Shipping Experiences?

[Jesse James]

Got my ITT from EE finally.  I ordered it via the affiliate link and it took their 3rd party shipping a month to finally get it to usps.  They blamed it on Covid so I guess **** happens but a month?  Yikes.  I literally got things I ordered from China, AFTER this order, sooner than this order arrives.

I was concerned I’d have to dispute it thinking there was no way it was taking this long seriously and it was lost somewhere, and how EE would handle me disputing it cuz they weren’t really wanting to help me find it...  which maybe is understandable since they didn’t have it either and had to rely on their 3rd party logistics people to find it, but wow.

[GrandMoffNick]

I'm officially done with EE unless like the Kit Fisto I have pre-ordered with them, I miss something on Amazon or Pulse. I get Covid is not helping the situation for shipping, but every other place I order from is much faster. That Pitney Bowles shipping is a joke. My Carbonized Fett spent 13 days in Indiana and 22 days to get to me.

[Dave]

My record with them was 23 days, but my latest shipment made it in 13 days.  Land speed record!!!

[Diddly]

I wouldn't mind the slow shipping from EE if they didn't charge so much for it. I think a case of figures I preordered will cost nearly $20 to ship. That's the same amount I can spend to get items FedEx'd from Japan in 4 days!

[Jesse James]

I got a package from EE today and it shipped much much faster this time.  Same company...  I was concerned before but they seem to have the kinks of Covid worked out at that shipper they use.  I def was getting scared that company lost my other package tho.  And I could tell EE either didn’t wanna help me or they didn’t get any help from that company when they inquired about missing packages (which is what I lean to since ee customer service has always been cool to me when I needed them). 

The box I got today shipped just when the other one shook loose so it seems back to normal now (at least for this shipment).  I do know they changed all tracking to not give you a detailed look at one point and it just said about delays due to Covid...  it didn’t specify that company but I’d say that was what and who was at fault and not so much EE.

[GrandMoffNick]

I don't doubt it's the shipping company's issue, but it's still EE using them and charging the same as say Pulse for FedEx. My Black Series Plo Koon shipped from Pulse last week for 50 cents cheaper than Carbonized Fett from EE. It is scheduled for delivery tomorrow or Thursday and that includes FedEx's nonsense where it's been in MN for two days already. I'll take that over wondering if EE's shipping choice is gonna take three weeks again. You keep getting me riled up Jesse.

[Jesse James]

Lol don’t blame me!  I hate whoever they’re using too.  That company sucks butt, cuz I get Covid and all that but I literally have been getting stuff from China I ordered after that one EE had shipped and got that China box quicker...  that’s messed up to me but hey maybe they’re super small...  I dunno.  They didn’t seem like a small company when I looked them up out of curiosity.  I kinda wish EE would (could?) go to a flat rate deal and start doing a private warehouse situation.  I utilize those a lot.  I like EE and they’ve been good to me but this left a bad taste is all.  Hoping this was a one time thing and just giving the benefit of the doubt.  I do usually manage free shipping from them too...  so I can’t complain a ton I guess, but over a month was a tad absurd.

[Matt_Fury]

While I appreciate the free super saver shipping from EE, I always upgrade to the Fed ex home delivery.  It makes my delivery easier to track.

[Jesse James]

I’m fine on the 14 day thing...  I think my over a month situation was just a sign of the current times, and I blame EE less than who they use because as I filed complaints, I noticed one consistency was that they seemed to not be getting a response from who they’re using.  For me I was more afraid about having to contact my CC and do a charge back if EE wasn’t willing to play ball on it.  I was def getting run around from their CS but I think it’s because they didn’t have an answer due to the shipper giving THEM the run around too.  But that’s the ****** part of using that service which I wish they’d find something new or go to a different format. 

Funny then this week I got an item that shipped while that other item had still not arrived and it showed up pretty fast and like Jeff said the packaging was mint.

I buy a lot from China and Japan direct.  I’m amazed how quickly some of it gets here for reasonable prices and packed nicely too.  Never had much of a problem.  Even Wish stuff isn’t too bad...  slow, but arrives safe generally.

[Dave]

The sad part is that 2 day UPS shipping for EE probably would cost less than $5/package.   I've helped negotiate corporate shipping contracts and they get pretty cheap when you ship a lot like they do. 

EE is choosing the cheapest, crappiest service, and charging us for it.  I wouldn't make excuses for EE.  They're making the choice of shipping vendors and can always change vendors if they would like to provide better service.

I love to support Jeff and the JD team, but will not order from EE if I've got another option.  I'd rather pay a Patreon fee to JD than get stuck with slow, slow shipping.  I'm an opener so EE's minty guarantee doesn't do much for me anymore.

[GrandMoffNick]

Hijacking thread again, but EE just responded to my email from 7/18. "They are answering in order received. They show I received it on 7/22". Wow. Over three weeks later. Covid doesn't excuse terrible customer service. What's the math on days to respond to customer service employees to incoming emails?

[Nicklab]

I stopped using EE almost entirely because of their shipping.  The cost, the time... it was just too onerous for me to keep going there.  The fact that EE's shipping cost was so high from the West coast to the East coast made it significantly more expensive to purchase from them, and I had a difficult time putting together orders that would qualify for free shipping.  And even when I did order from EE, 7 to 10 days was not unusual for a package via their shipping service.  As a result I split up my purchasing between Dorkside Toys, Hasbro Pulse and Amazon for the most part.  I'm starting to use BBTS more, too, since their operation is located in the Midwest and I don't have to deal with such ridiculousness as I did with EE.

With Hasbro Pulse?  It's been almost entirely positive in terms of the shipping experience.  I get a shipping notification from Pulse & FedEx within minutes of each other.  It automatically populates in the tracking section of my FedEx app.  And it's usually at my house the next day.  Granted, I'm in NJ and the Hasbro Pulse fulfillment center is less than 200 miles away from me in Pennsylvania, so my experience is probably not the same as it is for a lot of other people.

There's also the elephant in the room regarding shipping right now:  the USPS.  Even if you get an indication that the shipper is using UPS or FedEx, there's a strong possibility that local delivery may have been farmed out to the USPS by those carriers based on cost and/or how profitable it is for either UPS or FedEx to execute the home delivery portion for your particular shipment.  Shipping has suffered in the era of Covid-19, clearly.  Amazon Prime can no longer make many of their 2 day shipping guarantees. 

And the way the USPS has been in the news lately?  I'll refrain from getting into the really divisive parts of how messed up the USPS is right now.  But I personally regard the USPS with some fondness.  They have ALWAYS been there.  The USPS is an American institution.  I have a couple of friends who work for USPS now.  My grandfather and my great uncle had careers and raised families thanks to their jobs at USPS.  Seeing the good people and the institution of the USPS thrust into the political arena as they have is not good for America.  It needs to be a non-partisan organization, deserves good management and its functions should not be privatized. 

[Pete_Fett]

I have been increasingly disappointed with EE as of late.

I have been a customer of theirs since the 90s and can honestly say that when I called customer support back in the beginning, you spoke with Jason or his brother for assistance, and it was VERY clear that they cared.

Now when you speak with customer service, they have this attitude of "oh, product isn't mint, no problem we'll send you a new one send us that one back" and when you speak with them about trying to stop the steady stream of damaged stuff coming to your home, they basically dismiss you and say "you can always use our mint condition guarantee to get a mint item" - but my argument is typically, "wouldn't it save EE some $$$ if you ensured that a mint item is packaged well to begin with?!?!?!"

I can't even begin to list the number of orders that come in pristine mailer boxes with ZERO dings, dents, scrapes, etc... and then when I open the box, the item inside is damaged and it clearly went into the box that way.

When I was working on getting caught up on Black Series Phase 3, I ordered some items from Big Bad Toy Store and I have to say that I was impressed both with the speed of shipping and the care that went into packing up my order. So while you do pay a little bit more for their top-tier item condition, when you do, they ensure that you absolutely get it in that same condition. I found that incredibly refreshing.

[P-Siddy]

While not Star Wars related, I ordered a limited edition poster from my favorite artist who was doing live performances from his home during this quarantine and I got the shipping notice.  I followed the tracking and it came to my city and rerouted back to a neighboring city the next day where tracking essentially stopped.  I waited for a bit and figured it might sit at the PO due to COVID and the USPS site said to wait a couple weeks.  So I did.  Nothing came.  So I called their CS # (don't ever do this.  It's a waste of time) and could not figure out how to even talk to a rep, or figure out how to find my stuff.  So I went online, filed a missing piece report.  I decided to go to that neighboring post office since it was still saying it was sitting there (and at this time, the poster was sold out).  Talk to the guy working at the post office, he checks the back, checks my tracking and says it was mis-sent (shipping address was correct), so it was returned to sender .  I sent a message to the place I ordered from figuring I was SOL now, but got a generic 'we're overwhelmed with inquiries and understaffed' response and they'll get back to me.  A couple days later, a lady from my PO calls about 4:30 and we talk about the issue.  She said she'd call that PO that I had physically went to a few days earlier to inquire about the parcel and she'd get back to me in 10 minutes or so.  No return call in the 10 minutes and by 5 I knew they were closed.  No call the following day either.  A couple days pass and I'm in my home office and my wife brings me the parcel, which was a surprise as I figured I was out.  Happy to have the poster, just amazed at how poorly things were handled by the PO.

[EdSolo]

After a few experiences shipping stuff overseas, I am really beginning to believe all the shipping services in the US are a giant scam.  I have been selling off a lot of my Hasbro stuff and most of the buyers are located overseas.  For several packages, I used USPS to ship.  In one week, I shipped to the UK, Germany, and Australia from the east coast US.  UK took two weeks, Germany three, and Australia close to two months, with around a month of it being stuck in US customs.  My last few shipments have been bulk buys shipped to the UK.  The buyer arranged the shipments through a parcel broker.  Each shipment has been 5 to 7 large boxes.  DHL has come to my house, picked up the boxes, and had them delivered in 36 to 48 hours after pick up.  My last shipment was picked up at 5:00 PM EST on Monday and was delivered Wednesday at 9:30 AM.  No clue how much it costs, but it really shows that shipping doesn't have to be the disaster we have been seeing.