Mike N8WFF, as Founder and Net Manager of the 9 Weekly TEN-TEC Nets that
we
started 5 years ago, I want you to know that the thousands of people who
check into our nets each week are behind you in your efforts to bring the
TEN-TEC Name and Company back to its rightful place among the elite
Amateur Radio companies in the world.
When we started the TEN-TEC Nets 5 years ago, Jack Burchfield K4JU was
President and Jim Wharton NO4A was Vice President of the TEN-TEC Company.
I knew them both personally, having spent time with Jack Burchfield in his
office in Sevierville and working with Jim Wharton at the TEN-TEC Hamfests
in Sevierville and working with Jim Wharton at the TEN-TEC Booths in
Dayton for several years.
When Jack Burchfield sold the Company to RKR/RFC, little did he know that
those new buyers would run the TEN-TEC Company into the ground, leaving
many of their Parts Suppliers hanging and this is just one of the many
things that contributed to the demise of the TEN-TEC Company. I know more
than what I am allowed to post here.
I am the proud owner of a TEN-TEC Orion II and a TEN-TEC Omni VII and I
want to see TEN-TEC succeed.
Cheer up! What has happened in the past and is water over the dam and I
want all TEN-TEC Users and Owners to know that Mike N8WFF has told me
personally on the phone, that he is using his own money to get the TEN-TEC
Company back on it's feet again and we all need to be patient and support
his efforts.
Mike, thank you and be assured that I and the Members of the TEN-TEC Nets
are behind you 100 percent and appreciate all you are doing to make the
TEN-TEC Company succeed. God bless you and your family Mike.
John, K3UR
John D. Occhipinti, K3UR
Net Manager, ten_tec Amateur Radio Nets
QRZ Page: http://www.qrz.com/db/k3ur
Group Owner, ten_tec Amateur Radio Net Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ten_tec_radio_net/
SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/john-occhipinti-k3ur/sets/brotherjohns-most-popular
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.occhipinti.14
You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/my_videos?o=U
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Dishop via TenTec" <tentec@contesting.com>
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec@contesting.com>
Cc: "Mike Dishop" <n8wff@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2017 6:20 AM
Subject: [TenTec] Ten Tec Service / How I am mishandling customer
relations and a specicial thank you to K5TN
A couple of days ago I made a post about being part of the solution
rather than part of the problem and how anyone could step up and make a
difference. Out of the 400+ thousand hams, one person took me seriously
and sent me a check to help support Ten Tec. That gentleman's call is
K5TN and to you sir, THANK YOU from the top and bottom of my heart. I'm
not cashing your check and will send it back, but of everyone in the
world who reads these forums, YOU put your money where your mouth is. It
is nice to know that our company has one absolutely true friend and
supporter. It is nice to know that ONE person really wants to be part of
the solution instead of part of the problem. Thank you sir.
OK, lets talk CUSTOMER SERVICE
When I was quite a bit younger, I worked for a huge conglomerate that
shut down the R&D department that with 5 people had driven more
innovative features that made the company products sell than any other
branch of the operation, and they shut it down. I questioned the wisdom
of eliminating this department and the talented team that really
delivered. My boss explained to me that what good was all the future
development in the world if the company had to shut down and go out of
business today? I learned a lesson here that I want to share with you.
What good is all the customer relations in the world if the company has
to close?
I've explained more than one time what I'm doing and why again and again.
Despite this I am repeatedly forced to spend my valuable time on this.
Why?
I've explained why you can't talk to service. I've posted photos of our
new PCB assembly facility and we are still servicing every radio we have
made if we can get the parts. It costs me a lot of money to keep Ten Tec
open each month. The only way I can do that is to take care of the
commercial customers FIRST. They are the reason the company is open.
Fortunately, that cash flow is allowing me to reintroduce the other
products one at a time. The Eagle is next. Right or wrong, expensive or
not expensive, there are people who want to buy Ten Tecs and that is a
good radio. It isn't about what you can buy from Japan, China or
elsewhere. It is about buying what you want. Ford trucks are generally
cheaper than Chevy trucks. So why do people buy Chevrolet trucks? The
truck is easier to work on for one. The drivetrain is more robust. At the
same time some say the Ford has a stronger frame. If you don't buy a car
based on the decision of price only, why should you buy a radio? You guys
keep your radios longer than you keep your cars usually, and you spend as
much time or more using your radio than you do driving, so shouldn't you
buy WHAT YOU WANT and not worry so much about if the Eagle is 1600-1700
as compared to an Icom 7300 at 1300? My goodness if you pimp out a K2 and
make it do everything an Eagle does you spend 2300 dollars! And the K2 is
far below the Eagle on the Sherwood chart! Should they quit offering the
K2 or lower their price? Doesn't the better performing Eagle deserve to
sell for at least as much? After all they are both designed and made in
America. Should all the K2 owners dump them and buy Eagles because the
Eagle is less expensive?
Someone said our customer service was "sub par". Robert went into full
retirement end of last month. I'm sure he appreciated that comment. It
probably will be worse than it was now that he is gone until I do
something else.
Ten Tec is wholly owned by me sinve January 1 2016. To have sub par
customer service I would have had to have sold you a radio. To whom have
I sold a radio? What do I owe you? Fact: I am repairing the radios that
the other people sold you. I don't owe you anything. I have no obligation
to you to answer your email you or sell you my parts. I'm supporting you
because we are working on a new transceiver so that all the
infrastructure will be there to continue on when it is ready. Maybe at
that time we will have the cash flow supported by new sales to support
the expensive and free customer service you want.
The company isn't going to close as long as our expenses do not exceed
our revenue. Think about that. this is the coldest and hardest fact of
business that has to supersede EVERYTHING else and all discussions of if
I am doing a good job or if customer service is good or not good. Anyone
who thinks anything other than this most basic tenant of business is a
fool. I'm not going to spend money I don't have. So if you KEEP sending
in your radios for repair (PLEASE EVERY BIT HELPS) and keep buying parts
from us (PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH THE EMAIL) and keep ordering the products
that we do have (PLEASE WE DO WANT YOUR BUSINESS) then we can get this
thing back on track. Look people I'm doing this all by myself. I need
time. We have moved in 12 calendar months from having stacks of
unrepaired radios from RKR and no parts to build radios and no machinery
to build them with to now having maybe a back log of 10-20 radios at any
given time and usually nothing over thirty days, having moved into a cost
effective and efficient facility in TN, setting up the new surface mount
building in OH where we built THOUSANDS of boards in house last year for
TEN TEC, and delivered HUNDREDS of new radios to customers, in addition
to R&D on a new transceiver, all in one year. ONE YEAR. What did YOU do
in your last year?
How can I improve customer service now? The next thing I am working on
short term is our TEN TEC web store. I'm learning a little bit about how
to do this myself. I even was able to post two news articles over on the
Alpha RF Systems site. If you go there and click on the NEWS tab you can
see my two articles, the first about the amps we are building in Colorado
and the next about the SMD assembly facility in Ohio. I asked Boyd to
take photos about the final assembly, repair and alignment center in
Tennessee and when he gets those to me I will make a similar article for
you to see on the TT website.
So what I am going to do next is make it so we can send repair invoices
as a email to you where you can log in to your web cart, buy the repair
and pay for it by checking out securely with your credit card. We have
been testing this on the Alpha site for 4 months and it is working great!
I'm also going to put what products we have like microphone cords,
microphones, speech processors, etc and it will show real time inventory
of units in stock! Next I will try to put dial string and PTO kits and
batteries and little common items like that in the store and I hope this
will stop the personal emails for dial strings.
Now of course the month I'm going to spend doing this is going to delay
the launch of every other product by one month but who cares about that?
We will have better customer service! Before I get this done I have to
work on the corporate tax return due this month.
A special thank you to those of you who are patient, understanding, and
support my efforts in this herculean task. Rick, Bob, Ron, and the rest
of you who are regular contributors and who try to help people understand
what we are doing - I really appreciate it.
To those of you who are being critical you are not criticizing Ten Tec.
You are criticizing me and I take it personally. I didn't make this mess
or gut the company. I'm the guy keeping it alive and putting it back on
track. What right at all do you have to criticize me? Do I come in to
your house and criticize how you live your life, how you raise your kids,
or judge you for why your wife left you? If I did that you would say to
me "What in the heck do you know about me or my life or my house?" You'd
tell me "There are perfectly valid reasons for the choices I made". So
why do I deserve to be treated differently?
If you don't like what I'm doing, if you can't say something nice, then
why not just keep your mouth shut? What business is it of yours? If you
bought a transceiver from RKR or RFC you didn't buy it from me. If you
have a beef, have your beef with them, not me. Are you upset that I
bought the assets of what was left? I'm sick and tired of reading this
drivel over and over again in our forum. I am now going to formally
appeal to the moderators and owners that whenever this negative stuff is
posted in the future that you just delete it and don't even send it out.
I believe I speak for us ALL that it is counter productive and that we
are ALL tired of hearing that the sky is falling! I started this journey
a year ago October and TEN TEC is still here, radios are being repaired
in a timely manner and radios are going out the door. When I respond to
this stuff I am wasting my time and it is just another lost hour that a
new radio isn't designed. You may not have anything better to do but I
do.
I need those of you who support TEN TEC to step up and start ripping to
shreds these jerks on eham and QRZ who raise this crap every three
months? People who spread lies and negativity damage the company and
jeopardize people's jobs. When somebody starts grinding their axe it is
just like a little duck farting under water, but when I respond and
defend myself I get criticized and told I should handle things this way
or that way. It doesn't matter what I say, there is criticism. So I
generally just don't say anything at all, and then I'm criticized for
being non responsive. I loose no matter what I do. I unloaded on somebody
who was spreading out and out libel and then was told that customers are
going to question if I have the sanity to run a company and don't want to
buy from me!
I know my own course. I know what I have to do. I know what I can do with
what I have to work with. I'm going to do what I have to do and that is
the way it is until something changes. It is going to take as long as it
takes me. All the criticism in the world isn't going to change things.
The only thing that is going to change things is money. Time is money. It
takes time to make money. As I make money I do what I can do to bring TEN
TEC back into the amateur market one step at a time.
Just remember that every disparaging and negative remark delays the
introduction of a new product by a day. If you get ripped to shreds on
Monday, how good are you at YOUR job the rest of the day? You know what
my problem is? I can't walk off the job. I have people with families who
depend on me. Good people who are hams just like you. Those are the
people you hurt when you spout your hate, negativity, jealousy or just
stupid opinion for whatever reason or motivation you have. I don't want
to hear it any more. No one here on the forum wants to hear it. This
needs to stop and it needs to stop immediately.
73 DE N8WFF
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