Anyone got there TW stuff yet?

[Spookyfinder]

We're waiting on:

Distortions
Oak Island/Scare Products
Pale Night Productions
Minions Web
CFX
Night Frights
... a few others that I'm forgetting.

I was very happy with Sinister Scents, our order came FAST and everything was great... and stinky!

Kevin,

Your always mentioning to people "if YOU were a vendor, then you'd know"... and always talking up how much it cost to be a haunt vendor; stop trying to justify high prices! (Hold on, getting out the worlds smallest violin... starts playing)... Vendors, are not my concern, my haunt is, and when I pay $8K for an animatronic I EXPECT that:

-I'll get the best product available
-It'll be shipped ON TIME (within 2-3 months)
-Questions will be answered promptly when I have a question!

I'm TIRED of vendors trying to justify bad bussiness practices, and yes this means not keeping up a stock/inventory! I'm not saying you need 50 pieces of one prop built up... but a 5-10 PLUS the pieces you need for a show!

I really hope that I'm getting under some vendors skin... it's people like me that will make those companies better! I'm not afraid to state my opionion on something and I'm a very picky, demanding, and out spoken person... just ask Redcrow Designs... I think they worked on my site for MONTHS, and I turned down several designs they had!

I'm done, leaving this topic now. Moving on. -Tyler

[maliciousstudios]

What ever happened to vendors selling what they can guarantee by a certain date ? If a vendor cant deliver by end of August they might consider taking less orders.... ( taboo I KNOW STRIKE ME DEAD ! ) *Dont Attack Me Kevin*

I think its possible..... I know its hard to turn money down BUT, I just dont think we should take orders for what we cant deliver.

This is the BIGGEST problem of the industry. Working with haunts for a few years taught me that things arrive a week before opening or 2 weeks after opening

YES, THATS REDICULOUS

( DAMN )

[Gore Galore]

Nightgore,

I understand if you are frustrated.
And again you should call the vendors you have orders with if you are worried.

But please don't ever accuse me of making excuses for anyone. I don't ever give excuses for myself or anyone else. I only give explanations. I take full responsibility for what I do and say. Always, I think you know it. Why do you think Gore Galore has such a good reputation. It is not because we deliver on time, all the time. It is because I don't tell a customer they will have it in July and then ship it in Sept. It is because if it is going to ship in Sept I tell them. If a buyer doesn't like this delivery time they can place the order or not. And I don't take orders I can't deliver. Simple and honest. It is because I hate liars. Hate them with vigor, and don't ever want to be accused of being one. That is all.

Hahaha, High prices!
Tyler, Your funny!
You have to pay for the best, LOL

I would love to be able to carry an inventory. I would give anything to be able to do this. But in this market, it is a very bad decision. Unless you want to loose every vendor you have.
And when you can guarantee we or any other vendor in this market that we will sell the inventory we make will sell we will stock it. I am sure every vendor would if they could. I promise we would.

Again if you were a vendor you would see this other side of the story.
It goes the same as if you were a waiter in a restaurant. You would understand how important it is to get good tips. You simply understand the other side of the coin.
Oddly enough there really should be more than 2 sides to a coin because there are more perspectives than 2 in any situation. That is why I always do that.
Understanding as many perspectives as possible to any situation helps to understand different situations.

That is all and I hope you get all your orders in when you need them.

Malicious Studios.
You are completely correct. If you can't fill the order in a reasonable time frame don't take the order.
That is exactly what we do, so kudos to you. Again I was just trying to express the point that things are always more complicated than it appears. And you should always try to contact the vendor if you have a problem. It just gets frustrating when the first thing people do when they have a problem is bring it to the boards.
That is just bad business.

Ken, Your not screwy. I am, what are you going to do about it?

[kpolley]

I have to agree with Kevin on this. Don't knock it till you've tried it. Let me give you a very specific example.

Our Standing Animated Licker was a piece that I thought was going to be a big hit and so did a couple very sharp industry people who saw it before the show. Our Animated Asylum Door got less than hot reviews from the same industry folks who also saw it before the show. While I didn't share all their negative sentiment, I didn't think it would be that great of a seller either.

Fast forward 2 months and we sold 1 standing licker and 18 asylum doors. Had I built up a stcok based on my instincts and those of my close friends I would have a shop full of animations I couldn't sell and a stack of orders I couldn't afford to fill. Aniamtions, high end costumes, etc. have to be made to order. There's no other way.

This isn't an excuse fest for vendors that don't deliver or deliver the last week of September, but it is an explanation of how things work from our end. Our time is very limited and our budgets are even worse. When it's late August and everyone is still waiting on tons of stuff it will be time to start complaining. Late May is a little early for that.

[kpolley]

And...here's just one more thing to consider.

Show me one other industry that operates like ours. Every year customers expect every vendor to come out with 5 or 10 or 20 or 50 new products and essentially after one year the product is dead. You'll pick up stragglers here and there, but a piece will never sell like it did the first year. Other companies in other industries spend years prototyping new products that will provide a revenue stream for years to come. We have about 3 or 4 months to produce everything for the coming year only to have to repeat the cycle again in 12 months. Our industry is unlike any other and to try to hold our vendors up against Sony or IBM and say "If I can get a TV anytime I want I should be able to get a Slayer anytime I want." is crazy. Everyone always thinks that it would be easy to do x y and z untill they try it themselves. Give us a little bit of a break.

[maliciousstudios]

Yes i agree

I agree with Kevin..... customers REALLY SHOULD contact the vendor personally, allot of times I notice that the vendor seems to hear of the problem by reading a post on Hauntworld....lmfao, ( Thats not cool ) Just give em a call I am sure they are doing their best to resolve any issues they have and they are working HARD at filling the orders they have.

I will also agree that its simply not possible ( Well not for most of us ) to have stock of every item we sell. Even if we had 50 more in stock on top of what we bring to a show, the supply could be drastically diminished in one order. There seems to be allot of pressure put onto the shoulders of the vendors to produce new items... new and better items than the year previously. So I think most of the vendors do a marvelous job keeping up with the demand.

We ( Malicious Studios ) try our best at delivering our items as fast as we can. I am sure a larger company fills more orders than we do, but I wont take any order I cannot fill and deliver by our deadline ( By the end of August ) The majority of our items have been ordered and delivered within weeks. I would like to think that we can continue to accomplish some sort of short turn around when we fill larger orders and make even larger props next year.

"We know what its like to try to build a haunt around a prop that hasnt been delivered yet, and we will do our best to keep you from waiting on our props as you are building your haunts."

[xxxdirk]

Got my props from CFX. Severed arm, brain and heart. Looks as good as the ones they had on display....

[N2SPOOKINU]

Ken THANKS FOR GETTING OUR COSTUMES TO US SO FAST!!!!!
They were a big hit at the Chamber of commerce haunted voyage. People kept saying all nite they were creeped out by our actors and if you guys havent seen what Ken has to offer for costumes then you better take a look. They look great Ken and thanks for getting them here next day!
Greg
Fearfest

PS. The only thing we are still waiting on is Monstertronics. All other vendors have sent our orders to us. GREAT JOB VENDORS!!!!!!!!

[Mike Honcho]

naaa bill still waiting on my stuff as well

[terrormasue]

I have recieved a few items but the major items I have yet to recieve. The costumes may take a bit because I think they produce them as they get orders. I have not recieved grannie in the rocking chair nor any of the really big costumes.

[drfrightner]

I got NOTHING FROM NO ONE and I'm pissed off!!!!

Whoops I didn't order anything... oh that explains it! LOL

We might be putting in some orders for Creepyworld here soon!

Larry

[drfrightner]

I would however like to thank all the companies that got us a lot of cool and unique products that we had made custom just for the Darkness before the show.

Unit70
Ghost Ride
CFX
Scarefactory
Morris Costumes
Scare Parts
and
SPFX

Not sure who else we ordered from but I'm sure I'm missing someone! But all of them got what we needed right to us fast.

Larry

[Killer Katie]

Grrrrrr......

I have been a part of a vendor companies as well as haunt managment and I get completely frustrated with those talk out of their rearends about time frames and "I want my stuff" yesterday.
As previously stated, the overhead to have stock on the shelves is way too high.
Products like sinister scents can plan ahead and have stock. They also can grab off the shelf and mail it. (a smidge oversimplified - but I'm making a point )
If you want animatronics, hello, there is building time and customization involved, and a shipping time.
I get very tired of hearing people who have NO knowledge of that end of the business, complaining in MAY.
I agree August should be the latest. I see no harm in calling about the status of your order, that's as it should be. I also see nothing wrong with courteousy calls from vendors to customers, although I know there's staffing issues, and it may not be feasible.
Anyone who has been in the buisness for any significant time should know when and when not to panic.
Sheesh...

[GoryCorey]

We have shipped about 50% of the orders from St Louis, the balance should be shipped by 6/15,

We are right on pace of what we promised customers at the show.
Only items we will not ship until late July will be LED bulbs, and that again is what we have told customers to expect.

I do not see the sense of promising anything to anyone if you have no idea of your production schedules.

[MDKing]

Mike Honcho, left you a PM, thanks.

Allan