"What is reasonable?" Topic

A week and a half ago I placed orders with four different vendors. Vendors a b & c acknowledge the order. Vendor A delivered within a couple days. Wow! Vendor b said they would notify me once th product was cast and it was ready for shipping. This vendor also offered me advice on my order and was very clear up front that it would take time. I am appreciative of all that and am satisfied. Vendor c sent me an automated message acknowledging the order and then followed up with a note when it was shipped. It's an international order so it will take time.

This leaves me vendor d. PayPal confirmed my pay,net was received but so far I have heard nothing from vendor d. I went on their website and using their contact tool sent the a note asking for them to acknowledge my order and if they could give a rough estimate of when it will shipped. Now almost two later I've still not heard a thing. I should point out that folks on this site spoke highly of vendor d as well.

What is a reasonable expectation in these types of situations?

Remember we when it was reasonable to expect 28 days for delivery?

There are a couple of vendors with which I do not even try to communicate electronically. I just pick up the phone and dial their toll free number.Somewhat irritating but gets the job done.

Remember we when it was reasonable to expect 28 days for delivery?

Indeed. And that was when the company was in your home country. Overseas could take months. Our group had one order from Britain for which we waited for nearly six months, only to receive our check back with a note that the manufacturer had decided he didn't want to deal with Americans!

Remember we when it was reasonable to expect 28 days for delivery?

And stamps were a couple pennies.

One overseas company I buy from only send things Seamail – takes 6-8 weeks, but costs a lot less than Airmail. On the other hand, I know it and plan on that basis. Likewise, when I ran Garrison the setup didn't allow an acknowledgement email – eventually sorted by simply stating on my website that I would send a manual acknowledgement if requested. It did, however, send a message once the order was dispatched.

So, the system may be 'that' way for a reason. If two means two days, well, may not be checked that often, or may have gone to spam. Some emails d

However, 'I should point out that folks on this site spoke highly of vendor d as well.' suggests a good company – so probably is a good reason somewhere.

I purchased through a German vendor, placing the order in early October and finally receiving the order in mid-December. The vendor was very responsive, but I've never heard so many excuses in my life! The order was (1) misplaced, (2) lost in the mail, (3) overlooked by the person processing orders, and (4) needed to be recast. The miniatures are really rather nice; well sculpted and cleanly cast, but I'll never place another order with the vendor.

My system sends an email when you place an order acknowledging the order, then another when I mark it processed (when I give it to the postman). Minis get processed in less than 24 hours and MDF can take 2-3 days. But all rather automated and very simple.

There is a great company that I used a few times that sells MDF bases for a reasonable price. It takes them two weeks to send those out, I thought it was a fluke the first time, so I ordered again. I won't order from there now as I have other options.

If vendor d is the only dude selling what you ordered from him, you gotta figure out if it bothers you enough to not have the object. If you have other options, order from there. Reasonable doesn't really play into it, especially with some of the old time traders.

I Think reasonable would be everything spelled out before you hit pay now button. Reasonable is the vender living up to what they said they would do. Also if the vender says it will take three years and you agree by hitting the pay now button, then that reasonable as well.

Just be clear I'm asking about communication and not delivery time. I am expecting 4 to 6 weeks delivery time on the overseas products. It the lack of response from vendor d that concerns me.

Our system sends an acknowledgement email on order, and payment is taken on order. I do get occasional emails saying "hey I placed an order but I've not received it yet… And you took the money".

Unfortunately that is how our system works, the PayPal payment is taken at the point of order.

Our website terms say up to 28 days, but that's because there is only Chas casting it and Sarah packing, so sometimes they get a little swamped. Emails come to me and I usually tell Sarah so she can check an order hasn't been missed, but often by the time someone is asking it's about to go out anyway so we tend not to reply.

The tricky bit is knowing when it has genuinely gone missing

Generally, nowadays when I place an electronic order I send a polite reminder if I haven't heard after a week, a much firmer one after 10 days, and start a dispute after 21.

Yes, that's harsh, but E commerce companies take the payment instantly, and I believe that an acknowledgement should be possible in less than 7 days. Much longer and I get twitchy. And you'd be surprised how quickly a company that has ignored you for 2 weeks responds when you lodge a Paypal complaint …..

"Remember we when it was reasonable to expect 28 days for delivery?"

When I first started ordering in the mid seventies from the Rest of the World, from here in Australia, 28 days from order posted to order received was a very good outcome.

Duck

You may all pee in my mailbox in anger but if a company won't respond to a simple email, I don't feel particularly confident that if I send them money, I'll ever see anything in return.

No reply to inquiries = no purchase every single time. No exceptions.
I'd expect people buying my games to do the same.

Ditto, an email confirmation is standard nowadays, just like shipping the figures in a box is.
Doesn't have to be hand-written but give me something to refer back to.

If I have clear expectations on how long it'll tend to take to pack and ship, I can wait for a long time for the actual package. That doesn't bother me. But be up front and be clear.

Communication is the key. Even if the communication is an automated note. As others have said once expectations are set I am pretty patient. Not knowing and trying to decide if I need to file a Paypal dispute, before the time is up, is something else.

I can update this with vendor d has now responded with an email and said that shipping would commence shortly plus I would receive further notice when the order was shipped. I'm satisfied with that response.