Vendor Aggravation (A Rant)

NedRyerson

Senior Member
Messages
588
I ordered parts from [unnamed vendor] two weeks ago.  Simple (I thought) hardware bits and pieces.  My card gets charged for the order, which usually means that it's shipping within a day or two at most.

A week later, I hear nothing, get no confirmation, no tracking.  I e-mail asking "what's up?" (in much more polite tones, of course).  They "unexpectedly" went out of stock on one of my items, so they can either remove it from my order and send me the rest or wait for it come in.  I ask them to remove the item and just send me the rest.

A week later, I hear nothing.  No confirmation, no tracking, not a word.  I already ordered the replacement of that out-of-stock item from another vendor and received it already (in the span of days).  I ask "what's up?"  Still polite, but more firm this time.

No response.

I'm fed up now, so I send them my request to cancel the order completely and refund my money. I don't want to go to my bank to file a dispute because that's going to take several weeks to resolve and I'm still out the money and the products.

Miraculously, I get a confirmation of shipment and a tracking number.  Except the shipping order contains the out of stock item that led to this problem in the first place.  And another piece of the order isn't included in the "shipped" section of the e-mail but implied as shipped separately.  Granted, I can still use the extra thing from the order, but this was beyond irritating.

Now, as I'm typing this rant, I get an e-mail (a not-automated one) saying that they're going to refund me for the missing piece but the other two are still coming (separately....they're small items.  What in the ever-loving hell?!)

So I'm expecting two of the three pieces of the original order two weeks after I placed it (and got charged for it) and it took multiple inquiries initiated by me to get any movement on the transaction.

Is it safe to assume that I won't be ordering from these people again?

As a matter of etiquette, I'm refraining from naming-and-shaming on a publicly accessible forum but I'm frustrated with this whole experience enough to want to scream.  I can smell the excuse, too.  "we're a small shop with few employees, it's COVID, etc., etc., etc."

Then put up a message on your site that says that responses and shipping will be delayed because of A, B, or C.  Don't make me think you're running at 100% capability so I give you money only to hear nothing and get nothing.

I posted before my positive experience with Dragonfire/TNT Guitars, how I placed an order and an hour or two later, I get a tracking number.  That's a one-person shop, I'm guessing, as well. I don't expect same-day service from everyone.  All I ask is keep me in the loop, let me know what's going on.  If an order's going to be delayed for whatever reason, tell me.  I'm cool with that.  It's the silence (after taking my money and for a not-custom order) that's annoying me.  And how I have to chase THEM down.

The vendor is NOT Warmoth, obviously. Next time, I'll pay higher prices for more reliability.

And as I'm thinking about this more, I'm wondering if they're just drop-shipping.  Like they don't actually maintain any inventory but order when they get an order, and that's causing supply chain issues....  Which is still a pretty crap way to do business for retail. Decades ago, I worked for an international brokerage firm whose stock and trade was this sort of business arrangement.  Customers would place orders for industrial-level materials (like multiple metric tons of steel, aluminum, and other metals that go into car production), we'd do the purchasing, importing, shipping, insuring, customs, etc.  We took the risk from the time orders left the supplier (usually overseas) to delivery at the customer site.

But I'm not ordering a ship-load of cold-rolled steel coils.

I swear, if they just ordered stuff off of Amazon from one of the countless Chinese knock-off sellers and just marked it up and rebranded it to sell to me, I'm going to blow a gasket.

 
I find the best thing when I'm feeling angry with someone like that is to write it all down...


.... and write a song about it!!  :headbang:
 
putthatthingback.gif
 
NedRyerson said:
I ordered parts from [unnamed vendor] two weeks ago.  Simple (I thought) hardware bits and pieces.  My card gets charged for the order, which usually means that it's shipping within a day or two at most.

A week later, I hear nothing, get no confirmation, no tracking.  I e-mail asking "what's up?" (in much more polite tones, of course).  They "unexpectedly" went out of stock on one of my items, so they can either remove it from my order and send me the rest or wait for it come in.  I ask them to remove the item and just send me the rest.

A week later, I hear nothing.  No confirmation, no tracking, not a word.  I already ordered the replacement of that out-of-stock item from another vendor and received it already (in the span of days).  I ask "what's up?"  Still polite, but more firm this time.

No response.

I'm fed up now, so I send them my request to cancel the order completely and refund my money. I don't want to go to my bank to file a dispute because that's going to take several weeks to resolve and I'm still out the money and the products.

Miraculously, I get a confirmation of shipment and a tracking number.  Except the shipping order contains the out of stock item that led to this problem in the first place.  And another piece of the order isn't included in the "shipped" section of the e-mail but implied as shipped separately.  Granted, I can still use the extra thing from the order, but this was beyond irritating.

Now, as I'm typing this rant, I get an e-mail (a not-automated one) saying that they're going to refund me for the missing piece but the other two are still coming (separately....they're small items.  What in the ever-loving hell?!)

So I'm expecting two of the three pieces of the original order two weeks after I placed it (and got charged for it) and it took multiple inquiries initiated by me to get any movement on the transaction.

Is it safe to assume that I won't be ordering from these people again?

As a matter of etiquette, I'm refraining from naming-and-shaming on a publicly accessible forum but I'm frustrated with this whole experience enough to want to scream.  I can smell the excuse, too.  "we're a small shop with few employees, it's COVID, etc., etc., etc."

Then put up a message on your site that says that responses and shipping will be delayed because of A, B, or C.  Don't make me think you're running at 100% capability so I give you money only to hear nothing and get nothing.

I posted before my positive experience with Dragonfire/TNT Guitars, how I placed an order and an hour or two later, I get a tracking number.  That's a one-person shop, I'm guessing, as well. I don't expect same-day service from everyone.  All I ask is keep me in the loop, let me know what's going on.  If an order's going to be delayed for whatever reason, tell me.  I'm cool with that.  It's the silence (after taking my money and for a not-custom order) that's annoying me.  And how I have to chase THEM down.

The vendor is NOT Warmoth, obviously. Next time, I'll pay higher prices for more reliability.

And as I'm thinking about this more, I'm wondering if they're just drop-shipping.  Like they don't actually maintain any inventory but order when they get an order, and that's causing supply chain issues....  Which is still a pretty crap way to do business for retail. Decades ago, I worked for an international brokerage firm whose stock and trade was this sort of business arrangement.  Customers would place orders for industrial-level materials (like multiple metric tons of steel, aluminum, and other metals that go into car production), we'd do the purchasing, importing, shipping, insuring, customs, etc.  We took the risk from the time orders left the supplier (usually overseas) to delivery at the customer site.

But I'm not ordering a ship-load of cold-rolled steel coils.

I swear, if they just ordered stuff off of Amazon from one of the countless Chinese knock-off sellers and just marked it up and rebranded it to sell to me, I'm going to blow a gasket.

Whoa Steven king over here with a fresh novel. Let's get Pete Jackson to make a trilogy of movies out of it. Kidding I'm Kidding! I'm just having a joke. Thats truly a bummer of a experience

But Now that i mentioned Jackson I'm reminded that just the other day I made an offhand LOTR reference and my friend todd called it a Frodoian slip.
 
Back
Top