When Companies like Sportsmans Guide, MidwayUSA Use Plan B
Monday, July 27, 2009 12:00
Post written by Admin
When Companies like Sportsmans Guide, MidwayUSA Use Plan B
(This could have also been titled: MidwayUSA and Sportsman’s Guide to Out of Stock Items)
This is just my way of patting certain companies on the back and making sure I don’t recommend that you do business with them. When companies start to drop ship everything from their supplier or they decide that it’s a good idea to advertise a product they don’t have and can’t seem to get customers start to talk about the exceptional service and level of dishonesty they’re getting. This has been the case with my recent and past experiences with Sportsman’s Guide and MidwayUSA. They have opted to use Plan B.
Plan A is what typical businesses use when they sell you something that they actually have in stock, they either put it in a bag or ship it and you get the item immediately or by mail within a week or two. Plan B is used when a company has a bunch of junk or overstock, post a sale or special, advertise X, Y, Z and while you’re looking around you see other things you want to buy or think are for sale. The company entices you to do business with them by sweetening the deal. An example might be orders over $50 get free shipping or get 20% off your purchase when you spend $100 or more. So you hunt around and find a good deal on a few things, place your order, enter your credit card number and then your confirmation tells you the items you want are on backorder or out of stock. They give me a back order date of a/b/c so what’s a few weeks especially with the discount. Guess what, you get an email or you check your account status and to your shock the backorder is backordered again? No way! New order date d/e/f. After about 3 months you call Sportsman’s Guide or MidwayUSA to find out why the date has been pushed back again. Their answer is “Wow, we have been flooded with orders for these items and the supplier is doing the best they can, so we promise you’ll get them soon.” Yeah, right! Would that be before the next millennium?
I thought surely any responsible, trustworthy company doing business would either take down the products they can’t get or mark them out of stock or not available in this or any other lifetime. No, they’re just going to keep advertising that they have what they actually don’t. C’mon, order more! Great prices! Guess what? 3 months later no items and no emails with an update of another backorder but they’re still charging me, without the discount, and whatever money or availability there was at the local Wal Mart when they were CHEAPER is now long gone. Then comes the arrogant voice over the phone from customer service who tells me that they can’t get the items I ordered at the price THEY want. They sold me the items for say $50 and they were buying them for say $25 but now the manufacturer is charging too much so they keep telling me that the item’s on the way when in reality they can’t make the margin they originally planned on or might even have to take a loss to honor their commitment to me. Hey Sportsman’s Guide and MidwayUSA, I’m not your corporate buyer nor am I the idiot that didn’t order enough or underestimated the market. And I most definitely was not the idiot that kept advertising and selling things I did not have or couldn’t get. Therefore maybe I shouldn’t be considering contacting the Commerce Department and the AG of my state to report potential fraud. Maybe I should have gone to the local Mom and Pops or the over the counter stores like WalMart where what I buy actually gets handed to me at check out. Maybe every person who reads this should call companies like Sportsman’s Guide and MidwayUSA and ask them for the contact information regarding complaints they will be getting from the State Attorney General’s Office or the Commerce Department for pulling the same garbage on you that they pulled on me. Let’s see, pony up some extra money, maybe flatten their margins or even take a loss but learn not to sell or advertise things they don’t have or can’t get at the agreed price. Maybe a little False Advertising or Retail Fraud charges would be cheaper to defend. I have said this before, as the consumer we have the power, so if you let big business treat you like dirt, lie to you or use Plan B with little or no desire to fulfill their end of the bargain until it is profitable for them you have an option to shop elsewhere with honest businesses. You might pay a little more but at least you’ll get what you order and you know they are telling you the truth, not just baiting you to get their stock down while dangling other items they either can’t or won’t deliver. Business needs us more than we need them. When the consumer stops letting themselves be victimized by bad service, bogus deals, bad savings or indefinite backorders and starts to hold companies like Sportsman’s Guide and MidwayUSA accountable it will get better or they will be bankrupt and without a base. I can go to any gunshow or Cheaper Than Dirt and either get the product or the truth (which is what Cheaper Than Dirt does since they don’t let you order what they don’t have in stock). Just a side note update both companies have pushed my order out till October and I have been waiting for products since March. Not bad a 7 month wait and I doubt I’ll get my orders within a year, maybe ever!
I’m sure everyone out there has experienced this sort of thing so standing up and using the bloated system to protect your rights as a buyer is what will bring it to a stop. We would love to hear your stories and similar experiences with Sportsman’s Guide and MidwayUSA as well as others. Your comments are always welcome.
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admin says:
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:58 am
Hi Eric,
Below is a copy right off your website from my history/orders. I deleted my CC info and address/invoice info because my transaction records are private. However I did leave all the shipping dates, backordered info and item by item list of what shipped and what took 5 months to ship. As you can see they are your part numbers and your invoices. At the bottom of the ivoices I laid out exactly what happened how I was treated and I have not posted your remarks, yet and I have kept my remarks private to date also. Read it threw I think it explains very well that MidwayUSA treated me badly as a customer and that the opinions based on my shopping experience relay exactly what happened. If you still want me to post your comments I wil but I will post theses comments as well. It will not help your cause.
Invoice Date: 3/14/2009 4:28:34 PM
Ship Via: USPS Priority Mail
Ship Date: 3/16/2009 9:49:39 AM
Product # Description Quantity Backorder* Ship Price Each Total
114114 MidwayUSA Master Catalog #32 1 0 1
$0.00
$0.00
182050 CCI Velocitor Ammunition 22 Long Rifle 40 Grain Plated Lead Hollow Point Box of 50 0 10 0
$4.99
$0.00
215254 Outers Cleaning Patches 17 to 22 Caliber Square Synthetic Package of 225 2 0 2
$2.09
$4.18
444068 Tipton Cleaning Patches 27 to 348 Caliber Square Cotton Package of 100 1 0 1
$5.29
$5.29
476217 Tipton Cleaning Patches 17 to 20 Caliber Square Cotton Package of 100 1 0 1
$4.59
$4.59
479953 Hoppe’s Sontara Cleaning Patches 35 to 45 Caliber, 410, 28, 20 Gauge Square Synthetic Package of 500 1 0 1
$6.59
$6.59
482576 Butch’s Triple Twill Cleaning Patches 35 to 45 Caliber Square Twill Cotton Package of 500 0 1 0
$9.99
$0.00
686544 Savage Arms Magazine Savage 90 Series Magnum 17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire (HMR), 22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR) 5-Round Steel Blue 0 1 0
$15.99
$0.00
755417 Butch’s Triple Twill Cleaning Patches 27 to 348 Caliber Square Twill Cotton Package of 750 1 0 1
$9.99
$9.99
881536 Federal Premium Mag-Shok Turkey Ammunition 12 Gauge 2-3/4″ 1-1/2 oz #6 Shot Flitecontrol Wad Box of 10 0 1 0
$11.79
$0.00
View Your Order(s)
View/Cancel Your Backorder(s)
View all of Your Account options
To track an order through UPS:
Click the UPS tracking number(s) in the line that corresponds to the order you would like to track.
PLEASE NOTE: Although we assign a tracking number to each package as orders are shipped, the tracking numbers are not valid until the packages are scanned by UPS at their primary location.
Invoice # Order Date Total Status Shipping Info.* Return
08-11-2009
08:18 AM $101.21 Shipped
08-11-2009
09:43 AM UPS Ground
Return Policy
03-14-2009
04:28 PM $40.78 Partially Shipped USPS Priority Mail
Tracking Not Available
Return Policy
* Although we assign a tracking number to each package as orders are shipped, the tracking numbers are not valid until the packages are scanned by UPS at their primary location.
To cancel a backorder:
Click “Cancel” in the “Cancel Backorder” column of the line that corresponds to the backorder item you would like to cancel. If there is nothing listed in the “Cancel Backorder” column, the backorder cannot be canceled at this time.
Invoice # Order Date Description Quantity Date Expected Cancel Backorder
Currently you have no pending backorders.
About MidwayUSA you also claim at the bottom of the orders history page that 99% of all orders ship the same day. That is obviously not true and my invoices are proof of that. I will also call to your attention that this was “my experience with MidwayUSA and after CS basically told me to take a hike, I would get my stuff when I got my stuff, I let it ride just to see how long that was. From my original order date 3/14/09 I got LESS than 1 third of my order and I recieved the other 2/3′s of my order 5 months and a day later. When I ordered your “real time tracking” was telling me it was all in or had an expected ship date of no more than 2 weeks.
I just got done checking your “real time tracking” on a number of items and It is badly misfunctioning. My experience with MidwayUSA was terrible, my assumptions or opinions based on YOUR customer reps handling of my inquirey and the fact that I never received a single update or status of the majority of my order for 5 months was at best deserving a much harder mention than I gave it. I was actually very gentle considering I ordered my turkey loads from you for SPRING and not only did I miss Turkey season which was 8 weeks FROM THE time I ordered but at least I got them before the fall shoot. I used terms like, might, maybe, possible, in my opinion or experience when I could have really spoken much more harshly. I read the about us page you sent and how you think that relates to my article I’m not sure. I can tell you that I gave a very accurate description and “opinions” based on my experience and I’m sure your feelings might have gotten hurt but 5 months, losey service, rude people and I think you better thank your lucky stars no one has put in a BBB complaint or a FTC or AG complaint against you, yet. I’m sure your not happy but as a customer who waited 5 months when it was stated 99% ship the same day and then still got treated like dirt, you can see my point.
I have all the records and paper work and YES it was MidwayUSA and yes your reps are treating some folks like dogs. I would think you would be more interested in what you could do for me and how to fix your “real track” ordering that is NOT working. I’m sorry but the article stays because it is opinions based on actual experience. Look up some of the numbers from my order and see what it says vurses if it is actually shippable today and if not when. I think you’ll be surprised. No one likes to get dinged, admitting it and correcting it would go alot further if you want me to write a better article next time, provide better service or at least a rep that treats a customer with respect. I will do you a favor and NOT post your comments with my invoice and shipping response written about above. It will make MidwayUSA look even worse especially since you accussed me of shopping somewhere else and must be using the wrong business name. No it was really YOU and I do have the receipts and the shipping docs to prove it. I would suggest you take the opportunity to agree that posting your response and then having me post the invoice info and shipping dates will really not help you. Fixing the problems that you obviously are not awhare of on your end might be a better use of your time.
admin says:
September 18th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Hi Eric,
I am writing you 2 hours before major spinal surgery. I will watch your post and respond when I get out of the hospital. I will tell you though my last order took 7 months to get from you and ALL the items when I purchased said in stock and very little of the order was ammo. Customer service was extemely rude and basically told be when I checked on my order after the first 3 months of waiting that, “take it or leave it, we don’t know when your items will be in, you’ll get it when you get it or you can cancel your order”. I will elaborate when I get back.
Thanks for the patience,
admin [at] topicisland [dot] com
Lee Kupfer says:
August 16th, 2009 at 11:54 am
I would in NO WAY recommend doing business with these people. My order was placed on BO status the day they received it, I decided to keep the BO active as I wanted the product, it was on BO for over a year, while listed in their on- line catalog as ” IN-STOCK”, I just kept waiting for the product to be shiped.
Today I checked to see my NEW “ship date and found my order had been cancelled by Sportsman’s Guide, without notifying me of this action.
I believe they are dishonest in the way they conduct business and will NEVER do business with them in the future.