MD2020 Who is dealing with him, I'm worried now!

[billyfras]

I still haven't had a response in over a month.

[ceocorona]

To reach out to 17 people doesn't seem like too daunting of a task... I have a hard time understanding that...

"Hey (insert name here),

I have your watch and/or parts I am sorry for the delays and negative PR I'm getting. You are currently X client in line. I appreciate your patience and understanding as I try and catch up.

Thanks,

(insert name here)"

There ya go. That took me all but a few seconds to write that. Figure out where all 17 people stand. I'm sure you have dates of when you accepted the work. Figure out an order and communicate to them individually.

Making two threads about your delays and apologizing to and entire forum board was part of this entire cluster. Apologize to your customers who are affected. Emailing those 17 people directly would have saved you all this grief...

Feel free to use the template "email letter"... I just still can't understand why people are still in the dark. 17 emails...

[Guest]

Yeah. That sounds easy actually. Now all you have to do is learn to repair watches and you'd easily be the best watchsmith ever!!

[fraggle42]

NAME

1. Tony

2. Panerai

Everyone else has received notification from Mike?

As I stated, I was also one that was in this mess when it all started and I received communication & my watch back from Mike.

 

I was just going to say maybe a simple list that Mikes customers can add themselves to, and indicate if they've had communication or not, and if so, has everything been sorted or not.

 

Something like this:-

USER           CONTACT METHOD              RESPONSE             RESOLVED?

NAME                 PM / EMAIL                    RECEIVED                   Y / N

A.N.Other                PM                                  Y                             Y - Watches posted back to me

Panerai                 EMail                                 N                             N - Email sent xx/xx/2013, awaiting answer.

 

(sadly this forums BBCode doesn't support tables which'd make it nice and neat - ho hum)

 

[billyfras]

Mike PM'd me today. Gave me a brief update and apologized for the delay in communication.

[denisegold]

All I can say is MD2020 has been on point with all communication with me. I think that members need to understand what he's saying. Parts cannot be ordered from your local store like with auto parts. I myself had sent pics and measurements to a TD for a part that was needed. I even referenced my order number so that they could reference it on their side. Three shipments later (4 weeks) I finally got the plastic part needed.

[ceocorona]

Yea simple shitty parts from china that break and you cant buy anywhere and then when you find it a month later you have to order it and then shipping is another 2 weeks and then you get the part and the stupid supplier gave your the wrong one or it doesn't fit. YEa easy. You don't get it because your not dealing with it. I have over 200pms from different ppl now try sorting thru those to find the ppl that you need to get ahold of?  ITs not as simple as you say it is.

 

We can spend all our energy coming up with excuses on why the world isn't perfect.  

 

At the end of the day you have 17 watch projects on hand.  Therefore you should have customer information for each of those projects.  That seems pretty easy and logical to me.  Take in watch/parts and associate it to a customer name.  Now if you don't have this very basic system (watch/part to customer record system) in place then yes, you are correct when saying it is not as easy as I've explained it to be.  If thats the case I can only imagine the mess you're trying to sort through.  

[panerai153]

All I can say is MD2020 has been on point with all communication with me. I think that members need to understand what he's saying. Parts cannot be ordered from your local store like with auto parts. I myself had sent pics and measurements to a TD for a part that was needed. I even referenced my order number so that they could reference it on their side. Three shipments later (4 weeks) I finally got the plastic part needed.

That's not the point. Not everyone is waiting on parts from China. And even if they were, and update is in order if the customer wants one. A simple, your part is on the way or they sent the wrong part, is sufficient.I'm very happy for you that your line of communication has been intact, unfortunately, that has not been the case with others. Under normal business circumstances, if I were waiting on a part, or my order for something was delayed, I would get on the phone and call the business and ask customer service where my order was, or shoot them and email asking the same question. I don't think that in all my years of doing business, I have had to wait over a day or two to get a reply from someone. In Mike's case, I don't have access to his phone number,and like others, my PM's have to this point been unanswered.

[ceocorona]

We get it.  Trust us.  We've been there and sympathize.  I've lost several loved ones this past year, but business is business.  You just don't neglect your work responsibilities. It is not about placing more importance on reps over your family.  Not one person has said that.  Its about a business and what you owe your customers. I am sure these reps you "give two shits about" help keep the lights on. So to neglect those responsibilities and push back by saying "stupid reps" is just poor business and plain immaturity on your part.  Accept it or not, but people shouldn't have had to work as hard as they are to get a hold of you regardless of what life has dished you.  Especially when there is money and commitments involved.  I am trying to think of a situation where I could neglect work for over a month and blame others for my absence.  I can't, sorry.  Like I said I had several close members pass and the last thing on MY mind was leaving my work responsibilities. 

 

Best of luck to you and I do agree you do need a drastic change in how you run your business.  I might suggest more organization and some contingency plans.  

[JoeyB]

 The Zigmeister on the other hand was very upfront with his rules...required that any new customer be recommended by someone that knew them who was already a customer. The Zigmeister got burned a few times at first, but he learned fast, culled the customer list, and eliminated the problems.

Mike, I'd suggest you think about this. 

[Akira]

I didn't give a f&$k about reps and work

This line is how you should name you repair section on this board.

So everyone knows...

[imajedi]

This seems like such a joke to me because it's all so unrealistic.

The reality of the situation is that the market demand will determine how MD needs to run his business and the 143 posts here giving him advice on how to do it are a waste of time.

If MD continues to be one of the only guys with his skill that will do the work at a fair price we will continue to send him out watches even if we don't hear from him for months. TC and Vac are both proof of this.

Can we just say enough is enough already. Sorry for your loss MD.

[Tonyyammine]

Mike i have no problem with you. There are no parts for you to order for me from China. I have a 1655 with you,. I have a swiss movement that is made for that watch with you. I have a silver datewheel that you were supposed to get for me a ingod dial and other parts. last time i spoke to you i was told by you it was almost done. At this point all i would like to know is if you have the parts. When you finish you finish i have no problem with that. All i need is a yes tony i have them or yes jerkoff ( because i already posted 5 times here and u said not one thing to me) i have them i could not care less what you call me. I dont know if it can get more simple than that. Im right here you dont need to go over your 200 hundred email or pms you dont need to look at your 20 plus watches here you go just answer this and then get back to me when the watch is done. Cant get easier than this.

[sgtguk]

Mike made two threads, one explaining his being ill, and the 2nd explaining a death in his family.  Any heroic support to fend off the vultures should have been added to Mike's own threads. Then all the explanations are in one place. Then everyone knows a fellow member has a personal problem. Then everyone knows that a fellow member lost a loved one. Then everyone knows their precious "babies" were safe and sound. All this thread has done is to show that some of our members value their "babies" more than a fellow member's health or well being, and that some of our members like to threaten other members. We already knew what lawyers are, so that wasn't needed either. 

In my opinion, this thread is not necessary, nor warranted.

 

Like I said JoeyB your entitled to your opinion, here's mine, this thread wasn't intended as Heroic support and I never said it was either, don't tell me what I value nor accuse me of threatening any member here either, so do me a favour and pull your head in points scoring in this thread is a waste of time and energy.

 

In my opinion this thread was needed and with the amount of interest it has had I think and indeed I hope that it has enabled Mike to alleviate some issues through it. 

[tomhorn]

Having a hard time understanding how this thread got to where it has. I don't know MD personally, but I do have a project with him. He is waiting on me to send him some additional parts for a build. While I am ready with the parts, I saw his posts about what was going on in his life, and decided not to send them yet because I knew he needed to get caught up and get himself back into the swing of things.

 

Anyone who was currently doing business with him, or was thinking about it, should have seen the same thing. I understand people have watches and money tied up, but MD did do what we would have wished several others would have done. He posted what was going on and why there would be a hold up on the work he had with him. He also let us know when he was back.

 

I run a few small businesses myself and I know from experience when something happens that causes the business to get out of its normal routine, the first thing that happens is I get tons of emails, messages, phone calls from customers wondering what's up ... either in general, or with their specific business. I always post a generic message to my customers (either blast email, or on my websites) but normally am not able to contact individuals when the outage affects everyone. The sheer volume of those responses would prevent me from overcoming whatever is actually gumming up the works. In my case, they are e-commerce businesses, and quite frankly I would rather get the site back up and running, and then worry about contacting individuals.

 

Once things are back to working properly, I post an 'all clear' the same way I sent out the 'there's a problem' message. Only then do I start responding to the individual communications. Sometimes it can take days, if not weeks, to get back to everyone. It happens because I can't stop everything else and just do that, so I take whatever time opens up and get it done a bit at a time. In one of his previous posts, MD said he had 200 PMs to deal with. Regardless of whether or not they require a response, he still has to go through all of them. Not to mention, he still needs to work on the projects he has. And since failing to respond to threads like this one will allow everyone to speculate that the sky is falling and they're about to get screwed, he has to monitor the board as well. Even if it took just 5 minutes per PM to read, research and respond, that's 16 hours of work alone.

 

It's easy for anyone on the outside to say "well you should have done this" but until you are in the battle, you simply don't know ... especially if you've never been a sole proprietor that doesn't have a staff to fall back on. If MD was a scammer, he'd have just disappeared without posting anything. The fact that he told everyone what was up, and let everyone know when he was back speaks volumes. If you have work with him, some patience is going to be in order (rule #1 of the rep hobby). I personally believe everything will get sorted, but please give the guy a chance to breathe.

 

MD ... if you haven't already you should take the time to contact only those people with projects you currently have and let them know where their project stands so they worry less. Everything else can wait. Once the dust settles, I hope you will have time to figure out some ways to minimize the grief that comes along with doing work for all of us. Whether its going The Zigmeister's route and being very selective about customers, taking fewer projects, or getting someone to help with communications is ultimately up to you. I do know the hobby would hate to lose someone with talent who is willing to work on our projects. Sorry for your loss. Losing a family member is tough enough ... dealing with the estate only makes it worse.

 

[JoeyB]

Like I said JoeyB your entitled to your opinion, here's mine, this thread wasn't intended as Heroic support and I never said it was either, don't tell me what I value nor accuse me of threatening any member here either, so do me a favour and pull your head in points scoring in this thread is a waste of time and energy.

 

In my opinion this thread was needed and with the amount of interest it has had I think and indeed I hope that it has enabled Mike to alleviate some issues through it. 

Yes, I am. And I certainly meant the term I used, "heroic" as  a jab. Your post reads to me as using a faux heroic stand to cover your complaint.   I didn't mention your values, nor did I accuse you of threatening anyone. Reading, evidently much like patience,  is a skill.

 

In my opinion this thread was NOT needed, as I said.

 

With few exceptions, the vast majority of complainers in this thread are 'newbies'. We have a member here who can repair watches. Technically I suppose it is a business, he shouldn't repair a watch for free. But he doesn't have a storefront or a neon sign on Main street. He is a MEMBER here, a hobbyist as we are, and those of us who've been around a while seem to know this, while the newbies whine about 'are we there yet', and a guy with 4 lousy replies here, ALL complaining in this thread, makes threats and harasses with phone calls to Mike's house. 

 

 

Our hobby is "replica" watches. In the real world that means 'fake' or 'knockoff',  it is illegal in most countries, most are shipped by sneaking them out of a country, or in or both, so getting the watchsmith on Main street with the neon sign to fix one is near impossible. So we ask our fellow members to repair and mod our watches for us. Sure, we pay for it, but nowhere close to what a watchsmith would charge for the same work. Does that mean that our fellow member is now the local Walmart?  'I want it now',  'I want my hand held', I want-I want-I want!!! Does it give anyone the right to even have the idea that any of our members is in some proper business with staff and little claim tags for your repair? Does it give ANYONE the right to THREATEN a fellow RWG member? 

 

No. 

 

 

This thread is 'premature evaluation'. Odds are that the 'are we there yet' crowd in this thread have posts elsewhere asking the membership how long it takes for Andrew to ship, or how long will my order be in customs. I've never made a 'newbie' bashing post, but this thread brought it out. Looks like Dave was right. 

[sgtguk]

Yes, I am. And I certainly meant the term I used, "heroic" as  a jab. Your post reads to me as using a faux heroic stand to cover your complaint.   I didn't mention your values, nor did I accuse you of threatening anyone. Reading, evidently much like patience,  is a skill.

 

In my opinion this thread was NOT needed, as I said.

 

With few exceptions, the vast majority of complainers in this thread are 'newbies'. We have a member here who can repair watches. Technically I suppose it is a business, he shouldn't repair a watch for free. But he doesn't have a storefront or a neon sign on Main street. He is a MEMBER here, a hobbyist as we are, and those of us who've been around a while seem to know this, while the newbies whine about 'are we there yet', and a guy with 4 lousy replies here, ALL complaining in this thread, makes threats and harasses with phone calls to Mike's house. 

 

 

Our hobby is "replica" watches. In the real world that means 'fake' or 'knockoff',  it is illegal in most countries, most are shipped by sneaking them out of a country, or in or both, so getting the watchsmith on Main street with the neon sign to fix one is near impossible. So we ask our fellow members to repair and mod our watches for us. Sure, we pay for it, but nowhere close to what a watchsmith would charge for the same work. Does that mean that our fellow member is now the local Walmart?  'I want it now',  'I want my hand held', I want-I want-I want!!! Does it give anyone the right to even have the idea that any of our members is in some proper business with staff and little claim tags for your repair? Does it give ANYONE the right to THREATEN a fellow RWG member? 

 

No. 

 

 

This thread is 'premature evaluation'. Odds are that the 'are we there yet' crowd in this thread have posts elsewhere asking the membership how long it takes for Andrew to ship, or how long will my order be in customs. I've never made a 'newbie' bashing post, but this thread brought it out. Looks like Dave was right. 

 

Congrats yet again on bringing the thread to total shite oh and for your first newbie bashing post, idiotic at best, and btw I can read perfectly well thank you! 

[devilseam]

Fellas, this is getting out of hand. It seems Mike is working though his problems and has contacted most people, what started as a thread to provide updates on work currently with Mike, has turned in to a slanging match between respected, long term members.

 

I feel for everyone who has work outstandining with Mike, as I myself am one of them, however I have heard from a few people that Mike is slowly but surely progressing through his work load, to me this is a simple case of too much work to handle, im guilty of the same thing myself, its natural when you own your own business. Mike has taken on way too much work and after a series of unfortunate events it has left him way behind.

 

Unfortunately patience is the answer here.

[sgtguk]

Apologies, you are quite right nuff said from me anyway   

 

Mike is indeed in touch and has completed works for me apart from some parts issues, he has done so with great patients too I might add.

[JoeyB]

Congrats yet again on bringing the thread to total s­hite oh and for your first newbie bashing post, idiotic at best, and btw I can read perfectly well thank you! 

No need to congratulate me. The thread began as a "s­hite oh" and regressed with the 'are we there yet' crowd.  

That's odd. You seem to miss some of the words. Please how me where I addressed your values or said you threatened anyone. 

[Guest REPPIN]

Seriously guys, 

 

This thread needs to get closed. 

 

This guy is doing the best he can, he lost a loved one, he STILL responded on the forum and is continuing to finish his work....

 

What more do you internet commandos want???

[al qaeda with cheese]

This thread to me is beating a dead horse.... The guy had a family member die, a root canal and we had floods. I live near mike, boy did we have water and power outages.

Now people in this forum are turning against each other. Mike has some of my watches and I will ask him to do more work for me. If you feel like he is taking too long go find a watchmaker near you that will work on reps. I just wish this thread would go away. Now people are attacking others, based on replies and jabs.... Give me a break.

[panerai153]

I asked two days ago to have it closed, Mike asked that it be closed, it has deteriorated into a name calling, acrimonious thread that is not serving any useful purpose. What is happening is folks are saying things in the heat of the moment, which some will regret later on. Sadly, some don't even have a dog in this fight, but post anyway. I can guarantee, nothing good is going to come out of this.

Mike, if you are reading this, don't get sucked into this any more than you have. I know that a lot of the comments have been hurtful to you and make you angry, but the best thing is to stay above this, keep working and all this will pass.even though it's difficult, try not to let this thread lead you to make statements you will regret later. This thread, like every. one before it will, if not closed will run it's course.

Have a great day everyone.

[martijnp]

Just leave Mike alone for a couple of day's, give him some time to spend with his family. Let's close this topic

[freddy333]

I think this thread has gotten out of control, so let me add a couple of points -

1st, MD2020 - I get that you suffered a serious loss &, therefore, sending out updates to every customer was not realistic. Still, if you want to be taken seriously in business (& get my vote when the time comes to providing you a forum & official sanction), you cannot leave customers hanging for more than 24 hours unless you are physically incapacitated (or dead). To that end, the appropriate thing to have done would have been to post a 2-line message to your customers in the General Discussion forum stating 2 things - the reason for your delays (death in the family) & a firm date upon which you will be contacting customers with updates on their work. &, then, of course, follow through on THAT date. This will not take more than 1 minute of your time & should not disrupt your personal activities. In my experience, there is no excuse (other than physical incapacitation) for anything less.

2nd, to your customers - I feel your pain. But experience has also taught me that, especially when watches (or cars) are concerned, guys can become pretty neurotic when expectations are not met. But you just have to keep perspective & try not to inundate sellers & modders with repeated messages demanding answers or money. People do have lives away from the online world & personal issues arise that sometimes cause delays & communication breakdowns. My rule of thumb in these cases is to give the person 1-2 weeks to respond before screaming scam or rip-off. At least not publicly.

Hopefully, now that MD2020 is back in communication, we have all learned something.