Reasonable timeframe to ship?

What do you think is a reasonable time frame for an online vendor to get your package in the mail using the free shipping or shipping-saver option.

Pretty much all my vendors ship within 24 hours of ordering. Who'd you order from? What did you order? How fast did they claim they would ship?

For general ingredients, etc. next day.

For custom stuff, large "builds" of course that would not be expected at all.

When using shipping saver or free shipping options, instead of the full pay shipping option, I anticipate that the vendor will take a day or two with my order if they are busy.

I'd want to know what the policy was before ordering and then I'd order based upon that info. If they said next day and took a week it would be over between us. If they said a week, then that is fine.

samc said:

I'd want to know what the policy was before ordering and then I'd order based upon that info. If they said next day and took a week it would be over between us. If they said a week, then that is fine.

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I agree, and if there is no policy you should ask.

blizzard said:

What do you think is a reasonable time frame for an online vendor to get your package in the mail using the free shipping or shipping-saver option.

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I'm guessing you're pissed off about an order you placed, so why don't you tell us the circumstances and we'll tell you if you're being unreasonable or not.

Often, companies use the exact same shipping service for the next-cheapest option.

So ask yourself why they would charge less for the *exact* same shipping. The whole point is to buy themselves some time and leniency in cases where they're swamped or otherwise unable to get everything out very quickly. The people who pay actual shipping price get priority, and the people taking the free/flat-rate option effectively get a discount in return for providing the company the flexibility they need.

IMO, 5-7 days is not unreasonable, as long as the policy states this. This is meant to be a maximum though, and, as mentioned above, really just to give the company some breathing room when they need it. So if the policy says up to 7 days, and it takes up to 7 days to ship my order, I'm fine with that.

However, if I order from the company many times, and they *ALWAYS* take those 7 days, I'll probably start looking for a new company. Not because they did anything wrong per se, but because I place value in having things shipped sooner (though this means I may still shop with them if the price is right). If it's ALWAYS taking so long to ship, then it's obviously become the norm and no longer serves as a "just in case" worst-case scenario, so they really should be increasing their capacity for handling orders at that point.

I'm not pissed actually. I ordered some ingredients and small misc items that were all in stock. I expect some delays with free shipping, so I'm not too worried about it, but today is day 8 and it hasn't shipped. I'm going to email them to see what's up. Having seen a similar post about delays with a different vendor, I thought I would see what the general expectation is.

Its a sign of a poorly run company if they can't ship within 3 days. That gives them a huge window to buffer orders.

If they take longer then that, I question whether or not they really had that item in stock, and instead get a deal by reselling and still need to order and receive or drop ship the items.

But I also work in warehouse automation so in my opinion if companies can't ship same day with a 3pm order cutoff time, they are doing things wrong. Most of the companies we order from for brewing have what....100 different items? 200-300 max? That shouldn't be too complicated to process orders.

Interested to know what company this is. I've had experience with 3 different vendors for my ingredients and little parts, about 10 if you include equipment orders. I have been very impressed by a couple (Rebel Brewer and NY Brew Supply) that shipped within hours of an order, and other (not to be mentioned) that took over a week with no contact. The majority falls in the 2-4 day range, but I think 1-3 would be the best.

Update: after emailing them they said an item was back ordered and offered to ship the bulk of the order now. I didn't get the email that explained that, apparently. I would have inquired around day 4, but I got busy and didn't want to be a PITA when getting free shipping. No need to call out the vendor. They are large and well known, but I don't believe they are a paying vendor on this forum.

Edit: I was wrong, they are a sponsor, I just havent seem them around here much.

luke2080 said:

Its a sign of a poorly run company if they can't ship within 3 days. That gives them a huge window to buffer orders.

If they take longer then that, I question whether or not they really had that item in stock, and instead get a deal by reselling and still need to order and receive or drop ship the items.

But I also work in warehouse automation so in my opinion if companies can't ship same day with a 3pm order cutoff time, they are doing things wrong. Most of the companies we order from for brewing have what....100 different items? 200-300 max? That shouldn't be too complicated to process orders.

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Keep in mind that very few homebrew supply stores are at the point of employing warehouse automation. This isn't Mcmaster Carr or a Walmart distribution center. I mean, yes, places like Northern Brewer and Morebeer are there but they've been around for a long time. For the startups, the purchasing agent, accountant, order picker and shipper are the same guy; the owner.