Greg Richter said:
We _do_ tend to reach a little (OK, a lot ) further than a lot of companies making this sort of equipment, and sometimes that translates into delays in getting new things made.
That is very interesting as a consumer to know. However, if an individual cannot be forthright and upfront about these delays and instead promises whatever it is he/she thinks the customer wants to hear one can find out very quickly that something has come up behind him and bit him on the ***. IMHO a business has to stand behind their word just as much as their product. Greg, if you continually promise things that you cannot deliver you are only hurting yourself in the long run. It does not matter how wonderful your product is you still must have satisfied customers. Satisfying customers goes far beyond supplying them with a capable product. I am impressed with the "supposed" capabilities of your product. However, I am very reluctant to do business with people whose word I cannot trust.
We've got them going together, and are simply behind plan in getting them out.
Then don't "beg, borrow or steal" in your communications with potential customers just to get their money in your R&D coffer! Get your ducks in a row and then sell your wares.
Good news is they are coming together nicely, testing well, and are about ready to go out in quantity. Since going to all SMT and all robotics, we can now make machines 50 at a time. We're testing them very extensively since it's a new processor, new Unix OS, new GPS, etc. and I _really_ don't want 500 of these out there with "one little fix" needed 500 times.
Should this not be done
BEFORE you make delivery promises?
We've had slowdowns with growth before, and this is the same sort of thing. We always do deliver (if sometimes later than we'd like) and the hardware works wonderfully.
Is this an acceptable way of doing business to you? Why don't you have contingencies for those slowdowns built into your project time lines so that you do not have the added stress of having to deal with poor customer relations on top of those slowdowns when you fail to deliver what you promised?
I am interested in this technology but I have to honestly say that no matter what wonderful technology BMA may have they are not the only ones with it. All of the EFIS outfits are continually expanding on their unit's capabilities. In all honesty, I value customer support in a much higher regard than all of the "gee whiz" gadgetry that anyone can show me. No matter what kind of widget you produce, customer support must always be, bar none, without exception the #1 goal of any business. You will live or die by it!
As a last thought I would think a very valuable public relations tool you could have used would have been your reply to this forum thread. I sure think that since you were replying to a thread that was started by one of your disgruntled customers you could have made some attempt to reply directly to Pete. Something like:
"I am sorry you have been experiencing these difficulties. Why don't you call our office and ask for me and lets see if we can work out the problems you are having." You suppose that might have helped shore up some support for your business to see that on here? Just one man's thoughts on the subject.
I ordered Bluemountain EFIS/lite Gen3 in November 2005. They told me that there was a waiting time of 6 to 8 weeks. In February 2006 Bluemountain Avionics send me an email that Gen 3 was discontinued and that I was able to get Gen 4 for the same price if I was patient enough to wait till end of March 06. March came and went and when I called in April, they told me that they will be shipping in the next 2 weeks. April is gone and end of May is looming to an end and still no EFIS. Today I called and was told that maybe beginning June. I was told that they are producing it somewhere else and that they have not received shipment of the particular product. When I asked for a refund, they told me there is a 15% charge because they are almost shipping.
