Art & Inspiration What's up with The Rodders Journal?

Thanks Pat, Ryan, Skip and others for keeping some necessary perspective. Unfortunately the HAMB has its share of rode-hard street-tough naysayers; been a real drag slogging through all their smarter-than-you tripe.

Hope it is true that more of us get it than not, the hard fought commitment to excellence and perseverance. A little grace and humility goes a long way.

 

Transparency is a tricky thing. I only assume the best of TRJ because I've never lost any money with them. If a person or an organization is doing everything it can to make good, then they should be willing to be transparent. Yes, it's hard to be humble; maybe admit some bad decisions, or what have you, but we know companies are run by humans and humans make mistakes. And if there were no mistakes, only bad luck, then so much the better. But being transparent helps everyone involved understand and feel empathy. Sure it may bring out some unwelcome armchair quarterbacks ("You should have done this" or "I would have done that"), but being incommunicado almost never leads to a better outcome.

 

Ryan you are right,Communication is key.
Eric and the Rodders Journal could have both been better with communicating about the issue.
The thing is,I contacted one of the guys complaining about Eric the loudest.
He was is Germany and posted on here that he just wanted to know what was going on.
I told him what was happening in regards to Eric at that time.
His reply was that he didn,t give a shit about Eric,s problems.
A little Hypocritical wouldn,t you say?
Anyway enough about that.
I hope Steve and Rodders Journal weather this storm Ok as I always looked forward to getting my new issue and sitting down and losing myself in the pages for a while

 

I hope TRJ can weather the storm, get back on their feet and continue to deliver what was promised, but we have seen a lot of automotive publications fold in the last few years.

Purchasing a subscription to any magazine now is like buying stock, you hope to get a return on your investment and pay dividends but that's not always the case.

I hate loosing money as much as anyone else, I don't understand why there has been no communication until a recent post but at least with that small post there is a glimmer of hope. HRP

 

I have zero skin in this game, and I make no comment as to other things going on. But seeing those catalogs show up 3 months after Christmas has got to be a real punch in the dick. Those aren't exactly cheap to produce, print, and distribute; and they sure didn't produce any return on investment if they're just showing up now.

 

Glad to hear that communication is happening, and looking forward to (hopefully) getting my subscription and alliance membership (was a Christmas gift from Mrs. Yankee and the not-so-little Yanks)

 

The unfortunate part of this is it has gone on for so long. In an era of instant communication people expect rapid information. It took almost 300 posts here and stories of repeated attempts of customers attempting direct communication before any response was posted.

I do not know the fate of TRJ. I do know that the litany of comments on this thread will certainly live on and probably effect future potential subscribers. A good reputation is hard to make and easy to break.

 

Well as usual you are right. Being one of those lifetime subscribers, I’m willing to cut them slack, but that’s me.

Long live TRJ!

 

Transparency is scary shit when you are not being transparent and have something to hide. The level of no customer service this shows is crazy. A regular business would have been done by now. We as hot rodders are a very committed loyal bunch, but at some point, it has to be called out. It takes nothing to post a quick comment on what is going on while you try to steer the ship in the right direction. I have said it before social media however you use it can be a good thing or a bad thing. In this case, it's a good thing for all who are upset and bad for the magazine that is not paying attention to what its customer base is saying. No customer base no magazine to produce.

 

This is a simple post about the joy I would get from TRJ arriving, and I doubt I was alone, so let's hope they pull through and get back to normal (hell even a semi annual would feel better right now).
I went to my post office the other day and picked up my mail. In my mail was a card stating I had a parcel, so up to the desk I go. The lady goes to the shelf at the back where I see her pick up a white colored envelope just the right size and shape to be TRJ. She's walking towards me and I can feel the excitement start to build. (I always felt this when a new issue would show up). She gets to the counter and alas, it's just an envelope from the red cross thanking for our donation with a small gift....which leads me to a new complaint. We donate yearly a bit to a few organizations and then they constantly send out little gifts (pens, placemats etc,etc). I wish they'd use my money as intended rather than sending me stuff.

 

I respectfully disagree. In this day in age any discussion form, blog, Facebook, etc is where the free exchange of ideas is "social" As the U.S courts were first set up as a "market place of ideas" and as such this exchange of all these posts make it social and exchange of ideas. Just because you are not data mining for a customer profile to market too does take away the fact that this is still a social place no different the bench racing in the garage or open house. I applaud your loyalty as that is rare nowadays and should be more of a common idea than it is.

Having a perspective is great as long as its independent and objective. Even you can see that the magazine has done a poor job in keeping its customer base up to date on what they are doing. the magazine had no issues in updating when they made the big move out of CA and talked about how much it was going to save the magazine. Now with them moved and supposedly settled we hear crickets. I am sure most of us jumped on the lifetime subscription that was offered in hopes of keeping them alive. At this point, anyone who did that offer is breaking even on what was spent.

I really hope they survive and keep going as it has become a bible of sorts for the hot rod world. I hope that other entities like the HAMB continue to partner with them. It's going to be hard to recover from this if they don't start communicating a lot even if the news is bad at least we as the customer know exactly what is going on and can continue to support them. It's hard to support someone that does not communicate at all or very rarely.

 

Exactly...and I don't understand why they only seem to be posting here. What good does that do everyone else?

And for pete's sake, shut down the website! Accepting new orders is only going to dig the hole deeper and piss off more people. Have a simple message saying, "We screwed up and are fixing it. Please be patient. We're sorry." Same thing on Facebook. But right now it looks as if nothing's amiss.

 

I am a relatively new customer of TRJ having bought the subscription about 10 months ago and gotten 1 of the promised 4 magazines so far, so I am not emotionally attached to these guys like some of you. To willfully take peoples money and not give the agreed upon merchandise is fraud at the very least, theft otherwise. I realize that the past year has been a tough situation for a lot of folks. But TRJ is a business that should be held to what you would expect from any other business- regardless the product or times. If the owners chose not to address their issues in delivering the product to their customers, they don't deserve support or sympathy- they deserve prosecution.

 

GirchyGirchy is right on. They are crooks stealing money from people that have been going on their web site and paying for subscriptions. Several people posted here that they wish they had seen this tread before sending they money. I paid and have never received anything. I think you all know they are in too deep of a hole to dig their way out. What about the advertisers that paid for advertising and got nothing? These guys are crooks though and though.

 

"good" communication is the key - about a month ago ordered a fairly basic suspension part from a big name company, that has at least a full page ad in most automotive magazines, via their eBay store - they are in California, so am I - after a couple of weeks or so, they send a email apologizing for delay - but, they are over loaded with orders and not enough employees to handle the volume - ??

 

There is zero evidence of that. Crooks set out with the intention to steal your stuff. TRJ had/has every intention of eventually fulfilling your order. Even if they go bankrupt, that still doesn't make them crooks. The only way they are crooks is if they stay afloat but never eventually fill orders/subscriptions.

 

When you are a crook and in business. You shut the doors when things get tight. When you do it for the love and money(mainly for the love). You do every thing in your power to keep things rolling. And last longer than you think. But when things get really bad, you go down with the ship like a good ship captain does. Sometimes in business, there are questions you just don`t have the answers too. Time will reveal the answers but you do have to be patient. And in the world today, patience is short.

 

How long do customers need to be patient before a company is taking advantage of them? There are people on facebook asking where their orders from 2019 are? It's been 8 months since I have seen anything from them and have never received an email explaining why. They go months between any sort of communication at all and everytime they do say anything it's the same response "soon" and then nothing happens. Do I think they set out to rip people off? Absolutely not but given the state of their business right now continuing to take peoples money is certainly verging on if not outright doing so at this point. People are acting like this has been a couple of weeks. It's been more that a year in some cases.

Sent from my SM-G950W using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I sure hope this Bull Shit gets locked soon.

 

I wish this would be front and center in all Mods decisions before they lock or delete a thread.

 

If people are out of pocket and have not received either the agreed product, or reasonable communication and information from the company involved, they have a legitimate reason to voice their opinion here. Calling TRJ "crooks" and the like is overstepping the line at this stage. The whole situation needs to be uncovered and known before the company can be targeted for deliberate bad practice.

The whole situation needs to be viewed as a "business transaction" only, and sentiment should play no part. Picking a side based on sentiment has little to do with the situation at hand. Yes, the last 12 to 18 months has been a shitstorm for many people and businesses, so 'understanding' and 'tolerance' are admirable, but it should not release anyone from their responsibilities. There is no circumstance or excuse for bad behaviour in business, or indeed anywhere............

I, for one, am still hoping TRJ stand up an take responsibility as they should. I also hope they can survive this and supply their high quality product in a proper fashion into the future.

 

Who is Eric and what did he do or didn't do that set everyone?

And again, comparing a subscription/ contract with buying stock that has no guarantees is incorrect.

 

Good to see TRJ chime in. As many have already stated communication could/should have been better. I come from the project management world, and most issues can all be traced back to miscommunication, lack of communication, deceptive communication, or no communication. In fact most problems in life can be traced back to the same issues of communication. Also, in the PM world, one of key plans, amongst many, I tell our clients to prepare is the “communications plan”. Let’s all hope TRJ keeps up with comms.

 

We just started a new thread with more details about what's been going on at TRJ here:

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ers-journal-a-note-from-steve-coonan.1225449/

We wanted to provide that information in a new thread so that it was available for all to read, rather than buried on the 13th page of this thread.

@dserge we completely understand your frustration, but we can assure you that we will be fulfilling your order, and we are very sorry for the delay and for our lack of communication. Hopefully the details provided in our other post will explain a little further (though we know it won't excuse the lack of communication). As noted, we plan to begin shipping again in a couple of weeks, and we will be in touch with you directly to resolve your order at that time.
Thanks.

 

I will reply here, and not on the other thread, as I think the other thread should remain uncluttered so as to be a better platform for information dissemination from TRJ.

Step 1.......check. Finally, proper communication with those that are actually your allies, and are trying to be supportive.

Step 2.......hopefully. Remain honest and open, and do your best to do right by your subscribers. If there was no pre-paid aspect to this, you would not have any obligations to try and meet, but with pre-paid subscriptions there will always be an expectation placed upon you, as there should be.

Wishing you the best of luck to get it all back on track. As I have said before, TRJ would be a great loss to us all.