Important update
As most of you know I have been working to coordinate communications between Jim Reed (OCD) and the people that have placed orders with him for custom OEM-style soft tops and various styles of bikini tops and other related canvas product. I started in this volunteer roll on or about April 20 this year. I have never had any business relationship with Jim. I have no financial interest in any of Jim’s business. I don’t make any money from the sale of anything of Jim’s. FWIW I do not have a top on order from Jim. (He does have in his possession a trail cover of mine that he intended to use as a template for making his own version.)
I got involved to try to avoid a situation that seemed imminent where a unique cruiser vendor was in jeopardy of collapsing… I eventually wanted to order a top for myself and Jim was making the best product at the best price out there. If Jim went out of business I wouldn’t be able to buy a top. Plus Jim seemed truly overwhelmed by the organizational part of running his business. He seemed like he wanted to make people happy with his products but he was getting crushed under the weight of his dysfunctional business process. He makes a great top but he couldn’t keep his orders organized for beans. Keeping up some semblance of order would be fairly easy for me so I offered to help – no strings attached. My intention was to get things organized and then let the process continue with little or no ongoing involvement on my part.
I worked with Jim to come up with a list of his pending orders – something that he did not have. I set up a Google Docs spreadsheet that Jim and I could both access. He filled in the orders: names, order dates, order details and money received. I added notes and comments as I communicated with the people on the list. I posted that list out to the ih8mud thread that Jim had started to advertise his top making endeavor. We were trading 2-3 emails every day, sometimes more.
Jim was in a better state of mind. He could concentrate on making tops and no longer worry about answering emails from 20 different people everyday. I fielded most of the emails, got answers from Jim in one or 2 emails, and responded accordingly. All was going well. Jim was knocking off tops, people, while not HAPPY, were somewhat relieved to see progress. It was good to at least know what was going on. Most people were happy to see that their name was on the list and not forgotten altogether.
In cleaning up his work space Jim found a box of bikinis and other top stuff that he had made long ago but had not gotten sold. He asked me to post them for sale (at reduced prices). These were the 2 “Surplus” classifieds threads on mud. Jim told me how many pieces he had and I coordinated having people pay Jim to place and order – trying to not let people pay once particular colors/styles were gone. Jim spent 1 weekend finishing up some partially completed stuff from that batch too. This caused the available counts to get confusing so at some point I told everyone everything was sold out in order to let Jim ship what had been paid for. We would then access “surplus” inventory. Jim reported that the “surplus” stuff was all shipped. Some people started to receive things. Then, after a few days, I started to get messages saying that “surplus” stuff that was supposed to have been shipped had not arrived. Emails from Jim were evasive, saying to me and others that these things had shipped, or that they would ship right away, but still no new deliveries.
Beginning on or about June 6th Jim started to not respond to my regular emails. Emails from him grew more and more infrequent and contained less detailed info than before. I tried to get him to let me know what was going on and why he seemed to be falling behind again (I know he had those 2 custom tops to get done and they were causing him unlimited problems). I got a couple of emails saying he had not been feeling well (he is out of his regular job on disability – something to do with his spine and neck I think). He said that things were progressing slower than he would like but that I should not worry.
As of today I have not been in direct contact with Jim since June 17th. On June 18th he cc’d me on an email to one of the top buyers. I don’t know if any of you have heard from him since the 18th.
I have made repeated phone calls to a number I have for him. I have sent numerous emails and texts with no response.
I am very upset by these recent developments. I am worried for Jim’s well-being and I am devastated by the thought that this may be the end for this whole thing. I really believed that this would all eventually work out for you all and for Jim. I wish I knew what I could do to make this better.
I will keep you all informed as this continues but at this moment I don’t know what else to tell you.
