Industry shortages, what up with that?

[Xr4ti]

Received and order from SCC that was short 1 of 3 requested controller holders and between them and PM none of the controller holder mounts are available. Have the parts stopped being manufactured? How's the industry as a whole because not being able to spend money for what one needs because it doesn't exist is frustrating, to say the least. Who can help me out here?
btw-SCC order arrived in short order, as per usual. Very impressed at coast to coast delivery in such short time & kudos USPS too!

[nhdungeonracer]

Just curious, have you contacted SCC about the missing holder mount? Chances are they just goofed and only put 2 in the package. Been there, done that (unfortunately) …

I'm guessing the parts will still be manufactured. Sometimes there's a delay at the manufacturing plant as other orders are being filled 1st.

[Z-carfan]

Have you ever heard of OUT of STOCK?

[Xr4ti]

[SuperSlab]

I think you are more likely to get a meaningful answer if you were to speak with SCC rather than ask on a forum. If you were to ask them I would be very surprised if they would not give you an indication of when the parts would be available and maybe share some info as to why they do not have any at the moment.

[SlotCarCorner]

A little background...

When the original poster contacted us and left a voicemail, the message indicated he was trying to order additional "controller holders" (NOT the mounting brackets). We scratched our heads and checked our inventory - there were 84 "controller holders" in stock. We returned the call and left a voicemail and also followed up with an email including a link to the controller holders. We also indicated the mounting brackets were out-of-stock and hoped to have them back in stock in about one month. As there was no further communication from the customer, we assumed (incorrectly) the matter was resolved.

Like many of the items Slot Car Corner offers, and other slot car manufacturers as well, they tend to be very specialized. Controller holders and controller holder mounting brackets are just two examples. These are one-off items that are difficult to source in limited quantities - many potential suppliers of these specialized parts are simply not interested in producing them because the quantities involved are too small or the cost would be prohibitive to produce them in the limited quantities we require. When we finally do find someone willing to work with us to make these specialty items, we're often working with a busy machine shop that works the production of our parts into their schedule as time permits. In other words, we're "small potatoes" compared to their larger customers who keep the machine shop open. BOTH the machine shop / supplier and SCC understand this going in. In most cases, we have a pretty good idea what the typical lead times are and reorder accordingly. In the case of controller mounting brackets, we might sell 15 - 20 in an entire year. While we could order 1,000 and never have to worry about running out, we can't afford the cost of carrying 50 years of inventory! When we get down to 10 mounting brackets onhand, we reorder 50 of this particular item. We have been offering the controller holder mounting brackets for about 10 years and this reordering strategy has worked pretty well. Unfortunately for the most recent reorder, this particular item has been on backorder from our supplier for several months - while our supplier can't provide a firm date when more will be manufactured, we hope to receive more within the next month or so.

Had we known our customer was looking for "controller holder mounting brackets" and not "controller holders", we would have gladly communicated the above information. We encourage all of our customers to contact us directly if they have any questions or problems - we take pride in our customer service and are very responsive to phone calls and emails. Should you have any additional questions, please reach out to us directly.

:text-thankyouyellow:

[mattb]

SCC is top notch as their post shows. This appears to have just been a "failure to communicate". They have made it clear how small the slot car hobby is and why a manufacturer of specialized parts is more interested making 10,000 widgets than 25 controller holders. Show me the money!

[SuperSlab]

[Xr4ti]

Thanks, SCC for your insight into when the controller mounts will be available. I'll need 5 of them when they are back in stock and would appreciate a heads up at the time of arrival. Sorry I missed your email on the invoice but your response has been totally pro.
Thanks again!

[DaveKennedy]

What a thread.. "industry shortage" .... :lol:

[Slot GT]

Oh great. I went and bought everything I could think of thinking because of this post that everything was going to be hard to find because of the industry shortages. Now I find out it's just fake news.

lol

[Brumos RSR]

SCC No worries here. Excellent communication, customer service, advice and better than point and click as I enjoy our chats.

[DaveKennedy]

[Z-carfan]

[4424ever]

DITTO but I have to say I miss Christian :(