Quote:
Originally Posted by ddsack
Disaster may be too severe, but service still appears uneven. I ordered $65 worth of large permanest trays on March 7th - it was a good deal with a discount and free shipping at the time. It will be three weeks on Thursday, and when I check my order status online, there is no tracking number yet, which the website says means it has not yet been shipped. So add a week to a best case scenario, and it will be at least a month from ordering before I get those trays. I will post here when I receive them. The online catalog still indicates they are in stock and available to ship, as it did when I ordered. 
I would have ordered them from elsewhere, but with the special discounts that week, they were cheaper by a couple dollars each than the other places.  |
ddsack, I like Park -- they may not be what they once were, but I've found them still nearer their former standard than many sources. However, I had an experience much like yours.
I emailed them (using the customer service form on their website, I believe). I explained what I had ordered,and that the items had all been and were still listed as in stock and asked if they had really been shipped, in spite of it not showing on the website. I received a reply saying that an item was backordered, and they expected my order to ship when the missing item arrived (date about a week later).
I wrote back and said that I found the reply troubling, as it seemed likely that by the time the missing item came in, something else might be out of stock. I pointed out again (kindly) that all items had been shown and were still shown as in stock, and said that if anything had been listed as out of stock I would have not have placed an order that included out of stock items, and that I did not want substitutions, but needed the items, and hoped they could find out something that would make a useful suggestion possible.
I received a prompt courteous reply that the items in stock were being shipped immediately, and the missing item would be shipped at no charge when it arrived. And they did just that.
I suspect that many of the problems people report with Park derive from a combination of a "don't ship until all items are present" policy and their system not being kept up to date about what is in stock, so that even their own telephone order people don't know items are out of stock unless an inquiry prompts further inquiries. That probably leads to exactly the situation I feared -- one item comes in, but by then another is out, so orders are unduly delayed, without explanation unless the customer inquires and pushes beyond the "it's on backorder, will ship a week or so" stage.
Not what one would expect of a company the size of Park. But at least thus far, I've found them helpful about fixing the problem if asked about it. And it is much better customer service than I've received from another large company that is on this site's recommended list.
Worth a try, if you haven't already.