Thread: Zulu Grey - Time from Order to Receipt

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


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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
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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.

Yeah, SS, I wasn't necessarily criticizing you for wanting to know, because it's your dime. More the folks who dogpile about wanting amazon-style call-center automated etc. type service from one man shops.

After playing with jasper, I'm convinced that there are tons of things out there that would make great hones that hardly cost anything, but the logistics of getting stones cut and making them look nice cost 10x what the stone stock ever would. when you get your stone, you'll be surprised how tidily it's packaged and presented, and if the lapping is the same on the surface as it was when I got mine, you'll just be able to go right to using it.

Originally Posted by ShavingSnob

I honestly believe he is truly focused on satisfying his customers; he's just wrestling with a high magnitude of demand for his product

As in, be careful what you pray for, you might get it ........

Stone shipped

Got a note from Mike this morning saying my ZG had shipped. I ordered in April. A bit long but it is handmade from natural stone.

Hopefully, those of you who have ordered from Mike have gotten, or will get the same note shortly.

Dave

I got a response from Mike yesterday stating that my stones had shipped as well, so things appear to be moving along...

I just received my tracking number as well

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

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.

That was actually me and I emailed Mike about it. Mike is a stand up guy and backs his product/business. If he is willing to replace a second hand hone: that's a guy you can trust. I wish I hadn't bought second hand just so I could have given my money to him for being awesome. I can't even say how much a respect someone that stalwart. If he says you'll get it I'd take that as fact. As for how awesome is the ZG? That's up to you and I'm tweaking with mine still to perfect my edges.