Eikon Motorsports’ decision to stop selling Vertical Doors Inc. products years ago was not based solely on our concerns with the design of the kits. Our experience with VDI as a supplier also played a significant role.
During our years working with Vertical Doors Inc., Eikon Motorsports experienced repeated difficulties involving communication, order fulfillment, product availability, and what we considered an increasingly challenging dealer relationship.
A significant portion of those difficulties involved our interactions with VDI representatives Nick and Audom. From Eikon’s perspective, a number of those interactions were unnecessarily confrontational, dismissive, or otherwise inconsistent with the professional relationship we expected to have with one of our primary suppliers.
The larger concern, however, was not personality. It was the effect that problems within that supplier relationship could have on Eikon’s customers.
Order Fulfillment Became a Serious Problem
One of the most significant issues Eikon Motorsports experienced involved fulfillment of orders we had already placed with VDI.
According to Eikon Motorsports’ experience and records, there were occasions when products associated with our orders were instead allocated to fulfill VDI’s own direct customer demand. This contributed to substantial delays in Eikon’s ability to fulfill orders for customers who were waiting on us.
That created an unacceptable situation.
Our customers did not have a relationship with our supplier. They had a relationship with Eikon Motorsports.
When a customer purchased through Eikon and their order was delayed, it was our phone that rang. It was our team answering the emails. It was our reputation being affected.
Regardless of what was occurring behind the scenes with a supplier, the customer understandably held Eikon responsible for delivering what we had promised.
We eventually reached the conclusion that we could not continue building our reputation around a supply chain over which we had so little control.
Being a Dealer Should Be a Partnership
Eikon Motorsports believes a manufacturer and its dealers should operate as partners.
A dealer invests money advertising the manufacturer’s products, educating customers, generating sales, performing installations, handling questions, and supporting the product after the sale.
In return, we believe the manufacturer has a responsibility to communicate professionally, fulfill dealer orders reliably, and recognize that decisions affecting a dealer’s orders ultimately affect real customers.
Our experience with VDI increasingly did not match what we believed that relationship should look like.
At the time, VDI was also one of the primary sources for vehicle-specific bolt-on vertical door kits. From our perspective, that position sometimes appeared to create an attitude that dealers had little choice but to accept the existing product, service, and relationship.
Eikon ultimately decided that we did have another choice.
We could stop depending on them.
Instead of Complaining About the Product, We Decided to Build a Better One
Our frustrations with the supplier relationship happened alongside a much larger concern: we believed vertical door technology itself had become stagnant.
We saw characteristics we wanted improved in the products we were selling and installing, including door lifting effort, adjustment requirements, range of motion, hinge geometry, stability, and overall refinement.
We wanted innovation.
We wanted greater control over manufacturing.
We wanted control over quality.
We wanted control over inventory.
Most importantly, we wanted Eikon customers to receive a product whose engineering and customer experience were ultimately our responsibility.
So rather than continuing to complain about what we believed should be different, Eikon Motorsports made the much harder decision to begin developing and manufacturing our own vertical door systems.
That decision eventually helped shape the engineering philosophy that led to today’s Eikon Motorsports V2 Series.
The Experience Changed Eikon Motorsports
Looking back, the difficulties we experienced with VDI ultimately taught us an important lesson.
If Eikon Motorsports wanted to establish its own standard for vertical doors, we could not remain dependent on another manufacturer to define that standard for us.
We needed control over the engineering.
We needed control over manufacturing.
We needed control over quality.
And we needed greater control over the experience we promised our customers.
That is why Eikon stopped selling VDI products years ago.
Our more recent decision to discontinue installing VDI products is the final step in that separation.
We no longer believe it makes sense to criticize characteristics of traditional vertical door systems, invest years developing our own alternatives, and then continue attaching the Eikon Motorsports name to installations of the very products we chose to move away from.
Eikon Motorsports has chosen its direction.
We intend to continue engineering, manufacturing, installing, and supporting vertical door systems that meet ourstandards rather than allowing another manufacturer to determine what those standards should be.
Vertical Doors .Simply Better