SmartPak

[beowulf]

@netg

I suspect after tomorrow I will be a former Smartpak customer.

My girth broke this morning. No one at the barn has the right shape for my mare to be most comfortable, and I want a comfy girth for her, particularly before going out on trails this weekend. So this morning I looked for options to get guaranteed delivery tomorrow. SmartPak had it for the right kind of girth, I ordered… hadn’t gotten shipping info yet and looked on my order page. Expected delivery 5/14. @#^$ing EXPENSIVE overnight air shipping, and expected in 4 days? Already too late to order from somewhere else to get it by tomorrow, but I contact customer service. “Oh, shipping is behind. We’ll try to get it out tonight, but if we don’t we’ll refund your shipping.” No, no you won’t. If you don’t get it out tonight, you will cancel that order and my smartpaks and I will never spend another cent with you.

The BS excuses, the intentionally fraudulent sales cart issues - nope. You screw up so I can’t order from someone else in time for something which affects my horse’s comfort? I’m done with you. IF they get it here on time, I won’t cancel my smartpaks but will look around to see if I like other options better.

And I would miss Piper breeches.

I admit I am not completely behind this mentality.

I’m sorry your girth broke – but if you need one immediately why can’t you go to a tack store? Online shopping is that, online – it’s done at the convenience of the shopper so they don’t have to go anywhere… but the item still has to ship.

I think four days is reasonable considering it’s Thursday - most companies do not ship out orders same day as placed, so you’re already looking at it shipping out Friday at earliest – Sat and Sun are not business days… So if your girth wasn’t expected until 5/14, that means you placed the order after the 1 or 2 PM cut-off for same day delivery, which means it won’t go out until Friday and yes, “overnight shipping” would be Monday because that is the next business day. If you paid for SAT Overnight that is different, but regular Overnight is actually not O/N on non-business days. That’s not SP’s fault, that’s Fedex, UPS, and other major carrier’s fault.

That and the “If you don’t do X now, I’ll never shop with you again…” The people who help you in customer service are not the same people who find your item in the warehouse, package it, put it in a box on a truck – and often, those jobs all have different people too… So to dump on them is a little unfair since they’re not the reason the warehouse is behind…but they’re the people that get all the angry customers because of it…

[Denali6298]

I always tack things onto my supplement order and have yet to pay for shipping. I understand it’s not feasible to wait all the time but that’s when I just go to a local brick and mortar store.

[soloudinhere]

@Denali6298

I always tack things onto my supplement order and have yet to pay for shipping. I understand it’s not feasible to wait all the time but that’s when I just go to a local brick and mortar store.

How lucky for you to live where there IS a local brick and mortar store. The nearest decent one to me is over an hour and on the other side of a major city with hellacious traffic. No thanks.

[Denali6298]

@soloudinhere

How lucky for you to live where there IS a local brick and mortar store. The nearest decent one to me is over an hour and on the other side of a major city with hellacious traffic. No thanks.

Oh I never said it was decent. Decent would be 2.5 hours to Middleburg. And even the local one is 45 minutes away.

[netg]

@beowulf

I admit I am not completely behind this mentality.

I’m sorry your girth broke – but if you need one immediately why can’t you go to a tack store? Online shopping is that, online – it’s done at the convenience of the shopper so they don’t have to go anywhere… but the item still has to ship.

I think four days is reasonable considering it’s Thursday - most companies do not ship out orders same day as placed, so you’re already looking at it shipping out Friday at earliest – Sat and Sun are not business days… So if your girth wasn’t expected until 5/14, that means you placed the order after the 1 or 2 PM cut-off for same day delivery, which means it won’t go out until Friday and yes, “overnight shipping” would be Monday because that is the next business day. If you paid for SAT Overnight that is different, but regular Overnight is actually not O/N on non-business days. That’s not SP’s fault, that’s Fedex, UPS, and other major carrier’s fault.

That and the “If you don’t do X now, I’ll never shop with you again…” The people who help you in customer service are not the same people who find your item in the warehouse, package it, put it in a box on a truck – and often, those jobs all have different people too… So to dump on them is a little unfair since they’re not the reason the warehouse is behind…but they’re the people that get all the angry customers because of it…

1. There is NO local tack shop to which I could have gone. I rarely used online stores while we had local tack shops because I wanted to support local tack shops.

2. You didn’t read my whole post. “@#^$ing EXPENSIVE overnight air shipping, and expected in 4 days?” They have a guaranteed delivery day, and it was early enough for guaranteed delivery today. Only they weren’t sure when they’d get around to it since “shipping is backed up” - in which case a guarantee for delivery today should not have been an option. I’m fine with a company not being able to guarantee next day delivery - I specifically looked for someone who would. And by the time I got the runaround of “well, maybe we’ll do it, maybe not” from customer service, it was too late to get someone else to ship overnight. I will not make the mistake of believing SmartPak if I have an immediate need again, and will go to their competitors.

3. My package actually DID show up today (and it was not given to UPS until after 7pm, so I have no idea how it made it here, since we’re not a major hub for them to fly in/out of), so that’s good. But between the seemingly intentional scamming of people with their sales not working properly on their site, documented in many threads here, and their inability to keep their promises - I’ll think again before ordering more products from them. This company used to be known for customer service, and now they’re known for being totally unreliable.

[beowulf]

@netg

1. There is NO local tack shop to which I could have gone. I rarely used online stores while we had local tack shops because I wanted to support local tack shops.

2. You didn’t read my whole post. “@#^$ing EXPENSIVE overnight air shipping, and expected in 4 days?” They have a guaranteed delivery day, and it was early enough for guaranteed delivery today. Only they weren’t sure when they’d get around to it since “shipping is backed up” - in which case a guarantee for delivery today should not have been an option. I’m fine with a company not being able to guarantee next day delivery - I specifically looked for someone who would. And by the time I got the runaround of “well, maybe we’ll do it, maybe not” from customer service, it was too late to get someone else to ship overnight. I will not make the mistake of believing SmartPak if I have an immediate need again, and will go to their competitors.

3. My package actually DID show up today (and it was not given to UPS until after 7pm, so I have no idea how it made it here, since we’re not a major hub for them to fly in/out of), so that’s good. But between the seemingly intentional scamming of people with their sales not working properly on their site, documented in many threads here, and their inability to keep their promises - I’ll think again before ordering more products from them. This company used to be known for customer service, and now they’re known for being totally unreliable.

I did read your whole post. Overnight shipping if you missed the Thursday cut-off wouldn’t get you a package until Monday.

“@#^$ing EXPENSIVE overnight air shipping” – overnight shipping is based on overnight business days. You did not say “Saturday Overnight” which is entirely different than regular, standard overnight.

Since you didn’t make the distinction, it seemed that standard/regular overnight was your selection. I was just trying to open your eyes (since most people don’t realize that O/N and other expedited shippings run on business days and not actual days) a bit so you understand there is a process and a deadline for cut-offs each day. Overnight has a cut-off, and it’s 1-2PM for most vendors. FYI, to my knowledge companies like Dover and SP don’t ship out during weekends unless you pay for Saturday Overnight.

Again, I just don’t get the mentality. I’m not saying you’re a horrible human being but one bad interaction (which didn’t even end up being a bad interaction!) and you’re about to toss out the baby with the bathwater and are badmouthing a company that thus far, has served you just fine.

It sounds like you have a CS elf that saw to it you were not without a girth… CS reps really do bend over backwards for customers and it’s a shame that so many of them receive the brunt of customer disgruntlement when they (rarely) are the reason for shipping delays or order issues.

[bt1]

Anyone else notice there supplement orders auto shipping a wee bit early lately???

[netg]

@beowulf

I did read your whole post. Overnight shipping if you missed the Thursday cut-off wouldn’t get you a package until Monday.

“@#^$ing EXPENSIVE overnight air shipping” – overnight shipping is based on overnight business days. You did not say “Saturday Overnight” which is entirely different than regular, standard overnight.

Since you didn’t make the distinction, it seemed that standard/regular overnight was your selection. I was just trying to open your eyes (since most people don’t realize that O/N and other expedited shippings run on business days and not actual days) a bit so you understand there is a process and a deadline for cut-offs each day. Overnight has a cut-off, and it’s 1-2PM for most vendors. FYI, to my knowledge companies like Dover and SP don’t ship out during weekends unless you pay for Saturday Overnight.

Again, I just don’t get the mentality. I’m not saying you’re a horrible human being but one bad interaction (which didn’t even end up being a bad interaction!) and you’re about to toss out the baby with the bathwater and are badmouthing a company that thus far, has served you just fine.

It sounds like you have a CS elf that saw to it you were not without a girth… CS reps really do bend over backwards for customers and it’s a shame that so many of them receive the brunt of customer disgruntlement when they (rarely) are the reason for shipping delays or order issues.

Again.

There is a “guaranteed delivery by” date. It’s insanely expensive to get overnight air delivery. With guaranteed date. It is there BEFORE you complete your order, based on time.

You’re just trying to be an argumentative pain, I get it. But you’re also wrong.

And there are other reasons I have issues, too. There are now multiple threads about shipping problems, multiple threads about problems with them cheating people on sales. This is the straw, not the only thing. And I never SAID it was the only thing. But again, you are just trying to be an argumentative jerk. Whatever, your choice. But it just shows who you are.

[beowulf]

@netg

Again.

There is a “guaranteed delivery by” date. It’s insanely expensive to get overnight air delivery. With guaranteed date. It is there BEFORE you complete your order, based on time.

You’re just trying to be an argumentative pain, I get it. But you’re also wrong.

And there are other reasons I have issues, too. There are now multiple threads about shipping problems, multiple threads about problems with them cheating people on sales. This is the straw, not the only thing. And I never SAID it was the only thing. But again, you are just trying to be an argumentative jerk. Whatever, your choice. But it just shows who you are.

Hoookay then.

It’s possible to have a conversation with someone you don’t agree with, without insulting them or calling them an “argumentative jerk”. Disappointed to see that from you.

I was just trying to point out, again, that if you placed your order after cut-off hours, that it wouldn’t ship out that day - same goes for weekends, if you place an order after deadline before the weekend… People really have no idea there is a a daily cut-off or that shipping runs on business days even Overnight ones. You’d hardly be the first person to be surprised by it.

Anyway, off my soapbox now. Glad you got your girth so you can trailride this weekend - hope you send your CS a thank you email.

[IndysMom]

What I found interesting is that the supplement bucket that’s supposed to last 112 days only lasts 91 days. hmmm. I weighed the bucket and I weighed the included cup. Yes indeed, according to my calculations it would last only 91 days…I’ve dated it and if this second bucket only lasts 91 days I may be researching other options!

[enjoytheride]

@IndysMom

What I found interesting is that the supplement bucket that’s supposed to last 112 days only lasts 91 days. hmmm. I weighed the bucket and I weighed the included cup. Yes indeed, according to my calculations it would last only 91 days…I’ve dated it and if this second bucket only lasts 91 days I may be researching other options!

I was at an event and a vendor made it clear that their supplement only lasted the listed number of days if the scoop was level which I thought was really helpful as a lot of people don’t level off their scoops.

[soloudinhere]

Wait, after all that you got your girth as promised but you’re still pissed off?

[IndysMom]

@enjoytheride

I was at an event and a vendor made it clear that their supplement only lasted the listed number of days if the scoop was level which I thought was really helpful as a lot of people don’t level off their scoops.

I leveled the scoop when I measured it.

[SLW]

I have found that SP shipping has improved since the big mess last December when I thought I was done with them after the delay in receiving a winter blanket I ordered.

I accepted their “we are sorry and want your business” discount and ordered a pair of summer breeches in March. They arrived within 4 days. Last week I ordered a 17 pound supplement for one of my horses. I placed the order on Friday night and the product was at my home the following Thursday morning which is acceptable given the weekend and distance I am from SP.

[trubandloki]

@beowulf The system will only let me like your posts one time each. I just wanted to let you know that I get what you are saying and I totally agree with you.

@IndysMom

I leveled the scoop when I measured it.

Have you confirmed a dose is actually to the top of that scoop? Sometimes there is a line that is not all the way at the top of the scoop.

[IndysMom]

@trubandloki

@beowulf The system will only let me like your posts one time each. I just wanted to let you know that I get what you are saying and I totally agree with you.

Have you confirmed a dose is actually to the top of that scoop? Sometimes there is a line that is not all the way at the top of the scoop.

Yep, that was the first thing I looked for. Not one there.