OK, nephew Pat, since we're at least being read by the factory I'll poke back in with a few personal observations as well. I bought my first C-22 in 2005 and only dealt with the factory on warranty issues until the recent Bellingham gathering when I actually visited. Most of the last two years has been C-Dory upheaval but I did find a few patterns.
1) As far as discussing warranty issues or factory fixes, I found C-Dory has always had a "squeaky wheel" mentality. Calls with promises were invariably put off and required two, sometimes three calls. On the other hand, once they kicked in with a fix, they were very generous with help and/or critical replacement items. At least one Reynolds appeared to be constantly overwhelmed and there appeared to be no organized path for dealing with the details. At least not since our first dealing with the factory back in early 2005.
2) In that recent personal visit, I found the key supervisors were friendly, extremely knowledgable, helpful and again, generous with parts, valuable advice etc. An attitude I think was there when Pat was dealing directly and still remains, albeit hampered by 1).
Back in the '80's, some of the nerds here might remember Kaypro Computers, a family operation based about 6 miles from our house. I'm intimately familiar with their downfall since their chief engineer and I were involved exploring a buy out of the manufacturing line and contracting back as an OEM IBM clone motherboard manufacturer. They had converted from CP/M computers to IBM and had a great reputation at the time. This was the same period that Dell Computers sprang into existence and Kaypro had a good base operation but poor organizational and management skills required to take Kaypro to the next level. We all know what Dell became and Kaypro ended up a "Could'a been."
Fortunately we saw the handwriting on the wall when an outside consultant came in who was very experienced at saving faltering companies. In keeping with Kaypro's record of poor management, the consultant's recommendations were virtually ignored, and when he ordered all the leased company vehicles cut from the budget, the Kays fired him. Andy was NOT gonna give up his white Mercedes!
Kaypro had too much Kay, and not enough Pro. The Kays had a "My mind's made up, don't confuse me with the facts" attitude and we all know what happened. Not pretty!
I'm definitely not suggesting C-Dory is a Kaypro about to happen! I can, however, comment that to be profitable, any manufactures has to make a choice; Build the cheapest or build the best. Anything in between usually results in disaster.
As many here have commented, management at the highest level has to back off and reexamine their priorities and goals. They may have to redefine "Niche" and be the best there is. I only know that Scott is collecting valuable data from his marketing base by reading our forums, and I sincerely hope his company weathers the economic storm all but the best run companies are experiencing right now.
Don
