another surprise!
when I added item to my shopping cart, I picked UPS Express shipping, which was $169....I was still contemplating swaro vs leica, didn't check out right away....so they offered "free express shipping"....this sweetened the deal for me, I paid for my order
then it was almost 2 weeks of silence, no shipping confirmation, no tracking number, I sent 2 follow up emails, no reply.....prior to my order I asked about delivery time, they said 1-2 weeks
the first evening I stayed up late Sep 5, "leica did not send your binos, we don't have them, don't know when"....ok fair enough please cancel...but they added me to stock alert notification
the next morning I woke up to an email, the leica binos are in stock now...but they weren't instock on the phone only 4 hours ago lol
the second evening I stayed up late Sep 6, I called to ask about the stock notification..."no sorry not sure why you got that, we still don't have them, we will process the refund soon"
Then they called back again, "we actually do have them, do you want the binos or refund"....I said please ship
they called back a final time, "oh by the way, after we've already shipped, you will be responsible for customs fees, the free shipping discount we gave you doesn't cover customs"......I didn't complain, I assumed with the free shipping it would be a bit cheaper still since all fees are included in the original quote, so if I pay customs charge, it should be cheaper than the original $169 (every other vendor I've ordered from, that UPS quote is accurate, not cheap, but accurate)
the UPS fees are now $327.....thank you so much for the free shipping! not sure how that added up higher than the original quote!
like I said in my first post, they were great to deal with before my purchase, I had a question about the glass and question about shipping time, they answered very quickly, I received the replies overnight (due to time zone of course, but they answered within 24 hours).......after the payment, customer service non existent
imo, they were trying to save the sale after a delay from Leica, and ignoring my emails knowing there is a 9 hour time difference, probably thought I wouldn't call them...I directly asked about shipping time before ordering, and luckily gave myself a buffer in case of surprises, these will hopefully arrive the day before I leave for sheep hunt
even with the extra costs, these are still cheaper than buying locally, but not as much as originally expected and I'm bitter about their customer service...next time I will pay extra cost, support a local retailer, and avoid this massive hassle....will never deal with Optics Trade again