Status of Everything Attachments

[NHBX]

Nate McAbee

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Post 908...They have gone belly up, just came across it. Will get links when I get home.
If EA declared bankruptcy it's probably hard for creditors to get anything back.

 

[etpm]

Speaking of Hominy, don't you Poor lye over it and soak it, or Pour it over it?

When I was a kid my mom used to serve us how many grits. We ever bothered to count 'em.

My sincere sympathies for your recent loss. I can't imagine the pain of that kind of loss
I don't actually have a dog in this race, but I was similarly scammed 35 years ago. When my dad passed we took the money we got from him and bought a few acres. We then took the rest of the cash and put down on a 1500 sg ft manufactured home. Two weeks later we went in to discus exterior paint colors and the gates were locked. We had put $10k down. he scammed several others also. We managed to get about $0.40 on the dollar from his bond, but we had to downsize because of it. That kind of scam absolutely frosts me. It is virtually the same thing Ted and company has done to you.

My wife and I almost got scammed in a very similar fashion. About 35 years ago we were all ready to put $20,000 down on a modular home until I had a conversation with a fellow working for Washington State. I don't remember what I was checking on but the name of the company came up and the guy that worked for the state said we should be careful, he had heard some bad things through the grapevine. So I was careful and didn't write the check. After a few days we drove over to the company office and they were closed. The salesman must have known they were gonna close because he was one of the owners. Lotsa folks got ripped off by the company but we lucked out. It's a good thing a state employee was looking out for consumers.
Eric

 

[Williy]

With the buildings side by side why did they stop
production??? What a screw up! No excuse for
stopping production IMHO!!!!! They were working
in the old building so there should be no excuse to
stop production! With the new building not passing inspection goes to show owner dropped the ball not keeping up with the construction or person elected to over see the project dropped the ball. IMHO it seems
to me building that expensive of a house killed the
new building project. They should have waited for the
new building project to be finished first but that's just
my opinion!

willy

 

[Rich_Z]

I am thinking that perhaps that onerous policy of EA's to require full payment in advance actually wound up biting them in the butt.

Many many years ago, my dad used to own a service station. During the 70's when there was the fuel shortage crisis (real or imagined) he was really between a rock and a hard place. When he could get gasoline delivered, he had to try to predict what the price would be when he ordered the next load. Prices were rising so quickly that often the profit made on the current batch wasn't enough to pay for the future batch. So he was losing money with every gallon of gasoline he sold. Which meant he had to raise prices a LOT in order to stay ahead of that curve. He had to price the gasoline based on what he expected he would need to fund the next batch, and still make a profit, which would have nothing at all to do with what he paid for the current batch of gasoline he was selling now. And all along he had to try to stay competitive with other stations in the neighborhood.

Now extrapolate this out to where my dad would have had to predict prices 4 or more months out. Pretty tough to do, eh? Good way to go out of business, I would imagine. Too bad he couldn't retroactively raise prices on the gasoline he had already sold.

So I am thinking that perhaps EA had presold a bunch of attachments based on the costs and overhead at the time of the sale to determine profitability, and then when inflation and the price of raw materials skyrocketed later, suddenly then found that they had a bunch of orders pending that needed to have materials purchased for and be built, but each and every one of them to be shipped out the door was going to wind up losing money for them.

How many people would have found it unacceptable when they got a phone call or email from EA saying "Sorry, we have to charge you more money for what you ordered and paid for a few months ago"? And would likely have resulted in a bunch of irate customers and a flood of cancellations and refunds at a time when money was already being squeezed out of existence.

Maybe the building of the larger (and assumed more efficient) facility was a "do or die" attempt to get out of that corner that circumstances had painted them into.

So EA had been surviving on a business model that only worked if their costs remained stable. Which they didn't.

Just idle speculation and my opinion, of course. And I certainly am not condoning their actions at all. Especially since I have a dog in this show.

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

I am thinking that perhaps that onerous policy of EA's to require full payment in advance actually wound up biting them in the butt.

Many many years ago, my dad used to own a service station. During the 70's when there was the fuel shortage crisis (real or imagined) he was really between a rock and a hard place. When he could get gasoline delivered, he had to try to predict what the price would be when he ordered the next load. Prices were rising so quickly that often the profit made on the current batch wasn't enough to pay for the future batch. So he was losing money with every gallon of gasoline he sold. Which meant he had to raise prices a LOT in order to stay ahead of that curve. He had to price the gasoline based on what he expected he would need to fund the next batch, and still make a profit, which would have nothing at all to do with what he paid for the current batch of gasoline he was selling now. And all along he had to try to stay competitive with other stations in the neighborhood.

Now extrapolate this out to where my dad would have had to predict prices 4 or more months out. Pretty tough to do, eh? Good way to go out of business, I would imagine. Too bad he couldn't retroactively raise prices on the gasoline he had already sold.

So I am thinking that perhaps EA had presold a bunch of attachments based on the costs and overhead at the time of the sale to determine profitability, and then when inflation and the price of raw materials skyrocketed later, suddenly then found that they had a bunch of orders pending that needed to have materials purchased for and be built, but each and every one of them to be shipped out the door was going to wind up losing money for them.

How many people would have found it unacceptable when they got a phone call or email from EA saying "Sorry, we have to charge you more money for what you ordered and paid for a few months ago"? And would likely have resulted in a bunch of irate customers and a flood of cancellations and refunds at a time when money was already being squeezed out of existence.

Maybe the building of the larger (and assumed more efficient) facility was a "do or die" attempt to get out of that corner that circumstances had painted them into.

So EA had been surviving on a business model that only worked if their costs remained stable. Which they didn't.

Just idle speculation and my opinion, of course. And I certainly am not condoning their actions at all. Especially since I have a dog in this show.

Speculation on my part also, I think they looked at their bank account and saw all that cash (for future builds and deliveries) and figured they were swimming in money and spent a lot on financing their new building and on personal stuff. When it came time to but the steel for the next build they had to back up deliveries even more. I would not be surprised to see criminal fraud charges coming out of this. They had to know several months ago they weren't going to be able to fulfill the orders that were coming in.

 

[Rich_Z]

I believe, based on earlier posts here, that Travis knew when he took my order in mid September that it would never be filled. And I also believe that the later emails I got from Nate through mid January were just stalling tactics. Never corresponded directly with Ted, but I sure watched a lot of his YouTube videos where he sang high praises about his business Everything Attachments. IMHO.

 

[D&D]

No one here seems to have any issue with all the other implement manufacturers payment up front policies. Lots of positive mentions of Homestead Implements in this thread but no one in a guff about their payment in full online store. Weird.

I see a lot of excuses and sidestepping in your posts. Blaming e-commerce and others for your business practices. It is a shame that your customers get treated in such a way. Ordering custom and made to order does not demand 100% of operating cost and 100% of profit be paid upfront. Nothing special about e-commerce to dictate that model either.
Coincidentally, I know something about custom furniture not made in NC. Our single largest expenses are electricity, fuel and taxes. The secondary is depreciation and materials. Time goes against profit. This piece was crafted from black walnut and holly.

 

[Sid Post]

With the buildings side by side why did they stop
production??? What a screw up! No excuse for
stopping production IMHO!!!!! They were working
in the old building so there should be no excuse to
stop production! With the new building not passing inspection goes to show owner dropped the ball not keeping up with the construction or person elected to over see the project dropped the ball. IMHO it seems
to me building that expensive of a house killed the
new building project. They should have waited for the
new building project to be finished first but that's just
my opinion!

willy

Willy,

You can't build implements when you can't pay for the steel to make them. You also can't build implements when you can't pay the welders who build them, or the painters, or ...

As noted elsewhere in this thread, they were cash pay only for new steel shipments. No money, no steel.

 

[Sid Post]

I am thinking that perhaps that onerous policy of EA's to require full payment in advance actually wound up biting them in the butt.

Many many years ago, my dad used to own a service station. During the 70's when there was the fuel shortage crisis (real or imagined) he was really between a rock and a hard place. When he could get gasoline delivered, he had to try to predict what the price would be when he ordered the next load. Prices were rising so quickly that often the profit made on the current batch wasn't enough to pay for the future batch. So he was losing money with every gallon of gasoline he sold. Which meant he had to raise prices a LOT in order to stay ahead of that curve. He had to price the gasoline based on what he expected he would need to fund the next batch, and still make a profit, which would have nothing at all to do with what he paid for the current batch of gasoline he was selling now. And all along he had to try to stay competitive with other stations in the neighborhood.

Now extrapolate this out to where my dad would have had to predict prices 4 or more months out. Pretty tough to do, eh? Good way to go out of business, I would imagine. Too bad he couldn't retroactively raise prices on the gasoline he had already sold.

So I am thinking that perhaps EA had presold a bunch of attachments based on the costs and overhead at the time of the sale to determine profitability, and then when inflation and the price of raw materials skyrocketed later, suddenly then found that they had a bunch of orders pending that needed to have materials purchased for and be built, but each and every one of them to be shipped out the door was going to wind up losing money for them.

How many people would have found it unacceptable when they got a phone call or email from EA saying "Sorry, we have to charge you more money for what you ordered and paid for a few months ago"? And would likely have resulted in a bunch of irate customers and a flood of cancellations and refunds at a time when money was already being squeezed out of existence.

Maybe the building of the larger (and assumed more efficient) facility was a "do or die" attempt to get out of that corner that circumstances had painted them into.

So EA had been surviving on a business model that only worked if their costs remained stable. Which they didn't.

Just idle speculation and my opinion, of course. And I certainly am not condoning their actions at all. Especially since I have a dog in this show.

Well thought out and stated post sir!

 

[LittleBill21]

I see a lot of excuses and sidestepping in your posts. Blaming e-commerce and others for your business practices. It is a shame that your customers get treated in such a way. Ordering custom and made to order does not demand 100% of operating cost and 100% of profit be paid upfront. Nothing special about e-commerce to dictate that model either.
Coincidentally, I know something about custom furniture not made in NC. Our single largest expenses are electricity, fuel and taxes. The secondary is depreciation and materials. Time goes against profit. This piece was crafted from black walnut and holly.

so you will ship that table cross country without full payment?

 

[ruffdog]

Inside the new building:

Inside Everything Attachments | When it's windy outside why not take the flight indoors, especially when it's a 105,000 sq ft building!! Check out this inside look of the new Everything... | By Neill Grading & Construction Co., Inc | Facebook

 

[MossRoad]

...Our single largest expenses are electricity, fuel and taxes...

Not labor?

 

[workinonit]

You guys are really misunderstanding the difference between custom and made to order.
EA offers a huge amount of different implements and is able to offer so many because everything is made to order. If they were making and stocking hundreds of different products they would need Chinese factory level capabilities which they clearly do not. They would also need dozens of acres to store all of it.

So when you order the "W R Long Round Bale Mover" it is made to order. Just because it's not "custom" doesn't mean it should be treated any differently. They are making that thing for YOU and YOU only. This is a direct to consumer business model that most of you don't seem to understand. They don't have dealers placing multiple orders for specific items which are then stored on some dealers lot forever how long is required to sell them. They only make what they sell because they don't have the capacity to do anything more. Simple as that.

It appears he tried to increase capacity but look where that got him. Lots of bad decisions but requiring payment up front was not one of them.

I searched their website and I don't see anything regarding "made to order" or "custom". I could have missed it. I don't think this is the intent of their business. I believe they intend to have a stock of the high volume implements on hand but because of their recent business model that has just never worked out. They never recognized the signs of trouble until it was too late. This scenario never works out.

so you will ship that table cross country without full payment?

Everyone gets paid before they ship. EA is the only place that I have ever been made aware that ships over 6 months after they have been paid. This isn't a $200 hydraulic cylinder. These items are in the thousands. Most people can't afford to take that hit. And the real kicker is it looks like someone can still today place and order with them.

 

[Reddogs]

Post 908...They have gone belly up, just came across it. Will get links when I get home.
If EA declared bankruptcy it's probably hard for creditors to get anything back.

Well, here is the link... Customers wonder why tractor equipment company appears closed suddenly

And one that seems to back it up... Conover-based Everything Attachments faces scrutiny from customers

And then we have many things popping up on Youtube...

 

[LouNY]

That doesn't say they are closed or belly uped. It has no new news.

 

[gstrom99]

Inside the new building:

Inside Everything Attachments | When it's windy outside why not take the flight indoors, especially when it's a 105,000 sq ft building!! Check out this inside look of the new Everything... | By Neill Grading & Construction Co., Inc | Facebook

Nice building, but that was two years ago. Before all this trouble started.

 

[ruffdog]

Nice building, but that was two years ago. Before all this trouble started.

I'm thinking that trouble was "brewing" even before that picture was taken.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I first thought it strange last fall when EA suddenly started having a lot of sale offers. They never offered discounts before. I have a bunch of emails from Nate and Ted. I don’t think Travis was in on it, and why he was let go.

 

[workinonit]

Trouble has been brewing since they started taking orders for delivery 6 months out.