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Ridiculous delay with SWFA Black Friday order...

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yenniedn

yenniedn

Member
Aug 9, 2015
2,618
1,125
Northern CA, United States
Hey AGN,

TL;DR: Ordered on 11/26, 3 calls over 3 weeks and 2 tracking #'s later, still no idea when the order will actually ship...

Every year, I pick up a handful of scopes from SWFA on their Black Friday sale and this year was no different. In years past, they would get the order shipped out within 2-3 days even with the spike in the number of orders for BF and the holidays in general.

This year, I ordered late on 11/26 when their BF deals went live and got a UPS tracking # the following day. Impressively quick turnaround!

A week later, the tracking # still showed "Shipment Ready for UPS" so I called them and they said that this was to be expected due to the large # of orders they got. They're working through the orders and mine should go out soon. OK, no problem - that's a reasonable explanation. Almost another week goes by and there's still no change in the shipping status so I call back a second time. The rep on this call tells me that they have all of the items I ordered and doesn't see why they couldn't fulfill the order that day so he'll pull the items and get them out that day. I thanked him and asked him if they could upgrade the shipping to some faster method since it'd been about two weeks since I paid for the items. He said no problem, he'd do that and get it out.

The next day (Thursday 12/10), I get a new UPS 2nd Day Air tracking #. I think: "YAY! My order's going to go out today, new tracking # will update on UPS site by Friday morning and I should have the shipment by Monday!"

Monday comes and goes - nothing. Tuesday, same. I just called them up again this morning for the third time now to ask for an update and the lady tells me that, yes, she upgraded my shipping to 2nd Day Air but there's "nothing" she can do to get my shipment out any faster due to COVID, large # of orders and blah blah blah. I said that there IS something you could do to get my shipment out faster, but its just that you WON'T do it (i.e. pull my order, walk back to the stock room, fulfill it, tape up the box and put it in today's outgoing pile for UPS). She insists and replies with: "No, there's nothing I can do to get your shipment out today or even this week. You have the new tracking # and when it's ready to go out, you'll get it in two days..."

Yes, I get it, it's the holidays and there's COVID. But when a customer has to call 3x over the course of 3 weeks and one of your employees previously stated a week ago that he would ship out the order . . . yet the customer has to call back again to follow up again on it, make the exception and fulfill the order. I'm normally pretty patient and would let the process play out but I think this is ridiculous. If it ships out next week, it'll be a full month since I ordered/paid - I've never seen an in-stock order take this long just to get processed.

Has anyone here received their BF order from SWFA yet?
 
I can appreciate your frustration, however I read from your post that you may have another or more scopes in your possession already from previous orders. Surely you can figure out how to get by in the interim.

I want to be respectful, and I am finding myself editing this reply over and over in real-time as I type so that I don’t come off as inconsiderate. But, sometimes there is no better way than to be blunt. I hope I don’t leave you with a lasting scare when I say this.. people are dying, a lot of people are dying...

You waited to purchase items on their Black Friday sale when they receive thousands of orders, no less in a major logistically problematic pandemic. To reap a benefit of the sale there is going to be an obstacle taking all things into consideration . I purchased some fog lights for my truck during a BF sale and it showed low stock when I placed the order. I got an email a few days later stating that they were back ordered. So be it, my life won’t end if I don’t receive them right away. 

Now that there are millions of vials of vaccines starting to circulate among major shippers, shipments of almost everything will slow even further..

If it weren’t for the fact that we were in a pandemic like none of us have ever witnessed, I would have your back. But alas, this world will lose a million or more lives by the time this is over. My sympathy is with those families who are suffering.

I hope you find solace.

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Everyday ,we all are going through the wait process,things are different this year,waiting is the name of the game,,,,I had to wait,and wait.I really think I may wait until next year to order anything,unless I order it from China and they use DSL...

Patience is a virtue.......sometimes you look at your tracking and it makes no sense,like why go 400 miles out of the way.....

Remember it could be worse.


 
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I can appreciate your frustration, however I read from your post that you may have another or more scopes in your possession already from previous orders. Surely you can figure out how to get by in the interim.

I want to be respectful, and I am finding myself editing this reply over and over in real-time as I type so that I don’t come off as inconsiderate. But, sometimes there is no better way than to be blunt. I hope I don’t leave you with a lasting scare when I say this.. people are dying, a lot of people are dying...

You waited to purchase items on their Black Friday sale when they receive thousands of orders, no less in a major logistically problematic pandemic. To reap a benefit of the sale there is going to be an obstacle taking all things into consideration . I purchased some fog lights for my truck during a BF sale and it showed low stock when I placed the order. I got an email a few days later stating that they were back ordered. So be it, my life won’t end if I don’t receive them right away. 

Now that there are millions of vials of vaccines starting to circulate among major shippers, shipments of almost everything will slow even further..

If it weren’t for the fact that we were in a pandemic like none of us have ever witnessed, I would have your back. But alas, this world will lose a million or more lives by the time this is over. My sympathy is with those families who are suffering.

I hope you find solace.

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Very well stated and totally and completely valid. I get it and do understand. You did a very good job putting it into perspective - waiting on some scopes that I don't have to have isn't nearly as dire as what a lot of other people are going through.

That's why I've been very patient and very pleasant with them up until this morning. In fact, I was fine even with the lady's explanation that they're still working on it but I guess what got to me was the fact that she claimed there was literally nothing she could do to change the situation. My bone with that is that there is definitely something she could do but she's choosing not to do it either based on company policy, personal preference or whatever. That's the annoying part to me.

But at the end of the day, you're absolutely correct - it's a minor inconvenience. Thank you for putting it back into perspective.
 
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You are taking the high road, I commend you for that.

I worked in wholesale decades ago. When we were stressed to capacity due to shipping issues and supply, drivers, weather, etc. we would break down. The only thing we could do was to explain the situation, or some of us froze and told customers simply what they wanted to hear. That was not the best course of action, but we are human and we were at wit’s end. 

Now, from the other side of the the road, SWFA perhaps should have posted notices explaining to expect the un-expected, but companies are struggling to survive..

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This sounds to me like they don't have the stock and are waiting on more to come in. There is no way they got enough orders to have a 3 week delay in the shipping/fulfillment departments. Maybe time to hire a few more seasonal employees.
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That's the thing, I asked the lady this morning if they were missing any items that would prevent them from fulfilling my order - and she said no. They just have to process it.

yen..has your card (payment) showing a charge??
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Yes, they've had my money in full as of 11/26.
 
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I received my Black Friday order from them on Monday. I wasn’t in any hurry and almost forgot I had ordered it. I know the shipping companies are getting hammered this time of year and with drivers and sorters out with the rona, that even makes things more difficult. Only regret is that I should have bought 2 SS fixed 10 with side parallax instead of one. I had called them before Black Friday because a lot of stuff was showing back ordered and was told that they were waiting on a shipment. Probably still are on some things. Good luck with yours!
 
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I received my Black Friday order from them on Monday. I wasn’t in any hurry and almost forgot I had ordered it. I know the shipping companies are getting hammered this time of year and with drivers and sorters out with the rona, that even makes things more difficult. Only regret is that I should have bought 2 SS fixed 10 with side parallax instead of one. I had called them before Black Friday because a lot of stuff was showing back ordered and was told that they were waiting on a shipment. Probably still are on some things. Good luck with yours!
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In this case, it's not even the shippers getting hammered . . . it's the retailer not getting around to fulfilling my order despite having the items in stock. Again, it's not the end of the world since we're talking about nice-to-have accessories for our toys but it still does leave you scratching your head a little bit.
 
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Oh man don't get me started with the problems when recently dealing with that company... I had excellent results in the past, but now most of the people there didn't give a poop to my order , however one guy in the trade department ( can't recall his name now) was instrumental to pushing thing's forward.

I was told by the rest of.the team basically that they have a boat from China coming with a big container and.this happens two times a year and that maybe it would have the contents that I want, but no idea when it will arrive? 

Seriously I'm not making this s*** up.

Donald
 
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