My Rant about Formac

[cwright]

I ordered my Formac Studio TVR on August 10, and today (29th), the damn thing still hasn't shipped.

Throughout the last 19 days I have called 2-3 times per week, and each time they promise me that the unit will be back in stock and ready to ship "soon" or "by the end of the week". I called again last week and they PROMISED me that it would be arriving last friday and shipping this monday. So I waited patiently and called back today (monday). And of course, today they say that they are still waiting for the shipment to go through customs and whatnot, and that it would arrive by the end of this week. Well I am getting pissed off... and starting to wonder if I should cancel the order and buy a second-hand unit from ebay or elsewhere.

Has anyone else here had similar crap from Formac?
And does anyone here have a Formac TVR they're willing to sell?

Oh and BTW, I refer to Formac as "they" but I'm pretty sure I'm getting the same person every time. Are they a really small company?

 

[CanadaRAM]

Your experience is not unusual for companies that are merely North American distributors for Asian manufactured products. They are completely dependent on the next shipment (literally, container ship...) arriving from the factory. If they misjudge demand and run out of stock, all they can do is to put customers in a holding pattern until the ship docks. Any outside delays in manufacturing (or like here, a container ship trucker's strike) plays havoc with delivery committments.

We have this problem with some of the audio recording and video mixing equipment from Edirol. This units are insanely popular, and the production capacity is limited, so all shipments are pre-sold. If you order one today, your unit will be on the boat that leaves Japan next month.

The right thing for a distribution company to do is to not charge the customer's charge card, until the unit is in hand and ready to ship to the end user. And gracefully allow the customer to cancel the order if they can't wait.

 

[cwright]

Well to formac's credit, they haven't charged my credit card yet, but I really want my order! If I could find a used unit I would ply go ahead and buy one and cancel my order. oh well...

 

[richdean]

Well to formac's credit, they haven't charged my credit card yet, but I really want my order! If I could find a used unit I would ply go ahead and buy one and cancel my order. oh well...

I hope you can cancel your order and buy a competing product. I have a Formac Studio TVR and while it converts analog video into DV just fine, it sucks as a DVR. And their customer support could not possibly be worse...