If you have ordered an 18 watt kit

[christoph]

When was the last time you had a business owner come over to you and make a public apology for their service? And explain what he is doing to fix it? I have a hard enough time getting my employees to do that!

Bravo Loy, you are holding to your ethics, and that speaks volumes.

As far as the time it takes, I've been building guitars for years, and am starting to do amps, I cannot remember the last time I ordered a neck for a strat style guitar, that was exactly to my specs, that took less than a month. My addiction would be worse if it came faster...

Peeps, we have a slow, quirky and addicitve hobby. We spend weeks trying to determine which cap is exactly right. We battle for gas filled brittle glass tubes from 50 years ago that hold an invisible nirvana. We argue over wire coverings. We may be debatebly insane, definately OCD.

Normal people fear us. Props to Loy for having the guts to serve us. I'm doing my Christmas shopping right now Loy...

[GibsonGM]

I ordered up a TMB kit from Loy a couple of weeks ago, still waiting. But like it says above, if you want to use a small vendor who's hand-picking parts and willing to talk to you about any debugging you might have to go through, some wait is acceptable (to me). This sort of build is generally time consuming, anyway, at least at first. And after the 1st, you might shop out for yourself, anyway, having a clue by then!

I always try to use the 'little guy' such as Small Bear, being from rural Maine and all. The big dogs are for bulk or really hard to get items (if they even stock them, usually you need the little guy for THOSE, too!!)

[curtg]

Here's a tip for you guys who have to "convince the wife" about your purchases. This really works. Last night, out of the blue, I said,

"Aren't you glad I collect guitar amps and not guns?"

She nodded and said Yes!

To me that's permission to buy another one.

[morcey2]

Here's a tip for you guys who have to "convince the wife" about your purchases. This really works. Last night, out of the blue, I said,

"Aren't you glad I collect guitar amps and not guns?"

She nodded and said Yes!

To me that's permission to buy another one.

But what about those of us who collect both? Maybe "Aren't you glad I don't collect Hi-Fi?"

[RML]

Here's a tip for you guys who have to "convince the wife" about your purchases. This really works. Last night, out of the blue, I said,

"Aren't you glad I collect guitar amps and not guns?"

She nodded and said Yes!

To me that's permission to buy another one.

But what about those of us who collect both? Maybe "Aren't you glad I don't collect Hi-Fi?"

What about those of us who collect all three?

My wife collects horses, subsequently I can have anything I want!
All you single guys out there take note...

[JTsSHOX]

got mine from W***R in 2 days.

[jojo]

Hey, amp stuff is now my 4th addiction! (after hi-fi, aquariums, guns). Still got 3 of the four, and I'm not even a guitarist! Just like building for my son. Wife has to be pleased its not bass boats or hunting trips. Hey curtg, another 18 watter in B'ham. Back to topic though, had to wait quite a while for my Brown note kit, but the quality and help from Moss and his and this forum was enormous! Not many 16 year olds have a hand wired vintage sounding 18 watt! And we just finished a partscaster guitar.

[curtg]

I'm still waiting on the chassis from Dockery's kit that I order on Nov. 26. Definitely the longest I've had to wait for anything.

Does anyone know another (quick) source for a Lightning chassis in the US?

[Hiwatt25]

Curtg, I never did get the turret board for my Dockery kit (well, not from Loy anyway). The one that came with my kit was for a different amp all together. Eventually, I had to go straight to Loy's source (turretboards.com) and buy it myself. Loy refunded the price of the board but C'mon.

Contrast that with Graydon's service and Loy starts to look like a big flake.

Any patience I was willing to extend to do business with the "little guy" has long since evaporated.

What's worse, an e-mail I sent to Loy asking for a forgotten pot and a replacement resistor I destroyed have gone unanswered.

I was willing to accept that some problems might occur but there is a limit to my tolerance.

Loy, this cat is waiting almost 2 months for a chassis man. Get your **** together.

[BBQLS1]

Well, this isn't looking good.

[curtg]

Thanks for your concern guys. My patience has grown very thin. I've sent yet another email to Loy asking for an update.

Basically Loy has already admitted that his own financial issues and inability to fund his stock of parts is the reason for the delay in shipping the chassis.

I honestly don't wish the guy any misfortune, but when I pay someone nearly $500, they need to do what they claim on their website.

[tubetwang]

i hope you get your order in soon lad... and not left holding... the...huh... bag...


My great Grand-Father Major Twang, who rode with Butch Cassidy, use to say..."if it looks like a Duck, acts like a Duck and smells like a Duck...then...huh...er...it must be a ...a Duck...

[curtg]

(from www.dockeryamps.com)

Not accepting orders until (unknown date), and why...

1-23-08

For the past two months, I've been scrambling, desperately, to try and get a small and reasonable amount of credit (less than $5000). This was intended to go into inventory, pretty much directly. That way my business could be ran the way it is supposed to... with no late orders.

Unfortunately, for both me and you, I have been turned down and have had so many delays it's driving me to insanity. Who would've thought that it was so hard to get a small piece of credit for my business?

Anyway, I don't foresee when I can definitely have everything in stock. Therefore I have shut down this operation until further notice. Earlier, I gave a date (once revised) of when I would be accepting orders next, but they were both wrong. I won't be giving a date this time, just because there many factors that are out of my control and it would be just a guess.

If you are really itching to get some building done, go ahead and use the schematics/boms/layouts and just order the parts yourself. Then, make the chassis too, or get one from another vendor . It'll be more expensive (and be more difficult), but could be very well done much sooner.

Thank you,

Loy Dockery
loy@dockeryamps.com

[tarzanalog]

Well that's just a shame on all fronts pretty much.

[Hiwatt25]

Having met Loy personally, I get the impression that he is a genuine guy and truly interested in pleasing his customers. That said, I think he may have bitten off more than he could chew when initially starting his business. You know what they say, "The best laid plans of mice and men go astray". I will give it to the man, he's never been cagey or dishonest with me about the status of my order or the fact that he's made some mistakes. That is more than you will get from many businesses.

I feel my frustration is justified, however it's only fair for me to mention that Loy and I have exchanged e-mails recently and he's been very apologetic and in my opinion sincere.

I wouldn't tell someone not to give Loy their business but I would advise them to wait until his website gives a clear indication that his going concern is back up and running at full speed.

I think in the long run, Loy's honesty will be his saving grace. I'm enjoying my kit now that I've got all my parts and his Layout is very well illustrated and easy to understand. At the end of the day, if I'm melting faces with my 18watt lite IIB, I'll call it a win.

[loyjdockery]

Hi!!!

I see that some people are frustrated with my late shipping. I just want to make clear, that I have shipped the chassis the Curt last week (the day I got them in my hands). It was a huge delay for those chassis! I ordered them around beginning of December and didn't get them until 2 whole months later. Well, this definitely stung me bad, and it definitely affected Curt.

As Joe has mentioned, I do always try to be honest. A lot of factors have been going against me in the past two months (which is why I'm not accepting orders for the moment). A couple examples are the late shipments of chassis I've just mentioned, low inventory levels, and inability to get some money to stock up inventory (I'm only 21 and don't have very extensive credit history). I do not believe this is a permanent situation, and I'm not willing to open up shop until I'm darn good and ready with pre-packed kits. I can't stand it when I have to ship late, it costs me money and my customers time. As a business, I need to be 100% on the ball about all this stuff, so I'll let you in on my current plan to reach this goal.

In an effort to prevent future mishaps, I'm planning to order large quantities of chassis and turret boards since they are the two things with the longest lead time. I will not be able to stock up a lot on cabinets, but they're the last thing needed for a build. I'm going to order another sizable chunk of tubes, transformers, electronics, etc... In addition, my wife is in charge of packing up kits (she's much faster at it than I am, mostly because she has the time available to do it). That is my comprehensive plan to reduce shipping times.

I haven't been posting much around here lately because I've been focusing on the guts of my business. I will be more active again once I've opened up shop again. I love to chat about this stuff and read it too.

So, to all who read the discouraging posts about my customer service, please know that I am taking many steps to counteract this in the future.

Oh, by the way, I get my money this week and I plan to make all of the orders for inventory throughout next week. The earliest I'll be opening is probably in 5 weeks from now (about March 11th). I'll be writing a lot of this same information on my home page too, I just wanted all you friendly 18watters what's up.

Thanks!!

Loy