Phased Sale Approach

[machtoo]

I saw the announcement from Dan on the phased sale approach. I assume a schedule will be sent via email so we know when a particular item will be on sale?

[MikeH]

machtoo wrote:

I saw the announcement from Dan on the phased sale approach. I assume a schedule will be sent via email so we know when a particular item will be on sale?

My wife said someone on Facebook LOR Users posted the sale will begin tomorrow at 9 am. Don't know where that person got the info from.

MikeH

[timmydatoolman]

Guess your best!

[marsh28]

9:00 a.m. Central maybe????

[David Rise]

Sorry, but that person on FB had no basis for his OWN announcement other than to get everyone riled up again.

Just sit tight and wait for the official announcement.

[marsh28]

That Facebook page is getting pretty cranky... Really, I think the problem people are having is the lack of communication. For example, when Dan made the most recent announcement about the sale on August 30, he said "details will be forth coming in the next few days." Well, its been almost a week and there have been no further details. I wish Dan would just call off the sale at this point. It would probably be for the best.

[shfr26]

If you read the other post from Dan, He will announce the dates for all things TODAY!



EDIT: MY bad, that was posted on the 27th of Aug, and he said Tuesday, so I am wrong, Sorry. Tuesday would have been the 30th.

[Dan C]

marsh28 wrote:

I think the problem people are having is the lack of communication.

I agree! The lack of communication is what has got everyone all worried.

Not sure why Dan has not released the schedule yet. If they knew they were going to do a Phased style sale, then why not let everyone know about it. Why all the secrecy? I'm sure he has his reasons, but lets be honest here. This is not normal behavior from a company that is famed for their customer support. Kinda feeling like the kid in the corner that everyone points and snickers at but has no idea why.

[brian.t.lowery]

Working in logistics, I can tell you that what Dan is going through right now is a nightmare. Not only does he have to project for what's coming in, but he also has to fill all the back orders first and something like that can shift dates around like crazy.

Patients is deffinetly a virtue on this one.

[aurickle]

Well the store site did/does say "SHOULD be this month" -- meaning August. So he did give himself wiggle room for it to start in September. And on August 30 he did state that the CCR's would go on sale sometime this week but he didn't say exactly when. So he has been reasonable forthcoming about the sale.

Personally, I hate the whole phased approach. There's no way you can budget when you don't know how much items further in the sale phases are going to cost. Maybe you could afford two CCR's and a new 16 channel controller. But if you don't know what the controller's going to cost you might end up only buying one CCR -- then wishing you'd done otherwise later when it turns out the controller's sale price is better than you'd expected. So this could potentially hurt Dan's overall sales compared to if he did a single sale.

What's more, he's also stuck paying multiple shipping costs for multiple purchases rather than being able to consolidate the shipping for each customer. That's going to get kind of pricey! And then you have the people from out of the U.S. who will have to pay shipping and can't combine it if they buy from more than one sale phase. This makes it even harder for them to budget.

I'm sure Dan has a great reason for the phased sale, but from here in the peanut gallery it seems pretty mysterious!

[brian.t.lowery]

Given what happened in Japan earlier this year (i'm sure plenty of components come from there), and the recent compination of an earthquake and a hurricane on the east coast I'm shure the phased sale idea is purly stemming from an 'as it comes available idea', which is actually good logistically from preventing even more backup then i'm sure they already have. The delay is most likely as I said earlier coming from balancing projected income vs. backorder vs. projected output.

[Noelb]

I agree - and at the same time, it seems Dan is trying his hardest not to push the sale out any longer (i.e. October) than logistically possible. Seems Dan is working very hard - but he just has a tough "row to hoe" at the moment.

[brian.t.lowery]

Noelb wrote:

I agree - and at the same time, it seems Dan is trying his hardest not to push the sale out any longer (i.e. October) than logistically possible. Seems Dan is working very hard - but he just has a tough "row to hoe" at the moment.

And that's what we need to be grateful for. Even with the logistical nightmare he's in now, Dan is still promising us a sale when it would be easier to call it off with maybe some sort of smaller reward in place- a discount coupon to be used during the next sale ect.. The fact is Dan has done so much for this hobby as is and yet he is still working to fulfill his promise of a sale. I think there needs to be less "when is the sale" threads and more "how awesome is Dan" threads.

[Santas Helper]

brian.t.lowery wrote:

And that's what we need to be grateful for. Even with the logistical nightmare he's in now, Dan is still promising us a sale when it would be easier to call it off with maybe some sort of smaller reward in place- a discount coupon to be used during the next sale ect.. The fact is Dan has done so much for this hobby as is and yet he is still working to fulfill his promise of a sale. I think there needs to be less "when is the sale" threads and more "how awesome is Dan" threads.

Have you seen all the "awesome Dan" threads? Believe me he has our respect for his product and service.

Obviously this year has been different for everyone but there comes a point when customers, that have relied on a reoccurring sale, should have some kind of better understanding to the situation thru some kind of email (not just a sticky) explaining the situation to a certain point and give us a better idea as to what to expect, not just “coming soon”.

I totally understand Dan might be under some serious pressure as with everyone else, but now it’s starting to get a little silly for pushing into September and still not really talking to the customers.

Granite Dan doesn’t have to have a sale but that is part of his trademark/label. That’s one of the biggie things about LOR that the whole community relies on. I think it would hurt him more not to have a sale IMO.



If he is already backed up in stock with back-orders, I don’t see how a sale will be possible at this time. It's not like Japan will be fixed over night (if that were the issue).



And as for the “Phased Sale”. How can a person budget for such a thing? Unless he posts product and prices and time-frames to those products.



It’s like saying,

We’re changing the date to Christmas this year and don’t know when it will be so just hold on folks, just hold on.......

[DownTown]

Santas Helper wrote:

And as for the “Phased Sale”. How can a person budget for such a thing? Unless he posts product and prices and time-frames to those products.

It's easy to budget for a "Phased Sale. You don't budget for "sale" prices, you budget your purchases at full list price, and then when/if a sale happens, you're pleasantly surprised and excited to save a few dollars.

Good luck to Dan and LOR.

D.T.

[Santas Helper]

DownTown wrote:

It's easy to budget for a "Phased Sale. You don't budget for "sale" prices, you budget your purchases at full list price, and then when/if a sale happens, you're pleasantly surprised and excited to save a few dollars.

Good luck to Dan and LOR.

D.T.

It's not just a budget for price, it's a budget for "time" as well.

[brian.t.lowery]

Santas Helper wrote:

wrote:

"That’s one of the biggie things about LOR that the whole community relies on. I think it would hurt him more not to have a sale IMO."

"It's easy to budget for a "Phased Sale. You don't budget for "sale" prices, you budget your purchases at full list price, and then when/if a sale happens, you're pleasantly surprised and excited to save a few dollars.

Good luck to Dan and LOR."

D.T.

I think, people, that this needs to be something that needs to be kept in mind. There comes a point, no matter how important or needed or wanted a thing is, you need to realize the limit of your control. All these 'sale' threads may put more pressure on Dan, but they are not going to help him get the information he needs from his shippers to relay better information to us. Nor it is going to help the parts actually come in any faster. Information is great, and we live in a society where it feels absolutely instant, but I think we need to be a little more Zen this time.

[DownTown]

Santas Helper wrote:

DownTown wrote:

It's easy to budget for a "Phased Sale. You don't budget for "sale" prices, you budget your purchases at full list price, and then when/if a sale happens, you're pleasantly surprised and excited to save a few dollars.

Good luck to Dan and LOR.

D.T.

It's not just a budget for price, it's a budget for "time" as well.

OK, I see your point with the "time" comment. The only thing that should be an issue is if the controllers are not delivered by show time, or if you are assembling your own and you don't have the time to get them finished. I understand that.

On the other hand, if I received controllers that were prebuilt the day before the display was supposed to start, that would be enough time to get them addressed, mounted and connected. All of the rest of the work would already be done, because you already know exactly where it will sit, what cords will plug into what channels (you have thre cords labeled, right?), and where the power and data for them is coming from. You DO have all that laid out, right? The sequencing would be all finished and scheduled. Set the addresses, mount the boxes and plug them in and your show's in business

No excuses! The show must go on! Even if you have to sit outside with a bunch of light switches, flipping them on and off to the music. So... get to work!

D.T.

[aurickle]

I think it simply comes down to a lack of communication. For example:

Overnight, the Light-O-Rama page changed to now say, "When's the Light-O-Rama sale? Be sure to signup below so you'll know as soon as anyone when to take advantage of this event." This is actually a step backward from August's message of "Don't worry... this month."

Meanwhile, his post at the top of the forum is still from over a week ago saying "more details in the next few days".

It's this being kept in the dark that's killing people. How hard would it have been to post a reply to his topic saying what's going on? Even if it was just, "Due to elements beyond my control I am still finalizing details on the summer sale. Please bear with me and I'll give you more info as soon as I can."

It's bad as a business to make promises and then fail to follow through on them. But it's worse was a business to do so without any word to your customers. Especially your most enthusiastic customers (which, let's face it, are those of us posting on forums).

Don't get me wrong. I greatly respect everything Dan has done and is continuing to do for this hobby. As a rule I've also been very impressed by the business side of things. After all, the orders I've placed have shipped and arrived extremely quickly. It's a shame to now be having that impression tarnished by a simple lack of communication.

[Surfing4Dough]

aurickle wrote:

I think it simply comes down to a lack of communication. For example:

Overnight, the Light-O-Rama page changed to now say, "When's the Light-O-Rama sale? Be sure to signup below so you'll know as soon as anyone when to take advantage of this event." This is actually a step backward from August's message of "Don't worry... this month."

Meanwhile, his post at the top of the forum is still from over a week ago saying "more details in the next few days".

It's this being kept in the dark that's killing people. How hard would it have been to post a reply to his topic saying what's going on? Even if it was just, "Due to elements beyond my control I am still finalizing details on the summer sale. Please bear with me and I'll give you more info as soon as I can."

It's bad as a business to make promises and then fail to follow through on them. But it's worse was a business to do so without any word to your customers. Especially your most enthusiastic customers (which, let's face it, are those of us posting on forums).

Don't get me wrong. I greatly respect everything Dan has done and is continuing to do for this hobby. As a rule I've also been very impressed by the business side of things. After all, the orders I've placed have shipped and arrived extremely quickly. It's a shame to now be having that impression tarnished by a simple lack of communication.

I agree. I am a huge supporter of the LOR brand/company, and of Dan. I understand that in the past that he has gotten in "trouble" for saying things before he should have. However, I think we are all used to being in the loop at least a little. I think we are used to Dan posting her every few days (on anything), which no longer happens. I think we are used to Dan giving us a heads up on things or maybe teasers, or even as you gave as an example of ("Due to elements beyond my control..."), he would at least tend to give some vague information just to let us know he hasn't "forgotten" about us (even if withholding details). I think this year has shown that LOR's business model is possibly starting to change, in multiple ways. The usual type of communication is no longer there. The approach for the LOR Experience at the Expo seemed different (wasn't there myself, but how it was promoted seemed like it was going to be of a different flavor). JumpStart Classes. The use of LOR Partners, including on the forums, which in my opinion seem to be basically be LOR salespeople (which I worry has the potential to skew their advice given on the forums, but that is a different topic). Etc...

I am not sure that any of these things are bad things, they are just different and not what we are used to. I have no idea why things seem to be changing (company growing or struggling, the economy, Dan burnout, changes needed to deal with changes in the industry, future profit opportunities, etc. ???), but I guess it isn't our choice or any of our business (literally or figuratively). I also guess that it means that not everybody has to like it too though. Trust me, I don't like change...at all. I hope that changes are happening since the company is doing so well and growing. I just hope that LOR will never forget us little guys as they continue to move on to bigger and betters things. I trust they won't.