Victorian art glass/aim

[Deez]

Ok so i first placed the order for my aim 99lsd through victorian on. 7/28. After patiently waiting, i call aim up to see how my kiln is coming. They said it was being made and should ship soon. After about another week i call them, and they say the electornics are going in, and i should see my kiln shipped by the next week. So now its August 24th and dennis at victorian calls, and says that he just got confirmation from aim, and my kiln will ship the next day 8/25.
So thinking my kiln is on my way ive been chillen, but now its been a week and a half so i called aim directly today, and the lady says that my kiln hasnt been shipped, but is top priority. I ask here why everytime i call i get a different answer about my kiln, and she doesnt know why.
So after that phone call i call up dennis, and he is like oh yes, we are waiting on confirmation from aim, on your kiln and a few others, let me call aim right now, and get back to you. But to bad he never called me back.
What should i do guys, i feel like im getting dicked around, and its costing me money. buy not having my kiln, plus 750 bucks of mine has been tied up for over a month now.
Any help, or ideas are greatly appreciated.
-kind-

[Greymatter Glass]

I'd call and explain the situation to Dennis just like you did to us (word for word works)

If thery're not able to explain themselves and continue to feed you a story take your business elsewhere. Try AIM directly maybe?

Good luck, I hate it when I get dicked around like that (just happend to me a few months ago with my flat lap and kingsleynorth and abrasive technologies)


-Doug

[Dennis Brady]

Ok so i first placed the order for my aim 99lsd through victorian on. 7/28. After patiently waiting, i call aim up to see how my kiln is coming. They said it was being made and should ship soon. After about another week i call them, and they say the electornics are going in, and i should see my kiln shipped by the next week. So now its August 24th and dennis at victorian calls, and says that he just got confirmation from aim, and my kiln will ship the next day 8/25.
So thinking my kiln is on my way ive been chillen, but now its been a week and a half so i called aim directly today, and the lady says that my kiln hasnt been shipped, but is top priority. I ask here why everytime i call i get a different answer about my kiln, and she doesnt know why.
So after that phone call i call up dennis, and he is like oh yes, we are waiting on confirmation from aim, on your kiln and a few others, let me call aim right now, and get back to you. But to bad he never called me back.
What should i do guys, i feel like im getting dicked around, and its costing me money. buy not having my kiln, plus 750 bucks of mine has been tied up for over a month now.
Any help, or ideas are greatly appreciated.
-kind-

Unfortunately there's no way I can force AIM to manufacture kilns any faster. I don't think anyone could do that. I think they're producing them as fast as they can and shipping them as fast as they can. If there's a problem, it's that the popularity of AIM kilns is such that they're selling faster then they can be built. That's what happens when you supply a great product at a great price. I wish I could offer more, but all I can do is routinely relay what the factory tells us. I share your frustration. We have a large number of kilns on back order and nothing would make us happier then to be able to have them all available to ship now. I have no doubt I could sell another dozen kilns if I had them in stock. That's especially the case with large lampworking kilns. Whenever we've had one on display, it sold within a week or so. We had an AIM 2418 sitting in our shop waiting for the buyer to pick up and could have sold it at least twice if the buyer could have taken it with them. We're now ordering 2 kilns for every one we sell, in the hope that'll allow us to create some standing inventory but so far, they've been selling as fast as we can get them. We supply several retailers that are doing exactly the same thing.

I wouldn't blame you if you had become disenchanted and wanted to cancel your order. Alternatively, you could try contacting AIM direct at 1-800-222-5456. Ask for Susan or John.

[yibs]

I am in exactly the same boat as you. Almost identical, same order date only i order the 99ls. They gave me the same ship date too. Then last thursday I called vag and they said they'd call me back right away. I waited two hours before calling aim directly. AIM said they were just talking about me and my kiln would be shipped out either today or tommorow. I still haven't gotten a callback from vag and its been six days. I'm not so pissed about the waiting just the bs from vag. When I first placed the order they said 6-8days before it was shipped.

[Greymatter Glass]

See... now that's straight up service, thanks for popping in Dennis.

Still, there's something that bothers me here....

according to kindglass....

You called the customer (Kindglass) and said you had confirmation from AIM that his kiln would be shipping the next day.

So a question still remains: who dropped the ball? If we assume that AIM did confirm intent to ship and failed to deliver then everyone kinda dropped the ball.

From my point of view it seems rather unorthadox to confirm intent to ship without a prompt followup call to confirm actual shipment. That would apply to both AIM and Victorian Art Glass.

Kindglass could have been more assertive, and probably will from now on. Still, I'd have to suggest that you condider not relaying to the customer any information about shipping without tangible confirmation (i.e. a tracking number).

Finally... AIM makes a great kiln, but you're right, they're facing way more demand than they can supply. It may be wise to only offer kilns from available stock, and work on building an inventory. Or, at the very least let people know what's up before things get out of hand. The prices and quality are worth waiting for, if you know you're going to be waiting. (see: GTT torches)

Anyways.... have fun :)

-Doug

[Sol]

see its just be upfront and tell them its outta your hands..i order my kilns from grady(wink) and guess what..he tells me how it is..no blowing smoke up the hienie there..lol...
if you know about aim they do thier kilns in batches not one at a time.one week or so its a batch of 99's,the next something else and the next is something else..i have it on good word that the current batch of 99's is ahead of schedule...so maybe this will all be cleared in no time flat. good luck...

[Dennis Brady]

We're all dealing with the cascade effect of demand exceeding supply. Victorian sells kilns but AIM can't manufacture them as fast as they're sold. In order to make kilns, AIM needs digital controllers from Bartlett. Bartlett can't supply controllers as fast as AIM needs them. AIM might order 50 controllers but only receive 20. It's likely that Bartlett has identical problems with acquiring components to make their controllers.

It's common when demand consistently exceeds supply to solve the problem by increasing prices. So far we have all resisted doing that. Instead we're working hard to keep prices down and doing our best to fill orders as quickly as we can. It is still possible to get a great kiln at a great price - it just isn't possible to get it quickly. I learned long ago when discussing a prospective commission with a client, to advise, "We can do it good, we can do it cheap, or we can do it quick. Pick one". In the case of AIM kilns, we're able to do better than just one, but actually able to provide 2 of those 3. We, or AIM, could build a large inventory of kilns and be able to fill orders quickly - but then kilns would DEFINITELY cost much more than building them as they're ordered.

[Deez]

But Dennis id still like to know why you called me that day, and told you that you just got confirmation from aim and my kiln would ship the next day(8/25)

[Deez]

Oh yea and why you didnt get back to me after "calling aim" yesterday.

[Greymatter Glass]

I hear ya on the component supply chain problem. It's the war... all my electronic component suppliers are having a hell of a time getting basic components (transistors, capacitors, relays, LEDs, etc) and if there's a special part involved that the government needs they get it first (money talks)

Another problem is RoHS compliance. The EU formed a new standard for environmentally friendly electrical components and so all the shops in Asia are having to retool their assembly plants, which runs the cost up, and the supply down.

Also, if AIM switched to Bartlett controllers they're not a big shop, they certainly don't have the capacity to supply an operation like AIM from stock, so that might have been a miscalculation on AIMs part (still, bartlett makes the best I have seen)

As for not calling back when you should.... that's an unavoidable circumstance we all try to avoid, but I know shit comes up... still, you have an opportunity here to reply on your own schedule, I don't think you need to explain yourself in detail, but a sincere "Sorry man, we're just really swamped right now, and I couldn't get back to you when I said I would" should suffice for most situations like this. I don't think anyone will hold a grudge over that. Or they shouldn't, anyways.

Keep up the business, and don't make any calls unless you have a tracking number in hand - if a package hasn't shipped yet, don't tell someone it's going to ship soon (if they ask just say "we don't have a time table, you'll have to contact AIM directly)

If AIM drop ships then they should only get ahold of you when the item has shipped, not before then. If you ship upon reciept then don't say anything till you have the kiln in your possesion and it has gone out the door.

-Doug

[Dennis Brady]

Oh yea and why you didnt get back to me after "calling aim" yesterday.

It was my understanding you had been talking directly to Aim. If you prefer to talk with me instead, all I can do is relay what I'm told by Aim....which is, "We've making a special effort to expedite shipment of that kiln".

I am sincerely sorry it has taken so long to get your kiln built but there is nothing I can do to speed up production. I doubt there was anything AIM or Bartlett could do. We are all working as fast as we can. We have now established a policy of advising everyone that orders a kiln that :

"We will do everything we can to expedite delivery of your kiln, but contingent on factory production it could take 4 to 5 weeks."

[Deez]

WEll you better change that to 4-10 weeks for all im concerned.

[Swampy]

If the supplier promises to deliver by a specified date and fails to so then they should pay the customer interest at the current bank rate on the amount of money they received on the grounds of failing to meet their contractual obligation (even if it is a verbal agreement).

[Deez]

Yea man ive had 730 dollars tied up for over 5 fucking weeks. it is ridiculous, especially when no1 can give me a straight answer.

[Swampy]

I would say 28 days is a reasonable amount of time.

Past that and the supplier should be able to specify either an exact date or what extras they will give as compensation for loss of earnings (because you're probably promising your customers further down the chain, right?).

You paid your hard earned money in good faith to receive your item within a reasonable amount of time, simple as.

[timinny420]

i just ordered one from Grady - hope mine doesnt take that long - only time will tell - good luck peace

[Dennis Brady]

Everybody (especially me) should be pleased to hear that all back-ordered AIM kilns HAVE BEEN SHIPPED.

[Deez]

So i got my kiln today. no real instructions for my kiln, just the instructions for the 886 or something.Apparently aim is too lazy to print out instructions for every model kiln they make, because there are "so"many. But oh well i see that there are numbers on the kiln, i guess your suppose to line the number up. Get the counterweight arms attached, just to find out that my counterweight doesnt even fill the gap between the arms. Does anyone know whats up with this??

[J McGhee]

i ordered directly from AIM it was here super fast.... if i get the run around form a biz i tell them they can keep that shit and order form someone that get me the real deal....

people have bad custumer service, wont get my $......... so if your a supplier dont give the run around just give the facts.........

[Greymatter Glass]

yeah.... someone at our shop got an aim kiln that the counter weight wasnt the right size, it was short by about an inch. Solution was to get a couple of extra long bolts and a stack of washers on each one to take up the space on one side.

You'd thyink they would notice things like that..... AIM makes a good kiln, but they're not running a very tight shop.

[Bglass]

this isnt dealing with the supplier were talking about here but at kilns west my mom ordered the chepest smallest and easiest kiln to build, the stackable kilns without digital controllers.... well to make along story short, she called frequently and she waited for nearly two months after paying up front and even when it did get here it was missing parts!! they had to be shipped later... they came a month later.....
so i think its either aim needs to figure out something better????? because they lack!!!! hard...... and it goes to show wich suppliers out there are worth giving your money to,
its plain an simple i guess, ill take jasons quote...
Blake~

[Sol]

hahahahaahahahaahahah tight shop? you guys make me laugh...hard...wanna talk a "tight" shop and some "wait" times..order a gtt...better yet order a really expensive one.any way there is a pecking order to the shipping list i bet, and kilns west and victorian are prob not the top two on that list...supply and demand..