What is wrong with our suppliers???

[yammi4ever]

Ok, seems every night when I get on here I read another thread about someone waiting on parts for a extremely long time, or poor communication from the supplier What gives, is the economy not as bad as everyone thinks it is, and they are seeing increased orders, or is this a every year problem I just haven't noticed.

For the record I am waiting on some shocks that were promised much sooner than now and they haven't even been shipped yet. (no i wont say which one YET lol).

It would seem that the people in this business would know that it is a short season and be better prepared, maybe I am not seeing something.

lets hear it, anyone from the industry care to give your side of it?

 

[smoking_powerstroke]

My guess is most companies have cut jobs to stay afloat or to increase their profit margin; and are trying to do the same amount of business with less people. But like I said its just a guess.

 

[tudizzle]

Why do so many sled customers wait till the last moment to prepare their sleds for winter. Only to be faced with waiting in line with all the other people who waited to order parts.

Many after market companies operate on a tight budget...and to be left with a large amount of inventory just isn't viable. So they do their best to get stock ready, only to be inundated with unforeseen orders.


Then when something, that has to be custom made, isn't ready over night....the flaming begins?

 

[snowmobiler]

easy.search around and buy parts that are in stock on the shelf.or sit and wait.

 

[TIM]

all industries are having a shipping problem.

 

[Jaynelson]

Just remember.....unless it's a re-occuring problem with a certain supplier, it likely falls in the "**** happens" catagory, or the "2 sides to every story" column.

Nothing's perfect and it's more fun for people to complain on the internet than to come and tell you how great an experience they had. If you search the internet hard enough, you will never buy anything from anyone ever again. Someone somewhere has had a problem with every product, buyer and seller. Just the way it is....nothing to do with the economy IMO. People make mistakes, some expectations are too high, definitions of "timely delivery" vary, yada yada yada. Welcome to retail my friends....we've been waiting for you

 

[Hemi]

Why do so many sled customers wait till the last moment to prepare their sleds for winter. Only to be faced with waiting in line with all the other people who waited to order parts.

Many after market companies operate on a tight budget...and to be left with a large amount of inventory just isn't viable. So they do their best to get stock ready, only to be inundated with unforeseen orders.


Then when something, that has to be custom made, isn't ready over night....the flaming begins?

X 2

 

[4Z]

Why do so many sled customers wait till the last moment to prepare their sleds for winter.

That is the question of the century
Since I started in the spring and summer taking care of my needs, I have always been ready to ride come snowfall. AND, I have money for Xmas.

 

[racingpit]

There are lots of companies that run on tight budgets. I know of some companies personally that can barely scrape by, and some that use money from orders placed today to put out orders that were placed a month or 2 ago. I am sorry, but that is no way to run a true business. I have also seen some companies that always have an excuse for why they are not delivering there products....they can only say that they are moving their shop so many times before people realize they are full of $hit.

 

[FrozenMOTO]

There are lots of companies that run on tight budgets. I know of some companies personally that can barely scrape by, and some that use money from orders placed today to put out orders that were placed a month or 2 ago. I am sorry, but that is no way to run a true business. I have also seen some companies that always have an excuse for why they are not delivering there products....they can only say that they are moving their shop so many times before people realize they are full of $hit.

This doesn't seem like a good way to run a company at all.

I am currently starting a company in the snowmobile industry, well its started we are just not taking orders yet.

As for long wait times I do agree that like us, and probably many others we are in a niche market. This mean we sell relatively low volumes and the amount sold is as random as the weather. So it is really difficult to keep items in stock for the off the street customers. I believe this is why snowmobiling is one of the only industries that I know of that offer a snowcheck program. For example if you pre order your dirt bike before they come out usually the only thing you get is to pay more for it than anyone else.

Here is what I think.

Manufactures make a certain amount that they think they can sell and not have leftovers, this is much more important than is many other industries because are season are so short and random, the people who buy in the off season get their parts first. THEN whatevers left over gets sold to the late season people and once they run out of said parts the people who are waiting are going to half to wait until they get enough orders to warrant another run.

This is the exact reason we will be offering snowcheck deals with our products, because we have to make a certain amount just to break even and we cant justify the cost to have a huge inventory sitting around hoping someone will buy them, and in the end maybe giving them away just to break even, as stated above this is also no way to do business, IMO.

Just my thoughts!

 

[MARV1]

That is the question of the century
Since I started in the spring and summer taking care of my needs, I have always been ready to ride come snowfall. AND, I have money for Xmas.

Yup, I try to buy the good used stuff people will just buy again new in the fall/winter for a premium price. They sell to fund their summer fun for 25-70% less than retail. Retailers are also having sales in the off months as well.

 

[trinitypowder]

Why do so many sled customers wait till the last moment to prepare their sleds for winter. Only to be faced with waiting in line with all the other people who waited to order parts.

Many after market companies operate on a tight budget...and to be left with a large amount of inventory just isn't viable. So they do their best to get stock ready, only to be inundated with unforeseen orders.


Then when something, that has to be custom made, isn't ready over night....the flaming begins?

You talking about me Diz LOL. Here's my take on your first note. Most guys are busy working their a** off in the summer and doing other, summer type activities. Things that keep their minds far from the thoughts of digging their Yammy riding buddy out again. I know when I'm blazing around HPR on my CBR I'm not thinking one iota about sledding or what parts I want or need for next season. But, then it happens. A little October/November snow and PANIC sets in Suddenly, everybody thinks SLEDDING. What do I need, what do I want, what's cool, etc. It's human nature to want things right now. Not too many peeps will say, "sure, I'll wait til next season for that". I know I can't. MY recent incident has been taking care through, you guessed it, better communication. As every marriage therapists will tell you, that's the key ingredient to prolonging your marriage, and not your agony

 

[NorthMNSledder]

There are lots of companies that run on tight budgets. I know of some companies personally that can barely scrape by, and some that use money from orders placed today to put out orders that were placed a month or 2 ago. I am sorry, but that is no way to run a true business. I have also seen some companies that always have an excuse for why they are not delivering there products....they can only say that they are moving their shop so many times before people realize they are full of $hit.

I'm sorry did you say Team2?

 

[Hardass]

As far as poor service and communication that is just a crappy company, no excuse for this. There are just to many way's to talk with a customer. So in my book there is just no excuses here. Now the economy is affecting wheather company's have parts on there shelf in every industry not just sledding. Money is tight and as stated no one want's to be left holding inventory.

 

[Teth-Air]

Sometimes it is the customer! I have a guy who sent in an order and his credit card keeps getting declined. His email always fails and he left no phone number. He emailed me twice with complaints but I cannot get through to him.

What is a company to do??

 

[FirstPlaceParts]

My Thoughts

So many topics I don't know where to start, so if I jump around excuse me.
Most of what I am going to say is from our stand point and may apply to other suppliers you may deal with, I just know what is going on here.

Some if not most of what we, and you the consumer, are dealing with can be traced back to the original manufacturer. I'm going to name names so keep in mind that some of these are small business just like I am and they are doing the best they can.

1. A large quantity of our orders were held up due to Slednecks, their products were held up in customs. Which then made us look bad because we could not ship orders with their products on them. Not much either Slednecks or we could do about customs.

2. 509 has had some back order issues. A good problem for them because their stuff is just so popular they did not expect to sell as much as they have been. Not good for 509 or us because we cannot ship the products on a timely manner. 509 is a well run, family owned, company that is selling a lot of product, just did not have enough on hand due to sales volume. Not faulting 509, they do work their butts off.

3. FXR, a very popular product. We just have problems getting or keeping inventory current because their are based out of Canada. Thus if we don't have a specific model in a specific color it needs to be ordered from FXR and in some or most cases it is coming from Canada.

4. SLP, Parts Unlimited, Western Power Sports and more: Even the larger companies sell out of stuff which means we cannot get it, if we do not have it on hand, or it is on back order for days or weeks from these companies.

Just a few examples of how the larger companies affect the end seller.

On to the specifics of a small business like mine. Yes we did move, doubled our size. Added more permanent staff and have, at times, 5 or 6 part time people working and we are still behind. Most of it due to the issues raised above, not making excuses just telling it like it is. If we are waiting on stuff from 5 or 6 manufacturers we are literally screwed.

I'm not going to get into numbers here but we DO stock a lot of stuff. We pre-season large quantities of Klim, Castle X, FXR, Arctiva, Boss Seats, 509, and many more. ***We cannot pre-season every product in every size and every color. Maybe Parts Unlimited can we cannot. Take Boss Seats for example, they just dropped off 204 seats last Friday. Thats a good chunk of change but really a small drop in the bucket compared to what we have to pre-season.

****A long post, I know, I could have went on for pages.
Get your stuff early, remember that most of these companies are Small Business trying to carve their own little niche and not everything is in their control.

The consumer may not know why things are the way they are, like us not being able to answer the phones in over a week but there is usually a good reason. If their wasn't we would be answering the phone.

Thanks
Mark

 

[Reeb]

There are lots of companies that run on tight budgets. I know of some companies personally that can barely scrape by, and some that use money from orders placed today to put out orders that were placed a month or 2 ago. I am sorry, but that is no way to run a true business. I have also seen some companies that always have an excuse for why they are not delivering there products....they can only say that they are moving their shop so many times before people realize they are full of $hit.

And the sad thing is, your talking about one company in particular.

 

[Fireman35]

What company r we talking about. Or you guys talking about cause it isnt fair to the rest of us if we are ordering shut from them and getting screwed. If you can save us the trouble,and send us to someone that can do it right.