When I worked for my Ol Man many years ago we would tell our customers a realistic date they could expect delivery. We always added a certain number of days "just in case". We ended up using those extra days many times, but you know what? The customer still got it when they expected it. If we didn't use the extra time they got it "early" and were very happy. I don't question the quality of BME products or the work ethic of the people at BME but I would expect that they would offer an honest release date. When people feel like they are being strung along they start to lose faith in that business and go elseware. Good reputations are hard to earn, bad reputations are easy. In the service we refer to that as the "one screw up cancels 10 at a boys" syndrome.