On line ordering 😭

[Trouttramp 0]

Not good luck lately with ordering materials/hooks online.

1, placed order, received items NOT ordered but “close, hope it will work for you” opted to keep, shouldn’t have.
2, placed order, got a phone call saying item was out of stock after accepting payment, I opted to cancel order, payment was credited back into account. A FULL MONTH later, I received a partial order of what I wanted, my card was charged w/o my knowledge.  I called the shop and complained, they apologized, I opted to keep items because I needed them. 
3 placed order for a specific hook style, received a different size, with note saying out of stock, hope these are ok. I opted to return. 
4 a shop I had ordered from, sent me a 119$ item I clearly did not order, nor pay for, was supposed to go to a guy 250 miles away and state away according to inclosed invoice.

5 three times I have received partial orders, some weeks apart. Opted not to complain due to good experience in the past.

I like to order from fly shops as opposed to “Big Box Sporting Goods Stores”.  I’ve had mixed results.

My go to with no complaints so far:

Blue Ribbon flys ( my absolute first choice )

Avid max, great experience so far.

Dakota Angler, “”  “”         “”      “”

Have used with success:

Orvis

Fly shack

J Stockard 

As for gear companys customer service my experience:

SIMMS  by far the best, 

Sage, great

A certain very popular fly vise company, not as good. ( I seem to be in the minority on this one)

Umpqua hooks was very good the only time I’ve ever had a hook problem.

A very poplular wading boot company, I will never buy their product again.

Anyone with great experiences with online fly shops please feel free to list them.

Please keep it positive, 

TT

 

[Fruitrollup 0]

Devin Olsen at TacticalFlyfisher dot com has provided Troutstanding Service at very reasonable prices.  They are my go to for hooks and beads.  I have no complaints from them.  Blue Quill Angler has good service and a low minimum purchase price for free shipping.  Charlie’s Flybox has outstanding stock of materials and good service.  They are a little on the pricey side, but you get good service.  And as you have mentioned, Avid Max provides good service and a large inventory.  They are close to home, so I rarely mail order from them.

 

[Trouttramp 0]

Have used Blue Quill, good results also.

[RickZieger 0]

I order hooks from wholesaleflycompany.com and some fly tying supplies from the Fly Tyers Dungeon.

Rick 

[chugbug27 0]

How is WFC after the new owner?

[flytire 0]

i ordered 100 size 10 hooks from jstockard and received size 18. returned them at my expense

i received a hareline branded bucktail that is about 2 inches wide. again from jstockard. thinking about returning it but i'll have to pay for that also. hareline = shitty products

i received 2 spools of veevus oval tinsel and both of them were about 25% unspooled, again from jstockard. not sure who's at fault

might be time to rethink about ordering from jstockard

[gadabout 0]

I have generally had good experiences.  The exception being Marriot’s, where you place an order and half the items are out of stock, but they don’t tell you until after the order is placed.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Most of the time I'm a wholesale operator and doing my orders by phone...  When there's something on my shopping list that's a critical item (needed to fill an order I'm working on,  or needed for my guiding work) I've learned to request a call back after they've pulled the order to find out then if what I need is out of stock, so I can look elsewhere instead of waiting to find out when I receive my goods a few days later (or a week or two later in a few cases... If I have the slightest doubt that they'll call me back I'll make a point of getting the individual's contact info while placing my order and do a call back myself... before the end of their working day to verify that what I'm needing is (or isn't) in that order when it's shipped... 

This routine, of course, was learned the hard way.... Over the years I've learned that an occasional supplier was not reliable in one way or another - that business was off of my list to purchase from the moment they let me down... Matter of fact I've just found my very first defective fly line in nearly fifty years of fly fishing - after only two days usage and will be contacting the manufacturer directly later on today.  Their response will tell me whether I'll be using their lines in the future.  I try to keep at least one spare new line for every line size from a 5wt up to a 12wt on hand (in some cases, 8, 9 and 10wt lines - two spares...).  The backcountry of the Everglades, all mangrove jungle shorelines... is very hard on fly lines and my floating lines rarely last more than one year for my anglers... 

Note... Very pleased, that line manufacturer stepped up, requested I send in the line so they could examine it - and will send a replacement.. .They'll be getting more orders from this corner... 

[Poopdeck 0]

15 hours ago, flytire said:

i received a hareline branded bucktail that is about 2 inches wide. again from jstockard. thinking about returning it but i'll have to pay for that also. hareline = shitty products

I went to my local fly shop last week to get a bucktail and found the same thing, skinny and short tails with really short hairs for 13 bucks. No thanks, I’ll  use synthetics. I agree, Hareline offers some pretty crappy product. I bought some deer belly hair and it was so dry and brittle I chucked it. 

[flytire 0]

[RickZieger 0]

18 hours ago, chugbug27 said:

How is WFC after the new owner?

I have received my order in a very short time.    Also cold not send you a message.

Rick

 

[gillage 0]

For bucktails this is the best place I have found:

3 grades of bucktails, you pick your price point and quality

Whitetail Fly Tieing Supplies

[flytire 0]

whitetail is okay but their bucktails are mostly "sold out"

their dyed black deer hair leaves a lot to the imagination  👎👎

and chris helm used to be the king of deer hair when he was alive

[chugbug27 0]

8 hours ago, RickZieger said:

Also cold not send you a message.

Rick

Deleted some threads, was at 100%, should work now.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Not sure if I've mentioned this before... several of my wholesalers have mentioned that covid really messed up some of their local supply sources for things like bucktails, squirrel tails, etc.  and that they've been having great difficulty obtaining commercial quantities of natural furs/ tails...  Hope this is just a temporary situation.  I'd advise anyone to buy those kinds of materials at your local shop these days (if possible) so that you can get a hands on evaluation of exactly what you're buying... Wish it weren't so...