I use newegg a lot, have gotten some of my best tv deals from them.
Recently I want to scream trying to find ubnt gear or mikrotik routers for
customer use
in fact today, a website which shall remain nameless, but it was the third site
i checked.
They had stock (or so it appeared). i tried to click confirm and continue.
The confirm button
wouldn't click!
Different browser...same result.
Online ordering should be easy.
Baltic should always have stuff in :)
I should have emailed Broadwick. I've done that a few times - but I just
wanted it done.
I ran out of time - i had to hit the door. Turns out one of my partners took
care of the order.
Looks like doubleradius was the lucky vendor. I don't think i've ever ordered
anything from them.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ken Hohhof
To: af@afmug.com
Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2015 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT eCommerce
There are some places I shop exclusively using their online stores, like
McMaster, Allied and Tessco. With Tessco you need to click “Confirm Price” at
checkout which also checks availability. I have never had any of these
companies screw up an order. Mouser, Newark, DigiKey as well, they are all
very reliable and have good online ordering. McMaster takes the cake though, I
think they have the world’s best online store.
Baltic I usually order online but if I need it next day I have found to check
if it shows “pick up at will call” as a shipping option, if not, then “in
stock” probably means drop ship from somewhere else like Streakwave or Primus.
I have never had Jon at Streakwave (Ohio) or Mark at WAV mess up an order or
tell me something was in stock that wasn’t. But I email or call them. It’s
quick and easy. I think we all face the issue that you spend an entire week of
days in the field and can’t order parts until bedtime when places are closed
and an online store with accurate stock status is a great thing. But I can
also shoot an email to Jon or Mark, go to bed, and check my email the next
morning or they will call me.
What I really hate are the places that want you to sign the quote and FAX it
back with a credit card authorization. Actually they don’t bother me anymore
because if there are any left like that, I just don’t buy stuff from them. It
used to be common practice.
Two places I shop less than I used to are Newegg and Amazon. I don’t know
what happened to Newegg, I think they have really gone downhill. One place I
do buy from that I used to steer clear of is Tiger Direct, they used to be an
outlet store, but they are pretty mainstream now.
At Amazon, I don’t buy a lot of stuff from third party sellers unless it says
fulfilled by Amazon. Even then, a lot of stock is comingled, and there is a
risk of getting grey market goods or outright knockoffs. I’ve had Amazon do
stupid stuff. Like one time I ordered 10 surge strips, and it turned they had
quantity=1 at each of their warehouses, so the UPS guy literally delivered 10
Amazon boxes each with one surge strip in it. Now I order surge strips from
Tiger Direct. Also one time I was having trouble finding Bishop/Plymouth butyl
mastic tape and Amazon had some, when it came it was not Bishop at all, it was
a Chinese knockoff. Returning it was easy, but it shouldn’t have happened.
From: Tyler Treat
Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2015 9:05 PM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT eCommerce
I always had great luck with Matt Kahle. But I was always the type who'd
pick up the phone and call.
Hey Matt I need this
Ok, how bad?
Really bad,
Ok you'll have it tomorrow.
He actually met me in Bloomington one time after same day back to back
lightning wiped out my backhaul stock.
Then again, it's important to ask if everything is in stock or where it's in
stock. Chicago was overnight UPS for us, so if something wasn't coming from
there it was pretty obvious.
___________________________
Mangled by my iPhone.
___________________________
Tyler Treat
Corn Belt Technologies, Inc.
tyler.tr...@cornbelttech.com
___________________________
On Sep 3, 2015, at 8:27 PM, Adam Moffett <dmmoff...@gmail.com> wrote:
Dan Ortega at CTI was a badass. I would send one email and everything I
wanted would show up two days later. I don't know how he managed it, but that
guy got stuff done. Our post Dan Ortega experiences were never as good. The
only thing as reliable as Dan Ortega is Amazon. Maybe Dan Ortega was an
android.
I'm fairly happy with CTI (our rep: James until last year I think, and
now Jonte) for cases where high-touch is OK.
Ordering everything for a tower being built 3-4 months out with a
licensed backhaul is a good example.
In those cases a few clarifying phone calls and a email thread isn't the
end of the world. They're pretty good to us and I have reasons to want to send
them business.
It's ordering the one-off/small project items that can be irritating.
My usual order cycle is: email what I want (include exact part numbers),
get a quote back, make sure the price is sane and part number is correct (if
it's even listed), then email back saying yes, and it hopefully(1) shows up
next day.
1) That's the part where things break down. I'm never sure if they have
stock, are sending from a 3rd party (maybe a warehouse further away, maybe
stock levels aren't in sync). Cambium is never a problem. Ubiquiti is hit and
miss, other things, vary wildly. The uncertainty is frustrating.
Although lately Jonte has gotten really good about letting me know when
items have long lead times or are out of stock and finding alternate items. I
do appreciate that.
Aside from stock uncertainties, it feels wasteful of my time and theirs
to have to go through a "traditional" sales rep interaction cycle for
small/uncomplicated orders.
At this point if we're replenishing stock by ordering a case of UBNT gear
and we haven't run out yet, we'll order it from CTI.
If it's for a small project (e.g. AF5x link+spare or some UniFi APs) I'll
order from Baltic because the stock levels on their website are accurate--if
they show it in stock and I order before 3 PM I know that it will be in my
office by noon the following day.
Inaccurate stock levels on Streakwave's web store have bitten me on
nearly every order I've placed with them...
On Wed, Sep 2, 2015 at 3:28 PM, Mike Hammett <af...@ics-il.net> wrote:
If it wasn't for Jeff Broadwick, i wouldn't do business with CTI...
too complicated.
-----
Mike Hammett
Intelligent Computing Solutions
http://www.ics-il.com
Midwest Internet Exchange
http://www.midwest-ix.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Jon Auer" <j...@tapodi.net>
To: "Animal Farm" <af@afmug.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 2, 2015 2:32:38 PM
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT eCommerce
On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 1:58 PM, Forrest Christian (List Account)
<li...@packetflux.com> wrote:
Don't discount just adding your products to amazon and the like.
I love it when manufacturers do this (and use Amazon's warehouses).
I've been seriously tempted to just do it with /someone's/ very awesome
APC-compatible surge cards...
I was very happy when Telect was doing that with fuse panels and fiber
trays. There's so much less cognitive load and time spent in going to Amazon,
searching part number, and clicking buy now instead of emailing Power&Tel or
CTI, getting a quote, approving the quote, placing the order, etc.
