not good: Opticsplanet.com

I got the same deal from them with 3 things out of stock. eventually just canceled it.
 
sheathmaker said:
Patience, my friends.
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Patience is warranted when a vendor has an occasional snafu, and has earned customer patience with a history of quick, painless sales of in-stock items.

Opticsplanet does not have occasional problems. In my experience, and apparently in that of many others, their inability to deliver what they advertise is the rule rather than the exception. They know that many or most of their advertised items are not in stock. I have no patience with that. There are too many vendors who will actually ship the items I purchase rather than send me "so sorry" emails.

:thumbup:
 
I only tried ordering something through them once and I received an OOS email. I canceled my order and haven't looked back.
 
2Dead said:
I only tried ordering something through them once and I received an OOS email. I canceled my order and haven't looked back.
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Same thing here. If the items were indicated as OOS I may have selected differently. Instead, they wasted my time and lost a customer.
 
Just because I have a sweet spirit, I thought I would give them about a 7th chance to do what they say that will do, i.e., sell me a product.

Would they do it? Of course not.

This time I emailed them in advance of ordering a monocular.

As expected, it was not in stock.

Take some advice from those who have learned the hard way - just avoid opticsplanet.com.
 
I've had good experiences when ordering, always get my gear quick, but maybe I'm lucky.

I did call last time to verify an optic was in stock and the lady gave me an additional 5% discount - just because. And it was already a smokin' deal on a Nikon scope.
 
I've had good experiences with them, but I always call to ensure the item I want is in stock.
 
SandroM said:
Hey everyone,

We're most definitely listening, and we know that the fact that we are sometimes out of stock doesn't make our customers happy. It obviously doesn't make us happy either, there are a number of people who have said in this thread they won't shop with us anymore because of it. That's not good for business.

We have one of the largest warehouses in Illinois, and recently purchased another one to expand our inventory. Having great prices and a customer-friendly website means we turn products very quickly, but we're at the mercy of suppliers when it comes to restocking. When we email you and say 7-10 days, or 20-30 days, we aren't making it up - that info is relayed by the supplier. We have good relationships with them, but that doesn't mean that we're ok with it when 7-10 days turns into 2 months.

Our website does not show in-stock/out-of-stock status because our website doesn't update fast enough. I can't give specific numbers, but the amount of products we receive and ship out in any given week is more than you'd imagine - we're a top 500 internet retailer (not just for the products we carry... we're ranked with Amazon, Dell, etc.) Managing our inventory better is a gigantic project we are working on, and we're rolling out improvements constantly. In the meantime, you can always call us toll-free to see if the item you are looking for is in-stock or not.

Our customers tell us we are one of the top online retailers out there (see Reseller Ratings or other reviews sites), but we know we aren't perfect. So we're always listening, and threads like this do help.

While I work in the Marketing and not Customer Service, if I can ever do anything to help please PM me. I'll do everything I can to help!

Alessandro
OpticsPlanet
http://www.opticsplanet.com
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If I may, You seem like a sincere and nice Man. AS a business owner and customer - When I have a complaint or a customer complains to me, I find it does not help when addressing the complaint to include in the explanation how Big you are or how successful and busy you are.
The client is really more interested in hearing that he/she was heard and that something is going to be done to address their needs.
I learned this lesson from being in business many years and offer it as constructive advice.
 
rubiconss said:
If I may, You seem like a sincere and nice Man. AS a business owner and customer - When I have a complaint or a customer complains to me, I find it does not help when addressing the complaint to include in the explanation how Big you are or how successful and busy you are.
The client is really more interested in hearing that he/she was heard and that something is going to be done to address their needs.
I learned this lesson from being in business many years and offer it as constructive advice.
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What an asinine thing to say!

The size and scope of OpticPlanet's business operation is directly relevant to the OP's complaint regarding out of stock items, as the representative clearly explained. I find it hard to believe that you are unable to understand how his points tie into the discussion. Sorry to point it out, but your false implication here is rooted in your own ignorance, not in any poor or strategically-flawed communication by the representative.
 
I've had similar issues with optics planet. I ordered 7 items form them and later found out that only 1 of them was in stock. When I went to cancel the order, I was told I could only cancel 6 items because the 7th was in stock and already shipped. I didn't get that "already shipped" item for a month.

I appreciate that they responded to this thread, at least it makes it look like they are listening. But if your sole purpose of a business is managing a website and selling and shipping items, I don't see how your inventory system couldn't be set up to display what you have in stock. How can you be a "Top 500" internet company, yet lack the technology to keep up with your inventory. The picture it sends me as customer(former) is that your more concerned with making it look like you have a big inventory than customer service. It feels like your hoping that the customer won't cancel their order once they are later notified that the item is out of stock.

As people have said previously in this thread, there are too many other sites to have to deal with this, so I will be taking my business else where.
 
My experience with them has been the following.

Ordered a camelback pack from them, it was in stock promptly shipped and in my paws on schedule.

The config didn't match the website photo, which was kinda of iffy on who's problem it really was as camelbak just switched from 1000D to 500D and changed the config on some of their packs. Hard to pin the blame here completely on opticsplanet but they stood behind the sale and made sure I was satisfied.

Exchanged a couple of emails with them, always promptly responded too as well, and determined the best result was to return the product.

They included a link to the instructions on their site for the return process which I followed and received a refund per their process.

So, based on that I would not have any problems dealing with them in the future.

Now, I gotta say that Powernoodle has had quite the experience. Not sure what to say about a guy with the kind of "luck" that manages to find everyone of their out of stock items and orders them. You are buying lottery tickets I hope!:D
 
Bryan J said:
What an asinine thing to say!

The size and scope of OpticPlanet's business operation is directly relevant to the OP's complaint regarding out of stock items, as the representative clearly explained. I find it hard to believe that you are unable to understand how his points tie into the discussion. Sorry to point it out, but your false implication here is rooted in your own ignorance, not in any poor or strategically-flawed communication by the representative.
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I have to respectfully disagree with your harsh criticism of rubiconss. I think if you look at many of the other top internet retailers in this category, such as MidwayUSA, Brownells, Cabelas, BassProShops, REI, etc., you will see that they all have websites that indicate whether or not an item is in stock. For OpticsPlanet to claim that their website "does not show in-stock/out-of-stock status because our website doesn't update fast enough". is, to say the least, disingenuous. It has nothing to do with the "size and scope" or their business, but rather is tied to a flawed business plan that frequently hangs customers out to dry. Clearly, they have not been willing to invest in the technology that makes this inventory tracking possible.

Bryan...I think the ignorance is on you.
 
dwarthog said:
Not sure what to say about a guy with the kind of "luck" that manages to find everyone of their out of stock items and orders them.
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It doesn't have anything to do with back luck. It happens because Optics Planet shows items on the website that they choose not to stock. Based on my experience, and that of others, it appears that the unstocked items out number those which they keep in stock. That may benefit Optics Planet from an inventory control perspective (no need for that pesky warehouse space), but its bad for the consumer who has a reasonable expectation that items shown on the website will actually be in stock.

I'm starting to repeat myself, so I'll just leave it there. :thumbup: :)
 
powernoodle said:
It doesn't have anything to do with back luck. It happens because Optics Planet shows items on the website that they choose not to stock. Based on my experience, and that of others, it appears that the unstocked items out number those which they keep in stock. That may benefit Optics Planet from an inventory control perspective (no need for that pesky warehouse space), but its bad for the consumer who has a reasonable expectation that items shown on the website will actually be in stock.

I'm starting to repeat myself, so I'll just leave it there. :thumbup: :)
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I suppose in retrospect that perhaps I should be the one buying a lottery ticket since I found the one item they actually had in stock apparently.

Rest assured that your experiences aren't going unnoticed by myself or others, thank you for sharing them. :thumbup:
 
Eight weeks to get a Max bag and some chem lights. It was my first order from them and it will be my last. I wish I had seen this thread before I ordered. Sometimes the best price isn't worth the trouble.:thumbdn:
 
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