Parts we do not stock can be ordered, and the honest part of this service is the timing.
A special order takes about three weeks and sometimes five. That is the consolidation, the sailing and the clearing, and none of the three is under our control. We tell you three to five weeks at the counter and we would rather lose the sale to somebody promising ten days than have you waiting on a promise we did not make.
Special orders need half the value as a deposit, transferred against the order reference, because a part ordered for one machine and then not collected sits on this shelf for years.
We will tell you plainly when a part is not worth ordering. For a machine over about fifteen years old, a good used part from one of the yards is often the sensible answer, and we will say so even though there is nothing in it for us.