Unfortunately, waitlists don’t work for us for a few reasons. Let me summarise them for you.

The work I do @ Liquid Audio is highly specialised and quite different from most others. Each job is unique, often involving complex component-level fault-finding and repair. By definition, this means we never know how long each job might/will take. I have hundreds of new and returning customers, each with unique equipment and requirements and trying to book a ‘slot’ of fixed time for each one would be impossible.

In summary:

• We have many existing and potential new customers, each with unique requirements
• People change their minds, sell equipment, move on, disappear, etc
• Equipment faults/requirements/bench times often cannot be predicted
• Managing potentially hundreds of variable time bookings would be an impossible task
• Attempting to manage a waitlist would require a dedicated admin person
• I have more work than I can manage without a waitlist, so creating one isn’t sensible

The solution is our booking process and booking status table. Each enquirer needs only to check as guided by the information in the table, minimising wasted time, filtering out those who no longer require our services and saving me from potentially hundreds of unnecessary calls and emails.

But Mike, this doesn’t help me!

Actually, it does, because this process helps me, which therefore helps my customers. It works well for most, but for those who disregard all of the above and ‘expect’ a waitlist anyway, we’re not going to be the business for you, and I apologise for being unable to assist.

Feel free to send an enquiry even if we’re full, because it gets the ball rolling and may help clarify whether a job is viable or something we cater for.