Horrible service from Stamina

[Billy V]

I try not to air my grievances on these message boards, but today I've had such a negative experience with Stamina that I had to vent and tell you guys to beware of their shady practices.

On Monday I ordered a 300' coated cable to replace the probe cable on my rigger. I've ordered from them in the past and they've always gotten my product to me in a reasonable time frame and I've even gone so far as to recommend them to others. However, this time I was in a bit of a hurry to get the product here because we're fishing again on Friday. I placed the order on Monday and paid for "3 day" shipping. I fully expected it to be here on Thursday morning. I didn't get an email from UPS until Tuesday night at 7pm telling me that they hadn't received the shipment from Stamina until 6:03PM on Tuesday. This morning when I checked the UPS website I'm seeing that it won't arrive until Friday afternoon. When I called Stamina to ask why my "3 Day" shipping was going to take 5 days I was given some run-around by the owner that I missed their deadline for shipping on Monday. Nowhere on their website does it state that there was a cut-off for shipping, but OK let's assume I did miss the cut-off. That being said, even if I did miss the deadline on Monday, in my mind Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday still comes to 3 days. I told the owner of the company that a) he ought to make his shipping policy more clear so that people can get things when they need them, and that I thought that he should ship me another spool of cable via overnight express at his expense to make up for what I see as mis-leading information and the fact that they didn't even get the order that I had placed on Monday to UPS until 6:03 PM on Tuesday. The owner of the company told me that it was my fault that I missed their cut-off on Monday and that the three days doesn't start until they take it to UPS (very late in the day on Tuesday evidently) and that he wasn't willing to pay for the overnight shipping to get another spool of the cable to me. When I pressed him and told him that if he continued to argue with me about shipping time that I would post this info on a few fishing forums he went to look to see if there was another spool in inventory. Surprise, surprise, apparently he sent me the very last spool of coated cable and he couldn't send me one anyway. Funny, but the customer service rep that I spoke to prior to him had checked inventory and indicated that there were plenty in stock. When I asked about what they call "Next day" shipping I was told that if I ordered on Monday that the product wouldn't be here until Wednesday because it won't leave their facility until Tuesday. Maybe I'm nuts, but every time I've paid for overnight shipping on something it's been here the very next day, not the day after that. Here's what their website says at the screen when you choose your shipping options: "SO IF YOU ARE IN A HURRY FOR YOUR ITEMS, SELECT AN APPROPRIATE AIR SHIPPING METHOD. Air shipments are shipped same day (if ordered by 9am central) or next day if ordered after 9am." In my head shipping the next day would mean it shipped on Tuesday during business hours. The fact that they didn't bother to take a time-sensitive shipment to UPS until after business hours the day after the order was placed shows me that they had no intention of getting it to me in 3 days.

So the upshot of the deal is that I'll be looking for a coated cable elsewhere and I'll definitely be sending this shipment back to Stamina. Oh, and I'll never order from Stamina again, and I'll also warn as many people as I can about the way this situation was handled. I've had bad customer service experiences before , but today the owner of this company was just bordering on being abusive.

[shu9265]

Bill, Sorry to hear that you got such a run around from these folks.

[Priority1]

Sorry you had a bad experience with Stamina. I usually place a order in the early Spring.

[Fishwhisperer]

Billy, I'm sorry to here that your upset.

I work in "a" shipping department. It doesn't matter if UPS picked up your package at noon or 6 PM. It still doen't go anywhere till later at night. Also, you can't count the day that a package shiped as a day. That would be "same day".

[Billy V]

Fishwhisperer,

Thanks for the clarification, but it still should've been here on Thursday rather than on Friday. When someone pays for expedited shipping, the onus is on the seller to get it out of their warehouse that day. I paid for "three day" shipping from the day I placed the order, which was Monday, not "three day shipping from whenever they decide to get it out of their warehouse". From what I've heard about them on other message boards, it seems that they typically take their sweet time processing it on their end. I'm over it now and I've found a replacement cable, but I won't ever order from them again. Very poor customer service, and the owner's attitude is the prime reason why.