Coastal Electronics Technologies and their business practices

[adam1991]

RaleighMatt went on a rant a few weeks ago about Coastal E Tech and trying to get them to ship one of their products to him:

http://priuschat.com/Bad-experience-...ch-t29730.html

Looking further down that thread, our esteemed moderator Evan Fusco said something interesting:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Feb 19 2007, 01:57 PM) [snapback]392862[/snapback]</div>

If coastal has a product in stock they usually are very prompt in shipping. If not you usually won't hear a thing.

If you got a UPS tracking number I'd be more prone to blame UPS than Coastal in this case.[/b]

Here's another data point:

this past Sunday, with RaleighMatt's story in mind, I went ahead and placed an order--via Coastal E Tech's web site--for a Lockpick 3.

The next day, Monday, I got an email that said:

This message was sent to you at the request of coastalEtech.com to notify you that the package information below has been transmitted to UPS. The package(s) may not have actually been placed with UPS for shipment. To verify when and if the shipment is tendered to UPS and its actual transit status, click on the tracking link below or contact coastalEtech.com directly.

Important Delivery Information

Scheduled Delivery: 08-March-2007
[/b]

and included a tracking number and an estimated delivery date of March 8.

Monday evening, all UPS showed was that "billing information has been transmitted to UPS".

Tuesday evening, all UPS showed was that "billing information has been transmitted to UPS".

Wednesday morning I noticed that Coastal had charged my credit card--ON SUNDAY NIGHT, immediately upon my entering the order.

And here it is Wednesday with every indication that the package had not been picked up by UPS and therefore was still sitting at Coastal.

With RaleighMatt's experience in mind, I called Coastal and mentioned what I saw and knew--and wondered if the package had been shipped out. I was concerned that maybe UPS lost it.

She explained to me that packages are generally shipped out 24 to 48 hours after order. She checked, and yes, my package was due to go out today. That's stretching it a bit, but I'll give them that the clock started sometime Monday and that Tuesday was only 24 hours after that, so getting it into UPS's hands on Wednesday could be called 48 hours.

Indeed, my package is in UPS's trusty hands, with an estimated delivery date of March 12.

It seems that the automated system they use [a] automatically charges your credit card instantly, and [b] automatically generates the UPS information directly into the UPS system. It's then up to the folks at Coastal to take care of the physical matter of boxing, slapping on the address label, and getting it into UPS's hands.

Since I knew of RaleighMatt's experience, I wasn't bothered by any of this, not really. Oh, that they charged my card INSTANTLY came as a surprise--but this is the computer age, right?

So Coastal is small and handles things in their own way. That's OK. But I agree with RaleighMatt that if they offer "overnight" shipping, and take your money for it, they owe it to you to pack it up and get it to UPS right away--not a few days later.

And obviously it is NOT the case that they "ship promptly" and "if you got a UPS tracking number I'd be more prone to blame UPS than Coastal" as Mr. Fusco tries to indicate. This is just how Coastal does business.

That doesn't make them bad or evil. That just makes them, them--much in the same way that other small businesses are unique, like parts4vws or SmallDog Electronics.

Although, I'm glad I saw RaleighMatt's posting and knew what to expect.

[dmckinstry]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(adam1991 @ Mar 7 2007, 05:59 PM) [snapback]401989[/snapback]</div>

RaleighMatt went on a rant a few weeks ago about Coastal E Tech and trying to get them to ship one of their products to him:

http://priuschat.com/Bad-experience-...ch-t29730.html

Looking further down that thread, our esteemed moderator Evan Fusco said something interesting:
Here's another data point:

this past Sunday, with RaleighMatt's story in mind, I went ahead and placed an order--via Coastal E Tech's web site--for a Lockpick 3.

The next day, Monday, I got an email that said:
and included a tracking number and an estimated delivery date of March 8.

Monday evening, all UPS showed was that "billing information has been transmitted to UPS".

Tuesday evening, all UPS showed was that "billing information has been transmitted to UPS".

Wednesday morning I noticed that Coastal had charged my credit card--ON SUNDAY NIGHT, immediately upon my entering the order.

And here it is Wednesday with every indication that the package had not been picked up by UPS and therefore was still sitting at Coastal.

With RaleighMatt's experience in mind, I called Coastal and mentioned what I saw and knew--and wondered if the package had been shipped out. I was concerned that maybe UPS lost it.

She explained to me that packages are generally shipped out 24 to 48 hours after order. She checked, and yes, my package was due to go out today. That's stretching it a bit, but I'll give them that the clock started sometime Monday and that Tuesday was only 24 hours after that, so getting it into UPS's hands on Wednesday could be called 48 hours.

Indeed, my package is in UPS's trusty hands, with an estimated delivery date of March 12.

It seems that the automated system they use [a] automatically charges your credit card instantly, and automatically generates the UPS information directly into the UPS system. It's then up to the folks at Coastal to take care of the physical matter of boxing, slapping on the address label, and getting it into UPS's hands.

Since I knew of RaleighMatt's experience, I wasn't bothered by any of this, not really. Oh, that they charged my card INSTANTLY came as a surprise--but this is the computer age, right?

So Coastal is small and handles things in their own way. That's OK. But I agree with RaleighMatt that if they offer "overnight" shipping, and take your money for it, they owe it to you to pack it up and get it to UPS right away--not a few days later.

And obviously it is NOT the case that they "ship promptly" and "if you got a UPS tracking number I'd be more prone to blame UPS than Coastal" as Mr. Fusco tries to indicate. This is just how Coastal does business.

That doesn't make them bad or evil. That just makes them, them--much in the same way that other small businesses are unique, like parts4vws or SmallDog Electronics.

Although, I'm glad I saw RaleighMatt's posting and knew what to expect.

My story is quite similar to yours. I ordered the basic LockPick on late Friday the 23rd, and received an email from them on Monday the 26th. My debit card was charged immediately upon making the order. I went online to check. The expected delivery date was March 5th. I followed the tracking number all last week, and all it ever said was "BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED".

The morning of Friday the 2nd I send an email asking when they expected the item to be in stock. I got a response from Kelley that afternoon indicating she expected to be shipping early next week (meaning this week). She didn't say whether or not that the item was in stock. At least I did get a response from her and felt better about the situation.

Finally this evening U.P.S. indicated that the item had been picked up and the expected delivery date was March 14th. That's what I would expect for ground transportation from Florida to Washington. I suppose Wednesday evening could be interpreted as "Earliy in the week".

What I don't know is if the item was in stock and they were just behind on their shipping (it is a small operation), or they were waiting for a new batch to be finished.

Dave M.

[aaf709]

Since I do the UPS shipping (among other things) where I work I know a bit about the process. When I generate the UPS label the "Billing Information Received" is there. It isn't until UPS picks it up that other information (like where the item is) starts to appear.

For example, last Friday I had to create a label and gave it to a co-worker to put on their box, which they would take it to Staples for UPS pickup (they had asked too late for our daily pickup). They waited until Saturday to drop it off and were angry the package hadn't arrived on Monday (short distance). If they had dropped it off in time on Friday, it would've been there, but UPS didn't go to Staples again until Monday so no information (other than "Billing Information Received") appeared until that Monday's pickup. So even though the box left our building on Friday, you couldn't see any progress until Tuesday.

I'm not trying to make an excuse, but showing what might happen.

[adam1991]

Oh, no doubt that's exactly what happened.

But if you say "we offer overnight shipping," in general the customer doesn't take that to mean "we offer to ship your package using the shipper's overnight service, but that'll happen only after we get around to boxing it up and getting it to the shipper, which could be only once a week depending on what's going on in our lives, so you'll get it the next business day after we get around to it".

Coastal was right up front with me: they ship within 24 to 48 hours of receiving the order. Call it 72 hours after slop. I don't know if that on their web site or not.

[dmckinstry]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(aaf709 @ Mar 8 2007, 07:17 AM) [snapback]402206[/snapback]</div>

Since I do the UPS shipping (among other things) where I work I know a bit about the process. When I generate the UPS label the "Billing Information Received" is there. It isn't until UPS picks it up that other information (like where the item is) starts to appear.

For example, last Friday I had to create a label and gave it to a co-worker to put on their box, which they would take it to Staples for UPS pickup (they had asked too late for our daily pickup). They waited until Saturday to drop it off and were angry the package hadn't arrived on Monday (short distance). If they had dropped it off in time on Friday, it would've been there, but UPS didn't go to Staples again until Monday so no information (other than "Billing Information Received") appeared until that Monday's pickup. So even though the box left our building on Friday, you couldn't see any progress until Tuesday.

I'm not trying to make an excuse, but showing what might happen.
[/b]

Perhaps, but in my case I received the "BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED" notice on Monday the 26th and didn't have any indication the package had been picked up until afternoon or early evening of Wednesday the 7th. That's over 216 hours, not 72. I'm not complaining (much), but it would be nice if they would tell you if they're swamped and can't get to it, or it they're waiting on a delivery to them, or whatever.

Their original email indicated a delivery date of March 5, not the date of March 14 that it will arrive.

Dave M.