I agree with CeeBee. I think Jerald has those tires made by Kenda or CST or some firm like that; the one guy from Jerald is a member on RRB and i think i recall him telling us who he contracts the tires to. At any rate, they don't make'm out in Iowa, and they probably have to order a VERY large amount of tires each time in order to keep their margins reasonable. And, even though the RRB world seems to suggest that there is huge demand for those tires, in the big picture, there really isn't. Even most of us only order 1 for the rear, right? And, maybe this is just the Jersey in me talkin' but I don't think the sulky cart industry is exactly booming right now.... and, being that Sulky enthusiasts can run any ol' 26" tire, there's no compelling reason to think the demand for Jerald tires is huge...
Long story short: they probably don't make a lot on those tires, but they probably have to spend a lot out-of-pocket for each run they do. And, as Steve pointed out, the lead time on those shipments can be very long.
Does this excuse the Jerald company from the allegations on this thread? Prolly not. Beyond being non-responsive to emails and phonecalls, they could've prevented all of this strife by adding a **Temp. Sold Out** to the page with the tires on it. Ppl wouldn't try to order, be disappointed, and start emailing/calling if they just knew, up-front, that the well had run dry.
Steve mentioned Justin at Porkchop, who really is like the exemplary small-scale online retailer. Justin has a whole section on his site for "last chance/ only one left", and the moment things sell out, he takes the item down from the site. When he gets more in, he lists them in their category, as well as in the "NEW PRODUCTS" category, so ppl may take notice. That's a good way to do it. It prevents disappointment. Sure, I'm still disappointed if something i'd been wanting sells out, but at least I know it's sold out before placing an order for it....
So if Tim et al sees this thread, it'll probably cause them some stress, and RRB ppl are about as hard as anyone on retailers, but if there's one thing to take away from this, it's this: if something sells out, let us know by marking it as "sold out". If you have a timeframe for when it's to be back in-stock, you might want to add that to the site, but be conservative. If Kenda or whoever says it'll be back between April and June, put "expected back in stock by June/July" on the site. This will head the irate emailers off at the pass, for the most part, and it'll take far less time than responding to all those emails...
