Accelerated Truckmounts - Is it worth the risk?

[TimP]

20k it sounds like he required all of the money... And I didnt know any of his machines were that expensive.....

Also sounds steep $ for a garage mount.

 

[gasaxe]

part of that was probably shipping...

still waiting on the first few d&*cks that threw the guy under the bus in the begining of this to thread to APPOLOGIZE...

 

[Spurling]

I don't have time for all the details. 6 years ago I bought a truck mount from Duane. I got it within a reasonable amount of time, and liked the machine. Last April 8th 2010, I didn't hesitate to send Duane full payment up front for another machine. He said I would get the machine within 3 weeks.

HOWEVER !!!! the machine didn't get delivered until end of SEPTEMBER, after 4-5 unanswered calls per day, after ridiculous excuses one after another, AND I still dont have that knob or thingamajig...like all my solution lines, water lines, propane line, connected hour meter, oh yea I had to hire a shop to tap into the blower to connect my vac guage, and my face plate came with 2 loose bolts out of 6.

I had planned for this purchase to replace my oldest truckmount prior to the summer season, instead I had to follow up with Duane all the time, dump money into a dying machine, run into downtime, and tech frustrations, because Duane didn't hold up his end of the deal. I paid up front, and luckily have spare parts to finish a new machine!!! , Randy

 

[Doug Cox]

I'm sorry, but that explanation, while most likely true, sucks and is really pathetic.

I have 2 machine shops under cleaning contracts, they do everything from titanium medical device parts to basic machine screws


no way you couldn't hand over machining specs and eaten it big time to avoid letting your customer to twist on the other side of the globe


kudos for accepting a majority component of the blame but holy shit that is beyond lame for an excuse

OMG!! Totally agree with Fred. I can't blame a chemical company for not delivering my chemicals when I don't get a carpet job done. Total bullshit.

 

[Art Kelley]

part of that was probably shipping...

still waiting on the first few d&*cks that threw the guy under the bus in the begining of this to thread to APPOLOGIZE...

I'm sorry the guy's machine sits unused in his driveway since July with no one to show him how to attach a solution line and put a mesh in his filter box. I'm not sure he's on speaking terms with Duane after bashing him on every board lately. Never a good idea to burn your bridges.

 

[TimP]

I just read on another board that the main thing is the filter. And there were good reasons for some of the delays. But how hard is it to get a mytee inline filter for the man so he can get to work? Then work on getting what he ordered built, and give the man a discount for his trouble or refund him for the filter. I'm also sure if you look hard enough you can find someone to weld some stainless for you as a distributor, even if you lose money on it a happy customer makes more business sense in the long run than a small loss on one component of a larger order.

A good business person will find a way to make his customer happy. It's called listening to what the customer has for the problem and finding a solution to fix it. This case the filter is the main problem, and there are other filters out there to get the machine going. I'm sure the other things can be taken care of if time was taken to problem solve and do something about it.

And to let it get this far is a scary thing for anyone considering one of his machines when it comes to taking care of a customer after the sale.

 

[Duane Oxley]

Duane,

1)How much down payment/Deposit do you require for a truckmount order? 30%, 40%, 50%

2) How long after giving a deposit does it take you to deliver to your customer a finished Truckmount ready for installation that day? I'm talking US not over seas.

I am just curious what can be expected. And I want everyone to know whats expected because you do make a great product and yes some delays can be expected and sometimes do happen.

Thanks
Jay

Jay:

As a rule, we've been doing a 50% deposit for custom orders, meaning systems that are made in a way that isn't standard.

We do require 100% before the systems are shipped.

A large part of what has been happening recently has to do with a deal that we got involved in in January- February, that got out of control in several ways that I didn't see until we were in the thick of it. That deal, not only cost us good relationships (like the one with Michael), but also cost us about $15,000 plus incidentals, that I simply didn't have to lose.

It's not typical for us to require a deposit of 50% on an order, other than custom ones. However, the above- referenced deal did shift that need on our part for several months, in order to keep things going here. (That's how badly that deal affected us.)

It's been nip and tuck for this last season, due to unfortunate mistakes that I, and I alone made. That, combined with the slow economy right now, resulted in a super- slow recovery from that situation, that otherwise would have taken a month or so. I had to let full- time labor go, had one key employee simply quit with no notice, had fabricators leave us hanging for weeks, and on and on.

Like I said, hard lessons on this end. If we were a larger company, these things would not affect us as much as they have, it's true. But then, we hope to be a larger company soon. I'm committed to that. So we're staying in the fight, despite what obstacles come up from time to time.

I see this as a sobering experience that showed me the areas that I need to shore up in order to keep a replay of this from coming up in the future. Namely:

1.) Have strict guidelines in place for custom orders and stick to them. (The multi- system deal that caused the bulk of this was one of those custom deals, and the reason it affected us was that I didn't stand my ground on the 50% for the entire order. I let myself be swayed by promises of large orders that would follow. I should have seen it as, "just another deal", and put it in line after other orders, done testing according to what I know is right, etc. Instead, I let their "rush" become our problem. Never again.)

2.) Wean us from being totally dependent upon outside fabrication sources. Much of the delays we have experienced in the past have had to do with fabricators pushing us back (yes, tit for tat, I guess) when larger customers placed orders, especially rush orders. In bringing what we can in house (frame and exhaust fabrication), we lower those costs, have frames in stock and ready to go and can therefore shift more money to fabricated parts to have in stock.

I've been working in the background to get a large investment from family, to make things smooth out. That deal was completed yesterday, actually and the investment will be in our hands within the next 10 days. Once that occurs, there will be no need for large deposits for systems (unless they're custom- designed and built), and we'll have one of every system we produce in stock. I truly wish that this would have happened long before now, but the truth is, that the problems that occurred this past Winter, actually paved the way for this influx to occur.

Randy, last time you and I spoke, nothing was said about hoses. I was under the impression that all was well, except that you had "too much vacuum" and the exhaust manifold glows red. I'll look into that shipment and see what's up.

 

[Spurling]

to answer the question .. is it worth the risk ? I say no .. I prefer to buy something ready to go .. I would never hand over money for something that hasn't been built .. my brother ordered this machine back in April with the idea of having it ready for the summer .. he would of bought one from someone else if he had known it wouldn't be ready .. he even asked for his money back so he could buy from someone else .. Duane would say it was almost ready .. he always had an excuse for what was taking so long .. I know Duane is a good guy .. hes very knowledgeable and willing to share his knowledge .. (for free) but the customer service really sucked this past year .. my brother really likes his machines .. but will not buy another unless its ready for pick up .. I would also buy a machine from him but only if it were ready for pick up .. I would actually drive down and look it over before writing the check .. I would still recommend his line of machines ..(which are quite powerful) but he needs to have them built before accepting the money .. a $500 deposit wouldn't be out of the ordinary .. would show you're serious about the purchase .. Paul

 

[Duane Oxley]

I just read on another board that the main thing is the filter. And there were good reasons for some of the delays. But how hard is it to get a mytee inline filter for the man so he can get to work? Then work on getting what he ordered built, and give the man a discount for his trouble or refund him for the filter. I'm also sure if you look hard enough you can find someone to weld some stainless for you as a distributor, even if you lose money on it a happy customer makes more business sense in the long run than a small loss on one component of a larger order.

A good business person will find a way to make his customer happy. It's called listening to what the customer has for the problem and finding a solution to fix it. This case the filter is the main problem, and there are other filters out there to get the machine going. I'm sure the other things can be taken care of if time was taken to problem solve and do something about it.

And to let it get this far is a scary thing for anyone considering one of his machines when it comes to taking care of a customer after the sale.

Tim:

The filter was another custom thing. We had the normal ones in stock. (Still do.) But the one ordered was only the second one ever done and the first wasn't even made at that point. The difference is that the custom one is a dual filter with a fine mesh stainless screen, under the standard stainless one. I had to design a way to filter it and then a way to mount that filter, and use the standard enclosure, which wasn't as easy as it sounds. The fabricator didn't get the drawings for it until Michael's system was shipped. We shipped the enclosure for the filter (i.e., the box), with his system. My feeling at the time was that they'd zip it out for us and I'd send it FedEx, beating the system to Michael, with regard to delivery date.

But instead, the fabricator balked at the fine mesh filter and tried to figure a way, finally dropping the ball. So I went to another fabricator to start the whole process again.

In the meantime, because of the inserted fine mesh filter, the larger "pre- filter" stage had to be made shorter in length, in order to allow the mesh to be positioned under it. The original fabricator made the original- sized filter, and took weeks to do it. When I pointed this out, they got frustrated, and I took it to the second fabricator to copy and shorten.

Believe me, if there were any way to get this done sooner... if I had the fabrication equipment... I would have.

At any rate, it's supposed to be ready tomorrow, so we'll ship it by Tuesday.

 

[Duane Oxley]

to answer the question .. is it worth the risk ? I say no .. I prefer to buy something ready to go .. I would never hand over money for something that hasn't been built .. my brother ordered this machine back in April with the idea of having it ready for the summer .. he would of bought one from someone else if he had known it wouldn't be ready .. he even asked for his money back so he could buy from someone else .. Duane would say it was almost ready .. he always had an excuse for what was taking so long .. I know Duane is a good guy .. hes very knowledgeable and willing to share his knowledge .. (for free) but the customer service really sucked this past year .. my brother really likes his machines .. but will not buy another unless its ready for pick up .. I would also buy a machine from him but only if it were ready for pick up .. I would actually drive down and look it over before writing the check .. I would still recommend his line of machines ..(which are quite powerful) but he needs to have them built before accepting the money .. a $500 deposit wouldn't be out of the ordinary .. would show you're serious about the purchase .. Paul

Thanks, Paul.

Agreed.

Like I said, it's been pretty hairy these last few months.

As for deposit, $500 is reasonable for domestic orders, non- custom. There have been a few times over the years (when we didn't require deposits at all as a matter of practice...), when people would "order" a system, schedule a delivery date, and then not show up. So I see some kind of commitment as an unfortunate necessity of doing things.

 

[Joel D]

Oh Mikey Mikey you let board wars blind you to the fact that this guy had a huge legitamite complaint against Duane. Not everthing is tmf vs mikey. You jump to Duanes side without even hearing everthing. Sounds Duane is stepping up to the plate now but this guy had to do an awful lot of wrestling. Does the Marty stuff fit into this somehow too? Greenie over and over and over. Your endorsement of a product is starting to mean nothing and its your own fault. Sounds mean but ill be the bad guy you can hate me if you want

What about Spurling's issues? No one has addressed that yet

 

[Duane Oxley]

Joel,

Thanks for noticing. But I've been stepping up to the plate on this one for some time now. This is a re-hash of something that for the most part, happened 8 months ago. When it came up then, I responded, apologized, explained, etc.

I know that Michael is frustrated and he has an undeniable right to be so. I've always recognized that.

This filter thing is the last of a bad situation that I've been pushing to set straight for months.

I don't think that Mikey saying that I'm not some kind of crook is the same thing as saying Michael has no basis for his aggravation, unless I misunderstand Mikey.

I addressed Randy's stuff with Randy. It was the same basic situation with the fabricators that I'm weaning us from now, coupled with key people quitting and other things mentioned and not mentioned above. He got his system. We forgot to do the vacuum gauge tap and I told him about it and what to do. It was one of those things that normally doesn't happen, but did for some reason. I'd meant to cover it and simply forgot until the system was crated.

I even came down with heat exhaustion / heat stroke there at the last from working in the hottest part of Summer with no help, which took me out for a few days, for all intents and purposes. (That's part of the ridiculous- sounding stuff that went on in the push to get his system out.)

The other stuff... hoses... I'll have to check into tomorrow.

 

[Jim Bethel]

Maybe an Aussie can tell us if the are any garage units available down there.

Yeah, there are a one or two that fit into that category over here. I know Mike, and it was cheaper for him to deal with Duane rather than to deal with one of the Aussie 'garage' builders.

 

[floorguy]

[quote="Mikey P":2r4464gm]Maybe an Aussie can tell us if the are any garage units available down there.

Yeah, there are a one or two that fit into that category over here. I know Mike, and it was cheaper for him to deal with Duane rather than to deal with one of the Aussie 'garage' builders.[/quote:2r4464gm]


DAYMN :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[Joel D]

Ive bought chemicals from you Duane and was happy. I applaud that your addressing each issue. Hopefully the past will be left in the past.

 

[Duane Oxley]

Thanks, Joel:

Basically, I screwed up in a big way and have been digging us out of it for the better part of a year. Trust me when I tell you that the lessons learned on my end from these past mistakes are burned into my consciousness to not be repeated.

 

[Mikey P]

Oh Mikey Mikey you let board wars blind you to the fact that this guy had a huge legitamite complaint against Duane. Not everthing is tmf vs mikey. You jump to Duanes side without even hearing everthing. Sounds Duane is stepping up to the plate now but this guy had to do an awful lot of wrestling. Does the Marty stuff fit into this somehow too? Greenie over and over and over. Your endorsement of a product is starting to mean nothing and its your own fault. Sounds mean but ill be the bad guy you can hate me if you want

What about Spurling's issues? No one has addressed that yet

Duane is not a crook he just a broke dick like you and me.

If you want to talk about Marty or Greenie please start another thread.

If Duane was not so reliable in paying for his monthly banner bills I would believe this guy, as it is I think it's bullshit.

As for that comment it was meant for Duane who is late on his banner bill and know damn well that I know exactly whats going on with the Merryweather guy.
Let me give you a hint Darker, dont ever try to read me pal, I've been at this game far too long to make it simple and boring for the likes of youZ.

 

[Joel D]

some of that was in regard to the 360i and other gadgets. I snuck it in here, i shouldnt have. It used to be if you said something was good i believed you. Now im gunshy. Its gonna happen to anyone involved in so many different products i guess.

Dont get too upset, with all the insults youve hurled at people for years and years you better have skin like a reptile.

trying to talk down to me is a cheap smokescrean. And i can read you better than you can read yourself.

this is fun

 

[Mikey P]

have you used a 360i on more than a demo day?



other than Smart Guy.com, name me a product I "endorsed" that do what I said it would.


and I stand by the Vortex being the baddest assed TM ever so dont even go there.

 

[Joel D]

i believe everthing you say about the 360. I guess i just didnt like your initial reply on this thread about merrywether and tmf. forget tmf. If you knew his story you should have admited it rather than trying to lump himin with tmf and thus hurt his credibility. Im getting too tired cant think night night. i dont like picking at you im honestly trying to raise the bar

 

[joe harper]

have you used a 360i on more than a demo day?



other than Smart Guy.com, name me a product I "endorsed" that do what I said it would.


and I stand by the Vortex being the baddest assed TM ever so dont even go there.

"OH Ya"...How about last week ... :x "When ..I said that I need to get off the phone.."

"And told you that ..I would call you back..." You ask..where are you going..?
"I said"......"I am going to RUN & get a BURGER...!"

Then you recommended ..."BEEF & GO"... :shock


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uJE48aK ... re=related

 

[Mikey P]

do you participate on TMF Joel?

 

[Walt]

I know of another manufacturer who had a similar problem. They were asked to build 6 expensive machines, but the buyer backed out at the last minute. They were left holding very expensive engines, custom parts, and tons of stainless. It left them strapped for cash and they've had a difficult time because of it. In a normal market this wouldn't be a problem because they'd be able to float the expenses. On top of this they had similar problems with suppliers and fabricators. This has totally impacted their ability to handle other obligations. I hope they are able to weather the storm, but know they have alienated other customers and missed plenty of deadlines. Their biggest failing, as I can see it, is that they haven't been transparent about what has happened. I think customers are very forgiving if they now what's going on AND if they are kept in the loop and don't have to call every time a deadline is missed.


Duane being transparent (at least here) is a very good thing. The only advice I'd offer to any one going through what he has is to call the customer before they call you. It's a hard call that nobody wants to make, but it's got to be done. Don't make them hound you.

 

[Joel D]

imo Duanes likable but should give them some money no matter what. Not huge maybe but something

no im not a tmfer

 

[joe harper]

Duane's..only CRITICAL mistake ..was in the customer service department...

The #1 reason that small businesses fail in "LACK OF CAPITAL"...or the mis management
of the capital they CONTROL.!

His situation is NO different than any small business being face with a contract that will expand their business. I can NOT count ...how many cleaner's get in OVER there head
when faced with the oppertunity to land a LARGE contract... :roll:

Not only...do they NOT have the PRODUCTION capabilities...the don't have the CAPITAL
to stay afloat if anything goes WRONG..! BIGGER IS NOT BETTER... !gotcha!

These guy's that ASPIRE to have "multi-truck"..operation's..have NO IDEA..what it REQUIRES.
For ..EVERY truck you add...You had BETTER have at least ONE FULL YEAR of that projected
revenue in the "BANK".... :shock: If NOT.???...That ONE TRUCK...will BUST you.. !gotcha!

PATIENCE....PATIENCE...PATIENCE...!!! All that gLiTTeRs is NOT gOlD... thathurts

Duane & his biz will struggle to..remove this SCAR.!! But he is NOW taken responsibility for
his ERROR in judgement... 8) He must MOVE-ON.... :idea: He will have to be BEYOND
reproach in EVERY transaction he enters into for YEARS...!!!

The best way to minimize..the bad publicity. Is to change the NAME of his COMPANY..
"NOW"............This will..STOP...the BLEEDING..on the NET... :idea:

It sounds as if HE will spend "YEARS"..trying to restore the ACCELLERATED NAME...Move on!!

CUT YOUR LOSSES....and START out with a FRESH COMPANY NAME.... !gotcha!

This can & does happen every day in the business world...
As he has STATED..."This will NEVER happen again.."

best of Luck...!!!

Harper

 

[Lee Stockwell]

How about "Advanced"??

 

[FB7777]

does anyone remember Advanced Truckmounts :?:

AcCelEratEd WAS the name change :shock:

Duane has been around for awhile




oops Lee beat me to it

 

[joe harper]

does anyone remember Advanced Truckmounts :?:

AcCelEratEd WAS the name change :shock:

Duane has been around for awhile




oops Lee beat me to it

WhOOp'S.....

Well ThEn HoW aBoUt.....PRIORITY CLEANING SUPPLIES............

When-ever ...someone "GooGlE'S"....ASSHOLES.... :idea:
DuAnEs...company will come up #2..on the 1st. page...... :mrgreen:

We all KNOW ...has the #1 position.. !gotcha!

Hello...mArY...

 

[Ron Werner]

I tried a dual filter approach. Discovered that the primary filter would clog first and faster and the finer filter hardly anything. I removed the primary filter and just use the 2ndary since it has about 2-3x the surface area.

 

[Duane Oxley]

No. No name change. The best thing is to stay the course and focus on not repeating past mistakes.

(Lee. "Advanced" was left behind when the partner at the time started up another "Advanced" and screwed things up so badly that I wanted to make it obvious that the new company had nothing to do with him. That's not applicable here, because I ultimately have only myself to point a finger at AND I'm dedicated to making good on this venture. I knew it would be tough without a partner, capital- wise, but I also knew it would be much better without a partner to have conflicts with. My designs are so much better than even the original "Hammer" systems, much less others that came after them, and it's attributable to doing things my way, for a change.)

Capital isn't the issue in the grandest scope of things... perseverance is. Over the years, I've continued in spite of whatever obstacles came up. And I will continue.

I've seen well- funded companies go under for lack of vision and perseverance. (Anybody remember Blue Line...?)

So, the answer, Harper, is an emphatic, "No.". Thanks for your advice. I'm sure you mean well. But I decline your advice.

Within 6 months, when you look back at what comes during that time from now to then, you'll actually see what, for all intents and purposes is a different company, with all of the issues mentioned, addressed.

But the name will still be what it is.