flew from CA to the east coast of the USA on Monday. - Worked Tuesday - Thursday - Flew back to CA on Friday. And the company they worked for paid the tickets.
Why are most employees interchangeable at minimum wage or better, but a tiny fraction worth paying > 200K per year to only work 3 days per week as in my example?
I never made 200k a year, but in a past life flew all over the place to work. In one instance, I was a network guy, and another case I was a sound engineer. In either case, many average people could have developed the skills needed, but _I_ had the basics, and the specifics needed for the particular situation. For instance many people can mix live sound, only I knew the details for certain shows. In the case of the network stuff, much of the work can be done from afar, so if someone has to make the trip, something's in serious do-do.
One time, a three day weekend consisted of Boston to Hamilton, Bermuda, to Miami. Customs just loves you when you're there for one day.
FWIW, I consider the travel _WORK_ when required by the job. The guy in the example above really did work five days. Not to mention the fact that on-site network days, and show days for the sound gig, were often 12-14 hours long. If I can't do my own thing at a specific time due to my boss's requirements, I consider that on-duty! It's not the guy above could mow his lawn or go bicycling on Monday and Friday.
You didn't do yourself any favors with this post, buddy. I've not been a customer of yours in the past -- and you may be assured that I won't be in the future, either.
I can see that my point was totally missed. My intention was not to bash anyone or attack any company. Although I clearly see how it was taken that way given the high strung enthusiasm here including my own.
I have always enjoyed dealing with the smaller customers for a $5 sale, $100 sale or whatever. But the truth is that we cannot make a profit on wrapping up a small order and shipping it out with the current system that we have. We still welcome small walk in sales.
I was upset at Reneta accusing my company of not caring about the little guys. That was my loosely used definition of "bashing". For 10 years I have always been polite and helpful to a ton of small customers that have ordered mail orders or walk-ins. We have been forced to put in place the $500 minimum for orders shipped out because of the time it takes to pull a order, being that we currently have too much wood in too little space.....NOT because we do not care about the "little guys". Because in all honesty they are much more fun to deal with, chat about woodworking, and buy small woodworking projects from. For us to package & ship out a order under $500 cost us money at the small margins we operate at, given our current setup. It was explained that the $500 minimum was most probably temporary until we get a better system in place for handling the smaller orders, which includes adding more space. We have not "forgotten about the little guys" as we still and always will welcome walk-ins. I got emotional over the issue because of my high regard for the "little guys" and for that I am sorry Reneta.
I'll bet you are sorry - now. We'll take our small orders elsewhere where they are appreciated. You didn't want them anyway and I'm sure the competition will send you "Thank You" notes.
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