Hammersmith K4 - TalkBass Special Model

[MarkoYYZ]

You ignored your customers for almost three months because your life coach told you to take a break from the internet? Ok. Guys, have fun with this one.

I don't have a life coach, please don't twist around what I said. I had several physio sessions for by back and you tend to talk a little when you're there, you know? They ask you things about how you exercise, how you sleep, what sort of work you do, what shoes you wear - basically anything that influences your health. It turns out that excessive computer use - sometimes through internet addiction - is a frequent cause of lower back issues (sitting all day, etc...). I realized how bad my habits were, so I personally made the choice to take care of myself and to deal with immediately pressing matters first, which unfortunately included not spending time on TB. It's not an excuse and I'm not looking for sympathy, I'm simply fessing up to why I wasn't on TB for the better part of 3 months - that part was confusing to some people and I felt the community deserved an answer since many of them have known me on here for 5 years or so.

Other customers also contacted me by email or facebook and depending on the day it fell on, they may or may not have gotten an update - I didn't simply blanket ignore everyone for 3 months like you're making it sound. Some people I know better than others and am in more frequent touch, others maybe their messages get mixed into the pile of new or unknown contacts that come in and I'm sometimes slower to get to. If you fell into the latter group, I'm sorry, maybe if you used your name like everyone else I would have better recognized you. I could tell you were one of the more vocal clients when I did visit TB a few weeks back and when you asked for your refund, I gave it first - even though you were 3rd in line based on the sequence that the orders came in. You almost got two refunds by mistake, actually, since you and your alter ego both emailed me, but it's done now and by your own request, you've exited the order program.

Hopefully that's now a full enough explanation, because the whole point of that post was to create clarity, not drama.
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[Vltir Sarnat]

I've audited talkbass for years. I joined so I could partake in this forum after Marco started ignoring all of our messages.
This is a website where members get together to discuss music, playing, gear, and companies making that gear. People come here all the time to get opinions on new companies. I was very supportive of Marcos company while I was doing business with him. I promoted him to all of my friends and was very proud to speak about their work in public. Until he ignored all of the several messages I sent him for months until I had no choice left but to request a refund. People deserve to know the potential pitfalls of supporting a company that can treat their customers like that so easily. It's frustrating considering all the hard-working companies out there busting their asses for their customers.

Didn't you get your refund?

This is the only topic you have ever posted about on TB, so it seems the only reason you are here is to harass Marko and that's not what this forum is for.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

I've audited talkbass for years. I joined so I could partake in this forum after Marco started ignoring all of our messages.
This is a website where members get together to discuss music, playing, gear, and companies making that gear. People come here all the time to get opinions on new companies. I was very supportive of Marcos company while I was doing business with him. I promoted him to all of my friends and was very proud to speak about their work in public. Until he ignored all of the several messages I sent him for months until I had no choice left but to request a refund. People deserve to know the potential pitfalls of supporting a company that can treat their customers like that so easily. It's frustrating considering all the hard-working companies out there busting their asses for their customers.

Okay. Now you have recorded your grievances and your stated lack of acceptance of the apology. Allow the rest of the community to decide what to do on their own. Please for the sake of decency, resist the urge to turn this into a mudslinging event.
People have faults and failures. The vast majority can and do redeem themselves.
Allow @MarkoYYZ to succeed or fail without further derision.
Thank you

 

[Vltir Sarnat]

I don't have a life coach, please don't twist around what I said. I had several physio sessions for by back and you tend to talk a little when you're there, you know? They ask you things about how you exercise, how you sleep, what sort of work you do, what shoes you wear - basically anything that influences your health. It turns out that excessive computer use - sometimes through internet addiction - is a frequent cause of lower back issues (sitting all day, etc...). I realized how bad my habits were, so I personally made the choice to take care of myself and to deal with immediately pressing matters first, which unfortunately included not spending time on TB. It's not an excuse and I'm not looking for sympathy, I'm simply fessing up to why I wasn't on TB for the better part of 3 months - that part was confusing to some people and I felt the community deserved an answer since many of them have known me on here for 5 years or so.

Other customers also contacted me by email or facebook and depending on the day it fell on, they may or may not have gotten an update - I didn't simply blanket ignore everyone for 3 months like you're making it sound. Some people I know better than others and am in more frequent touch, others maybe their messages get mixed into the pile of new or unknown contacts that come in and I'm sometimes slower to get to. If you fell into the latter group, I'm sorry, maybe if you used your name like everyone else I would have better recognized you. I could tell you were one of the more vocal clients when I did visit TB a few weeks back and when you asked for your refund, I gave it first - even though you were 3rd in line based on the sequence that the orders came in. You almost got two refunds by mistake, actually, since you and your alter ego both emailed me, but it's done now and by your own request, you've exited the order program.

Hopefully that's now a full enough explanation, because the whole point of that post was to create clarity, not drama.
.

Marco, I sent you messages on Facebook and email. Very polite messages. Several times throughout the months. I use to end every conversation with you by wishing your company the best and that I had faith you would take well to expanding. Then you just stopped responding. I had to find out about the delays from other customers. I finally had to ask you for a refund and you respond right away without any explanation. It's hurtful. I didn't want a refund, I wanted one of your basses. And I could have waited however long I needed to for it, but you showed zero interest in keeping my business.

 

[wintremute]

Marco, I sent you messages on Facebook and email. Very polite messages. Several times throughout the months. I use to end every conversation with you by wishing your company the best and that I had faith you would take well to expanding. Then you just stopped responding. I had to find out about the delays from other customers. I finally had to ask you for a refund and you respond right away without any explanation. It's hurtful. I didn't want a refund, I wanted one of your basses. And I could have waited however long I needed to for it, but you showed zero interest in keeping my business.

Okay. Now you have recorded your grievances and your stated lack of acceptance of the apology. Allow the rest of the community to decide what to do on their own. Please for the sake of decency, resist the urge to turn this into a mudslinging event.
People have faults and failures. The vast majority can and do redeem themselves.
Allow @MarkoYYZ to succeed or fail without further derision.
Thank you

I'm with the devil on this. Please take this private.

 

[MarkoYYZ]

Marco, I sent you messages on Facebook and email. Very polite messages. Several times throughout the months. I use to end every conversation with you by wishing your company the best and that I had faith you would take well to expanding. Then you just stopped responding. I had to find out about the delays from other customers. I finally had to ask you for a refund and you respond right away without any explanation. It's hurtful. I didn't want a refund, I wanted one of your basses. And I could have waited however long I needed to for it, but you showed zero interest in keeping my business.

Actually this bolded part isn't correct. You claimed to have sold your only bass and were borrowing or renting in order to play gigs in the 2 bands you were in, and you needed the refund to buy something else ASAP. That's another reason why I did your refund first, because there was urgency on your end to get the money back and I didn't want to make matters worse for you, knowing that I had already done you a disservice with the delayed bass and missed emails. I admit to this as I can admit to being wrong, but you can't say those things with a refund demand and then turn around and say the above here - that's not fair as I did exactly what you asked.

I went back and read your other messages after you made these claims (and after I realized you were using a different name, I need to mention again), and while you did send a polite message every month or so, there was never any mention of selling a bass to fund the K, about not having any bass at all because the K was late, about renting a bass for gigs, etc... you tried to layer on some extra guilt with things that were entirely beyond my knowledge or control and I didn't go for it. I guess I was supposed to grovel and beg or something, now that you're saying I showed no interest in keeping your business?? It's clear the refund and apology wasn't enough, because you also made some sneaky posts on our FB page after you got the refund, basically accusing me of running the K program as a scam. You already had your money back at that point, though, so it wasn't a matter of getting answers or making anything right, it was about trying to cause us damage. I can't stop you from saying reasonable things here on TB - your previous post was reasonable - but I think maybe you're taking things too personally at this point.

I'd rather not do this drama on here, so I'm sorry to everyone else in the thread for the sidetrack. I'm done, as long as there isn't anything else that demands a response.
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[/\/\3phist0]

Marco, I sent you messages on Facebook and email. Very polite messages. Several times throughout the months. I use to end every conversation with you by wishing your company the best and that I had faith you would take well to expanding. Then you just stopped responding. I had to find out about the delays from other customers. I finally had to ask you for a refund and you respond right away without any explanation. It's hurtful. I didn't want a refund, I wanted one of your basses. And I could have waited however long I needed to for it, but you showed zero interest in keeping my business.

All posts from you , starting from the very first have been complaint based regarding a purchase gone foul. We welcome helpful informative interactions. You walk into our space and all is negativity and provides the appearance of an attempt to extract a pound of flesh.
Myself a long standing contributing member,
and you a claimed longtime Auditor/ lurker, yet in your first post you say " I'm glad I found this forum" I smell Bovine
Integrity does not seem to be your long suit.
Please treat contributing membership with respect.
That would include honesty.
You appear to be lacking.
Thank you for your forbearance and restraint.
You got your refund. You told us about it.
Stop there otherwise it becomes a vendetta.
That line has clearly been crossed.
Continue the tirade it will be reported.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

I'm with the devil on this. Please take this private.

Actually earthbound minion in a Faustian universe. Here in the real world I only play big D's advocate in discussions.

 

[wintremute]

Actually earthbound minion in a Faustian universe. Here in the real world I only play big D's advocate in discussions.

Thank you for the clarification.

 

[Jebberz]

Will the K-Bass will be available sometimes outside the initial orders? Can't afford it for now, (unmoveable trip plans) but things may change next year and I'm still gassing...

 

[NOLA Bass]

Vltr - let it go. You got your refund. Quite honestly, move on or stay around. I was not happy with the lack if response but that is the past. I am willing to wait. You aren't. At this point, move on. Nothing constructive is coming of it.

 

[MarkoYYZ]

Will the K-Bass will be available sometimes outside the initial orders? Can't afford it for now, (unmoveable trip plans) but things may change next year and I'm still gassing...

Yes, of course. There is more stock coming than needed for the pre-orders. Part of the reason I ran the pre-order at all was to help bump up the size of my opening batch order. Say I was willing to start with a stock of 20 basses on my own, well pre-selling 20 means I could round up to 40 (for example) and earn some importance with our OEM with bigger quantities. I stopped taking new orders though, since I couldn't guarantee when we could deliver and knew that we'd have to work through our existing cue first.

If you are looking down the read, I would think December is a very safe timeline for us taking and delivering new orders. Maybe even November.

.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Yes, of course. There is more stock coming than needed for the pre-orders. Part of the reason I ran the pre-order at all was to help bump up the size of my opening batch order. Say I was willing to start with a stock of 20 basses on my own, well pre-selling 20 means I could round up to 40 (for example) and earn some importance with our OEM with bigger quantities. I stopped taking new orders though, since I couldn't guarantee when we could deliver and knew that we'd have to work through our existing cue first.

If you are looking down the read, I would think December is a very safe timeline for us taking and delivering new orders. Maybe even November.

.

Glad to have you back @MarkoYYZ
As they say.
Never mind the bullocks .

 

[Jebberz]

If you are looking down the read, I would think December is a very safe timeline for us taking and delivering new orders. Maybe even November.

Good to know. It would probably be mor sometimes next spring/summer (depending on the incoming gigs). I suppose we can arrange a meeting in Toronto then so I can try in in person ans "save" shipping costs (and give me a nice excuse to visit some friends there).

 

[petersland]

Thanks for the update Marko. I'm looking forward to my number 7.
A pass around Bass would be nice but I'm in Oztrailia
Don't worry about a slight delivery delay. The much anticipated Ormsby multi scale Bass is so far overdue 14 months!

 

[MarkoYYZ]

Thanks for the update Marko. I'm looking forward to my number 7.
A pass around Bass would be nice but I'm in Oztrailia
Don't worry about a slight delivery delay. The much anticipated Ormsby multi scale Bass is so far overdue 14 months!

Speaking of numbers, you probably want to keep #007, but with three people dropping out I think we'll fill the gaps by moving everyone forward as the gaps allow?
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[Meyatch]

Speaking of numbers, you probably want to keep #007, but with three people dropping out I think we'll fill the gaps by moving everyone forward as the gaps allow?
.

I'd like to remain #9 if possible.

 

[monsterfiddle]

Speaking of numbers, you probably want to keep #007, but with three people dropping out I think we'll fill the gaps by moving everyone forward as the gaps allow?
.

I'm #12 now, which numbers do you have available?

 

[DerekW]

I don't even know what number I am, but, I had actually requested a refund, as another short scale bass came up, and figured that I would jump on it. Ironically, reading Marlo's posts, and his more realistic end of the year (or later, who knows?) predictions, and being a fellow small businessman, and a fellow Canadian, I have decided to wait it out.

That gives me time to sell a couple more basses I have, as I'm going short scale across the board (arthritis is a bitch), and give a guy a chance.

I understand being handcuffed by suppliers in my business, and being f'd by overseas backorders and delays.
I'll give you an example, I own a flooring store, and a lot of porcelain tile, laminate and hardwood floors come from China. We'll have lines that we sell day in and day out with no issues, then suddenly, there will be a backorder on it, and the Canadian distributor will basically say "we have no idea when it'll be here, but it's expected the end of next month." I'll check on it a month later and the reply is "it hasn't landed in country yet.", I'll check a couple weeks later and it's "The container is at customs"... and on and on till they finally know that it is released to their warehouse.
That 5 week backorder is now 3 months. And that is for a humongous distributor doing millions of dollars with that Chinese company, not some guy in Toronto doing thousands of dollars.

 

[wintremute]

I understand being handcuffed by suppliers in my business, and being f'd by overseas backorders and delays.
I'll give you an example, I own a flooring store, and a lot of porcelain tile, laminate and hardwood floors come from China. We'll have lines that we sell day in and day out with no issues, then suddenly, there will be a backorder on it, and the Canadian distributor will basically say "we have no idea when it'll be here, but it's expected the end of next month." I'll check on it a month later and the reply is "it hasn't landed in country yet.", I'll check a couple weeks later and it's "The container is at customs"... and on and on till they finally know that it is released to their warehouse.
That 5 week backorder is now 3 months. And that is for a humongous distributor doing millions of dollars with that Chinese company, not some guy in Toronto doing thousands of dollars.

That's an interesting perspective. Also, kinda scary. That can wreck a business.

Marko...if I'm allowed to have a number, I'll take #13 if it's available.