Back when I ordered the new plate chiller from Blichmann, which was in stock, there was no activity past the stated time frames (online). I reached out and got a BS answer that it would be a couple more weeks since they changed software for shipping (or something like that). I called BS on that and said if they didn't ship I'd pull the order as well as not even consider ordering anything in the future (could be some large system orders in the coming years from me). Funny enough, it shipped out that day and arrived a few days later. Seems like they CAN ship out fast enough when they WANT to. IMO, they consider home brewers low priority (even when buying some of their pro level gear). I've heard bad things from the LHBS I visit for how they are treated as well. ZERO communication on placed orders, or long shipping times are the norm. Of course, they hit your card, or send an invoice immediately. Even when shipping isn't going to happen for WEEKS (if not longer).
99% of the places I order from charge when an item ships (or within a day of that). Unless it's a custom item, that's not something they stock. I understand in those cases since they want to be sure you don't back out on the order and they have to either destroy, or try to find someone to purchase it. But for things that are regular inventory items, that shouldn't be the case. Unless they're so hard up for funds coming in, and/or getting things made at order time.
Even though they DID ship out the chiller, the fact that I had to threaten them with loss of future sales puts them lower on my vendor list. They weren't at the top to begin with.
