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Many would caution against a post like this, and many would say that it would be damaging to a company, big or small. Times are changing and here at AOA, we are a ‘human’ and ‘real’ company. We’re not a flight sim company. We’re just regular people and flight sim lovers like you.
Recently we’ve been having some shipping issues. It’s been a rough go. Basically there are about 30 people waiting for DVDs right now and some have been waiting for a while. Totally unacceptable.
I’d like to just lay all this out in story form, I suppose, so you can all follow along. I hope I make it clear enough that you can follow along.
In August we switched over to an outsourced but global shipping network. This allowed us to place product in the customers hands much cheaper which is obviously a great strategy for any growing business. It’s been great up until about a month ago.
It turns out that our 747 product was quite popular over the last year or so, and we’ve almost run out of product. At our international facility in the United Kingdom, we totally ran out of 747 product 2 weeks ago, but we should have been sending new product about a month ago.
So, being the scatter brained guy I am, I didn’t get this stock out until about 2 weeks ago when the stock finally hit ‘zero’ and I got an alert.
Yesterday my wife picked up a package on her way home from work and guess what it was… Yes, the DVDs that were supposed to already be in Europe and shipping were back here in my office, staring me in the face with an evil eye. It turns out that there is heightened security and the United States Postal Service wont send anything over 13 ounces from anywhere other than their facilities. Because I dropped mine off at the UPS Store, I was hosed.
Another setback?!
After a bit of frustration and not really knowing the next move, I decided to take drastic and instant measures to ensure this product gets out as soon as possible.
My wife and I packed up the box in our little blue Saturn Ion and we headed 40 minutes north to Salt Lake International. Thankfully the weather was fine, and there wasn’t any hazard in our way. By doing this, we could get the package straight into the international mailing system and hopefully save a few days. These are my hopes.
Along the way I thought, ‘Why not document this and share it with fans?’. Seems like a perfectly good idea.
I can’t complain at this point, because the problem is being solved and hey, jet fumes are in the breeze as we walk up to the post office. The sound of jets all around makes it even better.
After a short line and an overworked yet friendly postal worker, the package was all fixed up and properly on it’s way with all documents in tow. This time it’s really gonna get there (cross your fingers).
Now, just telling you the story about how I screwed up isn’t enough.
How are we going to fix it?
We are at a bit of an enpass as a company and we are about to change direction quite a bit with how we deliver our product.
The world of technology is changing very quickly, and now more than ever, internet accessible content is easy to get.
Soon we will be switching all of our ‘delivery’ to an online streaming video system. We’ve been testing the system, and it’s incredible. It’s way faster than YouTube or Vimeo. The truth is you would only know there was lag in these systems if you have an iffy connection.
Well, I had HD video streaming on a 1.5 mb line when testing this stuff. It’s a very powerful worldwide network we’ve been working with to make this happen.
So, how does this fix the problem?
First and foremost; time. You won’t have to wait for your products from us anymore. It’ll take about 5 minutes to go through the whole checkout process before you’re ‘watching’ your video. Compare that to the sometimes 3 weeks, and yes, I’ve even seen 2 month delivery time of hard products. This type of thing can get your training TODAY and NOW.
Of course we all think about cost. Well, the cost of our products will now be less shipping. No shipping charges. We do have to pay some bandwidth fees, but that is taken care of with product price.
A lot of exciting things have been going on with Angle of Attack recently. Aviator90 has been a lot of fun to share and work on. All the new aircraft in development for FS really have our attention. And, we’re switching to an all online, easily accessible system for everyone. I finally feel like we’re on track.
Thank you to those who are still waiting for your packages. Your patience is much appreciated as we work through this transition.
And for anyone, feel free to comment and tell us what you think. Anything you would have done differently? What do you think about the online training? Please use that voice!
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