I've seen lots of complaints here about "Where is John Doe", "John Doe never responds to my inquiries", etc.

I just thought I'd post my personal experience -- I recently contacted the following gentlemen regarding some possible custom work:

(In alphabetical order by last name)

Roy Kueppers
Todd Lassen
Jamie Schoolcraft

Read quickly, I don't know if your screen will burst into
:firedevil: flames
with some of those names so close to each other.

I've only purchased one thing from any of them, and that was a basic "stock" item (not custom work) over two years ago for less than $300, so there were no special favors being given. In short, they don't know me from Adam.

Sending nothing other than an E-mail to their well known / published addresses, each responded promptly and provided the information I needed.
Response times (in increasing order not related in any way to the alphabetical order above) were ~2 hours, ~3 hours, and ~6.5 hours. The latter being in response to an E-mail sent in the middle of the night that received a reply the next morning.

Calling is always the best option if you want your information immieadiatly. However if you can wait and are not in a rush just email and wait a little bit.

Most people's concerns are that we receive plenty of emails, until we order, then hear nothing for a few months after the due date given for our order. We've never had problems with initial contact, it's after the sale that most people complain.

How fast is JB Magic on their advertised items. Is it like "pull from the shelf" ship time, or like custom order time?

JB is usually very fast. I believe that most or all of what I have purchased there was "off the shelf".

Jim