Austin Kayaks, negative impression

[SteelHorseCowboy]

Not sure if this is the right place or not, just wanted to share this quick note on this company with other kayakers.

So, my sister ordered her kayak last Monday, 10/8. The site said 3-5 business days for delivery. Not bad right?
Tuesday, the 9th, she got an email that her new kayak had shipped, a Perception Pescador Pro 12.

She'd also ordered a bunch of other stuff from them.

Friday rolls around and she's feeling a bit impatient, so she calls for an update as they'd given her no tracking information of any sort.

She couldn't get anyone on the phone, so she sent them an email. She did get a quick response letting her know her kayak had not yet been picked up by the shipping company.
How the hell you gonna tell someone their purchase has shipped when it hasn't even left the store yet?
A few hours later, another email letting her know it had just been picked up, finally.

Bear in mind, they said 3-5 days for DELIVERY, not 3-5 days for someone's lazy ass to pick it up and cart it off.

She still has no shipping information, just a name and number to some fly by night jackleg company. Not any of the big 3 carriers, UPS, FedEx, or USPS (don't know if USPS would even handle a load like that).

She got pissed and tried calling again. Couldn't get an answer, and as of yet, no return calls. She sent another email telling them this is total BS and got a canned response "Sorry for the inconvenience, it was shipped, call the shipping company".

So she's been trying to get in touch with them, no luck at all. No returned calls, no way to email them.

She reached out to Austin Kayaks again yesterday and they told her it'd be delivered today or tomorrow.

So we don't know WTF. For all we know at this point, she may have paid for a kayak and they may have simply given it away.

Still no word at all on all the accessories she ordered from them.

I'll give an update tomorrow, or whenever the damn thing magically appears. If it ever does.

But after all this, I know I'd never buy from them. We were hoping to be on the water together last weekend. Now with my sprained ankle and the weather trends, there's no telling when we'll actually get to go kayaking together.

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

[Bud Kennedy]

Not so sure I would be all that quick to dis this vendor until the facts were known.  If your products shipped from their Austin TX location you maya be running into problems due to the severe floods.  Not saying this is the deal but I am sure you will find out.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

No, there is no good excuse for the way they've acted.

They said the kayak had shipped when it very damn well had not, that by itself is bad enough. They lied.

Their customer service sucks.

This shipping company has pretty much no customer service at all.

If either company are having trouble handling business because of flooding wouldn't that be pretty damn easy to put in an email?
"We're sorry, we normally have products delivered within a week, but transportation routes are unreliable due to widespread flooding".

The FACT is, they've dropped the ball and have been giving her the run around. That's all there is to it. She's spent a bit over a grand and the best she can get is "call the shipping company" that won't answer the phone.

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

[Bud Kennedy]

Perhaps you're right but  I am only commenting because during our recent storms and floods some of my inbound shipments were significantly delayed.  Not because of the supplier but because the shipping companies were stopped from delivering in our area due to ongoing road closures.  These delays were not corrected until the state of emergency was lifted and that was almost 2 weeks.  JMHO

[SteelHorseCowboy]

The delivery time isn't even what I'm complaining about. With "3-5 business days", it's only 2 days late if you count from when they first told her that it'd been shipped. If you count from when it actually was shipped, then it's not even due yet.

The complaint here is about the blatant dishonesty and incredible lack of customer support from Austin Kayaks, their brush-offs and canned shrugs, and complete lack of communication from the shipping company.
Like I said, there's not even any sort of tracking info. There's not a website she can get on, put in a number, and see that it's changing hands at a distribution center in Texarkana. It's in the back of Billy Bob's pickup truck or some crap.

I delivered furniture for Scan Interiors out of Memphis while I was in college. I've had to communicate with customers to let them know I was running behind due to circumstances out of my control, specifically flooding and icy roads. All I had to do was look at the customer's contact sheet and call them, or answer the phone if they called me first.

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

[Bud Kennedy]

It will be interesting when you finally get your product to check the packing list/tracking number for the carrier and see what really happened

[the_huber_show]

Def sounds like they have some holes in their customer support.  During business hours you should be able to get someone on the phone and if not you should have a returned call with in 24 hours tops. 

I get them marking it shipped as they may have sent the information to the shipping company but no tracking number is an immediate red flag to me for any company purchase these days

[SteelHorseCowboy]

We are officially two weeks into the 3-5 day shipping.
Well, maybe tomorrow makes two weeks, since the first time they told her it'd shipped was the day after she ordered it. They didn't specify if it takes 3-5 days from order, or 3-5 days after being picked up by the shippers.
And we are officially 6 business days past the second time they told it'd shipped.

If it shows up tomorrow... well 7 days when it's stated 3-5, still ain't too bad. An aggravation, but nothing to cry over.

But, there has been NO contact from the shippers. Never have answered the phone, have never returned a call or sent an email.
Also, there is no "tracking" process.

And there has been no further contact from Austin Kayaks once they told her to call the shippers. They're not answering the phone, returning calls or emails. They've NEVER answered the phone or called, only responded through email. They're not even doing that any more.

There's also still no word at all on the accessories she ordered, there never has been.

I can be impatient, but I can also be agonizingly patient at times. At this point, I would already be making plans to talk to my bank about fraud and see if they could help.

Reminds me of a military term referring to something terrifying, if you call for artillery and they fire a round that never shows up, "No impact, no idea". Basically "You just fired a high explosive round capable of leveling a building and damaging a whole city block, but we have no idea where it went."
We still literally have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on here.

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

[SteelHorseCowboy]

Finally some news. Sis got a phone call this morning, they said her kayak will be in Shreveport tomorrow morning at 10, she can come pick it up or wait until Friday for it to be delivered.

Considering the way things have gone so far, I don't expect it to be there. But we're going to Shreveport tomorrow, with the back up plan of browsing around Bass Pro, then I'm gonna talk her into eating lunch at Alice's Soul Kitchen in Minden on the way back. Damn good food.

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

[Ddyyak]

I bought a kayak from ACK about 6 years ago, shipped to Tennessee and they were great. Sorry you had a bad experience. Not making excuses for them but with the current labor shortages all customer service sucks. Hard to get any good help. Hope she enjoys the yak when she finally gets it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SteelHorseCowboy]

I understand things can happen, but many things can be forgiven if a company simply keeps the customer informed.
The biggest thing that's got us both ticked off is the lack of communication and inaccurate communication.
Still no word on the accessories she ordered, guess we'll find out when we get there. At least we'll be able to get someone face to face and interrogate them.

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

[the_huber_show]

Wow what a horror story.  Hopefully you get this bad boy and it's everything she has ever wanted to make up for the trouble.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

So we get to Shreveport. Find this little podunk office across the river and just upstream from Bass Pro. Turns out this is a "hub" for a network of several different groups of people using rental Budget and Penske trucks. And her kayak had changed "carriers" 4 times.
They ain't got it.
Well where the hell is it?
Monroe.

WHAT? My sister lives in Ruston, 30 miles west of Monroe. WHY THE HELL would she have to wait until Friday or Monday for delivery when they drove it through her town in a rented moving truck YESTERDAY?
USPS, UPS, FedEx, I can understand. Those are big carriers, they're not going to pull a semi truck up in your driveway. They have to go to a hub for shipments to be sorted into local routes. But these folks are using rented pickups, vans and box trucks. And WHY THE HELL did they call yesterday and tell her it'd be in Shreveport today?
The answer? I quote, "Cause this is a clusterf***."

We were too surprised to even be pissed!
We were given a couple Snickers bars and "tiny beverages", those little short and stubby canned cokes.

Then some phone calls were made, asses were chewed, reimbursements made, and arrangements made for us to meet a truck right across the highway from her place in Ruston and pick it up as they made another delivery.

We drove to Shreveport for tiny cokes and snickers bars.
Kidding, we did swing by BPS and picked up a couple hammocks.

So in the end, she did finally get her kayak, and in good condition minus a couple small scratches and a scuff on the bottom. Considering she not only got it for quite a bit cheaper than Academy sells it for, but she also had the shipping charges reimbursed, she saved around $200-$250 so she didn't complain. It's what I'd consider "display" condition.

Oh, and the accessories she ordered? They were bagged and placed in the rear cargo area before the yak was wrapped for shipping, so it all arrived together. But no one could simply say that when she asked?

She'd looked up some reviews last night and discovered this shipping "cluster****" is apparently a new thing, been going on for just a few months since Austin started using a rented moving truck shipping service.

So that's the end of that soap opera.

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

[Lipripper]

SHC I see adventure runs in your family. Glad your sister got her yak and saved $200-$250 in the end. Now bw sure ot take some 

[SteelHorseCowboy]

I'm sure we'll have at least a few by Sunday!

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

[the_huber_show]

Glad she finally got it!  What a cluster of a mess man...I feel your pain as that is never something you want to deal with when your excited to get a purchase.

[Bassinkorea]

I've been following this thread from the beginning. Didn't post, just read 

Glad that it has all finally shown up and with a bit of cash back for the inconvenience