Originally Posted by sheene (Post 9772304)

Trying to order stuff for work at the moment, and every company I ring says 'we will not be able to deliver before Christmas - it will be sometime in the New Year'. These are fairly large orders, some over $10,000 - I thought there was meant to be a bit of a financial problem at the moment - don't they need the business? Everything seems to grind to a halt for 2 months of the year whilst everyone eats mince pies. Very frustrating.

Originally Posted by sheene (Post 9772304)

Trying to order stuff for work at the moment, and every company I ring says 'we will not be able to deliver before Christmas - it will be sometime in the New Year'. These are fairly large orders, some over $10,000 - I thought there was meant to be a bit of a financial problem at the moment - don't they need the business? Everything seems to grind to a halt for 2 months of the year whilst everyone eats mince pies. Very frustrating.

Originally Posted by gedge (Post 9772527)

there could be a whole raft of reasons why delivery is an issue, summer holidays combined with Christmas/NY, are they shipping in from offshore, is there customs to clear, maybe it's high demand/seasonal stuff, maybe it's low demand and been understocked to make room for novelty antlers?

purveyors of mince pies however, are doing a roaring trade

Originally Posted by sheene (Post 9772580)

All in stock, all in Oz. Plywood is not seasonal, seasoned yes, seasonal no.

Originally Posted by In Exile (Post 9772588)

basically everyone's mind and motivation are on a summer holiday hiatus till mid february now.

I've noticed similar things each year at work. IT developers regularly put a Christmas moratorium on which last about 7 weeks, for no reason other than its the end of the year, its sunny, the girls are out and there's drinks to be had. They call it "year-end" to make it sound official, but I can see right through their facade.
December 'year end' has no real impact on their work at all. Real year-end comes at the end of the financial year, involding budget constraints, active project planning and workload prioritisation. The irony: they are not allowed to take any holiday then.

Originally Posted by Amazulu (Post 9772760)

Try and get anything done in engineering in the UK in July/August - forget about it, it ain't going to happen.

Originally Posted by In Exile (Post 9772588)

basically everyone's mind and motivation are on a summer holiday hiatus till mid february now.

I've noticed similar things each year at work. IT developers regularly put a Christmas moratorium on which last about 7 weeks, for no reason other than its the end of the year, its sunny, the girls are out and there's drinks to be had. They call it "year-end" to make it sound official, but I can see right through their facade.
December 'year end' has no real impact on their work at all. Real year-end comes at the end of the financial year, involding budget constraints, active project planning and workload prioritisation. The irony: they are not allowed to take any holiday then.

Originally Posted by renth (Post 9772855)

I'm already winding down and won't really do much until 3rd week in Jan.

Originally Posted by sheene (Post 9772857)

It was you on the phone today!

Originally Posted by renth (Post 9772868)

I'm living the dream!