vendor problem

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Postby NZcaver » Dec 24, 2007 1:34 pm

VACaver wrote:As far as shipping to a customer, I never mail anything...it's UPS of FedEx only. Sure, it's a bit pricier, but not much. More important, it provides a history. When a customer calls and complains about not receiving his order, I can look it up and tell him when it was delivered :oops:

Personally I'd never again use UPS by choice. They really do suck. Over the years I've had bad experience after bad experience with lost packages, poor service, grumpy employees and agents etc. UPS tracking is great, but what can you do when it says your package was "successfully delivered" to some random address half way across the country? This has happened to me more than once when sellers have chosen to ship UPS. Plus I've been hit with $12 shipping charges for bite-sized items which you can mail for $2.

FedEx has never been a problem for me, but then I've only sent/received packages using them a few times. USPS isn't perfect (what is?), but with all the flat rate options, electronic postage, delivery confirmation and free pickup they really do outshine UPS for reliability, convenience, and cost - in my experience.

Sorry for ranting again folks :rant: but when people talk about how great UPS is, some things just need to be said.

In fairness to all, perhaps it would be nice if vendors gave their customers the option of how they wanted items shipped. Some already do.
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Postby VACaver » Dec 24, 2007 1:43 pm

NZcaver wrote:
VACaver wrote:As far as shipping to a customer, I never mail anything...it's UPS of FedEx only. Sure, it's a bit pricier, but not much. More important, it provides a history. When a customer calls and complains about not receiving his order, I can look it up and tell him when it was delivered :oops:

Personally I'd never again use UPS by choice. They really do suck. Over the years I've had bad experience after bad experience with lost packages, poor service, grumpy employees and agents etc. UPS tracking is great, but what can you do when it says your package was "successfully delivered" to some random address half way across the country? This has happened to me more than once when sellers have chosen to ship UPS. Plus I've been hit with $12 shipping charges for bite-sized items which you can mail for $2.

FedEx has never been a problem for me, but then I've only sent/received packages using them a few times. USPS isn't perfect (what is?), but with all the flat rate options, electronic postage, delivery confirmation and free pickup they really do outshine UPS for reliability, convenience, and cost - in my experience.

Sorry for ranting again folks :rant: but when people talk about how great UPS is, some things just need to be said.

In fairness to all, perhaps it would be nice if vendors gave their customers the option of how they wanted items shipped. Some already do.


I've been screwed by UPS, and they're not my first choice, so I do let the customer pick.
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Re: vendor problem

Postby mgmills » Jan 1, 2008 9:48 pm

NZcaver wrote:
volica wrote:
mgmills wrote:Regarding credit card purchases. A lot of vendors require a minimum purchase to use a card.

As it states here: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20010418a.asp
retailer requiring minimum amount is violating a CC company contact.
I pay for my coffee refills in 7/11 with CC.

Good point! I forgot about that. As I recall, there's also a similar rule stating merchants are forbidden to add a surcharge to purchases for using a credit card.

Sure enough, IMO states a minimum CC purchase amount of $20 on their website. Wonder how that flies?


Sorry for the late reply but life got in the way and I didn't follow this thread after I posted. Actually, I just checked the IMO website. It isn't a minimum only on Credit Card purchases. It is a $25 minimum on any mail order purchases regardless of how you pay. I should have checked my facts before making my original post.
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Re: vendor problem

Postby Squirrel Girl » Jan 1, 2008 10:00 pm

NZcaver wrote:Good point! I forgot about that. As I recall, there's also a similar rule stating merchants are forbidden to add a surcharge to purchases for using a credit card.

Sure enough, IMO states a minimum CC purchase amount of $20 on their website. Wonder how that flies?

I believe that goes state by state. I remember a number of years ago, complaining about a surcharge a speleovendor added to credit card purchases. I was talking to a cave diver with a shop. She clued me in that she couldn't add a surcharge in FL, but he could in VA.

Perhaps the minimum order is a similar thing.

As I recall, most states forbid any restrictions. But it's possible things have changed, too.
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Re: vendor problem

Postby NZcaver » Jan 2, 2008 9:36 am

mgmills wrote:Actually, I just checked the IMO website. It isn't a minimum only on Credit Card purchases. It is a $25 minimum on any mail order purchases regardless of how you pay. I should have checked my facts before making my original post.

Where were you looking? All I saw was this:

ORDERING

Minimum mail order is $10.00; minimum charge purchase is $20.00.


http://www.innermountainoutfitters.net/policies.php

Squirrel Girl wrote:
NZcaver wrote:Sure enough, IMO states a minimum CC purchase amount of $20 on their website. Wonder how that flies?

I believe that goes state by state. I remember a number of years ago, complaining about a surcharge a speleovendor added to credit card purchases. I was talking to a cave diver with a shop. She clued me in that she couldn't add a surcharge in FL, but he could in VA.

Perhaps the minimum order is a similar thing.

As I recall, most states forbid any restrictions. But it's possible things have changed, too.

Interesting, but I'm still confused. I don't think individual state laws have much to do with this issue, because it appears to be a term of the vendor's binding agreement with Visa, Mastercard, etc as shown in the link volica posted earlier. To quote the article, "it's not illegal -- it's just not allowed in their contracts with the card companies."
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Re: vendor problem

Postby mgmills » Jan 2, 2008 10:32 am

NZcaver wrote:Where were you looking? All I saw was this:

ORDERING

Minimum mail order is $10.00; minimum charge purchase is $20.00.


http://www.innermountainoutfitters.net/policies.php



I never found that statement.

What I did was "pretend" that I was going to order 2 $1.50 bulbs and I got a statement that said a minimum order was $25. At that point I had not been asked for method of payment.

Sorry to have dragged this thread :off topic: from the original poster's question.
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Re: vendor problem (actually a customer problem, IMHO)

Postby Bill Putnam » Jan 2, 2008 8:38 pm

Personally, I would feel rather silly making this kind of a fuss over a $4 order for 3 feet of webbing that could probably have been obtained locally at an army surplus store. But then, I would most likely have paid Howie to repair my old harness or sew me a new one at the convention rather than trying to save $10 by spending hours doing it myself. Time is money, as they say. But to each, his own.

By the way, has anyone stopped to consider how much (actually, how little) profit a vendor makes on a $4 order? Gross margin is typically about half the manufacturer's suggested retail price, or in this case about $2. Subtract from that the cost of labor, pro-rated office or plant expenses, advertising, insurance, etc. Even if you value the vendor's time at minimum wage, so as to figure the bare minimum overhead, given the time it takes to fill and ship the item it's a losing proposition for the vendor. We should be grateful they don't all have a $20 minimum order. I wouldn't blame them if they did.

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