And just for instructional purposes, here is what i did....last fall, i read the blurb about the dad being in hospital and on mend, and they would be working to get orders filled....
I sent a check anyhow, even though obviously a company on the ropes....then months passed and no t-grip, and no answer at old number, and no update to site, and i figured, "well, are you suprised?"
Finally, i just wrote a note, all it asked was were they still in business? If they weren't, it would be nice if they would at least let me know? And i provided my cell phone number...
As fast as the call back happened, the son had to have called the day the letter arrived....he told me what was going on, his dad had died, how they didn't even know how to modify or pull the plug on a website, and were going to need to go to a local JR College to get a teacher there to try to post a new update about the move they were doing and expected start date of April 15.
He clearly was desperate and in over his head, and no idea about getting printed invoices, boxes, him being a master machinist and not a business man, his sister in school and not much help.
I gave him a few pointers as to how all the late orders were making him look and how critical an update to the site was....and saw it was updated within a week of the conversation.
He gave me his own number and insisted i call anytime i felt like it.....a month after the move date i called to see how things were going, and that's when he informed me he was just preparing to ship his first batch of brushed, and that the others requiring polishing or anodize would come from that batch as well.
I told him even though i'd ordered a polished one, i'd happily take a brushed one and would polish myself, but he said he'd do it up for me as it only took about 2mins once he got the hang of it, and told me he would ship mine and to expect it within the week, and to call and let him know it arrived...this conversation was this week.
If he's a thief, he missed his calling and should be President....even the President doesn't give me his own number....
I'm quite sure in between shutdown, move, and getting a new building going, most stuff was simply boxed up, including all the threatening letters....you might try just sending a note with a phone number, and you might be suprised at what happens....but hopefully he stays off the phone and gets more t-grips shipped because i hope to get mine as much as anyone else....
I can tell you if it were my company, many of the folks posting here would be the LAST to get a thing, and i'd make sure of it....
I'll let you folk know if anything ever shows up....I would have been suprised at the start to get anything, and can't help but feel most of you should not be shocked at what's been going on, either....which is why i think 90% of these posts are garbage in this thread....it didn't take a rocket scientist to see that ordering was a roll of the dice...a VOLUNTARY roll of the dice....
PS....those of you considering paying extorsionist prices on the things should think twice now...especially since in my conversation with him, he was musing as to how he thought once things were caught up that he was thinking of perhaps getting the price down a bit as it seemed a bit high to him....yep, a natural thief, i tell ya....cunning beyond belief to be saying things like that, to get me to believe he was just a guy trying to make his dad's company solvent after dad about let it go down toilet before dying
I think I posted this earlier in the thread but FIE in Italy used to crank out Tyler clones. Numrich was selling them, but they sold out in a few days. I have also seen either a Japanese or Chinese T-Grip clone, in a blister pack with a tiger on it. The "cloners" must have given up because there wasn't much of a market, maybe they will make some more.
