A small rant about shipping

Hypntick

So two days ago I ordered some RAM from Newegg.com. I go through check out and note that I have to pay sales tax, turns out they have a shipping facility here in town. Alright no big deal. I get my invoice and shipping confirmation. I note that the item shipped from the location here in Memphis. After a quick Google search it turns out i'm about 20 minutes away from the facility.

I think to myself awesome, I should get my RAM today then since it's just across town. So I check the tracking information today and discovered something that made me shake my head in confusion. For some strange and unusual reason DHL shipped my package not from the Newegg facility to my home or local USPS branch but to one of their sort facilities in St. Louis.

I call Newegg just to see if it's possible I pick my future shipments up at their facility, unfortunately that's not an option. So I search around for a DHL contact number to ask what form of twisted logic they're using. I think getting an appointment to speak with the President of the United States would be easier than getting a live human on the phone at DHL.

Needless to say i'm a little confused and annoyed at something that should have taken at most 1 day to get to me is now more than likely going to take a week or more. Thank you for listening. /rant

Plantwiz

Unfortunately, the issue is with DHeLl and not Newegg.

Newegg does not have a will call, so this not being permitted to pickup at a location makes sense (and frankly is a good business model for them).

Next time, opt for going with a regular carrier. DHeLl tends to hand off to the USPS which maybe why you will see a longer delay than you expected.

I understand this may be frustrating, but next time opt for your RAM to directly ship from Crucial or select a specific carrier from NE.

(I've gone through this too with regards of the shipping, not the will call issue.)

Hypntick

Oh I know it's not Newegg's fault at all. I opted for the free shipping so i'm sure this is part of the reason. DHL on the other hand is just about worthless. If it wouldn't have cost me about 10 bucks more I would have gone with the local boys, FedEx. At least with them I can request they hold my package at the local distro. center and pick it up when I want, no need to wait for a driver. I halfway considered paying extra for shipping but wasn't that impatient, however now that I know how DHL works, I think i'll invest a bit more money next time.

Bokeh

Although I like newegg's prices, I am not a fan of their shipping either. I ordered some software from them (since everyone locally was out, so was Amazon, and others). No problem, its in stock, says it ships the same day. Will be here in 3 days. GREAT!

Didnt happen. Took 11 days to get here. When I queried newegg customer service, I was told they must have 24-48 hours to pick the order, then another 24-48 hours to process, THEN they ship it 3 day select. Of course mine fell over the weekend, so that added even more days.

Ordered Thurs 9am, should have been here by Tues at the latest. Didnt come till the following week. They were gracious enough to refund the 1.99 shipping as a "one time act of goodwill."

SteveLord

Get what you pay for with regards to cheap/free shipping.

Devilsbane

When you pay for 5 day shipping, it takes 5 days (or more). Whether it comes from down the block or across the world. I've had orders that sit 3 days here in town waiting to go on a truck. You paid for a certain level of service, and they aren't going to go far out of there way to beat that.

Also with the sales tax thing, technically you are supposed to declare that on your income taxes. There is a line for you to pay up if a company didn't charge you.

earweed

Not to hijack the thread but just to add a rant of my own.
I worked for a Co. based out of state and they said they preferred we get our check Fedex and come to find out WE paid for the shipping of the check (app. $14) and the messed up thing is that whne the check arrived at the local dispatch if it was earlier than the estimated date of delivery they held it at the facility. Paying $14 to have a check delivered was bad enough but then having it ake as long as if it had been mailed made it worse. The mail delivery of the check had to be seriously flawed too as the postmark on the envelope was over a week before I got the delivery.

MentholMoose

Bokeh wrote: »

Although I like newegg's prices, I am not a fan of their shipping either. I ordered some software from them (since everyone locally was out, so was Amazon, and others). No problem, its in stock, says it ships the same day. Will be here in 3 days. GREAT!

Didnt happen. Took 11 days to get here. When I queried newegg customer service, I was told they must have 24-48 hours to pick the order, then another 24-48 hours to process, THEN they ship it 3 day select. Of course mine fell over the weekend, so that added even more days.

Ordered Thurs 9am, should have been here by Tues at the latest. Didnt come till the following week. They were gracious enough to refund the 1.99 shipping as a "one time act of goodwill."

I think that's rare. Newegg is well known for fast shipping. I've placed dozens of orders with them over the years, and I never have to pay for fast shipping or their "rush processing" since I almost always get it within 1-2 business days with the cheapest shipping.

The time it takes varies by the time I place the order, if I place it early enough on a business day, it will ship that day, otherwise it will ship the next business day. I only recall ever having one order take about a week to arrive, and that was because the item wasn't stocked in one of their nearby warehouses.

Hypntick

MentholMoose wrote: »

I think that's rare. Newegg is well known for fast shipping. I've placed dozens of orders with them over the years, and I never have to pay for fast shipping or their "rush processing" since I almost always get it within 1-2 business days with the cheapest shipping.

The time it takes varies by the time I place the order, if I place it early enough on a business day, it will ship that day, otherwise it will ship the next business day. I only recall ever having one order take about a week to arrive, and that was because the item wasn't stocked in one of their nearby warehouses.

Ordered the item about 3 pm on the 14th, knew it wouldn't ship that day. Item shipped at 10 am on the 15th. Then it went to St. Louis. got there about midnight that evening. By 9 am it had left St. Louis, no further updates on tracking. It is now the 17th and I still do not have the item that was literally within a bike ride of my residence.

SteveLord

MentholMoose wrote: »

I think that's rare. Newegg is well known for fast shipping. I've placed dozens of orders with them over the years, and I never have to pay for fast shipping or their "rush processing" since I almost always get it within 1-2 business days with the cheapest shipping.

The time it takes varies by the time I place the order, if I place it early enough on a business day, it will ship that day, otherwise it will ship the next business day. I only recall ever having one order take about a week to arrive, and that was because the item wasn't stocked in one of their nearby warehouses.

That's mostly fast processing. And where do you live?

In fact the rule I have with Newegg is, make sure you know what you want and everything you want...because there is almost no time to cancel afterwards. They're that quick.

Plantwiz

Bokeh wrote: »

Although I like newegg's prices, I am not a fan of their shipping either. I ordered some software from them (since everyone locally was out, so was Amazon, and others). No problem, its in stock, says it ships the same day. Will be here in 3 days. GREAT!

Didnt happen. Took 11 days to get here. When I queried newegg customer service, I was told they must have 24-48 hours to pick the order, then another 24-48 hours to process, THEN they ship it 3 day select. Of course mine fell over the weekend, so that added even more days.

Ordered Thurs 9am, should have been here by Tues at the latest. Didnt come till the following week. They were gracious enough to refund the 1.99 shipping as a "one time act of goodwill."

I've worked with NE since they lauched and each year spend many thousands of my customer's dollars there without issue. They have tweaked their shipping methods over the years, but overall, I get great service and if/why my shipping defaults to DHelL I opt for UPS (and on occassion Fed-x).

Regardless of the city I worked we always had trouble with DHelL (formerly Airborn) and some areas UPS is better than Fed-x, so these two balance, just depends on the sort facility the package routes through and the driver...otherwise, I currently get better service from UPS (two years ago, it was Fed-x I could trust like clockwork).

Perhaps due to volume, my account is flagged as something different than the average account, but I can always count on NE (at least for now ).

MentholMoose

SteveLord wrote: »

That's mostly fast processing. And where do you live?

In fact the rule I have with Newegg is, make sure you know what you want and everything you want...because there is almost no time to cancel afterwards. They're that quick.

I'm in California, so there are several Newegg warehouses nearby.

TheShadow

MentholMoose wrote: »

I'm in California, so there are several Newegg warehouses nearby.

That explains a lot since the original single Newegg warehouse was/is in L.A. county; City of Industry to be exact before they opened satellites. That was the last stronghold for them when they reinvented themselves from the collapse of the Egghead brick and mortar stores --> Egghead Software mall rat game stores --> NewEgg online. Besides Fry's and that Chicago outfit they may end up as one of the last entities standing. However lately Programmers Paradise seems to be getting my year end funds.

thehourman

I live in Maryland and when I ordered some items, it took like 2 days for me to receive the items I ordered.
The RMA is really fast as well, and newegg will pay the UPS shipping/handling.

SteveLord

MentholMoose wrote: »

I'm in California, so there are several Newegg warehouses nearby.

Exactly my point.

Plus you get hit with sales tax......on just about any online order on the internet.

Hypntick

So, last update was - 12/16/2010 9:01 AM Saint Louis, MO, Saint Louis, MO, US Departed from Terminal
so I think yay maybe it's actually headed back to the Memphis area. Yeah......12/18/2010 1:21 AM Hebron, KY, Hebron, KY, US Arrived at Delivery Terminal
Why did it take almost 48 hours to get to KY? I have this picture in my head of my RAM sitting on the back of a moped going cross country trying to reach me in time for Christmas. I admit i'm no expert on logistics but something about this just seems so off the wall goofy that I wanna laugh and cry at the same time.

Repo Man

I just had the same issue with them. Think DHL is having problems right now because Newegg is never that slow. Took 2 weeks to get my flash drives with 3-5 day delivery.

Hypntick

A quick plotting on Google maps tells me that my RAM will have traveled an estimated 1131 miles in it's epic journey. The distance between the Newegg depot and my residence is...........13.4 miles. It's taking about 19 hours of road time that should have taken 20 minutes at most. ARGH!