Watch this video tour for the scoop!
Hi Res- No dial up!
http://www.massivetype4.com/StoreOpening.wmv
Low res- 2 Mb
http://www.massivetype4.com/StoreOpeningLR.wmv
For the last few years I have seen one major roadblock in the path to the Type 4 conversion and that has been the lack of support from suppliers and the lack or non existence of crucial components to make this conversion practical. I literally received hundreds of emails per week from guys wanting our parts to do the job themselves. I always would write them back saying "Sir, we only provide our parts for use in our custom engines, they are not for individual sale" All of that stopped at 5:41 PM EST as the link to www.type4store.com was activated for the first time!
I have tried on several different occasions to start selling a limited number of parts but until this year never had the dedication to make it work. I attempted to do this last February and it didn't happen and thats because I was not ready. My dad always tells me "If you can't do something right- Then don't do it at all" and that played over and over in my mind as my feebel attempt to open this store in 2004 past right on by. Even though I was quiet about what I wanted to do for so long, I knew exactly what I wanted and I decided that no matter what I would make it happen before February 1 2005! Now its all here, every part and every assembly, even my specialty items! No more questions, no more searches and no more junk!
This year things were much different, I worked longer hours and worked harder made some extra money and put it to good use by tearing down our oldest building and building the New Raby Enterprises on that same foundation. I purposely built this building for engine assembly and to house the Type 4 Store and its 800 Type 4 specific parts.
The new building was finished on December 5th only 51 days after the old building was demolished. Since December 5th I really haven't had a day off! Most days were 18-20 hours long and very grueling consisting of many things I have never had to face before, because I have never been a retail shop, we always did custom work. Since December 5th I have really found out who my friends are and many of them have been just as much a part of this as I have. We have had to take old inventory, count it, set up the store software(on site) and then set up the store software on the net. There is no way possible that this could have been accomplished without help from my Girlfriend Beth who set up all the on site book keeping and etc (she is an accountant) and my good friend Charles Navarro from LN Engineering who has literally put thousands of hours into helping me upload all the items to the site. Another HUGE help was from Zen Hardy and his wife Melody owners of TAOzen webservices who is also the owner of a MassIVe Type 4 we built in 2003. Zen helped us get the secure server set up, helped load the site and walked an idiot like me through all the steps needed to actually get this site going, they really busted their butts this past week! It never amazes me how loyal my customers are to help me spread the Type 4 word!
To help me get the word out I needed some assistance from exerts, so with one of my previous customers, Brian Miller of www.hifidesign.com and a current customer Ric Vansickle of www.thisisplanb.com we have created a whole new way of promoting the Type 4 engine conversion. Be looking for this ad campaign in VW magazines both here in the states as well as abroad. I even utilized a member of the www.914club.com to help produce and edit my small video to help introduce the store with me as the tour guide and narrator.
Basically everyone associated with this shop and with me has done their part to help make this dream come true for me and they have helped the Type 4 Engine tremendously. Brent and his wife rebecca who I hired to be the Type 4 Store manager have both worked overtime for weeks trying to help make this happen, all without a single complaint, employees like them are hard to find and I really appreciate their efforts!
Many of my customers have experienced delays in their engine orders because our production has been cut down almost 75% because the shop was torn apart and we were working out of boxes. I appreciate all their understanding through this huge growing pain that we have now made it through with flying colors. We are now moved in the new shop, the Type 4 Store is stocked and open and things are working smoother than ever before here.
Now I would like to share a little about the store:
Even though we were mostly ready to go live today we still had some unexpected glitches that we had to work out. I will post a little about the ones that we know are occuring now:
*****We do not have a Secure Server just yet. The licensing took longer than expected, so rather than taking chances we decided to disable credit card ordering till the SSL is 100% locked on. So if you place an order you'll have to call me with your card number to finish the transaction. Zen is working to make this happen ASAP and as soon as it is CC ordering will be re- enabled.
****** Not all our items are totally loaded into the store yet. I added over 100 items today but we have 3 times that many more to upload. Make many trips to the site because we are uploading things by the minute
****** We do not have our Policies and shipping directives posted yet. That is my priority tomorrow because I want everyone to know how we plan on handling orders
*****Because of bad weather last week (Ice) and some slow suppliers some of my inventory isn't up as high as I would have hoped. We do have one of almost every item in stock other than cylinder heads because Len has been swamped! If we have to back order an item I will call you to see how you want to handle the situation and we'll go from there. The store has only been open an hour and we already have had over 40 orders! So according to how well this goes we may or may not experience delays in shipping items.
***** Only the most important items ahve full descriptions at the present. These descriptions take tons of time and I will be adding them as well as the pictures for each product as fast as I can until they are all done. These descriptions are a real pain so just bear with me and I promise I'll explain things in true Jake style.
**** Shipping module:
This portion of the site needs to be finished. This is so the software can estimate shipping for the weight of the part you are buying accurately. Getting this up and going is my main objective for tomorrow. Until then you will be charged the actual rate that Fed Ex ground charges for shipping, and a small handling fee according to the part you purchased.
***Shipping** We are only shipping parts via ground at this time. Chances are that air shipments would never be able to leave the same day due to my remote location anyway. I may offer express shipping later when we get all the bugs worked out of our systems.
Even with all these small issues we decided to go live today anyway. All of us involved thought that the issues were small enough to be worked around for a few days and I had so many people bugging me about what we were doing that I decided that even though things were not 100% that I'd go live anyway. I told everone that we'd have something to share on Feb 1 and we do!
Now I ask a favor of any of you wishing to place a parts order with me. Please understand the amount of growth that my company has endured over the past 3 months and the amount of time and dedication this has taken. We are only human and all of us are working beyond the bounds that most normal humans could (none of us are normal here) and still be efficient. Please be understanding if your question takes a day to be answered or if it takes a few days to get your part shipped away. Also understand that if there is an error in your order that I WILL MAKE IT RIGHT! We are all humans here and we will make mistakes.
I have made extra efforts to make this store fully automated, with barcodes and full inventory tracking. We have practiced our procedures for processing orders and we have them down. Nothing can prepare us for the job at hand like experience and I promise that if you work with me in the beginning the end result will be astounding.
With all that being said, the store is up and running 100% and ready for your order, you'll just have to call us with your credit card #. I will be up all night tonight working, so if you place an order and you are a night owl like me gimme a ring at the number listed on the site and we'll chat! (after a day like today there is NO WAY I can go to sleep
)I thank each and every one of you for helping me make a lifelong dream come true and for keeping the spirit alive in the Type IV engine- The engine of tomorrow.
Welcome to the 4th Dimension.
Jake
