We know that at times our customers get quite frustrated (understandably so), because parts are either out stock or have extremely long lead times. We really do share that frustration, not only because we want to get your orders out but we also have our own bikes we would like to complete and ride.
In the past we have shared what’s going on in our workshops, our team answering your enquiries and taking your orders, new products and Craven Equipment our sister company. Today I’d like to share with you a little bit of what goes on behind the scenes in those dark corners and rooms (now I have your Interest).
We have a small team who spend hours and hours researching products, searching everywhere on this planet to find and purchase stock. A large percentage of that team’s time is looking for items which are not readily available from our normal suppliers. We look for every opportunity, which can be from a customer retiring from motorcycling, families clearing loved ones estates, business large and small closing, auctions globally. In recent years Iain and Roger have attended auctions in the USA.
We work closely with our engineering partners, companies who help to produce CAD and 3D drawings so we can have items manufactured exclusively for Draganfly. We then have samples made to carry out quality control checks before we agree to production, these are companies both in the UK and worldwide. It is a time consuming procedure and can take many weeks from inception to the stock being put on our shelves.
The team also looks after all of our day-to-day stock and raw material to feed our workshop. We do have a fully automated ordering system for a good percentage of our stock, however many of our suppliers are small independent businesses and we like to deal with them on a more personal basis.
We do our very best to fulfil the parts you have either on backorder and indeed items we sadly list as out of stock. Also when you find an item we list as N/A (No longer Available) please be assured we have done a lot of work before we list as N/A.
Finally, customers often ask us “How long before it’s back in stock?“ Very often we can only repeat what our suppliers tell us and in truth it’s not always great news. We can’t and won’t make promises or commitments we can’t keep, but be assured we are on your side and will offer the best quality of parts and service we can.