Hey everyone, good news! I just talked to Mike about all of these issues, and he wanted me to pass on his thoughts.
First off, of course, he wants to apologize to everyone, and wants me to reaffirm our commitment to not only have the best product, but to provide the best service as well. Obviously he is alll too aware that we are failing in the second commitment at present, but we promise to fix that.
Secondly, he did and still does intend to start posting here, as will Chris. But right now they are still absolutely totally consumed by the day to day business, which right now mostly means handling all the CS problems noted above. A LOT of it simply rises from our stock situation. An out of stock order actually takes MORE time to deal with than one we can ship, because of trying to call or e-mail to notify the customer, doing extra order processing if the customer wants to change their order, answering the complaints from the customers we didn't contact in time, etc etc. So they just haven't had the time to come here and post. Yet.
But all of that IS getting better. We are getting more and more stock in, and should be fully restocked by next week. That alone will ease our daily CS workload considerably, as well of course as preventing new CS problems due to low stock. What's more, although Red has already been of a TREMENDOUS help right from his first day, he is still getting trained, so his contribution will only help more and more as we go on.
The whole NJ staff will be having a sit down today, including Red, to go over these problems and see what we can do immediatly to start turning it around. ANd as preperation, I've already sent links to everyone for this thread, and Slim's post in particular, to help them prepare for the meeting. And I'll also forward any other threads or specific posts you want me to.
We also discussed the website, and Mike agrees that we need to move up the timetable on that, and that will also be part of the meeting.
Now, Slim, I also talked to him about your suggested telephone campaign. He welcomes it. He encourages any and all of you to call him directly on his cell phone (732-492-1122) to dicuss any or all of these issues, or any other that are important to you. He wants to talk to you directly since he still can't come here, to assure you all as concretely as possible that we are absolutely 100% committed to fixing all of our mistakes, and that we will do whatever it takes to make it up to you all.
And, towards that end, he also gave me permission to announce that we are going to have a 20% off Customer Appreciation sale as soon as we are fully restocked and have cleared our back orders. Which we expect to be by the middle of April. We will announce the sale by e-mail blast, so be sure to check your user account (or sign up for one) to make sure you are subscribed to our mailing list. ONLY customer account holders will receive the Customer Appreciation coupon code, so don't forget to make sure you are on our list.
https://bloogplanet.com/customer/in...ps://bloogplanet.com/customer/home/index.asp?
Guys, I know the only really acceptable answer for you will be when we can finally announce, "There! It's all fixed!" And that's as it should be. But that day really is coming; we have a time table, we have a plan, the new website will get there, maybe even in time for the sale (but sorry, I still can't promise that though), and hopefully today's meeting will produce some more immediate results as well.
Please stick with us just a little bit longer. We won't be able to do it without you. We can't do ANYTHING without you.
See, I'm doing my happy dance! 
.....but no more playing me off, 'kay?
