Triple Aces to Hancock and Moore
A forum member contacted me last week and said she was on a military move to Germany, did I have a H&M Sofa I could ship to her in Illinois quickly before they were packed up? Her local dealer didn't have anything she liked at all. Since its impractical to try to rush ship pieces that are already out of the box and in my store, I called H&M and spoke to the 'right guy' and he said "We'll make a new one and rush it, just pick a leather we have in stock. We'll get one out the door in three to four days for one of our military going overseas."
Perfect. We picked Aspen Tobacco and rolled with the order. Three to four days to make it, three to four days to ship (less weekends), have it delivered via express truck well before the move date.
Last Friday - late afternoon - I get a panic call from H&M. Another order took the Aspen and it had already been cut. We lost three precious days of build time.
We scramble to go over leathers that are in stock on Monday morning (4/23). I go through 25 hides that are the right color and price grade and come up with 4 that are ready to make. Can't get hold of my customer all day though..bummer! Yesterday (4/24) we hook up, but she's doubtful the order can get there in time now since it has to be in Illinois on the dock in one week. I assure her we can make it happen, and madly photograph leathers out in the parking lot to email her to select one. Atticus Sable is the chosen leather. I call it in.
H&M calls back 30 minutes later, another dealer order took the Atticus Sable and its all gone! DRAT THE LUCK. Now we're down to only Document or Dream, neither of which she's crazy about. And the clock is ticking....we're running out of time to get this in IL by 05/01.
She's not crazy about the remaining leathers (neither am I). I call my H&M favorite fixer and say "we really want that Atticus Sable"!
30 minutes later I get a call back. Its pulled for another dealer order, but not cut yet. A decision was made to get this done for our servicemen and women going overseas and we kinda....stole....err...ahhh...BORROWED that leather (more Atticus will be in by 05/3) to get this done.
At 10:30 a.m. this morning we had it finalized after 20 phone calls and furious emails back and forth.
At 3:15 p.m. today the 9844 City Sofa was built and shipped on a truck line. Instead of just one person working on the piece, they put several on it and got it built and done in less than 6 hours - and on the truck. And I called the shipper (Zenith Trucking) and asked them to follow it and hot rush it - they said they would.
It feels really good to be able to make this happen for our folks in uniform, and if you tried to call and haven't got through, its because this pretty well consumed the phone lines for the past two days. But we got it done. We try hard, both H&M and myself. We can't always do things perfect - we make mistakes from time to time (Right now I have a customer that is so angry and vicious with me over a custom leg mistake on her order that my head is spinning) but we TRY to make things happen and TRY to do it right to the best of our abilities , and then some.
H&M stepped up to the plate and got it done. Lesser makers would have said "No way we can do that in those time constraits, sorry". Its why they're # 1 in my book - they go the extra mile to make it happen.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Fearless Leader
Originally Posted by drcollie
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