ShopSmith Order filling Shortcoming.. Again!

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:47 pm

Over on the sharpening router bits thread. Chuck posted a link to rockler, to show what he uses to sharpen them. Guess what, they are on sale AND OUT OF STOCK.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 5:09 pm

Did not mean to "chastise" a previous postee. Apparently it sounded that way. My intent was more to support SS and encourage others to do the same.

Old timey soap boxes were dove-tailed!!!:D

hoagie · Post by **hoagie** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:20 pm

beeg wrote:Over on the sharpening router bits thread. Chuck posted a link to rockler, to show what he uses to sharpen them. Guess what, they are on sale AND OUT OF STOCK.

Yes, but will they still be out of stock 3 months from now? And when you contact Rockler to ask when can you expect to get your order will the response be, "sometime next year?" That is the response (via e-mail) I received from SS regarding a back ordered Universal Tool Rest. If you do the math on that answer, SS is telling me I can now expect to receive this item sometime in the next 12 1/2 months! That, IMHO, is a truly ridiculous response. I guess it depends upon how many of them they have to have an order for before they manufacture some.

Now, just to set the record straight, each and every time I have called SS and spoken to one of the lovely ladies there they have been extremely professional and courteous. I real joy to speak with and work with. They all make no bones about the fact that they are truly chagrined that they can't get my order (and I'm sure every other order) filled and shipped immediately. They take is personally when any of us call and they have to give us bad news.

So on the one hand you have an ordering system, albeit now running on a "just in time" footing, that, again IMHO, needs some attention. On the other hand, the customer service representatives on the phone remain some of the best people I've ever dealt with. Kudos to them.

doug45601 · Post by **doug45601** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:52 pm

Well even though the big 3 got some help from us tax payers.. Guess if you need a part for your car it could also be out of stock and placed on back order.. Local dealers are renting shopping mall spaces to park and show their cars now... Public just isn't going into dealerships so dealerships are taking to the streets.

Lots of companies are feeling the pinch as we are.. A back order for them is no profit in their pockets! Guess you can't blame the company as they would send it if they had it.

Just noticed that Shopsmith has placed their electric motors on sale... Makes me feel real good knowing my motor could bogg down requiring a replacement. I would expect it to outlast me. Things do break however and replacements are needed.. Thank goodness Shopsmith is still viable at this time.... Or should I just take advantage of the sale and buy a motor as a spare just in case?! Can't help but get the feeling Shopsmith is having a quiet "inventory reduction" sale.

My comments make no sence at all.. Just writing for the practice..

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:55 pm

Wouldn't it be nice if someone from Shopsmith, other than the Customer Service Representatives, would speak to us about this phenomena we have come to know as "Back Orders, A Fact of Life".

It is convenient to blame it all on the state of the economy but while it is convenient, is it truthful?

I have a difficult time accepting the fact that so many "sale items" turn out to also be "back ordered items". Are the sales being scheduled knowing that there is no inventory. Hopefully not, hopefully this means that ever sale is turning out to be such a booming success that the existing inventory is being depleted so very fast and thus the back orders.

kd6vpe · Post by **kd6vpe** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:12 pm

Folks,
I just looked up the inflatable contour sander I ordered. I know I got the last one in stock and it will be here Monday. When I pulled it up today instead of saying low inventory it now say it may be back-ordered or made to order. Just an FYI make sure you lookup what you are ordering before ordering. If it says it is backordered be prepared to wait. Just my 2 cents.

reible · Post by **reible** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:39 pm

And another way we can help ourselves is to plan ahead. If I know I will needing sandpaper in 3 months or 6 months you can always order it now. Want the belt sander or band saw for this summer??? Order it now. Be pro-active, be all that you can be, just do it! Feel free to add to the theme.

I'm working on my end of the year order plans and I will not be using any of it for another 3 months... if YOU do just in time purchasing this is not a good time for you. To fix it you need to change to be an order early person.

And again we do not know if anyone at shopsmith who has control of any of the processes reads this forum. My guess is the admin person is the only one reading and I don't think the job description has anything to do with forwarding complaints up the food chain.

Ed

dcottrill · Post by **dcottrill** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:13 pm

Ed, that is a good approach. It is difficult to know when SS will be able to fill the orders. I suspect that they wait until they have enough to make a profit and if possible sell everything that is either made or purchased.

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 2:13 am

dusty wrote:Wouldn't it be nice if someone from Shopsmith, other than the Customer Service Representatives, would speak to us about this phenomena we have come to know as "Back Orders, A Fact of Life".

It is convenient to blame it all on the state of the economy but while it is convenient, is it truthful?

I have a difficult time accepting the fact that so many "sale items" turn out to also be "back ordered items". Are the sales being scheduled knowing that there is no inventory. Hopefully not, hopefully this means that ever sale is turning out to be such a booming success that the existing inventory is being depleted so very fast and thus the back orders.

Dusty
What do you want Shopsmith to say? We will stop running specials unless we have the item in numbers equal to the number of Shopsmiths we have sold?

Or we are idiots and don't check stock before we list ads?

Or we can't count and thought we had more than we had?

Or we plan on setting ourselves up for failure by tying up all our operating capital in stock in sufficient numbers so we never have a backorder situation?

I don't think any of those answers would tell us anymore than we already know. Shopsmith like any company that has any intelligence in this day and age is running with limited stock.

Let us face facts, if you have stock you have money tied up. You also have to inventory, store and pay tax on that stock. So if your running lean and mean and any company that isn't running lean and mean today will not be around tomorrow, you will from time to time run out of certain things.

We have to look at those things and consider what they are. I think someone mentioned a carriage was backordered. I would imagine Shopsmith has the carriages cast by the number of SS they intend to manufacture with one or two extra (I don't know this, but it makes sense). Once they sell all the extras they have to wait for a production run to have more. I would guess a production run would be based on weigth of the metal in the pour so you would probably get a fairly large number at a time. I think we can all understand they may not want to make a production run until they build all the Shopsmiths they planned. Someone might say well yank a carriage out production, sounds good but then you have all the other parts used to build a SS "in stock" doing nothing but wasting money.

Now if we are talking about dial caliber they can probably order them by the dozen or so, so back orders there would be much shorter.

I understand it is frustrating but I don't know what you want to Shopsmith to say.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 6:54 am

Ed in Tampa and anyone else interested;

You ask, "What do I want Shopsmith to say"?

I really don't know! But what I do know is that I would prefer that they stop baiting me with sales offers for items they don't have to sell me.

I understand and I think everyone else does that they are attempting to run "lean and mean". I don't believe that means they should go out and spend money attempting to drag in customers only to tell them that "Sorry, we are all out of stock. It'll be 6 weeks before we accumulate enough demand to warrant a purchase of the parts needed to fill your order. Please be patient. Here is another sales flyer you can read while you are waiting".

Actually, I've almost stopped reading the email offers. They accumulate in large numbers in my email. When I do read them, they have expired. Tried to order a 6" sanding drum this week that had been on sale. Too late. Campaign expired on Saturday. Wanted to build a sandflee. Left it on order anyhow. Can you guess the status of my order now? Yup, it is on backorder.

In years past, if Shopsmith had something in their catalog that I wanted I ordered from Shopsmith. I have almost stopped doing that. My buying profile has changed. If Shopsmith is the only one who sells it, I buy from Shopsmith - if I need it.

For consumables and non-Shopsmith accessories like sand paper, oil, sharpening stones, aprons, chisels, foot switches, clamps, drill bits, feather boards, bench lamps, talon chucks etc, etc, - I start at Woodcraft. Just about everything after page 49 in the latest 99 page catalog.

OKAY. That is the last you will hear from me on this subject!

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