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Walthers order

Heads up to anyone who's thinking of ordering from the recent Walthers sale flyer.

I ordered 3 items online which brought my total to just over the $50 minimum for free shipping. All were, according to their website, in stock.

I got an email today telling me that one item had been back ordered. That brought my total shipped to below $50. Yep, they charged me $8.95 shipping!

I called. I was told that their website is not connected to their inventory so it only gets updated once each night. I pointed out that the problems with their system should not cost me money.

I tried to cancel the order, but they couldn't check to see if it had been shipped yet because "the system is down".

After some semi-polite ranting and raving, the woman I talked with agreed to issue me an $8.95 credit as a "one-time customer courtesy".

I wonder if they'll ship the backorder (I clicked the box to cancel any back orders when I ordered) and charge me shipping?

Anyway, you have been warned. If you still decide to order, do so by phone - that supposedly is connected to real time inventory numbers.

Reply to
Larry Blanchard
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Just ONE of several reasons that I NEVER order anything from Internet dealers that do not have up to the minute on-line inventories and that includes Walthers. All you have to do is ask the dealer.

Ronnie

Reply to
Ronnie

This is astonishingly common situation online. On an internal network it doesn't take much programming to link the order page to the inventory data-base. Heck, you can buy turn-key systems that will do this and more. OTOH, a lot of businesses take up "offers" from web-hosting services in order to save the cost of an IT person and in-house servers, etc, and in those cases the linkage isn't trivial. I suspect that's what Walthers has done.

I had the same thing happen with Winter Silks, exactly like you I didn't realise there was problem until the shipping confirmation notice arrived the next day. I don't do business with them anymore.

[snip the rest]

It should be a matter of course that a split shipment should not affect the free shipping offer. FWIW, TigerDirect shipped one of my orders in three pieces, but counted it as a single order for shipping charges.

HTH Wolf K.

Reply to
Wolf K

This recently happened to me with an order of memory chips from HP. I realized 30 minutes after ordering , the chips exceed my memory capacity and called HP parts 3 times. Even though I had an order # I was told it was not in the system yet and I needed to call back again, 4th call was to a closed office for the day. Called at 7am the next morning and was told that it had already been assigned a tracking number and could not be cancelled. Called my credit card company, they flagged it, the order arrived before clearing the Credit Card Company which is illegal. Charge was reversed and I'm stuck holding free memory. HP is out the chips and the money. Mike M

Reply to
mike

I discovered a long time ago that online ordering from Walthers was a crap-shoot. Sometimes half my order wouldn't show up.

But I've found that if you call up and speak to a real person they will -usually after some grumbling- check the inventory status of each item on their computer screen as you order it. And since I've taken to doing it that way I don't get any more nasty surprises.

YMMV, though.

~Pete

Reply to
Twibil

It's much easier to use someone who treats their customers properly.

I discovered a long time ago that online ordering from Walthers was a crap-shoot. Sometimes half my order wouldn't show up.

But I've found that if you call up and speak to a real person they will -usually after some grumbling- check the inventory status of each item on their computer screen as you order it. And since I've taken to doing it that way I don't get any more nasty surprises.

YMMV, though.

~Pete

Reply to
Ronnie

Good luck on finding everything that you need using only sellers "who treat their customers properly".

Reply to
Twibil

A final comment. My order arrived yesterday. I had ordered two sets of figures that were on sale and one that was not on sale that I added just to reach the magical $50 for free shipping.

I read their subsequent email as saying the one not on sale was unavailable. Wrong!

The one not on sale *was* available and was shipped. It was the two that

*were* on sale that were unavailable.

So of the three figure sets I ordered, it was the one *not* on sale that I got. The one I'd only added figuring to get the difference back with the free shipping.

Sometimes I just can't win for losing :-)

Ah well, lesson learned. Hopefully my aged memory will recall it the next time I'm tempted :-).

Reply to
Larry Blanchard

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