Thread: Zulu Grey - Time from Order to Receipt

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Wow, thanks for the words of wisdom . . . did you have to 'Google' that or is such an example of your normal wit?

Originally Posted by WW243

You might be surprised to find the world largely unchanged after you get your Zulu.

Thanks for the responses. As I said, I wanted to meter my expectations with fairness and I knew I'd be able to get such from those who've already ordered. Based on the responses, I'll continue to wait. As Mike says on his website, "good things come to those who wait."

Thanks again to all.

Well at least I am not the only one, it seems that we both got on the Zulu bandwagon too late, ShavingSnob. I ordered a couple of Zulus on April 11. I followed up on May 1st and got this response to my email, "I’m just wrapping up a large wholesale order this week/next week and then your order will be up next. I can estimate a shipping date of around Monday 12th". To cut a long story short, as of today, I still do not have my hones, only more guesstimates about future delivery dates (and yes I have followed up again). At this point I would have to caution prospective buyers and fellow forum members to expect a very long wait and no email correspondence/updates unless initiated by the customer himself. Yes everything previously said about the process Mike goes through to get these stones is probably quite true I am sure however the onus seems to be on the customer to continually follow up. Last time I checked I thought it was part of the customer service to keep your PAID customers up to date on the items that they have purchased especially when you start missing delivery dates by weeks and then months. Just my humble opinion...

I heard from Mike this morning.

There was a technical glitch of some kind at the quarry but it seems to have been resolved. Mike said he had several orders backed up but should be getting some product out next week.

Dave

I was one of the 3 month waiting too, but I expected that with the Christmas special he is one man and will get it to you, on the other hand if hes getting that much backlog it would be prudent to bill you when he is ready to ship , it might keep some from the worry, I do think that single orders should receive priority, as this is what started him on this road. but I believe him to be an honest man and you will be pleased with the product , oh an customs held mine up for almost 10 days

Hello All,

Just wanted to give an update on my situation as it may shed light on the situation others may be experiencing. I did get an e-mail from Mike, which I have slightly edited so that I can share it with the forum. As others have already stated, Mike ran into situation with the quarry, which delayed his response time. He's aware of the longer than normal waits being experienced by his customers, and he's working on a future solution. See below.

BR//ShavingSnob


**********
Hey ShavingSnob,

Needless to say things have just been super busy this side. I’ve also just come through a little technical issue with the quarry site, which delayed me getting in new raw stones to cut, so there’s a group of guys that are waiting now for me to get their orders out. I can only apologize once again and hope you can be patient for a little while longer while I prepare your stones.

At this stage I’m looking good to get your orders shipped out during the course of next week and will contact you the moment they go out.

Thanks again for your support and understanding, I know it’s a painful waiting period and it’s something that I’m going to put an end to with the launch of my new site in the coming months. I’ll be adding a variety of different ZG hone options (and new stones) with listed products that are already packaged and go to go the moment they are ordered.

Anyways, look out for an email from me next week with the good news that your ZG’s are on their way.

Sincerely,

- Mike
**********

Seems to be in the resolving stage. I'll tell you this, while I've not gotten one of these, and have no plans to, I recall a short time back when a member posted about his stone being sub par. He had bought a zulu second hand from another fellow. IIRC it was a 3x8 and for whatever reason he couldn't get a good edge with it, and not for a lack of trying.

So he posted on here inquiring as to whether others had the same problems with their zulu stones. He got the usual various responses, some praising the stone, a few were not so complimentary. To cut to the chase, Mike got wind of the thread and even though the fellow didn't buy the stone directly from him, he offered to replace it with another that he would personally test for viability.

Posting this to say that if that is typical of his customer service, I wouldn't worry about ending up with nothing at the end of the day. I'll also add that in posting this, I've got nothing for the vendor, nor anything against him. Just calling it as I see it based on past performance. No warranty by me expressed or implied.

Mine took a couple of months to get when they first came out, but I got it and it was a good stone, similar to a lot of the other natural finishers out there.

As far as updating paid customers, it reminds me a little bit of what Stu Tierney gets grief about (toolsfromjapan.com), that he doesn't respond fast enough to emails, etc. I don't know what Mike does, but I'd imagine he has another occupation other than the ZG hones, as stu at least did when he started his store (teaching english in japan) - when you cover what you have to do to make product, and all of the other things, there is probably not time to try to go through your list on a daily or weekly basis and send emails to a bunch of people.

there's not enough time, and there's not enough money to come up with some kind of stocking or order software.

Yep, e-mails are both a blessing and a curse. I can see that as a small business owner you would want to give your target customer base the ability to freely access you, but such always comes at a cost.

Regarding order processing time, I initially read over the warning posted on Mike's website. Also, I saw where some on the forums hinted at slightly longer wait times than expected. But, I found no discussion that addressed such outright, as most threads are/were rightfully discussing the performance of the hone itself.

I only became concerned when my order started approaching a lead-time of 90 days after payment. I did try to contact Mike before I started this thread; but as noted above, Mike is swamped, which has simply hindered his response time. After he contacted me, and after I received the above responses within this thread, I felt much more comfortable with the wait time. Bottom line, it is what it is, and fully recognize that if I want the hone, I will wait and I can wait.

I would like to state that Mike has been both professional and courteous in all my dealings with him. I honestly believe he is truly focused on satisfying his customers; he's just wrestling with a high magnitude of demand for his product (sounds like a good problem to have). Furthermore, I plan to follow up by posting a couple of pics of the stones in this thread when I receive my order. All in all, I hope this thread will help others who wish to order a Zulu Grey become more comfortable with the overall acquisition process and potential lead-times. After all, knowledge curtails expectation.