honestly, every conversation with them gets a different excuse. and they sometimes conflict with the previous excuses.
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Exactly. Hence my use of the dreaded “L” word.
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I would send them a cancellation note to create a paper trail, so to speak. If nothing else, it might trigger shipment of your order.
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I sent Suzi a quick note through Facebook, telling her that she in Dirk need to get on the same page as to what is going on, and relying on the truth ensures consistency in a message.
This is her response:
"Dirk is my husband. This is His business. I help him with social media and in any way I possibly can to make him successful. It is a trying time due to demand and expansion. He works 14+ hours Every Day. I have my own 40+ hour a week job. Last week I took vacation days to leave my home and travel north to another state to work 12 hour shifts on the machines in the shop to catch up with orders.
I communicated with you first to acknowledge your situation immediately. I guessed at what may have happened. I communicated with dirk and he said he’d contact you and he did. I put in extra effort to tell you a little about the wood you purchased because I felt that might aid your experience. That appears to have gone unnoticed. Instead I got criticism and told I’m lying.
I came home this weekend and my mother had to be rushed to the hospital via ambulance. I have since been preoccupied with that. Dirk did explain things to me but since he contacted you I thought it’d be ok if I didn’t write back.
Maybe I’m overstepping my boundary by talking this way, but I strive to do the best I can in every situation and you have hurt my feelings by assuming I have lied to you. Customers are important and dirk strives to do his best too. We are 2 people trying to grow a business so people can enjoy their products and get pleasure from their hobby/craft.
It is easy to yell at someone in some business office on the other side of a computer screen but in this case you presumptively assumed incorrectly and it has greatly distressed me because I genuinely care about your satisfaction.
I will leave that there. If you have further needs please contact dirk directly. I hope the product meets your needs and you are satisfied. Apologies for the difficult experience.
Suzi"
There’s even more excuses in there…
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Yes. Everyone has issues in their lives. It’s terribly difficult to manage many of them. But in the end, personal drama is irrelevant to business transactions. If it gets in the way, then perhaps it’s a sign you ought not to be in business for yourself. Not everyone who has a good idea and can master the mechanics of business should be running one. Unfortunately she’s conflating their business & personal lives and believes customers ought to join them on that joint journey. Customers though merely want as frictionfree an experience possible. Friends & family care about drama.
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Well I got the two butternut boards I ordered. I suppose I should have known they would be rough. they are two consecutive cuts matching grain but about half of each have matching insect damage as well. I will make do but not be ordering from them if I cannot live with similar look and issues for the price.
i don’t know if this is typical or whether they had sales prices that overwhelmed them. but growing a business means scaling properly. and not taking more orders than you can reasonably fulfill.
now, this could be an ecommerce issues where they don’t keep track of inventory for what they’re willing/able to sell. but that doesn’t make the customer feel better, either.
regardless, i’m sure they’ve done more to hurt their growth than help with at least the past month’s worth of sales. for all we know, they’ve been like this all the time. but i doubt many (if any) of us will try to find out if this was a glitch in time or standard business procedure for them.
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You can’t even make this stuff up. Dirk just emailed me to ask if I received the boards.
From the order I cancelled five times… 3 times on email, once on FB, and once via PayPal.
No, I have not received the boards.
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Not an excuse for Dirk and Suzi, but much larger companies have been destroyed by scaling issues. They are not in a small minority.
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i completely agree. i’ve worked for at least one of them.
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My Woodchucks butternut Lion was definitely bugged. I was using tape masking but thought it was ok. Perhaps not so much. any suggestions out there. perhaps a big game hunter would want it?
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Spalted woods are actually sought after for certain things…
I have some ambrosia maple that is full of small holes and it looks really cool in the end as a tray/box. One of these days I might get around to posting pictures of it, but try sanding and finishing a piece of the butternut, you might find it can be added interest in the right piece?
That being said, not super impressive from woodchucks.
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I have seen a lot of spalted with dark stains that looked really cool but I have never equated termite ridden with the concept of spalted.
Yeah, you want to watch the crap decorative dried wood pods you pick up from Hobby Lobby too, for dried floral arrangements.
Turns out those can contain termites, that will finish the pod, fall out onto your irreplaceable Henredon bedroom furniture, and try to eat through the finish in several places. 
Other things to watch for:
Mulch is generally loaded with them. Do not put it up against your foundation.
And as DH recently discovered to his dismay, do not throw a bunch of bags of mulch into the boat to take to the Fishing Tournament so the cleaners don’t have to stand in mud while they work.
No good deed goes unpunished. That is going to wind up being the world’s most expensive mulch. (sigh) 
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One good thing about New England is that long bouts of sub-freezing temps and even sub-zero helps dissuade termites from our locale 
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He’s planning a week long trip to Amarillo later this year, mainly to take the boat along and dispose of the little buggers, but officially to call on that group. Probably cause them to have a heart attack…neither of the owners makes it up there very often. 
There is always this…
http://www.appalachianfeet.com/category/garden-general/pests-diseases/
Somebody at some point will figure out what the chemical this fungus leaves or driver ants. In either case termites are very much scared away and will never go where they can detect these things.
Hurray for the arrival of ice and snow?
My plug-in hybrid is starting to slowly creep down in MPG(E)s, so I know winter is coming.
The one hole looks like an eye…
Except for the eye just above it.
My first impression was a lion shot in the face… I am doing some reconstructive surgery with wood putty meant for cherry., but it is pretty close.