Orders

[meckelangelo]

When ordering a custom product I have no problem paying up front. It's not like going to Walmart and grabbing something off the shelf. The vendor is taking a risk by taking the order. They have to cover the risk of time and product costs up front. It is a way of insuring themselves against a canceled order.

Yeah, this is more or less my point. Mike seems to agree with that, but his point is that the customer should not have to pay until the vendor either a) purchases non-standard materials for the customer's order, or b) begins working on the customer's order. I actually agree with him on that. Unfortunately, the problem is that current ecommerce platforms don't come close to offering this functionality, and the added overhead of doing it manually would cause vendors to lose time and sales. It's good feedback, though, and I'm planning to make a suggestion to our ecommerce platform, and PayPal, our payment processor.

[chefkeith]

Hammeck got my stand out MUCH sooner than the estimated time, which made me VERY happy

I'm OK with paying up front, but I also research the vendors thoroughly before I order from them.

[chefkeith]

Also, certain vendors like Hammeck (and for sure, others) post daily here, and offer the best customer service through the forums.

I do not, for the record, air dirty laundry on the forums (not that I've had bad experiences with vendors, and I'm not knocking the OP at all). But I do go to the forums when I have a question that I think would benefit the community if the vendor answered it here, which allows the vendor to, hopefully, answer that question fewer times and free up more time for them to make out gear!

[Dirt Dobber]

Just my opinion, but hammocks are like horses, boats, and any other luxury item. As much as I like camping, boating although I sold mine and horses. If I cannot afford to tie up the $600 for top and bottom quilts and $275 for a custom hammock until it arrives 2-4 days later or 4-16 weeks later it's a strong possibility I cannot afford it.

Yes the business might go under or owner might die. The same could happen to me if I didn't prepay for the custom items then the business owner would have to eat the cost. But realistically that's not going to happen very often. It's a chance I'm willing to take.

And yes I said we may not can afford a luxury item.

[LuvmyBonnet]

Anyone want to PM me on vendors to avoid. he he. I've had nothing but awesome service from all the cottage vendors and I've purchased from about a dozen.

[PapaSmurf]

Hi First I have not had a bad experience with the vendors I have delt with on Hammock Form.

Hi Mike04345,
You and I have exchanged 26 emails and 13 total phone calls.
Admittedly only 6 actual phone conversations as phone time is real tough for me.
In 6 phone conversations, we've racked up over 129 minutes of phone time.

At no time have we discussed any of the issues brought up in this thread, but some of your statements seem to indicate there may have had an unpleasant experience with Dream Hammock or possibly another vendor?

Would it be possible for you to clear this up for us?

[Mike04345]

Hi Mike04345,
You and I have exchanged 26 emails and 13 total phone calls.
Admittedly only 6 actual phone conversations as phone time is real tough for me.
In 6 phone conversations, we've racked up over 129 minutes of phone time.

At no time have we discussed any of the issues brought up in this thread, but some of your statements seem to indicate there may have had an unpleasant experience with Dream Hammock or possibly another vendor?

Would it be possible for you to clear this up for us?

Hi Papa, Well I was not intended that way. Yes we did talk.. didn't realize it was that much. How ever you had to Admit Randy, you can talk and offered up wealth of information, You gave me an education on Hammocks, Under Quilts,Pads etc. I learned a lot about hammocks that night. It wasn't all a waste of time I did buy the top of the line hammock. I am totally happy with my Dream hammock Thunderbird. I'm still in the feeling out process of getting the best lay but I'm sure it is going to a great hammock. Yes right now you have a long wait time and maybe that is why you think I am talking about Dream Hammock. Well your not the only one out there with long lead times. When I ordered it was I think 5-6 weeks. One think I like about your site is at anytime a customer can check the progress of their order. The original post was not intended to voice a unhappy experience about any company. Every Company has delivered when they said they would. I wanted to know how others felt about the process esp when there was a long wait time of tying up hundreds of dollars while you wait for a company to start working on your order. Is it possible to change that part of the process? If so great. If not.. Why?

There has been some good feed back such as Meckelangelo pointed out eCommerce platforms don't come close to offering this functionality at this time. Ok so maybe that is an area that needs to be looked into. In today's world a business needs to be improving the product, keep cost down while maintaining or increasing profit all at the same time and thinking of the customer. There has been some people who commented they do not like or want to prepay several weeks before their order is started. All cottage vendors should take note of that.
I hope this clears it up for you

[PapaSmurf]

Thanks Mike,
I just wanted to make sure that you were perfectly satisfied with any dealings you've had with Dream Hammock.
Your question on pre-paying for orders is certainly a valid and something we do not yet have an answer for. We will consider these things though.

[silentorpheus]

A lot of good discussion here. However, I guess the way I look at it is this is just the nature of the beast when dealing with higher end niche gear in a non-mainstream hobby.

Since pretty much all of the vendors that make custom products (or if 'custom' doesn't resonate with you semantically, call it 'to order') operate this way, that's just something you either accept or don't when you start to dig deeper into this hobby.

Just talking hammocks, there are plenty of options, from the ENO and Hennesey's of the world to Clark or the JRB Bridge, all of which you can order and have shipped right away, and not tie up your funds. However if you decide that you instead want one of the more customizable options like Hammeck, Dream Hammock, etc. then it's sort of a given that the ordering process will proceed a certain way.

Same thing goes for quilts. Your options are buy something from JRB or perhaps UGQ if they have in stock items, and your money isn't tied up in a waiting game (though you pay more), or go with another vendor, pay, and wait. That's just the way it goes.

Tarps are no different. You want cuben? Pay up front, and get ready to wait. Don't like that? Save yourself $200 and get a silnylon tarp. It really is that cut and dry.

I know that all sounds a little dismissive, and my intention isn't specifically to marginalize your questions or concerns. But sometimes there really are just two routes, without a middle option that gives you the best of both worlds.

Whether it's because of the limitations of ecommerce platforms, or just that they prefer to do their business that way, is irrelevant - the result is that regardless of whether you or I or anyone else thinks they shouldn't charge you until they begin work, that's not the way 99% of the vendors operate. So the option is to accept that and order anyway, or go somewhere else. Judging by how busy many of the vendors around these parts are, I'm guessing that the majority of people go with the former as opposed to the latter.

[Boston]

Honestly, the simple answer to your question is there isn't a convenient way to charge someone at shipping for a small business. Most vendors use paypal, or a credit card service that afaik don't offer an option to delay payment.

The only other option would be to use an invoicing service, but then they would have to add extra labor to process the invoices - which most are already strapped for labor. It would also expose them to significant risk. What if they put the materials and labor into a product, and the person decides not to pay?

A deposit system would be ideal to address your complaint, but that adds even more complexity to their SOP system.