Buyer Beware: JP Angler

[KP Duty]

Ordered a rod (6-9"XH poison glorious) and 13 megabass jerkbais from jpangler.  Ordered this the weekend of Nov. 7-8th, and received the jerkbaits lightning fast on Wednesday the 11th.  No rod.  I check my email for tracking, and they only attached one tracking number to my order, which corresponded to the box of jerkbaits I received.  I email jpangler asking if they had shipped the rod, and if so, give me the tracking number.  No response.  After 3 weeks of emailing them to mo avail, I opened up a paypal claim.  That was almost two weeks ago, and just yesterday JP Angler FINALLY responded to paypal and agreed to refund my money.  Never received an explanation.  Oh...and yes, I have ordered a reel from them before, and I am just as surprised by this as a few others will be.

[WRB]

You may want to revise the title.

Shipping rods is difficult today. I shipped a rod in a stronge TW tube that was lost for 31 days, when recieced it was broken in two pieces. I sent USPS a claim only to be turned down because The claim was sent after 30 day from initial shipped date! Still fighting the claim. Your rod may have been lost!

Tom

[Bankbeater]

There has been a lot of forum activity lately about rods that are lost or arrive damaged.

[FishTank]

Shipping everywhere has been compromised.  I have a package of fishing stuff that has been sitting in Portland for a month.  USPS says they are down to less than 1/3 of the staff at that hub.  Covid and a workers' dispute has done a number out there. 

[Columbia Craw]

I have a package still sitting in Portland mailed 12/7 to another member.

[Terran Elam]

I’ve had a few delayed USPS packages lately. They all had tracking numbers though.

[thunderblack]

Plan on 2-3 week wait on certain packages. Rod tubes have been sitting at several locations with no tracking updates.

[FrankN209]

I ordered some things from a online dealer, after two weeks of not getting it, i received a refund. Then almost a month later, I got the product in the mail. The retailer told me to just keep it because of my troubles. I've had other things sit at a fedex depot a few miles away from me for almost two weeks. It's been really bad this year. 

[tander]

It's a mess for sure. This is a bad time to be ordering anything. Ordered 2 small items for my boat. The second item which I ordered 2 days after the first got here first besides comes the furthest distance. I did a notice on ebay that I have not received the item. Tracking showed it at a main hub for nearly a week. The seller email me back that it has moved and it's headed my way.  Strange my tracking didn't show that. Don't think I will order anything anytime soon.

[bulldog1935]

USPS has been messed up since April, recovered a bit, and got messed up again for Christmas packages.  Japan Post didn't even try, they just shut down in April - current status is running domestically, but not shipping EMS to international hubs because of dependence on airline routes.  

In April, I had an Express Mail package get routed from Chicago ISC into Canada and delivered 6 weeks later.  

I think the point is buy from the big brick and mortar shops in Japan.  

They all scrambled to work out shipping with DHL, UPS and Fed-Ex (none go through Chicago or LA ISC, but Anchorage and Cincinnati ISC).

DHL and Fed-Ex deliver from Japan in in 3 or 4 days - UPS a little longer, because they shut down on weekends and holidays. 

Buy enough to make $25 shipping worth your while -  and especially Asian Portal, if they have what you want in stock, $100 purchase gets free DHL Express, and with their already discounted prices.  

My last Japan Tackle purchase was shipped on a Friday and delivered on Monday - DHL - I was floored.  

Anything from random ebay vendors, you're taking a gamble, but a friend on FFR recently bought two Japan rods on ebay and had 2-week delivery.  

[schplurg]

It's shakier than usual for me too, no matter what I buy (amazon, fishing....). Not too bad, but a few orders have been late, a few others refunded me because of no stock. I'm surprised it's been as good as it has really.

 

I bought an Ugly Stik Elite light for some trout fishing. The biggest guide wasn't aligned well and I thought about exchanging it, but nobody has any! They are a few weeks out at Bass Pro which is where I ordered it, but I see none available anywhere else.

 

I ended up being able to align the guide (by "pushing" the next 2 guides into alignment rather than trying to move the big one, which I couldn't). Now the whole thing is perfect.

 

Point is I'm better off keeping what I already have than screwing around with a return. Christmas won't help matters either.