| Author | Message | ||
     Cyclone8u |
Hey all, I just got an email today from Odie of Special OPS - whom I harshly criticized for lack of response a month or so ago. Based on the replies to my criticism, it would have appeared that Odie took off to Argentina with his mistress - oh wait, someone else has already done that. Well apparently he's found a bunch of unread email (mine being one of them) and wants to know if I still wanted his product or not. Well I've always said that a companies true colors are shown not by having a perfect record, but how they handle themselves when something goes wrong. We'll keep you posted. | ||
| Cyclone8u |
So far, so good. He emailed me back immediately last night, after which I placed my order. Received an email today verifying the order, and that it is expected to ship in the next few days. The hot weather is just starting to rear its head here, I'm looking forward to a little insulation for my hind end. | ||
| Sanchez |
Odie's a stand up guy.  | ||
| Rah7777777 |
Odie is a good ole boy! a very busy busy good ole boy! I had the same thing happen to me. On the "contact us" portion of our site, the return emails were getting cut off of only some of them. 6 months went by when I caught the error! had to go back and email all the previous emails I thought I had already replied to, well i did reply to them, but with the email being cut off, they never made it. Stuff happens :-) -Robert www.xblights.com | ||
| Sifo |
I had put off buying a heat shield for under my set last year. Suddenly it warmed up this summer and I got the hots for a heat shield again. That was just when you posted about Odie not being responsive. Just when I'm planning a trip to the south by bike. :^( Glad to hear he's taking care of you now. Got me to send him an email the other day. Got a timely response from him and he said my heat shield will be shipped out today! :^) He just saved my but! He does say on his site that Special Ops is a sideline for him and response may be slow sometimes. For a part time business he's got a lot of irons in the fire. His products have a good reputation too. I'm glad he was able to help me out before my trip.  | ||
| Alershka |
I also got one of those "lost email" emails. I immediately walked through the particulars and paypal'd payment. When I emailed him this weekend, to see how long shipping usually takes, he said that it would ship this Thursday. I sent him another email to clarify if a new order would ship this Thursday or if my order paid for on 6/26 would ship this Thursday and he didn't respond. I just got my bike back this weekend from the cam sensor warranty repair and I was hoping I'd have the blankets before I got the bike back. | ||
| Cyclone8u |
Still waitin' myself....no word in over a week. I'm trying to be patient. Alershka, I feel your pain. Summer weather is finally rearing it's head here in the North East. | ||
| Cyclone8u |
Now been over 2 weeks...no product, no contact.  | ||
| Americanmadexb |
Dudes a busy man.. i waited 4 weeks and was a happy guy when i got it and never looked back. Quality takes time, he is a one man band trying to cover ALOT of ground. You will get it, and YOU WILL LIKE IT!!!! | ||
| Sifo |
I just got back from a a mini-trip before my big trip and found my new heat shield waiting for me at home. The mini-trip was nice an cool, but the longer trip will certainly be warmer. Hopefully it will keep me from roasting my nuts heading south next week. Now if only my local dealer would come through with the fan that they claimed to have ordered over a month ago. I spoke to them again yesterday and they remember my bad fan but have no record of ordering a new one. This is after checking 2 other times and being told that it's on special order!  | ||
| Odie |
Ya know......I really don't have time to be typing this; and you'll see why in a moment; but I'm going to just so maybe I can relate this to as many folks as possible instead of having to type it in every email I send out. In no way do I mean to sound harsh or critical of anyone. I appreciate everyone's business whether it is one heat barrier or $600 worth of products. I just want to relate to people how busy I really am. Really. I get up at 0400 Wednesday thru Sunday. My days off are Monday and Tuesday. I try to answer a few emails while I'm eating breakfast. I get to work by 0600 (a union job) and spend most of the day working on/flying broken UH-60's. It is extremely hot down here right now and has been for the last month or so. That alone takes a lot out of you. I won't mention that it is a high stress job so being well rested would be fairly important to insure a longer life expectancy. If there is any downtime at work I try to answer more emails if at all possible. I get off work at 1430. If possible, I go straight home and get to work on Buell stuff. However, 9 times out of 10, I have to go to our other business. It is a 2800 sq. ft. retail pet supply and grooming operation that has 3 full time groomers and we still can't keep up. We have no employees. The groomers work for themselves. The only "employee" is my wife. Folks always say "Oh, you have your own business; you are your own boss!" Yep, you are; and the toilet scrubber, and the mopper, and the grass mower, and the maintenance person, and the pallet emptier, and the order maker, and the cash register operator, and the stock boy, and it goes on and on and on. If you have never owned your own business you absolutely have NO clue what it takes to run it efficiently. If I get stuck at the store doing what NEEDS to be done there I usually get home around 2200 (10 PM for you civilians). Now I have to try to get something to eat (forget sitting down with your family to eat a meal at the table) and get out to the shop to get as much done as possible before I run out of energy. Again, I'm my own boss in this venture so I also have to deal with equipment maintenance, sourcing metal, paint, shipping materials, coordinating with Jet-Hot for customers, dropping shipments at UPS, etc. This doesn't even include actually working on someones muffler or Grater. This, again, is stuff that is required by virtue of just existing as a business venture. Doing what I do to Graters and mufflers takes time. Heat barriers take time to cut out, sew, clean up and ship. While I am working on Buell stuff I can hear my grass growing. We have 10 acres of which 5 is mowed. That doesn't get done by itself, trust me. Now it is going on 11 PM and I have to get up at 4 AM. I'm still trying to get some products finished before I can't stay awake anymore. Being a pilot, I am constantly diligent in my work to not cut off something I may need or hurt myself too bad. I need my body for my job so being extremely tired doesn't help. This also goes back to being well rested to perform my job safely. Well, if you haven't figured it out yet- I'm not well rested. So far I have been to my full time job, our pet supply business and tried to produce as much product as possible in one day. I haven't cut any grass, maintained our house, worked on kids cars (one I have to drive to Tallahassee to fix), maintained any of our vehicles, or anything else- period. No shopping, sitting around watching TV, playing a video game, enjoying our pool, riding my bike, sleeping... you get the picture. I have no life. I started down this path because I wanted my bike to sound and look better. People showed interest and I became a sponsor of this fine place. It has grown so big it is crazy. I ship around the world weekly (Japan, China, Australia, all of Europe, Canada, UAE, Bahrain, Saudi, California, South Africa, etc.) I try to treat every customer like they are my only customer but trust me- you aren't. I get around 50 emails a day which is very hard to keep up with. It is hard enough to keep the wife and kids happy let alone customers I don't even know from the other side of the world. So it is after midnight and I finally get a shower and into bed. Then the alarm goes off at 0400.....again.....time to make the donuts....This is my life, everyday. I mean every day. But wait! I have a weekend to look forward to! Oh, wait, I'm so far behind on Buell stuff that I have no choice but to get up early and get at it trying to keep everyone happy. What's that?!?! Oh, I have to work overtime this weekend? Well, that really sets me back. I try to schedule things so they sort of flow and I can make one trip to UPS versus three. I plan on shipping product on a certain day (which I have told the customer) and then I get told I have to stay overtime at the end of my shift. Here I am, stuck at work. By the time I get home UPS is closed. This happens all the time without notice. If there are a lot of aircraft down then we end up staying over to get them up. Again, I emphasize I'm in a union job so I can't just say screw it, I don't want to work. I HAVE to work or not work at all, period. Ever again. I made the comment the other day to the wife that I may scale back on Buell stuff a good bit. I don't want to but the added stress in my life just isn't needed. A majority of my customers understand I am a one-man show. I like that aspect of it but it has it's drawbacks, obviously. I think something that would help would be for folks to realize that we are dealing with motorcycle parts, not organ transplants. I understand that everyone has a schedule or a ride coming up and a show they want a piece for. I try very, very hard to help people meet their deadlines. When I don't, I feel bad about it but what can I do? Truly? Stay up all night long? Quit my job? Trust me; I anticipate stuff coming in the mail just like everyone else does. I track it and patiently await it's arrival. If it doesn't show up exactly when it was supposed to it isn't a huge deal. I don't sweat the small stuff. Someone flaming me about a delivery date that was missed due to something out of my control doesn't help the situation one bit. Folks all the time make the comment that there are not enough aftermarket parts out there for Buells. I agree. I'm trying to help out but at what cost?? I rarely see my wife and kids. When we are together her and I just want to sleep. If I had known that retirement would be like this I would've stayed in the Army! Maybe when I really retire it will be better. So, if I offended anyone- I apologize. Wasn't my intent. I love my Buell. I love helping other Buellers out. I love hanging out on the BadWeb. I hope folks understand I am truly, really, honestly, sincerely, trying to get your stuff to you as fast as humanly possible. The key word being humanly. If I were a robot then I wouldn't be typing this. If a deadline can't be met and you want your hard earned cash back let me know and I will GLADLY send it back to you no questions asked. I want you, the customer, to be happy. An old Battalion Commander when I was in the 101st once told me as we stood at the bar with his arm around me- "Odie, you can't make anyone else happy unless you, yourself, are happy." Truer words were never spoken. It just took me a long time to realize it. Of course we were talking about a different subject but it applies to everything. Ride safe everyone. | ||
| Odie |
Cyclone8u- PayPal'ing your money back tonight. Sorry for your disappointment. I'll try harder...... | ||
| Dynasport |
Odie, I don't know if you are reading this or not. I don't see how you have time to. But...on the chance that you are, I have some advice. Take a vacation. Maybe stop accepting new orders for a time. From the schedule you describe, I am afraid you will be dead soon. Of course, it is likely that you can handle this lifestyle better than I could, but I don't see why you would want to. Unless you get some kind of high from the stress of non-stop pressure and constantly being behind, you should spend more time taking care of yourself and enjoying your wife and kids. At the moment I am sitting in an empty house taking a break from some work of my own. My kids have moved out, though I think my son is moving back and my daughter may too, and my wife is on an out of town business trip. I miss them all. Enjoy your family while you can. A muffler or heat blanket can not make up for time lost when they are gone. But hey, what do I know? | ||
| Metalstorm |
Damn Odie. I knew you were extremely busy but that is way beyond what I imagined. I have no need of your products (for the time being) but your dedication to 'handling the chores' demands huge respect. I suspect you're not really human at all but in fact an advanced engineered super human. I personally know of no man (besides you) who could handle such an over full plate as yours. It's awe inspiring. | ||
| Sifo |
That kind of schedule will drain anybody. He could easily drive himself nuts just with the Buell business. Having a full time job on top of that is insane. Odie, if you feel the need to cut back you might consider selling your business completely. You've put blood, sweat and tears into it, and have built up a great reputation. Selling it would give you some cash and keep products flowing to the Buell fans out there. Until then you do need to schedule some time for yourself and family. Good luck to you. You are a stronger person than I could be! |
