Dear Customers 

  It is with deep regret that we have to announce that, with immediate effect, we will have to insist on taking a 50% non-refundable deposit on any future "build to order" gearboxes. This means the core units we have on stock being rebuilt and sold, not customers bringing their own gearboxes to be worked on - don't worry! 

  This is due to the amount of orders we have completed where customers have failed to complete the transaction; we simply can no longer justify wasting our time and money building them, for customers to not pay and collect them. 

We have been in for business 17 years and have never asked for a single deposit until now, but in the last 6 months we have wasted over 20 days labour and countless thousands of pounds building gearboxes to order where the customers simply ignored our calls when the work was completed and, of course, required payment and collection. 

  We are constantly battling a colossal workload and spending time building gearboxes that end up sitting around for months just compounds the constant shortage of time. Not only that, but we are struggling for the space to store them in their finished state where the cosmetics won't become tarnished while they are awaiting a buyer. We need to find ways of utilising our time and space more effectively, to improve the service that our reliable, honest paying customers receive and to reduce our own stress levels. 
  We are so very sorry for this, as this is not the way we've ever wanted to do business, but we’re confident that genuine customers will understand and, in the long-term, benefit from the changes we are implementing.