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virus, hype or the real deal?


bobdea

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I guess Klug is not too busy then..................

not right when I emailed him he wasnt. I guess the point was email isnt always an indicator.

I am absolutely amazed at how many people completely flake on commitments they make via email...dont even respond to say "Im flaking"

a new facet of communication, a new way to back out without even having to face up:)

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Come on people. What's this attitude about 'expecting an email back quickly or I am not buying' ?

Usually you are buying ONE piece of equipment (most of the times several hundred dollars and never more than 2000$) and not investing serious capital in some big company!

These are all relative small companies. Let them handle the orders ALREADY PLACED AND PAID FOR first and then worry about inquiries that may or may not lead to one more order.

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Come on people. What's this attitude about 'expecting an email back quickly or I am not buying' ?

Usually you are buying ONE piece of equipment (most of the times several hundred dollars and never more than 2000$) and not investing serious capital in some big company!

These are all relative small companies. Let them handle the orders ALREADY PLACED AND PAID FOR first and then worry about inquiries that may or may not lead to one more order.

That's not right. Even if you are buy ONE piece of equipment, you are still a customer. They need to respond quickly if they want to survive in the business. I don't care how many orders are waiting but I've never had late response with my 1 and half year waiting with Bruce at Coiler.

I probably can't afford one for a while but probably won't buy one if they ignore one email from me.

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I guess I just don't see responding to email as some big onerous task. I bet you could cut it down considerably by having an auto-responder reply with a current price list, estimated start date given the current load, estimated finish date and answers to assorted FAQs. Have the auto-response contain a second email address for follow-up questions. Use some good spam filters and you probably wouldn't have too big a job to keep current. You could probably even hire some kid for minimum wage to manually filter those emails that really need your attention from those that come from people who didn't read the auto-response thoroughly. Like, the ones that contain orders. If you're really too busy to accept orders, then the auto-response could say that and people would at least have something.

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Why all the hostility about email response. If you were serious about buying an expentive item you buy it. Lay the money down or shut up. Do people buy ferrari's because they have thier butt kissed 24-7. I don't think so. They buy it because they want a certain level of prestige and performance. Getting a call or quick response from a local builder would even be rare. Dealing with looky loo's, from around the world when you have paid for boards to make, would be lower on the list. Bottom line lay the money down regardless of the builder before you cry about email's or call backs. waa waa waa!:angryfire :angryfire :argue:

kevbo:biggthump

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Lay the money down or shut up.

Looks like Shred was trying to do just that. But in point of fact people do buy expensive items because they get their butt kissed. It's called marketing, and in the high end market for anything it means a lot of personal attention. So once you identify a serious customer (and I think saying "I want this model, give me price and delivery" qualifies) then you should treat them well.

If Frank has so much business that he can afford to ignore future customers, good on him then. But I note Ferrari doesn't stop their marketing efforts even though there are waiting lists for all their models. Every month it seems like there's an article in one of the major mags and those don't just happen by accident.

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as the competition I would at least expect service that made me feel like they cared if I purchase the said board or not.

the thing is that if people ignore you when you are trying to give them money what the hell happens if this product that you paid way more than the competition breaks the first day out or got damaged during shipping.

I would feel that if it was like pulling teeth to give them money what happens when they have to deal with the negative aspect of business.

what I have said has nothing to do with virus, I have no experience with them.

but as a general rule if you want to survive and offer a premium product(with a premium price) you need to offer premium service as well.

why do you think that high end fly rods have a 25 year warranty?

Because no one would buy a $600 rod if they knew that if it snapped next spring that they would have to lay down another $600, or if it got warped or something.

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"lame posts"----- better than crying about nothing:biggthump

whatever you say, man.

the day when businesses decide they dont need to communicate with buyers is the day they start to lose it. especially small businesses.

It does get frustrating dealing with utterly stupid questions...I get them all the time...people ask questions about stuff that has already been clearly stated in the ad, auction, website, whatever. Comes with the territory though.

had you stated your view differently, it would have made sense, but to attempt to call genuine inquiry "whining" well...nah.

Im sure Frank would agree with me.

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Looks like Shred was trying to do just that. But in point of fact people do buy expensive items because they get their butt kissed. It's called marketing, and in the high end market for anything it means a lot of personal attention. So once you identify a serious customer (and I think saying "I want this model, give me price and delivery" qualifies) then you should treat them well.

I was willing to shell out the money and thats all what I was saying. Made me feel erie about giving the money after the lack of response and attention. I guess people have money they really like to throw around now adays I like my hard earned money and someone should have to work for it,, like I did.. if not just throw it my way.. I'll take it... ;)

At least here I could drive and see what the **** is up with production.. hmmm I may actually have to do that soon!!!!!! :smashfrea

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the thing is that if people ignore you when you are trying to give them money what the hell happens if this product that you paid way more than the competition breaks the first day out or got damaged during shipping.

Well I can help you out on this one. Last year I ended up dealing with a broken virus that was damaged during the shipping. I called Frank and emailed him a picture of the damaged virus. He made me another one and shipped it right away without any hassle. It took 7 days after my phone call to receiving the second board at my door all the way from Germany to California at no extra expense for me. Chris and Ray can both testify on this one.

But in all honesty, I am not ordering my next extreme edition virus because of the service Frank offered. It will be just because of the superiority of his material and as Ladia said, I'll only live once.

If you are happy to wait a year and half for your board with very fast email response, I respect that.

I on the other hand, rather get late email response but fast delivery of my board :lol:

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you missed my point entirely, what I was saying is that is the message that you get and that it's that you project a bad image even if that is not the reality.

My statement was a general statement refering to running any business, if you have great service but there are kinks in it, it can give the impression of bad service and with that you lose customers.

as I said I have not had any dealings with virus and I assume all will go well when I am ready to get one.

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Didn't mean to throw gas on the fire so much. Just thought it all seemed a little petty. I enjoy my virus. It looks like nothing else and performs like nothing else. I don't even know frank and I don't think he deserves to get banged around about some dopey email isssue.:biggthump

ps. it snowed 20 new inches last night.:flamethro

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this new base meterial, such things as how hard it is and various other things.

this thread has provided some valuable feedback and these boards sound like a hoot, and ahead of the curve in the materials area.

not sure if I buy into the variable sidecut idea, not that I think that its a bad thing but more of a preference.

I have had a couple boards that have had "blended" sidecut be it progressive or other types generally those boards required more precise input from the rider, in some conditions it made the boards feel eratic but on the other hand made it easier to crank small turns on a big board.

depends on what you wanna do I guess

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Rode that Phantom WC 183 (the one Dave Tille is holding in this thread: http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/showthread.php?t=5405&highlight=Virus).

VERY NICE deck! Would like to have spent more time on it, but there were a few other rides in the demo tent that I just had to get at before the day was through :D

Virus - truly a "SICK" ride (yep, pun intended :rolleyes: )

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FWIW Frank from Virus responded to me very quickly the second time I e-mailed him and I don't believe I ever bashed him or mentioned his name in my original post. The initial reply e-mail if there was one may very well have been "blocked" or "killed" by my spam blocker so that's why I said I was "on the fence" about the whole e-mail issue, not to mention I stated clearly that even though Klug didn't e-mail me back I still purchased a board from him. I think we all agree that this thread has run-a-muck and gotten off track from what bobdea had originally intended, but it has raised some interesting issues and opinions about certain aspects of purchasing a board not brought up in other threads. Live, learn, ride....this site supplies lessons for me in all those areas, that's why I love it,

Have fun,

Paul

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Paul I've been wanting to get a Virus for two years but Santa Claus forgot me both times so I figured hell I'll put one under the tree myself. I raised two boys myself and must have bought a dozen surfboards a year for each of them.They'd snap em and I'd buy another one.Well they're grown and all Dad wants to do is carve.Buy it.

Merry Christmas Frank

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Paul I've been wanting to get a Virus for two years but Santa Claus forgot me both times so I figured hell I'll put one under the tree myself. I raised two boys myself and must have bought a dozen surfboards a year for each of them.They'd snap em and I'd buy another one.Well they're grown and all Dad wants to do is carve.Buy it.

Merry Christmas Frank

Frank,

Nice, that’s the spirit! Always good treat yourself once in a while :D

Stealth is a great board! Can’t wait to see the pics.

Ray

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