Am I pushing my luck regarding backordered items

In My Humble Opinion
1

At the beginning I emailed a company that sells welders and asked them if anyone in my area stocks them, that way I wouldn’t have to pay the shipping fee as well as not having to worry about it getting banged up in transport.
A day or two later, around Jan 3rd or 4th I hadn’t heard back (not that I really gave them a lot of time to reply) and went ahead and ordered it. The next day I got an email (with a tracking number) stating that they were currently out of stock and it should ship in 3-4 weeks. FWIW, this email appeared to be ‘hand’ written, not just an auto confirmation type email.
Okay, no a huge deal, it’s below zero out and I don’t really want to work in my garage anyway.
About a week after that someone finally replied to my first email. He confirmed that no one around here sells them and mentioned that they’re waiting for a new shipment. Mine should ship in 2-3 weeks. Hey, even better.

Fast forward to a few days ago. I went on facebook and asked them (on their public page) if I could get an update on when they’d be receiving/shipping the new ones.

Here’s the exchange
Me:

[quote]
Is there any update to when the plasma cutters will be back in stock? I ordered a PP50S about 3 weeks ago and they said they were waiting for the 2019 models to come in.

[quote/]

Them

I thanked them for replying and updating me. But, then, a day or so later I replied with this:
Me

That’s the part I’m wondering about. I feel like I overstepped a bit by asking them to upgrade me to something that’s a few hundred dollars more, but they could simply say something like “Sorry, we can’t do that. If you’d like, we can refund you and you could buy it again when it’s back in stock” or something along those lines.

At this point, and it’s something they should be worried about since a lot of people are asking the same question, it’d be nice if they did something for me/us. I don’t know about others, but I’m keeping a much closer eye on other manufacturer websites, as well as CL and ebay. If something decent comes along that I end up buying, I’m going to cancel my sale with them and get my money back.
It’s supposedly a good company, but I have a funny feeling they wait until they have enough orders and the get a load of them in from China to ship out.

And, with all this, it doesn’t help that whoever runs their facebook page snaps at people.

If their equipment wasn’t so much cheaper, I’d just cancel and reorder from somewhere else.

2

What is your concern? That they tell you to take your order and shove it, because you asked them for an upgrade? I think that’s unlikely to the extreme, but if they were to do that, that is an excellent outcome-as you don’t want to do business with people like that. That said, I think if they are in fact the low-cost provider, it is unlikely you will get your upgrade.
Have you checked Ali Baba? You may be able to buy from their Chinese supplier direct. It isn’t without risk, though.

3

I’d say you’re pushing your luck by asking for status on your personal order from their public facebook page. I’d be less inclined to play ball if I felt you were trying to shame me into giving you special treatment. Especially if there’s a group on Facebook complaining about an issue, give one guy a special deal and everyone is going to want it.

Now, I had an order with Costco online that turned out backordered. They didn’t take my money right away, and offered me the option of cancelling when they identified the delay, and gave everyone who got delayed a 10% rebate on the cost. They only charged my card once the order actually shipped.

4

I say cancel and move on.

5

Generally, I agree with that. In fact, I always tell people that if they want to complain to a company, use something private like email or a private message. The problem is they’re just not that good at communicating. While shaming them wasn’t my motivation, I was hoping it might light a fire under them, especially if other people are also waiting.

I’ll probably just delete the comment.

Generally I would, but I don’t want to buy something similar for $1500 when this one is $700.
I’m fine with waiting, the problem is that the timeline keeps changing. Is it 3-4 weeks? 2-3 weeks? 8-10 weeks?

6

I would try talking to someone on the phone instead of e-mail/facebook.
Just tell the person that you want to buy one of their welders but are worried about the delay. Talking to someone in person is probably the best way to get you a response of “well, let’s look and see what models we have in stock now”

7

Yep,that’s a big difference in price. What you save in price you lose in service.

8

Just here to point out that people who are intent on screwing you over totally, like taking your money and giving you nothing style, as a rule, don’t ever really stop and point that out. No, what they actually do is string you along, on one excuse after another, again and again, until you figure it out on your own.

Just sayin’!

Good Luck to you!

9

I don’t think they’re attempting to screw me over, I’m guessing they legitimately don’t have them in stock and are actually waiting for them. The company, so far as I can tell is reputable. That is I haven’t seen all kinds of ‘don’t buy from them’ type things on the internet and a few of the welding youtube channels use the same brand.

Also, in their (possible) defense, I’m guessing I’m assuming they charged me when I bought it instead of when it shipped because I used paypal so the payment went through right away.

Like I said, I’m going to keep my eyes open for another one that costs about the same, in which case I’ll cancel my order. In the mean time, I’ll wait it out. It’s not like I can use it in subzero weather anyway.
WRT calling them, I’m not sure what that would accomplish and in any case, when I (and others, from what I can tell) tried, it just went to voicemail.

Who knows, maybe they really are that busy.

10

Well, your first email said 3-4 weeks. You said in your OP that a week later they said 2-3 weeks.

That’s not a changed timeline, just that a week had already passed.

So the only change is the big delay they acknowledge is unusual and was unexpected. So it is a bummer you have to wait, and they should answer emails a bit better, but the timeline doesnt seem to be that inconsistent.

11

Indeed I did. That was a combination of going from memory and not paying enough attention to what I was typing.
Checking my emails: On 1/4 they said 3-4 weeks. On 1/7, they said 2-3 weeks. On 1/23 they said it would be the end of February.
So, technically, 3 weeks from 1/4 and 2 weeks from 1/7 are pretty close to the same day. So I’m not sure if it was the actual expected timeline or if it was just due to different people answering the emails (they were signed with different names).

Not that it’s really going to make a difference, but I also sent a PM to one of the people (probably one of the ones I already emailed) that has a presence on a welding website.

I assume he’s going to confirm that it’ll be another month or so.

12

IMO, as Beckdawreck stated, you’re receiving a level of service and communication commensurate with the price you’re paying.

As for asking for an upgrade, I don’t see how the delay in shipping in any way deserves an upgrade, especially one likely means they’ll be paying you since their profit margin must be really slim to sell something for less than half what a comparable model goes for. At best they may throw in something worth whatever gain you may have earned on your $800 for two months which is a few dollars at best.

From what I can tell from your posts, this isn’t a merchant that’s relying on your continued patronage, so customer service isn’t a high priority. Again reflected by their low pricing.