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Another ordering rant
Since a lot of the posters here are sellers, help me understand how fulfillment problems like this happen:
- I wanted to build a specific retired set, small one, not a big set, so I found the total of the parts between 2 stores
- I received one of the orders and on one of the lots where I needed 6 of a piece, I got 4. I knew when ordering they were the store's entire inventory of that specific piece
Kind of annoying because even if the order from the other store is 100%, I still need those 2 very specific pieces which means if the seller who didn't deliver them doesn't have any more then I have to make a whole new order with another store which throws off the value - I may as well have just bought the set on eBay.
OK mistakes happen, I get that, I've experienced droves of missing pieces on orders from multiple stores here. Often the situation is rectified OK. In this case, though, I don't understand - the inventory stated 6 pieces so either the inventory was wrong or the person mis-counted.
What bothers me & which I want to understand is:
- If the inventory was wrong, then it's pretty coincidental that would be the case AND the person mis-counted when picking
- If the inventory was correct, then wouldn't the person notice I was ordering their entire available inventory of that piece and thus not get the count wrong? None of the other lots on the order had 4 as a count.
- When I emailed the seller they apologized they didn't have any more of those pieces & couldn't send them - it's highly unlikely that they mis-counted mine and within just 1-2 days another person bought the remaining 2
I've tried in the past when communicating with stores to ask them to double-check orders before going out, or let me know if any parts are missing before sending, but mostly when they indicate other issues or ask me a question before fulfilling. I found that such messaging is useless - stores that make errors on orders or don't have good inventory management or fulfillment will make errors regardless. You could order 10 pieces in 1 lot from those stores and email them a note ahead of time and they will still screw up and send 9.
- I wanted to build a specific retired set, small one, not a big set, so I found the total of the parts between 2 stores
- I received one of the orders and on one of the lots where I needed 6 of a piece, I got 4. I knew when ordering they were the store's entire inventory of that specific piece
Kind of annoying because even if the order from the other store is 100%, I still need those 2 very specific pieces which means if the seller who didn't deliver them doesn't have any more then I have to make a whole new order with another store which throws off the value - I may as well have just bought the set on eBay.
OK mistakes happen, I get that, I've experienced droves of missing pieces on orders from multiple stores here. Often the situation is rectified OK. In this case, though, I don't understand - the inventory stated 6 pieces so either the inventory was wrong or the person mis-counted.
What bothers me & which I want to understand is:
- If the inventory was wrong, then it's pretty coincidental that would be the case AND the person mis-counted when picking
- If the inventory was correct, then wouldn't the person notice I was ordering their entire available inventory of that piece and thus not get the count wrong? None of the other lots on the order had 4 as a count.
- When I emailed the seller they apologized they didn't have any more of those pieces & couldn't send them - it's highly unlikely that they mis-counted mine and within just 1-2 days another person bought the remaining 2
I've tried in the past when communicating with stores to ask them to double-check orders before going out, or let me know if any parts are missing before sending, but mostly when they indicate other issues or ask me a question before fulfilling. I found that such messaging is useless - stores that make errors on orders or don't have good inventory management or fulfillment will make errors regardless. You could order 10 pieces in 1 lot from those stores and email them a note ahead of time and they will still screw up and send 9.
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However, I think it's vital to communicate with the buyer, not only to apologise and show common courtesy, but also to allow the customer to decide how they'd like to proceed, even if that means cancelling the whole order.
Sorry to hear you've had some poor experiences here. I hope they are few and far between and that they don't reflect too badly on the majority of sellers.
I do appreciate your feedback on the forum. It's important to me as a small time seller to have an accurate picture from the customer's point of view, which will help me avoid unintentionally disappointing customers.
Some errors I just can't understand how a store can make unless they know they are sending the wrong count and hope the buyer doesn't notice. In the case of the 6 count being the full inventory but only getting 4, the only way it would have been a genuinely accidental honest mistake is if BOTH the inventory as synchronized on BrickOwl was wrong AND the person picking mis-counted. If the inventory count was correct and the picker mis-counted, then the 2 extra pieces would still be with the store (since I bought all 6 & none would then be available for another customer to buy). That's what bothered me about this one - that basically 2 coincidental issues would have to have happened simultaneously.
That's why sometimes I buy up all the pieces a store has of something if I need it, it makes it glaringly obvious to the store (or at least it should) that they should have none left of it after picking my order - and if the inventory is off they will also know it before shipping to me. Also, if they do mis-count then since I've bought all the inventory indicated online, it keeps someone else from buying up the remaining - giving me time to check my order & notify the store of issues if any.
I wanted to start using the official part count to save time but after seeing how often there are parts missing I feel I can't do that. I would get too many errors in the inventory and sooner or later I would be short on some ordered parts.
I feel really bad if it turns out a buyer ordered some parts and my inventory is wrong. One time I had made a mistake and counted an angle connector #4 into the #5 lot so when a buyer ordered all the #5's I was one short. I went out and found a set on the store shelf that had a #5 and bought it so I could fill the order.
But no matter how much we try, it's inevitable errors will creep in. Nobody can be perfect all the time and parting out thousands of parts into an inventory with thousands of lots, mistakes happen from time to time. Sometimes those mistakes are found before an order reveal them, sometimes they are not found until it's too late.
A seller should definitely communicate any problems and not just send out incorrect orders and hope for the best.
Plenty of US stores have it, but for all the parts I wanted only 2 stores had nearly everything I needed and between the 2 I had 100%. Or so I thought when ordering.
I have also occasionally duplicated lots when updating my inventory so it appears that I have more than I actually do. Again I talk with the customer to come up with a solution.
> Those stores don't necessarily get a negative review, I just mark the order as "received" and move on...
Since you mention this... How come most buyers don't leave feedback? I've sent out 34 orders so far, and only got feedback on 4 of them. Now, it could mean the buyers were unhappy about something, but I didn't hear anything from them, and on BL the ratio is much higher :neutral:
I wouldn't worry about not getting feedback, it's the same for everyone.
Rating feedback should be anonymous. Might cause some strife but that's the only way to ensure honesty. Also there should be the option to rate various aspects of a purchase - pieces missing, wrong pieces, delay in dispatch, "adequate" quality rated as "good" or new, poor packaging when shipped, etc etc. That way feedback can be provided to a store anonymously. There's certain stores now I stay away from 100% even when they are among the few who have some pieces I want because I gave them a second chance and they messed up the second chance. I also only buy from new (to me) stores if they have a good rating with no complaints. Most of the time now I get notified ahead of time that certain pieces couldn't be found and auto-discounted and any orders I did not get pre-notification on get delivered 100% no missing. Most stores also package well & ship out fast. If I were to randomly pick stores and order only on the basis of them having pieces I need, my experience has been that too many of those orders become a crapshoot. That's why we need a way to create favorites and to filter specific stores out. I understand that may seem unfair and some stores who were poor in the mast may straighten up and be better, but this is business.
Most recently, I needed to order bricks in certain colors or certain, and a particular hard-to-find color. More often than not after ordering, store after store would indicate they were out of the pieces or didn't have the counts. Seems pretty coincidental but it tells me that the problem is consistent across stores, also if the stores list their inventory on multiple sites - which then becomes a "first come first serve" for customers who order the same items using the different sites.
> .... also if the stores list their inventory on multiple sites - which then becomes a "first come first serve" for customers who order the same items using the different sites.
Most sellers across the two sites use Bricksync which keeps the stores in sync so once a part is purchased in one store it updates the other store within a set period of time, I sync every 5 minutes, others may use different time intervals. At 5 minute intervals I have a better chance of winning the lottery than two identical parts selling out on both sites at the same time and I'd prefer to win the lottery ;-)
It's an understandable frustration, just keep in mind one thing: every seller is 'human' and humans make mistakes, obviously some more then others (I had a local seller make 1or more mistakes 3 orders in a row), so bottomline: nobody is perfect...
There are tons of reasons on how errors crawls in, I had my share as well, in most cases I figured out where the error got generated, sometimes months before...
Examples:
Shipping 1x8 bricks when buyer orders 1x6, just a visual mistake caused by distraction.
Buyer receives it, and keeps silent about it > 1x8 bricks are no longer in stock... Days, weeks, month later another buyer buys the 1x8 bricks > bummer.
Shipping dark stone tiles in stead of black (happend to me not so long ago) > went by the BO picture on the picking sheet, where the black tile looks 'dark stone'... (no message from buyer). Weeks later I sell a couple of Dark Stone tile and I was 'short', looked at the lot history > none sold...
A mystery? So I started digging, found that 'black' sold, checked quantity > all there > bummer (luckely I have enough backup stock in unopend sets).
Stickers > short count from a seller (he did write me before shipping) > explanation: he forgot to take them out of the bagged instruction books and threw those out...
Miscounts: one line one the picking sheet says 'ordered xx', next line is 'remaining xx' > in stead of taking the 'ordered quantity' one takes the 'remaining' quantity... On larger quantities ( many bought, few remaining) it most likely 'catched', but if the difference is small, like 2 ordered, 1 remeaning, the error might not be catched...
Set errors: I once had a full bag missing in a set (straight from Lego S@H), I catched it as I 'count' most of my stock when parting out, but a lot of sellers don't even bother...
Mold mistakes > A set is 'inventoried' with one mold, but then shortly after someone discovers a new mold, the set is adjusted, but there is no warning to sellers who already parted out... Seller sells, realises there are 2 'wrong' ones, relists them but forgets to reduce the count on the other lot.
Same thing with inventory mistakes (by a contributor): mistyped a digit of a partnumber and a gray door appeared in a set: it wasn't an existing color for that door > 2 dozen of sellers ended up with that 'gray door' for sale (did not happen here) while it didn't even exist (and that type of door had been out of production for years on top of it).
I could go on for hours on 'how' errors crawl in, I've taken the habbit to 'recount' each lot (the remaining quantity) when picking (obviously on lower quantities only), it helps to catch errors, but it's still not 'full proof'.
After several years of selling and manually syncing for 6 months (before there was BSync) I decided to do a full recount end of last year, as I noticed I was getting more and more errors over the years. I was horrified by the number of stock mistakes (luckely many in my favor). While counting I moved everything to a new storage system, since then I try to stay in control and the past 8 months I had close to none (except for the ones caused by myself on color or small quantity errors, which I then catched fairly quickly), I'm keeping my fingers crossed it's not 'more' then I can catch... But I work on safety anyway, I keep a larger amount 'of 'sealed' sets around > oftenly 'handy' to fill an order and I got tons of personal sets I can 'pick' in as well if really needed (unbuilt modulars and such).
As to the solution offered: You have a problem with 10 different orders and you'll end up with 10 different solutions (or none) by the sellers. And one situation is also not the other (is it a 10 cent part or a $7 minifig ?).
Having had thousands of orders and having placed around 1500 on a variaty of sites the past 10 years (so both a selling and buying experiance) I've learned to remain 'reasonable' when someone messes up... We are talking 'plastic toys' here, sometimes worthed only a few cents or a few bucks, it's not a car or a house where talking about, so a mistake is not the end of the world... And there are far more serious things in this world that requires much more of our 'full attention' in stead...
I have never received any complaints about how I pack my orders on BrickOwl, and I have had several repeat customers. I learned from my eBay days LOL. Seems like JayB likes to nitpick about other vendors. He seems very particular. And that's not a bad thing. Just not everyone is going to operate in the same particular fashion when it comes to selling Lego.
Forgot say:
You state:
>Kind of annoying because even if the order from the other store is 100%, I still need those 2 very specific pieces which means if the seller who didn't deliver them doesn't have any more then I have to make a whole new order with another store which throws off the value - I may as well have just bought the set on eBay.
Basic observation: every few weeks you 'tell us' how many orders you've placed, or how much you're spending or how many parts you're buying... Based on that info I need to conclude you place an average of nearly 2 orders per days (superb).
Now adding those 2 pieces in an 'upcomming' order should IMHO not be too complicated and probably wouldn't even make much of a difference in 'shipping'. So I fail to understand how it would 'throw off' the value of the set compared to purchasing a 'complete' one... If indeed the value of the complete one on Ebay is similar to 'recomposing' one, then I strongly recommend to choose option 'Ebay', as it saves a lot of time compared to recomposing. However, buying a 'complete' one on Ebay doesn't give you the certainty that the set will be complete (unless it's sealed), so you might end up with the exact same 'problem' ;-)