Big changes in store for The Dummy Shoppe

There have been some things in the works for a couple of years that are going to be coming to pass in the next couple of weeks.

First, let me say that JET LOVES making puppets. However, there are aspects of the puppet business that she is NOT in love with.

All “similars” contracted before todays date will be completed as agreed. Nothing will change in these agreements.

JET wants to be able to make the puppets that she wants to make. We are not concerned about making a bunch of new styles and designs and having no where to send them. JET’s creativity has always inspired people with new ideas.

The unfortunate side of the puppet business is that there is a small segment of the vent community that wants to “micro manage” every move that a puppet maker makes. In recent months this has become quite frankly – intolerable. It does not add any value to the final product and does take all the joy out of being creative.

On average, it takes five or six emails to get all the needed information back and forth between The Dummy Shoppe and each client. It might even take one or two phone calls. These are both just part of the process.

However, we have just finished with one lady who was so in love with her own sense of knowledge that we have now had 87 emails and 28 phone calls from her.

While we love our customers and actually enjoy visiting with them, this insanity has removed the fun of puppet making from the process. I am now stepping in and making some changes to the way we do things because these types of things are going to STOP!!!!

From now on, we will no longer be accepting custom orders on “similars” as we have in the past. We will attempt to continue doing “similars”, but we will be changing the way we do them. Effective November 1, 2015 when we take a commission for a similar, the customer will need to make a deposit of 50% just like always.

Upon receipt of the deposit, we will send you an email with your completion date just like always. As we get close to your completion date, we will contact you to let you know that your puppet has been completed. Upon receipt of your final payment, we will immediately ship your puppet out to you.

The word “similar” has a meaning and a few people have not seemed to be able to grasp the definition. It does NOT mean “duplicate” or “identical”. As we have always tried to explain it means that your “similar” will not look more than 90% like the original.

That way both you and the original customer can both have unique one-of-a-kind puppets. We must be the ones who decide what the ultimate definition of “similar” is. Therefore there will no longer be photo approval on similars.

What we will be concentrating on doing is spending more time putting out our “Available Now” line of puppets. We love being able to have someone contact us and say that they really like a certain puppet and being able to ship it out within a day or two.

The fact that a small number of people have driven the timing of these changes we will take as a positive thing for the long term. This will in fact turn on the creative engine that is JET and let her do what she does best. Make new and interesting puppets.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be working closely with Steve Hurst, our webmaster, to make the changes to the website so that these changes can be fully instituted.

On true “custom” non-“similar” puppets, we will continue to work with the client just as we always have and will continue to do photo approval. We do want to get you the best puppet for your act but we cannot subject ourselves to a small minority of people who would destroy JET’s peace of mind with their personal need for professional help!!!

Thats all for now folks. Keep on Venting.

Steve and JET