Mike,
I fully understand that you must prioritise your production to maintain a cash
flow, and therefore cannot provide resources to maintain a constant and quick
mail service. I sent a mail to service@tentec.com <mailto:service@tentec.com>
three months ago and admit to have resent it a few times to ensure that you
have got it, but I have no acute need of the parts requested. I’m surprised
that you have maintained a free service on products you haven’t sold.
I wondered if introducing a small charge (10-20$, PayPal) pr. service mail
could lighten your pressed situation? Of course my mail imposes a load on your
staff, and I would gladly pay a fair charge to pay for an answer.
Vy 73
Gunner, OZ6NF
> Den 5. mar. 2017 kl. 12.20 skrev Mike Dishop via TenTec
> <tentec@contesting.com>:
>
> 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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