So there's a company that sells a specific clothing item to firefighters. They're the only small business and firefighter owned business that sells these. A couple large companies, like Dickies, makes them as well but most people preferred to buy them from this guy. I have one that I bought a couple years ago that I like and I wanted to order another one.

So I placed an order back in August to avoid the winter rush and I haven't heard anything since. From checking their facebook page, apparently this has been a common theme with them for well over a year, with people waiting for orders placed in November 2016. Not only have they not filled orders, but they only sporadically respond to customer concerns, and they continue to accept new orders.

They have blamed the lack of fulfillment on them switching materials suppliers but the issues keep mounting.

Look, I get that shit happens and businesses and people run on hard times, but I feel like this guy would have kept his loyal customer base had he simply returned calls and emails and put a moratorium on new orders until he got his affairs in order. However he's dug himself into a daily deepening hole that he probably won't be able to dig out of even if he gets everything running perfect.

In the meantime, I bought another coat from one of the larger manufacturers (Not dickies) and it's a lot better quality than my original. I emailed them asking them to cancel my order but I'm guessing one of these days I'll have a random coat show up at my door.

Pretty common among custom holster makers too. In fact, many a small, custom business in any number of industries has fallen into the same hole.

The local embroidery shop that used to do all the patches and uniform embroidery for our LE agency ran into the same issue. Got way too far behind, but kept accepting orders and giving unrealistic target dates, which they would miss. Eventually they were missing them by weeks/months. When you asked, your order was always "the next one on the list" and "ready by the end of the week"... Week after week.

They did good work, but we had to switch to another shop.

I can handle waiting, if they're up-front about it and the quality is worth the wait. But I can't abide lies and/or a total lack of communication.

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with people waiting for orders placed in November 2016. Not only have they not filled orders, but they only sporadically respond to customer concerns, and they continue to accept new orders.

Sounds like a business on the brink of folding.

That's my prediction as well.

I know I’m speaking from profound ignorance, but it’s always seemed to me that anyone in a custom labor business—whether it’s gunsmithing, leather ware or manufacturing a specialized product—should be able to look at their situation on a Friday afternoon and say that they’re either caught up and on track, or “We need to work this weekend” to get caught up. And if by Monday morning they’re not caught up for anything other than a very unusual reason, then they need to reevaluate their business process.

Waiting any longer in the assumption that things are suddenly going to slack off and make it possible to catch up during normal working hours never seems to work.

If you're providing a quality product, most of the time, your customers are willing to wait if they're told the wait times.

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Originally posted by sigfreund:
I know I’m speaking from profound ignorance, but it’s always seemed to me that anyone in a custom labor business—whether it’s gunsmithing, leather ware or manufacturing a specialized product—should be able to look at their situation on a Friday afternoon and say that they’re either caught up and on track, or “We need to work this weekend” to get caught up. And if by Monday morning they’re not caught up for anything other than a very unusual reason, then they need to reevaluate their business process.

Waiting any longer in the assumption that things are suddenly going to slack off and make it possible to catch up during normal working hours never seems to work.

Are these expensive items? If yes, consider sending a letter with some sort of tracking (certified or registered) so you have proof you sent something and proof it was received.

If they are not real expensive (and on a credit card), just keep a copy of the email.

Less than a hundred bucks. And they don't usually charge the card until they're ready to ship the order. Worst case scenario like I mentioned is I wind up with an extra coat, which is NBD. Although, my card expires next month so in all likelihood it'll be declined when they go to fill the order.