(im)Patiently waiting for my new _______!!!

[cwfox9]

Good theories.  You might have hit the nail right on the head there.

The thing is, a lot of this stuff we only know because people have been discussing it on the forums (delays, hilt exchanges, the way the company functions, etc.).  A new customer or even a returning customer that's not on the forums wouldn't know anything about US's situation before buying a saber, and to me, that seems misleading.  There ought to be some sort of obvious disclaimer on the site, even if it's just a message saying that the situation is changing on a week-by-week basis.  Someone new to the saber market would see "3-4 weeks" and, without anyone to advise them, would probably end up frustrated.  I want so badly to advocate for US, but there are some things they can do to improve.

I agree that they should do something to better portray the potential waits, why they haven't already I do not know. I doubt time is the issue with all the sale updates etc so it feels like a decision that has been made not to make any changes.
Hopefully the fact that it appears their email response time has improved will help alleviate some of the complaints over the last few months.

[StoryDtechtive]

Appreciate it and I feel there is a reason some of the hilts have been marked as out of stock and others that are known to have delays such as the Fallen noted above are not. Without inside insight it's always going to be assumption game however I have a few theories though they would only be that.  

- Ones marked out of stock have been confirmed by suppliers to have long delays and thus the website has been updated.

- Ones with waits but not marked out of stock have a given timeframe for shipment and likely they get the shipments sent in bulk and the amount sold on the website is still less than the number that will be shipped in this bulk order. Once this point is reached they will either mark as out of stock or possible try to increase the size of the bulk order likely saving them on cost (suppliers tend to give bulk buy discounts in tiers)

- Ones marked as in stock weren't expected to be delayed as much as they are and it is the suppliers constantly pushing back the ship date rather than having said there would be a severe delay causing these hilts to not be marked as out of stock.

- Hilt isn't out of stock but certain component has become out of stock though this is unlikely in the situations where they offer alternate hilts.

- What's in stock and what's not is changing so fast that outside of some definitely confirmed out of stock hilts it's difficult for them to update their stock levels. A lot of companies still rely on manually updating rather than scanning and a CRM to update.


As noted they should add a warning but I feel a bit of it may be down to wanting those orders to come in so they can keep running as a business, if they have people working around the clock to answer email backlogs etc they need to be able to fund that.
Getting "preorders" for hilts likely also as noted helps bring down the cost of each individual hilt and it may not be the machinists ability to make a load of hilts quickly that is the issue, it might be they are waiting on the materials the make them.
As someone noted in another post, there are way to many moving parts related to making each lightsaber, this is probably why people get estimates that increase or X+ weeks. If they give a timeframe they have likely been advised that by whoever supplies the part causing the delay and the supplier may be the reason this has increased. If they give a X+ it's likely they do not have a specific timeframe but have a general idea of the minimum it will likely take.
Also people need to remember it's not a Amazon Warehouse where they are stacked up waiting there (maybe GB & MB are) and even Amazon it taking longer than normal at times during this Pandemic.

My one advice for anyone looking to order would be, if you know what you want, order it but expect it could take awhile, if you want to know how long, email them before ordering. If you want something delivered fast, email them and check what hilts and configurations would be shipped fast currently.

Lots of great points. I agree that marking hilts as being out of stock would not only help customers, but cut down on emails asking about orders.

I also agree it would be bad for business to shut down at this point. If they did that initially...maybe it wouldn’t have had as many negative repercussions, but with all the unfilled orders from the holiday movie season, people still would’ve cancelled orders left and right. At this point, however, the haters would have a field day and probably even more cancelled orders would ensue.

We also have to consider that Emory was planning upgrades like Neo pixel...which has probably been delayed at this point due to the pandemic. But if he doesn’t maintain an influx of cash it would likely jeopardize his plans and his business further. Because this is a necessary step if US is to keep up in the market place.

I would also suggest in terms of marketing that they reassert the fact that they are, and always have been, a combat saber company as well as being an affordable saber company...more durable than fancy in many cases. But with other companies coming into the fold with a lot of features, including sound sabers on every tier, including MBs, US upgrades will likely have to consider these thing going forward. And that usually means an investment of cash up front if the decide on any sort of overhaul.

This last part being mostly speculation on my part, but Emory has done well in offering options other companies did not in the past. So my thoughts are he is considering how to innovate for the future. That’s just good business sense.

[SeenAGreatLight]

I also agree it would be bad for business to shut down at this point. If they did that initially...maybe it wouldn’t have had as many negative repercussions, but with all the unfilled orders from the holiday movie season, people still would’ve cancelled orders left and right. At this point, however, the haters would have a field day and probably even more cancelled orders would ensue.

Yeah, doing it early would have helped.  I actually said it wrong; I didn't mean they should shut down completely, but that they should stay in production but stop taking in any more orders until they've gotten through more of their massive backlog.  One Malaysian saber company is doing that, and it seems to be working.

[cwfox9]

Yeah, doing it early would have helped.  I actually said it wrong; I didn't mean they should shut down completely, but that they should stay in production but stop taking in any more orders until they've gotten through more of their massive backlog.  One Malaysian saber company is doing that, and it seems to be working.

I took this as your meaning in my earlier reply and stand by my prior reply that a full stop on all orders would be bad as they can still get certain hilts out quickly. At most stop orders on any hilts which are on a timely delay (Anything over their 3-4 week lead time maybe).

However as they're still doing promotions and I made use of their Summer Sale to order my Sentinel which was on a 5+ week wait at the time this would have actually negatively effected me if I could not have order it at the time so there is always pros & cons to any decision.

[Jedi_Phoenix]

Lots of great points. I agree that marking hilts as being out of stock would not only help customers, but cut down on emails asking about orders.

I also agree it would be bad for business to shut down at this point. If they did that initially...maybe it wouldn’t have had as many negative repercussions, but with all the unfilled orders from the holiday movie season, people still would’ve cancelled orders left and right. At this point, however, the haters would have a field day and probably even more cancelled orders would ensue.

We also have to consider that Emory was planning upgrades like Neo pixel...which has probably been delayed at this point due to the pandemic. But if he doesn’t maintain an influx of cash it would likely jeopardize his plans and his business further. Because this is a necessary step if US is to keep up in the market place.

I would also suggest in terms of marketing that they reassert the fact that they are, and always have been, a combat saber company as well as being an affordable saber company...more durable than fancy in many cases. But with other companies coming into the fold with a lot of features, including sound sabers on every tier, including MBs, US upgrades will likely have to consider these thing going forward. And that usually means an investment of cash up front if the decide on any sort of overhaul.

This last part being mostly speculation on my part, but Emory has done well in offering options other companies did not in the past. So my thoughts are he is considering how to innovate for the future. That’s just good business sense.

Some good points here; I especially like the notion that the company has upgrades and overhauls planned, and that the money coming in from all these orders is helping to provide the cash fuel necessary to implement them.   Granted, the madness of 2020 is hindering their forward progress, but I like to think that this is all part of a plan besides making more money.

I will say this, and I think it tends to get overlooked...when you order from Ultrasabers, you get your order. You may end up waiting for longer than you'd like, but you get your order.  I've lost count of the number of times we've had an order from Amazon just up and get cancelled without warning because it was out of stock, or some other reason.  Used to drive my wife nuts, and it really sucked when it happened around the holidays.

For all the complaints I hear about Ultrasabers, I've never heard of them flat out canceling an order.   Only time someone doesn't get what they ordered was because they took an alternative that was offered.  Which is another nice touch; shows that they are making an effort.  

[StoryDtechtive]

Some good points here; I especially like the notion that the company has upgrades and overhauls planned, and that the money coming in from all these orders is helping to provide the cash fuel necessary to implement them.   Granted, the madness of 2020 is hindering their forward progress, but I like to think that this is all part of a plan besides making more money.

I will say this, and I think it tends to get overlooked...when you order from Ultrasabers, you get your order. You may end up waiting for longer than you'd like, but you get your order.  I've lost count of the number of times we've had an order from Amazon just up and get cancelled without warning because it was out of stock, or some other reason.  Used to drive my wife nuts, and it really sucked when it happened around the holidays.

For all the complaints I hear about Ultrasabers, I've never heard of them flat out canceling an order.   Only time someone doesn't get what they ordered was because they took an alternative that was offered.  Which is another nice touch; shows that they are making an effort.  

Exactly. 2020 has been insane. 1 in 5 businesses have gone under. The fact that US is going steady in spite of tough times is really a Herculean effort on their part. And there’s certainly a co-dependency in terms of sales.  I completely understand the concern of customers. But there’s nothing US could really say at this point that isn’t on the boards. So I think if you place an order, it’s pretty clear you could be waiting a while. In most cases, that wait is still a better turn around time than some companies. So unless folks are ordering from a company that manufactures runs of ready to ship stock, there’s a wait. Then consider the long breaks in getting new stock even for those companies. Lightsaber collecting has never been like collecting model cars or action figures. Time and supply is always subject to build time, how many sabers in each run, and a number of other things that require planning. Some smaller companies have spent months designing and processing before their limited runs are available. I know some folks who waited a year after placing an order. Lightsaber companies are all small indie companies with a handful of employees or individual builders and installers.

[Jedi_Phoenix]

Exactly. 2020 has been insane. 1 in 5 businesses have gone under. The fact that US is going steady in spite of tough times is really a Herculean effort on their part. And there’s certainly a co-dependency in terms of sales.  I completely understand the concern of customers. But there’s nothing US could really say at this point that isn’t on the boards. So I think if you place an order, it’s pretty clear you could be waiting a while. In most cases, that wait is still a better turn around time than some companies. So unless folks are ordering from a company that manufactures runs of ready to ship stock, there’s a wait. Then consider the long breaks in getting new stock even for those companies. Lightsaber collecting has never been like collecting model cars or action figures. Time and supply is always subject to build time, how many sabers in each run, and a number of other things that require planning. Some smaller companies have spent months designing and processing before their limited runs are available. I know some folks who waited a year after placing an order. Lightsaber companies are all small indie companies with a handful of employees or individual builders and installers.

Waiting a few weeks, I can do that standing on my head.  Waiting a few months, yeah no problem.   But if I have to wait a full year or longer, they better be making the real thing.   

[Cyclops942]

Waiting a few weeks, I can do that standing on my head.  Waiting a few months, yeah no problem.   But if I have to wait a full year or longer, they better be making the real thing.   

Okay,  now you’re just teasing me.

[BatMike90]

...my Diamond Dominicide shipped 3 hours ago....  

[Karmack]

...my Diamond Dominicide shipped 3 hours ago....  

WOOT!

[Jedi_Phoenix]

...my Diamond Dominicide shipped 3 hours ago....  

Oh, hell yes!!!  If I could give you more than one point, I would!

So happy for you, man!

[SeenAGreatLight]

...my Diamond Dominicide shipped 3 hours ago....  

Woo!!  Congratulations!

[Jedi_Phoenix]

...my Diamond Dominicide shipped 3 hours ago....  

So help me, if you don't do an unboxing video after that long wait, we will not be happy.....

[StoryDtechtive]

...my Diamond Dominicide shipped 3 hours ago....  

Excellent!!!

[StoryDtechtive]

Waiting a few weeks, I can do that standing on my head.  Waiting a few months, yeah no problem.   But if I have to wait a full year or longer, they better be making the real thing.   

Yeah...it would have to be something I REALLY wanted badly. Plus have enough cash on hand to order plenty of other sabers while waiting because that’s insane