"I don't get it" Topic

2-1/2 weeks ago I placed four orders from four different companies on the same night. Coincidentally, I also made a purchase off the Marketplace at the same time. Two of the companies are in England, the others were all from the US (where I am located, for those who don't know me). I have received the purchase off the Marketplace and both orders from England, but aside from an order confirmation from one of the US companies, I haven't heard anything. Having dealt with several companies in England previously, I am not surprised by their service – some have a knack of sending the items seemingly before you order them. What gives with the US companies, though? Two and a half weeks with nary a word? You can ship pretty much anywhere in the country in 5 to 7 days, so this tells me they aren't even paying attention.

Name 'em and shame 'em!

I had the same experience, but with a company in China. Ordered tools through Amazon, I received the parts in 6 days.
Ordered the same night from a company in the next state, 8 days.

I am dependent on a check for temporary disability thatvis mailed every two weeks. I moved 3/4 of a mile, one zip code over, and my check now comes two days later than it used to (previously delivered Thursday, sometimes Friday; now delivered Satyrday, sometimes Monday.)

I am afraid to complain, they might start sending it by UPS or FedEx, and then I will never get my check!

Terrement, DC USPS is notorious. Moving maybe 20 miles in the Virginia DC suburbs, I found forwarded mail took a week to ten days.

But as for the slow US firms, can't speak without knowing the cases but a lot of the US wargame firms are not just one man operations, but part-time at that. Everything from illness to additional hours on the real job slows response.

And then there are those who just can't be bothered. There are a few I don't deal with anymore.

There's also the matter of stock-in-hand v. cast-to-order. And air freight v. surface. As Robert said, without knowing who , it's hard to be more specific.

Coyotepunc and Hatshepsuut, I notice when I ebay stuff out USPS Priority there are several towns/customers that it will say "3 Day" instead of 2 right on the label. Guess you and them are just that far away from a main PO.

Six or seven years ago I mailed 200 packages on Tuesday and Wednesday, in early December to addresses all over the globe. I shipped from a Chicago suburb. I had packages land in Tokyo on Wednesday (!) while packages to St. Louis (a 5 hour drive) arrived the following Monday.

I will say that in my 10 years of being in the mail order business I have had exactly *zero* packages go missing. Now, one did spend a year wandering the globe before it was returned, but packages that disappeared? Zero.

I've mailed thousands of packages and only had one go missing.

It was to a guy in Brazil. I emailed him when I saw that it didn't get there and he said not your fault. He told me he forgot to leave the customary $20 USD "incentive" for the postman so the guy probably got mad and sold or gave it to someone else. So he just ordered another one, remembered the $20 USD for his friendly postman, and got it a week later.

Ask them if they had actually the items in stock. Many small businesses put products as in stock but when in truth they only order them once an order is received from a customer. It should be clearly stated, but many businesses doesn't mention it. I understand them, as the costs of having huge stocks can be crippling for a small business. And yet it can be really annoying for the customer. Delays are not always a problem of the Post.

Can be a wide disparity in Postal Service standards. I related an instance to Ed at THW where, it took seven days for a a package from them to reach Sydney, yet took eight days for that package to travel twenty miles from the Sydney mail center to me in the suburbs.

Duck

I've had problems with two packages here in Austin, Texas in the past.

One was sent to a marketplace buyer here in the U.S.; it took about six or seven weeks to arrive. When the buyer rightfully told me that he hadn't gotten his package, I returned his uncashed check to him. He was kind enough to send payment again when he finally got his package. About seven or eight other packages that I mailed at the same time arrived at their destinations without any trouble.

Years ago, I expected my car's required new license plates to arrive by mail, but they never did. After waiting a month or so, it seemed best to take go to the local county office and to get the plates in person. Can you guess what showed up in the mail the day after I did that?

I have noticed that with changes within the Postal system in our area, that much of the mail takes longer to get both to the destination to which I am sending something and getting some thing from someone else.

Also, there are other variables. How busy the company is from which you ordered. Are they able to ship the same day as the order, or is order in line waiting? If it is directly from a manufacturer, many now don't build stock levels due to material cost, thus they cast when the items are ordered. This might mean a couple of days before having the product in hand to package and then ship.

Personally, I think we are too concerned about speed.

Sundance – perhaps an orders needs to be cast, restock is incoming, etc.

Did you contact the vendor directly through their site and ask?

Personally, I have pretty clear instructions on my site and order receipts.

No, Brigade, I haven't. One is a small business and I haven't heard anything from them – the other is larger and more well known, but they at least sent an acknowledgement of the order. Figured I'd give them a few more days. Contrast that, however, with another order I put in last night with an English company – today I received an email that the order was received, an email that it was being filled and an email that it was in the mail. Huge differences in approach.

This had nothing to do with the nationality of the company and everything to do with customer service at those companies from which you bought.

I think sometimes it also has to deal with tech ability and the web page program that a company or individual is using for their business. Some will make customer service easier, others to do what the gentleman says one company did with 3 emails, would take up a lot of time needed for order fulfillment.

Most commercial webstore software will send order emails when one is placed. Some will send them when orders are marked as moving through the system.
All will by default typically send an email when shipped.

That said, I do know some of my store emails wind up in the spam bin of some customers.

I provide an update in my weekly newsletters for brands that we are awaiting restock on and new items arriving, etc. I find this more efficient all around considering I am now down to me, with all my boys in college or out of state working.