FRIDGES

This shop will be back, hopefully with a fully automatic and easy to use on-line shop.

All present invoiced orders will be completed, and for my customers, if there are any urgent issues or problems with items that I have sold, I can still be contacted on my main phone number that is on your invoice, and as I won't be answering the phone straight up, please leave a message and I will get back to you ASAP.

Thank you for your understanding.

Please note !

UPDATE as of  Monday  03/03/2008

Although the emails have reduced somewhat, daily I am still receiving more than I can handle.
I am so so sorry, but until further notice it will not be possible for me to reply to inquiry type emails.

If you are one of my customers and need some installation advice, or warranty help, then you have my phone numbers on your invoice, please leave a message and I'll get back to you ASAP.

There is really no need for you to read any further unless you are interested, this is my problem and certainly not yours. But if you ARE interested I have explained below the reasons why it has come to this.

Due to the extraordinary number of emails that I get each day, I have regrettably come to the conclusion that there is no possible way I can keep answering them any longer.  I have been struggling for many months now, working until midnight most nights (truly) trying to keep up and I physically cannot (and won't) go on like this any longer.

"Hah!!", I can hear some people saying, "why don't you put on staff if your so busy then!". And if that's what YOU are saying, then can I respectfully ask you to please tell me just where can I find these fully trained staff?? That is staff with real camping life experience, staff that can ask you all the right questions, staff can offer you the correct advice so that your hard earned money goes to purchasing equipment that you really need, and that will do everything that you expect of it, and is of a quality that won't let you down when your halfway through your dream holiday out the back of Burk?

Yes please tell me and a few others out there that are crying out for staff like this, and have been for years.
(Have you noticed just how incompetent some staff are at some of the other places?)

You know folks, this is going to sound corny, but it is true that over the years in this business one of the things I enjoy the most is being able to help people in one way or an other. It does make one feel good (you know the warm and fuzzes). I truly do believe in the saying "what goes around comes around".

I have always been passionate about giving people the best advice to suit their needs and circumstances. It has always been my intention to write more articles and helpful hints to add to my technical articles page on this website, thus helping people become better informed about the whole camping, caravanning, motorhoming and boating thing regarding essential appliances, necessary toys etc, and low voltage electrics.

But it has become a catch 22 situation spending all of my available time (and then some) answering peoples email questions, leaving me with no time to write the articles -- articles that may also help reduce the need for people to ask so many questions of me!

I hope that now I will get the time to write some more articles that may help people understand a little more about things they need to deal with while they are camping, or setting up to go camping, boating or rv-ing.

I do sell Collyn Rivers really great books that cover all the ins-and-outs when it comes to recreational vehicle set-up and operation. And I would like to think that my short articles help people understand how to do some of the smaller jobs, and fix some of the problems encountered by many that venture in the outdoors.

As I have said by far my most time consuming job is answering all the questions that people ask. Some months ago I had to remove my phone number from the website. The phone was literally ringing most of the day, and many times when I would get off the phone there would be another 2 or 3 messages left on Messagebank.  It was way out of control so I just had to slow down the calls somehow.

I just hate the thought of letting people down, like not answering their calls in a timely manor, or their emails. But there are only 24 hours in the day, and I'm working 16 hours a day most days as it is. I can't make more time though I wish I could. And don't we all.

I have had people suggest "why don't you charge for your advice, that would slow down the emails a bit" but I do not want to go down that path at all.

Others have said "put your prices up Val, that will slow things down a bit", but I don't want to do that either. That's not what I'm about, nor are the high volume of sales a problem. I can handle that just fine (at least at the moment), but it's the email questions that are so time consuming, and that is what I now have to stop - at least for the time being.

I am so grateful for the outstanding success my business has had , and the many people that continue to say nice things about myself and the business. If you go to almost any camping, caravanning, motorhoming, or four wheel driving website or forum, and you will see Fridge & Solar mentioned favourably. And this is just great.

Oh -- and for those of you that have made it this far reading through all my moaning, and listening to the violins playing, well done and thank you :-)

Below is what I would like to be doing again real soon :-)

It was back in 1986 when I started to build this bus into a motorhome. This photo (on the right) was taken in 1990 on our first trip that took us half way around Oz. We sold the bus in 96 and I down sized a bit to the camper on the Jeep below I so miss my Jeep

On the right is the 4 x 4 camper as it is today, the pop- top camper body was a prototype I built back in 1996 (Above).  I went into production for a few short years but found that staff were never going to be able to keep up the standard of workmanship that I insist on, so I closed the business down and kept the first unit for myself. It's now on it's second vehicle and still as good as new, but that's the way I build things :-) Hopefully  in the near future my wife and I will get some time off to use the camper a bit more.