Folks!
Well, it is now officially the "no more white shoes" season and we're happy to be here.
We didn't *really* go on vacation as a lot of you can attest. We sent out orders as we went along, just kind of at a little slower pace. We DID turn eBay sales off for a month and IT. WAS. GLORIOUS! So, there's that.
As far as TBA is concerned:
Prices: You may notice prices creeping up. Sorry, it just cannot be helped. We are starting to go back into the red again and, well, umm, I like to keep my children fed, so have to kind of minimize that. I/We will do all we can to keep them at a minimum. eBay prices, one the other hand, will figuratively shoot up since a) eBay charges a CRAP TON on fees, b) eBay buyers tend to be--on the gross generalizations--more difficult, and c) we routinely lose money on eBay sales because of returns and scammers, so we will put the prices hikes there to try and shield y'all here.
Shipping: Also, we are going to put this in all of our confirmation emails, but we are going to codify what has been practice for the last year or so: when you place an order, we are going to do our UTMOST to get it out the same day or the next day. HOWEVER, it may take up to seven (7) *business* days for us to get it actually in the hands of the shipping carrier (USPS, UPS, DHL, etc). You will get a notification from the store sending you a tracking number when we are pretty sure it will go out. Larger items and things we have to build will generally take a little longer, but we will try to be as accurate as possible. Paypal may send you an email saying it has shipped. pay no attention to the DATE on that, although the tracking number it gives you will be accurate and will be the same one that is sent via email from the store.
Repairs & Installations: Rates will remain the same, but please, consider us as your second (or third!) choice for them. Why? Well, a) there are MANY other folks out there that do stellar work on retro computers, b) we just have so much to do in the way of building and producing items for y'all that repairs just get delayed, and, finally c) I (MacRorie) really enjoy wrenching on machines, but they cause me all sorts of anxiety and they take up WAY more time than you get charged for, so it really isn't where we want to be. Now, WE *WILL* do them if you want us to and we will do an excellent job, but please understand if they take longer than you thought they would!
Hours: So, during the past month, we discovered that things felt MUCH more manageable with the hours we set whilst we were "on vacation." We think that might be best for all of us going forward (and I mean that, there are three of us here, five if you count my daughters when they are not in school). Two of whom get paid (Nope, I (MacRorie) do NOT get a paycheck). So, again to codify what has been practice, our hours will be as follows:
- M-Th 0900-1600
- F-Sa-Su CLOSED
- Email: 0900-1300 M-Th
- Phone: 0900-1300 M-Th
Now, does that mean that you absolutely, positively will not receive an email or that we will not answer the phone outside of those hours? No, absolutely, positively not! I will still read emails out of hours and may pick up the phone outside of those hours. We are just saying this so you don't start a flame war in ur mails when we don't get back to you immediately.
Now, as far as personally: I, MacRorie, LOVE retro computing & gaming. I started TBA because I could not find things that I wanted to use. Cool things people had made but were no longer available. I am finding I don't have a lot of time to actually DO any retro computing anymore and that saddens me. This was the reason for the vacation and even then that was kind of a bust. So, I am going to try to make life a bit more livable for my family, my employees, my customers, and, hopefully, myself. Let's see how it all works out.
Thanks
-M