New Vanguard CAP Store Website

[CAP428]

For those of you who are tired of seeing the infamous

symbol, I emailed Vanguard and I received this reply:

Hello,

    Our new website will be launching within a couple of months.  There will be plenty of pictures and descriptions for our customers.  Thank you for inquiring. If you have any other questions please let me know.


Sincerely,
Norine Sasser
Supervisor
Civil Air Patrol
Vanguard

I thought you all might be interested, seeing as Vanguard is a hot topic around here.

[wingnut]

They could pay a few Cadets a thousand dollars and they could do the web site, I think it is pathetic and it makes me feel we are but Dollar signs for NHQ

[RiverAux]

Hard to believe that they managed to come up with a web site even worse than the one we had isn't it?

[JC004]

ooooo, goodie.  I can imagine this will be interesting...  Maybe they should KILL THE SPLASH PAGE.  Wow, I hate splash pages.  Also, they need a "NEW ITEMS" section since we're always adding stuff.  That way, it'll be easier to find.  OH!  And if we can get SM epaulets out from the Mess Dress section, that'll be great!

My proposed design for Vanguard's site looked like this:

[ZigZag911]

I ordered a bunch of insignia on Apr 29.

There was a credit card glitch; they called next day, courteous as could be, and straightened it out.

The material arrived Wednesday, which would be the 8th business day....haven't had a chance to inventory it yet, but the package looks big enough.

This was my first experience with them, and I have to say it was positive all around.

[JC004]

I ordered a bunch of insignia on Apr 29.

There was a credit card glitch; they called next day, courteous as could be, and straightened it out.

The material arrived Wednesday, which would be the 8th business day....haven't had a chance to inventory it yet, but the package looks big enough.

This was my first experience with them, and I have to say it was positive all around.

Here's the bad news...your package has explosives in it.

[Lancer]

Man, how long is is going to take them? They told us 'a couple of months' at our wing conference, and that was a couple of months ago.   

[jimmydeanno]

Man, how long is is going to take them? They told us 'a couple of months' at our wing conference, and that was a couple of months ago.   

Maybe  they're trying to get suggestions from here by looking at all the images we're posting, but only seeing
and don't know how to download the picture to see what we're talking about...

[mikeylikey]

Vanguard Stinks!  They are running a terrible business.  How hard was it to take a picture of what they already have and throw it up on the site?  For crying out loud....this vanguard issue is making me sick!  They are only demonstrating that they do not care about CAP......that they only want to rape us of our money!

[LtCol White]

I ordered a bunch of insignia on Apr 29.

There was a credit card glitch; they called next day, courteous as could be, and straightened it out.

The material arrived Wednesday, which would be the 8th business day....haven't had a chance to inventory it yet, but the package looks big enough.

This was my first experience with them, and I have to say it was positive all around.

Here's the bad news...your package has explosives in it.

Could be Girl Scout uniforms

[JC004]

I ordered a bunch of insignia on Apr 29.

There was a credit card glitch; they called next day, courteous as could be, and straightened it out.

The material arrived Wednesday, which would be the 8th business day....haven't had a chance to inventory it yet, but the package looks big enough.

This was my first experience with them, and I have to say it was positive all around.

Here's the bad news...your package has explosives in it.

Could be Girl Scout uniforms

[mikeylikey]

^^ Don't you have one of those outfits General?

[JC004]

^^ Don't you have one of those outfits General?

I told you...the skirt isn't mine.  It wouldn't even fit me.  Go work on that equipment you are supposed to acquire for my regime. 

[IceNine]

Just a little FYI for all of you that are as frustrated with the lack of expediency with which vanguard handles our orders.  Vanguard does NOT have electronic credit card processing and must call in each and every card number for billing/approval, SO if you want your stuff to be shipped next day or even in any type of a timely manner order your stuff on-line and then CALL them and tell them to process your order.  Its unfortunate that we have to hold there hands to help us out but what do you do? (rhetorical question...please don't tell me to tell vanguard to shove off or whatever)

[CAP428]

Vanguard does NOT have electronic credit card processing and must call in each and every card number for billing/approval,

Yeah, I figured that one out....After waiting 3 weeks and checking the site where it said "payment awaiting confirmation" I called them and they explained that they receive the credit card information, print it out, and then call it in.

Kinda primitive, don't ya think?

Anyway, after that it took them forever to update the status to "awaiting shipping" and, get this:  It wasn't until 2 months AFTER I received the package that they updated it to "package sent."



The products were all correct, but the wait was a little much....

[Pumbaa]

Perahps they should take a lesson from Tom at the Hock...  At least he uses PayPal...

Ugh, I dont get it...  It does not take much to set up a fully interactive store.  Heck Godaddy offers merchant store websites...

Talk about inept...

[jimmydeanno]

I just placed an order for a bunch of embroidered items (nametapes, nameplates, polo shirts, etc) and made this suggestion to them.

Currently, when you order the items above there isn't a field to enter what you want that item to say or what you want embroidered on the polo shirts.  Adding those fields to the product (like from the hockshop) would make it easier.  Instead, currently, you need to add those descriptions in the "comments" field on the payment screen, can only add to the confusion when placing and fulfilling the order.

For example: Click on polo shirt, select size, enter name to be embroidered, select aviation badge to be embroidered, item is sent to shopping cart.

So, to make sure they got the instructions, I called them to confirm.

[JC004]

I just placed an order for a bunch of embroidered items (nametapes, nameplates, polo shirts, etc) and made this suggestion to them.

Currently, when you order the items above there isn't a field to enter what you want that item to say or what you want embroidered on the polo shirts.  Adding those fields to the product (like from the hockshop) would make it easier.  Instead, currently, you need to add those descriptions in the "comments" field on the payment screen, can only add to the confusion when placing and fulfilling the order.

For example: Click on polo shirt, select size, enter name to be embroidered, select aviation badge to be embroidered, item is sent to shopping cart.

So, to make sure they got the instructions, I called them to confirm.

I would not doubt, that if they didn't get/see the instructions, they would send you blank nametapes/tags.

[SarDragon]

All of the above confusion inducing things lead me to send in a paper order form, with the personalizations, sizes, etc. in the lines for each item. I would guess that it added two days and 37 cents to the order, but it virtually guaranteed getting exactly what I asked for. My last order had six personalized items and all were 100% correct.

[IceNine]

thats great...but the issue as previously mentioned is we went from a perfectly good Working internet store with free shipping to a non-working, no credit card processing, $7 shipping store that if they do carry the items we need and they are on line it will take a couple hours because most things are put in some category that is oddly named or not logical at all.  So essentially we are going back in time if we have to hand write, then wait for snail mail to get there, then wait for them to get around to looking at our next day shipping order that will arrive some time in about 10-15 days.  Sound like once again we need to get Gen. Courter on this, she seems to be the cap Official "fire under the a**.  And maybe we wouldn't have to worry about people complying with uniform regs if they could get their stuff in a timely manner or at all

[RiverAux]

perfectly good Working internet store

I'm not defending Vanguard, but the CAP Bookstore web site was not at all user friendly and had many of the same problems in terms of category names. 

[LtCol White]

The old bookstore did have good cust service. The people on the phone were always helpful and nice.

[RiverAux]

That is true as of the bookstore's last few years.  For most of its history it was round reviled and hated by everyone I know.  I point this out to remind everyone that the "good old days" weren't as good as was suggested. 

[jimmydeanno]

Ok, so I just received an order from vanguard, all personalized items...not a single thing wrong or missing.  However, there is a random clothes pin in the box with the number "3045" on it (not the order number)...anyone else get a lucky clothes pin?

[Hawk200]

Ok, so I just received an order from vanguard, all personalized items...not a single thing wrong or missing.  However, there is a random clothes pin in the box with the number "3045" on it (not the order number)...anyone else get a lucky clothes pin?

That's your Vanguard lottery ticket. The drawing will be the 31st of December. You get a nametag of your choice, complete with misspellling.

[RogueLeader]

Ok, so I just received an order from vanguard, all personalized items...not a single thing wrong or missing.  However, there is a random clothes pin in the box with the number "3045" on it (not the order number)...anyone else get a lucky clothes pin?

It's your Lucky Day

[JCJ]

The old bookstore did have good cust service. The people on the phone were always helpful and nice.

Unfortunately, it was in the red a significant amount every year - which was a direct drain on our corporate budget.

From a business sense, it was a good move to outsource it.

[Dragoon]

Last report I got had it losing about $100K or so a year.

Annoying, but given CAP's budget, perhaps it would have been better to simply subsidize that cost, in the interested of making it easy (and cheap) for members to get new uniforms.

When you start considering member services as profit centers.....things can get dicey.

[jimmydeanno]

Well...this is unfortunate, Vanguard does not sell the AF Style BDU Cap.  They sell two types of baseball caps and the BBDU cap, but no BDU cap... 

[Pylon]

Well...this is unfortunate, Vanguard does not sell the AF Style BDU Cap.  They sell two types of baseball caps and the BBDU cap, but no BDU cap... 

Yeah, I could never figure that one out.  Your one-stop shop for CAP stuff.... except BDU caps.