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Vanguard and shipping

Started by Gung Ho, September 03, 2010, 02:40:38 PM

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Gung Ho

Well placed my first order with Vanguard last week but have a question. Anybody have anything they can say about the shipping? Ordered on line, card was charged that day but now it's a week later and order has not even shipped yet. One item ordered and item in stock. I like to have things shipped USPS which is the cheapest but get this warning from them when I check that saying they would only be responsible to get item to post office, if I don't get it they don't care. So I had it shipped UPS. Is this the way they do business all the time? I can say from this treatment the next item I order from them it will have to be something I'm forced to have and can only buy it from them. If this is the way they treat our service members too I would hope they close the doors.

DBlair

They are infamously slow in processing orders. I've always used their USPS option and have been fine. My only main issues have been order processing times that have taken up to a couple weeks before being shipped. If you need something sooner, calling or emailing and asking them to process it right away, seems to work. Not really sure if it does mean anything to them, but I seem to get things faster that way when I'm in a time crunch. While not many of us like Vanguard, they have a monopoly on the CAP market as NHQ won't allow anyone else to sell CAP items. As for non-CAP generic military items, I would just go to a local base if you have one nearby.
DANIEL BLAIR, Lt Col, CAP
C/Lt Col (Ret) (1990s Era)
Wing Staff / Legislative Squadron Commander

Patterson

Yes....Vanguard shipping is terrible.  HOWEVER; they are now able to use the shipping account that you may have or use for or in your business.  I am using FedEx, and when I spoke to FedEx, they will not only bill me at a reduced rate because of the business account I have, but I got the business account through USAA's benefits section, and they knock off an extra 30%.

So, an order I placed last month for name tags and flight caps cost me $10.86 in shipping, now the same order costs me $4.38

Yay......so now, I am rather happy. 

Thunder

Never had a problem. I just ordered on 8/31 and it shipped 9/3. I used the "free shipping" and its coming 2nd day air. This is the third order I've had - and they all have come this fast.

They said mine is shipping out of VA - maybe yours is coming from a warehouse somewhere else and its slower?

Майор Хаткевич

I ordered supplies for my shadow box, and I guess they waited (which was fine by me, I was in refugee status) for about 2 weeks. I got free shipping due to spending $100, and they ended up overnighting it via UPS...Of course they need high prices, because otherwise they'd go broke on this type of shipping upgrade.

vmstan

Ordering from them typically consists of placing the order and then looking into a crystal ball to predict when it will arrive. Out of the half dozen times I've bought from them, I think I've only received a tracking number maybe twice. It just kinda shows up somewhere between 1 to 4 weeks later.
MICHAEL M STANCLIFT, 1st Lt, CAP
Public Affairs Officer, NCR-KS-055, Heartland Squadron

Quote"I wish to compliment NHQ on this extremely well and clearly written regulation.
This publication once and for all should establish the uniform pattern to be followed
throughout Civil Air Patrol."

1949 Uniform and Insignia Committee comment on CAP Reg 35-4

Eclipse

Heh - that reminds me!  I've had aviator shirts on back order since February!  (I ordered them elsewhere)

"That Others May Zoom"

RADIOMAN015

All of the other mail order firms I order from seem to be able to charge the credit card & ship on the same day.

Lots of excuses from this CAP selected vendor.  5 days is too long (charge credit card & not ship) and they may be violating the agreement with the credit card company.  You should ask your credit card company what the policy is and if Vanguard is violating it than file the formal complaint. >:D

Bottom line is that it's a real gamble in getting consistent quality performance out of Vanguard.   Interesting one of our new senior members ordered a new Blue Golf Shirt and got it in 6 days, which isn't bad.   Of Course if he had ordered it with the Hawk Shop (if permitted) he would have had it the very next day. :angel:

RM       

spacecommand

That's why I miss the hock when ordering CAP specific items.  I still use the hock for generic/non "CAP" / "CIVIL AIR PATROL" specific uniform items (better prices too).  Place an order with them and they ship the same day (if the order comes in before 12pm eastern time if I recall).

Any case can't do much about it.

SarDragon

Quote from: Thunder on September 03, 2010, 07:07:30 PM
Never had a problem. I just ordered on 8/31 and it shipped 9/3. I used the "free shipping" and its coming 2nd day air. This is the third order I've had - and they all have come this fast.

They said mine is shipping out of VA - maybe yours is coming from a warehouse somewhere else and its slower?

All orders are shipped from Virginia, per a Vanguard rep I talked to today.
Dave Bowles
Maj, CAP
AT1, USN Retired
50 Year Member
Mitchell Award (unnumbered)
C/WO, CAP, Ret

Gung Ho

Just one more screwed up thing showing us how much they really care about us. If we have to have something from Vanguard then they should have to give it to us. It says some serve without a uniform, now I see why. They just have better things to do then wait for this outfit to send them out. Guess it's jeans and a tee shirt for everything

Ned

Sigh.

It is worth remembering for a moment, that CAP members have never enjoyed free shipping on their orders.  Not when CAP ran the Bookstore, nor when that morphed into CAPMART.  I was always charged shipping for my Supply Depot orders as well.

And the levels of service from Vanguard appear to be as good or better than we enjoyed with CAPMART.  It may be difficult to believe, but we spent almost as much time on the old CAPTALK mailing list complaining about CAPMART prices and service as we did about uniforms.

Vanguard is a "win-win" for CAP and our members.  Instead of losing torrents of corporate dollars (our dues money, BTW) on running a retail operation with about a dozen employees and tons of inventory, we outsourced it to VG after a competative bidding process.  If nothing else, CAP, Inc is ahead tens of thousands of dollars a year that we would otherwise have spent on CAPMART.  Money that is used to fly cadets, award scholarships, buy and maintain vans, etc.

Customer service is always an issue with every business.  And VG genuinely strives to do a good job with us and their other customers.  They are going out of their way to respond to specific CAP problems by contracting for MILSPEC youth-sized BDUs and boots to meet the growing shortages of these products in the USAF and military channels.

THese are good things.

Ned Lee

JC004

Hey, Ned is trying to get free shipping!   >:D   ;D

Gung Ho

I didn't ask for free shipping, heck they are over charging me for shipping because if I picked the option I would like (USPS) they would not even quarantee my item would make it to me. Now I would not care if they charged me when I placed the order provided the order shipped in a day or two but it's been over a week. It's just not worth it to keep putting up with it. I paid my dues but have never even felt like I got anything worth it back. The cadets deserve better

JC004

My shipping experiences were always bad.  Others have reported better.  I had high hopes for them, but after my experiences I went out of my way to avoid them by trying to find things used or from other vendors.

As I mentioned here before, on my first order, they took FOREVER to do anything, then they CANCELED my order, KEPT the money, and never responded to my inquiries.  I had to corner them at the wing conference months later to get my money back in merchandise.  That was the one that annoyed me the most because they kept my money for months, but my experiences following that sucked also.  I simply stopped giving them my money.

Eclipse

Months?

You can call your credit card company and dispute the charge - that gets their attention immediately.

"That Others May Zoom"

Майор Хаткевич

Quote from: Ned on September 04, 2010, 11:46:57 PM

It is worth remembering for a moment, that CAP members have never enjoyed free shipping on their orders. 

Right around the time CAP opened CAPMART, all of my orders were shipped for free, and were shipped via Priority mail which I received within the week. The reason I went to them of course was that Hock took 8 weeks to ship me nametapes that had the wrong thickness embroidery anyway, along with crappy overseas junk that was not like the rest of the items my fellow unit members had. Eventually CAPMart started to charge shipping, but it was still for only the price of the shipment, and Priority mail was a good option.

It also doesn't take 12 employees to run CAPMart. How many orders a month did they receive? At my job I was able to maintain/add inventory to our Online store while shipping out about 1000 orders per month. All within a 35-40 hour work week alone. We have about 100 items, but even with 10 times that volume, an inventory program along with maybe 2-3 employees to maintain everything is all it would take. I find it hard to believe that with a national membership of 58,000 CAPMart would get more than 1000 orders a month anyway.

The issue with guaranteeing orders on Priority mail is understandable but stupid for Vanguard. Understandable, because with UPS the package is insured, and if it doesn't make it, UPS will pay up and Vanguard doesn't loose any money. Stupid, because if you ever sold anything anywhere online these days, the shipper is responsible for the package until the tracking shows the item as delivered. For a company as big as Vanguard, there wouldn't be that big of a loss if they had to reship a small order (the only one's that make sense via USPS) in order to keep a customer happy. But then again, they don't have that big of a customer pool when it comes to CAP, and we don't have any alternatives either way.

Like I said earlier, they'd be a lot more profitable if they didn't sit on free shipping orders for two weeks, and ship them next day air UPS after all that time.

ol'fido

I ordered black velcro from Scamguard as part of a larger order. By mistake I ordered the hook portion instead of the loop portion. I didn't realize that they sold them separately. I called to try to get the loop portion instead and was told..."you can send the hook portion back but there will be a $.75 restocking charge. The loop is a $1.50 and it will be $7.95 shipping and handling." Had to bite my tongue to keep from telling them what to do with that. Ended up getting a box that had both at the Scott AFB BX for $2.50. Will not use Scamguard again unless I can get what I need nowhere else. Sorry, Ned, but they have anti-monopoly laws for business for a reason. I have a problem with the rebate program because to me this rebate seems to close to "kickback". Whether something is legal or not but it has the stink of impropriety, we should NOT allow it. Competition is good!
Lt. Col. Randy L. Mitchell
Historian, Group 1, IL-006

Smokey

I've had mixed results with Vanguard.  Just recently I needed an Air Force item (not CAP  specific) and I needed it within a week.  I called the California store, they said it could ship by regular UPS and I would have it within the time frame.  (Note: the California store is 90 minutes from my home).  When it didn't arrive I called and was told that "orders are not processed for  3-5 business days unless you want to pay extra for special handling and shipping would be another 5 days "( remember how far away I said I was!!!)  That  is 10 business days for an in stock item to be shipped less than 100 miles!  Of course I could have paid about $8 for special handling and $20 for overnight shipping for a $25 item. Double the cost of the item.

Sounds like government accounting to me.
If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.
To err is human, to blame someone else shows good management skills.

Eeyore

My experiences have been mixed, usually good, with a little bit of bad thrown in. The last order I had was shipped incomplete due to back order, called asked when they would get the items in, they didn't know. I needed the items for the the NB and let them know that. They told me that they would not be able to ship it to me on time, but they would hand carry it to me in San Diego. All of this happened a month out from the NB.

Really bad service followed by a pretty good gesture of service.