Ive said it before, ZEN like patience. Honestly they are super well built campers. For a wedge design this would have been my top choice. Its just sad that new players in the biz have popped up and are exceeding customer expectations. 9 months is a long wait for me. I cant fathom having to wait any longer. Its putting the outdoor enthusiast on hold who wants to enjoy camping in these type setups. Sure theres other ways to camp but didnt we put deposits down to make the switch and enjoy some of the luxuries involved in these investments? Thats what i had a problem with.
Vagabond Outdoors Drifter
- Thread starter Michael Gibbs
- Start date
Let's be real when it comes to the wait times. Currently it's about 40 months. And not once since I've put my hard earned money in have these lead times shortened, they've only gotten longer. On top of that I haven't heard from Phil in almost a year. So I'm really hoping for good news this week if llamalander can drop by the shop. ??
crazysccrmd
Observer
At some point he’s going to run out of money and people are going to get screwed. It sucks because it is a great camper but his current business model is not sustainable.
czukie
Active member
How’s he gonna run out of money if all he’s doing is taking people’s money and not spending it buying parts? It’s pretty much 3 employees that seem to only show up for install so at this point his only real overhead is seemingly rent.
I agree the business model is the epitome of how not to run customer service though. If/when they go out of business it’ll be due to a lawsuit or running out of customers/customers choosing competitors.
Unfortunately it feels like that is the inevitable at this point. Unless something changes, the real question is how many people will never see their camper or deposit when that day comes….and how much time will they have wasted waiting.
czukie
Active member
We know. Unfortunately, this is not new. The lack of communication and miscommunication have been occurring for a few years now.
grain_of_salt
Member
I lauuugh and laaaaugh when I see people complaining it taking 2 or 3 months to get their bumper welded up.
Then I cry.
At some point maybe someone should suggest to Phil or them to stop taking deposits from would be new customers to catch up on current production. At least have him update thier website to say this. Its not fair to those who have been waiting 3 eternities and so much more for the new ones that happen to see the product at a show or stumble upon their site not knowing the horror show their about to walk into.
Just curious, how have you not gone with another company after waiting this long. I mean how have you been camping for the last 3 years?
grain_of_salt
Member
The Sunk Cost Fallacy - The Decision Lab
The Sunk Cost Fallacy describes our tendency to follow through on an endeavor if we have already invested time, effort, or money into it, whether or not the current costs outweigh the benefits.
thedecisionlab.com
I know I'm not alone with this. 100% sunk cost fallacy thinking. ^^^
(At about the 1 year mark of total and utter silence, I got a GFC realizing that Phil had not been truthful with timelines. I still want a VO. The plan was to sell it once VO ever got their crap together. It's not perfect. It's also somewhere to sleep at least. It was "cheap," light, and they were very pleasant to deal with.)
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czukie
Active member
In my experience with VO, Phil knows everything that is going on. People have been telling him for a while now. He’s not oblivious to the blatant lies about lead times or absolutely unacceptable communication issues. His employees were even outwardly frustrated with them not addressing the “supply chain issues”. They know. That is what us truly baffling to me.
It will forever be a mystery to me why simple actions still have not been taking place after 3 years of this now (better communication system, finding different suppliers, updating their website, creating a bi-monthly newsletter, and so many other fairly obvious business maneuvers). My only guess is that this has to be a side gig for him.
Bergger
Explorer
He certainly has a great product. Some people are extremely good at design and fabrication but terrible at running a business. I have no clue what his back office looks like, besides being a mess, but if he's running it he may want to hire someone or a few other people who know how to address these problems and help him and his business out.
SoCalTacoTruck
Active member
No update, just the same spiral of discussion that occurs once every few months then ends up in threads getting locked.