Monday, January 04, 2010 - 03:38 AM UTC
Joe Bakanovic of TMD has decided to close down his company in it's present stae and will relaunch a different company making high end products some time in the future.
Here is the message Joe posted on the TMD site:

I hope Santa was good to you this Christmas, and that you had a safe New Year’s celebration. With luck, you got most of the things you wanted, but more than this, I hope you were able to make some cherished memories with your family and friends. After all, those are the little treasures that really stay with us. Without the ones we love, what good is all that “stuff,” anyway? And, if you happen to be serving abroad, thank you for your service and Semper Fi!

Now, since the New Year is here and our celebrations are behind us, I have something I’ve been waiting to share with you. For many of you, this may come as a surprise, but my closest friends and advisers have known it was coming for a couple years. I consider myself a blessed man. For some 8 years now, I have actually made my living running a model company when most of my peers have had to settle for running their companies as a sideline to their “real” job. I’ve had some good times, and some bad ones. I’ve had some pretty sweet successes, and I’ve made some colossal blunders. I’ve made new friends along the way, and I’ve left some hard feelings behind me. I’ve learned a lot about myself: about what I can do when I really try, and - more importantly - what I can’t do. But there’s been a price I’ve had to pay for all of this, and it’s a price I’m no longer willing to keep paying. So, it is with a heavy heart and more than a bit of trepidation that I am announcing:

TMD IS CLOSING – FOREVER!

I know TMD has been through something like this before, so I wouldn’t blame you if the first thing you ask is what makes this time different. Well, this time it is for good. When I see our accountant this January, I will direct him to dissolve the corporation. TMD will ship its last order no later than March 31. After that date, I will no longer work under the TMD label. You should also know that, unlike last time, this change is not driven by business pressures. TMD is actually pretty healthy right now. 2009 was good to us. I am closing TMD for strictly personal reasons.

I also want you to know this is not a ploy to generate sales. I’m not going to pretend I am leaving the industry. Making kits for you guys is in my blood now and I love it. I just need to do things differently, to make a new start, and shutting down TMD is the best way for me to do this. I honestly don’t know what I will do next, but I’m thinking hard about starting a new, direct market company under a very familiar but very different label. I want to start a company offering a wider variety of VERY high-end products: the kind of products I’ve always wanted to make but couldn’t because they simply don’t lend themselves to mass production (if you think you’ve seen nice casting from us up until now, trust me, you haven’t seen anything yet – we just couldn’t mass produce our best work, so we never released it). If I go in the direction I am currently considering, it will mean a total re-work of the entire TMD line – and additions you’d never have dreamt of seeing TMD produce. So, if you want to wait, you should still be able to find your favorite TMD products when I get things going again. I just want to make it clear: the current product line will not be exactly the same as it is now. It could also take a while to get it all back on the market.

And there’s one more piece of business: Mike Sills’ Matilda conversions. Mike has already told me he will be staying on for whatever I do next (as will Karl). But I made a promise to Mike, and I intend to honor it. We will complete his series of Matilda conversions and updates THIS MONTH! These will be the last new products TMD will ever make. They will not be in production very long. You can decide for yourself whether or not you want to order them under the TMD label, or wait until they come out under whatever label I start next.

Finally, I want to stress that this is being driven by changes in my personal life. Honestly, it’s a little more than just being burned out, but I’d rather not go into it. All I’ll say is this has nothing to do with my health or finances. I just hope you’ll understand. If not, then I pray you’ll at least accept this as the truth and stick with me in the years to come.

And so, that’s it: the end of a road that started with of a challenge from Craig Petermann almost 9 years ago. Craig, I don’t know if you ever listen to Toby Keith, but I suddenly find myself wondering: “How do you like me now?”

-- Joe Bakanovic
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Comments

Sorry Michel I didn't mean to imply the lack of response etc was OK I just mean to say 6 weeks in my opinion is long but not too long. Given the rest of your situation I too would be asking the same questions Its really hard running a cottage AM business, I should know, but you do have to respond to emails Mind you, I emailed Azimut about some missing instructions two years ago. It seems some compaanies don't believe in replying to customer's emails
MAR 28, 2012 - 08:02 PM
Yes OK I agree ; some company are very acurate about making their customers happy and by chance they are more numerous !!! Ho yes yes !! Azimut is one of that bad part of the system me too am waiting since more than 6 months parts payed and missing on a shipment and every time am phoning to their boss ( I know him !!) he said ; hooo apologise I forget that detail so send me again what was about !!!! so I did ( now it is the 6th time ) and every month am still waiting the track missing but fortunatly they are in Paris and one day or another I will visit them or perhaps in a some swap show and this gentlemen will understand that day that doing so bad actions with a customer like me is not so smart and the words I will use (Very polite but very strong !!!) will probably cover him and his shop with a big big shame (people will be spectators of that and as am rather wellknown french modeller they probably will applause!!!) Unfortunatly Tigermodels are far from there and I can't do anything but be sad of this situation and time consuming when I will start to use legal terms and my Lawyers friends to pursuit (not for the money but for the fact )!!! What I think also is that it will be interesting to advertise ( don't know were ?) a sort of big Black list on where all these supliers specialist of this sort of critical acts will be written and mailing will be done to thousand of Forums so probably some will understand that doing as they do it's the wrong way ????????????????
MAR 28, 2012 - 08:55 PM
The problem with a 'black list' somewhere is that it is possible to abuse it I think Michel If you set such a think up you could get someone adding a manufacturer to it over one bad transaction or bad experience. As hard as I tried to run a good business when I was solely in charge of my company, I did mess up a handful of orders, very late delivery and so on, when an error crept into my order management process. I hold my hands up to it, it was my fault and deeply regret it, and reparations were made to ensure the customers were happy But if there was such a list my company might have ended up on it (you always find the odd customer with unreasonable expectations, such as shipping at well below the actual cost, or despatch of orders the same day and so on) simply because someone felt wronged. I might feel my company did not deserve it You might even get an unscrupulous manufacturers abusing it to harm their competitors Getting back to the subject in hand: how did you pay? If you feel this service is not acceptable (as is your right given the lack of communication) you can always raise an issue with paypal, provided it is less than 45 days since you paid. Never let that 45 days expire before taking action as you cannot get it back afterwards Alternatively, if you paid by credit card you can recover your money through a complaint to your card company Best of luck and thanks for letting others know there may be a problem here
MAR 28, 2012 - 09:05 PM
Yes thinking again to to the list I agree with you it's something hard to set up correctly For sure I will not let 45 days expire and will start official complain before thanks
MAR 28, 2012 - 10:00 PM
I just checked my emails: Placed the order January 20th Got shipping notification February 21st From the TMD Website:
MAR 29, 2012 - 02:15 AM
Ouppps !!! Alleluia !!! Don't know if doing this post awake up have done anything but ...... fortunatly I receive this afternoon a mail with shipping information so ... maybe wait some days to check if it's really happening and then will post the result !!!! If by chance everything is ok I will never understand why after so many mails asking gently the status they do not answer leaving a customer with doubts and questions ??? Wait and see
MAR 29, 2012 - 07:04 AM
mlchel i feel your pain i placed a order with him about 4 weeks ago i know that it will take 3-4 week but when i tryed to contacted him i have goten no responces i have called him twice and sent him a email, to would be nice to to know if he got the order and is working on it right dave
MAR 30, 2012 - 02:38 AM
Yes i do not really understand why they do not do aquick mail to reply to customers ? It's easy very mornig to check mails and reply to the one's having an outstanding order ??? ok for me now is just amatter of some days i hope before receiving this parcel Hope you ill soon have too an info about your shipping status !!
MAR 31, 2012 - 07:17 AM
Ok all my previous posts can be cancelled I receive to day the parcel with the kit ordered so they are still alive and probably too busy to reply to any customer request concernig orders status !!! Kit is very good and accurate so it was not awaste of time to wait so long delivery and ..... informations !!!!!
APR 05, 2012 - 03:30 AM
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