A copy from my post on CPF:
"Normally I like their stuff, I've done repeat business.

But, for my AAA light... 9 days for shipping! To Virginia - on a non-holiday weekend. For $10!!

Horrible, flat out terrible shipping time. To make matters worse, I never got a confirmation email that my payment was recieved. When I finally sent them an email to complain, all I got back was an invoice, not even a typed in "sorry" or anything. Though in fairness, the invoice was sent back in a few hours.

Anyway, I'm just pissed that their shipping was even longer than usual, and they didn't have the decency to apologize for A) shipping time, or B) not sending a receipt."

Like I said, just T'd off, and want to spread the word. I think lots of folks know they can take a while, but this is ridiculous. And their customer service was no where as polite as it has been in the past.

Off my soapbox now.

I hear you MDinana, I like there products and I think there peanut lighters are top notch but there shipping and correspondence is really bad. It's a shame, I'm kinda of thinking he's doing it more of a hobble than anything else, a normal business would not be in business long with that practice. I still don't see why his shipping is so long unless he sits on orders and takes them down or has them picked up at one time.

I tend to agree. it actually was a shipment of a couple items, but under 3lbs. I mean, he could charge $8 and have USPS deliver in a flat-rate box for half the time. I especially love how shipping goes up with price of purchase, as opposed to weight. Nice little gig he has for himself.

Looking over the Paypal receipt and the invoice he finally sent - order placed sunday AM (yeah, I know, a weekend), but UPS picked up on Tuesday. From then it took a full week to deliver.

Still, a confirmation of payment would be nice (aka, a "reciept"). And when I finally got the receipt after sending an email, "oops, sorry" would have been sufficient, rather than just a blank email with shipping info - no receipt with that either, interestingly.

Small company, sometimes stuff happens. Feel free to shop at
Walmart.

hmmm, there is some interesting kit on his site that I was thinking of ordering but what you have said I am wondering whether it would be worth it once the shipping to the UK is added.

I suppose I could have it shipped to a US address and sent onto me.

Has anyone got any good feedback for this company or is it all bad?

Cheers for that, I have a friend in the US that ships loads of stuff to me so that's not a problem.

Looking at his warehouse photos on the website it does not look like a hobby business.

Yeah, no overseas shipping.

And he DOES have good stuff. In fact, I would recommend pretty much everything that I've purchased (minus his Fauxtons, but for the price, why not get a few?). As for walmart, well, CC ain't the only business on the net that sells this stuff. I CAN go elsewhere.

Normally I've had good luck with communication - hence my annoyance (the shipping didn't help either)

I bought a MacPac from NZ and they shipped it for $18 US mail.

Not all countries work so well with the US Mail tho.

I think anyone would be well advised to keep in mind that the perception of CC being a hobby business is probably close to the truth. There are pluses and minuses to this.

Basically it seems like a few guys, just like us, finding great gear and trying their best to get orders out the door. I have a feeling that for some of them CC may not even be their primary 40 hour a week gig.

They don't run a brick and mortar storefront. They operate out of a commercial building and they are not in the business of creating a flashy, hyped up web image.

They have good stuff, at good prices but I agree that they would greatly benefit from taking a retail management training course. During which they would realize that EVERY single email and every order is a reflection of the entire organization.

On the other hand, they'll never be able to compete with Cabelas or LL Bean. They simply don't have the resources. But you can't get the cool stuff that CC offers at Cabelas either...

I can't comment on the shipping charge issue as I live in CA (about an hour north of them in fact) and I've always gotten my orders in reasonable time at a resonable charge.

I suspect that all of them really want to do the best job possible but they may not have the retail "customer experience" background or resourses to make this happen 100% of the time. But this doesn't stop me from ordering.

I once ordered some stuff and got something completely different. I called and requested an RA (return authorizaition) and was told "Don't bother, keep the wrong stuff and we'll send you the right stuff this time". Granted, it wasn't a big order but someone there wants to make people happy. On the other hand it seemed like they didn't get that I was inconvenienced and had to wait a second shipping cycle or that the first batch was inventory down the drain for them.

I would say give them a shot to let CC know how you feel if you're not satisfied. Personally I would rather encourage a small business to improve itself and stay around than discourage one.

Maybe Clearwater summed it up best! But even Wallyworld won't have the cool CC stuff!

My experience with CC has always been positive. Yes, S&H can be high, but I never order just 1 or 2 items, so the S&H becomes reasonable. I figure CC S&H normally represents approximately 10% of my total order; sales tax in MD is 6% so the extra 4% is not really that bad. Shipping times are a bit long to the east coast, usually about 1 week to 10 days, no big deal, just a little bit of patience is all that is required. I have always received an invoice within a few days of placing my order.

I believe CC is primarily a government contract filling company, so the retail side of the business is a bonus both for CC and us as customers as many of items are hard to find (many items are government over runs).

Pete