About Moss of Brown Note

[megemen]

Are you guys able to find Moss or is it just me?

[Structo]

Are you guys able to find Moss or is it just me?

PM sent

[Drumslinger]

it's been pretty quiet around the brownnote forum.

[Scumback Speakers]

I shot Moss an email about this thread.

[megemen]

I found him just recently. He will get my thing done the end of December. He says he is doing his best to catch up with the demand. Good luck to him.

[David Root]

He has the right problem from a biz point of view. Sounds like he needs to hire someone to handle the front office.

[Mr Dumble]

He has the right problem from a biz point of view.

Agree. From where I am standing, having to much work seems like a dream come true right now.

[GoghVan]

I just read a thread on the Brown Note Forum where some customers are waiting nearly 16 Months for a kit with almost NO communication.

I wish I had known about his before I placed an order. There was NOTHING on the checkout page that noted a backorder and NOTHING on the notice of reciept of payment noting a backorder. Just a link to check on the "status" of the order....which of course is BLANK.!!!

I worked in Home and Car Audio for years and did contract work for two Major co.s for more than 17 years performing 18,000-26,000 repairs and refurbs Per Year...!!!

When you have a backlog....You hire more people, even temps if you have to in order to get the job done. You keep an ample supply of parts, shipping supplies etc..!! You DON'T make customers wait an inordinate amount of time and ignore thier emails.

Some may be offended.....but I'm sure NOT as much as those who have paid a fee and are made to wait.

Wow...I can't beleive this is how ANY business operates.

[ampdork]

You performed 50 to 71 repairs daily?

[GoghVan]

LOL....At any one time I had between 7-12 techs working with my partner and myself. In a typical day a tech would repair between 8-20 units. Sometimes more if they were easy repairs to portable units or mods that needed to be performed.

With one co. we handled all returns from dealers East of the Miss. from Maine to Florida. The other co. I managed later on was sub-contracted to a major OEM Car Audio Mfg. who supplied high end audio to BMW's, MB, Jag, Volvo etc.

We also had an outside service center repairing VCR's, TV's, Home and Car Stereo, etc.

When you offer a service, whether it be repairs, a product what ever......you respect the customer's time and money as well as your own and try reach a fair balance between the two. From what I'm reading...this doesn't seem to be happening with SOME amp co.'s

I think it's only fair that if people advertise products and expertise....then a fair and balanced dialog is also needed. NO one should have to wait months and months for a product UNLESS they are told up front....."you will have to wait "XYZ" months to get your unit" AND....they agree to that arrangement. IE: Rickenbacker....most people are told that unless a store has a specific Ric model on hand that they will have to wait sometimes up to 2 yrs to get one. If you know that going in....fine...but to take a fee and not tell someone they won't get a product in a reasonable amount of time is, in my opinion, highly unprofessional and misleading.

As an additional note...In my first co. after a short learning curve we opted to do 100% QC on ALL products we repaired. Yes, it cost us more money but it also improved our reputation, customer service, and made for only about a 1% bounce rate which was much lower than most audio co.'s have when selling new products which can be in the 7% range.

Good customer service goes a LONG way....poor customer service can trigger the end of a co.

Of course these are my views after being in electronics since 1978....and not necessarily shared by all. But who would most people like to deal with? A co. that gives you all the info up front or one that gives you an unwanted surprise?....."Guess what? You've got to wait a year for something you thought you'd have in 2 weeks"......that doesn't cut it in my book.

Sorry for the long post folks....but lack of customer service bugs me when I read some of the posts.

[Billion81]

I'm not too hopeful I'll ever get my order

I ordered a d'lite in September of 2009.. Still waiting.

I referred a buddy to Moss and he actually got his amp. I have kept my mouth shut for a long time.

totally bummed. I like Moss but he has said to me on so many occasions that I would get my amp "next week" so many times it seems pretty hopeless.

[dartanion]

I won't make any excuses for Moss, however I know him well and he means to do the right thing. I visited him a few months ago and he is building as fast as he can, while taking orders and fielding an ungodly amount of phone calls, text messages, and emails. He does need to hire more people, but that's easier said than done. He has 2 guys helping him do builds, but Dumble style builds are certainly not a throw it together in a few hours type of affair.

He builds great amps, but does need to do something about the lead times and lack of communication.

[GoghVan]

After years of being in the electronics repair/refurb business I found that it was usually not difficult to find good help. The caveat is...you have to pay them well. Most Srv/repair centers etc. don't because they think it's too expensive.

Quite the contrary. I've found that if I paid a good tech (Male or Female) a wage close to the top of the pay scale for my region of the country AND told them exactly what I expected from them in the way of quality and quantity, gave them good training, and was flexible with time I almost always came out ahead and made MORE money and lowered the turn around time!!!

You have to tell them.."look, I'll pay you $X/hr and for that I expect that you won't be talking on your phone, taking a cig break every 1/2hr, and coming in late and leaving early but instead you'll need to produce at least "X" number of units/day and those units will be subjected to QC." You let them know up front they are being paid well for a job well done. I've found most tech's liked the honesty.....and liked the money. You can be flexible with time as well. If they need to take a few hours off but are willing to make it up....I tell you...an honest tech will bend over backwards to help you when you've got a deadline to meet. I've seen it plenty of times.

I've seen a lot of small business who don't operate this way because they think short term instead of long term in both business and personell relationships.

[Structo]

That is the biggest problem, the pay.

I used to look for the work and a shop would only want to pay about $10/ hr.

Minimum wage here is $8.50 I think so not much more for having the knowledge to do the work.
Seeing as how you can flip burgers for $8.50.

I remember coming out of school in 83 and with the recession going strong, I tried to apply at Tektronix and they said they were only accepting bachelor of science holders for bench technician jobs.
In other words test monkey jobs.

I had to go back to what paid the bills which was construction......now that is a bust here, just when I was trying to build my pension.

[M Fowler]

Without good requistioners and warehouse/shipping/receiving personnel your doomed as well.

It takes good business sense in your employees to know their product, the vendors and bulk buying power. Building is one thing but if you don't keep those parts moving in/out on time your doomed as well.

Many aspects to running a business like Moss has going. Reminds me of George M. and what happened to his business.