Just got pissed at Jack's

[StarTech]

Well last I order some Echo screws and a recoil spring. Then I get an email saying one of four screws was b/o. So I called them and dropped off the b/o screw and was verbally told everything was in stock. The order should shipped out Friday. Well it didn't so I email them and finally late today got a generic email back saying to check order status online.

Well I did and found that now everything is on b/o. Well basically I was lied to by their customer service Thursday last week. They apparently decided to pull a SearsPartsDirect trick on me. I emailed back, cancelled the order, and ordered from PartsTree.

Moral here is you don't lie to me and get by with it. Yes it cost me a couple dollars more but at least I get the parts this week and not several weeks down the road.

 

[bertsmobile1]

It all depends upon the quality of the inventory control soft wear
Good soft wear ( ie nothing marketed by Microsloth ) will flag the items as "pending sale" or similar the second the order is placed .
Rubbish soft wear will not update inventory count till after the items have been invoiced .
I have this problem with one wholesaler who uses NAVS because it only has 3 stock flags , on order , in stock or sold .
BEcause their warehouse is understaffed despatch can take up to 2 days so the last part on the shelf can be picked today but remains in inventory for 3 days because the picker drops it off to the packers desk, the packer gets it ready for despatch then take the despatched orders into the office for the order clerk to invoice & the second she does the invoice the stock number changes .
If the 1 and only order clerk is not there then nothing gets invoiced till she gets back & the stock levels will all be wrong .
This is because Accountants decide on what soft wear to use and to an accountant parts have only 3 categories , unpaid for , paid for & sold

 

[StarTech]

No telling what Northern Tools has Jacks using for software now. At least my software keeps good track as long the data is entered correctly and timely.


and this what it looks after I cancelled the Jacks

So now I know I got one on order and none in stock or being reserved. No bin location listed indicates I have never stock the item.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Jack's is a pain when you order stuff that says in stock and 3 days later you get an email that everything is backordered and it takes 2 months to get some MTD push mower wheels. Or almost 2 months to get some older husqvarna parts. If I order from stens I usually get it next day. Even if Jack's has it in stock it is at least a week.

 

[sgkent]

the old Jacks is gone. I used them for years and they were great. I too have had to cancel the last few orders with them because of B/O parts. Like weeks later they are saying it will ship the next day - which never comes. There are other threads on it. When they have it in stock it is OK but their online web system will say in stock and then it is not so I don't know what to say. I think their customer service dept works from home now because the people I got had kids screaming in the background.

 

[bertsmobile1]

as long the data is entered correctly and timely

YEs and that is the magic phrase where computerised picking beats hand picking hands down .
I did manage to get one 3pl mob I worked for to change their softwear on the grounds I would kick the can if it caused a loss but would pick up 10% of increased profits
I got a $ 65,000 bonus
They switched from a Microsloth system to a Unix system tossed out the MSE tech manager and got a real IT manager in who changed the office & warehouse over to Linux and that alone saved $20,000 / year in lisencing fees , ended all of the compatability problems between the customers & the warehouse .
He got rid of the PDA's at $ 2000 a pop and replaced them all with I-phones which because they fitted into pockets, actually got used .
Then he got a photographer to come in a couple of weekends to photograph every line as individual items and cartons so now in place of barcodes , the labels got identified .
That reduced the mis picks from 3 % ( which is better than industry standard ) to 0.1% and that knocked 2 hours off the loading times
Being mostly a 2pl/3pl set up they had over 1/2 million lines in the warehouse which suddenly actually started to have accurate inventory with no system crashes .
Down side is they never renewed by contract which I was latter told ws so the new warehouse manager could claim it was all his doing so get the big bickies bonus .

 

[Tiger Small Engine]

YEs and that is the magic phrase where computerised picking beats hand picking hands down .
I did manage to get one 3pl mob I worked for to change their softwear on the grounds I would kick the can if it caused a loss but would pick up 10% of increased profits
I got a $ 65,000 bonus
They switched from a Microsloth system to a Unix system tossed out the MSE tech manager and got a real IT manager in who changed the office & warehouse over to Linux and that alone saved $20,000 / year in lisencing fees , ended all of the compatability problems between the customers & the warehouse .
He got rid of the PDA's at $ 2000 a pop and replaced them all with I-phones which because they fitted into pockets, actually got used .
Then he got a photographer to come in a couple of weekends to photograph every line as individual items and cartons so now in place of barcodes , the labels got identified .
That reduced the mis picks from 3 % ( which is better than industry standard ) to 0.1% and that knocked 2 hours off the loading times
Being mostly a 2pl/3pl set up they had over 1/2 million lines in the warehouse which suddenly actually started to have accurate inventory with no system crashes .
Down side is they never renewed by contract which I was latter told ws so the new warehouse manager could claim it was all his doing so get the big bickies bonus .

I only use Jack’s Small Engine for diagrams and looking up parts to order (on other websites). Prices are high, service is slow. Their parts look up diagrams are definitely helpful though.

 

[StarTech]

I recently started using barcodes for data input which makes looking up parts data on my system easier. But is one major problem it seems every OEM has is using a different barcode format.

Currently my scanner is setup for 128 and UPC-a codes so many of the printed codes are not readable and the distributors can't which formats are being used. And to top that many of the barcodes are not even readable when a format that can be read here. I print my own labels as I received the parts.

One thing I have useful is I can scan the UPC-a code into FF search bar and then search for the part info online so I can setup the SKU info here plus it helps find the item I am looking for. Just wish they all would use the same format.

And Tiger I do use Jacks just as you do but there are items that they can get that many other vendors can''t. They are one of the few places I can get Husqvarna chainsaw parts from. As for prices my vendors are finding out that I do have a fairly large cross reference database built up that allows me to compare pricing and alternates.