OpticsPlanet deceitful business practices

Optics Planet is good if you call. I learned the hard way about ordering online. They are like Botach. They will take your order and even charge your card without having the item in stock. Get someone on the phone and verify stock and you are good to go.
 
They appear to have finally shipped my pants, so the experience hasn't been a total failure (just most of it). It only served as yet another reminder of what a great shop ol' Larry runs at MidwayUSA.
 
I cancelled a $350 order about the same time this thread was started. Turned out one item was not in stock but they did notify me. I cancelled the entire order and went elsewhere. "Everybody" else has real inventory numbers for online orders. I wanna know before I click submit, and they should tell me if it's in stock without me having to ask.
 
Here's a strange one...

I was looking for a Mueller APT in stock. I found them on Amazon.com...guess eh the vendor was!...optics planet! Go figure?
lol.gif
 
Originally Posted By: pahntr760Here's a strange one...

I was looking for a Mueller APT in stock. I found them on Amazon.com...guess eh the vendor was!...optics planet! Go figure?
lol.gif


From what I understood before with Mueller Optics was that Sportsman's Guide and Optics Planet both dropshipped directly from Mueller. Mueller is out of APT's, so both wouldn't have them in stock if that was the case. I'm not sure if that's still the case, but that's how I understood how they had things setup a year or so back.
 
I've bought things from opticsplanet with excellent service and prompt shipping. I have also, like others mentioned, purchased things and come to find out 2 or more weeks later that the item was out of stock.
 
Originally Posted By: JoeBobOutfittersOriginally Posted By: pahntr760Here's a strange one...

I was looking for a Mueller APT in stock. I found them on Amazon.com...guess eh the vendor was!...optics planet! Go figure?
lol.gif


From what I understood before with Mueller Optics was that Sportsman's Guide and Optics Planet both dropshipped directly from Mueller. Mueller is out of APT's, so both wouldn't have them in stock if that was the case. I'm not sure if that's still the case, but that's how I understood how they had things setup a year or so back.

Truth be known, I'd much rather buy from you. But I'm on a time crunch to get my wife's rifle completed before I go to Korea for a year. Their customer service doesn't hold a candle to you, Joeseph.
 
A lot of the instock issues happen because some vendors don't have their own warehouse,they don't know if it is in stock or not themselves.
 
Originally Posted By: AzDiamondHeat
Call me a cynic, but I think the "working on it" is a bunch of crap.

I have written enough code to know that if they have the capability to "check inventory", they CERTAINLY have the capability to have their website update availability.

Bottom line, it is marketing 101. Get them in the door any way possible and enough suckers will buy anyway to make the complaining worth it.

Yes, I too have been burned by Optics Planet and will not do business with them again. I normally don't "pile on" but I do NOT like deceitful business practices.

Had they come on here with a legitimate "working on it", I would keep to myself.




AzDiamondHeat,

I'm a cynic at heart too - but I've been here two years now and I KNOW they've put a lot of work into it. I also know the tech teams (Soft Dev & Web Dev) have just about tripled in size since I started, and are now two of the biggest teams in the company.

With that said, if you can help solve our problem of having the website update in real time, including:

Web Pages - over a million unique pages, tens of thousands updated daily
Internal Search - processing up to 100,000 queries a day
Media Server - for all of our images, videos, etc.

I'd share what the framework for it all is (I believe it's php) but I'm not that fluent. But if you think you can help - please, please, please... PM me and send me your resume! We can split the referral bonus
smile.gif


Alessandro M.
OpticsPlanet
 
I just made an order with optics planet. I called with the "MPN" numbers and verified all items were in stock. The online instant notice would be great, but I will call to verify until its 100%.

With that said, I was going to order with JoeBobOutfitters, but their instant stock notice told me the item I wanted was out of stock. It's nice to have that information.

No free TShirt with opticsplanet, though. What's up with that!?
 
Originally Posted By: OPSandroM Originally Posted By: AzDiamondHeat
Call me a cynic, but I think the "working on it" is a bunch of crap.

I have written enough code to know that if they have the capability to "check inventory", they CERTAINLY have the capability to have their website update availability.

Bottom line, it is marketing 101. Get them in the door any way possible and enough suckers will buy anyway to make the complaining worth it.

Yes, I too have been burned by Optics Planet and will not do business with them again. I normally don't "pile on" but I do NOT like deceitful business practices.

Had they come on here with a legitimate "working on it", I would keep to myself.




AzDiamondHeat,

I'm a cynic at heart too - but I've been here two years now and I KNOW they've put a lot of work into it. I also know the tech teams (Soft Dev & Web Dev) have just about tripled in size since I started, and are now two of the biggest teams in the company.

With that said, if you can help solve our problem of having the website update in real time, including:

Web Pages - over a million unique pages, tens of thousands updated daily
Internal Search - processing up to 100,000 queries a day
Media Server - for all of our images, videos, etc.

I'd share what the framework for it all is (I believe it's php) but I'm not that fluent. But if you think you can help - please, please, please... PM me and send me your resume! We can split the referral bonus
smile.gif


Alessandro M.
OpticsPlanet


Really?

Ok, I'll play your game.

It's a one and a zero.

Every item in a database, be it a picture, a name or a WHATEVER has a unique ID assigned to it when it was entered into the DATABASE. SO, no matter how many BILLIONS of pages or anything else, EVERY item is unique.

Query the database. If number of widgets in inventory is greater than ZERO, then it is in stock. If it is in stock have the little banner on the website say "IN STOCK"(that would be a 1 in binary code). If not(that would be a zero in binary code), it is OUT IF STOCK!!!!

I guess all the other online stores have some deep secretive code that they are keeping from your IT guys.

Seriously. Save your sales pitch for those who don't know any better. For those of us that DO know, you are embarrassing yourself.
 
Originally Posted By: OPSandroMHey guys,

My name is Alessandro, and I'm from OpticsPlanet. It hurts to hear about the issues associated with not showing availability on your website - but I completely understand the frustration. In fact, everyone here does.

After a lot of work over the past year, we've put together a feature that allows you to check the availability of any item before adding it to the cart, and we're actively testing it right now with a small portion of visitors. Below the "Add to Cart" button will be link called "Check Availability" and when you click it, we'll give you an idea of when you can expect a product to be shipped.

We haven't released it in full yet because we're still tweaking the logic to be better (and to make the whole thing more responsive and faster) but we're hoping to roll it out in full by the end of June.

If you'd like to try it out, you can "opt-in" to the test. If you do opt-in, I'd really appreciate any feedback you might have on the feature. Availability has been a long time coming, and we really want to make it as good as possible for our customers.

Opt-in by copying this URL into your address bar:
http://www.opticsplanet.net/#stockAvailability=1

Once you do that, you should be added to the test group, and any products you look at should have a Check Availability button. If it doesn't work in your typical browser, it's a cookie issue - until we fix it, try a different browser.

Again - I am truly sorry for the frustration. But we hear the criticism, and we are working really hard to improve the situation!

Alessandro,

Welcome to PM and thanks for posting. I understand that you are working on it as we speak but can you explain taking a customer's money when the item is out of stock? There are two problems here as I see it. 1) Out of stock, 2) Taking a person's money and being out of stock. The latter of the two gives a very bad impression of your company.

The tragedy here is how much money was spent in advertising to get the customer to your website. How much money has been lost in revenue due to bad communication? I would imagine that number would be astronomical.

Thanks for your time,

Eric
 
Originally Posted By: The Virginian
Alessandro,

Welcome to PM and thanks for posting. I understand that you are working on it as we speak but can you explain taking a customer's money when the item is out of stock? There are two problems here as I see it. 1) Out of stock, 2) Taking a person's money and being out of stock. The latter of the two gives a very bad impression of your company.

The tragedy here is how much money was spent in advertising to get the customer to your website. How much money has been lost in revenue due to bad communication? I would imagine that number would be astronomical.

Thanks for your time,

Eric

Eric,

We have lost money due to this. No question, it's not good for business. And that's why we fixed it.

As of last Friday, everyone and anyone who visits our site now has the option to "Check Availability" before adding an item to their cart. No more test, no more opting in. Of course, our customer service teams are still happy to check for you too over the phone or via chat.

One thing I have to respond to - we never, ever, ever, ever, ever capture a dime from customers before we ship items (ONE exception: custom-made items.) We have to authorize your payment method at the time of purchase, but we don't capture funds until we are shipping the item out. There are banks that will treat an authorization as a debit on your statement for a few days - but that's slowly going away. Some checkout services will capture from your credit card/debit card (PayPal, Google Checkout, I think Amazon Checkout) but WE don't take anything. That's why unlike many other places, we don't have any problems cancelling an order involving back orders. We don't have to refund you anything because we never took anything.
 
I searched the internet yesterday for a certain scope, the top link led me to opticsplanet. I know online companies like opticsplanet work hard to get their items listed high in search results regardless of item availability. Opticsplanet is not alone in doing this, yet neither do they abstain from doing it.

I follow the link and opticsplanet has the link that said "check availability" just like Alessandro said. You click it and it does not return any availability info, instead a new link shows up that lets says "Please email, chat, or call for availability". So much for online automation....

Ok, I bite. I do the live chat. It turns out the Sightron scope has to be ordered from the manufacturer first, not carried in stock. Hmmm. I try another Sightron, same deal, has to be ordered from the manufacturer. So...it would seem to me you could simply state that as your standard availability if you don't keep the item in stock.

OK, I go one step further and add it to my cart. Nothing warns you it is not in stock, I imagine it would behave like my original order and let me check out. I add 50, then 500...no problem, enter VISA to check out.

I checked another internet link for the same scope...manventureoutpost....their website reports 4 in stock. Convenient. I have a feeling opticsplanet is a much bigger outfit (I could be wrong) but at least manventureoutpost is up front with their availability. Just saying...
 
Last edited:
I have had a scope on order at opticsplanet since March 9th.
I have contacted them several times, I always get a reply. When I asked why I wasnt told it was out of stock, they said some of their customers didnt mind waiting. Each time I contact them they say it should ship in the next 2 weeks. I checked the web site yesterday and saw the availiblity button on the order page so I clicked on it and it said it would ship in one to three days. But when I contacted them directly the have none in stock. This is my second try at getting a scope from them, the first time I cancelled the order after six months and bought else where. It will be the last time I use their site.
 
They do have nice package deals once in awhile that I don't mind waiting for. Couple years ago, picked up a nice Celestron spotting scope w/ Tripid for a helluva deal. Took 3 weeks for it to arrive and it missed my PD trip, but it was still a great deal.
 
Well I will throw my experience in here as well.

It was my second time to order from OP. I didn't remember an issue the first time so I used them again. I was ordering a sunshade for a Nikon scope and a rubber eyepiece ring for a Leupold scope. Upon ordering, both showed in stock on the website. However after placing the order, it showed on backorder.

I placed the order in early/mid-DECEMBER in hopes of having the sunshade by Christmas to have it and the scope on the wifes Christmas present rifle. In stock items, you would think two/three weeks would be plenty.

Well as per the first e-mail, they were on order from Nikon and would hopefully be shipped in the next two-three weeks. Ok, it's just a sunshade.... can still mount the scope without it. Well 3 weeks go by and nothing... I e-mail them back about an update. Their reply was a couple more weeks. Well this went on for a couple more months. I was getting about the same reply until finally they had them in stock and said they would be shipping my order out soon.

Well finally by mid-APRIL my ordered items came in the mail. I don't believe I will be ordering through OP again unless it's the only place on earth to buy my wanted item. I'm glad it finally came and that it wasn't during hunting season or that it was a "need it now" item.

The only thing I can say I was happy with the situation until my order shipped, my e-mails asking about an update were answered fairly quickly.
 


Write your reply...
Back
Top