The interview that just came out goes over a lot of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PICHdbftWuc
The renewal program sounds great to me. All those old beaters on Marketplace now have a known price for a second life.
I can only imagine the old repair model was a nightmare. Receive a headstock, hope it wasn’t damaged in shipping, diagnose it, quote it, wait for approval, store it while everyone thinks it over, maybe only fix half the worn parts because the customer doesn’t want to spend more, then send it back and hope the next 40-year-old wear part doesn’t fail a month later and they get blamed for it.
A flat renewal with a proper shipping box, margins, wear parts dealt with, AND a warranty ... seems like a fantastic solution.
I also liked his idea to move from individual screw sales to related kits. Again, imagine a single screw: someone still has to stock it, count it, find it, pick it, pack it, and ship it. If instead it’s a few related pieces already bagged together for about the same money, that seems better for everyone.
The rest of the interview didn’t sound like a company with “no plan” to me, there's a tonne of stuff going on. Maybe some of it works and maybe some of it doesn’t, but that's the way of everything. And you can never, ever, make everyone happy.
Maybe I see it differently because I’m in Australia, where Shopsmith parts don’t exist locally. If I lived in the US I’d be thrilled to buy parts as easily and cheaply as you guys can. I’d give them a fair shake. They’re trying to keep conventional parts available, make factory service viable, and sell the newer systems too. I don't see why they can't succeed.
