One of the most irritating things about suppliers, is delivery time. Not so much that it may take a long time to get something, but that they continually lie to the customer as to delivery date. When a supplier lies to me about when I will have something, I have made the mistake of relying on their word. So, this puts me in the position of having lied to a customer, who is waiting for their gun. All in all, a darn poor way for a vendor to treat customers, and expect return business. If they want to lie, they need to get out of business, and go into politics.
When I worked for a custom rifle shop, we in the shop who knew actual production times looked at what the sales people were telling clients waiting for rifles. The times were totally impossible to meet, but they insisted that they would loose customers if they thought they may have to wait a year and a half for a rifle. Our shop crew put our foot down, and demanded honest scheduling. We went through the outstanding orders, figured out how long each project would take, and then added three to four weeks to the delivery time, to cover any unforeseen circumstances.
After we did this, no orders were dropped, if anything, orders went up. Constant phone calls from anxious clients went to practically none, as we began delivering rifles before the estimated dates, making for happy customers. People are happier getting something a month early, than eight months late.
