Moosejaw Customer Service – In stock items take 5+ days to ship

[Stuart .]

It looks like the subforum for Vendor Reviews went bye-bye with the transition to this platform, so I’m putting this in the Gear (General) forum instead.

In this day and age we’re all used to the speed of shipping from the likes of Amazon, Backcountry, Campsaver, REI and the like. It was a major disappointment to have ordered an in stock item from Moosejaw’s website on Cyber Monday and have been fobbed off three times already about when it will ship. Their site states “In stock items ship within one business day”, but when I called on Wednesday I was told “it’s shipping tomorrow”. Same answer on Thursday. Today I was told that the shipping department was inundated, and hoped to clear the backlog by the end of day tomorrow. And seeing as they use UPS, the items won’t be in transit till Sunday night / Monday morning. There was no offer to expedite the shipping. They flunked Order Fulfilment 101 and then compounded it by having Customer Service Reps who clearly don’t want to be there based on their casual attitudes. Caveat emptor. I won’t order from them again. Stepping off my soapbox in 3…2…1

[jimmy b]

Yeah, there whole site is self deprecating to the point of being a little unprofessional IMO. I much prefer dealing with other companies that seem to be much more on the ball.

 

[Donna C]

I ordered from Amazon Prime to ship in two days. It was to arrive on Tuesday. Tuesday came and went. Each day they add 1 more day. Now it says on my tracking to arrive Saturday and if I don’t receive it, to notify them.  I think the item is via USPS so I don’t know if that’s the problem.  I am finding many of these places now don’t ship out until several days after an order is placed.  I am still waiting on Campmor. They used to get something to me in 2 days. It’s now a week and they just shipped.  Might be due to the holiday season…..

[BlackHatGuy]

Donna, if you complain to Amazon, they’ll usually add a month of Prime membership free for the delay, FWIW.

[Richie S]

They have always been pretty good with my orders.

[Stuart .]

My point, @landrover, is that Moosejaw were wholly unprepared for the holiday rush, they lied more than once when I called them about my order, and they were incredulous as to why this might be a concern to me. I will not trust them with any future business.

[BlackHatGuy]

I’m with you Stuart. I stopped shopping at Moosejaw a few years ago – always felt they were just a bit ‘too cool’ for my business, including the silly (not in a good way) catalogs they used to send out (they might still send them out, I just haven’t gotten them in a few years).

[Donna C]

@Doug…I think Amazon read my post. The item was delivered as if Santa came flying thru the night.  I opened my door this morning and there it was.

As for Moosejaw, I never had much luck with them so I don’t deal with any of their products for sale.

[Jeff Jeff]

I was a very loyal backcountry customer for almost a decade before they started charging sales tax in Washington. For the past 6 months I’ve been using Moosejaw since they price match most other vendors and don’t charge sales tax. It’s so painful that it’s not even worth it to save the 10% tax. Besides the unprofessional image, the customer service has been awful. The shipping takes just as long as ordering from the east coast.

The worst experience was when they had something on sale and in stock earlier this year. They eventually cancelled the order after a week of no updates. Then the next day the item was back to full price and available for re-order. I declined.

I might be sending campsaver a lot of my money in the future.

[Jeffs Eleven]

Oregon Mountain Community (omcgear.com) ships quickly. And since i work there, if you have a problem. Pm me and ill tell you whats up.

We are small, but do a pretty good job.  We have had to start charging Washington residents tax…?  So… cant help with that  (we got told to start charging or else)

we ship within the day and all that  (we sell on amazon, too but we will match any (real) price online if you call our cust svc line)

skip amazon- the destroyer of small business

 

[HkNewman]

Moosejaw has usually done well with almost all my orders.  Even have some stuff enroute via Moosejaw but one of the shipping hyperlinks isn’t working.  Could be a shipper problem, or one of those manufacturer to consumer deals where the company is just the marketer.  Of course, one US private shipping company was (infamously) not ready a couple of holiday seasons ago – hope no repeat.

[KRS]

I love Backcountry.com! Honestly I can order something before 4pm and Ill get it the next day by 2pm every time.

[Roger Caffin]

The last time I met this problem (with another company), it turned out that the item was in stock all right – but at the factory. First, the dealer had to get it from the factory – which was half-way around the world.

Cheers

[BC Bob]

It’s not good being deceived, but I wish I had these problems.  I ordered some DIY fabrics in October from the US and the package sat in Canada Customs, Vancouver for 19 days.  And I can’t even deny them my future business.

[Stuart .]

@rcaffin, I half suspected that the items I ordered were being drop-shipped from the vendor, so I asked them flat-out whether they actually had them in inventory. They swore up and down that they did, and that they was at their central warehouse rather than being recalled from a retail store before being shipped. I did get a shipping notification tonight, and they’re coming from Michigan, where Moosejaw are located. If I give them the benefit of the doubt, they’re still incompetent and ineffective – one department doesn’t keep another updated about backlogs for days on end. The other explanation is that they lied to me even more than I first believed. Neither paints a positive picture about the company during a period of peak demand.

[Stuart .]

Update: It shipped 7 days after I ordered it, UPS Surepost. The cheapest and slowest service they could manage. For an $800 order. Today is day 11, and it’s somewhere in transit. I don’t know where because at 5.01am today the status was changed to “Delayed. Your delivery will be rescheduled.” Moosejaw are a bunch of numpties.

Let’s see if this review ever makes it past moderation on their website:

[Rob P]

I’ve never had a problem with Moosejaw, but if this happened to me I’d be upset too…especially for an $800 item.  I hope you at least eventually receive it in good condition.

[Peter James]

Did it finally arrive?

I’ve been using Moosejaw for a while, less now that they don’t participate in Shoprunner Free 2-Day shipping anymore. I do find their use of UPS Surepost disappointing, especially on high dollar orders. If I order one shirt, it’s really not a huge deal, but, as someone who runs an online shop in a different industry, they really should upgrade you to UPS ground on any order over $99.

Margins on outdoor gear are generally pretty high, so there’s really no excuse for saving $1-3 on shipping on an $800 order, especially given that the UPS->USPS handoff creates more possibility for lost or damaged shipments. Maybe they’re under extreme pressure to raise profitability at the expense of overall business sense. Wait…that’s how our entire economy runs anymore ;)

[michael adamski]

Walmart buys Moosejaw

[Roger Caffin]

Sigh: another possible outdoors brand goes down the gurgler.

Cheers

[Justin Baker]

It’s possible that mossejaw ordered the tent from the manufacturer and were waiting to receive it so they could ship it to you. If that’s the case, they lied that it was “in stock” when you could have gotten it faster from another website. I have had this happen with other websites.

[Paul S.]

I can confirm they will order direct from manufacturers. They should list the item as ships in 1 week in those cases.

[Nick Gatel]

I can confirm they will order direct from manufacturers. They should list the item as ships in 1 week in those cases.

This is called “drop shipping” and is quite common. Sometimes the return address comes from the drop shipper or in the case of “private label drop shipping” the return address and invoice of the seller is included.

A company like Moosejaw often has access to the actual seller’s inventory and an agreement as to the shipping terms. If the shipper doesn’t ship on time it makes the seller, in this case Moosejaw, look bad.

A few years ago I bought a major brand item from Moosejaw (I think it was a Patagonia item). It was shipped directly from the manufacturer to me at a price that was cheaper than the manufacturer offered on their website.

I buy almost everything from Amazon and usually use Prime Free Two-Day Shipping. There are generally three ways Amazon fulfills these orders:

1. Amazon is the seller — they buy, stock, and resell the item
2. Amazon stocks and fulfills the order for the seller
3. The item is shipped from the actual seller within the two day window

Given the size and power of Amazon, a retailer that agrees to the two-day Prime shipping cannot afford to goof-up — they need Amazon more than Amazon needs them.

 

I find it quite interesting that people criticize companies that indicate an item is in stock from the drop shipper and are mad because it takes 5 days to ship, versus few people are outraged at the pitiful customer fulfillment and communication of some of the cottage industry’s backpacking gear companies. Recently there was a post where everyone was so excited that one of the cottage companies, after 15 years of pitiful customer communication, was finally entering the modern era and is now going to provide shipping notifications. How is it we can lambast companies like Moosejaw in this post, but give the cottage manufacturers a pass for absolutely horrific fulfillment service? I think one of the factors of zPacks success is that from the very beginning Joe Velasco understood the importance of keeping his customers in the loop during the fulfillment process.

[Justin Baker]

Amazon is really good about their 2 day shipping guarantees. If they don’t manage to get it in the mail the day required for 2 day shipping to arrive, they will usually ship the item using 1 day overnight shipping.

I think the vast majority of things on Amazon, especially outdoor gear, are fulfillment for other retailers. For example, backcountry.com will purchase gear from their manufacturers and ship it to Amazon. Amazon sells and ships the gear from their warehouse and takes a cut from the sale. The original retailer (backcountry) puts in very little time and effort. I work for a local retail store (also have an online store) that ships a huge volume of footwear to Amazon for fulfillment. We make more money$$$$ in sales without crowding our backroom and using additional employee time/labor. We get a huge shipment from the manufacturer and just slap a shipping label on the box to Amazon, it’s that easy.

[Katie G]

Wal-Mart Acquires Moosejaw: http://snewsnet.com/news/walmart-acquires-moosejaw/

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