I've had it with Barlow's! Aweful!

[icemanrrc]

I agree, someone's lack of planning isn't cause to come on here and hammer someone, it's just childish, and most folks should question the motive of the complainer, and remember that if they need to deal with that person in the future. I've read threads to this effect against Del, Barlow's, Stamina, Shawn Collins, Lurecraft, etc, etc.

I've gotten fair service from all of them, great service from some, and one has dropped the ball on me. I'm not telling though, if you look into the whole story, it's just as much my fault.

Some guys are gonna run out of folks to complain about before long, then what? Most of them should be thanked for offering the little guy an outlet to acquire this stuff.

1. Where was my lack of planning?

2. I am sharing this experience with others who should know ahead of time this could happen to them. I am just giving them heads up so they won't get the same treatment. It is up to each individual who they do business with.

[Delw]

I read it a few times.

you don't like there products, you didn't like the option they gave you, you pretty much didn't like anything. so what do you want them to do?

if you ever worked in a place that has hundreds of parts , do phone sales ,email sales and online sales you would know what I am talking about. especially with only a few people working.

maybe there competitors have more employees so they got someone to spare. Not to mention computer and software editing skills.

where we order our bottle from, we don't know what we are getting till it shows up, then it says back order and we get charged for shipping. sometimes (ok most always) they forget and we have to call them and go through the whole speel again.

and if you would read my post on inventory software you would understand why it sucks. in a perfect place with lots of employees it works perfectly.

I got one of the best shopping cart systems out there and I still have some issues with it as it doesn't do certain things that I want it to do. luckliy I have some coding knowledge so I can make these changes myself. but lets just say for the sake of the argument that Barlows doesn't , they would need someone to run there software and set it up exactly for them and that runs into the tens of thousands of dollars for a perfectly set-up system. (I dont have the time to upgrade my software and we got a quote for 1500 bucks+ get this now a 8 month lead time before they can touch it) then you have to have someone due maintenance on that software. this doesn't include the server side only the shopping cart.

I am small time and I can't keep up with the phone calls I receive everyday and we are on the phone pretty much all day. I am still making calls today from wednesday. edit: while typing this post I just started on thursday

Bottom line I would say you might want to keep on ordering from Janns since you have no problems with them. Just because your unhappy with them others might not be. trying to sway others is pure BS in my opinion but then again thats just me.

[dampeoples]

I have a pretty deep and wide inventory. But sometimes, some things may run low sooner than expected and I don't have an order big enough to buy bulk. That is when I order from Barlows. When this customer says can you build this and my answer to them is openly and honestly YES, but I will have order some of those parts to make it happen. The customers says, I am fishing a tournament Saturday (he says this on a Sunday night), I say no problem because Barlows normally has it at my door within three days, plenty of time to put his order together. But when the order arrives on Wednesday and the bulk of what I need isn't there, it puts me in a difficult situation. I can do two things: Explain what happen to my customer and hopes he understands OR buy what I need from another source and pay more for rush shipping than what I am ordering costs to satisfy the customer and make little or nothing off this order. I have always tried to satisfy the customer.

This is where your planning sucks, your words. Not Barlow's fault you ran low is it?

And no, you are not warning others, that's the biggest line of BS you've given. You're openly bashing a company that you state you have ordered from before, so once again, is it Barlow's fault that they didn't suddenly have inventory tracking when they, or you, didn't have something in stock? Take your petty complaints elsewhere, like to Barlow's, save us from your whining, bashing, and complaining when this is all your fault, as you've already said you've ordered from them before, and you ran out of stock.

This site is supposed to be an outlet to share information, not your own ignorance.

[icemanrrc]

No sir, you can't seem to read. I NEVER ran low on this particular order. This was a special order for a customer who needed something off the wall that I don't carry. Go back and read again!

It looks like my only ignorance is attempting to do business with a company who can't take the time to call or send an email when something is out of stock, but has PLENTY of time to charge my credit card.

You sir, have no right to say I am only posting this to bash them. This is YOUR opinion. If someone or some others had a bad experience with a company, hell yes I would hope they would post it so I wouldn't have to go through it myself. Maybe, just maybe this will get back to Barlow's and they will actually do something about their ordering process. Would that be such a bad thing? As far as taking my comments to Barlow's, again, if you had read, I did take them to Barlows. It was how they responded that topped this experience off. Call it whining or complaining all you want. I could care less about your opinion, notice how I never asked for it.

Take care

By the way, I love my fluid bed.

This is where your planning sucks, your words. Not Barlow's fault you ran low is it?

And no, you are not warning others, that's the biggest line of BS you've given. You're openly bashing a company that you state you have ordered from before, so once again, is it Barlow's fault that they didn't suddenly have inventory tracking when they, or you, didn't have something in stock? Take your petty complaints elsewhere, like to Barlow's, save us from your whining, bashing, and complaining when this is all your fault, as you've already said you've ordered from them before, and you ran out of stock.

This site is supposed to be an outlet to share information, not your own ignorance.

[dampeoples]

I did go back and read, nowhere do you mention that this part is a special order part. Your post makes it seem that it's a regular part, one that you normally stock by the explanation that you normally use Barlow's for low stock stuff. This is further clouded by you mentioning that you use Barlow's all the time, then mentioning that you normally use Jann's, just Barlow's when your stock is low. Get your story straight.

Once again, back to your original post, you use Barlow's (or was it Jann's) all the time, you should be familiar with their practices by now, and this should not be a surprise.

Yes, it is my opinion, you got that, and my name right! However, take a look at your wording, sure sound like to me, and many others in this thread that you are 'Barlow's Hating'. But that's ok, run along to Jann's, but please, be sure to let us know once they run low on something and it breaks a promise you made, and how you normally use Stamina or something.

Funny thing about my opinion, I bet if it were in line with yours, it would be welcome, but you happened to post it to a public board, and you get all types there.

[cadman]

"Just in time" was a revolutionary new idea, taught to me thirty years ago, in college. I argued against it then (to no avail) and argue along with you guys now, it just does not work. If every manufacturer in the chain operates this system, say five operations. In theory, you will have to wait a day for the operation plus minimum two days delivery x5. That is an absolute minimum of fifteen days before you can receive your purchase, just in time!

The only link in the chain that should be afforded the luxury of "just in time" service, in my most humble opinion, is the customer. It is up to the rest of the industry to maintain stock levels to support the customer, at all times.

This is all well and good, everything works in theory, well all my theories work in theory. In the real world, sh1t happens. Fortunately, most experienced customers come to learn this fact of life and either make their purchases earlier or accept the situation without whining about it.

People who run their own businesses take it very seriously and understand that reputation is everything. The problem with TU is that if one delivery is late, a thousand people get to read about it. I would like to see threads like this barred from these pages, I just don't find them relevant.

V-man,

I totally agree with you on this. This type of information on this site adds no value for anyone. It has no relavance to anything anyone wants to learn on this site. I replied to a similar thread in the Hard Bait section about someone bashing Stamina. My comments on that thread still stands. I'm curious what the moderators have to say about this, maybe in the future threads like this should be deleted, immediately, with a PM to the person starting the thread, explaining the reason why it was deleted.

[beezerbassman]

cadman and v-man you are right about the post it does need to be taken off. If Barlows did get a better inventory system which we all know costs $$$ then they would have to raise prices then people would be complaining about how the prices got high. It is all a lose lose situation.

[LedHed]

What happen to freedom of speech?

Don't like the way your hair is cut - you go to a different barber, that’s understood.

I still have issue with Barlow's –they sent me the wrong mold and I had to pay to return it to get my credit.

If that’s bashing them –sorry. They are still on the bottm of the list.

[kelly]

I LOVE BARLOWS!!! Every order I have sent. Even stuff that was in high demand shiped fast. To tell you the truth there service was one of the best I have used.

[Vodkaman]

If I didn't like the cut of my hair, I would find a different barber, true. But I wouldn't stand outside the shop of the offending barber and try to turn away the rest of his customers!

Cadman, I too would like to hear what the moderators think on this issue.

[Delw]

I am on the fence on this for a few reasons. Most of the time (not in this case) as it appears is that someone will make crap up and lie, add a little more to teh story or tell only one side. I personally love to see the other side of the story cause in almost 75% of all the case's the store owner or the business being hammered is correct, they just don't have the balls to stand up for themselves or dont want to deal with the internet forums and teh typical bs.

Since I own some pretty big forums, I dont have a problem with these types of posts. There are plenty of people who will second guess the complainer and eventually the truth will come out making the complainer look like a fool.

I can honestly say that in the years I have been on the net only a hand full were legit.

owning forums I let the users pretty much weed out the trash so to speak, it works much better that way. Rather than the mods putting there foot down and looking like the gestopo haha.

its very very hard to find people to help you run a forum that are non bias. I know 3 guys that are non bias and I been around a long long time on the boards. It doesnt bother me when someone hammers me, I wont delete there post as I have stuck my foot in my mouth on more than one occasion.

Besides it kinda breaks up the monotny of the same old boring stuff

[LedHed]

If I got a bad haircut – might not protest the establishment – certainly would not return but I would tell family, FRIENDS, co-workers, and anyone else that would listen…

The original post was a vent (we all do that), nothing more, and nothing less. It wasn’t a call to arms to ban Barlow’s.

[cadman]

I am on the fence on this for a few reasons. Most of the time (not in this case) as it appears is that someone will make crap up and lie, add a little more to teh story or tell only one side. I personally love to see the other side of the story cause in almost 75% of all the case's the store owner or the business being hammered is correct, they just don't have the balls to stand up for themselves or dont want to deal with the internet forums and teh typical bs.

Since I own some pretty big forums, I dont have a problem with these types of posts. There are plenty of people who will second guess the complainer and eventually the truth will come out making the complainer look like a fool.

I can honestly say that in the years I have been on the net only a hand full were legit.

owning forums I let the users pretty much weed out the trash so to speak, it works much better that way. Rather than the mods putting there foot down and looking like the gestopo haha.

its very very hard to find people to help you run a forum that are non bias. I know 3 guys that are non bias and I been around a long long time on the boards. It doesnt bother me when someone hammers me, I wont delete there post as I have stuck my foot in my mouth on more than one occasion.

Besides it kinda breaks up the monotny of the same old boring stuff

I'll agree with you on some things. As we can see there are some happy campers and some not. This thread along with the other one I mentioned, seems to be only when people order from the i-net. Since I don't and always call my orders in, I never had a problem with orders. But when I do call in orders, I am very anal about them checking if it's in stock, if it's the right color, are the sizes correct etc. This may be going overboard with me checking their order I placed with them, but I don't want to be in a situation like stated here. Hence I never had any problems. Maybe all of us should go back to the old days and call our orders in, and verify everthing. Yes it would be a pain in the ***, but it would sure solve a lot of problems.

If I got a bad haircut

[Fatman]

Very interesting, I always call to order and ask if everything is in stock. Takes a little longer but that's okay with me.

Fatman

[texasbass1]

Barlow's is still a small family run business. I have always gotten excellent service from them.

[nova]

The one thing that any good business understands is that you can't please everyone all of the time.

There is not one mailorder business that hasn't backordered something.

I feel that the owness is on the customer to let the business know that if there are some backordered items in the order the business should conact him/her to let them know so that the customer can substitute or place an order with a different company to obtain the product.

I almost always ask this when I order from my suppliers.

www.novalures.com

[dwendt1978]

I can understand where both sides are coming from to an extent. A small business trying to keep up with thousands of calls and orders, probably more than that.

But one thing that I believe is that if your going to run a business, and a customer's item is backordered, they need to be notified. They have a small business, so do we. Remember the old saying...."IT TAKES MONTHS TO FIND A CUSTOMER, SECONDS TO LOSE ONE."

And the most important..."CUSTOMER IS KING"

[LedHed]

Excellent post dwendt1978 - really like the two quotes.

[Bogbaits]

I think Its the buisness who should let the customer know right away if they dont have any items on an order.