Bottlehead Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Doc B. on December 13, 2011, 01:05:00 PM
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In spite of the ongoing dreary outlook going around about the economy, we have been slammed this Xmas season, starting about late October. Obviously we are very pleased with the fact that folks want our kits, thank you! I'm sure it looks to the outside world like we are doing nothing but making people nervous about getting products in time for the holidays.
In fact we are kitting up parts and burning manuals and such as fast as we can. However it appears that some of our suppliers have been caught unprepared for our orders as well. Many kits have been stalled for the past few weeks by the backorder of a part or two. We have supply shipments that are temporarily lost, some that have fallen behind the original ETA, and some that are backordered until pretty close to Xmas.
Queenie has been working these issues with remarkable agility, riding herd on all of the little delays, and we are starting to see the things we need show up. So there should begin to be a whole lot of just about every kit shipping out starting tomorrow and continuing into early next week.
So hang in there folks, we intend to take care of each and every one of you and get those kits you've been waiting for into your hands ASAP!
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OK, things have started to flow! Quickies, S.E.X. kits and Stereomours shipped today. We have more of all of those to ship in the next day or two, along with Eros, Seduction, Paramount, Smack, power cords that were ordered with kits (power cords ordered on their own have already shipped) and of course a huge batch of Crack kits. Those are packed as far as we can take them, and the chassis should be shipping out to us Friday. So about 80% of the Crack orders we have should be going out en masse early next week. The rest will ship when we get the next shipment of chassis and power transformers in early January. Foreplays are awaiting chassis plates which should be here soon after Xmas.
Everyone here at BHQ is on KP (KEEP PACKING!) and we will probably be working through the weekend to make sure we fill every order possible by Xmas.
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Thanks for the update.
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Sounds like your elves are having to work extra hard for Santa hope one of the Seduction kits being packed will be coming my way.
Thanks for keeping us all updated
Happy Holidays to to all at Bottlehead
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How about a Christmas Bottlehead logo with the Santa hat on it?
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A shipment of wood bases should be arriving this morning, that was the last piece we were waiting for for several kit orders. Thanks to JR for getting those to us so quickly!
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Can you be addicted to Crack before even having Crack?
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A critical "lost" shipment of tubes and sockets arrived today. We got a lot of kits out yesterday and we are getting a lot more out today. In spite of my main workstation crashing a while back and not having time to fully reconstruct it (don't believe that a RAID 1 array is easily restored!) I have attempted to kludge together enough software on other 'puters here to be able to update the web site. I have updated the delivery status page to the current moment. There are still a lot of things that look way backordered. The status on those will change as at least three critical components that we have been out of show up tomorrow. So it will be worth checking here or on the delivery status page later tomorrow and late Monday for more current status.
At this point we have shipped the oldest SEX kit, Smack, Quickie, Stereomour, Eros and Seduction orders. More of these will ship as the back ordered parts arrive tomorrow. All of the Paramounts are packed and are either shipping today or awaiting shipping instructions and will ship ASAP. The oldest Crack kit orders are just waiting for chassis panels that should arrive tomorrow, so Eileen and I are planning a major Crack-pack tomorrow. More will ship when we get the next batch of chassis panels in, probably in early January (By the way that next production run is already about 2/3 sold out, so if you want a Crack early next year, order it NOW). Foreplay will also be a bit delayed yet as we are awaiting chassis panels due in the week or two.
OK, that's what I know. Back to the CD burner...
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May I say this thread makes me proud. Congratulations on your business demand exceeding supply. If all our companies were in such as state, we would be all Bull and no Bear! Well done, Doc and Team!
And a Merry Christmas to all...
John
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Well, thank you! I have to say that the support you guys give us makes me proud.
Getting ready to move a whole lot of Crack today, and some Speedballs.
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Dan,
Thanks much to you and the rest of the team there, and as John said, it makess me proud to be a Bottlehead. I wonder how many of these are folks new to BH vs people upgrading or adding to their collections -- but in either case, lots of great audio for all involved.
John, I think it's all about great sound, superb value, and dealing with friendly, competent people of impeccable integrity that is the key here. How great it would be if every company did business like this.
Thanks also Dan for the updates -- hope one of those Eros kits will be coming my way, and maybe something else, but I'm not supposed to know about that :-).
-- Jim
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Well, thank you! I have to say that the support you guys give us makes me proud.
Getting ready to move a whole lot of Crack today, and some Speedballs.
Dan,
I can't help but wonder if your posts come up one the DEA internet searches????
...John, I think it's all about great sound, superb value, and dealing with friendly, competent people of impeccable integrity that is the key here. How great it would be if every company did business like this....
Even though we hear this often from newbies let me second this.
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Lots of Bottlehead holiday cheer, queued up for the UPS man and the postman.
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fa3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-ak-ash4%2F387374_291892184179871_112709328764825_819376_1684837451_n.jpg&hash=8116c5006727c978eb8df47aafaa159da759cbe1)
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I can't quite read the labels..Pretty, cool this Bottlehead community.
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I'm pretty sure I see mine there next to the potted plant! Best holiday wishes to all at Bottlehead HQ!
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Well, thank you! I have to say that the support you guys give us makes me proud.
Getting ready to move a whole lot of Crack today, and some Speedballs.
Dan,
I can't help but wonder if your posts come up one the DEA internet searches????
...John, I think it's all about great sound, superb value, and dealing with friendly, competent people of impeccable integrity that is the key here. How great it would be if every company did business like this....
Even though we hear this often from newbies let me second this.
Even though I a newbie to BH I have done a lot of online purchases in my time and I have to say Dan, for such a "family" operation your service is exceptional as well as the product offerings.
I don't know about DEA searches but I'd love to see the look on Canada Customs faces if you filled out the declaration form as "1 Crack Kit". If they didn't open and search it I would likely have a visit from the RCMP with the postman. Speaking of the Customs Man, do you order from the Tube Store and Parts Connexion? Do you pay duty on the shipments? The reason I ask is that when I pay duty for the kit they are essentially collecting duty twice for the same parts. Nice racket they have! Canada customs collects duty when the goods are shipped to these distributors, you pay duty to US Customs and Canada Customs collects it again when you ship to us here. Just a little side note in the season of shipping!
Keep up the outstanding service
Cheers and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Mike
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I see from the updated delivery status that Cracks ordered through 11/30 have shipped. I ordered on 12/1. Does that mean I might get lucky and have mine shipped early this coming week or is that the cutoff for this batch and delivery early in the new year is more realistic?
It works either way for me, I just would like to know so I can plan around some other projects I've got on my list. I know you folks are doing the best you can and, like everyone else, really appreciate your efforts.
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I pulled the trigger on an Extended FPIII upgrade and a Speedball upgrade during the black Friday sale. I don't know when I'll have time to install my upgrades due to a hectic holiday schedule. If it helps, I can wait a little in favor of getting someone else's kit delivered for Christmas. Happy Holidays and congratulations on another successful year at Bottlehead. Just wait until the economy picks back up again ;-)
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I see from the updated delivery status that Cracks ordered through 11/30 have shipped. I ordered on 12/1. Does that mean I might get lucky and have mine shipped early this coming week or is that the cutoff for this batch and delivery early in the new year is more realistic?
Hi Bob,
IIRC your kit did ship. You should have a Quantum View shipping notice from UPS if it did, and if the notice didn't get junked. If we don't ship all of the orders from a given date I will post the previous day's date on the delivery status. But I think we may have been able to ship a kit or two that was ordered on the 1st. I'm not at the office to verify (it is, after all, Sunday and audio mfgrs need to take a little time off to Xmas shop too!), but I'm pretty sure I remember putting a shipping label with your name on it on a box.
To folks who ordered after 12/1 - we have another shipment of panels on order, that should cover most of the orders we have received since 12/1. I will guess that those kits will ship in early to mid January. Orders are still pouring in, so we will be ordering another batch of panels ASAP.
Once again thank you all for your patronage! We took a big gamble moving into our $new office$ and you are making us happy that we did so and can be more efficient for it.
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I see from the updated delivery status that Cracks ordered through 11/30 have shipped. I ordered on 12/1. Does that mean I might get lucky and have mine shipped early this coming week or is that the cutoff for this batch and delivery early in the new year is more realistic?
I'm not at the office to verify (it is, after all, Sunday and audio mfgrs need to take a little time off to Xmas shop too!), but I'm pretty sure I remember putting a shipping label with your name on it on a box.
I think what impresses most of us who do business with Bottlehead is quotes like the one above. Where else would one of the principals remember your name on a box!?
I didn't get any shipping notification (hence my post), so I'll call a bit later today to confirm [CORRECTION - The notice was buried in my inbox. It's due to arrive on Friday! ]
To all the folks at Bottlehead and on the forum - the very happiest of holidays and a wonderful New Year.
Bob
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Dan,
When you have a minute, can you let me know if my Eros kit shipped? I only ask because from my records it looks like I ordered on Oct 15 and the shipping status page says that everything through 11/14 has shipped and I did not get a QV notice.
Only reason I ask is because we're headed out of town first thing Thrursday and if it has shipped and won't be here until after then, I'll have to have a neighbor keep a look out for it. No biggie as I obviously won't be able to do anything with it until we return in January, but don't want it sitting on our porch all that time.
Thanks,
Jim
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Hi Jim,
Our records indicate that your order was actually November 15th, which means it's the next one in the queue to go out. We have a situation in the packing area this morning - the phone company was digging outside and broke a water main, which filled the back hallway and part of both the packing room and the lab with mud. The crew just arrived to clean up the mess. Once we get cleaned up we will be back to getting out as many orders as possible.
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Dan,
Thanks -- that was November? Wow, things have been even crazier here than OI thought :-).
Sorry about the mess, and no rush on my behalf too much on my plate right now and I just bought a basic phono pre to get me started so I can take my time with the Eros.
-- Jim
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Hi Doc,
As btrancho mentioned, delivery status page says order thru 12/1 have shipped, I've ordered mine 11/28, any update on my order?
Thanks in advance,
LA
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I'm not in the office at the moment, but there are quite a few packages shipping outside the US that are waiting to be picked up by the postman today.
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Thanks much to Santas Schmalle and the rest of the elves at BH... muy new Smack present arrived in plenty of time. I also see that my Eros has shipped, so that will be waiting for me when we return.
Thanks folks, and happy holidays to the whole BH family!
-- Jim
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Thanks much to Santas Schmalle and the rest of the elves at BH... muy new Smack present arrived in plenty of time. I also see that my Eros has shipped, so that will be waiting for me when we return.
Thanks folks, and happy holidays to the whole BH family!
-- Jim
+1 for me as well, my power cord kits arrived today and Santa was good to me, no duty, no taxes! A first for me.
Merry Christmas to all BH family and members.
Mike
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I have just updated the delivery status again. We have shipped pretty much everything we can for the week except for a few Tape Project albums that will go out today or tomorrow. Then we will be going into in a short wait state as our suppliers come up with the next round of parts and we wait for our office to be put back together after being torn up to dry everything out after this week's flood.
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Any quesstimates when Crack kits ordered 12/6 may ship? Just wondering......
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Any update on shipping status of *Smack* ordered in mid-December?
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We're just getting back in the saddle this week. We should have a better picture of when the various kits can ship in a day or two.
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Hi
I ordered a speedball upgrade the 15 December, and was told it would be shipped in a few days. But was delayed by some resistors.
I have mailed you 3 days ago, But without any answer??
I do understand it is cheaper to run a bussines this way, bye getting payment first. But i hate waiting... It wasn't easy waiting for the crack, and it still isnt easy waiting :)
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I'm looking at the shipping log and it appears that Speedball kits ordered through 12/18 have all been shipped. Yours has probably gone out in the latest shipment. Might check your email for a Quantum View shipping notice from UPS.
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This thread is basically a way for me to post what I know about overall shipping status at a given moment. Most folks don't seem to use their real names in these posts and thus I often don't know who's order to look up when I get a request here. The best way to find about an individual order is to email Eileen at queen at bottlehead dot com or call her at 206-451-4275. Sometimes it can take a couple days for her to respond, and sometimes our spam filter filters out customer emails by accident. So if you haven't heard back it can be best to call Eileen at 206-451-4275.
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I have updated the delivery status page. Not a lot of changes in every category yet, but we have shipped some Cracks, Speedballs and Quickies. We will be working over the weekend to catch up on more shipments and I will update again early next week.
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When will Seduction kits be shipping I placed my order on Dec 8th 2011 so guess I just missed the last lot that went out.
Thanks
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We went in to the office over the weekend and got as many kits packed and shipped as possible yesterday afternoon. The snow is starting to collect, and it's supposed to continue to pile up for the next day or two. We will attempt to head in this morning and get some more done, but we may end up stuck at home tomorrow.
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Hi, I'm just wondering what the availability is like on two Crack+Speedball kits at the moment, just wondering what the lead time is at the moment on this package, and if possible what kind of shipping cost would there be to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 4069, I emailed [email protected] a few times but emails don't seem to be getting through or something.
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We are working through Crack orders from December at this time. At the moment we are awaiting 120V power transformers for domestic kits. We do have 240V power transformers in stock. My best guess is that the kits would ship in the next three or so weeks. We get several Crack orders daily, so if one decides to wait two to three weeks to place an order, there will be that many more orders ahead of that order. The best bet is to get in the queue. I know that sounds rather unconventional in this day of getting all sorts of products overnight from Amazon. Because of the range of kits we offer we have to order a broad range of parts in relatively small batches and they take some time to be produced, leading to a fairly consistent backlog - one which has increased a bit since orders went way up unexpectedly this past holiday season. We are adjusting for the increased orders (doubling production for Crack) to attempt to get to a kits-in-stock condition, but at this time there is still a lag of a few weeks as the parts are manufactured.
Regarding shipping, It would be $110 for two kits. We don't charge international shipping until the kits ship. We worked through the weekend to continue to get caught up on orders before the storm hit today. Today we are snowed in at home so we won't be at the office to answer the phone, but we do have email access, unless the power goes out.
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Doc, Ive also tried emailing Eileen several time regarding my Seduction order but no replies, tried different email accounts in case it got caught in spam as well. My order number is #1323327195 would you mind letting me know when it is likely to ship out.
Thanks very much for your help
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Any update on SEX 2.1 orders?
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As I mentioned, we are snowed in at the house today. Won't be able to give any updates until we can get into the office, but I did update shipping status today. I know it seems like Seattleites are whimpy when it comes to snow. Maybe only 4 to 7 inches fell, big deal. What is never explained is that the temp gets just above freezing during the day and then below freezing when the sun goes down. So under that four inches of snow is about an inch of very nasty ice, and a lot of streets are like a skating rink, even with the fancy Yokahama ice tires I put on the C220. Getting up our 200 yd driveway is pretty thrilling (Ferchrissakes, don't stop! And don't push on the gas too hard! Countersteer! Countersteer! We're gonna go in the ditch!) We're about ten miles from the office and it gets really gnarly in places between here and there. The weather is supposed to improve by Friday and we hope to be back in the office then.
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Thansk, I'm lucky I dont face that issue living in hot and humid Singapore for the last 14 years.
I checked the updated shipping status which mentions "Seduction phono preamp orders through 1/2 shipped", so I am wondering if my order placed and paid for on 12/8/11 has somehow slipped through the net as I have not receieved any shipping notofication or payment request. Please accept my apologies for using the forum to check on my order as I have not been sucessful with emails.
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Hey Bernie,
Your kit is packed and ready to ship. Eileen just needs to contact you about the shipping amount. She will contact you when we are back in the office.
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Hi Doc,
Thanks, sorry to have been a bit of a pain chasing the order. Hope the snow and ice clears soon
Cheers
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Any update on Shipping SEX 2.1's?
Tried calling yesterday but your voicemail is full and wouldn't accept messages.
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Yes, we had a lot of messages because we had not been able to get into the office last week. We should start to see some of the essential parts coming in in the next few days. We have been waiting for power transformers, wood bases and chassis for some kits.
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We're headed out the door in a minute to meet up with the UPS man, who should have a big batch of power transformers. That will bring us one step closer to a massive catch up on shipping.
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Hi
I still havent recived any thing. And i havent got any shipping notice from UPS via email.
Could you please check your order history, and give me some response
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I have receved the package, so thats good. But it would have been nice if you had sent the T&T
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In the past when a customer informs us they didn't get tracking info we have suggested they check their spam folder and they have usually found it there. Unfortunately it is not possible for us to reference a sale to a Bottlehead Forum username. This is one good reason to sign a post with one's real name as we request in our forum rules. Or you can call us at 206-451-4275.
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Reeived the SEX kit today - excellent!
However the mpedence swithcing kit I added to the order didn't come with it nor was listed on my invoice. Will they be shipping soon? I called a little while ago and left a voicemail to confirm i'll reveice it.
Thanks!
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Unfortunately it is not possible for us to reference a sale to a Bottlehead Forum username. The impedance switching kit for the SEX 2.1 has not been released yet and thus we have not yet begun to take orders for it. That would explain why it was not listed on the invoice. We hope to have it ready in the next couple of weeks.
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I started this thread as a means for me to post general information about the status of shipments, like what we are packing or shipping on a given day, and what might be holding up the shipment of certain items and an estimate of when we will see the parts we need to complete that kit.
What has been happening is that people have been posting here about individual orders, presumably with the idea that they will get an answer more quickly. That does not work well, in part because people post anonymously. There is no way for us to understand who is inquiring about an order with only a Bottlehead Forum user name as a reference, and many participants choose to ignore our request to sign posts with your real name as we request in the forum rules. I think I have expressed this a few times now, so I will now desist and simply point out that the best way to get information about a specific order is to email Eileen at queen at bottlehead dot com or call 206-451-4275.
I am locking the thread so that it can continue to serve its original purpose in an efficient manner.
Today we are working on a few different kits, catching up the oldest orders. This would include Quickie, Crack, Tape Path Mod kits, Paramount and Stereomour. I will update the delivery status page at the end of the day.
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We are back to work today. We shipped several Tape Path Mod kits, and we are continuing to prep a lot of other kits. We plan to work through the weekend to help get caught up. Should be lots of Crack kits, Speedball kits, Eros, Paramount, power cords kits and others shipping next week. We are awaiting iron for Stereomour and SEX, should see that late next week or early the following week.