Dealing with a non-responsive vendor

[davere]

So, let's say you have a backorder with a vendor for a year or more, and decide to go a different direction (use a different product, etc). Over two weeks, you call the vendor twice and leave voicemails, and follow up with an email each time. You get no response.

What would you do from there?

 

[acudaowner]

Id keep calling them leaving even nastier messages mostly cause everyone knows that really works lol ) no it does not it's funny to hear someone loose there minds but no one cares .) you could never deal with them again and take a deep breath ( lama lama lama ) you could try meditation . you could sing this song

 

[nn8734]

So, let's say you have a backorder with a vendor for a year or more, and decide to go a different direction (use a different product, etc). Over two weeks, you call the vendor twice and leave voicemails, and follow up with an email each time. You get no response.

What would you do from there?

Send the vendor a cancellation letter via registered mail or a similar service that requires signature confirmation. Include all the relevant info (order number, your contact info, etc).

Did you pay in advance or has your card been charged?

 

[davere]

Send the vendor a cancellation letter via registered mail or a similar service that requires signature confirmation. Include all the relevant info (order number, your contact info, etc).

Did you pay in advance or has your card been charged?

Pay in advance via credit card. So... in theory, I have the option to reverse the charges.

I like the registered letter idea... Hmmm...

 

[nn8734]

Pay in advance via credit card. So... in theory, I have the option to reverse the charges.

I like the registered letter idea... Hmmm...

If you haven’t already, I’d call your CC company to find out if you can dispute it as Federal law (Fair credit billing act) requires banks, etc to allow disputes for up to 60 days from the date of the charge however individual companies may allow customers more time beyond the 60 days specified in that law.

 

[Hobo Hilton]

Kind of depends on how much the item cost. During the barrel shortage I ordered a high quality barrel from a vendor. 3 months went by and they never replied to my messages. I got busy and gave up on it. 6 months after I ordered the barrel showed up. Then after another 6 months a duplicate barrel showed up, no paper work. 18 months after my original order a third barrel showed up with no paper work or anything.
Figured they were just being nice and comped me 2 extra barrels because of their crappy customer service. Since they never ever replied to my communication I never sent a "Thank You"...

We will be seeing a large number of small businesses just disappear and larger businesses actually file for bankruptcy. Best to be diligent before they file bankruptcy.

 

[nesikabay]

Sounds like Optics Planet

 

[elwarpo]

Send them one last email telling them if they do not reply within 72 hours, you will reverse the charge on your cc. If a cc company has too many reversed charges, they can lose their cc priviledges. I have also found outa post on their Facebook page gets attention. Be polite but firm.

 

[davere]

Pay in advance via credit card. So... in theory, I have the option to reverse the charges.

Well... I placed the orders with different cards. Was able to dispute the charges on one card, but not the other, but maybe the disputes will get their attention...

 

[davere]

Send them one last email telling them if they do not reply within 72 hours, you will reverse the charge on your cc. If a cc company has too many reversed charges, they can lose their cc priviledges. I have also found outa post on their Facebook page gets attention. Be polite but firm.

Seems like they lost their social media team recently - they don't appear to be monitoring FB anymore, unfortunately.

 

[KnowNothing256]

Sounds like Optics Planet

Nah Optics Planet answers the phone.

 

[Herb Stoner]

Rent a Karen...

 

[sirhrmechanic]

So, let's say you have a backorder with a vendor for a year or more, and decide to go a different direction (use a different product, etc). Over two weeks, you call the vendor twice and leave voicemails, and follow up with an email each time. You get no response.

What would you do from there?

The Bear Pit policy has always been... "Hunt them down and kill them."

Carry on.

Sirhr

PS. The above is satire. A joke. Not real. Not advice to be followed. Hilarious. Unworthy of considering as anything but humor. Not actionable. Unworthy of pursuit by Glowies. Not like similar statements on Arfcom where they are serious. A non-starter. A stupid thing to do. Not worthy of our community. Something only a Democrat would consider because they are mentally-ill. Mayorkas wears panties. Do not do this. It was all ArmyJerry's fault. Nothing to see here, Glowies. Did I mention, carry on?

 

[hlee]

Unresponsive vendor? Doesn't answer the phone? Doesn't respond to email? No facebook presence?

 

[Clob McStrunk]

Who is the vendor?

If the situation is such that you need to post a rant-thread, the situation is such that you should let other people know with whom to not conduct business. You want attention brought to the situation....but only enough to make yourself feel supported. That doesn't help anyone.

 

[TheGerman]

Is this one of those 'oh we dont answer the phone anymore because coronavirus' faggot companies?

 

[kenny1773]

keep a log of your contacts, save emails, make notes of phone calls.

I had a vendor years ago play the run around game with me to push me over the 60 day Visa limit (or whatever days it was at the time) for a charge back and when I showed Visa the emails from the vendor that a new part was mailed and on the way etc etc
Visa took the date of the vendors reply a new part was on the way as the legal charge back date since I was told in writing the problem would be fixed

I would imagine being completely ignored would also have some sort of clause into the charge back process, otherwise all vendors would need to do is ignore people. make sure you mention all the details to the CC company even if you are over the # of days or outside the normal, they may accommodate.

go back at the card that said no and be persistent, not a Karen, but persistent that as a customer you need help.

I had another charge back where the vendor ignored Visa's inquiry, I immediately got my charge back, that may happen here.

 

[Brasscow]

V1tactical finds another victim

 

[davere]

Who is the vendor?

If the situation is such that you need to post a rant-thread, the situation is such that you should let other people know with whom to not conduct business. You want attention brought to the situation....but only enough to make yourself feel supported. That doesn't help anyone.

Don’t think I ranted anywhere? It was a serious question looking for ideas on how to proceed without resorting to drastic shit, without also stirring up a bunch of drama, but… shrug

The vendor’s Blackjack Bullets. I’ve got three orders totalling close to $1k (which is small potatoes vs some of the other backordered I’ve been told are outstanding - but it’s significant for me). I’d like to throw the cash at Berger 135s while they’re available.

The only info I don’t have exactly is the date of the first phone call.

 

[davere]

Rent a Karen...

You win the thread, sir. Well played!

 

[Steel+Killer]

Blackjack Bullet Customers, friends and family. I need to inform you of new developments with myself and Blackjack Bullets.
Effective as of March 11, 2022, I have resigned from Blackjack Bullets and I will no longer provide services for or have any affiliation with the company.
I have truly enjoyed getting to know customers and help them with the 25 caliber journey. Talking ballistics, terminal performance, reloading and even the never ending cartridge selection has been a pleasure. I have even become pretty good friends with some of you, been able to meet quite a few in person to share a shooting line and talk to hundreds if not thousands through phone calls, DM’s and email. I am extremely proud of the 131 ACE bullet and the impact it has had on the long range shooting/hunting communities. Also I’m very proud of the work that I put into the operations and customer service of BJB.
After much though and deliberation, I can no longer in good conscious be affiliated with the company. My reputation is very important to me and I have no control over the direction of the company. I also want to be clear, that this has nothing to do with Sierra not delivering bullets for the last year. Yes, that has been a setback but didn’t cause the issues that lead to this separation.
This was a difficult decision for me as I poured thousands of hours of my time into making sure BJB was successful. I can no longer continue providing service to customers while receiving no compensation.
I wish you all the best
Effective immediately: please direct any communication regarding BJB to Miles Johnson at [email protected] .
Sincerely,
Logan Schamburg

From their FB page..........Here is your sign!

 

[GUN NUT in IA]

The Bear Pit policy has always been... "Hunt them down and kill them."

Carry on.

Sirhr

PS. The above is satire. A joke. Not real. Not advice to be followed. Hilarious. Unworthy of considering as anything but humor. Not actionable. Unworthy of pursuit by Glowies. Not like similar statements on Arfcom where they are serious. A non-starter. A stupid thing to do. Not worthy of our community. Something only a Democrat would consider because they are mentally-ill. Mayorkas wears panties. Do not do this. It was all ArmyJerry's fault. Nothing to see here, Glowies. Did I mention, carry on?

If you are going to be serious about this, you have to do it the way they do it on TV.

 

[davere]

From their FB page..........Here is your sign!

Have known that - and it factored in to my decision to go another way, for sure.

Edit to add - but just because an employee goes another way (even publicly) doesn’t mean the company or owner are bad… but in this case it doesn’t seem to look so good at the moment.

 

[chevy_man]

That reads to me like "blackjack ran out of money because Sierra won't build us bullets".

If that's the case, I'm glad berger gave us an option as I put a 1:7 on my 25-06 and haven't even made my way through 100 blackjacks yet since it seems pointless to test what I can't buy.

 

[Dulo]

Open a dispute with the CC company/bank. Usually, the policy is 60 days, however if the product or service is not delivered they might extend that. I managed to dispute a payment 9 months after it was made for an international flight that was canceled due to the virus in 2020.

 

[Kadams1563]

Glad I didn’t jump on the 25 creed lol

 

[Supersubes]

Glad I didn’t jump on the 25 creed lol

The berger 135’s are legit.

 

[Supersubes]

Seems contradictory that logan says its not because of sierra, but that he’s not being compensated.

 

[Dieseltwotone]

I'm in the same boat. Didn't ship the targets ordered either. No bullets and targets. We'll see how it plays out.

 

[DarnYankeeUSMC]

You need to get with your credit card company and get your money back before you lose on the other purchase. You can end up sitting around with your thumb up your ass, no bullets of any kind and pissed cuz you got screwed.

Don’t think I ranted anywhere? It was a serious question looking for ideas on how to proceed without resorting to drastic shit, without also stirring up a bunch of drama, but… shrug

The vendor’s Blackjack Bullets. I’ve got three orders totalling close to $1k (which is small potatoes vs some of the other backordered I’ve been told are outstanding - but it’s significant for me). I’d like to throw the cash at Berger 135s while they’re available.

The only info I don’t have exactly is the date of the first phone call.

I wouldn't put up with that bullshit. Sounds like they don't have a solid source of material to be dependable.

 

[Maggot]

The Bear Pit policy has always been... "Hunt them down and kill them."

Carry on.

Sirhr

PS. The above is satire. A joke. Not real. Not advice to be followed. Hilarious. Unworthy of considering as anything but humor. Not actionable. Unworthy of pursuit by Glowies. Not like similar statements on Arfcom where they are serious. A non-starter. A stupid thing to do. Not worthy of our community. Something only a Democrat would consider because they are mentally-ill. Mayorkas wears panties. Do not do this. It was all ArmyJerry's fault. Nothing to see here, Glowies. Did I mention, carry on?

Letter bomb.

Also satire.

 

[davere]

The berger 135’s are legit.

Indeed

 

[davere]

Seems contradictory that logan says its not because of sierra, but that he’s not being compensated.

On the surface, yeah.

In that situation (where you're dependent on another vendor to make your product, and that vendor decides to make more money by servicing other clients first), you really have only a few choices - you find another vendor, you wait, or you call it quits. If you pick the middle option, you have a couple other choices - with no income stream to the company, you need to cut costs, so usually you'd want to downsize, possibly back to just a one man show. Ideally, you'd do that openly and as soon as you can to save expenses and allow your employees to move on with no lapse in pay, etc. Logan's situation is currently one sided, but with no evidence to contrary, it appears that Miles decided to follow this path, but do the "unresponsive, closed communications, and stop paying employees until they get fed up and leave" version of it - which is opposite of ideal.

I can see where that scenario doesn't have anything to do with Sierra directly - but in reality, if Sierra serviced their smaller contracts (Blackjack, DTAC, etc), Blackjack would have an income stream.

Given the path he's seemed to take with employees, I'm more concerned that Blackjack has also gone down the "hey, let's spend all the AP money we have laying around for backorders", too - so when Sierra actually gets ready to produce and demands payment, he won't have the cash anyway, and we're all still screwed. That pattern has repeated so many times in the firearms industry, it's like a meme...

Bullet making equipment is expensive, but clearly anyone wanting to start a new venture is going to have to figure that end of things out, cause Sierra isn't reliable at all, and is willing to fuck the shooting sports to support Uncle Sugar first (from a business standpoint, can't blame them, I guess, but still...)

In my case, all three orders are now disputed with my credit card companies. One has a 60 day cutoff, but in light of non-delivery of goods, they can do what they called a "Good Faith dispute"? We'll see what happens...

 

[davere]

Just to circle back, I have provisional credits for all three purchases, now - the disputes can extend up to 45 days, so nothing's final, yet, but they're underway, anyway.

And it's now been over a month, and not a peep back from Blackjack. Sad...

 

[davere]

My wife does this a lot the shut down and ignore the problem and hope it goes away! I am the opposite and chose to sadly charge head first although in my old age of 48 almost 49 I now have move tact(sp) and am fair less aggressive and more polite than I was in my 20's!

Old age? Listen here, young whippersnapper! (I'm almost 51, myself... LOL)

Unfortunately, this pattern has played out more times than I can count in the gun industry. It's usually followed by the company going under, and the owners being brought up on wire/mail fraud charges (because they've essentially run a Ponzi scheme).

And also unfortunately, one of the two cards I charged my backorders on has now come back and taken the provisional credit back, citing "longer than 60 days". That's $600 likely gone for good.

 

[dustingaunder]

I ordered some custom leather parts for my car with a 1 month ETA and after about 3 months of radio silence I charged the money back with my card and chase took care of me. I got an email the next day complaining about the chargeback. They had 45 days to send me the parts and get their money back. Guess that was too much trouble for them.

 

[Aftermath]

I ordered a high capacity drum magazine from a company in Washington that was supposedly in stock. I signed up to be on the email notification list for when another of their products was back in stock. I got that email, ordered that product and received it within just a few days. It had been over 3 weeks since I had placed the original order so I called to inquire, no one picked up. I emailed, no reply. I called again and selected a different option and someone answered. I was told there was some problem, I asked why I had not been notified...then they said there wasn't a problem. WTF? I told the guy on the other end that I would wait exactly one week and that I would then let the cc company in on the deal. All of a sudden I get inundated with emails. I got a phone call. AND I got that drum magazine in before the week was up.

Mag is not all that, not even the chips.

 

[PDXGS]

Damn, I thought this thread was going to be about Todd at Rocksolid Stocks

 

[davere]

Damn, I thought this thread was going to be about Todd at Rocksolid Stocks

Might as well sling some mud at him, too