What's Up With MobTown??

Before I was what I am now I worked as a custom window builder for a two man shop. We did awesome work and the business steadily grew. My boss hired a new guy, then another and then another to keep up with demand. Before I headed to flight school and the Army we made 660 windows for Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Sixteen hour days of nonstop production. Deliveries daily of stock and a few injuries (I was worried I’d lose a finger and miss out on my upcoming helicopter job). It’s incredibly tough keeping up production when you’re the shit. A few bad apples and here we are.

 

It’s tomorrow over here in the sand box. You boys keep up the discourse. I have to get some sleep and get back to killing something other than time on the TW forums!!

 

What I'M saying is... maybe after paying skilled workers what they deserve, there isnt any left over for unskilled laborers. There is more that goes into small business than throwing bodies at problems. Material availability, powder coating availability, etc... Everyone thinks they understand it but they dont.

 

That’s what the forum is for, speak your mind which I know you do. I’m the same way, I’ll give good or bad honest reviews and I don’t give a shit what people think as long as I’m being honest.

I’ve bought a couple items from Mobtown and they were great. They were in stock smaller items. I’d never pay thousands and wait months. That’s just me.

 

Not sure hiring an entry level employee is "throwing bodies at a problem".

Personally, I'm a professional engineer that runs the engineering department of a much larger firm. When I started my department, within this fairly new company, it was just me and a drafter. I certainly had do do my share of drafting and field work, until we could get more jobs and hire subordinate staff... I get the growing pains, but based on time and workload, I'd say its safe to say that MT is beyond those startup days. I'm sure MT is and will continue to go through growing pains, but to excuse not answering emails from potential customers is silly. Basically, they're saying they are too busy to take your money. With your mentality, they'll never be able to grow.

 

Hope MobTown doesn't evolve into Pelfreybilt.

 

The name that shall not be named, sir!!!

 

I will say that I dont speak for them. I am just a satisfied customer. But you're saying words like firm and department, not small business where the owner is designing and welding products personally.

 

Careful, the product I ordered was "in stock" but took months to receive, because it was actually out if stock and the website wasnt updated.

 

Yeah I would have just got my money back and had them notify when it’s back in stock.

I’ll always use a major cc, as well. That’s the great thing about American Express, I use them almost exclusively and always for larger purchases over $1000.

A couple years ago I bought a $1600 hybrid battery online, the store said it would ship within 5 days. Well after a few weeks I contacted them and asked what was up. The owner was a complete dick and just said they’ll ship when they get it and didn’t have an eta. So, I said fuck you and called American Express and charged it back.

Needless to say, they were pissed because they get charged back the full amount plus a fee.

I’m not suggesting anyone do this unless you really have to.

 

I'm glad you're happy with your product(s), and you should be, they make some great ones... and some not so great.

It's an engineering "firm"... when you have to take years of schooling, years of apprenticeship and multiple 8 hour exams, you give your company fancy names to justify all of your wasted efforts.

In reality it was a 5 person company when I started with one employee. We're 17 strong now and growing. I still reminisce about those small startup days and consider doing it all over again.

No matter what, customer service should always be priority number 1. Most successful companies work on that principal, unless they're a monopoly.

 

He’s very awesome. Thanks for recommending him. I actually just emailed him about shock towers and cam gussets.

 

Automated reply is better then nothing IMO, it's a quick way to lose customers and the $$$ by ghosting someone. I myself will chase a company only so far and then I'm done. TW is a powerful forum where a business will see a negative post and reply to that instead of replying to the customer initially. I know your product sells itself but the customer service part is equally as important. I feel you OP, 2 months is bad! $.02

 

I run a division of the company I work for. As lame as it sounds, the truth is that a 10 second email response can seem an insurmountable task when you are stressed, busy, and managing a lot of things at once.

To properly respond, to even a single simple request, requires the mental capacity and frame of mind to do so. Sometimes the choas of a busy stretch prevents one from even considering checking their emails.

Sometime I set aside a day just to answer emails, then something comes up that is a priority, so I leave the emails until later, then at the end of the day, worn out and frazzled, I look at my inbox as say “fuck it” and go home. No offence to my clients and customers, but these days of constant demanding necessity of communication are terrible for anyone trying to do anything worthwhile.

Once you answer your texts, emails, phone messages, whatsapp chats, Instagram messages, and post-it notes, there are no hours left in the day.

So yes, the solution is a good secretary. Where I live, the proposed $11/hr gets you a crack-Ho who might show up until her first paycheque, then she’ll disappear with whatever isn’t bolted down. An honest person, who doesn’t create more problems and grief for you,is going to want at least $25/hr to answer the phone nicely and be organized and helpful. That’s not so easy to support for a small shop that is growing, until the business reached a certain size.

 

I'm not opposed to a crack-ho secretary..

Seriously though, you make very valid points. Similar to your experience, the growing pains of a small mom and pop are the hardest part of the job.

I dreaded hiring new drafting support. I knew that training new employees, not to mention paying them, would take up even more of my time. Also, weeding out the "crack-hos" is a very real problem. However, if you ever hope to dig out of your workload hole, it's a very necessary effort. If you just resign yourself to being buried and ignoring client communications, you'll never grow and even worse, you'll lose market share and shrink. I guarantee you, one dissatisfied client (OP?) Is worth at least 10 happy customers. This thread alone, has probably had some influence on future "customers", be it now, or in the future when someone searches "Mobtown" (Haha, as if anyone uses the search function on TW).

There's a reason nearly every company has a secretary or support staff, it's a very real and necessary position.

 

Hiring someone to answer emails and calls is tough to afford for a small business, so I understand why they wouldn't. I don't think anyone is debating that.

However, i still would expect a response within a few days to a week if I just gave you $1200. Two months is way longer than I would have put up with ZERO contact.