"How would you deal with..." Topic

I'm am feeling a bit frustrated with a company that placed an order with and am not sure if it is justified or if I am just being impatient.

On July 14th I ordered a rule book from company X and received an automated response acknowledging my order with a receipt for my payment. At the same time, I ordered a bunch of figures from Old Glory and got an automated response. Both orders were to be shipped to my son in California as they were meant to be a "house warming" gift for his new duty station. After seven days with no further information from either company (many times I receive shipping notices from other miniatures companies) I sent emails asking for updates. Old Glory responded within 24 hours explaining that they cast their figures at order but as they just got back from Historicon they were slightly behind, which I was happy with as they responded with good information. Company X however did not respond. The Old Glory figures arrived on July 27th at my son's address. On July 29th, I called company X and was able to speak with the owner who told me that my order was just being packaged and would be sent out that afternoon or the next day. I accepted this and happily shared the information with my son. As of today, August 14th, we have not received the rule book nor any further communication from company X. I am not very pleased.

I order from various wargaming companies (and wargames who have listed in the Marketplace here) all the time and apart from a single lost order that the post office claims they delivered but never hit my mailbox (it wasn't the seller's fault at all) I generally get my stuff in less than 3 weeks. I live in North Carolina in the USA and I get stuff from the UK within 4 to 10 days shipping time. This item is going from eastern Canada to California. So, am I being unreasonable or is my frustration justified in your opinion?

I'm not going to name company X in this thread. I'll wait to see your responses first.

Doubtless the owner and family have taken ill with that dreaded disease which tends to afflict only companies that owe their customers merchandise. Hopefully some day a cure will be found and everyone can receive their merchandise.

Did you check first with TMP to see if other people have had issues with company X before ordering?

You should have it by now, ask them for a tracking number.
I always send an email to my customers the day an order ships with tracking info.

Send them an email with the copy of the receipt, asking if it has shipped yet or not. Like Stan says reputable companies will always send a return message with a tracking number right after a purchase is made.

If you bought it using PayPal then you can file a complaint with them. I almost always purchase using PP for that very reason. However I would use that as a last resort because it tends to lock up the issue until PP deals with it.

Another option which would be a very last resort. If it was sent to you using USPS within the U.S. you can file a complaint with the U.S. Postal Inspector. I have never had to do that, so don't know much about it. So you need to do some research. You can threaten them with it. That I have done before. Copy the PI on the email.

It's funny how when you call to look for an order it always happens to be on a day where it has just shipped. That or is in the process of being shipped…

File a complaint with your Credit Card Company. Again it may lock up matters for a while.

Thanks for the responses SJ, OC & CC. I will ask for a tracking number but as they have not been responsive I am not expecting that to go well. As for checking TMP first, company X is a long term respected name in the industry and I could find nothing negative on TMP about them in Consumer Affairs.

Coming from Canada a tracking number may be hard to come by. Also, Customs might have something to do with the delay…

OK, so I'm going to play devil's advocate ONLY because a similar situation happened to me a few years ago, also with a Canadian company, in my case RAFM.

First: There's no excuse for not communicating with you. That's just rude and poor business practice. Let me get that out of the way. I called RAFM and spoke to them regarding my issue, detailed below. They were polite and responsive and I have no complaints.

However, with regard to the delay in shipping, it can happen from Canada, and it may not be the company's fault. Maybe not often, but it does happen.

Like I said, I ordered from RAFM a couple of years back, and it took me almost 5 weeks to receive my order. I even called RAFM to ask what was going on. It turns out my small package was delayed in customs for reasons unknown. Neither RAFM or I knew this at the time. I have since found that shipments may be held in customs for inspection, and if your package is part of a big lot, then it sits there until the entire shipment gets cleared. My postmaster told me that.

This is the only time I had to wait an inordinate amount of time for a Canadian shipment. I ordered from Bob Murch several times, and he's farther away from me than RAFM is. I never had a delay on his shipment.

In other words, aside from the lack of communication (not cool), it may just be bad luck, and not the company's fault.

To be clear: RAFM didn't delay shipping. Customs did.

RAFM is a-ok with me.

I've waited as long as two full weeks for figures from Bob Murch in British Columbia. As PzGeneral says, I don't think I've ever gotten a tracking number for international mail.

Based upon The Angry Piper's response, I'm going to give it some more time.

Another comment on RAFM. Several years back, my son ordered some Charlie Company figs for me for a Christmas gift. Took almost 6 weeks after Christmas to get them and he ordered in November. They were responsive to email and had shipped the product soon after they got the order. Issue is mainly Canadian Post. Other orders have been received within one or two weeks. Shipping method is probably the issue. Canadian Post is not the most reliable.

On another note, I have purchased canes from a Canadian company and got my order in a week. But they ship by either Fedex or UPS. Hope that helps.

Semper Fi

Sam

Based upon my experience at work, it is easier/faster to receive a package from Europe than Canada. And vice versa. I'm not sure if it is US or Canadian customs that holds things up, but it happen with great regularity.

The only around it is to send it via FedEx (easier to do at a work than out of my pocket).

Good Luck

In my experience Canada Post is the worst mail system in the first world.

I live near their border and once shipped something about 20 miles over. It took almost 6 weeks to get there.

While that is my most extreme case of ineptitude, waiting 3-4 weeks for anything to or from Canada is my expected norm. That is based on a few hundred parcels over a 30+ year period.

If the order is coming from Canada and the delay is at customs then it would be U.S. Customs doing the delaying. Canada Customs has its own rich history but for packagies arriving in Canada, not the other way around.

If not a tracking number, this is past the point at which you should receive some response from the manufacturer to confirm that the order has shipped.

That said, when you have a necessary delivery date--housewarming or other present, or a scheduled game--usually best not to cross national borders. There's a whole range of potential glitches which needn't be the fault of anyone connected with the hobby.

I regularly get parcels from Canada to Australia in about a week, shipped by Canada Post.

Always ask for shipping by EMS and ask them to send you the tracking number by email. It is really trackable internationally unlike the cheaper 'trackable' services which really aren't, all they tell you is that it has been received by the Post Office, if you are lucky they will tell you it has been delivered somewhere.

Of course none of this really helps if someone just helps themselves to your parcel while its in transit.

A minor update: I called company X earlier and left a message asking for an update. Within a few hours they called me back and confirmed that it was indeed shipped on 29 July. So, it would seem the issue is the Canadian postal service. For those of you who shared your RAFM stories I had to chuckle since company X is RAFM but since they returned my call in a prompt manner, I won't slight them for communications. However, when I order from them in the future, I will pay more for a better means of shipping.

Canadian post service Can be totally erratic but things show up eventually. Best in class for wargames is UK, of course :)

There is some sort of a slowdown in the mails going on here in Ontario this summer. Everything – from multiple sources – has been delayed all summer. The only exception I can think of is something from Zenit (in Spain) which seems to have taken about a week.

I purchase running caps from Ciele, a Canadian company, and typically receive them in 7 – 10 business days. I live in the Southeastern U.S.

Perhaps there is something about lots of small, metal objects in a box that causes delays when going through Customs?

I have received items ordered from the UK quicker than I do ordering from within the US.

Update: The rules were delivered yesterday. All is good in the world again.

There are many companies that have a poor rep for customer service. RAFM isn't one, and it's important to recognize when an issue is the fault of the company and when it's beyond their control. Your story sounded familiar, so I thought I'd share my experience. I didn't know it was the same company until you said do.

Glad it all worked out!