Jim, I think you hit the nail on the head, in the event you want to continue to do business with them, call. I am another who has bad experiences with two of the last orders. The back order stuff alone is enough to make you bang your head, but was missing stuff as well that was supposedly shipped. I believe I made a mistake by emailing my orders and concerns, and never did get a response back! I finally called, and although the guy I spoke with was attentive, he assured me someone would contact me to resolve my issues. Never happened! I find it unfortunate for me, as they do have an amazing selection of components and essentially a place one can get all needs at one time. I personally found some of the other sponsors much more personable and attentive, but don't always have what you need. I just find it odd that in a day and age that computers and email are a major means of conducting business, that it wouldn't be recieved as well as a phone call?! I have since taken my business elsewhere, but it is apparant there are plenty others who remain loyal and happy.

Eh, I don't know. Yeah, I know a lot of folks have had great service from Mud Hole, but since their prez. is watching I'd like to add my $0.02. I've only dealt with MH once, and had something like 50% of my ordered items backordered. The wait times on the backorders seemed to be a bit much in my opinion, but I needed what I ordered. Rather than hold all backordered items and ship together at once, Mudhole seemed to want to trickle out a $5 portion here, a $15 portion there, each time with ANOTHER shipping charge on it as if I'd placed separate orders from the get go. I know what MH wanted to do - get me what I needed ASAP. But it cost me another shipping fee each time! WHAT?!

I have to say, if a company can't even fulfill half the order, that's a problem. And if you agree to backorders, backorders should be shipped at the COMPANY's expense, not the clients. It's not the customer's fault that a vendor runs out of something, why should we pay for that mistake?

Even after asking the Mud Hole Service Rep to PURGE ALL my personal info from their records, I still get catalogs and emails. It's a great catalog, but I just can't bring myself to give them a 2nd try after specifically asking to be removed. Water under the bridge...they're not wasting my money by sending me a catalog or what is now technically unsolicited emails.

I can say that I have found other vendors who have been much more willing to be flexible and get me exactly what I need, when I need it.

FWIW, just my $0.02 to let JR know he's not alone.

MP

I have ordered items from MH on several occassions. Their selection is second to none. A majority of the time, I have found that their service was at or above par for my level of expectation (which is highly subjective, mind you). I have dealt with Lynne for most of my transactions and she has been superb. When I have called her, she has had the answers to my questions,. When she didn't know, she asked. When I asked a unusual question about a particular item they carried and she didn't know, she put me on hold, walked out into the stock room, grabbed the item, and talk to me on the phone with it there to inspect. The effort to help me was shown by her initiative and that is something I appreciate. Certain individuals are more sensitive to good customer service than others. I have managed a specialty retail store location for 15 years. I know the ups and downs that we encounter at times with orders, product inventory, customer demands, customer satisfaction issues, and delivering product. I can spot bad service, employees that are nothing more than warm bodies on the payroll, and those who are truly attempting to create a positive buying experience from a mile away. I feel, in my dealings with MH and Lynne, that she truly cares about making my purchases efficient, smooth, and pleasant.

Now, this is not to say I haven't had items backordered. I understand the laws of supply and demand. And, since this isn't a hobbie that everyone in America (and the globe) are involved in, thus eliminating a Walmart on everycorner filled with rod crafting components...I understand that sometimes stock on hand is not forcasted correctly, small suppliers drop the ball, snowstorms prevent on time shipments, shows interfere with shipments and answers, etc... Ultimately, it is how a company handles these issues with the individual customers that makes or breaks their satisfaction level.

All in all, I am a satisfied customer.

I do have a suggestion. There should be a way to indicate whether you want all your product shipped at the same time when ordering online. And a way to specify whether you don't care if things are shipped as they are available along with the additional shipping and handling charges that must be covered. Another idea would be indicating that you would like all the products, whether they are back ordered or not, shipped when available and all product shipments covered by the initial shipping charge on the original sale amount of all products ordered. (hopefully that came across without confusion).

My $0.02

Domenic

"I think we can safely say that most people are satisfied with the service from Mud Hole "

Ditto.

No one's perfect - but never had any issues w/ Mudhole. Great on-line store and one of these days, I hope to visit their store in FL (leaving the CC at home of course LoL).

I will relate on rather unusual experiance I had with them.

I did a $150+ order and with that was suppose to get the free hat. I got my order pretty quickly, but no hat.

No biggie, I have a tonne of hats, so I never bothered them on this.

Four months later I get a package from them wondering what the heck did I order.

Yep, you guess it. It was the hat. They didn't forget me.

Thanks Mudhole and Tom for being so responsive

I myself have had very unsatisfactory service from Mudhole, to the point when information request were not returned in a decent timeframe I took my buisness elsewhere. If I am ever in a bind I may try them again but they are not on the top of my list. There are pleny of vendors to the left that are very hungry for buisness, and will go out of their way to get you what you want. I personally send the majority of my transactions through Rainshadow or Versitex. Any problems encountered have been immediately resolved.

I do have a problem with Mudhole calculating shipping on the total price of your order, charging you that total, and then backordering an item and charging again to ship that backordered item. Didn't I pay for shipping that item the first time around??

Bill

william mitchell-

THANK YOU !! couldn't of said it better myself! and mudholes silence on this subject over the last few days is deafening.

This entire string is pointless. ALL the dealers have similar complaints. They all have hundreds of satisfied customers and a few dozen dissatisfied ones. Can't we get back to rod building? Mud Hole's silence is probably because they're too busy filling orders.

If you don't like a dealer, don't use them. Go elsewhere, but please keep this board free of all the nonsense. I don't think this is what it's supposed to be used for.

Here - here LOL

hmmm, .........i thought sharing infor. on rodbuilding, including what we like and dislike about the companys we spend our rodbuilding $$$ on was a very salient point of this discussion board. one of the sponsors has a sale on something, or a service to offer, i want to know about it. by the same token if something is not what it should be, even if just someones opinon, i want to hear about that too. i think if the roses have thorns we need to know that too. i mean, how fluffy do we need to be here?

We need to be fair and honest and this board will not be used for this sort of thing. It' far too easy for competitors to pose as customers to put the "bad word" on other dealers. We even had one guy threatening to do this sort of thing to one sponsor if that sponsor didn't meet his price expectations. His words - "I'll ruin you on Rodbuilding.org if you don't sell me this order for X amount of dollars." I won't allow this board to be used for that sort of thing.

I understand that the topic starter had a legitimate complaint but as I said, no dealer is perfect and you'll find detractors and supporters of all. If you know of a dealer that can be proven to be dishonest or disreputable and they are a sponsor. notify me and I'll remove them. Otherwise, let's stick to rod building.

This is the end of this thread. Any future posts will be removed and the entire topic deleted.

.............

Mr Colby, Why is this thread pointless? Mudhole vends to rodbuilders, and rodbuilders look to Mudhole, amongst other vendors, to supply them with goods at fair market prices, and with fair shipping costs. I see a thread like this is no less important than talking about the mechanics of rodbuilding.
I feel this is an excellent venue to discuss an issue like shipping costs, because it does impact everyone of us who buy the components We all gain a benefit when enough voices are heard and a change is implemented as a result. Now that result may be that vendors such as Mudhole change their shipping policies in a positive or negative manner, or it may even mean that many of us, armed with the knowledge and the experiences of others, decide to conduct business with a vendor with more favorable shipping practices.
I've ordered from Mudhole over the years, and have received a number of tongue lashings from my wife, not because I bought more "stuff", but because I payed for shipping charges that are ridiculously high.
I do talk with vendors, when I am pleased as well as when I am dissatisfied. I have talked to the nice lady who is in charge of Mudhole's shipping, and, as I pointed out in an earlier post, I took matters in hand and arranged the FedEx shipment of my new rod chuck for her, else I would have paid far more than I ended up paying. While I expect to pay higher than normal charges because I live in Alaska, I don't think I should be gouged and not say anything.
I do think it is important that someone start a thread such as this when the matter really stands out, as long as the conversations are substantive and not a rant, and critical of the process and not personal.
And I also appreciate that Tom Kirkman is allowing many of us to express those concerns, on both sides of the issue, because I know he is watching.

Bill and William I'm sorry you feel the way you do, I assure you when I started this thread I had no idea it would consume so much time and space. Tom feel free to delete or lock down this thread, I assure you no hard feeling will be held to you or others, with that said lets get back to helping each other do what we're here for CRAFTING RODS.

"Although my questions may seem simple to some, not asking them would make me simple."

Jim sent you an e mail

Just wanted to put my two cents in. This thread is the reason that this forum works as well as it does. Go try to find a board where a topic such as this is handled and discussed in this civil of a manner. It has always amazed me that with very few exceptions, even major disagreements on this board are handled in an agreeable manner. Kudos to Tom and all of the rest or you (us) for maintaining the atmosphere that makes this board what it is. And for what it's worth, I too have had outstanding luck with Mudhole.

Jeff Hunter