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Our foundry are still taking longer than usual to cast, when we receive sets in they sell out very quickly. Customers pay to reserve a set from the next batch and therefore they go extra quicklyWe currently have no stock of the Baileys Bee, If you wish to reserve a set in our next batch we would require a £20 depositThe wait would be around 3-4 months
Sounds like both yourselves and the foundry have on going business problems associated with Covid which need to be resolved before either of you are in a position to be able to provide a reliable customer service. Under these conditions it would be foolish of me to pay a deposit as there is a high risk that the items would not be supplied in a timely manner.I will wait until your business is back on a more sound financial footing and are able to supply from stock, rather than risk the hassle/agro of chasing the on going non delivery of items that I had paid a deposit on which will cause me unnecessary stress.
If all else fails you could now 3D print some patterns for the bailey and get your own castings done, no need to go near the brown stuff now Can't remember now if it uses many castings or not, did Anthony scratch build it?
I expect it really comes down to a lot of these engines being slow sellers and the suppliers don't want to tie up lots of capital with castings sitting on the shelf so are almost running to a "cast to order" basis.
I would accept that but they clearly stated: "when we receive sets in they sell out very quickly". If I was running a business I would be keeping track of demand over the years and planning to have stock level meet my expected sales numbers to maximise my profits. The last thing I would want is someone walking away with hundreds of pounds in their pocket that they had just offered to pay me
And what if you were hit by a sudden, unpredictable and probably temporary surge in demand just at the moment your supplier becomes unable to deliver in the normal quantity or time? Order lots more stock at premium prices that doesn't get delivered until just when you discover you have flooded your market?
I don't know what Polly's setup with their foundry(s) is but it is not just the actual cost of the castings that their sales price needs to cover.
Good afternoonI think you may have interpreted our response incorrectlyIt is down to sheer volume of castings being sold and nothing to do with either ours or the foundry’s financial situationsOver the lockdown period, lots of model engineers bought the castings sets, compounded by the foundry being closed for several months, meaning our stock levels were somewhat depletedTurnaround from the foundry is still about 3 months, so by asking for a small deposit we have a good idea of numbers of engines to get cast to fulfil customer orders and leave some stock on the shelf