• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Is Kalium having issues or is this normal?

Some stuff from FB for those not signed up to the black hole:

Some stirrings of communication from customer service, confirming what i suspected:
"Thom > The move and the NAMM show crunch has got us more than a little backed up, Pete. We apologize for the delays but we are most definitely getting on the backlog."
But obviously they should communicate and notify when they're overwhelmed.

A post by Chris:
"So a lot of people have been complaining about delayed or missing orders, we know it sucks big time when an order is late or goes missing, so I was on with usps customer service yesterday and was lovingly informed that 2 day flat rate shipping is only an estimate and not a guarantee, in fact the usps considers 14 days the acceptable time table. Even a simple google search shows us that (see image below) so my question to all of you is would you pay $2-$4 more for shipping to actually guarantee o n time delivery? Should we be using FedEx instead? At least they give a refund on shipping if it's late. Thoughts?"
They are seriously considering changing their shipper to FedEx.

With as much junk that I've bought and sold over the last 10 years, I've never had a Priority Mail package take more than 3 days either way. Never. I probably average 4-5 packages a week. Even First Class (which could only be used for maybe 1 set of strings) takes no more than 7 days coast to coast. So I'm not sure what 14 day shipping method they are using, maybe they just simply need somebody that knows more about shipping?

I'm not saying that USPS has never had a late or lost package, but for it to happen to the majority of Kalium's shipments? Something is not right there.


.
 
When i ordered, about a week went by before i sent an email asking what was up. I got a reply the next day, which was statement of shipment with the tracking number. Prior to that, i received the usual confirmation that the ship label had been printed.
The 2nd time I ordered, i went ahead and emailed the same day. Got the ship notice the next day.
Im not a business owner, but I have the impression that their shipping method isnt the hangup...its them getting the strings out. Either way, their carrier isnt really something that shoukd be up for a facebook poll. If thats the problem, then change carriers. No brainer.
 
With as much junk that I've bought and sold over the last 10 years, I've never had a Priority Mail package take more than 3 days either way. Never. I probably average 4-5 packages a week. Even First Class (which could only be used for maybe 1 set of strings) takes no more than 7 days coast to coast. So I'm not sure what 14 day shipping method they are using, maybe they just simply need somebody that knows more about shipping?

I'm not saying that USPS has never had a late or lost package, but for it to happen to the majority of Kalium's shipments? Something is not right there.


.

Sounds like they would rather blame the shipper than themselves. Continued bad service.
 
  • Like
Reactions: el_Bajo_Verde
Yes it seems more likely to me the recent delays are not due to shipping but due to backog or otherwise. 14 days is stated as an extremely pessimistic possibility by USPS just to cover themselves.
However, Chris was referring to lost orders too.
 
Last edited:
I ship USPS Priority a lot and have for the last 11 years.
Last week on 1/18 I sent a parcel from Virginia, it was on the addressee's doorstep in California on 1/20.
My experience with USPS has been excellent ~

Lots of folks rave about the strings. I placed my first order with them 2 weeks ago, 'still waiting for shipping notification. I guess they're busy.
 
Last edited:
I paid for strings about 3 weeks ago. Listed as in stock. A week later sent an email. No reply. A few days later, one more email. No reply. Tried messaging them on Facebook. No reply. Finally escalated it via Paypal. Supposedly they're shipping strings soon.

3 plus weeks for product listed as in stock. Not responding to customers. As far as I can tell, they're just not minding the store, or don't get that customers should be first priority.
 
I ship USPS Priority a lot and have for the last 11 years.
Last week on 1/18 I sent a parcel from Virginia, it was on the addressee's doorstep in California on 1/20.
My experience with USPS has been excellent ~

Lots of folks rave about the strings. I placed my first order with them 2 weeks ago, 'still waiting for shipping notification. I guess they're busy.

Seemed like they were quite busy at NAMM with "new products".
 
  • Like
Reactions: Garret Graves
I ship USPS Priority a lot and have for the last 11 years.
Last week on 1/18 I sent a parcel from Virginia, it was on the addressee's doorstep in California on 1/20.
My experience with USPS has been excellent ~

Lots of folks rave about the strings. I placed my first order with them 2 weeks ago, 'still waiting for shipping notification. I guess they're busy.

On Friday at 7:30 pm I called PayPal to ask if it was possible to cancel payment. I was informed in order to stop payment I would have to initiate a claim and then PayPal would reach out to the vendor who would have 11 days to respond. I said ok, never mind, I'll just see what happens. Apparently they misunderstood me and my call to them actually initiated a claim.
The next day at 2:30 I received two emails from Kalium regarding my order and shipping info. Just now I received another email and the order is in the USPS system, status 'in transit to destination'
 
micguy, otaypanky, i have no idea if this is the case for your orders, but they are apparently re-shipping lost or long-delayed orders:
Chris on FB > "we just re-shipped about $900 in "delayed orders" in the hopes something gets there soon"

Also weirdly, according to Chris, they do take orders to the post office within a few days but the package is then sitting in the USPS system for a long time during which the tracking shows "PRE-SHIPMENT INFO SENT TO USPS, USPS AWAITING ITEM". This is then giving the wrong impression that Kalium are waiting 1-2 weeks before taking orders to the post office.

I have no idea if this is actually the case or not, and yes it is contrary to other's experience of USPS, but let's keep an open mind about this, it seems possible the delays are indeed mostly USPS' fault.
This doesn't excuse the poor communication though of course.
 
Last edited:
Also weirdly, according to Chris, they do take orders to the post office within a few days but the package is then sitting in the USPS system for a long time during which the tracking shows "PRE-SHIPMENT INFO SENT TO USPS, USPS AWAITING ITEM". This is then giving the wrong impression that Kalium are waiting 1-2 weeks before taking orders to the post office.

What they are doing is printing the shipping label as soon as the order comes in, but not actually shipping. David at SGD used to do this to buy some time to make you think your pickups were on the way, but he never intended to ship anything. That's obviously not the case with Kalium, it just appears they print the label and use it as some sort of internal order tracking until they have the product ready to ship.

But if they are telling you that they have a postage paid package ready to ship, then they hand it to a postal clerk, then it sits at the post office for 2 weeks then that is a load of bull and I would be very wary of dealing with Kalium. That cannot, and will not, ever happen. You can look at your tracking and see when it was actually accepted at the post office.
 
Ok i was wrong again, thanks, it was not too clear what Chris was saying on FB yesterday. Today he is saying that the order delays are indeed partly due to their move, NAMM and being backlogged, as i suspected before and as their customer service guy has explained. So it seems there have been delays in them taking orders to the post office.
What they are doing is printing the shipping label as soon as the order comes in
Yeah and i guess this is what triggers the "PRE-SHIPMENT INFO SENT TO USPS, USPS AWAITING ITEM" tracking.
 
Ok i was wrong again, thanks, it was not too clear what Chris was saying on FB yesterday. Today he is saying that the order delays are indeed partly due to their move, NAMM and being backlogged, as i suspected before and as their customer service guy has explained. So it seems there have been delays in them taking orders to the post office.

Yeah and i guess this is what triggers the "PRE-SHIPMENT INFO SENT TO USPS, USPS AWAITING ITEM" tracking.

Exactly. Label printed and paid for, but package not submitted to USPS yet.