No, they have never been this glitchy, I ordered over the holidays before with no problem- 10 yr customer here.
The monogram I had asked for in the free sale was added to my cart (ie- I specified what I wanted) but then when CS submitted it on my behalf it lost that info, and they would not own up to the mistake. (I had a promo code to use, which didn’t work, so that is why I handed it off to CS).
It’s so hard to use the website with the promos only applying to certain things, and you can’t see it show up till the billing page etc. its hardly worth it. I buy my bulk SP supplement and just go else wear.
I can’t speak to smarpak specific issues but this week shipping nation-wide is being hammered. Two major shipping hubs in the south were closed on Monday due to weather (UPS Louisville KY, which is their main hub, and FedEx Memphis TN). My job involves nationwide shipping and this week is baaaad for random weather events slowing or shutting airports/exchange hubs. CA is also being impacted and the projected weather (snow??) is expected to continue to delay things in the south. Even packages leaving unaffected areas are getting tied up in a few areas because trucks and planes are held up…
Not an answer for a chronic trend anyone is seeing or dealing with but if shipping is slow this week, that might be why!
I ordered a couple saddle pads from Capstone Collections. I meant to do it on Cyber Monday, but didn’t actually place the order until Wednesday. She gave me Cyber Monday pricing and helped me choose which saddle pads to order. The pads arrived less than a week later and even my DH (who “hates” it when I order horse stuff) commented on what beautiful pads they are.
I haven’t ordered from SmartPak in awhile, but always had pleasant interactions over the phone.
I messaged them last night for an order that should have shipped out on Wednesday (was ordered last Saturday, but waited for barn saver shipping). They told me they are running at least 5 business days behind on shipping currently.
That is crazy and not acceptable IMO. Stop accepting orders until you get caught up. You’re only putting yourself further and further behind if you continue. Sorry about the lost business but I don’t understand how retailers continue to act surprised by Christmas which is on the SAME DAY EVERY YEAR.
I ordered something from Nordstrom on sunday, they told me it would arrive January 7. You have got to be joking?
I’ve never understood this. Planes leave airports in Massachusetts, Minnesota etc in several inches of snow and ice but there is “weather” in a very mild area like Tennessee and the whole nation shuts down? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not like a) weather or b) demand is a surprise in December. But 100% of the time it will be blamed for service failures.
Its 2017 and yet companies whose sole business is logistics seem to not be able to handle planning.
My orders were venice turpentine and a deal of the day Kensington tote. I got the tote even though my account online says the item hasn’t shipped yet. Still waiting on the hoof stuff. I’m not upset, but things definitely seem more discombobulated that years past.
I can’t really speak to how they plan on handling it, but a lot of it has to do with infrastructure. Airports in the midwest/northeast (think Boston, NYC, Chicago, Minneapolis) are typically equipped for snowfall and ice early on in the season. It’s the same with road maintenance too, as far as I’m aware. They have salt, trucks, staff, etc, because they’re used to needing them & can budget/plan accordingly.
However, when places that aren’t meant to have to expect snow get it, they’re left hanging. They might not have salt/sand purchased or readily accessible, odds are good they don’t have snow-moving machinery (or plans) in place. So that’s why certain regions really stall out when there’s unusual weather in certain locations. O’Hare, in Illinois, getting five inches of snow: Sure things might be slowed up but things will probably get out. But Atlanta getting two inches of snow might not have the planning, equipment, or people on hand to manage it.
Combine that with how reliant they are on planes making it to places on time, and it’s pretty easy to see how things collapse if one or two major locations go down. Even if it’s decent weather in Dallas, TX, for example, but there’s a snow or storm event that shuts down Memphis, the plane that was meant to leave TX never got there because it’s still stalled out in TN and there’s not really any “spare” planes that they have on standby to go “Hey you’re free, go to this location because X plane couldn’t.” The last time I really learned about this, we were told about how planes/trucks that aren’t moving, are wasting money. Keeping them travel-ready but empty means they’re putting $ into upkeep, but getting no return. So the number of transit vessels that any given company uses is generally carefully determined based on supply/demand/regional traffic so they don’t have excess. It’s weird. Interesting and complicated, but weird.
And doesn’t really do anything about the frustration when you’re trying to get things ordered and shipped on time. And it sounds like there’s some stuff happening with Smartpak now that are definitely beyond weather-related, reading some of these stories.
Right. I am still disappointed. I want to give the benefit of the dobut but they did NOTHING to try to make it right. Just oh, not our fault, actually yes your CS person lost my monogramming info in the submission because I was forced to do that because the promo code didn’t work AGAIN.
I also dislike how where you ship something affects the promos, seems like it doesn’t apply if you ship to home vs barn. It’s all way too confusing.
Put the promo code entry on the CART PAGE, not the BILLING where you have 3 screens in between. I don’t want to do all that work to find out the promo isn’t going to be applied to that item. It should not be so conditional. I’m not sure if I’m just misunderstanding but long time customer 10 yrs now, didn’t seem to have these problems before.
if they know it’s Christmas, since it happens on the same day every year;
it costs them money to have planes not moving;
then why not
Prepare your hub facilities for weather events? Or locate them in places where weather does not shut down the entire state for 1 inch of snow?
The cost to them of not meeting their shipping commitments has to be close to or exceed the cost of maintaining equipment so they don’t have to shut down their NATIONAL HUB for what would be a completely non-event anywhere else.
Of course this has nothing to do with Smartpak. The Smartpak shipping problems appear to be internal and have been going on for over a month now based on this thread.
It is wildly unfortunate that weather events happen that slow things up. It gets so very frustrating! That said, there are logistical reasons why they have the hubs that they do involving geography, time zones, infrastructure and probably climate, too! No place is going to be a perfect option, which is a bummer. It’d be very nice to have something set up perfectly and run with zero hitches! Unfortunately that’s not the reality we live in.
I would be very curious to see companies release their plans/contingency plans to see what they’re doing in anticipation of big shipping events/being proactive (black friday/cyber monday/christmas shipping) and then how they’re adapting those plans year after year to try to improve themselves. I think transparency would really help consumers (and maybe even make it easier to hold them accountable for terrible policies/practice, if that’s the situation).
I would be very, very curious to see Smartpak’s especially. I’ve only had one really negative shipping experience with them (like, two? years ago) but it was also a late november order that I didn’t end up getting until January. But there was a shipping issue plus backorder issue on that so hopefully that doesn’t happen to anyone here!
My BIL is a captain for FedEx. They had bad thunderstorms go through memphis Monday evening, and they do the vast majority of their flights at night. The planes were grounded for several hours and Memphis is THE hub for FedEx.
They’re also taking forever and a day to process returns. I sent something back that arrived on November 30th. Just today I got the email saying it is being processed. So 11 days just to start processing it? The time before was 8 days, which in my opinion is also pretty long BUT that was over Thanksgiving.
I love how Amazon issues your refund as soon as they see the return has shipped!
Add me to the “recently developed issues with SmartPak” club :no:
When I used to live in Boston, I could order something off the SP website on a Monday afternoon and it would be at my front door Tuesday night when I got home from the barn. AMAZING (and frankly - dangerous!). We moved to VA a year ago and now that Monday order might get to me on a Friday, or maybe the following Monday. Still, no big deal…until recently.
Made the decision to move to a hunter training barn over the Thanksgiving weekend, so I went on the SP website and ordered a new custom halter, a bunch of name plates to throw on my current bridle, martingale, leather girth, etc., as well as embroidered standing wraps, saddle pads, coolers…(the new barn has a laundry service so I’m just making sure nothing gets lost in the wash, how’s that for rationalizing?!?). Anyhow, I thought that a month would give me PLENTY of time for everything to arrive before we move at the end of December. Joke is on me - NOTHING from that order has shipped yet and we’re mid December now. I know EVERYONE wants their customized stuff for the holidays, but I thought I would be able to get my stuff before we move at the end of the month…but according to the CS rep I talked to yesterday, she can’t promise me a delivery date yet.
Meanwhile, my orders from Horseware Ireland and Riding Warehouse were all delivered within 2-3 days (although none of that was monogrammed or engraved).
Q
I love SP and hate to be That Customer, but come on…
In this culture of “instant gratification” its unfortunate how adapted we’ve become to getting things immediately. I placed an order with SmartPak last week and did notice it took a couple extra days to ship, but no big deal, I’m assuming they expedited the shipping because it actually turned up unexpectedly on the original arrival date anyway although I didnt expect it for a few more days. So thanks SmartPak for making the extra effort. I’ve always been more than happy with SmartPaks service and products. I have noticed huge delays in shipping, supposedly as fall out from Cyber Monday. Ive had other shipments (USPS Priority! ) that took a full week. So I dont think its just Smart Pak.
Kick back, relax, and understand that there are far worse companies out there you could do business with.
This is fine if the company is honest about it. It is not fine to say “ships Thursday” and then ship it 2 weeks later after taking the customer’s money, giving them no information about the delay unless you call them and complain.
I don’t get this “just be patient you young whippersnappers who can’t wait for anything” the items aren’t even shipping. It has zero to do with postal traffic/shipping services and smartpak continues to lead people to believe that things will ship so that people will keep buying from them and then doesn’t even tell the customer or make it right. That is not acceptable so it’s fine if you don’t mind kicking up your heels and waiting weeks for your items but other people want what they spent money on and were promised.
The traffic delays just compound the issue issue since once your stuff finally leaves it takes even more time to arrive. Are you fine with just never getting your stuff, ever? Because that’s the natural extension of what you’re saying.
I have been a long time user of Smartpak. I hadn’t ordered anything in a while but my last 2 orders didn’t ship when they said they did and I had to return them as I was trying to find a pair of breeches I liked. Returns are taking way longer than they used to. In the past returns took a couple of days after receipt and now they are taking unto 10 days after receipt of them. If they are so backed up, they should hire more people to work in the warehouse.
