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Or, Shopping in a Time of COVID.
Bear with me, and fair warning
//start rant//
June 2, 2021, after much research and shopping around I selected a known and reputable company to replace the stock seats on my '06 R*. This was admittedly not a necessary purchase, but would hopefully be a welcome upgrade to a bike that I thoroughly enjoy riding. The seat and pillion were ordered through a 3rd party vendor because they were having a pretty good sale at the time. Much to my chagrin, both items were reported backordered shortly thereafter. No big deal, I still have a seat and I'm busy at work anyway. Besides, COVID, right? A month or two later after hearing nothing, I reach out to the vendor who gives me the good news- the seats are going into production next week and mine are in the order. Two weeks later, I follow up and hear that apparently that was bad information. That was the first of now 4 ( or is it 5?) missed ship dates. Each time, I initiate contact, am told a date in the very near future when I will receive said items, and then am apologized to after the fact. This has happened with both manufacturer and vendor, repeatedly. In the meantime, my father-in-law ordered a seat direct from the same manufacturer, was backordered, and then delivered 3 weeks later. To be fair, he rides an early 2000's HD, not a 15 year old metric. But seriously? Obviously this company is still producing seats, and not experiencing the complete lack of supplies they're making out. I would honestly have been happier to hear upfront "we're waiting on XXX number of orders before production" or just "sorry, try somewhere else". The only saving grace here is that no money has yet changed hands.
//deep breath//
September 06, 2021 my wife and I ordered a garage door for a new detached garage. We were given an extended delivery date of Nov 1, which was acceptable since construction had not yet started. This order was paid in full. Nov 1 came and went, pushed back to Nov 18, Nov 30, and now Dec 19. In light of the above experience, I decided to cancel the order and find something in stock locally. Aha! The company I ordered from won't let me cancel without a 25% restocking fee, on items that Haven't Even Left the Manufacturing Facility! What the ever-loving hell? I could see this if any part of the door had been delivered or made available for pickup, but this is not the case.
Long story short, does anyone else feel like COVID has become an excuse for generally terrible/absent customer service? I'm not trying to minimize the effects it's had on people, businesses, or global supply chains, but in my opinion these are human caused issues only tangentially related to the pandemic. Is this just me being whiny? Because I'm about over it.
Thanks for listening.
//end rant//
Bear with me, and fair warning
//start rant//
June 2, 2021, after much research and shopping around I selected a known and reputable company to replace the stock seats on my '06 R*. This was admittedly not a necessary purchase, but would hopefully be a welcome upgrade to a bike that I thoroughly enjoy riding. The seat and pillion were ordered through a 3rd party vendor because they were having a pretty good sale at the time. Much to my chagrin, both items were reported backordered shortly thereafter. No big deal, I still have a seat and I'm busy at work anyway. Besides, COVID, right? A month or two later after hearing nothing, I reach out to the vendor who gives me the good news- the seats are going into production next week and mine are in the order. Two weeks later, I follow up and hear that apparently that was bad information. That was the first of now 4 ( or is it 5?) missed ship dates. Each time, I initiate contact, am told a date in the very near future when I will receive said items, and then am apologized to after the fact. This has happened with both manufacturer and vendor, repeatedly. In the meantime, my father-in-law ordered a seat direct from the same manufacturer, was backordered, and then delivered 3 weeks later. To be fair, he rides an early 2000's HD, not a 15 year old metric. But seriously? Obviously this company is still producing seats, and not experiencing the complete lack of supplies they're making out. I would honestly have been happier to hear upfront "we're waiting on XXX number of orders before production" or just "sorry, try somewhere else". The only saving grace here is that no money has yet changed hands.
//deep breath//
September 06, 2021 my wife and I ordered a garage door for a new detached garage. We were given an extended delivery date of Nov 1, which was acceptable since construction had not yet started. This order was paid in full. Nov 1 came and went, pushed back to Nov 18, Nov 30, and now Dec 19. In light of the above experience, I decided to cancel the order and find something in stock locally. Aha! The company I ordered from won't let me cancel without a 25% restocking fee, on items that Haven't Even Left the Manufacturing Facility! What the ever-loving hell? I could see this if any part of the door had been delivered or made available for pickup, but this is not the case.
Long story short, does anyone else feel like COVID has become an excuse for generally terrible/absent customer service? I'm not trying to minimize the effects it's had on people, businesses, or global supply chains, but in my opinion these are human caused issues only tangentially related to the pandemic. Is this just me being whiny? Because I'm about over it.
Thanks for listening.
//end rant//
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