how long before I can whine?

I ordered an item from Harbor Freight on 1/4 and it isn't here yet. They don't offer order tracking per se. I have an "order date" (1/5) and a box number. It says they shipped it "parcel post."

(For $11 they should have shipped it next day freaking air, incidentally.)

So is my item most likely lost in the void, or what? I haven't had to wait this long for anything since the days of sending off for something as a kid and having to wait six to eight weeks to get my dongle.

When do I get to start crawling up Harbor Freight's ass and telling them I want my dongle NOW NOW NOW?

What does "parcel post" mean anyway? Old fashioned, non-priority US Mail? Even at that, nine mail days seems excessive to me. I seem to recall it taking five to seven for something to get somewhere. Of course that was when stamps cost 20 cents.

Reply to
Silvan
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10-14 BUSINESS days. I never had them go over except on an "out-of-stock" and then they will send you letter informing you and giving you the option of canceling the item(s). Call their 1-800 and they will tell you the status and give you a UPS tracking number and status.
Reply to
Joseph Smith

Give them two weeks. No sooner! Greg

Reply to
Greg O

Maybe its a blessing and you'll wish you had waited even longer when you get it !!!

Reply to
Lawrence A. Ramsey

HF shipping is slow, no matter what you order. If you try to contact customer service, the answer is ALWAYS,

10 to 14 days. Forget about a tracking number. But, on the other hand, it always gets here withing the 10 to 14 days as they promise.

Leslie

Reply to
Leslie Gossett

weeks.

Neal

Reply to
Neal

I ordered a set of knives for my dad. He lived in Camarillo, CA and the knives were shipped from Camarillo, CA. Took 2 weeks. He could have walked there quicker.

Reply to
Brian Lenway

I seriously doubt anyone there has a clue what a Dongle is.

Reply to
Grandpa

You just like to say "dongle", don't you?

Butthead: huh-huh, dude, he said dongle. huh, huh, huh-huh.

Beavis: Yeah, dongle. heh, heh, heh-heh.

codepath

Reply to
codepath

As in parallel port security device? Joe

Reply to
Joe Gorman

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 11:08:37 -0500, "Silvan" brought forth from the murky depths:

You'll seldom get anything within 10 days, even if you live right down the street from them. Almost everything I have ordered has taken 2+ weeks for delivery, but replacements for broken items seem to take less than a week. Go figure.

I think what happens is that they sit on 'em for a week, then give the order to a very bad shipping department (way understaffed people who go out of their way to find recycled carboard boxes and dirty peanuts) who then put it on the slowest, cheapest shipper.

Pobrefreakincito. ;)

Historical fact: I usually get the package the day after I have finally run out of patience and have called them to whine at 'em. Call today and you'll get it tomorrow or Saturday.

- If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates. --------------

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

I had a real dongle once.

Reply to
Silvan

If you were doing relatively high-end imaging in the mid 1990's you had parallel port dongles. I still have maybe a half-dozen in a drawer somewhere, useless except to a museum. I recall seeing 3 dongles connected to a printer port at the same time. Voltage drops mattered so they had to be connected in a specific order. What a PITA.

What's worse is that I'm reasonbly certain that some of the companies that forced these anti-piracy devices on their victims, er, customers, were engaged in wholesale piracy themselves behind closed doors. :-( "9 progammers? Once copy of MS C++ is enough!")

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark Jerde

I can't remember what the dongle was for. It was Dad's. Something for work. In the '80s, I think.

I'm glad dongles are dead.

Reply to
Silvan

Pop bottles? Do they still do that in Maryland?

The item arrived, 10 business days on the nose. I guess I can stop whining now.

In the end, I can't say I'm sorry for the purchase. I was using some incredibly horrible lathe tools, and this $30 HSS set is an amazing improvement. This will definitely tide me over for awhile.

I'm still basically disenchanted though, and it will be a long time before I'm desperate enough to order from Horror Fright again.

Reply to
Silvan

I can ; ^ )

I would recommend that you buy the clamps in the store rather than via mail and inspect them carefully. the rate of (to me) fatal defects is high. look for moveable jaws machined so that the screw is nonparallel to the bar. probably 60% to 70% fail that. remove the silly rubber caps and slide the jaw shut and make sure the swivel foot meets the fixed jaw squarely, and that when tightened it doesn't walk to the side. probably 75% to 80% fail that.

it's not uncommon for me to go through a bin of 30 or 40 clamps and come up with 2 or 4 that I find acceptable.

even then the clutch plates are made of too-soft metal and start slipping after a while. the jorgy clutch plates fit and are available for about $3 a set. one of these days I'm gonna see if they offer a bulk discount on those things and get a buttload of them.

Bridger

Reply to
Bridger

Yeah, well, true, but I didn't know until I got there that I would have had time to waste en route. I often don't. Ordering them delivered was a safer bet. (I've been by that place lotsa times, and have never stopped.)

It was $5.95 plus $6.95 or something like that. One for shipping, one for "handling." It did cost less than $50 though. I might have spent more if I had known.

OK, so I might have this and I might have that. Call me a bad consumer, but I call them a crappy customer service provider for not making things like this more obvious. They should say on every page "SPEND $50 SO WE DON'T SCREW YOU ON THE SHIPPING" and "WE USE THE MOST CRAPPY SHIPPING POSSIBLE, SO DON'T ORDER THIS UNLESS YOU DON'T CARE WHEN YOU GET IT."

I'm less pissed off now that I actually have the damn thing, but I'm still not going to buy from them again if I can help it.

Reply to
Silvan

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 20:31:18 -0500, Silvan brought forth from the murky depths:

I think AutoCad started that and most high-end accounting programs used them for awhile. Truly sucky things.

They're not.

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the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates. --------------
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Reply to
Larry Jaques

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 01:54:47 -0500, Silvan brought forth from the murky depths:

Suckage, but how could you not know with that big, red, all-caps text showing on the basket page?

"SHIPPING CHARGES, TERMS AND CONDITIONS"

Yes, they should. Their customer service is the best minimum-wage can buy, as usual. They could certainly use input from Lee Valley, eh?

So, it the item worth a shit? What did you get? No GLOAT?

Drop by the store and you'll change your mind. Some of the base materials can't be bought here for less than they sell the finished goods, with all the work in them. Amazing. If nothing else, their safety goods (other than the sucky tiny dust masks for mice faces) like goggles, muffs, and face shields, are half the price of other stores and many are USA-made (Western Safety).

And try one of their $5 saur blades. They're amazingly nice for the price, and good for cutting those iffy/dirty woods so you don't risk damaging your Forrest. (Some day I'll own one of the latter, but not today.)

- If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates. --------------

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

I think autocad was one of the early ones to realize that by getting rid of the dongle and making their product easier to pirate their market share would increase. microsoft was another. adobe was another.

some of those people who learned on pirated copies went out and got jobs using those programs.

Reply to
Bridger

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