Cobalt flux taking too long to ship

[mizpriz]

For people who have CF pads: did they take forever and a day to ship them to you? We ordered a pair about 2 months ago, and my husband was told it would take 3 to 4 weeks to get to us. Okay, that was fine with us. We were also told that we wouldn't be charged until AFTER the pads were shipped. Well, we were charged on August 15, which was about 5 weeks after we ordered them. We waited a few days to see if they'd ship (hubby checked the info online), then he called them to see why they hadn't shipped yet. They told him that the pads were in their warehouse waiting to be shipped. He's called a couple of times since then, and was told the same thing, they're in the warehouse waiting to be shipped.

Is this normal for them to take so long to ship? Have we been taken? These pads were too expensive to have been already paid for and have them sit in the warehouse collecting dust for weeks. I've heard nothing but good things about CF pads, but I'm not at all impressed with their customer service. Since the pads have been ready to ship for 2 weeks and counting, to me it seems unacceptable to keep us waiting, or is there something about the shipping process that I don't understand?

[legend]

well I have an ITG poster I ordered over 2 monthes and it's still not in, but I think it's just the shipping companyis very unreliable, but don't worry you should get it.

[psisar]

Your ITG poster is by a completely different company than CF. mizpriz, I don't doubt you're going to get your CF's, but you're right how unacceptable it is you keep you waiting like this. I would just keep calling and calling until they finally ship it, or until you can find out what the heck is going on.

[abrannan]

It's apparently a common problem right now with CF:
www.cobaltflux.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6266

They're claiming it's becasue FedEx missed a pickup. I call shenanigans. A missed pickup should delay shipment by about one day.

Edit: Read a few more posts, apparently it's a combination of:

a) Supplier issues with getting parts
b) They "bulk ship" meaning they ship a batch when they have 100 orders ready to go
c) Apparently the company is run by college kids, and they're back to school, further delaying issues

Option C certainly explains option A (They don't have a competent supply chain specialist).

All-in-all, it appears that the company has a whole has reached it's Peter level (from the Peter Principle, i.e. people keep getting promoted until they reach a level they cannot do, and are thus incompetent at their jobs). It works the same for companies, they'll grow until they hit a scale they cannot keep up with, and collapse under their own failure. They could handle, say, 30 orders a month and get those out the door. But once they get popular, they cannot handle 100 orders/month, and thus now have 70% of their customers unhappy with them, whereas with the same processes before they had 100% customer satisfaction.

Really, the company is ripe for someone with peripheral building experience to swoop in and buy out the "brand" (and that's all CF is, a brand. I could (theoretically) build and sell a better hard pad, but it would be perceived as inferior to a CF because I don't have that "brand" label). A new owner could cut production quality (and increase production speed and cost) and ride the brand popularity for quite a while before enough QA issues pop up to start harming sales.

[The Charming Canuck]

wow *note to self* Don't yorder Cf pads if I want it right away!! Good thing I know how to make my own ^_^

[mizpriz]

I wish I knew how to make my own! Abrannan, thanks for all that info. It's too bad, from all the good stuff I hear about these pads they have the potential to make a pretty good business, but keeping customers waiting until they ship them when they darn feel like it isn't the way to go. That alone should make them drop the price on those things.

Every time we look at the shipping status online, it says that the shipping info has been relayed to FedEx. Not shipped yet. And when my husband called them two weeks ago, they told him we should expect the pads by Friday last week. GRRR Meanwhile, we're dancing on stupid broken soft pads.

[DDRMom]

My CF took about 8 weeks to arrive. On order they said it would take 4-6 weeks. I can't remember when I got charged.
When I kept checking back at the site it kept saying "under construction." I assumed they were building it - I don't know if they were waiting for parts or what -- but it really didn't matter to me. I was tired of waiting but knew it would be worth the wait -- and it was!

[mizpriz]

I'm really glad to hear it's worth the wait! Well, I can look at it this way, by the time they arrive maybe I'll be well enough to dance again! This bronchial infection I've had the past month does not want me to live.