[TenTec] Ten Tec Service / How I am mishandling customer relations and a specicial thank you to K5TN

Sun Mar 5 12:00:55 EST 2017

Mike N8WFF, as Founder and Net Manager of the 9 Weekly TEN-TEC Nets that we 
started 5 years ago, I want you to know that the thousands of people who 
check into our nets each week are behind you in your efforts to bring the 
TEN-TEC Name and Company back to its rightful place among the elite Amateur 
Radio companies in the world.

When we started the TEN-TEC Nets 5 years ago, Jack Burchfield K4JU was 
President and Jim Wharton NO4A was Vice President of the TEN-TEC Company. I 
knew them both personally, having spent time with Jack Burchfield in his 
office in Sevierville and working with Jim Wharton at the TEN-TEC Hamfests 
in Sevierville and working with Jim Wharton at the TEN-TEC Booths in Dayton 
for several years.

When Jack Burchfield sold the Company to RKR/RFC, little did he know that 
those new buyers would run the TEN-TEC Company into the ground, leaving many 
of their Parts Suppliers hanging and this is just one of the many things 
that contributed to the demise of the TEN-TEC Company. I know more than what 
I am allowed to post here.

I am the proud owner of a TEN-TEC Orion II and a TEN-TEC Omni VII and I want 
to see TEN-TEC succeed.

Cheer up! What has happened in the past and is water over the dam and I want 
all TEN-TEC Users and Owners to know that Mike N8WFF has told me personally 
on the phone, that he is using his own money to get the TEN-TEC Company back 
on it's feet again and we all need to be patient and support his efforts.

Mike, thank you and be assured that I and the Members of the TEN-TEC Nets 
are behind you 100 percent and appreciate all you are doing to make the 
TEN-TEC Company succeed. God bless you and your family Mike.

John, K3UR

John D. Occhipinti, K3UR
Net Manager, ten_tec Amateur Radio Nets

QRZ Page:  http://www.qrz.com/db/k3ur

Group Owner, ten_tec Amateur Radio Net Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ten_tec_radio_net/

SoundCloud: 
https://soundcloud.com/john-occhipinti-k3ur/sets/brotherjohns-most-popular

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/john.occhipinti.14

You Tube:  https://www.youtube.com/my_videos?o=U
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Dishop via TenTec" <tentec at contesting.com>
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec at contesting.com>
Cc: "Mike Dishop" <n8wff at yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2017 6:20 AM
Subject: [TenTec] Ten Tec Service / How I am mishandling customer relations 
and a specicial thank you to K5TN

> A couple of days ago I made a post about being part of the solution rather 
> than part of the problem and how anyone could step up and make a 
> difference. Out of the 400+ thousand hams, one person took me seriously 
> and sent me a check to help support Ten Tec. That gentleman's call is K5TN 
> and to you sir, THANK YOU from the top and bottom of my heart. I'm not 
> cashing your check and will send it back, but of everyone in the world who 
> reads these forums, YOU put your money where your mouth is. It is nice to 
> know that our company has one absolutely true friend and supporter. It is 
> nice to know that ONE person really wants to be part of the solution 
> instead of part of the problem. Thank you sir.
>
> OK, lets talk CUSTOMER SERVICE
>
> When I was quite a bit younger, I worked for a huge conglomerate that shut 
> down the R&D department that with 5 people had driven more innovative 
> features that made the company products sell than any other branch of the 
> operation, and they shut it down. I questioned the wisdom of eliminating 
> this department and the talented team that really delivered. My boss 
> explained to me that what good was all the future development in the world 
> if the company had to shut down and go out of business today? I learned a 
> lesson here that I want to share with you. What good is all the customer 
> relations in the world if the company has to close?
>
> I've explained more than one time what I'm doing and why again and again. 
> Despite this I am repeatedly forced to spend my valuable time on this. 
> Why?
>
> I've explained why you can't talk to service. I've posted photos of our 
> new PCB assembly facility and we are still servicing every radio we have 
> made if we can get the parts. It costs me a lot of money to keep Ten Tec 
> open each month. The only way I can do that is to take care of the 
> commercial customers FIRST. They are the reason the company is open. 
> Fortunately, that cash flow is allowing me to reintroduce the other 
> products one at a time. The Eagle is next. Right or wrong, expensive or 
> not expensive, there are people who want to buy Ten Tecs and that is a 
> good radio. It isn't about what you can buy from Japan, China or 
> elsewhere. It is about buying what you want. Ford trucks are generally 
> cheaper than Chevy trucks. So why do people buy Chevrolet trucks? The 
> truck is easier to work on for one. The drivetrain is more robust. At the 
> same time some say the Ford has a stronger frame. If you don't buy a car 
> based on the decision of price only, why should you buy a radio? You guys 
> keep your radios longer than you keep your cars usually, and you spend as 
> much time or more using your radio than you do driving, so shouldn't you 
> buy WHAT YOU WANT and not worry so much about if the Eagle is 1600-1700 as 
> compared to an Icom 7300 at 1300? My goodness if you pimp out a K2 and 
> make it do everything an Eagle does you spend 2300 dollars! And the K2 is 
> far below the Eagle on the Sherwood chart! Should they quit offering the 
> K2 or lower their price? Doesn't the better performing Eagle deserve to 
> sell for at least as much? After all they are both designed and made in 
> America. Should all the K2 owners dump them and buy Eagles because the 
> Eagle is less expensive?
>
> Someone said our customer service was "sub par". Robert went into full 
> retirement end of last month. I'm sure he appreciated that comment. It 
> probably will be worse than it was now that he is gone until I do 
> something else.
>
> Ten Tec is wholly owned by me sinve January 1 2016. To have sub par 
> customer service I would have had to have sold you a radio. To whom have I 
> sold a radio? What do I owe you? Fact: I am repairing the radios that the 
> other people sold you. I don't owe you anything. I have no obligation to 
> you to answer your email you or sell you my parts. I'm supporting you 
> because we are working on a new transceiver so that all the infrastructure 
> will be there to continue on when it is ready. Maybe at that time we will 
> have the cash flow supported by new sales to support the expensive and 
> free customer service you want.
>
> The company isn't going to close as long as our expenses do not exceed our 
> revenue. Think about that. this is the coldest and hardest fact of 
> business that has to supersede EVERYTHING else and all discussions of if I 
> am doing a good job or if customer service is good or not good. Anyone who 
> thinks anything other than this most basic tenant of business is a fool. 
> I'm not going to spend money I don't have. So if you KEEP sending in your 
> radios for repair (PLEASE EVERY BIT HELPS) and keep buying parts from us 
> (PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH THE EMAIL) and keep ordering the products that we 
> do have (PLEASE WE DO WANT YOUR BUSINESS) then we can get this thing back 
> on track. Look people I'm doing this all by myself. I need time. We have 
> moved in 12 calendar months from having stacks of unrepaired radios from 
> RKR and no parts to build radios and no machinery to build them with to 
> now having maybe a back log of 10-20 radios at any given time and usually 
> nothing over thirty days, having moved into a cost effective and efficient 
> facility in TN, setting up the new surface mount building in OH where we 
> built THOUSANDS of boards in house last year for TEN TEC, and delivered 
> HUNDREDS of new radios to customers, in addition to R&D on a new 
> transceiver, all in one year. ONE YEAR. What did YOU do in your last year?
>
> How can I improve customer service now? The next thing I am working on 
> short term is our TEN TEC web store. I'm learning a little bit about how 
> to do this myself. I even was able to post two news articles over on the 
> Alpha RF Systems site. If you go there and click on the NEWS tab you can 
> see my two articles, the first about the amps we are building in Colorado 
> and the next about the SMD assembly facility in Ohio. I asked Boyd to take 
> photos about the final assembly, repair and alignment center in Tennessee 
> and when he gets those to me I will make a similar article for you to see 
> on the TT website.
>
> So what I am going to do next is make it so we can send repair invoices as 
> a email to you where you can log in to your web cart, buy the repair and 
> pay for it by checking out securely with your credit card. We have been 
> testing this on the Alpha site for 4 months and it is working great! I'm 
> also going to put what products we have like microphone cords, 
> microphones, speech processors, etc and it will show real time inventory 
> of units in stock! Next I will try to put dial string and PTO kits and 
> batteries and little common items like that in the store and I hope this 
> will stop the personal emails for dial strings.
>
> Now of course the month I'm going to spend doing this is going to delay 
> the launch of every other product by one month but who cares about that? 
> We will have better customer service! Before I get this done I have to 
> work on the corporate tax return due this month.
>
> A special thank you to those of you who are patient, understanding, and 
> support my efforts in this herculean task. Rick, Bob, Ron, and the rest of 
> you who are regular contributors and who try to help people understand 
> what we are doing - I really appreciate it.
>
> To those of you who are being critical you are not criticizing Ten Tec. 
> You are criticizing me and I take it personally. I didn't make this mess 
> or gut the company. I'm the guy keeping it alive and putting it back on 
> track. What right at all do you have to criticize me? Do I come in to your 
> house and criticize how you live your life, how you raise your kids, or 
> judge you for why your wife left you? If I did that you would say to me 
> "What in the heck do you know about me or my life or my house?" You'd tell 
> me "There are perfectly valid reasons for the choices I made". So why do I 
> deserve to be treated differently?
>
> If you don't like what I'm doing, if you can't say something nice, then 
> why not just keep your mouth shut? What business is it of yours? If you 
> bought a transceiver from RKR or RFC you didn't buy it from me. If you 
> have a beef, have your beef with them, not me. Are you upset that I bought 
> the assets of what was left? I'm sick and tired of reading this drivel 
> over and over again in our forum. I am now going to formally appeal to the 
> moderators and owners that whenever this negative stuff is posted in the 
> future that you just delete it and don't even send it out. I believe I 
> speak for us ALL that it is counter productive and that we are ALL tired 
> of hearing that the sky is falling! I started this journey a year ago 
> October and TEN TEC is still here, radios are being repaired in a timely 
> manner and radios are going out the door. When I respond to this stuff I 
> am wasting my time and it is just another lost hour that a new radio isn't 
> designed. You may not have anything better to do but I do.
>
> I need those of you who support TEN TEC to step up and start ripping to 
> shreds these jerks on eham and QRZ who raise this crap every three months? 
> People who spread lies and negativity damage the company and jeopardize 
> people's jobs. When somebody starts grinding their axe it is just like a 
> little duck farting under water, but when I respond and defend myself I 
> get criticized and told I should handle things this way or that way. It 
> doesn't matter what I say, there is criticism. So I generally just don't 
> say anything at all, and then I'm criticized for being non responsive. I 
> loose no matter what I do. I unloaded on somebody who was spreading out 
> and out libel and then was told that customers are going to question if I 
> have the sanity to run a company and don't want to buy from me!
>
> I know my own course. I know what I have to do. I know what I can do with 
> what I have to work with. I'm going to do what I have to do and that is 
> the way it is until something changes. It is going to take as long as it 
> takes me. All the criticism in the world isn't going to change things. The 
> only thing that is going to change things is money. Time is money. It 
> takes time to make money. As I make money I do what I can do to bring TEN 
> TEC back into the amateur market one step at a time.
>
> Just remember that every disparaging and negative remark delays the 
> introduction of a new product by a day. If you get ripped to shreds on 
> Monday, how good are you at YOUR job the rest of the day? You know what my 
> problem is? I can't walk off the job. I have people with families who 
> depend on me. Good people who are hams just like you. Those are the people 
> you hurt when you spout your hate, negativity, jealousy or just stupid 
> opinion for whatever reason or motivation you have. I don't want to hear 
> it any more. No one here on the forum wants to hear it. This needs to stop 
> and it needs to stop immediately.
>
>
> 73 DE N8WFF
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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