You may all be right about Les's view on all this...but I think he would be a bit ignorant to actually express it. Not like he is dealing with an ever- increasing market, or? If enough of us poor customers see it the way most of us here do...he is losing money, from all those orders that get sent to some other supplier because of the problems we are discussing here. Small businesses and their survival, are regulated by Darwin's law. They survive only, because the customer is willing to do their shopping there, in exchange for a smile and a pleasant word, something the big store might be unwilling to provide. The smile makes the extra cost of buying at the small store, worth it.
So all those missed sales, will add up for Norvil. The only reason they are still around now is that they have been smart enough to provide some items that no one else has bothered to produce, and that is all that I ever contact them about, or purchase from them. The normal, run of the mill stuff...I buy from someone else.
All this, is a reaction to being too often disappointed by, not the product, but by the persons I had to deal with. They are a bit on the stingy side too.
I dropped them a mail a few years ago about an idea for a product they didn't sell. Magnetic drainplug for the tranny. They had magnetic plugs for the motor, oil tank, but not for the tranny. They wrote back, saying thanks, had a big batch made, sell I'm sure a bunch of them as it is really a good idea to have one, and only after I got curious and sent them another mail asking how they were selling, they sent me one. They must have sold hundreds, it has made them a bunch of money, but they wouldn't even pop for the cost of sending me a t-shirt with the drainplug....
Little things like that, decide for you, where you spend your money. So, he might indeed not take the opinions of his customers with a grain of salt...he can do what he wishes...but to ignore the problems that his business has, is going the same route as the dinosaurs.....and that doesn't help any of us either.