Originally Posted by luke strawwalker

Yes, agree completely... That's how Mark at Spacecraft Films tends to be-- overpromise and underdeliver, or keep you waiting months... and when you DO FINALLY get *some* sort of communication from him, it's basically worthless because you never know IF he's going to do anything *remotely* like what he is telling you he's going to do...

It just leads to frustration and anger on the customer's part and leads to a reputation as a vendor that is lower than crocodile p!ss... And you know the old saying-- a "happy customer" tells 2-3 people... a PO'd customer tells 50...

It's really not that hard, or shouldn't be... just TELL THE TRUTH, and don't promise something by a given date if you're NOT going to do it in a timely fashion. If it's something "in development" that might or might not happen, DON'T ANNOUNCE IT as "coming soon" like it's a "fer-shur dun deal" (and ends up being "vaporware"...) If you're making them one by one in your spare time and filling orders only on holidays off the day job, make sure the customer knows that and don't act like the order is going out ten minutes after the money is in hand... Read yer flippin' email and answer it once in awhile, and just tell it like it is... don't overpromise and underdeliver...

Most folks are pretty understanding and will happily work with a vendor that's being straight up about what's going on and when they reasonably figure that the order will be fulfilled. BUT most folks get frustrated to the stratosphere when a vendor simply won't communicate, or whatever they say is meaningless because they exaggerate, obfuscate, or outright lie and won't do what they said they'd do when they said they'd do it... and want to keep the money for months... (or keep the money forever and stiff the customer, like Sheri's Hot Rockets did and the LAUNCH magazine bunch did...)

Later! OL J R