Vendors who do it right

[gone down south]

OK, not directly shaving related, but there's been a lot of chatter round here about misplaced orders and stuff getting lost in the mail and I thought I would share some 'success' stories to cheer everyone up.

I've had great experiences with two online vendors who've floored me with great service lately. Backcountry.com (and all it's 'discount' sister sites) consistently fills orders within 24 hours. Without fail if I place an order today, it'll be loaded out the next afternoon. Now, if I was smart enough to stop chosing USPS delivery option.....

The big winner, though, is zappos.com. This week, I placed an order at 3:30pm - the package left their warehouse in Kentucky at 9pm and was in my hands in Philadelphia by 4 the next afternoon. Total 24 hours :lol: The charge hadn't even showed up on my credit card yet! It turns out that they shipped it "next day express" at no extra charge, a big tip of the hat to them.

[Spatterdash]

Well, if we're gonna toss out compliments to vendors who support our little niche, I'm happy to report consistant good service and delivery, as well as real concern for the customer's happiness, from the following people...

Mama Bear soaps
Westcoastshaving
Emsplace
Ogallala Bay Rums
and B&B member Ssilcox, for his laser etched acrylic stands.

[jackmormon]

Well, if we're gonna toss out compliments to vendors who support our little niche, I'm happy to report consistant good service and delivery, as well as real concern for the customer's happiness, from the following people...

Mama Bear soaps
Westcoastshaving
Emsplace
Ogallala Bay Rums
and B&B member Ssilcox, for his laser etched acrylic stands.

+1 on all of the above adding (heartily) vintageblades, lees razors, diamondedge, superlather, shoeboxshaving, and shavemac.

I was pretty blown away this morning. I ordered a custom Shavemac last Friday, received a shipping notice yesterday, the brush left Germany yesterday morning, and it is now in my hands less than 24 hours later. WOW! (The weird thing is in this 24 hour shipping time it was opened by customs in TN AND by the state department of fish & wildlife in my state. I guess the "badger hair" on the customs declaration triggered the fish & wildlife department check. Weird this all happened in 24 hours from Germany! )

[greenbackcut]

Lets dont forget Shaving Essentials!

[Bobtrumpet]

Good results from the following retailers (in no particular order) :w00t:

West Coast Shaving
Shaving Essentials
Barclay Crocker
Beauty Essentials
Beauty Habit
Ogallala
(Dang! I can't remember where I bought my Tabac stuff)
Edit: forgot The Gentlemens' Quarter

Bad results from

No one so far! :001_smile

[The National Razor]

Classic Shaving
Colonial Drug
Mama Bear
Perfume Always (Amazon marketplace)
Parfum1 (Amazon marketplace)
Perfume Network
West Coast Shaving

And a tip of the hat to Walgreens, which has all the Pinaud things in stock at good prices

[Dadof3]

Lets dont forget Shaving Essentials!

+1 - thank you, Mr. Crissman!

[markb]

Superlather
Vintage Blades
West Coast Shaving
Shaving Essential
The Gentlemen's Quarter

All awesome!!

[kingfisher]

My experience with Zappos is similar to the OP's. My wife was thinking about new shoes for my 11-year-old son, went to Zappos and was looking. This was on Tuesday at about 8 or 9 pm.

When I got home from work on Thursday the shoes were on his feet! And I live in extreme southeastern Virginia.

FWIW, I haven't had any problems with any shaving vendors so far, either, but my experience is limited. I got soaps from Colleen at TGQ in a timely fashion, and got blades/SC samples from TSD without any problem.

[theperfectstorm]

Lets dont forget Shaving Essentials!

Agreed. They may be the best in our little collective area.

I really love the cats at Atlanta Barber Supply and specialtybottle.com. Consistently fine work.

[Bulldawg]

:yesnod: :a14: :yesnod:
www.westcoastshaving.com
www.superlather.com
www.shavingessentials.net
www.vintagebladesllc.com
www.theenglishshavingcompany.com

[Gravy]

I don't know anybody at WestCoastShaving but they are fast. The day my sampler pack showed up in my mailbox I stood at the end of my driveway scratching my head, looking both directions down the street, and maybe even looked up in the sky. If you drove by, I was the idiot standing by the mailbox counting on one or two fingers.

[Leche]

West Coast has been a charm.
I have also ordered from best grooming tools which was excellent also.

[mretzloff]

To me the top two vendors are, hands down, Shaving Essentials (www.shavingessentials.net) and Vintage Blades (www.vintagebladesllc.com). No one has the variety that Vintage Blades (www.vintagebladesllc.com) has and no one has the prices that Shaving Essentials (www.shavingessentials.net) has.

[Alaskan Eagle]

+1 on Backcountry.com Great people and super customer service. My wife ordered a jacket and found out that she wanted something different a few days later. Called up Backcountry and they paid to have it shipped back and swapped out.

[perry]

I've been a "fan" of Zappos for years, but never actually ordered from them. The stories about them and the quality of their site were great, but I'd always found shoes elsewhere for some reason. Ordered a couple weeks ago real late on Sunday, had the shoes Tuesday but they were the wrong size and I didn't like the color. Waited to Thursday afternoon to get another pair and had them on Friday. And the return shipping was free. Yes, I paid full retail for the shoes, but the ease of doing business made up for it.

I've ordered from Vintage Blades twice now and have been satisfied. Ordered from a couple other small vendors folks 'round here seem to be happy with, but was left with a bad taste in my mouth.. they haven't gotten any additional business.

[brothers]

Essentials in Oklahoma City
FragranceX
RupRazor
Fendrihan
Conaught Shaving
Superlather
Vintage Blades
The Dutch Shaving Shop
Pauldog
Bob's Razor Works
Gios now defunct store
Shoebox Shaving
Lucky Vitamins

They offer the products I want, they have excellent prices, they ship like lightning, some of them throw in free stuff, and some of them are true artists in what they do to razors. And if I've forgotten any, they are very forgiving, too.

[AdrianR]

And for all the Canucks here, I will sing the praises of Alfred Moldoveanu at www.fendrihan.com in Mississauga. Fast, friendly service and a great product range with good prices (certainly better than Toronto Barber & Beauty Supply).

[persco]

And for all the Canucks here, I will sing the praises of Alfred Moldoveanu at www.fendrihan.com in Mississauga. Fast, friendly service and a great product range with good prices (certainly better than Toronto Barber & Beauty Supply).

+1 and I'll add Scott at rasagepoulin.com - he has a superb collection of shave stuff.

[stypulkoski]

I've only bought from a few sellers, but here are my thoughts.

1. Lee's - Great guy. I bought a Simpson brush and a few small items from him, and was thoroughly impressed with the transaction. The prices are definitely on the high side and the selection isn't great, but the outstanding service guarantees I'll buy from him again.

2. Details for Men - Great prices, and no real complaints. However, the entire process seemed oddly cold and impersonal, even for internet shopping. To repeat though, the transaction went as smoothly as you'd like, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy from them again; I just got the feeling that they didn't need my business, whereas I could tell that with Lee it was appreciated.

3. QEDUSA - Poor website and limited selection, but great prices and, from what I hear, great customer service. I'll be a return customer, but would return more often if they offered a wider selection.

3. Cool Shaving - Only bought a Merkur 38C from them (they were having a great sale recently, and it's probably ongoing); their website is pretty rough, but I'm completely satisfied with the transaction. Would not hesitate to recommend them.

YMMV, of course, but there was something very positive about all of these sites.

----------------
Now playing: Guns N' Roses - You Could Be Mine (http://www.foxytunes.com/artist/guns_n_roses/track/you_could_be_mine)
via FoxyTunes (http://www.foxytunes.com/signatunes/)

[Captain Morgan]

+1

Ogallala
Vintage Blades
Shavemac
Straight Razor Designs

In no particular order, of course. :biggrin:

[Daliz]

West Coast Shaving and Shaving Shack (UK), both shipped to Finland, no problems! :smile:

[SRock]

I tip my hat to all of the vendors that cater to our "odd" way of shaving! :cool:

[MikeNZ]

Just a quick question guys.
A few of you have mentioned good service from Ogallala Bay Rum.
I thought I would like to try their soap sampler pack.
I've sent a couple of emails over the last 2 weeks regarding international shipping to New Zealand. (Just wanted confirmation that they would and what sort of cost to expect). I havn't heard anything back from them. Would this be normal?
Most online retailers I have dealt with in the past would at least have the decency to reply even if they can't provide what I'm looking for. Thought this was a bit strange.
Does anyone here know if the do ship to New Zealand?
Thanks.

[Stubblefield]

Vintage Blades
West Coast Shaving
Shaving Essentials

There may be vendors that have it for slightly less, but these 3 consistently deliver excellent service.

[Citizen D]

MensBiz (http://www.mensbiz.com.au)

[crankymoose]

In the past few years I have dealt with the majority of the vendors commonly mentioned here on B&B and a few not so commonly mentioned, thankfully 99% have been uneventful great transactions and those few requiring e-mails or calls to customer service were straightened out right away.

Two instances that I will remember is a couple of times with Classic Shaving exchanging e-mails and phone calls to ensure I got a particular old discontinued razor that I wanted and not the newer model and few other minor things that were special orders I forget but I know I talked to them a few times and each time they were pleasant and helpful, the other I mentioned in another thread here (http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=91047) ,straightrazordesigns.com replaced a package lost by USPS with no hassle and they answer e-mails and phone calls regarding any product quiestions very fast.

As with others I would like to thank all the vendors who support our crazy habits and enable us :thumbup:

[Black Adder]

Just a quick question guys.
A few of you have mentioned good service from Ogallala Bay Rum.
I thought I would like to try their soap sampler pack.
I've sent a couple of emails over the last 2 weeks regarding international shipping to New Zealand. (Just wanted confirmation that they would and what sort of cost to expect). I havn't heard anything back from them. Would this be normal?
Most online retailers I have dealt with in the past would at least have the decency to reply even if they can't provide what I'm looking for. Thought this was a bit strange.
Does anyone here know if the do ship to New Zealand?
Thanks.

I don't know what to tell you, Mike, other than I find it highly unusual, and uncharacteristic, that you haven't heard from them. Maybe your e-mails haven't been getting through? I don't use their products; tried them, but didn't care for them. I can say that their customer service really stands out among vendors. I don't know if they ship internationally.

If you think it would help, could I contact them on your behalf? I've seen the owner post here a couple of times; he may even see this thread. It just doesn't seem to be Ogallala's style to snub customers.

Don

[adamant]

I'll give a shout out to Newegg. If something leaves their NJ warehouse, and I get the normal shipping via UPS, it normally arrives the day after I order it in Philly (I know it helps that it isn't far). However, one time I got their 'egg saver' shipping. The item left the same location, transferred from UPS to USPS and took a week to arrive!

A second vendor with great service was 6pm.com where I ordered a pair of shoes. The shoes weren't comfortable at first, and rubbed against my heel. I eventually broke them in, but then the material that is sewn over the back of the heel lifted off of one shoe. A few weeks later some stitching came loose. Soon after that the outside layer of one lace separated. All in all I was very disatisfied with the shoes, so I wrote to 6pm asking if there was any chance to get in contact with the manufacturer about the shoes, and to let them know that these particular shoes are particularly shoddy. They wrote back and said that they would give me a one time refund. They refunded my CC and didn't even ask for the shoes back. Pretty nice, I'd say!

[MikeNZ]

I don't know what to tell you, Mike, other than I find it highly unusual, and uncharacteristic, that you haven't heard from them. Maybe your e-mails haven't been getting through? I don't use their products; tried them, but didn't care for them. I can say that their customer service really stands out among vendors. I don't know if they ship internationally.

If you think it would help, could I contact them on your behalf? I've seen the owner post here a couple of times; he may even see this thread. It just doesn't seem to be Ogallala's style to snub customers.

Don

Thanks Don.
I'll try sending another email today as well. Third time lucky maybe.
I'm really keen to try there soaps after all the good things I've read about them.

Mike

[perry]

A second vendor with great service was 6pm.com where I ordered a pair of shoes.

As an FYI, 6pm.com is a sister company of / subsidary of Zappos.

[The Knize]

I am very high on The Traditional Shaving Company right now. http://www.traditionalshaving.co.uk/

Fastest order to receipt I have ever had from a Brit company. Great stuff. Very responsive.