Poor experience with Babco Tools

[Acer1981]

I will explain my interaction with Babco Tools below, let you draw conclusions.

May 31st - ordered- 10 x 7/16" wrenches.

June 3rd - ordered - 10 x 10mm wrenches.

June 4th - received call from sales rep confirming 10 wrenches of same size. Asked when I could expect them, was told in 12-15 business days.

June 7th - Received email from sales rep see below:
_________________________________________________________________

Hi

We have just got the shipment in form suppliers. I'm still waiting for the shippers to receive the order and then I can fulfill the order. We should have it shipping out tomorrow.

Thanks

Sales rep name
_________________________________________________________________

June 23rd - received shipping orders for both orders.

This was surprising, first because I thought they shipped on June 8th by the email from sales rep. As well, this was near the end of the 12-15 business days. Third, the orders were half complete and less than half complete in quantity.

I had planned on having the wrenches before June 27th. From the phone call on June 7th I was led to believe the timeline would be fine. After that date I am away from my shipping address for a long period of time where I would need the wrenches.

To be clear I am very disappointed with Babcos service. I would never join as a member. Misleading shipping information, incomplete orders, and long delays in shipping time.

At the point of this post I had called sales rep and asked her to cancel the orders. From the information in the shipping email the orders were still in your wearhouse. Apparently he/she couldn't get that right, I don't want wrenches arriving in the next 2-3 weeks. From the sales rep manager he explained that in that week they got 100 back ordered items wrong.

- At Babco, we are committed to exceeding customer expectations.

 

[BABCO]

I will agree we did make mistakes on your order. Which I apologized for earlier today.
We are more than willing to own up to our mistakes.
Unfortunately its not our first mistake and I am very sure it won't be our last. We are human.

As I said in my e-mail to you today.The mistake our rep made when she told you that a order arrived and it had not been been received yet. After the order was received she should have notified you that your order was not on the shipment.

When we received the next order in our system this am, we noticed right away that our PO said 10 of each item and we got 5 of 1 and 3 of the other. Since yesterdays order was due to ship out today we sent a PO to our supplier right away to add the missing items.
The reason we got the lesser amounts from our supplier was again human error, our supplier punched in the wrong amounts. Its to bad that happened, but it does. Our orders are several hundreds of items long and when our suppliers sales rep enters the order, mistakes can happen and it did.

You misunderstood the part about the supplier error in the shipping of hundred of items. I happen to be out of town at the suppliers when you e-mailed me. I replied on my I phone using my thumb. I am over 50! I was trying to give you a quick reply.
What I meant was, of the several hundred items on the order, there where only 16 we didn't get. Not bad.

At Babco we are committed to exceeding customer expectations! It doesn't mean we are perfect, but we are always trying to improve.
I think the thousands of babco customers will agree.

Bruce Buckborough
Babco Tools

 

[balane]

Honestly, all any reasonable person wants when being a customer is a little communication when something goes awry. Nearly every reseller I've ever dealt with under-values the importance of clear and timely communication. Clean up your communication standards and you can watch most negative feedback like this dry up. You'll never please unreasonable customers, it's just a part of doing business. Had you guys contacted this customer when his time frame quote couldn't be met I bet this post wouldn't be here today. That's pretty simple to do in my opinion. We understand things happen out of your control, we just don't want to be surprised with it many days later.

 

[jvitez]

Well, I've ordered a few times from them now. Service is slow, but overall they have a very good selection of items, and very good prices, much less than local retailers for many things. They have a free 6 month membership right now too.

When I inquired about a slow delivery, the sales rep emailed back that they only stock a small amount of items, and everything else is delivered to them based on your individual order. They also only order from their suppliers once a week. It sounds like the retail version of "just in time" manufacturing.

If I was a pro, I'd be using tool trucks because time is money. But for my hobby use, waiting a couple of weeks is fine as I do save money.

I'll be ordering from them again soon.