Hello from Germany!
I arrived in Germany yesterday and spent most of the day sleeping off the trip. I got out a little to see the city earlier on. At one point I was supposed to meet up with someone for a meeting to discuss a proposed project(more on that in a few months) but unfortunately he couldn’t make it. So instead I got a big heavy German lunch and a big glass of Paulaner beer and sat out for a while. The jet lag took care of the rest of the day.
I have a pretty bad and expensive internet connection here at the hotel. I think I am paying about 1.50 Euros a minute. My Internet connetion will improve when I arrive in Switzerland tomorrow. I should be able to work on my e-mails then.
Status: May 24th 2010
I am currently working on shipping as many of the orders due as I can before my up coming trip.
Unfortunately I caught a very bad cold/cough last week. Most of it has since cleared up and I am almost 100%. I lost my voice around Wednesday/Thursday of last week and I haven’t gotten it back yet. This is the reason I haven’t been and won’t be answering the phone at least this week. If it is urgent please do leave me a voice mail. At this point our e-mail account is clogged with e-mails about the Kingston project so a VM could help resolve any urgent issues before I leave on my trip.
Kingston General Order Information Going out via E-mail shortly
The e-mail for General Ordering is going out in a few moments.
Please note (and I apologize in advance for the way this sounds):
* I will not be re-sending any e-mails so please don’t ask
* Please do not call me (you couldn’t hear me any way if I was able to get to the phone - I have laryngitis) or send me e-mails about the General Order
If you don’t get the e-mail please check your bulk mail/SPAM folder. Some ISPs will directly block these kinds of e-mails and filter them out completely. The service that I use is the best I know of for getting these types of newsletters through but there are no guarantees and I don’t have the resources insure 100% delivery.
I have more work to do than there are hours in a day and a lot of orders to ship before I leave for Switzerland on the 5th. It’s nearly impossible justify to those customers waiting for their orders allocating more time to this process at this point in time. Not to mention I still have to shepherd the Kingston parts through the remainder of the process.
As I mentioned earlier I would have done this later in the summer but I hope that this time frame works out better for everyone on balance.
Thank you in advance for your understanding.
Travel Notice: June 5th through June 14th
I will be traveling to Europe beginning June 5th through June 14th. I will be visiting suppliers to discuss current and new projects.
Please note that due to my impending trip and the current orders to be delivered before I leave I will not be able to ship any more new orders for pre-built watches before I leave. Online ordering is still open and active but new orders will be shipped after I return. At the moment the lead time for custom watches is 12 weeks.
During the next 3 weeks before the trip I will be focusing on preparations for the trip and shipping the orders that are due. If you have urgent issues regarding a current or overdue order please call me and leave me a voice mail. For e-mails I will do my best to keep up but with the Kingston pre-orders coming in there will be quite a lot of paperwork to do over the next few weeks as well.
I will have access to e-mail for most of my trip and I shall do my best to be online while I am away. However I have an ambitious schedule so the time I have available to be online may be limited. I will have to see how early I get up due to the jet lag : D Please note the sales order confirmations will be e-mailed after I return.
Kingston ordering information
This is a update for everyone that pre-ordered a Kingston or are interested in the general ordering.
Pre-order Customers: You are in this group if you already have a deposit for a watch. I will be sending out an e-mail by Wednesday that will have your ordering information and a coupon code that will enable you to deduct your deposit amount and your pre-order discount after you enter your selection into the cart.
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General Ordering Customers: I have determined that it would be best to ask you to submit a deposit for a position in the general order. After the pre-order customers have been begun receiving their watches you will then be asked to submit your orders for your watches and pay the balance due.
The request for deposits will begin before the end of the month. An e-mail will be sent out to announce the start date and time. You can sign up for the e-mail distribution list here.
Please note that if General Ordering customers attempt to submit an order for a watch using the pre-order customer pages or other means on the site your order will be canceled and payment refunded. If you do so after the date of this post you will also be pushed to the back of the line if you choose to submit a deposit, risking the strong possibility that you will not earn a spot in the General Order.
Just by way of explanation about the change in procedure for the General Ordering:
* The reason I have decided to take deposits is because the decision will be easy and quick to do. This is based on the assumption that the spots will go quickly. Therefore I do not want sincere customers to miss their chance should they have a hard time deciding what they want at this time. I also do not want customers to submit orders for the sake of submitting orders which will only lead to more paperwork and headache down the line as those customers e-mail in requests to amend the orders.
* I have decided to push up the opening of the General Order because it will give the European customers and those of you planning summer holidays a chance to participate before the holiday season begins in earnest.
* Please note that I do not wish to punish any one for their enthusiasm and interest in this project but in the spirit of fairness and to maintain a semblance of order there has to be a penalty attached to those customers that decide to try to circumvent the established procedures. I only do this because it has already begun. I have already canceled and refunded on order this morning and the ordering page isn’t even public yet. Not only is it unfair to those playing by the rules but it is a drain on my time and resources.
Status: May 11th, 2010
Computers are now back to normal again.
I started on some e-mails and will return to them again in the evening. I usually work on watches and other orders during the day while my head is clearest.
Now that the link to my server has been re-established I can complete work on the Kingston pre-ordering pages.
Status: May 10th, 2010
The Kingston page just needs a final review and testing. Now begins the work of creating the mailing lists associated with the pre-order customers.
I haven’t been able to get to e-mails in about 7 days at this point. I should get to them tonight or Tuesday morning at the latest. The admin required to prepare for the Kingston is taking a lot of time. In addition I had quite a few errands I had to run for my family last week. My schedule this week is much more clear.
Please note that if you placed an order in the last 4 days the PDF copies of the sales order confirmations will be going out in a day or two. I had to replace a router here in my office last Thursday and while it is working now I have to get my IT guys to come in and re-establish my ability to download orders from the server. This only affects my office’s connection to the Mk II site’s server and not the web site’s server. Order and the web site’s security are functioning normally. I should be able to have my connection re-established later today.
Status May 6th 2010
I have spent much of this week running around to pick up our latest order of watch boxes that just came in and also running family errands (e.g. Mother’s Day is coming up). I have also run into a few more hiccups during the production of the custom watches due this week. Nothing serious but it has taken more time to complete the builds this week. Unfortunately that means that I haven’t been able to get to e-mails yet this week. If you have a urgent issue please leave me a VM. I hope to be able to get to e-mails later today (its 2.30 am right now) but if I run out of time it may not be until late Friday.
This Saturday I will be offline as I am cooking dinner for my wife and mother for Mother’s Day but I will be back online on Sunday. On Monday the 10th I will be unavailable in the morning so while I expect to get to e-mails on Sunday I probably will have to skip Monday and return to e-mails on Tuesday.
Status of the Mk II Stingray
We are currently of out of the Stingray and are delivering the last of the watches ordered before we suspended ordering last year. I am currently working on a new version of the Stingray which I hope will be re-launched early next year.
If you would like to receive updates regarding the new Stingray please either check back, follow our forum, or you can sign up for our e-mail newsletter:
This e-mail distribution list is not tied to any other e-mail lists that we use. If you sign up for this distribution list you will not receive any other e-mails regarding other Mk II products unless you are already on that list or have explicitly signed up for a different distribution list.
Kingston General Ordering information
Please note that at the moment general ordering for the Kingston is not open. I expect to open general ordering as soon as the shipments begin for the pre-order customers. At this time I expect that this will occur sometime in June or July of this year.
For more updates please check our forum or this blog. You can sign up for updates made to the blog. In addition you may also sign up for the e-mail newsletter if more convenient using the boxes below. I will post the same information to the blog as we will send via the newsletter at approximately the same time. What you choose is merely what is most convenient for you.
Mailing list is currently closed
Please note that this e-mail subscription list will only be used for the Kingston project if you want updates regarding general ordering. Once general ordering has opened we will stop using this distribution list and you will receive no further e-mails from us as a result of your subscribing to this list. In other words you are not going to receive more e-mails from me unless you sign up using a different form.