i quit dealing with andy foote a long time ago. i caught him doing back orders with my parts. meaning, he had my parts in stock but was waiting for other parts of my order to arrive. when they arrived he had already sent out parts that were supposed to be held for me already paid for by me. on and on it went untill one day i just had enough BS from this idiot. and never again dealt with him. after i caught him doing this he tried it again and i got him to steal from someone elses order to fill my order in full. i think that was the last time i ordered from him over a year ago. there are a few others doing this, i will not mention them as i still deal with them. just not very much anymore. i think they call it drop shipping. they have nearly nothing in stock order what they need to fill an order but when you order they always have everything except for one or two things. meaning, they have nothing but can order it all from thier supplier. when it gets there they repack it and ship it off to you. sorry to hear about your sad story it,s a good thing this site is available to others for up to date info so no one else has to go through what you have. i'm sure over time they have in stock the usual parts like tension rods, lugs, the usual. but to keep it all would be a big buisness venture. and i'm sure they like to spend what they make. not to reinvest it into thier stock.

In my dealings with Andy he has always been great. In one instance he re-cut a severely damaged front bearing edge on a 1962 Slingerland bass drum that had been used single headed for decades. Not only did he do a really nice round over edge, but he ended up doing additional repairs as some of the plies were delaminating as he went. No extra charge and, interestingly enough, saved the sawdust in a bag so I had an idea of how much wood was cut.

He has a pretty decent stock of inventory at his shop. I would imagine he orders parts as he receives orders from customers in many instances. There is no reason not to as floating a large amount of inventory in a small business is probably not possible. We have all grown accustomed to the Amazon.com mentality where everything we order shows up the next day. That is a relatively new concept and only works for the big box stores. That is, of course, no excuse for not letting a customer know their status.

I know that things have been tough for him and, let's face it, this is certainly a niche market in a seriously poor economy. I hope he will join in here and give us a head's up.

Let me explain further by saying that I'm having a simple 4x14 shell wrapped in silver sparkle and drilled for 16 Slingerland Sound King lugs, in addition to edges and beds. All relatively simple requests. Andy keeps promising that it is nearly complete... for 2 months now! This has nothing to do with parts in stock. If Andy does not have the shell or wrap in stock, he should say so. I have a feeling that Drum Supply Warehouse, aka drummaker.com, now employs but one person... Andy! I am simply tired of excuses from this well established business. I just want what I ordered... in a timely manner. If Andy can't supply this, he needs to be honest and forthcoming as to why.

UPDATE 3-29-13...

Called Andy this morning and left a message on how unhappy I've been with receiving my BR 4x14 snare drum build. It's been over 2 months. Well, my phone rang within minutes of my message... it was Andy. He said that the shell is complete and was shipped out yesterday. He tried emailing me, but said it got kicked back. That may be true, as I wasn't able to retrieve my emails last night.

Andy explained that business has been incredibly hectic and that if I spent one day in his shoes, I'd understand. While that may be true, I believe that the foundation of any good business is how you treat customers. That needs to include proper communications to explain what's going on and keeping the customer well informed. All I ever got from Andy is promises that the drum was near completion and shipping out within days of each email to me.

I understand the economy and all the pressures it can cause. Still, you need to suck it up and respond to emails and explain any delays. I'm a fairly understanding guy!

At the very least, a message should be posted on his home page, letting potential buyers know what's happening.

Will I continue to order parts through Drummaker? Probably, but I'll wait for things to settle down with his business.

Am I alone with my thinking? Post your thoughts.

Mark

Hi everyone,

I know this is a very old post but I thought I might add that I'm facing the exact same problem right now. However, it has been happening for about 6 months. I have been told about 5 times that I would be informed the next day about the status of my order when Andy arrived at the shop, but he never does. I've just come across this website and had to express my utter disappointment in this whole situation. I've given him one last chance now to tell me the truth or I've said that I will be taking it to the next level. I'll repost here in the next few days.

Since this was brought up I'll throw in my experience with andy. I ordered things in the past with little problems, however when I started working with someone on this forum, (who I will not name out of respect) he was re-doing a few of my drums, and one item that he ordered for me was a custom wrap from andy in WMP. tI took over 9 months to get the wrap, so after I got the drum back, I contacted andy and expressed how frustrated I was. He did say that he passed on a $50 credit for the inconvenience. Which does not make it right, and sadly the VRF member who was doing the work for me and who ordered the wrap, never even passed on the credit to me. Needless to say, its a professional way of doing business, exspecially after I gave him a ton work, and also passed on another customer his way. Needless to say, I don't give him anymore work, its not how I do business.

I am a business owner here in the south east and understand the economyand all things related. I myself have felt the crushing blow the Federal Government has allowed to hapen under there watchfull eye and for this reason I have had to raise the bentch-mark to keep my self employed. The last time Andy took my money, placed the orders and then droped the ball on me and would not communicate I told him then after several weeks I would stop doing business with him if he continued in that behavior. Lets try again, here we go, placed an order on 6/7/2013 with payment up front for a set of 14" die cast hoops, the only thing stoping the snare from going to market and told him so. I received an e-mail via Drummaker THERE WAS A SLIGHT DELAY AND WOULD SHIP SOON 3 weeks after order was placed. Called and left 3 messages on voice-mail and did not here from him until 7/9 when I e-mailed and requested a credit back, out of time, moveing on. Now I have his attention, my phone is ringing and my computer gets the e-mail about how busy he is with all the trade shows, loading and unloading, answereing phones, in the wharehouse, employees tied up in other projects, etc. etc. Whos the customer here, in all this I actually forgot for a moment, I call him the artfull-dodger, please remember one thing, you are paying him up front and "giving him " dailey working capital, no excuse. Nice guy, wish him all the best but there are others who make-it-happen. IF THE WORLD HAD MORE MUSIC THERE WOULD BE LESS WARS!

I dealt with him a little over a year ago. I got the items I ordered, but it took much longer then he thought. It took many e-mails, voicemails and phone calls to get the ball rolling. There are other suppliers out there who can deliver much quicker without any proding or hassles. I too am a patient man, but I won't do business with him ever again.

I think this is relevant to this thread, http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=38740