Crical case

[tomker]

...
And I can't do anything about people who miss prominently displayed text that explains our process. I frequently don't read clearly displayed important information at other websites and blame myself for not doing so.
...

Of course you can. You can display the text in a location, and at a time, where users will be receptive to reading it based on what they're trying to accomplish with the site.

If somebody clicks on "Cases for sale" that means they want to see a list of cases for sale, not read a wall of text that's displayed before the list of things they want to see.

Display the text once the user signals an intent to order/buy.

 

[JB Cases]

If I was reviewing a product in a professional capacity, then sure. Again, I think you've lost perspective on what happened here. Reviewing cases is not my job, "as an engineer" or otherwise.

I just re-read my original review and saw that I couched the price range with the phrase "from what I've seen," which means that it was actually technically correct no matter how you look at it.

I think I've said all I have to say here.

Still unresolved for me is how much my cues are being damaged (or not damaged) by me continuing to use my case. If anybody has a good way of answering that, I'm all ears, because I do not want my cues to be damaged. But I obviously also don't want to buy a whole new case to solve a problem that might not actually exist. I have ideas for how such information might be collected, maybe with accelerometers or load cells, or accelerated wear testing, but that's all a bit involved for me to do personally.

Ok, obviously you will see it from your perspective and not bother to understand mine. That's fine, debate is the cornerstone of innovation.

I didn't say your cues ARE being damaged. I said they can be damaged. If you think that the cues can take the forces they are subjected to with no damage then great, use whatever case with paper-thin fabric dividers you want to.

I have explained in detail how cues are made and explained to you that there are quality and tolerance differences in the construction that make some cues more prone to damage from impact forces. If you wish to believe that all cues made share a minimum construction level that doesn't need padded protection then you are certainly allowed to hold that belief.

I have seen cues with loose joints, loose ferrules, cracks in the finish at the joints, internal rattles, finish scratches, chipped butt caps, damaged wraps and even damp wraps and soggy tips come out of cases.

On the contrary I have seen the cues protected by our cases in bizarre situations such as laying in a puddle of water in a trunk for example.

Every person is fully free to choose the level of protection they want to. And you can make any claim you want to. You can couch your opinions in whatever language you want to. From a marketing standpoint I know what people think when they read a review like yours. I have been at this a long time and I know the value of a well-written and articulate testimonial. "From what I have seen" is not something that triggers a follow-up question about how much you have actually seen and is instead conflated into "as good as all".

My job is to not only rebut what you actually said but also up rebut what is or may be inferred by others based on assumed implications. I do this to protect our work whether you intended to compare to our work or not.

Regarding testing, go for it. I am pretty sure that the bottom line finding will be that padding protects better than no padding. I am pretty sure that the finding will be that less movement is better. I am pretty sure that the finding will be that the less impact with other hard objects a cue is subjected to the more likely it is to stay structurally sound.

If, however, you were to find out that no padding is necessary then great because I can then build great cases with shitty interiors and save a lot of time and effort.

I will happily use your findings to say I was wrong and shitty interiors are fine and padded ones will be available as an upgrade if someone wants a higher, but unnecessary according to your findings, level of protection. Until that time though I will stick with what I do know which is that I have a far more extensive knowledge than you if cue construction from worst to best and a vastly greater knowledge of case construction. Knowledge that I will continue to share wherever relevant.

 

[JB Cases]

Of course you can. You can display the text in a location, and at a time, where users will be receptive to reading it based on what they're trying to accomplish with the site.

If somebody clicks on "Cases for sale" that means they want to see a list of cases for sale, not read a wall of text that's displayed before the list of things they want to see.

Display the text once the user signals an intent to order/buy.

And what they want is tied to information from us that is relevant to their search. These aren't mass-produced widgets, they are hand made custom pool cue cases.

Your lack of attention span isn't my problem. If you can't be bothered to read something that is important to the process of acquiring a case from us then you're not really that interested in buying a case from us.

Knowing the information is key to using the site. If you prefer to be a low information buyer then there are plenty of places selling cheap knockoffs that are happy to provide you with pictures and price along with mostly crappy descriptions that are often misleading.

As I stated many times we sell everything we make. If I were to go to the shop right now and put every case we have in stock on the website they would all be bought within a few hours by our dealers. Since we don't sell wholesale out of inventory this creates a logistical nightmare as we have to then cancel all of those orders and relist the cases. All of which is explained in this so-called wall of text that takes all of one minute to read.

"Cases For Sale
Cases listed as IN STOCK - READY TO SHIP which are ordered before 2pm CST will likely go out the same day or the next business day.

Occasionally cases listed as IN STOCK are not actually in stock. If you place an order and we don't have it we will call you to discuss options. We apologize in advance for any such situations, they are rare but can happen.

Since we do not list the number of cases in stock it can happen that a case which is listed as in stock now is ordered by someone else and is not in stock even five minutes later. If that happens the case can be ordered and we will build it for you in about 12-14 weeks and 16-20 for leather cases if there are no other changes.

Lastly, we are currently not listing the actual inventory that we have in stock. So please call us or email us to find out what we have in stock on the day you are interested and we can show you. This is due to a technicality on the website where we currently cannot prevent dealers from wiping out the in-stock inventory within hours of us putting the new cases up. Sorry for the inconvenience."

So, yeah, your inability or unwillingness to read the information we find important to know when considering our cases isn't my problem. If that attitude is what stops you from buying a case from us then you didn't really want one. We have plenty of orders from those who are willing to spend a minute to read a few paragraphs in order to know how we operate.

I build cases for people who appreciate what we do and who don't tell us how to run the business we have been successfully operating for 17 years.

I certainly will not be lectured to on how to do business by a person trying to inflate a crappy knockoff with a shitty interior into the equivalent of cases with far higher quality and protection.

Anyone who does bother to read the information we provide can end up with a case out of our current inventory with little extra effort. We convere with such customers every day and make sales every day. I would say that our conversation rate is around 90%. Like it says, just ask and we will send pictures and be happy to chat.

Current inventory, what do you like? I will even give you a $60 credit against your knockoff.

 

[JS858]

If something is not in stock but orderable then it is listed as such. The op clearly was not in the market for cases in our price range so availability isn't an issue. The contention be made is that we don't have any cases in the 200-250 price range which is untrue.

You seem to either have missed the prominent paragraph at the top of all the listing pages that clearly explains how and why we are listing cases and how to find out what is immediately available. Or you are deliberately not referencing it.

As for the auctions, they are never in the "middle of the day" and are always scheduled around 7:30pm Central standard time.

And yes our website is outdated, it was modern 10 years ago when we started using it but development stopped on it about five years ago. Since we have a custom built designer tool integrated we are stuck with it until our new site is finished.

As for your other post criticizing me I guess for not being directly responsive to you.... Whomever you are.... I have three people answering the phones and messages every day. Somehow we manage to make and sell around 4000 cases a year to people who have figured out how to call and email. That said sometimes we will miss a message and I'm those cases you would just need to try again. Our phone number is easy to find, our email is published on the site exactly where one expects it to be. We respond to Facebook messages sent to our page.

I personally don't answer the phones. Nor do I take orders. I have other projects, one of which is conversations like this. So if you contacted us and didn't get a response then I apologize but I will say that you are one the few and definitely not the rule.

Lastly, I disagree about the value of my content deconstructing other case to compare to ours and deconstructing arguments about the value of what we do. I don't write for the people who already know the value of what we do. I write for those who say things like "I would be shocked if the cheap knockoff I own and JB Cases weren't made in the same factory and you get 75% of the value for 25% of the price" and the people who might be inclined to believe such statements.

Our phone number is 405-260-9050 Monday through Friday 10am to 6pm CST. Our email is jb@jbcases.com

“If something is not in stock but orderable then it is listed as such.”

-Nothing is in stock on your website. Never ever.

“You seem to either have missed the prominent paragraph at the top of all the listing pages that clearly explains how and why we are listing cases and how to find out what is immediately available. Or you are deliberately not referencing it.”

-Nope, even if there was stock immediately available, there is no way to find it on your website Period, full stop.
Even searching EXACTLY by the prominently displayed IN-STOCK CASES gets you jack shit except a picture of you hugging a case try it for yourself.
Or just put “in stock” like a normal elastic search would retrieve, and watch how you get nothing.

“As for your other post criticizing me I guess for not being directly responsive to you.... Whomever you are....”

-Sorry dude wrong guy, that was not me.
All I said was you don’t ever have any cases in stock, your website sucks, and the business model is absurd.
That’s not a criticism, it’s just the truth.

 

[JB Cases]

“If something is not in stock but orderable then it is listed as such.”

-Nothing is in stock on your website. Never ever.

“You seem to either have missed the prominent paragraph at the top of all the listing pages that clearly explains how and why we are listing cases and how to find out what is immediately available. Or you are deliberately not referencing it.”

-Nope, even if there was stock immediately available, there is no way to find it on your website Period, full stop.
Even searching EXACTLY by the prominently displayed IN-STOCK CASES gets you jack shit except a picture of you hugging a case try it for yourself.
Or just put “in stock” like a normal elastic search would retrieve, and watch how you get nothing.

“As for your other post criticizing me I guess for not being directly responsive to you.... Whomever you are....”

-Sorry dude wrong guy, that was not me.
All I said was you don’t ever have any cases in stock, your website sucks, and the business model is absurd.
That’s not a criticism, it’s just the truth.

Because, if anything is in stock then it will always be at the top. If I were to change the stock status on ten cases to a quantity of 1 then you would see those ten cases listed first. The category is cases for sale and not in-stock. In stock is only a designation for for what would be immediately available if we chose to list what we have.

The business model is absurd? We are custom case company. The majority of what we make are custom orders. We sell everything we make so how absurd can it be? Four years ago we had the ability to make 100-200 cases a month for general sale and we posted them diligently. Now we are lucky to squeeze out 50 a month because the majority of our production is custom and wholesale orders.

When we make cases for general sale then I want to get retail for them. Having a mix of retail and wholesale is important for our business. We do not sell wholesale out of our inventory. All wholesale orders are backorders.

Unfortunately there is no way under the current website programming to make in-stock cases invisible to wholesale customers. I have tried. Including two weeks ago when I asked my Magento developer if he could figure out how to do it. The is no extension that I have found that will do it. And it appears that we can't write one that will do it. So what happens is that every single time we put cases up on the website the dealers will order them all. Then we have to go in and manually delete those orders and return the cases to stock. And as soon as we do that other dealers order them. Asking then not to do it doesn't work. The only way it can be done would be to eliminate all wholesale customers from the database and have two separate stores, one for wholesale and one for retail. Logistically that is really tough to do.

So, until we get the new site up and running there is literally no way to put in-stock cases up for regular customers to browse and buy.

This video shows what is seen. It was made in response to the other guy not you. There is a prominent explanation of how to get a list of in stock cases.

I explain very clearly at the top of every page returned under cases for sale why we are not listing cases at this time.

 

[JB Cases]

“If something is not in stock but orderable then it is listed as such.”

-Nothing is in stock on your website. Never ever.

“You seem to either have missed the prominent paragraph at the top of all the listing pages that clearly explains how and why we are listing cases and how to find out what is immediately available. Or you are deliberately not referencing it.”

-Nope, even if there was stock immediately available, there is no way to find it on your website Period, full stop.
Even searching EXACTLY by the prominently displayed IN-STOCK CASES gets you jack shit except a picture of you hugging a case try it for yourself.
Or just put “in stock” like a normal elastic search would retrieve, and watch how you get nothing.

“As for your other post criticizing me I guess for not being directly responsive to you.... Whomever you are....”

-Sorry dude wrong guy, that was not me.
All I said was you don’t ever have any cases in stock, your website sucks, and the business model is absurd.
That’s not a criticism, it’s just the truth.

And the only reason that this picture is listed as in-stock is because it relates to repair orders and how they are handled. I have to list the "repair-order" as in-stock to get it to process correctly. Again it's a problem in the e-commerce platform.

 

[boogieman]

Because, if anything is in stock then it will always be at the top. If I were to change the stock status on ten cases to a quantity of 1 then you would see those ten cases listed first. The category is cases for sale and not in-stock. In stock is only a designation for for what would be immediately available if we chose to list what we have.

The business model is absurd? We are custom case company. The majority of what we make are custom orders. We sell everything we make so how absurd can it be? Four years ago we had the ability to make 100-200 cases a month for general sale and we posted them diligently. Now we are lucky to squeeze out 50 a month because the majority of our production is custom and wholesale orders.

When we make cases for general sale then I want to get retail for them. Having a mix of retail and wholesale is important for our business. We do not sell wholesale out of our inventory. All wholesale orders are backorders.

Unfortunately there is no way under the current website programming to make in-stock cases invisible to wholesale customers. I have tried. Including two weeks ago when I asked my Magento developer if he could figure out how to do it. The is no extension that I have found that will do it. And it appears that we can't write one that will do it. So what happens is that every single time we put cases up on the website the dealers will order them all. Then we have to go in and manually delete those orders and return the cases to stock. And as soon as we do that other dealers order them. Asking then not to do it doesn't work. The only way it can be done would be to eliminate all wholesale customers from the database and have two separate stores, one for wholesale and one for retail. Logistically that is really tough to do.

So, until we get the new site up and running there is literally no way to put in-stock cases up for regular customers to browse and buy.

This video shows what is seen. It was made in response to the other guy not you. There is a prominent explanation of how to get a list of in stock cases.

I explain very clearly at the top of every page returned under cases for sale why we are not listing cases at this time.

As a fly on the wall and a very satisfied past case ordering customer I'll give my unsolicited opinion. When I had the money in hand ready to order a case it was quite hard to find an in stock case. I'm tech literate and had access to a computer and "multiple tabs." I was at the point I had been going around to league for 2 months with a broken zipper and holding the lid on with self adhesive velcro. I think it took me at least half an hour to find a handful of in stock cases and make a choice.

I did find one in stock but it took me quite a long time to find one. I'm not saying your site is bad, but it is very inconvenient for modern customers who are used to 1 click ordering on amazon and using most sites that allow you to filter by in stock.

It's your business so obviously feel free to do your site as you see fit. I just wanted to add my opinion that you may actually be losing a lot of sales because most people don't like to dig around for very long when they have money to burn. Just like they hate going to a grocery store and having to stand at the checkout for 10 minutes.

Thankfully I had read enough about your cases on here to know they were quality. If I hadn't did my research of my own accord I would have said to heck with this nonsense and ordered something else on the dozens of pool sites (or even amazon). If a customer is standing there with their money in their palm, it's best to sell them a product instead of sending them on a scavenger hunt.

In my unsolicited opinion it would be a very important thing on your new site to have this option.

Thanks for making great cases and educating us non-case-industry folks.

 

[tomker]

Ok, obviously you will see it from your perspective and not bother to understand mine. That's fine, debate is the cornerstone of innovation.

I didn't say your cues ARE being damaged. I said they can be damaged. If you think that the cues can take the forces they are subjected to with no damage then great, use whatever case with paper-thin fabric dividers you want to.

There's been a failure to communicate here. I said very clearly in my last post that I would like to know if they're being damaged. Meaning that I don't know. I didn't make any claims myself and I didn't say anything about anything you've said or claimed.

And moreover, I want to know about possible damage to MY cues with the way that I handle MY cue case. Of course some people will handle their cue cases differently and some people will need more protection. That's completely irrelevant to what I said.

You're reading a lot into my posts that I'm not writing. I don't know if you're deliberately trying to make me angry but that's how it's coming across. Maybe you can offer a more charitable explanation.

 

[JS858]

And the only reason that this picture is listed as in-stock is because it relates to repair orders and how they are handled. I have to list the "repair-order" as in-stock to get it to process correctly. Again it's a problem in the e-commerce platform.

Thanks for the context John.
What I think I’m hearing you say is that at this point you’re basically a made-to-order business.
You have a limited production capacity, and the lions share of that is always tied up with custom orders, like a 4x8 with a pikachu on it that you can carry around like a backpack.

Then, the few regular cases you can produce for retail stock, are immediately snatched up by your wholesale vendors who want them for their own stock because they can’t get enough cases either.
So, if someone wanted any one of your cases, their best chance to get one would be to just order it and wait the 12-14 weeks so that they are guaranteed to get one.

What I didn’t see in that video was any in-stock cases listed anywhere.
So it’s either-
1. You don’t have any cases available at all.
2. You don’t update the website.
3. You would prefer to just post a picture of a wall full of cases on FB and have people call one of the 3 people you have answer phones just to figure out what sizes they are, how much they are, and if they are still available.

If all of that is true, it would probably be beneficial to just spell it out like that on the website in place of that wall of prominently displayed text.

But, it’s your business, so you are free to be indignant about how constructive you feel customer feedback is because you don’t understand what people can’t understand because it all makes perfect sense to you.

 

[JB Cases]

As a fly on the wall and a very satisfied past case ordering customer I'll give my unsolicited opinion. When I had the money in hand ready to order a case it was quite hard to find an in stock case. I'm tech literate and had access to a computer and "multiple tabs." I was at the point I had been going around to league for 2 months with a broken zipper and holding the lid on with self adhesive velcro. I think it took me at least half an hour to find a handful of in stock cases and make a choice.

I did find one in stock but it took me quite a long time to find one. I'm not saying your site is bad, but it is very inconvenient for modern customers who are used to 1 click ordering on amazon and using most sites that allow you to filter by in stock.

It's your business so obviously feel free to do your site as you see fit. I just wanted to add my opinion that you may actually be losing a lot of sales because most people don't like to dig around for very long when they have money to burn. Just like they hate going to a grocery store and having to stand at the checkout for 10 minutes.

Thankfully I had read enough about your cases on here to know they were quality. If I hadn't did my research of my own accord I would have said to heck with this nonsense and ordered something else on the dozens of pool sites (or even amazon). If a customer is standing there with their money in their palm, it's best to sell them a product instead of sending them on a scavenger hunt.

In my unsolicited opinion it would be a very important thing on your new site to have this option.

Thanks for making great cases and educating us non-case-industry folks.

Guys, the way the site works is that any time there are cases that have an inventory count of at least one then the status is IN STOCK - READY TO SHIP and those cases are FIRST in the list ALWAYS. Always with ZERO EXCEPTIONS. That's how the site is set up. The sorting is automatic because there is NEVER anything that is in stock that is NOT shown at the top of the results page.

So when you go to Cases For Sale then anything that is IN STOCK will be shown first.

I am uploading a video to show this.

 

[JB Cases]

Thanks for the context John.
What I think I’m hearing you say is that at this point you’re basically a made-to-order business.

Yes because our order volume takes up most of our capacity. This is also why we can't do shows anymore as we can't produce enough extra inventory to stock a show.

You have a limited production capacity, and the lions share of that is always tied up with custom orders, like a 4x8 with a pikachu on it that you can carry around like a backpack.

Correct.

Then, the few regular cases you can produce for retail stock, are immediately snatched up by your wholesale vendors who want them for their own stock because they can’t get enough cases either.

No, they can get enough cases if they place their orders consistently and start a regular flow. The lead time is typically 20 weeks so they don't want to wait.

So, if someone wanted any one of your cases, their best chance to get one would be to just order it and wait the 12-14 weeks so that they are guaranteed to get one.

Correct. I often mention this in my videos.

What I didn’t see in that video was any in-stock cases listed anywhere.
So it’s either-
1. You don’t have any cases available at all.

We have cases.

2. You don’t update the website.

We don't put them up for the reasons stated.

3. You would prefer to just post a picture of a wall full of cases on FB and have people call one of the 3 people you have answer phones just to figure out what sizes they are, how much they are, and if they are still available.

Yes, as outlined prominently on the cases for sale page. For now this is the best way to access the in-stock cases. Generally the process is done within 15-30 minutes tops. It is actually better customer service than simply picking one from the website. Very often customers have other questions which we are happy to answer.

If all of that is true, it would probably be beneficial to just spell it out like that on the website in place of that wall of prominently displayed text.

If you would like to give me an example of what spell it out means to you I will be happy to post that.

But, it’s your business, so you are free to be indignant about how constructive you feel customer feedback is because you don’t understand what people can’t understand because it all makes perfect sense to you.

The site is set up so that anything that actually has an inventory count of 1 or more is shown first. We have cases available but we ask customers to call or email us and we will show them the available inventory. So when nothing is listed with a positive inventory count then there won't be any IN STOCK cases shown. There is no need to sort as anything that is in stock ALWAYS shows up first.

I don't understand what you mean by spell it out prominently. Isn't that exactly what I did on the page that lists cases for sale? It's not about being indignant, it's that I think I have done exactly what you suggested that I do. But now that you understand our perspective feel free to show me how you would write it.

And yes, AT PRESENT the best way to find out what is available is to ask us for the reasons you accurately understood from my post.

"

Cases For Sale​

Cases listed as IN STOCK - READY TO SHIP which are ordered before 2pm CST will likely go out the same day or the next business day.

Occasionally cases listed as IN STOCK are not actually in stock. If you place an order and we don't have it we will call you to discuss options. We apologize in advance for any such situations, they are rare but can happen.

Since we do not list the number of cases in stock it can happen that a case which is listed as in stock now is ordered by someone else and is not in stock even five minutes later. If that happens the case can be ordered and we will build it for you in about 12-14 weeks and 16-20 for leather cases if there are no other changes.

Lastly, we are currently not listing the actual inventory that we have in stock. So please call us or email us to find out what we have in stock on the day you are interested and we can show you. This is due to a technicality on the website where we currently cannot prevent dealers from wiping out the in-stock inventory within hours of us putting the new cases up. Sorry for the inconvenience."

 

[JB Cases]

There's been a failure to communicate here. I said very clearly in my last post that I would like to know if they're being damaged. Meaning that I don't know. I didn't make any claims myself and I didn't say anything about anything you've said or claimed.

Perhaps. Iirc you said that intuitively you don't think that there is enough force or movement to damage your cues given the way you handle your equipment. The tone i perceived is that you think that damage to your cues or anyone else's is unlikely to occur.

And moreover, I want to know about possible damage to MY cues with the way that I handle MY cue case. Of course some people will handle their cue cases differently and some people will need more protection. That's completely irrelevant to what I said.

As I said many times I cannot possibly know if your cues are being damaged. I can't know how you handle your stuff. What I do know is that sometimes things happen even to those who take extra care. What I know is that regardless of how you treat your stuff my cases will protect your cues better than the case you have. That's been my point from the beginning.

You're reading a lot into my posts that I'm not writing.

I don't think that I am but I am kind of sensitive after you made the "same factory" comment. I think that some of your comments have been pretty clear. But then again if we shared the same perspective you would already own a JB Case and have posted a glowing review about it.

don't know if you're deliberately trying to make me angry but that's how it's coming across. Maybe you can offer a more charitable explanation.

Not trying to anger you but also not appreciative of remarks that seemed snide to me.

I only seek to educate. Given that many factories are making lots of money off of my designs while at the same defrauding consumers in my opinion I am quite sensitive about how knockoffs are compared to our cases.

 

[garczar]

Perhaps. Iirc you said that intuitively you don't think that there is enough force or movement to damage your cues given the way you handle your equipment. The tone i perceived is that you think that damage to your cues or anyone else's is unlikely to occur.



As I said many times I cannot possibly know if your cues are being damaged. I can't know how you handle your stuff. What I do know is that sometimes things happen even to those who take extra care. What I know is that regardless of how you treat your stuff my cases will protect your cues better than the case you have. That's been my point from the beginning.




I don't think that I am but I am kind of sensitive after you made the "same factory" comment. I think that some of your comments have been pretty clear. But then again if we shared the same perspective you would already own a JB Case and have posted a glowing review about it.



Not trying to anger you but also not appreciative of remarks that seemed snide to me.

I only seek to educate. Given that many factories are making lots of money off of my designs while at the same defrauding consumers in my opinion I am quite sensitive about how knockoffs are compared to our cases.

No shit? Your replies in this tread alone make 'War and Peace' look like a quick read. I've been around a few 'last word' folks before but you give 'em all the five-ball. Go ahead, you can't help it.

 

[JS858]

Yes because our order volume takes up most of our capacity. This is also why we can't do shows anymore as we can't produce enough extra inventory to stock a show.



Correct.



No, they can get enough cases if they place their orders consistently and start a regular flow. The lead time is typically 20 weeks so they don't want to wait.


Correct. I often mention this in my videos.



We have cases.



We don't put them up for the reasons stated.



Yes, as outlined prominently on the cases for sale page. For now this is the best way to access the in-stock cases. Generally the process is done within 15-30 minutes tops. It is actually better customer service than simply picking one from the website. Very often customers have other questions which we are happy to answer.


If you would like to give me an example of what spell it out means to you I will be happy to post that.


The site is set up so that anything that actually has an inventory count of 1 or more is shown first. We have cases available but we ask customers to call or email us and we will show them the available inventory. So when nothing is listed with a positive inventory count then there won't be any IN STOCK cases shown. There is no need to sort as anything that is in stock ALWAYS shows up first.

I don't understand what you mean by spell it out prominently. Isn't that exactly what I did on the page that lists cases for sale? It's not about being indignant, it's that I think I have done exactly what you suggested that I do. But now that you understand our perspective feel free to show me how you would write it.

And yes, AT PRESENT the best way to find out what is available is to ask us for the reasons you accurately understood from my post.

"

Cases For Sale​

Cases listed as IN STOCK - READY TO SHIP which are ordered before 2pm CST will likely go out the same day or the next business day.

Occasionally cases listed as IN STOCK are not actually in stock. If you place an order and we don't have it we will call you to discuss options. We apologize in advance for any such situations, they are rare but can happen.

Since we do not list the number of cases in stock it can happen that a case which is listed as in stock now is ordered by someone else and is not in stock even five minutes later. If that happens the case can be ordered and we will build it for you in about 12-14 weeks and 16-20 for leather cases if there are no other changes.

Lastly, we are currently not listing the actual inventory that we have in stock. So please call us or email us to find out what we have in stock on the day you are interested and we can show you. This is due to a technicality on the website where we currently cannot prevent dealers from wiping out the in-stock inventory within hours of us putting the new cases up. Sorry for the inconvenience."

“Isn't that exactly what I did on the page that lists cases for sale?”

No, it actually reads really horribly. Like the example boogeiman gave, it’s inherently difficult to try and figure out if you actually have any cases available that they can buy right now. Nobody knows that if cases are available to purchase immediately they should expect to see the in-stock cases first.

Let me translate what is there now the way I read it, and try to improve it.

“Cases listed as IN STOCK - READY TO SHIP which are ordered before 2pm CST will likely go out the same day or the next business day.”

-Likely? Which one is it, same day or next day? This is completely unnecessary and it’s already in the terms and conditions on the main page. Should say something like- orders placed for cases in current inventory will be shipped by (X method) within 1-2 business days.


“Occasionally cases listed as IN STOCK are not actually in stock. If you place an order and we don't have it we will call you to discuss options. We apologize in advance for any such situations, they are rare but can happen.

Since we do not list the number of cases in stock it can happen that a case which is listed as in stock now is ordered by someone else and is not in stock even five minutes later. If that happens the case can be ordered and we will build it for you in about 12-14 weeks and 16-20 for leather cases if there are no other changes.

Lastly, we are currently not listing the actual inventory that we have in stock. So please call us or email us to find out what we have in stock on the day you are interested and we can show you. This is due to a technicality on the website where we currently cannot prevent dealers from wiping out the in-stock inventory within hours of us putting the new cases up. Sorry for the inconvenience."


-This is just a giant word salad that screams I don’t have an inventory management system.
Something like- Due to demand, inventory fluctuates rapidly.
For real time inventory availability, we recommend that you reach out to us directly at( phone/email/FB whatever.)

If an order is placed that we are not able to fulfill because it is no longer in inventory, you will be offered a refund or the opportunity order the item for future delivery. Lead times for orders are currently X weeks. For custom designs add Y weeks.


I would change the cases for sale tab to just say Cases.
When it lands on the page I would start the disclaimer and add it to top of all the filtered pages with something like-

‘We are a custom cue case manufacturer. Most of our cases are made to order.
Below are samples of cases we have built that can be ordered as shown.
Occasionally, we will have inventory in stock for immediate purchase. These items will be filtered to the top of the page and identified in green as ‘IN-STOCK READY TO SHIP’.

Then I would put in the part about inventory fluctuation and calling to order.
Then the part about shipping after that.
And then direct people to build custom cases if the don’t see something they like.

‘We also offer completely customized cases.
Please visit our designer page to begin building your one of a kind JB case.’

Lastly, and in all honestly. If it was me, I would be lining up my website with inventory system like tomorrow. And letting that do all of the work for me.
I’m sure you have orders coming in regularly and know what’s coming. I’d have it doing all of that too ‘coming soon, reserve now” etc.
it’s really not sustainable to have people just fielding inquiries all day long every day because buyers can’t figure out how to get ahold of one.

 

[garczar]

“Isn't that exactly what I did on the page that lists cases for sale?”

No, it actually reads really horribly. Like the example boogeiman gave, it’s inherently difficult to try and figure out if you actually have any cases available that they can buy right now. Nobody knows that if cases are available to purchase immediately they should expect to see the in-stock cases first.

Let me translate what is there now the way I read it, and try to improve it.

“Cases listed as IN STOCK - READY TO SHIP which are ordered before 2pm CST will likely go out the same day or the next business day.”

-Likely? Which one is it, same day or next day? This is completely unnecessary and it’s already in the terms and conditions on the main page. Should say something like- orders placed for cases in current inventory will be shipped by (X method) within 1-2 business days.


“Occasionally cases listed as IN STOCK are not actually in stock. If you place an order and we don't have it we will call you to discuss options. We apologize in advance for any such situations, they are rare but can happen.

Since we do not list the number of cases in stock it can happen that a case which is listed as in stock now is ordered by someone else and is not in stock even five minutes later. If that happens the case can be ordered and we will build it for you in about 12-14 weeks and 16-20 for leather cases if there are no other changes.

Lastly, we are currently not listing the actual inventory that we have in stock. So please call us or email us to find out what we have in stock on the day you are interested and we can show you. This is due to a technicality on the website where we currently cannot prevent dealers from wiping out the in-stock inventory within hours of us putting the new cases up. Sorry for the inconvenience."


-This is just a giant word salad that screams I don’t have an inventory management system.
Something like- Due to demand, inventory fluctuates rapidly.
For real time inventory availability, we recommend that you reach out to us directly at( phone/email/FB whatever.)

If an order is placed that we are not able to fulfill because it is no longer in inventory, you will be offered a refund or the opportunity order the item for future delivery. Lead times for orders are currently X weeks. For custom designs add Y weeks.


I would change the cases for sale tab to just say Cases.
When it lands on the page I would start the disclaimer and add it to top of all the filtered pages with something like-

‘We are a custom cue case manufacturer. Most of our cases are made to order.
Below are samples of cases we have built that can be ordered as shown.
Occasionally, we will have inventory in stock for immediate purchase. These items will be filtered to the top of the page and identified in green as ‘IN-STOCK READY TO SHIP’.

Then I would put in the part about inventory fluctuation and calling to order.
Then the part about shipping after that.
And then direct people to build custom cases if the don’t see something they like.

‘We also offer completely customized cases.
Please visit our designer page to begin building your one of a kind JB case.’

Lastly, and in all honestly. If it was me, I would be lining up my website with inventory system like tomorrow. And letting that do all of the work for me.
I’m sure you have orders coming in regularly and know what’s coming. I’d have it doing all of that too ‘coming soon, reserve now” etc.
it’s really not sustainable to have people just fielding inquiries all day long every day because buyers can’t figure out how to get ahold of one.

Oh boy, here we go. Should be good for another 20posts and 5-10,000 wrds. BTW, i tend to agree. Their inventory control system looks like its on a Commodore computer at times.

 

[JB Cases]

“Isn't that exactly what I did on the page that lists cases for sale?”

No, it actually reads really horribly. Like the example boogeiman gave, it’s inherently difficult to try and figure out if you actually have any cases available that they can buy right now. Nobody knows that if cases are available to purchase immediately they should expect to see the in-stock cases first.

Let me translate what is there now the way I read it, and try to improve it.

“Cases listed as IN STOCK - READY TO SHIP which are ordered before 2pm CST will likely go out the same day or the next business day.”

-Likely? Which one is it, same day or next day? This is completely unnecessary and it’s already in the terms and conditions on the main page. Should say something like- orders placed for cases in current inventory will be shipped by (X method) within 1-2 business days.


“Occasionally cases listed as IN STOCK are not actually in stock. If you place an order and we don't have it we will call you to discuss options. We apologize in advance for any such situations, they are rare but can happen.

Since we do not list the number of cases in stock it can happen that a case which is listed as in stock now is ordered by someone else and is not in stock even five minutes later. If that happens the case can be ordered and we will build it for you in about 12-14 weeks and 16-20 for leather cases if there are no other changes.

Lastly, we are currently not listing the actual inventory that we have in stock. So please call us or email us to find out what we have in stock on the day you are interested and we can show you. This is due to a technicality on the website where we currently cannot prevent dealers from wiping out the in-stock inventory within hours of us putting the new cases up. Sorry for the inconvenience."


-This is just a giant word salad that screams I don’t have an inventory management system.
Something like- Due to demand, inventory fluctuates rapidly.
For real time inventory availability, we recommend that you reach out to us directly at( phone/email/FB whatever.)

If an order is placed that we are not able to fulfill because it is no longer in inventory, you will be offered a refund or the opportunity order the item for future delivery. Lead times for orders are currently X weeks. For custom designs add Y weeks.


I would change the cases for sale tab to just say Cases.
When it lands on the page I would start the disclaimer and add it to top of all the filtered pages with something like-

‘We are a custom cue case manufacturer. Most of our cases are made to order.
Below are samples of cases we have built that can be ordered as shown.
Occasionally, we will have inventory in stock for immediate purchase. These items will be filtered to the top of the page and identified in green as ‘IN-STOCK READY TO SHIP’.

Then I would put in the part about inventory fluctuation and calling to order.
Then the part about shipping after that.
And then direct people to build custom cases if the don’t see something they like.

‘We also offer completely customized cases.
Please visit our designer page to begin building your one of a kind JB case.’

Lastly, and in all honestly. If it was me, I would be lining up my website with inventory system like tomorrow. And letting that do all of the work for me.
I’m sure you have orders coming in regularly and know what’s coming. I’d have it doing all of that too ‘coming soon, reserve now” etc.
it’s really not sustainable to have people just fielding inquiries all day long every day because buyers can’t figure out how to get ahold of one.

Um, before I answer, we absolutely do have an inventory management system.

The problem is that that system will not allow me to not allow wholesale accounts to buy from listed inventory.

All I want is for wholesale accounts to order cases to be built and not from existing inventory. But under the inventory management system that we have, which works very well, that is not possible.

So it puts us in a situation where we can't put up the inventory we do have because of the logistics involved in cancelling orders and "restocking" the system.

I am perfectly happy to give you a login if you think you can figure out a way to do it. So far none of the developers I have worked work have been able to come up with a solution. And we are absolutely tied to this system for the time being because of the custom built designer tool that is integrated with the e-commerce platform.

Now I will go read the rest of your message.

 

[JB Cases]

Oh boy, here we go. Should be good for another 20posts and 5-10,000 wrds. BTW, i tend to agree. Their inventory control system looks like its on a Commodore computer at times.

It's funny how I get criticized for something that people don't have the slightest clue about.

You all say "inventory control system" like you have magic ones that work differently than what we have. Simply put, you don't.

Inventory is pretty freaking easy, units are entered into the system and when orders come in those units are depleted by the amount ordered. If backorders are allowed then the units go into the negative.

If there is one unit available and five people put it in their basket then that item is still on the shelf until someone actually purchases it. That's the major difference between a real life store and a virtual one. In a real life store of their is one item on the shelf and I put it in my basket then it's out of stock for everyone else untill I either purchase it or put it back on the shelf.

Our system works exactly like everyone's system including Amazon.

I have detailed exactly what our particular issue is and why we don't routinely "restock" the virtual store. I am not sure why this is hard to understand.

Simply put our business model for deriving enough profitable income depends on a mix of wholesale and retail sales. We need wholesale sales to maintain employment for our staff and to further the reach of our brand. We need retail sales to have enough profit to maintain investment and continuous improvement as well as to maintain the lifestyle that we personally want to have.

Previously we achieved this through sales at shows which provided a large amount of retail sales several times a year. Since COVID however we have had a massive increase in custom orders, which take far more time and effort to process and make, and a huge increase in wholesale orders. This leaves little capacity for production of ready-made cases intended for general sale to consumers. Given that we are unable to produce very much we find that when we would put the little bit of stock up then it would get snapped up immediately by wholesale accounts. This in turn took our most profitable items and turned them into our least most profitable items.

And that's the issue. The inventory management system works perfectly for e-commerce systems that have a steady flow of inventory and no restrictions on what customer levels can purchase it. It was not designed for a company like mine and our particular need to balance the profitablity levels.

Magento as an e commerce platform is used by brands and companies worth hundreds of millions. Natively and with extensions the inventory management is perfectly fine and in accordance with modern practices.

And it was just fine for us when the situation was different. But I cannot have both wholesale accounts with applied discounts and consumer accounts in the same system without allowing the wholesale accounts to come into the store and take everything off the shelf.

I would rather not have a text block explaining the reasoning for not listing in-stock items. I would hope that all you would think more of me than that.

If anyone reading this is a Magento expert and thinks that they can solve this problem in Magento 1.9 I will gladly pay you for the solution. I have tried with five different Magento developers and found no way to do it. The only way I have thought of would be to have an exact duplicate website only for wholesale. This would quickly become a logistical nightmare trying to keep the two sites synched with product information.

So, I have the money.... Do any of the critics have a practical solution?

 

[JB Cases]

No shit? Your replies in this tread alone make 'War and Peace' look like a quick read. I've been around a few 'last word' folks before but you give 'em all the five-ball. Go ahead, you can't help it.

Doesn't matter because no one is forced to read war and peace. Those that choose to get the benefit of the writers philosophy and the entertainment. Those that don't remain uninformed.

And yes, the last word belongs to me as long as there is a point to be made. Disagreement exists to work out differences in order to get to a harmonious state. If someone keeps pushing a narrative that requires rebuttal then I will provide that rebuttal as long as it is relevant to the purpose of reaching clarity of position.

 

[JS858]

It's funny how I get criticized for something that people don't have the slightest clue about.

You all say "inventory control system" like you have magic ones that work differently than what we have. Simply put, you don't.

Inventory is pretty freaking easy, units are entered into the system and when orders come in those units are depleted by the amount ordered. If backorders are allowed then the units go into the negative.

If there is one unit available and five people put it in their basket then that item is still on the shelf until someone actually purchases it. That's the major difference between a real life store and a virtual one. In a real life store of their is one item on the shelf and I put it in my basket then it's out of stock for everyone else untill I either purchase it or put it back on the shelf.

Our system works exactly like everyone's system including Amazon.

I have detailed exactly what our particular issue is and why we don't routinely "restock" the virtual store. I am not sure why this is hard to understand.

Simply put our business model for deriving enough profitable income depends on a mix of wholesale and retail sales. We need wholesale sales to maintain employment for our staff and to further the reach of our brand. We need retail sales to have enough profit to maintain investment and continuous improvement as well as to maintain the lifestyle that we personally want to have.

Previously we achieved this through sales at shows which provided a large amount of retail sales several times a year. Since COVID however we have had a massive increase in custom orders, which take far more time and effort to process and make, and a huge increase in wholesale orders. This leaves little capacity for production of ready-made cases intended for general sale to consumers. Given that we are unable to produce very much we find that when we would put the little bit of stock up then it would get snapped up immediately by wholesale accounts. This in turn took our most profitable items and turned them into our least most profitable items.

And that's the issue. The inventory management system works perfectly for e-commerce systems that have a steady flow of inventory and no restrictions on what customer levels can purchase it. It was not designed for a company like mine and our particular need to balance the profitablity levels.

Magento as an e commerce platform is used by brands and companies worth hundreds of millions. Natively and with extensions the inventory management is perfectly fine and in accordance with modern practices.

And it was just fine for us when the situation was different. But I cannot have both wholesale accounts with applied discounts and consumer accounts in the same system without allowing the wholesale accounts to come into the store and take everything off the shelf.

I would rather not have a text block explaining the reasoning for not listing in-stock items. I would hope that all you would think more of me than that.

If anyone reading this is a Magento expert and thinks that they can solve this problem in Magento 1.9 I will gladly pay you for the solution. I have tried with five different Magento developers and found no way to do it. The only way I have thought of would be to have an exact duplicate website only for wholesale. This would quickly become a logistical nightmare trying to keep the two sites synched with product information.

So, I have the money.... Do any of the critics have a practical solution?

Did any of your 5 developers tell you that Magento 1 is 17 years old and stopped being supported 5 years ago?

 

[JB Cases]

“Isn't that exactly what I did on the page that lists cases for sale?”

No, it actually reads really horribly. Like the example boogeiman gave, it’s inherently difficult to try and figure out if you actually have any cases available that they can buy right now. Nobody knows that if cases are available to purchase immediately they should expect to see the in-stock cases first.

The absence of cases listed as in-stock ready to ship doesn't indicate that there are no cases in the system that are in-stock, ready to ship?

I mean I don't know of any other e-commerce platform that doesn't list available products in the categories chosen. I have never had to search for "in stock" items on any platform.

Maybe I don't understand what you want but what you describe isn't part of any other inventory system available to me that I know of. I have used Oracle Small Business, QuickBooks, Magento, Shopify, and several others over the years and none of them do what I think you are wanting ours to do.

The expectation of seeing what's in-stock is the default on every virtual storefront as far as I know. If I am wrong please show me an example of a store where the user is supposed to search for items that are in-stock.

Let me translate what is there now the way I read it, and try to improve it.

“Cases listed as IN STOCK - READY TO SHIP which are ordered before 2pm CST will likely go out the same day or the next business day.”

-Likely? Which one is it, same day or next day? This is completely unnecessary and it’s already in the terms and conditions on the main page. Should say something like- orders placed for cases in current inventory will be shipped by (X method) within 1-2 business days.

Likely means exactly what it says, if an order for a case that is in-stock comes in before 2pm then we are normally going to be able to send it out the same day. But sometimes things happen that make it impossible to pack and ship the same day in which case the item will go out the following business day. Likely, is the exactly correct description for what happens when the order is placed. You asked which is it? Likely the same day but occasionally the next day.

Most people don't bother to read the text no matter where it is listed. They certainly aren't reading the terms and conditions and applying them to the listings. I don't see how repeating it on the listings pages though is "wholly unnecessary". You would think that more notification in more places would be more desirable.

“Occasionally cases listed as IN STOCK are not actually in stock. If you place an order and we don't have it we will call you to discuss options. We apologize in advance for any such situations, they are rare but can happen.

Since we do not list the number of cases in stock it can happen that a case which is listed as in stock now is ordered by someone else and is not in stock even five minutes later. If that happens the case can be ordered and we will build it for you in about 12-14 weeks and 16-20 for leather cases if there are no other changes.

Lastly, we are currently not listing the actual inventory that we have in stock. So please call us or email us to find out what we have in stock on the day you are interested and we can show you. This is due to a technicality on the website where we currently cannot prevent dealers from wiping out the in-stock inventory within hours of us putting the new cases up. Sorry for the inconvenience."


-This is just a giant word salad that screams I don’t have an inventory management system.
Something like- Due to demand, inventory fluctuates rapidly.

How so? It accurately describes the fact that many people can have an item in cart but it is not actually removed from inventory until an order is completed. So when you wait an hour to finish your order and then yell at me because the item you put in your cart an hour ago now says it will take 12 weeks you know why that happened.

We have an inventory management system and it manages inventory exactly as described and exactly in line with standard protocol.

For real time inventory availability, we recommend that you reach out to us directly at( phone/email/FB whatever.)

Ok so I can add the phone number and email in that space along with a link to our social media account. Easily done.

If an order is placed that we are not able to fulfill because it is no longer in inventory, you will be offered a refund or the opportunity order the item for future delivery. Lead times for orders are currently X weeks. For custom designs add Y weeks.

Isn't that covered under discuss options? An order placed for an item that is no longer in stock when the order was placed is already on backorder. So when we call to discuss options a full refund is one of those options. The whole point of this is to tell people that if they want a case that is listed as in-stock ready to ship they should complete the order or it might not be there later.

This is actually something that happens rarely anyway. But in order to prevent us from getting berated i choose to explain it up front and then if a customer didn't bother to read the supporting information it's not my fault that they are confused.

I would change the cases for sale tab to just say Cases.

Why? All of the cases listed are for sale. Any of them can be ordered. I think that your interpretation of "Cases for Sale" is an expectation that everything listed is in-stock for immediate delivery. I can see how some people would interpret that that way but I think most don't.

When it lands on the page I would start the disclaimer and add it to top of all the filtered pages with something like-

‘We are a custom cue case manufacturer. Most of our cases are made to order.
Below are samples of cases we have built that can be ordered as shown.
Occasionally, we will have inventory in stock for immediate purchase. These items will be filtered to the top of the page and identified in green as ‘IN-STOCK READY TO SHIP’.

Ok, I can do that.

Then I would put in the part about inventory fluctuation and calling to order.
Then the part about shipping after that.
And then direct people to build custom cases if the don’t see something they like.

‘We also offer completely customized cases.
Please visit our designer page to begin building your one of a kind JB case.’

Ok I can do that. Except inventory fluctuation isn't the reason that we aren't putting cases into the online inventory. The reason is dealers ordering them all and leaving nothing for regular consumers.

Lastly, and in all honestly. If it was me, I would be lining up my website with inventory system like tomorrow. And letting that do all of the work for me.

As I said we have an inventory management system that works exactly like all the others. The only function I need that I don't have is the ability to either hide the in-stock inventory from dealers or restrict dealers from purchasing from in-stock inventory. I really kind of resent you saying we don't have an inventory management system when we clearly do. And it works exactly as it is supposed to work. It's like your ignoring what I directly stated many times already.

I’m sure you have orders coming in regularly and know what’s coming. I’d have it doing all of that too ‘coming soon, reserve now” etc.

That doesn't change the fundamental problem I have described. It's not a matter of presenting the inventory to the world. It is literally because I can't stop one group of buyers from wiping out the inventory and leaving the other
group of buyers with nothing on the shelf.

your suggestion does nothing to stop that from happening. I would love nothing more than to put up all the cases we have available and have no need to explain why we aren't.

Continued....