Out of stock

[Headdamage]

After two weeks I should not have to contact a vendor to ask where my parts are then be told they are out of stock... the vendor should contact me to tell me this themselves and they should change their website to say they are out of stock.

 

[JES2020]

After two weeks I should not have to contact a vendor to ask where my parts are then be told they are out of stock... the vendor should contact me to tell me this themselves and they should change their website to say they are out of stock.

Who's the vendor?

 

[tomjasz]

After two weeks I should not have to contact a vendor to ask where my parts are then be told they are out of stock... the vendor should contact me to tell me this themselves and they should change their website to say they are out of stock.

We all expect every business to have an Amazon response. s*it happens. The shop I help has had a PayPal nightmare. Total nightmare. Give your seller a shout. There may be a good reason. Bike parts are low margin products, no one deserves a public flogging without me finding out why they dropped the ball on my order.

 

[ki11a]

Yeah I think everyone got spoiled by Amazon Prime a bit, me included.

 

[RandallS]

Integration between the stock database and the front end website is relatively simple these days.

However many vendors still struggle and unfortunately they drive more customers to the big guys like Amazon.
A lot of it was caused due to the fact that they often didn't in fact have any stock, and were just ordering from the manufacturer's warehouse, marking it up, and re-shipping.

BUT - after a reasonable amount of time, let's say 3 or 4 business days, even manual updates should be the norm.
If they have sales volumes that make that impossible to manage, then their profits need to be re-invested in some automation.

Having said that, my last order form Amazon has been royally screwed up and even after a week, I have no idea when the item will arrive.
Non bike item so not an emergency
And that's on a low cost item that, when I ordered it, was supposedly arriving the next day "if I ordered in the next XX:YY hours and minutes".

My $0.02 FWIW

 

[tomjasz]

Integration between the stock database and the front end website is relatively simple these days.

With the right IT people. Currently in webpage hell and not able to access that SIMPLE integration.

 

[Headdamage]

I am trying to be nice and give them a chance to sort it out, however another dealer does have the item in stock and I'm concerned that if I give the first place another week or two to sort it out I might end up not being able to get it at all with the current shortage of bike related parts.

 

[RandallS]

I am trying to be nice and give them a chance to sort it out, however another dealer does have the item in stock and I'm concerned that if I give the first place another week or two to sort it out I might end up not being able to get it at all with the current shortage of bike related parts.

For companies that I deal with regularly, I will typically cut a lot of slack in this regard.
One bike shop I use all the time now screwed up a big order - "owned it", and the manager got involved immediately to do what he could to make it right.
They get my business... and I send them more.

Not all succeed - and I recognize that it was the same for my place of employment as well before I retired. Each customer interaction is important.
Each time I use a new business, it's their first and sometimes last opportunity to get me to return.

With the right IT people. Currently in webpage hell and not able to access that SIMPLE integration.

It should be simple, but certain foundational decisions when opening an online storefront are hard to undo.
I haven't done any of that in over 15 years now, and the knowledge levels of a lot of developers now astounds me.
In both ways! +

 

[NightRider1]

I am trying to be nice and give them a chance to sort it out, however another dealer does have the item in stock and I'm concerned that if I give the first place another week or two to sort it out I might end up not being able to get it at all with the current shortage of bike related parts.

I have had similar experiences with various dealers in recent times. My advice on this case is therefore, don't make yourself a victim by giving these incompetent guys even more time, don't mess around with them, cancel the order and change the trader immediately.

 

[tomjasz]

I’m sorry but n00bs to the eBike world are largely ignorant regarding commerce with China. This past year has been a logistical nightmare. And putting all issues on your favorite or once favorited reseller is market ignorance.

 

[JES2020]

I have had similar experiences with various dealers in recent times. My advice on this case is therefore, don't make yourself a victim by giving these incompetent guys even more time, don't mess around with them, cancel the order and change the trader immediately.

AND help others by telling who the vendor is !

 

[tomjasz]

AND help others by telling who the vendor is !

Not without giving the seller a forum for the rest of the story. And often there is more to the story. We've seen dozens of bashing threads over the years and we often see this problem. One-sided bashing. No time for it here... I ask OP by PM if I think I need to know.

 

[Luto]

Talking with my LBS, all part sourcing is going to be very tough again this summer. They said SRAM is telling them 700 days for some build kits.

 

[creativepart]

I feel your pain, but I saw an article this morning that there are 26+ container ships, mostly from China, queued up outside of the Port in Los Angeles. And each was a large container ship with 10,000 plus containers. The issue was all the big ships with so many containers that getting a ship unloaded, moving the containers to trucks and rail lines plus staffing for all the modes of travel was extending the time it took to handle one ship. So, they were backing up in the harbor.

 

[Gionnirocket]

1.There are many valid reasons for shipping delays.
2. There's not many good reasons for taking a customers money for an item that you don't have in stock and then fall silent well beyond the expected delivery date.
1 does not justify 2

 

[Bitmugger]

I had a similar experience with an automative parts dealer. They took my order told me they'd call me on day X when it comes in, I called on day X+1 and they were like "oh yeah, we forgot to order it". I was in a jam so continued to stick with the order but never again will I deal with them.

 

[NightRider1]

Of course, there are always exceptions where a trader is outstandingly reliable and honest. If an item is difficult to procure and is also offered on your own continent only at exorbitantly high prices, then I think it is quite justified to accept longer delivery times. The last case I had in this regard, I had to wait more than five weeks for airmail delivery instead of just 2 weeks. However, this was no surprise, as the friendly trader (from Japan) had expressly pointed this out to me beforehand. That's why he got a correspondingly good rating of his service from me.

 

[Headdamage]

The kit showed up April 26 and is now on the bike, works great!

 

[Bitmugger]

Glad for the happy ending! Bike looks great except go to the dollar store and splurge on some colored zip ties. Those white ones stand out too much, lol.

 

[Headdamage]

I did buy some black ties and the dam things are so weak they brake just doing them up. Said screw it and used the strong white ones for now.