Firstly thanks for the reply, I do appreciate it and I should say i have no skin in the game as I'm not willing to take a punt on waiting month to month to see if I'll win the lottery, so I went with an alternative option.
I suspect, though have no way of knowing, that you hear from the people that its working for, you're not hearing from those that are unsuccessful to the same extent - it would be interesting to know how many people wanted to buy but couldn't.
I think the refund argument is a straw man - I'm waiting 12 months for a bike, the wait for a Sachs or Vanilla is so long that the books were closed on them - the deposits gone, sure people can piss and moan if they change their mind or don't want to wait, but your customer service does not extend - if you don't want it to - to offering refunds if its clearly set out at the start that once you're in you're in. The issue you would have is a lack of transparency about when the order arrives - you tell them its 8 months and its 8 months, then they know what they're getting in to.
I'm not asking you to change your model - we're simply engaged in a discussion about lost sales, it seems to me that when you have a list, you're names on it, it gets to your turn in a given period of time, and there's a drop dead date after which you can't back out and you forfeit your deposit.
The only difference in the way its currently set up is you please some of the people (what percentage I don't know) some of the time, you can't please all of the people all of the time, but it would seem to me that there's an opportunity for orders to be split between people willing to put their money where there mouth is and wait, and those that want to take a punt on the lottery. If you tell me orders are 50/50 lottery and pre-ordered and that the current wait is 8 months, I'd put my order in, pay my cash and if I wanted to enter the lottery I could do that as well and you simply take the next person in line as a guaranteed order - either way no loss for you and I know exactly how I can plan my purchase and whether it works for me or not.
I've no doubt the product is excellent and great value for money, I'd liked to have ordered but can't be doing with it waiting month to month and taking a punt and the money saved for me is neither here nor there so I exercised another option I just think its a bit of a missed opportunity for you - though i accept I don't know how you solve it - though I ran a manufacturing business and didn't go bankrupt so I understand some of the issues.
I suspect, though have no way of knowing, that you hear from the people that its working for, you're not hearing from those that are unsuccessful to the same extent - it would be interesting to know how many people wanted to buy but couldn't.
I think the refund argument is a straw man - I'm waiting 12 months for a bike, the wait for a Sachs or Vanilla is so long that the books were closed on them - the deposits gone, sure people can piss and moan if they change their mind or don't want to wait, but your customer service does not extend - if you don't want it to - to offering refunds if its clearly set out at the start that once you're in you're in. The issue you would have is a lack of transparency about when the order arrives - you tell them its 8 months and its 8 months, then they know what they're getting in to.
I'm not asking you to change your model - we're simply engaged in a discussion about lost sales, it seems to me that when you have a list, you're names on it, it gets to your turn in a given period of time, and there's a drop dead date after which you can't back out and you forfeit your deposit.
The only difference in the way its currently set up is you please some of the people (what percentage I don't know) some of the time, you can't please all of the people all of the time, but it would seem to me that there's an opportunity for orders to be split between people willing to put their money where there mouth is and wait, and those that want to take a punt on the lottery. If you tell me orders are 50/50 lottery and pre-ordered and that the current wait is 8 months, I'd put my order in, pay my cash and if I wanted to enter the lottery I could do that as well and you simply take the next person in line as a guaranteed order - either way no loss for you and I know exactly how I can plan my purchase and whether it works for me or not.
I've no doubt the product is excellent and great value for money, I'd liked to have ordered but can't be doing with it waiting month to month and taking a punt and the money saved for me is neither here nor there so I exercised another option I just think its a bit of a missed opportunity for you - though i accept I don't know how you solve it - though I ran a manufacturing business and didn't go bankrupt so I understand some of the issues.