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Mickie_Cricket
Let me give a bit more further info as to what's been happening so this might help to make it a fairer situaion.
I was fairly clear at the beginning of the process what type of frame I want and a lot of decisions were made based on my wishes and their recommendation on what's practical.
I'd say about 80% of the decisions have remained unchanged since day 1, there were some minor but not insignificant things like where should the cables go to and from internally, what stem to use because that would afect the headtube length, should the shape of the fork tubes ber ound or oval etc etc weren't made till much later, but I was following the frame builder's recommendation on what they could do and coudn't do and whats' strong enough and what's not. I don't remember rejecting any of their recommendation because I am fully aware of the fact that I am buying their craftmanship, creativity and their expertise.
I have never given them a list of technical details on how to build the frame; there had been some going back and forth for a few months with suggestions of changes that I didn't think would affect the actual building / welding of th frame.
I did ask I think about this time last year that if it would be possible to change the frame from a normal seat tube to a IPS, but only if they haven't started making the frame yet. if they had then I would have been happy with the original plan. I made that point very clear.
As far as tubing was concerned, all I ever said was becasue this might well be a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to have a custom frame made and the cost difference between mid range and high end tubing isn't that much, go for the best possible tubing. I had no influence on what exaclty type of brand of tubing should be used.
I will admit to dithering a fair bit of the graphic design part, as being someone who works in the creative industry, for me, sometime a piece of work is only finished when there is a deadline, one can always edit and tweaking their design forever... so I will put my hands up to say, I did do a bit of that. However, as someone who has no knowladge of the frame making process, I was under the impression that the graphic is only applied after the frame is completed, so I did take my time on the design part because everytime I asked, I was told soon but a while yet, that gve me the indication that I could still edit and change my design and maybe I should have drawa a firmer line on that and say I want to see the frame by (date).
I will also put my hands up to say that the graphic design I have made is rather complicated and it will be a very time consuming process and some parts of it might not even be easily achieved by someone who isn't an experienced finisher, but is this my responsibility or the frame builder's?
Saying all that, I appreciate everybody has a life so whilst the progress of my frame has been the number 1 talking point in a lot of pub chats over the last 2 years. I was really reluctant to keep emailing the frame builder to ask for progress because nobody likes additional admins and maybe that has given them the impression that I am cool with having the frame done whenever.
Finally, someone told this frame builder about this thread and they have emailed me first thing today offering to give me a definitive completion date by tomorrow or a refund.
So I will have to sleep on it to decide what option is the better one...
I feel like because someone has snitched, my relationship with them has now changed for the worse, I don't know if it would be a good idea to see this project till the end with the possiblity that an further deadline might be missed.
My head is telling me to get the refund and go elsewhere, but my heart is telling me to give them 1 last chance partly because I am under the impresison that they have already machined the parts that probably can't be used on someone else that easily, although this really isn't my problem. But largely because I have been waiting for so long now that I really really want my custome bike. going to someone else will mean I probably wouldn't get anything this year.