Gardner

[KE4AVB]

Well I have been with Gardner a dew years and never had the problem that I ran into this month. They change how they handle orders now as they are splitting them up. I recently ordered Husqvarna and Homelite parts. Split the order by manufacture apparently.

I got order acknowledgement with the splits one had shipping charges and the other didn't so I thought I was okay order on the PO set up and bill my my customers accordingly. Then the invoices came in they had tack on an additional 20.75 shipping fee on top the regular 13.99 fee. I call and got no relief or explanation on why the additional charges. I think it is a computer error but no one at Gardner customer service will correct it.

So in resonance of not getting anywhere on getting an explanation I tried cancelling all the back orders. Well that took nearly three days to finally get it done. Since they refused to explain the additional charges I have also suspend most orders that normally goes to them and rerouting one or more of my other vendors. Yes the parts will cost more but at the shipping is known.

One CS told to contact my sales rep. Well the Gardner has changed my rep several times and I have no idea who it is now and no one on Gardner will tell me who it is.

No way to run a business.

[hanz63]

Like a new order and nothing oversized? Weird.

[bgsengine]

I am not surprised, they must be hurting for money and hoping dealers don't notice until their accountants start to ask why shipping has skyrocketed... They used to do that to me too, in other ways - Put in an order for something where everything was in stock at the Ohio facility, they'd still split the order and ship from Ohio and Rochester (Gardner-Connell) and later on, from former Dixie Sales in Georgia and even if my full order met the $250 minimum they'd say it didn't meet minimum because the *INVOICE* was under $250 net (So I would pay a Full Price freight charge from Gardner-Connell for one big package containing a 50 cent wave washer!) I basically quit ordering from them entirely unless I had no other source... More often than not I would end up just ordering something (even for restocking) from Amazon with Free prime shipping at a bit higher price , but it was still cheaper than dealer cost + freight charge from Gardner. I am so glad I got out of the business when I did (And I should have done it 2 years sooner!)

[KE4AVB]

BGS, that is apparently what in cards for them. As you said there are things I can not get from anybody else at a reasonable price. And I hate give up my Hydro Gear dealer access.

But with problems they gave me the last time I no longer ordering MTD, Oregon, or Kohler parts from them as RBI has me on a better discount program. I brought RBI, Stens, and Rotary online when I was having a major problem with Gardner three years ago. Stens is probably not too happy as Rotary has about halved the Stens sales.

And shipping in general is going up due to the settled UPS strike. I am ordering more through Amazon and eBay lately due over all cost for the parts. But even Amazon has gone up on the free shipping level to $35 now and only covers things shipped by Amazon though some vendor do offer free shipping which is built-in their pricing.

I also getting away from using my MC for payment as the Dayton, CU is now finding a way to charge me on purchase saying they are cash withdrawals. It be the same when the UAW strike settled as all the auto parts and vehicles will go up. Not mentioning all the other related items will cost more too.

I used process nearly $4K per month during the summer on MC but it is down to under $500 per month now. The Dayton CU like to hold my payments for a week and the local CU takes over a week to send the payment in the first place. Before the Dayton CU changed ownership payments were processed with three days. But there is no way I giving the Dayton the password for local CU just get ACH transfers done. They don't need to be able access my local anything they want to. Currently I am using PayPal as buffer between the vendors and my local CU. IF I ever get the local CU to setup me up with a CC then the Dayton CU accounts will get closed.

The way around the shipment splitting is to have the orders tagged "ship complete". They don't like that as a fifty cent part on back order can hold up a $300 order. I can only do that on stock orders.