Open Letter to 'HHQ / On Drinking the Kool-Aid and Other Things

[Steve Sacco NN4X]

I've been licensed since 1977.  Never been part of one of these radio
cult things.

Never drank the Kool-Aid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool-Aid for
those who don't "get" the reference).  I once owned a Ten-Tec Omni VI
for a couple of weeks.  Sold it: had lots of quirks nobody would talk
about, and the factory denied.  Definitely some kind of cult thing
going on over there.

Didn't realize what I was getting into when I ordered a K3.  Lucky
for me that ownership (or at least "ownership in theory", since I'm
still waiting) doesn't obligate me to become a member.

Lots of Kool-Aid being passed around here on
[hidden email], and lots of takers.  It scares me, just a bit.

Me?  I never liked the stuff.

There's a difference between a radio and a religion.  That's never
been a problem for me.

The Drinkers of the Kool-Aid will tolerate lots of bizarre
preachin'.  It's like they NEED to be able to identify with something.

Can you BELIEVE that people BOUGHT the line of bull that David Koresh
spewed, to use a different cult example?  Simply amazing!

Same thing with politics!  Democrats, this, Republicans, that!  Blah
blah blah.  They'll say ANYTHING to get you to vote for them (and
hopefully, donate to their campaign.  "Harumph!", I say!

You ever look at those sorry, greasy politicians in office, and
wonder to yourself whether you would prefer whether 1) they were
lying in their teeth to us, or, 2) just honestly THAT incompetent?

I do.  All the time.  I've been wondering it for years, and never
HAVE come to a conclusion as to which is worse.

What do YOU think, Eric?  Lying, or Incompetence - which is worse?

Now, onto the subject of K3's...

To be totally, brutally, honest, I'm happy for you and the folks at
Elecraft that orders have been so outstanding!  Congratulations are
"on" order, but won't be delivered until some undetermined time in
the future...you know how it goes!  There's the gift vendors, the
gift box vendors,  the wrapping paper people, the greeting card
company...the list goes on and on.  It's like herding cats, for
goodness sake! (sorry, I couldn't resist) With the exception of the
mint, Sherwood-ized C-Line in my closet, my K3 will be the first
American made rig I've ever had.

There are several issues I have with the way Elecraft has handled the
K3 rollout. They could easily have been avoided, and much angst would
have been prevented.

1) The K3 was released before it was ready.  Seriously.  This is
soooo obvious.  Even now, Elecraft is still making
ridiculously  frequent changes to the firmware.  This indicates that
it's still in development (probably "Alpha" level?), even after all
these months.  I'm a software developer.  I know about these
things.  Even more indicative that there was no chance that the K3
would be released on schedule, and that Elecraft knew it, is that the
hardware noise blanker was only completed just a week or so before
Elecraft was promising to begin shipping the first batch.  There was
another tidbit about the front panels, right about the same time, if
I recall.  CLEARLY, OBVIOUSLY, Elecraft KNEW well in advance of that,
that they wouldn't be shipping radios, because they didn't have any
ready to ship.   Add in all the vendor/supplier issues, and it was a
no-brainer: Nothing was going to ship when promised.  It had to have
been obvious, because if it wasn't, what was the other
possibility?  We both know the answer to that, and I cannot believe
it to be true.    Not cool.

2) At any time, Elecraft, facing this inrush of orders which they
couldn't handle, could have STOPPED TAKING ORDERS until the
production line was smoothed out.  If not that, the anticipated
shipping date could have been moved FAR OUT, to make it obvious to a
perspective customer that they should have (very) low expectations,
and respecting them enough to share that information with them,
knowing that some would make other arrangements.

I admire the nice full page, full color K3 advertisement in each
month's QST, and think "Someday, you will be mine...someday...", and
then I let out a little sigh. (but I never cry) Meanwhile, more folks
order, based on wildly inaccurate shipping estimates.  Not cool.

3) In the middle of an obviously chaotic and frenzied buildout of the
K3 production line, you left the scene, to go to Japan, to sell MORE
radios that you already couldn't build fast enough!  Oh,yes - you
were so busy doing that, you didn't have time to update the status
for the current folks on the hook with orders.  I know that, because
you specifically told me, here on this reflector.   Not cool.

4) Even after promising weekly updates, that hasn't happened.  It's
not that hard, really.  After all, we're your customers.  Real
customers, who've laid down $$$ and rock-solid orders, not
tire-kickers.  Why doesn't Elecraft respect us?   Is it too much to
ask?  If it's not too much to ask, but yet not being done, what's the
other possibility?  I cannot believe it to be true.  Not cool.

5) Operational details (misbehaving vendors, laborious test and
alignment procedures, etcetera) are interesting (no sarcasm intended
- I really DO think they're interesting!!), but are not my problem,
if you've happily accepted my order (especially with a down payment),
particularly if my order was based on intentionally inaccurate
delivery date estimates.  I say "intentionally", because it is within
Elecraft's power to better predict and update that
information.  Every day, Elecraft makes the decision to update it, or
not, when it's inaccurate.  If it's wrong, and the decision is made
to leave it wrong, that's "intentional".  Not cool.

I understand that Elecraft, with an outstanding line of products, and
support to go with it, has build a large reserve of goodwill with The
Believers.  Some of us Non-Believers, observing that, decided to
purchase a K3 based upon that reputation, and nothing else.

That, sir, is Trust.  Let me share with you that many of the folks
who are purchasing the K3 - serious contesters and DXers, are
heathens!  We bought a radio which we hope to be an outstanding
performer, NOT a ticket for a good seat in the pews.   If the K3
doesn't pan out, off to the QTH.COM classifieds it goes (Note plug
for Scott's classifies, and not those other places), and we're off
buying something else, and we don't have heavy hearts, or feel that
we've betrayed the family, or anything like that.  We don't tolerate
Happy Talk, or long, detailed stories about why they can't meet the
expectations they themselves have set for us.

We're results driven, period.

Elecraft has a very good thing going with this "open communication"
mailing list thing.  Here's some advice: Don't screw it up.

When in doubt, think "UPOD": Under Promise, Over Deliver.

Please take this correspondence with the spirit in which is was
crafted - from someone who's excited by the potential of the K3,
proud that it is coming from an American manufacturer, and very much
wants Elecraft to be successful - but not at the price of being taken
for a fool.

73 and Happy Holidays, and I mean that sincerely,

Steve NN4X
EL98jh




















At 02:46 PM 12/13/2007, you wrote:

>Hi Julian,
>
>I apologize for the delays getting you (and everyone else) your K3. We
>are absolutely working as hard as possible to get K3s out the door
>quickly. Every time I see a complaint here (and elsewhere) about
>delivery delays, status accuracy etc., I take every posting very
>personally (especially those criticizing our veracity) and agonize over
>how we can improve things further.
>
>To be totally, and brutally, honest, we were absolutely amazed at the
>amount of orders we received at introduction of the K3. (We're not a
>venture capital financed company that can staff up and spend millions of
>dollars before shipping our first K3.) We certainly underestimated the
>ongoing response and have been playing catch up as we have added staff
>and vendors to meet the demand. This has strained not only our own
>staff, but that of our vendors too. They are doing a great job
>responding, but we are continually looking for additional resources. My
>day starts out -very- early with a review of what new issues and
>problems have to be addressed to keep production rolling and how we can
>improve our run rate. The term 'fire drill' is now permanently engraved
>on the back of my head ;-) Fire drills encompass everything from vendors
>not delivering parts and assembled PCBs on schedule, wrong or faulty
>parts received, key employees out sick, test and alignment taking longer
>than expected, pcb assembly errors at a vendor (requiring rework here),
>customers who personally want to talk with me etc. etc. All of this is a
>normal part of any product ramp up (I've been there before..), and it is
>getting better and more predictable daily. But it takes a lot of effort
>to make sure we increase our output -and- maintain our admittedly high
>quality standards.
>
>As we go forward our shipping estimates will continue to both increase
>in volume and get more accurate. I'm trying to be as honest and as
>conservative as possible with my current shipping estimates, and so are
>Lisa and her crew. But we're human too and will make mistakes or be over
>optimistic from time to time. It is very hard to accurately estimate
>delivery out past a 3-4 week window and I'm sure Lisa and crew have been
>pressured into guessing on some estimates. I'm actually trying to get to
>the point where we will regularly exceed our posted estimates. If my
>'fire drill' threshold is not exceeded this month I think we'll be there
>soon! :-)
>
>Our new order rate is strong (and increasing!) and we have had very few
>cancellations (I can count them on one hand), which has given us the
>confidence to spend even more on staffing, inventory and other
>resources. As K3s have gotten out into the field people are showing
>their rig to their friends and we're getting a lot of referral orders.
>We've now been able to increase our daily production rate ahead of the
>order rate, so my confidence is increasing that we're on the right track
>to keep everyone happy.
>
>As always, we will refund any deposits (and still keep an order active)
>and/or cancel anyone's order without delay should they feel the need to
>do so.
>
>Lastly, please stop arguing with each other here about what should or
>should not be said about K3 deliveries. We want the feedback. But also,
>please tone down the rhetoric and personal criticisms - we are human
>here too and we lose sleep over these postings.
>
>We're doing our best to make the K3 a superb rig and to get it out to
>you as quickly as possible. As always, please feel free to email me
>directly if you feel we have done or said anything you take issue with )
>or just want to vent! :-)
>
>73, Eric   WA6HHQ

  _.    _.   ...._   _.._   [hidden email]


_______________________________________________
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

[Corboy - Poteet]

Steve, I admit I didn't read most of your email, too long; if you are
a software man you must work for Microsoft.

Look, 98% of us who ordered early figured Elecraft would never make
their initial ship date; 98% of the 98% soon realized it would drag on
for a while. But, guess what, we don't give a diddly-damn.

Faith it may be but it's not blind faith. It's based on years of
association with Elecraft; these guys are truly good, they deliver on
their promises; no Kool-Aid.

As for the firmware, this is a software defined radio; the firmware
will never be finished.  I expect what we see in the current K3 is
just the base system.  It's a TRS-80; an IBM PC with an 8088 chip and
640KB of memory.  Get your K3, kick back and enjoy the ride; it's
going to be worth the wait.

Mike   W5FTD






> I've been licensed since 1977.  Never been part of one of these radio
> cult things.

> Never drank the Kool-Aid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool-Aid for
> those who don't "get" the reference).  I once owned a Ten-Tec Omni VI
> for a couple of weeks.  Sold it: had lots of quirks nobody would talk
> about, and the factory denied.  Definitely some kind of cult thing
> going on over there.

> Didn't realize what I was getting into when I ordered a K3.  Lucky

<snip>

_______________________________________________
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