[mrerick]

Miles, I'm also glad you changed your post title. Dealing with a vendor that is not communicating can be very frustrating.

Over several years, there have been posts that complain about slow delivery and lack of communication with Eugene. Frustration, anxiety and any number of emotions have been expressed.

Yet, for those willing to endure the isolated wait, Eugene has delivered on some remarkable projects. Something tells me that Eugene's nature will not change, and neither will his engineering and technical skill or attention to detail.

When I worked in computer technology, we had a number of brilliant engineers that had very poor, even defective communications skills. We learned not to try and change them, but to express very clearly what our expectations were and manage to those objectives. At that point, we let these engineers recede into their isolated engineering bliss. Most of the time they delivered, eventually.

This kind of misunderstanding could be made less dramatic and emotional if both parties (buyer and seller) clearly communicated expectations before money exchanged hands. When advertising sales and services it will go a long way to set expectations.

For example, before accepting money indicate a realistic estimate for shipment / delivery and stick to it. If you think it will take 2 months to get a part out, give an estimate of 3 months and ship it early. If you can't predict it, say so before accepting money. When I wasn't sure of completing a project I sometimes quoted a 100% contingent time buffer if I thought the job could be completed. The impossible took longer.

if you need a part or service, and are not willing to wait, tell the seller up front what your expectation is. If they won't commit to meet your need, move on to another seller.

This hobby is not a normal "Ebay" type marketplace. Some of the things we collect are literally made of "unobtainum", and fabrication from scratch takes time. Eugene, you don't have to always accept orders because you will lose them to the competition. There is little competition to speak of... It's something of an oligopoly.

Marc