While some of us might disagree, Ken’s Clock Clinic is not technically considered an essential business. Nonetheless, we are striving to keep our business up and operational. However, in compliance with local governing bodies, we cannot bring in help which is sometimes desperately needed during this time.
The consequence of this is, in a word, delays. Now, if you have read our Restoration page, you know that we have a long backlog, normally. Lately it is worse because of COVID-19, and not only because of restrictions put in place recently. What’s also contributed is the nearly 2 months that were lost while Ken dealt with a 2-month “mystery (at the time) illness” after disembarking from a cruise ship in December. The good news is the recovery was complete and full, partially because of good fortune and partially because Ken keeps himself in excellent health and fitness, as a routine.
So what does all of this mean to our customers? Here are the restrictions that are limiting our ability to respond to customer requests at a higher rate of speed:
- COVID-19 restrictions on bringing in help
- The need to “batch” shipments so we interact much less with shipping authorities
- Supplier delays on getting materials to us
- An already elongated backlog which, in combination with the above, means we must periodically make tradeoffs on product builds vs. clock restoration priorities
- Shipping transit times taking longer across the board, especially international shipments (due to a general increase in consumer online purchasing)
Also, email volume has increased recently because folks are home bound and thinking more about those clock projects around them. This has resulted in some slightly longer delays in response.
The good news on all of this is that being “shop bound” means that more time can be dedicated to restoration work. We’ve asked that customers NOT ship any projects to us before July. This is coming up quickly but we think we will be ready. If you are thinking about sending your clock to us on July 1, we strongly suggest that you contact us first so we can confirm that we are ready to accept new projects. At that time we will give you an estimate of when your project will be “on the bench” and when we think it will be completed.
In summary, we’re catching up on both restorations and orders. We have only a handful of orders at this point over 2 weeks old, so we’re getting to the bottom of that. Don’t hesitate to order product if you need it, since we don’t expect our present delays to continue much longer.
The best thing you can do to help is stay patient. While without a doubt these are incredibly trying times for everyone, we won’t forget about any customer, regardless of project scope or order size, and consider every customer important. And, you can be assured that we are NOT sacrificing quality in anything we do as a result of this recent pandemic!
Meanwhile, please stay well and stay safe!