I have read the posts to this list and have the following observations about
TRF from my perspective as a CPA / TR6 owner.
My first experience with TRF came when a friend supplied me with numerous
catalogs when I bought my TR6 in December 1998. I looked at them all with
great interest but was shocked by the letter in the front of the TRF
catalog. I see businesses that are in trouble all the time in my line of
work, but never have I seen one appeal to its customer base like a minister
at the pulpit. The approach Mr. Runyan uses is tacky at best. The last
thing you want to do in business is expose a weakness. Mr. Runyan almost
boasts about how bad a condition his company is in. If he quit telling us
about his daughter's car, the dead chipmunk, and his cash flow problems, and
instead instituted a plan to get the business back on track, we would all be
better off.
While I have done only a little business with TRF and have not had any
problems dealing with them, I am dismayed by all the stories about
back-orders, and shocked by the stories about unissued credits. The failure
to issue credits borders on fraud. If these truly are the practices of TRF,
no one should do business with them - they deserve to fold.
It seems to me that Mr. Runyan is like a teenager in love. He just cannot
see the reality of the situation. He needs to take a sober view of the
situation and get things straightened out. He is his own boss, that is
true, but he puts his business in the line of fire when he appeals to us for
support in the front of his catalogs and then follows up with unethical
business practices.
Mr. Runyan's most recent publication, with the exception of the tear-jerking
introduction is an excellent first step. At the same time, however, what in
the world was he thinking when he accumulated some of that inventory? He
needs to regroup and look at the basics like inventory levels, inventory
turns, reorder points and reorder quantities.
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