Carbon Fiber update:
Good afternoon everyone,
It’s been brought to my attention that my recent lack of communication has allowed people to feel as if someone is actively plotting to “rip off” people as it relates to a horrifying group buy experience managed by another member.
Honestly, I'd have been here sooner, but I was told I was banned. Shame on me for not checking personally.
Anyhow, I want to make sure I stop by personally to set the record straight and attempt to clear the air.
First, and foremost, let’s all take a breath here. Zero people have been, or every will be, stolen from, ripped off, robbed, or otherwise hurt when doing business with me, my company, or any of the entities represented by me.
Period.
As I discussed with Kyle (ForcedFed) last night, what I suspect has happened here is we can’t see the forest for the trees, in that while I AM the face and voice of a company I own, I’m NOT one man working alone in an effort to do evil things to nice people. It seems that people have confused my direct and personal involvement with that of an individual who has is doing something wrong deliberately, when the reality is the painful fact, that my company has simply failed on just about every single front as I'm trying to help it grow.
That’s a mathematical absolute that’s also a kick-in-the-balls-with-a-running-start for me to even have to say out loud.
So to make sure I’m clear, again: I am not an individual person ripping anyone off, nor has anyone actually been. People have had product delivered and returned for me to make it right. What actually happened after that is where the train comes off the tracks.
Essentially, the company is now two years old with a reasonable reputation for quality. In those two years, we've endured a continuous cycle of hire, train, perform, get lazy, under perform, fire, rehire, retrain, perform again, get lazy again, under perform again, fired again, etc…
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Making carbon fiber parts, especially those that are laminated, is an incredibly time consuming and tedious bit of work, which is why it's so expensive. Finding the right mix of people to do the work correctly and quickly has been the greatest challenge of my lifetime. (No exaggeration.) When the initial group buy was put in place, I had a team of about 7 or 8 guys. Things were humming along and parts were actually getting made relatively quickly. I had a freshly promoted shop manager put in place and I was working outside the walls of the production facility to grow the business, leaving him in charge of production in my absence. While I had my back turned, parts were “completed” and shipped, only to find they weren’t finished to either of our satisfaction. (Not just TBSS pieces. It happened company wide, simultaneously.)
We experienced multiple failures all at once: clear coat wasn’t being laid down properly, had nasty pin holes and runs, areas weren’t painted properly, carbon work wasn’t properly touched up, pieces were broken during manufacturing, etc… ALL of these issues made it into a box and were shipped out.
Upon return of the improperly finished pieces, instructions were given to correct the work, but the corrections never came to completion. My carbon technician staff slowed down to almost a crawl, which choked off the entire business all at once. (At the same time, they were collecting paychecks for doing the same work over and over and over again…)
So, rather than send out parts that were wrong again, I did the only thing a responsible owner could be expected to do.
I fired all of them.
I want to make sure we let that sink in for a second.
Of the 8 people on my staff, 5 of the people responsible for manufacturing the projects and letting them out the shop knowing they weren’t right have all lost their jobs over this ridiculousness.
The only members of the team I kept were my painter (who’s on a really short leash right now), my fiberglass/mold technician (who has always done an excellent job), and an intern. I immediately got back into the shop and started doing the carbon work personally (which you’ll see once the new replacement pieces are delivered), but it came at the cost of communication with EVERYONE, as well as the price of extreme slowness, while I rehired new carbon techs and have worked through the training process.
So, here we are today. People are left feeling uneasy, which is not only understandable, but reasonable, and I’m here to make sure everyone knows I’m taking care of it all directly and personally. The shop foreman is gone and everything comes across my desk before it goes into a box.
To the best of my knowledge, I’ve spoken with every person who’s been affected personally and have put in place a plan to make sure they receive their work, as expected. I’ve also offered to do some extra work for free as a token of my appreciation for the incredible patience they’ve extended.
While I can’t honor any requests for refunds, since the work has been completed and delivered in most cases (and two bezels were lost in shipping at once point, adding insult to injury); what I WILL do is make sure everyone gets taken care of with quality they should have received in the first place and something on the house once I get the original order completed.
I can’t guarantee it happens over night, but I can guarantee to communicate better and be more forward should something go wrong requiring additional rework.
I also guarantee the parts are exactly what you’d expect in terms of quality.
IN NO PARTUCULAR ORDER:
Brandon: His bezel and shifter trim are almost entirely finished, but needs some paint work cleaned up to remove a run in the clear and a deep pinhole.
Doug: His dash bezel is on the table for a complete overhaul.
Frank: I’m completely redoing his bezel and door pull trim rings. I don’t have a spare shifter trim so ocne he receives the replacement parts, I’ll have him send back the stuff he has right now and re do his shifter bezel at that time.
Chris Z: I’m redoing the entire job. ALL of it. Once it's done, I'll also refund the shipping costs for returning the parts back to me.
Jake: I’ll mail the two parts of his I have in house (non-carbon products) again on Monday and he's a nice guy who got caught up in the middle of an unfortunate situation. I need to stop being a baby and own up to the fact that I dragged him down this road.
As always, if anyone has gotten by me, which is possible, please let me know directly. I can be reached at 310-902-1050 and I’ll make sure to get you taken care of as quickly as I can.
Once again everyone, I can’t apologize enough for how horribly inefficient things have been around here. I’m going to do my level best to make sure this gets and stays smooth and straight.
Thanks again for the patience and support.
Alan