Yeah, the first two letters, pretty good. The third was a disaster, the fourth was a death knell. This viewpoint from a business management and business law grad with 20 years of running a business including a mail order that started from scratch, grew 4000 monthly customers, shipping to all 50 states and 27 countries within 5 years of starting.
OK, solution for the third letter. First, managers are your key people. They have to know everything about the operations they are in charge of and able to step in whenever needed. They HAVE to care about the business and allow the higher management / owners to direct and the company and product, leaving the operations in good trusted hands. Managers should be salaried, able to step in when ever and where ever, meaning they work overtime if needed, hence paid well. They have to enable those around them through good training and support. That includes training their lower grade employees to work in their place if needed but not to abuse or be abused by that option. That means when your company is behind in shipping, they not only supervise, they step in and work in the ranks as hard as needed.
Shipping, you don't speed up shipping by cutting shipping days and cutting key people. You do everything you can to get that product out the door as quickly as possible. With NO mistakes and immediate customer service if something goes wrong. All opposite of what they are doing and proposing now. Your customer relationship is EVERYTHING. You do whatever it takes to make their experience the best you can. You hire enough people, TRAIN THEM WELL, and ship how many ever days you have to to get out the product as quickly as it IS possible.
So, I waited close to about two years on my three Proton Packs. That is absolutely unacceptable. I was told repeatedly that they were shipping an they did not. Worse, I got shorted on parts and the reply to handle such was non existent. Other on the GB fan board were told that if they did not contact them within 30 days of purchase, they could not get replacement parts. After possible two years of waiting on the purchase for a product most would take a month or more to put together...
None of these new policies help improve what I and others went through, they make it worse.
Then there is the new refund policy or lack of...
They say they are making things worse and then add that funding policy, that transparent view they gave and then that policy is moronic. You cannot hang someone that long with a new disastrous slow shipping organization, and let them know the absolute risk and wait they are taking and expect orders to pour in. I was rooting for them and with these last two letters, I would not touch them with a ten foot pole. If it's not in stock and shipped within 30 days, I AM getting a refund from my credit card company now. That will not go over well for them if they repeated have this happen and have that service yanked or fees so high they cannot operate.
Either they have the proper funding and or they scale down and raise funds to do thing right and THEN, do every thing they can to right the public perception they have stabbed themselves in the back with. Customer relationship from the viewpoint of the customer is what they need to pursue. They showed they can get the product right, they have a good start for producing good products, REALLY streamline the process and qc and get the rest corrected now. Immediately. With good managers who will care and who will continue to need to care by ownership being like a loving good family atmosphere for them. Because moral that HAS TO SUCK there, it has to get turned around by being good to their shareholders first and ultimately stockholders. If your employees, licensees, suppliers and management are not happy, those shareholder will ultimately kill the stockholders standing.
If AVONOS ownership cannot see this, they should have a consultant come in, observe and map it out so they understand and can change things for the better. Those last two letters prove they don't have the perspective they need to turn it around.
