Indiana County Jr. wrote:Folks,
I don't think Mike understands how this can impact him on future customers. Word of mouth can completely destroy a business if you are not careful when taking care of unhappy customers. He should atleast offer a compensation of some sort to atleast save face for himself.
Allen
Agreed, Allen.
I've been biting my tongue for too long on this thing. Mike is not a member here, he has no web site, and the only reason I placed an order with him is because Anthony DeLongis had a pair of his whips and they seemed pretty good for the money. I got a hold of the guy (which took some Private Eye work, I can tell you!) and we talked on the phone. He seemed very knowledgeable about whips, and he was very humble, and very friendly. We agreed on an order, and I sent him a check right away. He said it would take about 5 weeks, and I said, "eh, take your time." It's been since the beginning of July. What is that? Over 5 MONTHS?
Now, I'm a big boy, I have other toys to play with, and for those of you who know me, you all know that means plenty of bullwhips. But the problem is, I just don't believe what this guy tells me half the time. The first problem was that he was almost done with my whips, but he wanted to redo the overlay on one of them because he wasn't satisfied with it. That impressed me, so I patiently waited a little more. That was around September I think. Then in October, he said my whips were finished, but that he couldn't ship them because he was waiting on some red hide so he could finish the falls. He said this was affecting an order he was putting together for Anthony as well. Then in November I went to the Indygear Summit in Long Beach. And this is where it starts to get weird. Anthony called me ahead of time and asked me if I had ordered a six foot whip from Mike because he received one from Mike (which wasn't what he ordered!) and was wondering if he got our orders mixed up. I said, "No, I ordered a pair of 7 footers." "Well," said, Anthony, "That's weird, but it's a good whip. I'll show it to you when I get there," which he did. And indeed it was a good whip, and Anthony seemed satisfied that Mike had either made a mistake that worked out, or had purposely made a whip that Anthony would like better. I talked to Mike about it and he said that he had deliberately sent Anthony this whip, a much heavier one than the few he had sent him before, so that he would have a weightier whip for when he works on Horseback.
As fascinating as all this was, it still didn't answer the question, "Where are MY whips?" "They are on their way," quoth Mike. (This was just after getting back from the QM, mind you!) So, by the time Thanksgiving had come and gone, and I was really beginning to get irate, I called him again and told him that I had never received my whips. "What?!?" He seemed amazed. I told him to figure this out, because I was losing my patience. He got back to me with the story (true? untrue?) that he accidentally shipped my order along with a bunch of other stuff to a different fellah in California who orders lots of stuff from him. Now, after all this time, he's got the package back, he has put together a "care package" as he puts it, of extra falls, poppers, and a couple of braided keychains (more than the usual set of a couple extra falls and poppers, apparently) and then last weekend, two weeks after telling me that he would send them, he texted me to confirm my address, and that he was out of town, but had everything and that "now that he had some money" he would rush my package to me from where he was, which was apparently "out of town".
If you are exhausted reading this, think how I feel?
Now, if the whips show up, and they are decent whips, I promise to write an honest review, take pics, the whole nine yards. When I first ordered from the guy and had talked to him on the phone, I was confident that I was going to help this guy build a good reputation among our members. Like I said, he seems very knowledgeable, friendly, and humble. At this point, I just want what I ordered. As far as his reputation, I'm not looking to hurt it, but I have to think of my fellow members and what's best for them. Or maybe I'm just glad that I have an audience to whom I can complain, either way, I'm frustrated. In the end, I'd like to see this guy do well, but I just hope that he can learn a lesson from all this.
And for the record, I've been waiting for 9 months for my order from Graeme, and 6 months for my order from Bernardo, and believe me, I haven't lost my patience with them because I understand their situations. With Mike, I'm just incredulous.
DHW