I'm an outside observer who happens to be in the market for a case. If I liked the tooled look more, I'd probably order one of these in a second, and I'd cut the guy plenty of slack on his time estimates.
It's not that I disagree with FAST_N_LOSE, because I'm 100% with him on a man's word being his bond (and it seems that Chaz is, too). I don't necessarily think that we should automatically let people slide on that when it's pool related either. In fact, there's only one reason I think he needs a pretty hefty break here, but it's a big one.
He's never done this before. He's just a normal guy who took a whack at it and got some awesome results.
Chaz decided he'd like to learn how to make a case, and it turned out so well (at such a great price) that he got swamped with orders. I'm sure he planned out his delivery schedule based on how long that first case or two took to make. It's not that he has to spend all the extra time dealing with customers, as JB mentioned earlier, that should earn him some leeway here, but the fact that he DIDN'T KNOW how much time he'd have to devote to that. And on top of the client communication stuff, he simultaneously has to figure out how to do all the custom details people have asked him for that he hasn't made in his past cases. To be honest, I'd assume he won't actually be capable of giving an accurate timeline for a while, just because he doesn't have enough history to look back on and compare.
Once he's sent out 20-30 of these things, I'd bet his calendar will be dead on. But at the moment, everything he has to customize in a way he's never done before is different. Learning to do one feature might take a couple minutes, while another could take a week or more, depending on the complexity and how well his first shot at it goes.
FAST_N_LOSE, you run your own business. I've done that in the past myself, and if you think back, I think you'll agree with me that you don't actually become a solid, reliable businessman until you've been running it for a few months to a few years. You just don't have the past experience to base your future predictions on, no matter how good your intentions are. Once things have been going strong for a while, and you're starting to get the feeling you've seen every snag that could possibly come up a few times already, then you can plan for all of them. But when EVERYTHING is an unknown, you don't always even know what to plan for.
Chaz, I think you're doing the best you can, you seem to be a real stand-up guy, and your work looks amazing. It also seems like you're a little overwhelmed at the moment. If I were in your shoes, I'd seriously consider raising the price of your work until you get a nice equilibrium between customer demand/future orders and the time you have available to build them. You can use price to control your demand. Also, when a new order comes in, quote the client at least double what you actually expect the wait time to be. If you set their expectation there, you'll have plenty of time if you hit an unforeseen snag, and if you don't, they'll be delighted to get it early.
And if you're still going next year, I'll probably be buying a case from you in my next go-round.
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