I just got an email this am saying my shipment will be arriving later than expected which was the 10th, went to the website to cancel and it’s been shipped and arriving on the 7th. Plus I get the discount next order. Go figure!
That happened to me too - apologetic email with a code for $10 off, then the next day item ships and arrives on time. I used the $10 off for a bucket of mag pellets and they were shipped and arrived within a week.
I feel like the only person on the face of the earth not getting $10 off emails.
Hmpf.
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It’s not just you - I don’t ever complain and stuff has mostly been making it on time (just in time or day or two late) but yeah, I’d like $10 off!
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It’s one of those “almost good” $10 off - it’s $10 off a purchase of $50.
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I used SmartPak for a while and also had to rattle the cage over the last couple years. For the last year I was using SP, I had my guy on a magnesium supplement and it was more cost-effective to buy from SP when factoring in the discount/perks I got as a subscribing member which I mostly used for everyday items (fly spray, hoof oil, etc.). It wasn’t vital that he got the next batch of supplements on time but it was frustrating when there were delays. I’m sympathetic because I have worked in retail in the past and am an ER nurse in a level 1 trauma center – I am intimately familiar with the supply chain issues, labor shortages, etc. that are ongoing, plus, as I said, he was not going to die without the supplements nor I if I did not get my 139528th piece of clothing from the sale bin 
But I didn’t really like the getting pity discount. I felt like $10 was only enough to cover the cost of something small and/or disposable – which is helpful when you go through a bunch of fly spray in the summer, for example. It feels like a small discount/reward when you pay the company a lot over time. But it also made me wonder, if you can’t even get my original order out on time then why would you offer another order to me? Wouldn’t the extra orders just slow down an already overwhelmed system? 
I would rather them just be upfront and let me know that they cannot get orders out at their desired/usual rate. Just ship a, say, 45-day supply of supplements instead and keep me informed.
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Me too! I do Valley Vet and Chewy now 
A side note on Chewy. They have also gotten bad about shipping, my orders keep getting broken into multiple orders with multiple shipments. The last order came in 3 different shipments, the first two came fairly quickly but the last part of the order, the one with most of the items is still enroute. This one got shipped from NC to GA and then to NM, all my orders in the past have come from TX or AZ, its the same things I always order, did they change warehouses?
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Glad/ not glad to see this thread pop up again.
I placed an order on 9/4 from SP for the holiday sale - 5 items all in stock with one item customized. By 9/26ish only the customized item showed up and I couldn’t locate shipping emails or tracking info for the rest of the stuff. I later get an email for my “return” for the remaining items - after 30+min on hold SP tells me UPS sent the items back return to sender for “access code” issues. Interesting. I get deliveries via UPS nearly daily for my work and they know there is no access code required and every UPS shipment EXCEPT SP made it on time without issues. Rep apologized and offered to place the order again with free express shipping, sounds good. Get the receipt for the reorder a few hours later for $40 MORE than they charged me originally for the same exact items. Another 30+ min hold call in to SP to find out they actually charged me for that free overnight shipping, whoops. They refund that and add a $35 credit to my account. Promise up and down order will arrive by Monday at the absolute latest. SO. Tuesday rolls around and I get the email from SP “we’re so sorry your order is late! Here is $10 off $50”. Bet your a$$ I called in again, managed to get no wait time this time. Spoke at length about how ridiculous it is to be almost a month out from the order date still not have my in stock non customized products, have to call three times, etc. Promised again order would go out that day and arrive the next day. Mention my autoship that I canceled due to it not arriving (but not before they could bill me for another shipment) and they put in a free bag in the mail and found that was ALSO return to sender so for it rerouted to me. One bag was supposed to arrive today (lol nope) and one is supposed to arrive Monday. Unfortunately the autoship IS important - it’s my horses grain! I don’t know what I’m going to do. I also have two bags coming from NRS World (at this point I have two regularly scheduled, but separate shipments, bags from SP auto ship + the free bag they sent + two bags ordered in one shipment from NRS so will be set for a while but good lord).
I give the CS Reps credit for doing their best but good LORD this is insane. I have been a customer for over a decade and spent many a dollar with them. They aren’t Amazon big but they aren’t no mom and pop either - this type of mess with shipping is straight up unacceptable, especially when our animals health is on the line. My horses have been out of grain (despite the autoship supposedly coming a MONTH before I need it) for over a week now.
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I had called about my auto ship orders being delayed every month. They sent me a free month of supplements because I was running out in between auto ships. They were able to complete that order and ship to me in less than 3 days. Yet my monthly auto ships are still getting delayed. I just got that email again last week.
I just don’t get it…
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My auto ship orders (I have 2 different ones shipped to 2 different barns) have been late for the past 3 months or so. And I’ve received emails when the orders have been delayed more than once.
I’m not sure why they’ve not sorted this out yet as it’s been going on for a while.
And while I know it’s an automated system I was really annoyed when I got an email saying my payment failed the day the automatic charge hit my account. Reason it failed, I forgot to update expiry date. THEN I got another email saying that shipment was delayed.
ETA: first world problems I know.
I have recently gotten 3 different items from smartpak. A cooler, a blanket and some supplements. They all got here quickly. Like old days ago quickly. (2-3 days). Am I just lucky or have they improved delivery times?
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I got a couple of items and a bucket of a supplement and it arrived pretty quick. I think the general consensus is that it’s the auto-ship services that are jacked up specifically - not necessarily normal one off ships.
Could be wrong on that but that’s what I gathered.
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My poultice + paper order arrived in about 1.5 weeks. I did barn saver shipping so they only ship out on Wednesdays. It still took a while to be processed, but it was better than the previous disaster experience I had with them.
That being said, my most recent order for MSM, I opted to shop elsewhere and pay about 30% more for the product itself AND I paid for shipping because I knew it would actually ship and show up on time, and I’ll continue to do so because I just do not trust SP anymore.
After 4 months of shipping delays on my SmartPaks, this month was back to normal. I contacted customer service last month because I was very disappointed that they were late yet again. SP was nice enough to upgrade my shipping to overnight just so my horses wouldn’t go without their supplements. They also told me that they had just hired more people and were hopeful that the shipping issues would be resolved in the next few weeks. This month was a good surprise that they shipped out on time.
I’m still a bit leery that the shipping issues will return but I’m willing keep going with SP at this point.
I feel like things are getting back to normal with their shipping times
Missed this thread earlier… Count me in with the delayed orders. This has happened repeatedly for both auto ship (a month for supplements for multiple horses) and individual orders. I’ve received the discount code, which was nice, but I’d much rather have everything on time.
What has irked me with all of the delays is that I was somehow charged on time. As in, not charged when the order was shipped, but the month earlier and then forced to wait for it to arrive ridiculously late and after my horses had been without their supplements for too long. It’s nice that they had my money to use for their business. I wish I’d had the products I’d paid for…
SmartPak can be a great product resource. This hasn’t been their year. If it happens again, I’m going to have to look for another, more reliable option.
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I was notified of a delay on my September shipping. Normally I’m far enough ahead of myself that it isn’t an issue as I have enough to tide me over for a couple of weeks. But this time, I was going out of town and needed the supps to make up an extended period of time’s feed baggies for the barn and I was going to be a few days short of supps. Not the end of the world, I can work around it. But more importantly, I didn’t want the box sitting on the porch for 3 weeks, out in the weather and signaling our absence to the world.
I called them to ask them if nothing else to hold the shipment for a couple of weeks. They actually shipped it out overnight so I had it before I left.
I was just looking at a supplement that only SP carries, and it costs almost 50% more per day in bulk than in SmartPaks! Seems totally backwards to me. I don’t use SmartPaks and don’t want to, especially given the experiences on this thread. But what the heck?
Incentive to have something on auto ship. It makes customers more likely to spend time on the site/order other things from them because of the perks (free shipping, discounts on some things, etc.) which are only available with an auto ship order. Can you put a bucket or bag on auto ship? Sure, but in general customers are probably far more likely to just do the Smartpaks on auto ship than a bag or bucket.
There are no mistakes or oversights with that stuff, it’s all calculated down to the penny to maximize $$$ just like any other business.
