A Tale of Too Shitty…

Why I Dumped Thousands of Dollars in Parts this Morning at 10:39am

It’s taken me over a year to face this. I got really burned by a supplier and I’ve just been too angry to even look at it.

But I feel like it’s worth sharing, because it ties in with my personal philosophy of high end tools for high end results.

Behold the fruit of today’s labor:

Simple story really. About a year and a half ago I was shopping for some metal fab work and found a really good company to work with - and they charged a lot for the parts!

Also, I found another company, about 40% cheaper.

Attempting to be a good businessman, I ordered parts from both companies.

The parts from the good company were premium. Beautiful, well-finished, a joy to use. The parts from the other company were acceptable. Not great, not fantastic, but nothing to complain about.

I ended up using the parts from both companies, but still just wasn’t super happy with the cheaper company.

But 40% less! My dad whispering over my shoulder to “be practical!”

So I placed another order with the cheaper company again, this time a larger order. Around $2K in parts.

When they arrived, they were absolutely appalling. Scratched! Unuseable! I couldn’t even put my name on them much less offer them to anyone else! Hell, there was even an old glove in the bottom of the box they shipped the parts in, so these folks weren’t exactly on the ball. Plus the holes were not as nicely shaped, the colors just a bit duller, even on the acceptable ones.

I was able to use the base pieces, as they were made well enough, and a few of the top pieces were acceptable (not many).

But most of them ended up being sold as “B-Stock” units, at loss to me for the entirety of the parts cost, and many sat in boxes in my workshop, where I avoided looking at them for over a year.

Of course I attempted to get the company to make it right. But they wouldn’t reply to emails or phone calls. After months of repeated efforts, I just had to give up. Life is too short, I got things to do!

Sigh.

Today I am doing a clearout of the workshop, and I ran across all the shitty parts, laying in wait for the day I want to lose thousands more dollars by selling them at a discount as B-Stocks.

Most of them ended up in the bin, as you see in the image above.

Life is too short to tolerate shitty. Shitty parts, shitty friendships, and shitty experiences.

That’s why I’m willing to pay more for excellence, and why I charge more for excellence in my products. Cheap shit just ain’t worth it!

So go out there today, and do something non-shitty, maybe even wonderful. Invest in experiences, not things (except faders of course ;)

Imma take my own advice now, see ya!