Ordered some custom equipment and placed half of cost down as deposit back in March of last year. Was given a 2 month lead time and when it came time to make final payment I was told product was not ready. Waited longer still not ready and was told it was lost in transit a new one would be made. Deposit was to be considered payment for the delay. Even more time goes by and day I expect it should be ready to ship I contact them and nothing. Get ignored and the run around for a while before being told it was still not ready. Deal was worked out so that it was supposed to be flown out once ready. More time goes by and still nothing. Finally get ahold of company again and was told they messed up again and equipment is now on a cargo ship stuck in the whole port drama. Was told I wouldn’t need to pay, deposit was returned, and I was told product would be shipped to me as soon as arrives as it was made for me. Months go by still nothing. Finally get a way to track cargo ship and once I see it arrives i contact company and I was told it still wasn’t here. They make some calls and get back to me saying a "client rerouted container to their address and they’d pick up from them. They finally get equipment and send pics, but still no word on shipping. Finally get word and they say should be about $500 so I let them know I can pick up. No response. Ignored for some more time finally get told they can no longer give it to me as getting it here cost 6k. They messed up and had it sent by boat not me. Now they want me to pay full invoice price plus half the cost of shipping. Does this seem fair? What should I do as it’s been almost a year?
Jesus Christ.
Try to get your deposit back and run…
They returned deposit already luckily. I really need the equipment to expand though so I would like to find best route to take
I would look for a new manufacturer tbh.
Mind me asking what exactly it is?
50+lb Jacketed collection. Ive checked around and every other place wants 2-3x price.
And places like hfs and open source only have 12" clamp systems which i don’t want. Even though I already have asme 12" clamp. Equipment I ordered would be 6" tri clamp
I think I would be mighty afraid to buy something direct from China at a price that’s “2-3x’s” cheaper than everywhere else! (Especially something jacketed!) Have you spoke with @Killa12345?
Its not direct from china and at the time killa wasn’t doing larger items like this. I chose to avoid direct and go with a company i thought was competent
can we find out which company it was and ive been doing drop ship big items for several years now… have sold up to 400lb(400L) solvent tanks… 50lb is pretty small compared to which is availible.
I have a guess which company this is from the story as this isnt the first time ive heard a story similar.
i would rather eat thr difference then come to a client for more money… especially after you paid a deposit. i dont think i would charge more than 2500 for a tank like this shipped. 6k for a jacketed or double jacketed tank is just insane…
Did you pay by credit card? If your invoice doesn’t say deposit you can say it was a fee and get your money back. Credit card companies have a policy against returning deposits. But they have no problem with fees.
But that’s really shady business practices. Personally, there have been a few times that I quoted the wrong shipping price or unit price. I just let them know there was a mistake on our end and swallow the loss. So they know for the next order that this is the actual price. Instead of risking making them angry so they never purchase from us again.
I got my deposit back. I was supposed to receive collection still to make up for all the bs. I know sounds too good to be true, but this is what i was continuously told. When they finally had it and told me how much shipping would be to me I asked for invoice to pay after initially offering to pick up.Silence for weeks, to be told I now need to pay full price of original invoice; all because their shipping error caused it to be sent by boat and not plane. If I choose to just cut ties and not pay will they try to get me for payment still being it was a custom order?
ok… by plane is 4x more than by boat. Id gladly ship by sea because its soo cheap to do so and i can pass that saving down to the customer… Plane is like $13 a kg right now and boat is $3 a kg.
i knew exactly who this supplier was from the story and i hate hearing these stories but i cant even count the number of similar stories ive heard about this supplier. I realized im not always the cheapest anymore but id never pull a stunt like this either.
On custom orders, its paid in full at ordering but if there is a mistake along the way. im not gonna go to the customer for more money. if im not losing, im eating the extra. its just good business. Im gonna get you quotes for all these parts. hopefully its within budget. sorry for this experience.
Boat became more expensive because it was delayed waiting to unload. Was sitting for over a month
That’s their problem for not having their paperwork correct. Shouldn’t take more than a day in customs and warehousing if your on top of the forwarder
La ports also had that stupid issue not being able to unload or something like that
Shitty
In my opinion, just praise Jesus you got your money back! You may have to pay a little more, but you know the level of service you’re getting. Worth the cost any day!
I’m glad you got your deposit back.
I personally think the deposit should’ve covered part of the cost to customize the equipment and make it. So I think if they wanted to make you pay for it. They would’ve just kept your deposit.