Reflections on GTM over the years

Mike@GTM

No worries. I can certainly understand that it was tempting, but you are absolutely correct that someone else was in the exact same boat.

As for your question about the group buy. It looked like it was going to be a big hit. We were excited, the members were excited and it looked like it was going to be the veritable A-bomb in the Z world. But Sam kept giving me the runaround and lying to me about the cast manifolds. I learned that the tooling hadn't even been paid for and was still outstanding when I left back in December/January. Why? I have no clue. I suspect that the issues with the mandrel bender and the associated tooling played a role in that.

Let me just say that outsourcing manufacturing is a bitch and the only way to really pull it off is to have a rep there or within driving distance so that you don't just become another number. The double sided sword of that for Sam is that if his suppliers are within driving distance, they too could pop by the shop and say "where's my money?". A threatening e-mail carries very little weight, but a 6'5' guy looming over you is a bit more uncomfortable. While the law states that you cannot open a can of whoop *** on a deadbeat buyer, you never know how clearly that guy is thinking and whether or not he is willing to go to jail over $30k. I guess that's why Sam keeps his gun at work.