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How many excuses do you take before canceling an order?

JonathanD

JonathanD

Dec 13, 2006
3,068
22
Atlanta, GA
#1
How many excuses do you take before canceling an order? Bass gear, but I am not naming a manufacturer.

I have been waiting on something for a while I was told it would ship out on may 3rd at the latest. May 5th I ask if tis shipped and there is something gumming up the works. Next week it will ship...

I wait 10 days and call back(13th or so). Its something else and will ship on friday.

May 19th I call because 2 weeks have passed and this time its something else. Always someone else's fault. It will ship out by this friday they say(the 23rd). I get home on the 26th and look for a tracking number. None. I call 2 times and leave an email all by the 27th. Nothing.

I call again on may 30th and they say once again it will ship by the end of this week. So I am thinking that if it does not ship by friday I will have to cancel the order. I needed the product May 12th. I sold the other cab I was replacing because I assumed May 3rd at the latest meant May3rd or before.

I like the people I am talking to, but its just getting out of hand. I have had to borrow or rent bass cabs in place of this cab and it has cost me $70 which dips into how much I make at shows. Also, I HATE having to be the guy who borrows other peoples crap.

Am I out of line here in canceling the order this Friday if it does not ship.
 
#9
JonathanD said:
I was told it would ship out on may 3rd at the latest. May 5th I ask if tis shipped and there is something gumming up the works. Next week it will ship...

I wait 10 days and call back(13th or so). Its something else and will ship on friday.
Click to expand...

For my money, here's the spot I would have told them not to bother shipping on Friday 'cause I'm canceling.

The issue for me is the lying rather than the delay. Had they originally said that it would probably ship by May 3rd, but that it might take until June 15th, I'd be okay with the delay. But there are too many extremely good amps, cabs, and effects made by ethical builders for me to give my money to a company that plays fast and loose as standard business practice.
 
#10
we're in some kind of service crises. I went to a couple independent auto service repair shops to ask about some work on my wifes car. They both said they'd have to schedule me a drop off time to leave it for a day or so cause they can't hire enough service techs manpower to take on the job and it was even suspect if they could start / finish at the est time they told me.

Quite a few new independent restaurants have opened in my fast growing community outskirts of Houston area and I find the service there too is very slow or very inexperienced. And one thing that urks me most is when I am at a store counter food, tires, other to be helped, they will take a phone call and start serving the phone customer while I was there talking to them first. And many times it will be in great detail that the customer will have questions of stock, menu, etc. I was there first, I drove to your business, I am hear ready to buy. Please finish with me first and make them hold cause they are only asking about a possible purchase, I am there ready to buy. Maybe that's the problem, I am there so I can wait seems to be the pattern.

I've worked in the service industry and I know you can get swamped and wait times seem forever sometimes. Just seems like businesses are not hiring the amount of experienced help they need to run their business efficiently. Oh Ive also had it with online music stores taking an entire order, with my CC info, ship info, size, color, style, etc only to find at checkout cart that the item(s) is backordered with no expected date. But the amount shows up on your CC or bank statement like a pending charge. I called one place and she says "Oh that's so when we do charge you, you will have the funds available" Well with no telling when your item will be in stock why should I commit to buying it from you, take it off now. My worries is there don't seem to be a whole lot of young folks moving into the service industry, auto repair these days, so it may only get worse. So your call on when you should cancel maybe be sure you can find the item or better service elsewhere first, it may not happen. :rollno:
 
#11
There are a lot of customers that are far more tolerant than you've been, since for some reason they seem to think the end product is somehow magical - which is why this vendor is able to get away with it. What can you do. Cancel it on principle for your own peace of mind, and hope other customers do the same, but don't hold your breath.
 
#13
The increase in fuel costs are affecting delivery of parts, equipment and other goods globally, from what I understand. There is a driver's slow down among truckers, and a number of independent drivers have pulled their trucks out of service do to high cost of operation. It wouldn't surprise me that this is part of cause for delays for this company and others.
 
#14
Do you have any experience with other products made by the same company? Are they good, moderate, bad, excellent????
Having to pay to rent gear is a big downer. Waiting for real direct answer can be aggravating for sure.

Back in the early 90's I waited for my 5 string bass to come in from Japan. Wait time 6 to 8 weeks. Then a few more weeks. Then a few more weeks. I ended up waiting 8 months for that (standard production model) bass: Sept 1991 till May 1992. I still have that bass, and it is one of my favorites still - after purchasing 9 other basses since then. Sometimes the wait is worth it.

All I can say is weigh your options. Sorry to hear that you have had so much trouble. :hmm: Best of luck to you.
 
#18
As a manufacturer myself (albeit not of anything bass-related), I tend to look at situations like this from the other side. Sometimes orders get lost. Sometimes what the plant floor tells the sales dept. is inaccurate. Sometimes you are at the mercy of your suppliers. Sometimes shipping companies screw up too. Sometimes "stuff" happens. I hate it, but it does.

However, I try to take that all into account & under-promise and over-deliver. If I say it will take 2-3 weeks to ship out you can be pretty sure that it will be in your hands by that 3 week mark. I hate waiting more than what I'm promised, so I try to treat my customers with that in mind. Sometimes delays are unavoidable, but this instance seems to be excessive.
 
#19
[ My worries is there don't seem to be a whole lot of young folks moving into the service industry, auto repair these days, so it may only get worse. So your call on when you should cancel maybe be sure you can find the item or better service elsewhere first, it may not happen. :rollno:[/QUOTE]

I think you're onto someting here. I daywalk at a car dealer,shopside, and I see your first point clearly everyday. I like to eat out so I can see your second point as well. I'm seeing alot of people who want to start at the top. Nobody wants to do the dirty jobs. Even Mike Rowe has to beg for suggestons for his show. As far as musical equipage?, I always like to do biz face to face. This is becoming very difficult. No one stocks much of what I shop for. As that's so?, I have to do biz on the net and it's been spotty at best. The smaller guys respond fast,and for the most part accurately. The Chains? well, I was taught,"if you got nuthin' good to say....?" Almost always a call follows the order. A note here; Did youknow that there;s a tie in between Musician's Friend and Guitar Center? I didn't until they screwed up an order for tuning pegs.(1=a set? not the first 3 times it didn't) we have the same process at work. No one at corporate knows what we do,some of them don't even own cars. That was once a prerequisite, you know? ahving some knowledge of your product. Now it seems that all you need is the ability to operate a PC and deflect phone complaints. Sorry if I digressed. I 'm done now, carry on
 

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