what do you expect (in terms of receiving shipment) when buying expensive gear online?

[fishhugger]

just wondering what you guys accept in terms of safety of receiving (expensive) fishing stuff online.  i've chiefly dealt with big retailers, and never had problems. if a shipment is damaged - they generally accept responsibility. no problem. if i return something - no problem. i don't recall what's happened with missed deliveries, etc... 

just bought a slx baitcasting combo online from a retailer i've never dealth with before. part of it was misdelivered. when i called, the attitude from the retailer was - you can file a police report, contact your post office, etc. it's all on me. they did their job. all on me once it's shipped in my general direction.

i'm pretty inclined not to shop with them again. i did receive the rest of my shipment, after a trip to my post office, but with 'customer service' like that --- i ain't happy. and, if i needed to return something that was damaged, or simply wanted to return the items under their return policy,  --- i wouldn't expect 'smooth sailing'. i don't need that aggravation.

 

experiences?

 

happy shopping and shipping

[bulldog1935]

Only the shipper can run a trace or file a claim, and that should be their first reaction and action.  

 

They should apologize for your inconvenience (even though it wasn't their fault), reassure you that you're covered, no matter what, and they'll make sure it's straightened out, even if that means shipping to replace the lost stock.  

I've only had one package mis-delivered, happened to be Fed-Ex from Japan.  

The seller by e-mail did everything I just stated.  

Whoever received my package by mistake placed it on my driveway the next afternoon.  

All solved.  

 

A lot of the of the shipper/seller reaction, especially on the phone, is going to depend on yours.  Place the blame in the right place and ask them for help.  

 

Certainly this happens a lot more to them than to you -  they ship a lot more than you receive.  

If you don't trust them that much, file a claim through your payment source to get a refund.  

 

and btw, paypal's "safety net" is now 180 days - that's half a year.  I'm guessing you weren't willing to wait that long to buy it to begin with, and also not to get a refund and buy another.  

[fishhugger]

i explained the situation pretty calmly and plainly to them.  which is, usps stated it was delivered, but i checked all around my house and no trace. i even looked the next morning, lol. the reps stance was: you can file a police report, contact your po, etc. no apology. nothing. to me, it was clear they felt it was all on me, not them. when it left them, it was not their concern anymore.

if it's that bad with a wrong delivery, i can't imagine what it would be like with damaged goods or a return. personally, i don't want that kind of potential headache.

but i think i'm, maybe like others, kind of naive... i expect if there's a problem with a shipment, that the seller will make good. now, i no ------------ they don't have to, actually.

just wondering what others experience or expect. and the stuff i got wasn't even *that* expensive... although $139 is not nothing... i guess it's back to good old jeff bezos. maybe we can send him to mars next... (he went into space recently).

[roadwarrior]

I only use PayPal for my safety net.

[J._Bricker]

Sorry to hear about your situation @fishhugger, and the past year hasn’t help with shipping problems. Just like everyone else, I expect is my stuff to arrive intact and on time. But then again SNAFU’s do happen. And as @roadwarrior mentioned, PayPal is a great to have in your corner when and if an issue arises 

[new2BC4bass]

2 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

Only the shipper can run a trace or file a claim, and that should be their first reaction and action.

Good to know, but....  Years ago I bought a used Daiwa Light & Tough casting rod off a fishing forum.  Arrived broken.  Seller said he was also a Daiwa dealer and would take care of it for me.  Rod still sits in my basement.  I never did get a replacement or a refund.  Never heard from him again.  I actually have 3 broken rods in my basement that I never got a replacement for or a refund.  Luckily none were expensive and were spread out over several years so I ate the loss each time.

 

[Spankey]

I guess rods and reels would be my bigger purchases. I generally would not buy either of them sight unseen or not touched first. But not that I never have. They were through TW. I trust what they do. But I do have a tackle shop that will order me in rods that I like to see. Cabelas will do the same thing. But I go to the store and take the ones I like. I’d never order anything directly from Japan or China. Don’t need anything that bad to do that. I’ve heard nightmares about those purchases. 

[txchaser]

HUCA (hang up call again) might get you a better result.

[CrankFate]

I don’t know. I had lots of misdelivers: The post office, Amazon and UPS. I eventually got my packages, though.

The mail and delivery systems are crap these days. I am thinking we are going to see more and more sellers refusing to take responsibility for misdelivers because you can’t even trust the United States Post Office anymore. There are mail carriers getting arrested and fired for dumping large batches of mail in dumpsters now a days.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

To play devils advocate, I have first hand experience in parcel delivery and can tell you it’s not as easy as it looks from the outside. Nothing ever is.  Misprinted addresses, wrong addresses, gps errors, the human element, hidden properties, and my all time favorite the unmarked address. Now recently you add on the massive volume increase compounded by staffing shortages both due in large part to the pandemic and you have the perfect storm for delivery hiccups. Once product is shipped, the seller has no control over what happens or how long it takes and never had any responsibility for it. They could eat one here and there in the name of good will but the buck has to stop somewhere. Mitigate your exposure by making sure your house and mail box are clearly marked, add instructions to hard to find properties, retrieve packages ASAP, know your regular carriers and choose delivery locations to thwart porch pirates. Use existing channels to address issues like lost or damaged packages immediately. Hope this helps someone. 

[Boomstick]

I have bought from a handful of online vendors. The larger retailers, Bass Pro, Cabelas, Tackle Warehouse, Tackle Direct and Tackle Supply Depot and *** are pretty much always not a problem and if there is a problem customer service will take care of it. The worst problem is generally not having what you want in stock, and possibly pandemic related shipping delays.

 

There are several vendors who sell on ebay and/or Amazon I have had good experiences with as well (tricetackle, departureoutdoors), so I tend to stick with them. Of course, there are some sellers I wouldn't touch either who may actually still be legit too.

The only bad experience I have had was with one vendor who shipped a rod in several maybe 18 inch triangle shaped boxes that were taped together to make them longer. The rod arrived in the shape of a C and broken in multiple places. I sent a picture of the package to the vendor and they sent me a return label without issues. UPS then failed to deliver the package and after about a month sent it back to me as a damaged return, but when the UPS driver went to deliver it he asked what happened, I explained it was a return. It took another couple months for UPS to actually send it back to the vendor, but a little after the first month the vendor recognized the issue was not my fault and refunded my money. I have bought two other rods from the same vendor with no issue.