Date:         Sat, 7 Jan 2006 22:05:15 -0500
Reply-To:     Wesley Pegden <wes@CS.UCHICAGO.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Wesley Pegden <wes@CS.UCHICAGO.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Bus depot
In-Reply-To:  <007401c613b2$22bc9ad0$0a0ba8c0@RON>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Let me start by saying: I like the bus depot's selection and prices.
They're an asset to the vanagon community, no doubt about it.  I don't
think I've ever had them get an order wrong, either, which I'm pretty
impressed by.

THAT SAID, this "expedited shipping" business is always what has
frustrated me the most about BD.  I live in 1-day UPS ground range of
BD, but would have to pay extra for expedited shipping to get an order
from them in less than 5 days---once or twice I even considered driving
a couple of hours to pick up what I needed.  When your pinching pennies
to keep your van running, paying extra to have a part shipped on time is
a real hassle.  The paranoid dude in the back of my mind is always
worried that it's a scheme to encourage us to cough up the extra for
expedited shipping.    If Ron says they're backed up, though, I guess
they're just backed up.

-Wes
'84 vanagon, in working order thanks to Vanagain and Bus Depot...


The Bus Depot wrote:

>>I like Go Westy (faster shipping since they are on the west
>>coast), but Bus Depot has better prices.
>>
>>
>
>
>
>>I like BD because they have a larger (amazing) selection of
>>parts, but their order fulfillment speed is dreadfully slow.
>>Whenever VC has what I want I order from them and pay taxes
>>in CA, because they ship whatever I order the SAME DAY or at
>>worst the next day.  BD seems to wait 3-5 days minimum to put
>>something in the mail.   Nothing wrong with BD, they are just
>>notoriously slow to ship.
>>
>>
>
>
>We've made great strides in this area, thanks in part to a weekly employee
>bonus that is tied directly to fast order fulfillment. These days we average
>1-2 days to ship ground orders. Sometimes same-day on a slower week,
>sometimes a bit longer on a busy one. (We're a small shop, so we can get
>swamped sometimes. That's why we specify to allow 7-10 working day for
>receipt of in-stock ground orders; while we don't usually need that long, it
>gives us some "wiggle-room" during those periods.)
>
>BUT... If you order via Expedited shipping, it gets "fast track" attention
>and ships same-day if in stock (or next day if you order later in the day).
>All Expedited orders go straight to the front of the line - the assumption
>being that the customer needs the part in a hurry, so we should do our part.
>Even if the item is out of stock, we'll often have a supplier drop-ship it
>directly to you same-day, or have them FedEx the part to us so we can ship
>it to you the next morning. We have had power outages and still packed
>Expedited orders using flashlights to make sure they left the building on
>time.
>
>Often Expedited service hardly costs more than ground shipping (unless the
>item is heavy or bulky), depending on the shipping level you choose. (There
>are next-working-day, second-working-day, and third-working-day options; the
>latter is rather inexpensive.)  The extra cost is usually more than offset
>by our generally lower prices and listmember discount (plus, in your case,
>the fact that you'd save California sales tax). So you get date-guaranteed
>delivery and still save money. Also, if you phone your Expedited order in,
>we can also check availability while you wait, so you'll know immediately if
>anything will be delayed. So this is worth considering if you need the part
>quickly. Of course, on non-time-critical items, just save the extra bucks
>and stick with ground.
>
>- Ron Salmon
>  The Bus Depot, Inc.
>  www.busdepot.com
>  (215)  234-VWVW
>
>_____________________________________________
>Toll-Free for Orders by PART # :  1-866-BUS-DEPOT
>
>
>