Date: Thu, 8 Aug 1996 02:15:58 -0400
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: BusBoys@aol.com
Subject: Signing Off For About 45 days
I have to be signing off the list for about the next 30 to 45 days because of
two VERY IMPORTANT things going on right now that will preclude my being able
go and sift through the ENORMOUS amount of postings from this list, the
vanagon@lenti list (and cross-postings between both lists as well).
Our fiscal year runs from July to June, rather than calendar year.
This means the dreaded annual corporate tax prep time is upon me and the
company for this next month. My home computer (from which all E-Mail is done
from) is being pressed into service as a temporary workstation to complete
all the necessary auditing and posting for the bookkeeper and CPA. Don't
enough money for another 'puter right now, so there's no choice. I will be
still dialing twice a day to download direct E-Mail from anyone who wishes to
post to us and I will be able to handle that kind of load (have to do this at
6AM and 11PM Pacific Time because of use time on the 'puter) to answer your
questions, etc.
The repair shop next to us has closed, the owner retired. I have been
desperately seeking relief from the overcrowded conditions in our main
office/warehouse/showroom (or lack thereof) which is only 1200 square feet
with stuff stacked and touching the ceiling, along with stuff scattered in 3
other storage rooms and a corner in the manufacturing shop, which is 2500 sqf
and they need the room too for machinery. This repair shop is over 1800 sqf
and since it sits on the same property that's owned by the same person, it
was a cinch to get it. While we would love to move to an ideal 10,000 sqf
building, this is the wrong time of the year business-wise and for the
obvious possible tax liabilities we may face in the next 45 days. So alot of
evenings and weekends will be spent moving practically everything into this
building, laying it out like it should so order processing and inventory
management is much more efficient. Right now with the present layout &
incoming orders, shipments are taking an average of 1 1/2 days to get out. I
might add that this year there are an enormous amount of customers requesting
Next Day, 2 Day and 3 Day Service which "bumps" the Ground Ship packages and
is also contributing to this factor. Bill & I do not need to be spending 12
hours a day (7 to 7), 5 days a week (and some Saturdays to catch up) keeping
up with the load. In 100+ weather I might add. Air Conditioning? Yeah, 360
degree airflow - every window and door is open (Fire Dept won't let us run
the Swamp Cooler because it's too old and has unsafe wiring - have to replace
in our spare time - hah!). We've been needing to hire a local person just to
pull and pack (with some experience, easy to train), but the way this 3 ring
circus is laid out, he/she would never be able to find 3/4 of the stuff that
Bill and I know where is and our place is on the phones, helping the
customers. With this small, but important move, we should have this solved
by the middle of September (It better be - I wanna go to Jerome this
year).During this move, we going all out to make sure that shipping customer
orders will not suffer anymore than it has been to date and of course vastly
improved once the move is completed.
The main building we're in right now will be developed as a showroom in the
front with our various front end/rear end modification displays, etc., and
the back end of the building will converted into much needed office space for
all of the paper chase flow that never ceases.
Mind you, this signing off is temporary and again I will state that we are
still on-line through our address BusBoys@aol.com 24 hours a day, so keep
sending them poison-pen letters. Joel - remember my stats - We will be back.
Jim Thompson
BusBoys@aol.com
Bus Boys, Inc.
18595 E. Lake Blvd
Redding, CA 96003
800-792-2697 (Orders Only Please)
916-244-1616 (Local Line - Info & Inquiries)
916-244-0933 (FAX 24 Hours A Day)
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