BladeHQ makes it right.

Great idea on using Fedex 2nd day shipping. I use Fedex almost exclusively for my business and average 6000 pounds per year.

They have been very helpful by offering deeply discounted rates and even waiving pick up charges.

I also have an assigned rep that calls me and have developed a relationship with.

Sounds like this may be a good move for you folks.
 
I've always been a fan of Bladehq. Their selection is one of the better ones, their site is easy to navigate and I like their videos. Recently I've shyed away from using them only because of the shipping times. I'm glad to see BladeHQ BladeHQ stepping up and addressing the community and fixing the issues. I know we're probably not the majority of their business but I'm sure we're a good chunk.
 
Just show how important reliable shipping is and not limited to BHQ, I have even quit making Amazon my first shopping stop for general merchandise. Originally Amazon Prime meant 2Days from order to door step. I could order 10pm on Friday and it would be delivered by 5pm on Sunday.

No more. If it isn’t “Sold and shipped by Amazon” then it could take 2 days to get off the loading dock and 3-5 days more for delivery even though it is listed as eligible for Prime. Most retailers can do that easily, and often much better. As a result, now I check other sites first and then Amazon. Often I end up ordering before I ever get around to Amazon. Car parts, clothing, office supplies, etc.

Product fulfillment and delivery have become an important criteria in choosing a retailer. It is one of the factors that made Amazon so successful, though they have tarnished that legacy as of late.
 
BladeHQ said:
@tyyreaun Yeah, I normally wouldn't be this open about our business processes but I think it's been enough of a problem that I want to let you all know what's going on.

Earlier this year, our operations manager decided to get orders shipped out even faster, we would add an order fulfillment swing shift. It's an extra shift that comes in after USPS picks up the mail for the day and packs orders. That's the reason that sometimes the order label is generated the day before USPS receives the package. We are not printing labels and then waiting to put the knives into boxes. Although, I totally can see how it would look like that. Typically USPS comes to pick up at our place around 3 pm (Mon-Sat). Also adding to the confusion, we have noticed that our local USPS often doesn't scan packages reliably. Sometimes the tracking number doesn't tell the whole story.

Sometimes the orders get flagged for fraud. Those orders need to be manually reviewed, and that typically slows things down a lot. We are working on fixing this system so it doesn't flag so many orders while also not allowing fraudulent orders to get through.

Additionally, we have had a goal to get orders shipped out within 24 hours but the last couple of months we have been increasingly unable to meet that goal. We have tried to hire employees to fix the problem, but we had a few bad hires that ended up leaving the company very quickly. I am committed to getting us back to shipping out our orders on the same day that the order is placed. Just this week we have hired several more order fulfillment employees, and that should make a difference. I am in the office today and we are currently shipping out orders that were placed today. I am very concerned about how long it is taking to get packages out, and we are making that a focus right now.

As to how long the orders are taking to get to everyone, we are experimenting with FedEx two-day shipping in order to try and fix that. We are working with them to bring costs down and to try to ship the bulk of our products out two-day. Now that FedEx counts Saturdays, this could potentially be a viable option for us going forward.

Mark
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Did we give up on this goal Mark? I ordered a knife Friday morning and as of now it hasn't shipped. It doesn't even appear that a label has been created.
 
Petunia D. Feeble Petunia D. Feeble It looks like your order tripped our fraud system. That's why it didn't ship. I don't know why our fraud guy didn't release the hold Friday though. I will look into that. In the meantime, I am expediting your shipping. Sorry.

Mark
 
BladeHQ said:
Petunia D. Feeble Petunia D. Feeble It looks like your order tripped our fraud system. That's why it didn't ship. I don't know why our fraud guy didn't release the hold Friday though. I will look into that. In the meantime, I am expediting your shipping. Sorry.

Mark
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Great, thank's for the quick response. Perhaps you should also consider some sort of notification for the customer when that happens? I don't know exactly what your "fraud system" entails, but an email could prompt the customer to call in maybe and expedite the process? At the very least it'll let them know that the order's not simply being ignored.
 
I am not trying to dogpile here, but what appears to be happening is that a company that has experienced exponential (and exponentially quick) growth into a larger company is still being run like a small one, or rather, has infrastructure like a small one. If you guys are awash in orders and aren't meeting the 24 hour turnaround time reliably, that means you folks don't have enough (quality) employees to keep up with demand. You have two choices, given those circumstances. Keep missing that 24 hour turnaround (like what keeps happening to folks here), and take the impact to your business, or else scramble to get warm bodies on that packing line and get these boxes moving out of your warehouse, and revamp your entire process. Orders from customers being held up in some sort of fraud check system? That seems suspect to me, especially if the order is placed, and paid for from some reputable source. I mean, unless Petunia D. Feeble Petunia D. Feeble paid using cryptocurrency from an offshore account or some noise. LOL
 
I almost purchased from BHQ today. Almost.
Their price was $30 less than a dealer I have used a number of times. Then the shipping popped up... free economy shipping, with no discount on upgrades. Not only that, their upgrades are higher priced than I would pay, so that's not an attractive option - especially since they build their delays right into the upgrade, with USPS Priority showing as 4-6 days...which is accurate if they're not actually shipping for 2-3 days. I emptied my cart.
 
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Here is the email reply I received about why it was taking so long to ship:

"Thank you for your email. I’ve looked into this, and your order was shipped on the 1st of October. It can sometimes take a few days for the post office to update their tracking information. It is on its way, and will be there soon.

Because this order has already shipped so we are no longer able to cancel or modify this order in any way. What you can do is contact us once you receive this order and we can look into setting up a return at that time.

If there is anything else we can help you out with, please let us know."

This of course is complete BS. The knife finally made it to the PO yesterday, according to tracking. Took 2.5 days to get there, but I am told it has shipped when it clearly has not. So it appears to me at least that Bladehq is ok with their staff not completely telling the truth. I'm going to return the knife, I simply can't do business with them anymore.
 
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Quiet said:
I am not trying to dogpile here, but what appears to be happening is that a company that has experienced exponential (and exponentially quick) growth into a larger company is still being run like a small one, or rather, has infrastructure like a small one. If you guys are awash in orders and aren't meeting the 24 hour turnaround time reliably, that means you folks don't have enough (quality) employees to keep up with demand. You have two choices, given those circumstances. Keep missing that 24 hour turnaround (like what keeps happening to folks here), and take the impact to your business, or else scramble to get warm bodies on that packing line and get these boxes moving out of your warehouse, and revamp your entire process. Orders from customers being held up in some sort of fraud check system? That seems suspect to me, especially if the order is placed, and paid for from some reputable source. I mean, unless Petunia D. Feeble Petunia D. Feeble paid using cryptocurrency from an offshore account or some noise. LOL
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There is actually a lot of fraud we deal with, and we have to review a lot more orders than you might expect. It's typical of an e-commerce business, but things like stolen cards, passwords, and other problems cause us to have to review lots of orders.
 
hhmoore said:
I almost purchased from BHQ today. Almost.
Their price was $30 less than a dealer I have used a number of times. Then the shipping popped up... free economy shipping, with no discount on upgrades. Not only that, their upgrades are higher priced than I would pay, so that's not an attractive option - especially since they build their delays right into the upgrade, with USPS Priority showing as 4-6 days...which is accurate if they're not actually shipping for 2-3 days. I emptied my cart.
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I can understand your concern. However, in order to keep our prices down, we simply pass along the amount that the shipping costs us. Actually, because of the way we do shipping, we don't pass along all of the costs. We still eat a few dollars on each package shipped. That's how we were able to offer a price that was $30 cheaper than another dealer.
 
BladeHQ said:
I can understand your concern. However, in order to keep our prices down, we simply pass along the amount that the shipping costs us. Actually, because of the way we do shipping, we don't pass along all of the costs. We still eat a few dollars on each package shipped. That's how we were able to offer a price that was $30 cheaper than another dealer.
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I'll admit that when I was shipping for a hobby business, I didn't use USPS; so that experience may not apply...but with FedEx and UPS there are volume discounts, and I suspect that is true with USPS (if not directly, via stamps.com or similar).
I understand that there are costs associated with shipping; but when an individual can sell a knife, and with a few clicks pay less for shipping than a large business is charging, we notice. That aside, as has been said many times in this thread, consumers today expect timely shipping... ESPECIALLY when they opt to pay a premium for expedited service. There are simply too many options available for customers to accept lackadaisical customer service.
One of the reasons I rarely even visit the BHQ site is I experienced what I considered lousy customer support. I had asked a question about a knife that interested me. I wasn't expecting an immediate response; but I wasn't expecting to wait 4 months. I had long since given up on getting an answer, then, one day, there it was. After 4 months (approximately - I don't recall the actual time frame, it was years ago), the response to my question was: I'm not sure, check with the manufacturer. Frankly, I would have preferred no response to that one.
 
Sounds like the shipping label/tracking number is being printed too early in the order process. It might make sense in an internal admin sense to do it all together but maybe waiting till the package is ready to leave would give a better real world timeline.
 
Yeah, I think it's related to the swing shift problem that we are having. I also did some digging today and found out that a 3rd party is picking up our packages from our facility and maybe the reason that it's taking some extra time to get to the post office. I need to look deeper into that, but I will figure it out and get it resolved. I really appreciate everyone who has reached out with feedback.

Mark
 
hhmoore said:
I almost purchased from BHQ today. Almost.
Their price was $30 less than a dealer I have used a number of times. Then the shipping popped up... free economy shipping, with no discount on upgrades. Not only that, their upgrades are higher priced than I would pay, so that's not an attractive option - especially since they build their delays right into the upgrade, with USPS Priority showing as 4-6 days...which is accurate if they're not actually shipping for 2-3 days. I emptied my cart.
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If I recall correctly the price BHQ had listed for FedEx 2 Day was about the price of a USPS flat rate small box. That's really not a bad deal.

The latency on actually getting stuff shipped is an issue, but a free snail mail option and a 2 day expedited option for $7-8 seems pretty reasonable.
 
Placed an order this am and its on its way!!!:thumbsup: What more can ya ask??!!:D
John
 
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