Elecraft K3 Wait and Wait and Wait!
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Elecraft K3 Wait and Wait and Wait!
 
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I ordered my K3 in late April 2007 with a 50% deposit. It was a risk as
they were a relatively unknown rig, but having built a K1 and K2 there was a good chance it would perform as described. I've now had the pleasure of owning a K3 for 6 months and don't regret buying it at all. All good things come to he who is prepared to wait... 73 Dave, G4AON K3/100 #80 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
Re: Elecraft K3 Wait and Wait and Wait! [END of Thread]
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Administrator
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Guys, Please, let's end this thread for now. Its taking a tremendous
amount of reflector bandwidth and is not going to make any impact on our production rate. Believe me, we are already acutely aware of how much everyone wants their K3 to be delivered quickly. If you want to vent, please email me directly. We are already working very long hours and putting all of our resources into getting you K3s as fast as possible without sacrificing quality. Wayne, I and our whole crew virtually live Elecraft every day (and nights & weekends for many of us!) We run Elecraft on a very conservative financial basis - we want to stay here for the long run . We have a tremendous amount of cash tied up in test equipment, inventory and work in process. Throwing more money at it is not a prudent path to take in a market as small as the amateur market. We have a big bubble of product to ship, but once we do catch up, we do not want to have to lay off staff, pay rent on unneeded factory space etc. We have made a very careful set of decisions on this, which we review on an ongoing basis to make sure we are on track. So far, while I would love to be able to ship at a 2x to 3x rate right now, I feel we are on track with what we have planned. We are in a strong financial condition and will stay that way. Many a small company (and some larger ones) has bankrupted itself by trying to ramp up too quickly. As a general comment, the reason we still are in a backlog situation is due to the fact that each time we have increased our production rate, our rate of orders has also increased beyond our projections. We have been amazed at the K3 order response from our existing and new customers. This Dayton our sales were way above even last year's (which was an all time record with the K3 intro.) We even sold out of K2s this Dayton. Even if we had infinite cash resources we could not find the people, building space, parts etc to ramp up more quickly. We do not want to compromise quality as we increase production. We will not compromise quality. Period. As I have noted before, we are currently on plan to increase our monthly production by 50%+ over the next several months. (Parts ordered, personnel hired etc.) If we are successful, the lead time on orders will continue to drop noticeably. We hope to be at less than 4 weeks or less by the fall. Personally I want to be in a ship from stock position for the holiday season. Several of the parts used in the K3 (and in our other radios) have 13-24 week lead times. We do plan carefully, but there is an unavoidable lag in response from our parts pipeline and assembly vendors each time we revise our production schedule. Plus, as an extra 'fun' variable, each vendor can also be late on their deliveries to us. As we see this reoccur for any vendor we immediately bring on extra sources for that part - but it takes time to qualify each new vendor, especially for custom parts like toroids etc. We do plan for some of this, but each week brings lots of new excitement. ;-) Wayne and I started and continue to run Elecraft because we enjoy doing this, even with the stresses of bringing a product as successful as the K3 on line. This really is a labor of love. As many of you have noticed, we do not look at this as just an eight hour a day job. ;-) Also, Lisa, Katie, Madelyn, Scott, Gary, Richard and the rest of our customer sales and support crew manage to maintain their excellent attitudes in the face of some rather rude and immature callers. Fortunately the 99% of you that have great attitudes make up for that. I'm amazed at their resiliency. Please remember when you call that they are only trying to help you as much as possible, and that they are not responsible for production delays etc. Please feel free to email me with any complaints etc. I have a thick skin and take each email seriously, even if I am not able to reply to every email. We're working hard to get these out the door to you quickly. Hopefully we'll catch up enough soon so we can play with -our- K3s! :-) 73, Eric WA6HHQ _..._ _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
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In reply to this post by Dave, G4AON
Some folks have an inflated sense of their own importance. Elecraft is
shipping every K3 they can make, and making them as fast as they have people available. I'd be very surprised if they're currently "pretty nervous" about any one particular order. If I was smart like Wayne and Eric I'd have built such indecisions and vacillations into my business plan. Some guy named Bayes worked on this some time ago. 73 Art ---------------------- AF2Z writes: Message: 10 Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 09:13:57 -0400 From: [hidden email] Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft K3 Wait and Wait and Wait! To: [hidden email] Message-ID: <[hidden email]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Hello Ed, Yes, some people would prefer to wait till they can buy one without waiting... For myself, I ordered one before I'd decided whether or not to actually buy one-- so it is really Elecraft who is waiting for me. I think they will be sending me an email any day now asking for my decision. I imagine they are probably getting pretty nervous about my final intentions by now. There is a lot of psychology in all this. 73, Drew AF2Z _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
Re:Re: Elecraft K3 Wait and Wait and Wait! (c/o ART!!!)
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On Wed, 21 May 2008 13:38:00 -0600
Art <[hidden email]> wrote: > Some folks have an inflated sense of their own importance. Elecraft is shipping every K3 they >can make, and making them as fast as they have people available. > > I'd be very surprised if they're currently "pretty nervous" about any one particular order. If I >was smart like Wayne and Eric I'd have built such indecisions and vacillations into my business >plan. Some guy named Bayes worked on this some time ago. > > 73 Art > > ---------------------- > AF2Z writes: > > Message: 10 > Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 09:13:57 -0400 >From: [hidden email] > Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft K3 Wait and Wait and Wait! > To: [hidden email] > Message-ID: <[hidden email]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > Hello Ed, > > Yes, some people would prefer to wait till they can buy one without > waiting... > >For myself, I ordered one before I'd decided whether or not to > actually buy one-- so it is really Elecraft who is waiting for me. I > think they will be sending me an email any day now asking for my > decision. I imagine they are probably getting pretty nervous about my > final intentions by now. > > There is a lot of psychology in all this. > > 73, > Drew > AF2Z > _______________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Post to: [hidden email] > You must be a subscriber to post to the list. > Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm > Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com Art, Your statement about "Self-importance" in our opinion was rather "SHALLOW" in that whoever is SPENDING HIS "OWN" MONEY/$$$$$$$$$$ has every expectation of receiving his ordered product PROMPTLY instead of what ELECRAFT is telling their customers now! By the time ALL of the present orders are fullfilled ELECRAFT will have out the "NEW/IMPROVED K-4!!!!!!!!!!!! You're not kidding anyone! Respectfully, Jim/nn6ee _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
Re: Elecraft K3 Wait and Wait and Wait! (c/o ART!!!)
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Administrator
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Guys - This thread has been ended. Please take any discussion off list.
Also, all new orders received are quoted 4-5 months, even though we feel we will beat that as we go forward. 73, Eric _..._ JIM DAVIS wrote: > On Wed, 21 May 2008 13:38:00 -0600 > Art <[hidden email]> wrote: >> Some folks have an inflated sense of their own importance. Elecraft >> is shipping every K3 they can make, and making them as fast as they >> have people available. >> >> I'd be very surprised if they're currently "pretty nervous" about any >> one particular order. If I was smart like Wayne and Eric I'd have >> built such indecisions and vacillations into my business plan. Some >> guy named Bayes worked on this some time ago. >> >> 73 Art >> >> ---------------------- >> > > Art, > > Your statement about "Self-importance" in our opinion was rather > "SHALLOW" in that whoever > is SPENDING HIS "OWN" MONEY/$$$$$$$$$$ has every expectation of > receiving his ordered product > PROMPTLY instead of what ELECRAFT is telling their customers now! > > By the time ALL of the present orders are fullfilled ELECRAFT will > have out the "NEW/IMPROVED > K-4!!!!!!!!!!!! > > You're not kidding anyone! > > Respectfully, > > Jim/nn6ee > Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
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In reply to this post by k6xt
Well my apologies for not taking it right then! I'm waiting for mine as
well, sometime in early July. Or August. Or September. I like :-) for the smiles but that's like my name: Anything but late for lunch. 73 Art [hidden email] wrote: > No, not sense of importance. Sense of humor perhaps-- it was supposed > to be funny. (Sri, I never got into the habit of using smilies; could > never remember if they went this way :) or this way (: > > 73, > Drew > AF2Z > > > > On Wed, 21 May 2008 13:38:00 -0600, you wrote: > >> Some folks have an inflated sense of their own importance. Elecraft is >> shipping every K3 they can make, and making them as fast as they have >> people available. >> >> I'd be very surprised if they're currently "pretty nervous" about any >> one particular order. If I was smart like Wayne and Eric I'd have built >> such indecisions and vacillations into my business plan. Some guy named >> Bayes worked on this some time ago. >> >> 73 Art >> >> ---------------------- >> AF2Z writes: >> >> Message: 10 >> Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 09:13:57 -0400 >> From: [hidden email] >> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Elecraft K3 Wait and Wait and Wait! >> To: [hidden email] >> Message-ID: <[hidden email]> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii >> >> Hello Ed, >> >> Yes, some people would prefer to wait till they can buy one without >> waiting... >> >> For myself, I ordered one before I'd decided whether or not to >> actually buy one-- so it is really Elecraft who is waiting for me. I >> think they will be sending me an email any day now asking for my >> decision. I imagine they are probably getting pretty nervous about my >> final intentions by now. >> >> There is a lot of psychology in all this. >> >> 73, >> Drew >> AF2Z >> _______________________________________________ >> Elecraft mailing list >> Post to: [hidden email] >> You must be a subscriber to post to the list. >> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): >> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >> >> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm >> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com > > > Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
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