Re: Roedale Precision - does it still exist?
What the hell is the problem here ?
Now its time for me to have a well over due rant.
My staff take a couple of well deserved weeks off. I turn the phone off so I can work through without disturbance and catch up on builds and new products and all of a sudden Ive apparently been abducted by aliens, gone bankrupt or done a lord lucan. Despite the fact that the answering machine says we are on summer break and there is a message in the web.
Without knowing the identity of the guy who want's the rifle in question it difficult to say exactly what the problem is. But Ive only a couple of outstanding rifles for Austria,
I expect its the Avenger 1 in .270winchester that has been sat here assembled and proved and ready for a stock for about 16 months now.gathering dust. The Problem bieng it hasn't a got stock because the stock hasn't been delivered yet.
Customers where informed of the delay with the stocks,( there always seems to be a delay with stocks, irrelevant of what type) and after a wait and see if something anything turns up and after a discussion of what to do about it with the .270 customer an upgrade to Avenger II action was agreed upon, with no added cost for the upgrade.
One has to then reset the clock on what is essencialy an entirely new build as everything starts again from day 1.
As Edi mentioned the company who where supposed to make the Avenger II actions delivered nothing but what amounted to an expensive pile of junk that needed more work than any factory rifle ive ever worked on to be anything like usable. All customers waiting on Avenger II's where contacted and give the option of money back, a reworked Avenger II from this batch or a wait until the next batch of Avenger II's, (machined by a different and much more capable company) All but 5 of the batch where returned to the idiot who machined them.
Last agreement or update was that I would inform as soon as I could give a date when the new actions would be ready to go and a definate date could be set for shipping the rifle.
Simple fact is that we aren't so far with the actions as to be able to say when I will have a 30-06 length action for the .270win.It may be 4 weeks or it may be 12. Hence ive made no further update.
The stock for the original spec build still isn't here !
I'm absolutely sick to death of carrying the can for every other jo in the supply chain, every time one single goddamn part of a custom rifle fails to show on time, doesn't arrive at all,gets impounded by customs, lost by the postal service or arrives not as ordered or arrives damaged, I spend my time chasing and chasing it up, I spend hours on the phone with the end customer and usualy end up with a pile of unwanted parts because the customer wants to change build spec to make the whole thing go quicker. None of this time i get paid for and parts left over are always sold below retail value because they are usualy so individual.
I get the agro, I get my name slammed all over the damn internet. And there are certain individuals out there, who have never done any trading with us but seem to take pleasure from pouring oil on the fire of moaning as every customer lost because of shit like this is a an apparent customer gained on the part of thier mate, my opposition or competition.
Ive even had people call or email demanding items for free or else an internet smear campaign will ensue ! more than once !!the gaul of it !
Yet i'm the guy at the end of the chain just in front of the customer who busts his balls and bends over backwards to try and keep everyone happy.
Currently 2 full days of my 7 day , 15hour per day working week are fully spent with chasing suppliers, usualy in a different country and explaining to customers, time and time again, that "no, I am very sorry, but despite the assurances of supplier X, nothing has arrived just yet" " No I am sorry, we shipped it on date X, but DHL put it on a ship instead of air freight hence the 3 month delay"
Thats 2 full days wasted every single goddamn week.
Supply in the firearms industry is renowned as been slow. but some of the things that occur are beyond belief. Getting parts from overseas is bound by difficult and restrictive legislation, people who don't want to, or can't be bothered to do paperwork and that fact that we are just too far away to matter. Incompetent shipping companies who loose packages and officials at the customs office who take 4 hours to do the paperwork for every imported package whilst youi are sat there waiting.
Fact of the matter is that any riflesmith, me or anyone else is only as good as his suppliers. Unfortunately some of mine don't, or didn't seem to be up to it.
This is the reason that the whole emphasis of the rifle building side of Roedale Precision is currently bieng changed. No longer are we offering to build custom one of a kind rifles on the customers choice of parts from anywhere in the world. Manufacturers of components are simply not interested in small infrequent orders, it is not worth doing the mountain of export papers for 5 parts per year, hence parts take forever and a day to get. It is not economicaly viable, it is not good business and most of all, it just isn't fun.
What we are doing is building a series of custom rifles, just like many other do, limited choice, based on own or local manufactured parts as far as is humanly possible with certain parts sourced from only the most reliable suppliers further afield, and with the choice on options drasticaly reduced to enable the stocking of items on shelf the build time is drasticaly reduced.
This is the reason I have gone to the great personal lengths and expense of developing such a range of own products. I would suggest that we have marketed more own design products over the last 12 months and many many much much larger companies, Which is slowly starting to pay its dividends.
This year has been a bitch so far, with my Fathers stroke in December of last year and death in February and my Mother needing care, all in a country where I am not based meant I lost 3 months of work time. Ive been trying my damndest to catch up ever since. Suppliers not pulling thier weight and the constant pressure and extra work of everything associated with the supply chain are literaly making my life a misery.
I personaly build every single rifle, as well as doing the design, testing, developement etc of all of our own kit.
But we plod on and do the best we can and judging by the increase in the amount of sales through our webshop, which has doubled since the end of 2010, and the interest in the new series custom rifles, we are on the right track.
Yes, we make the odd cock up, and sometimes we are difficult to get on the phone, thats because we are so busy dealing with so many requests and we are only human, I tend to like bieng attached to my fingers and thumbs and will not use the phone when machining.
Geoff answers the phone from 08.00 till 13.30, when the phone is engaged, it still gives a ring tone so whoever is 2nd in line thinks there is no one there.
Ive said to Geoff we should call our selves Gunpedia, because every man and his uncle calls us for advice about guns and shooting.
"whats the best bullet for a large boar at 300m"
"My Sako shoots the first shot always 4cm high, what causes it"
"where can I buy new screws for my 98 Mauser"
" does a barrel on a Blaser R93 need running in"
Even questions related with our business.
" do you sell muzzle brakes" ( no thats why we have so many pictures in the webshop"
"Whats the price of shipping to...."
"Do you export to..."
please read the information that is in the webshop, it is there to prevent us having to waste time answering daft questions, which means customers with genuine matters fail to get through to us.
Honestly I keep expecing some one to call and ask if we can tell them if it will be raining the weekend after next, with enough sun between the showers to make the Roe deer move.
Then there are the customers who just nip in because they are in the area and hang around for 4 hours, there is a reason that visiting is by appointment only,. when I am in the middle of chambering a batch of barrels, I just do not want to be distrubed. but i'm to nice to throw anyone out so once they are here, work is disrupted.
If you can't get us on the phone, and it can be difficult I admit. Email to the support address generaly gets answered fastest and we also have a fax.Registered letters are fine, but if one arrives whilst we are away, chances are its been returned to sender before we get a chance to pick it up at the post office, which is by the way another wasted 1 hour round trip.
So apart from the time I was in GB because of the family issues, during the week before, during and after the IWA ( which takes you from December 14th to the end of march) and perhaps for 6 days in July where i was in GB again, If you haven't got ahold of me or one of my staff, then you haven't tried hard enough or haven't enough patience. If you've written an email with a daft question, chances are it was deleted. If the email was valid, chances are I just haven't had time to reply, or am checking on the status before I answer.
OK rant over. sorry about that. but its how it is.
I get upwards of 150 serious business emails per day, plus the spam. That alone is a full time Job, half of which are probably "has my stock arrived yet, when will the 3-20x50PMII be on the market because i'd like to change my order, have the AI side pannels arrived yet, "
the rest general enquiries and requests for quotes for one of a kind custom rifles. The phone rings from 07.30 until 23.00 all day every day, its a little quieter on sundays, but it still rings.
We are a small team of 2 guys who generaly have contact with customers, thats Geoff and me. Plus my missus helps out. Then we have Tom who does the CAD, PC work and graphics with the webshop etc. and we have some one for a bit of book keeping.
We are obviously victims of our own popularity because managing with the amount of requests, emails and calls is beyond our capabilities. It wouldn't be if every thing came on time, as ordered and in good condition, or if the postal services of the world where more reliable.
I am however sure that anyone who has ordered anything through the webshop has recieved thier items in a timely manner, and if not there was a very good reason why not and we did our best to deliver quickly.
So what are we doing about it.
Well for a start, changing from one of a kind rifles to series customs will cut my workload as far as talking to customers, giving advice and chasing suppliers by more than half. This will in trun up the rifle production, and building 10 like rifles is as quick as 3 that are all completely different. So production will increase.
We are looking for additional staff, which isn't easy to find. for a start trustworthy is top of the list, a clean record, thats a must. Then a bit of an idea about firearms is also a good thing. flexible, a team player, the right personality. and then affordable.
A woman is out of the question because we cannot afford to take some one on and then have them go off for 2 years maternity leave, with us having to hold the job open in the mean time.
I do like to employ veterans, why, because they have a sence of humour, are generaly trust worthy, will go the extra mile and i just feel more comfortable around my own kind.
Hence as of September we should have a new member of the team in the form of Sgt Scott B. soon to be Mr Scott B. Scott is a REME mechanic who's just about done is 22year in Her Majesties forces. he is a life long shooter and hunter and is handy with his hands and speaks German and English. No he won't be apprenticing as a riflesmith, but his organisation skills, admin skills, people skills and personality will be just the ticket,. besides that being handy with his hands he will be fine for assembling stocks and he may progress top testing rifles at the range.
My post is now more than long enough and ive used enough time,
anyone thats treid to get us and failed. please send an email through either the webshop or website. it will be answered.
I can assure that we are alive and kicking and stil at the top of the game.
Pete
p.s. Engin. are you sure you are writing to the correct address. for stocks for Howas.
[email protected]
for rifle questions
[email protected]
it could be you are using the old roedaleprecision email addy which isn't correct any more.
please give it another try, at least to make sure the coms work.
