General Apology and specific one to Fred Stanley
Ben Knebel
>Hello Folks;
There have been a couple of threads here speaking to some delivery issues we have had as a company that deserve an explaination and an apology.
Firstly I want to apologise publicly to Fred Stanley for our lack of response. It is inexcusable. All I can say is that it was not intentional and does not reflect how Shepherd operates generally. We have prided ourselves on our responsiveness to our customers but have in this case fallen flat on our faces. I am sorry Fred and I will contact you offline to ask if you would be kind enough to allow us to deliver your order.
On a general note I would like to apologise for our inability to deliver on our orders in a timely manner over the last weeks. There are a number of customers that have not received their orders in a timely manner. Doug and I are very concerned that this has happened and that our customers are concerned and in some cases angry is both right and understandable. Indeed we are very appreciative of the inordinate patience and understanding displayed by our customers.
I don't want to make excuses here but merely explain what has happened. What we have faced is very much an "It never rains but pours" scenario.
The orders coming in to us this year have been overwhelming in number and we underestimated our inventory requirements and so have been caught short. We've been working to catch up and will be caught up and be able to ship over the next couple of weeks. In the 'pours " category we ended up with supplier issues at the worst possible time and have had to reject production components at the worst possible time for us and rerun large portions of our inventory in order to be able to ship. As a small company any event like this has serious impact on both us and our customers. What it does to us is of less concern than what it does to our customers and I can only apologise for the delays.
We have been trying to contact all the customers concerned and inform them of the situation but have not as yet reached everyone.
We are committed to making good on all the orders and we will. We start shipping again this week and will, over the next 2 weeks, catch up with everything that is outstanding.We have taken steps to ensure our inventory levels are where they should be to support the growth we have experienced.
We appreiciate your countinued support.
Regards
Ben
