Just made an order on the new/old Small Bear website, now operated by synthCube. Same URL as before. The new site had my old account info, including my (way too long) order history. No PayPal option visible, but credit/debit cards work fine.
The thing that makes me nervous is that it's Synthcube running it.
I've made two orders from them, and they messed up on both orders. (First was a Klee kit... they shipped me a parts kit (no hardware, panel, or PCB, just the components) and marked it as full (so Customs stung me for it), and on the second order, they included less than half the switch caps needed for the two modules.
I wish Thonk had picked it up (I know, wrong country, and there's an ocean in the way...) I've never had a single issue with Thonk at all.
I've been looking forward this.
I have to admit, I'm a bit disappointed at how many items won't be restocking. From a business perspective, I totally understand the need to get rid of low runners. But some of those items were the draw of Small Bear in the first place. I'll still order from there, but not as much as I used to.
Fear not--- items that were listed as 'NOT BEING RESTOCKED' will in fact be restocked, if supplies are available. Those are items that Steve was not going to restock, when his plan was to sell down the inventory and retire. Now that Small Bear lives on (thanks Steve!!)-- we will do our best to keep the catalog in its entirety.
We hope you'll all give us the opportunity to gain / re-gain your trust-- this is a sizable undertaking and we are adding a number of people etc to scale- the goal being as good or even better service than before. Please be patient with us, and please provide feedback-- we will listen to every comment, positive neutral or negative.
Monika and Chris (synthCube)
Quote from: synthcube on April 10, 2022, 08:20:50 PM
Fear not--- items that were listed as 'NOT BEING RESTOCKED' will in fact be restocked, if supplies are available. Those are items that Steve was not going to restock, when his plan was to sell down the inventory and retire. Now that Small Bear lives on (thanks Steve!!)-- we will do our best to keep the catalog in its entirety.
We hope you'll all give us the opportunity to gain / re-gain your trust-- this is a sizable undertaking and we are adding a number of people etc to scale- the goal being as good or even better service than before. Please be patient with us, and please provide feedback-- we will listen to every comment, positive neutral or negative.
Monika and Chris (synthCube)
No worries. I'm sure you guys will do an excellent job. I'm excited to be able to use smallbear again and also to continue to include you in the mbp project docs for the primary parts source.
Cool that SynthCube is hanging around a bit as Steve did from time to time. Tapping into the source!! Really great to have SB back. I have to think it's tough to run a business and hang in the trenches with build groups at the same time.
Great job by both old and new ownership!
Thanks Synthcube for keeping Smallbear going!
Quote from: Caedarn on April 11, 2022, 02:12:26 AM
Thanks Synthcube for keeping Smallbear going!
Yes, this
Quote from: synthcube on April 10, 2022, 08:20:50 PM
Fear not--- items that were listed as 'NOT BEING RESTOCKED' will in fact be restocked, if supplies are available. Those are items that Steve was not going to restock, when his plan was to sell down the inventory and retire. Now that Small Bear lives on (thanks Steve!!)-- we will do our best to keep the catalog in its entirety.
We hope you'll all give us the opportunity to gain / re-gain your trust-- this is a sizable undertaking and we are adding a number of people etc to scale- the goal being as good or even better service than before. Please be patient with us, and please provide feedback-- we will listen to every comment, positive neutral or negative.
Monika and Chris (synthCube)
Oh, I absolutely will give you folks an opportunity. That's wonderful news.
One of the things that always set Small Bear apart was the depth of the product line. There are things that Small Bear stocked that are simply not available elsewhere.
The only small suggestion I would have is that it might help to change the notification on the website from "Not Restocking" to something like "Out of Stock, Check Back Soon." That would avoid people checking for a specific product, assuming it's gone forever and then not revisiting.
Best of luck on your new venture, Monika and Chris! I'm really glad somebody took over for Steve. It would've been a shame for Small Bear to go away.
Quote from: synthcube on April 10, 2022, 08:20:50 PM
Fear not--- items that were listed as 'NOT BEING RESTOCKED' will in fact be restocked, if supplies are available. Those are items that Steve was not going to restock, when his plan was to sell down the inventory and retire. Now that Small Bear lives on (thanks Steve!!)-- we will do our best to keep the catalog in its entirety.
We hope you'll all give us the opportunity to gain / re-gain your trust-- this is a sizable undertaking and we are adding a number of people etc to scale- the goal being as good or even better service than before. Please be patient with us, and please provide feedback-- we will listen to every comment, positive neutral or negative.
Monika and Chris (synthCube)
Any chance that the light plates will be one of the restocked items? Been trying to find a few 1590DD light plates for a while now.