TO ALL HERE.. PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO OTHERS IN CASE I MISS SOMEONE...
This has been a very difficult 6 months for me, my wife, our family and business. We lost an aunt, who at 62 was having basically flu symptoms. One day she felt dizzy and fell, and decided to go to the doctor. She was found to have a blood infection and was admitted to the hospital. In 4 days she was on dialysis and unconscious and then passed 4 days later. Needless to say this was a shock to all of us.
Less than 3 months later we has another death in the family.
Next, my full time job went through a very unstable time, several employees that were doing shoddy and in some cases dangerous installations were cut loose, and all the surprise of bad work and jobs that were not even completed suddenly were brought to light. All that are left of course have to take up the slack and stress levels were very high. Job hours averaged about 75 a week, and have not let up yet. I am not anticipating a slow down until mid January.
Additionally, about 32 customers that have had scope work done over the last 4 months have had to send back the scopes that I had repaired reticles on, as they were having reticles break loose. After investigating, it was found that the UV cured adhesive that I had purchased had been a bad batch, and was not holding over time. Part of the joy of working on 40 year old scopes is that many of the modern things we take for granted will not work on older things. For example, many Redfield scopes have brass rings that hold steel wire for reticles. The standard reticle wire for a 3X9 scope is .004" thin...that is 1/10 the width of a human hair. If you use modern solder and try to do this, you find that the wire melts before the solder flows, or with the heat the brass expands, wire is held tight, but when it cools from the heat it shrinks... fun!! Modern solder usually flows at 425 degrees, but the 60's scopes used a very low temperature solder paste, which has been difficult to use. So when I found an early 70's scope that used epoxy I started to use it, and the first 40 scopes were successful, and have stayed in great shape.
So in all fairness to customers that have already paid for repairs, I feel that I am obligated to repair their scopes before I can begin new ones. I am sure that everyone understands this.
On to other issues.... Trying to get more organized, I took all the scraps of papers and notes scribbled on paper, and transferred everything to computer files, and had a power spike, and my computer and the external hardrive I was using to do a backup was fried. So... many of my clients info is gone, or very slim info remains.
Lastly, Verizon Fios and I have been in a war for the last 6-8weeks. They keep cutting my services (which has my house phone, fax, business and personal cell, internet and TV on one bundle) claiming I am either behind or not paid at all, I have cancelled checks and CC payment info from Bank Of America (I will not even start on the problems that "gun business" owners are dealing with them right now). Finally, they cut me off completely, evening locking out my SIM cards on my phone. You could call my number and leave a message, but I could not access the voicemail, internet, business email, etc. Finally it was discovered that when Verizon added FIOS in my neighborhood, they had created a second account, so I would pay one, and the other would list as delinquent, etc. I am stuck here, there is not really any other way to get all the service in my area, and could not switch to another vendor, and since I lost my hard-drive, all my customer info was gone... but finally the accounts were rectified... and Verizon has made it worth my while for their errors to their credit.
Which means that today, at about 4pm, was the first time I have been able to access email, voice mail etc. in about a month.
If you have a scope or rifle that you have sent for work, and have not heard from me, please send an email to [email protected]. Right now, the best way to get a hold of me is going to be by email....
So... all I can hope for now is...I hope I have a Merry Christmas and a Happy new year, 'cause 2013 was NOT GOOD!!!
Lastly, thanks for all the patience, and the chance to vent a little ...
This has been a very difficult 6 months for me, my wife, our family and business. We lost an aunt, who at 62 was having basically flu symptoms. One day she felt dizzy and fell, and decided to go to the doctor. She was found to have a blood infection and was admitted to the hospital. In 4 days she was on dialysis and unconscious and then passed 4 days later. Needless to say this was a shock to all of us.
Less than 3 months later we has another death in the family.
Next, my full time job went through a very unstable time, several employees that were doing shoddy and in some cases dangerous installations were cut loose, and all the surprise of bad work and jobs that were not even completed suddenly were brought to light. All that are left of course have to take up the slack and stress levels were very high. Job hours averaged about 75 a week, and have not let up yet. I am not anticipating a slow down until mid January.
Additionally, about 32 customers that have had scope work done over the last 4 months have had to send back the scopes that I had repaired reticles on, as they were having reticles break loose. After investigating, it was found that the UV cured adhesive that I had purchased had been a bad batch, and was not holding over time. Part of the joy of working on 40 year old scopes is that many of the modern things we take for granted will not work on older things. For example, many Redfield scopes have brass rings that hold steel wire for reticles. The standard reticle wire for a 3X9 scope is .004" thin...that is 1/10 the width of a human hair. If you use modern solder and try to do this, you find that the wire melts before the solder flows, or with the heat the brass expands, wire is held tight, but when it cools from the heat it shrinks... fun!! Modern solder usually flows at 425 degrees, but the 60's scopes used a very low temperature solder paste, which has been difficult to use. So when I found an early 70's scope that used epoxy I started to use it, and the first 40 scopes were successful, and have stayed in great shape.
So in all fairness to customers that have already paid for repairs, I feel that I am obligated to repair their scopes before I can begin new ones. I am sure that everyone understands this.
On to other issues.... Trying to get more organized, I took all the scraps of papers and notes scribbled on paper, and transferred everything to computer files, and had a power spike, and my computer and the external hardrive I was using to do a backup was fried. So... many of my clients info is gone, or very slim info remains.
Lastly, Verizon Fios and I have been in a war for the last 6-8weeks. They keep cutting my services (which has my house phone, fax, business and personal cell, internet and TV on one bundle) claiming I am either behind or not paid at all, I have cancelled checks and CC payment info from Bank Of America (I will not even start on the problems that "gun business" owners are dealing with them right now). Finally, they cut me off completely, evening locking out my SIM cards on my phone. You could call my number and leave a message, but I could not access the voicemail, internet, business email, etc. Finally it was discovered that when Verizon added FIOS in my neighborhood, they had created a second account, so I would pay one, and the other would list as delinquent, etc. I am stuck here, there is not really any other way to get all the service in my area, and could not switch to another vendor, and since I lost my hard-drive, all my customer info was gone... but finally the accounts were rectified... and Verizon has made it worth my while for their errors to their credit.
Which means that today, at about 4pm, was the first time I have been able to access email, voice mail etc. in about a month.
If you have a scope or rifle that you have sent for work, and have not heard from me, please send an email to [email protected]. Right now, the best way to get a hold of me is going to be by email....
So... all I can hope for now is...I hope I have a Merry Christmas and a Happy new year, 'cause 2013 was NOT GOOD!!!
Lastly, thanks for all the patience, and the chance to vent a little ...
