Everything Attachments

[fried1765]

I just ordered a 55" Wicked Grapple based on the design, weight and reviews. I was quoted 8 - 10 weeks for delivery, but my credit card was charged when I ordered. I never done business with a company that takes all of your money upfront with such a long delivery time. Everything else seems good, but this is very off-putting. Maybe Ted can explain why he does business this way.

Correction, I ordered a 60" Wicked Grapple (not 55")

I agree with your observation......I don't like it either.
That said: They did tell me they would charge half when I ordered, and the other half when they ship, if I preferred that.
Recently, I was only ordering an $889 set of forks, so I paid all up front.

They have another issue I do not like.
They advertise....."free shipping within 1000 miles", but it is only "free", to the nearest freight terminal.
The nearest freight terminal to me is 100 miles away!
They will ship to a local business with a loading dock, but then I must go through the hassle of hooking up my trailer to get it.
Residential delivery is at least $125 more, with an added lift gate fee, even though I live on the trucking route, and could unload any order with my machine.

The really good news though, is that their products are...... EXCELLENT,...... and are well worth the wait.

 

[rbtjr]

jg, I don't know why EA actually ran the charge through, versus taking a deposit or putting a "hold" on your card. As lilranch said, I think that Travis will explain. I just wanted to note that I have bought five attachments from EA and they are great to do business with.

 

[K5lwq]

I pay up front for most everything I order. It does not bother me at all. The result is the same, they get money from me and I get items from them. The timing of how that works is normally understood up front.

I ordered several items from EA that came in at different times. As soon as they had it ready, it shipped. All very good quality and well worth the wait! I just wish I had bought my 55” Wicked Root grapple years ago! :thumbsup:

 

[lilranch2001]

Fried, I kind of feel you are nit picking, yes they advertise free shipping, but it would be an exorbitantly expensive adder for everyone one else to give free tailgate shipping to each individual across the free shipping locations.

I think if you have some basic understanding of how shipping costing works, you would have a little bit of an open mind on their policy.

 

[lostcreekranch]

with pallet forks .... you don't need no stinkin' lift gate service.

 

[jgedmond]

Fried, I kind of feel you are nit picking, yes they advertise free shipping, but it would be an exorbitantly expensive adder for everyone one else to give free tailgate shipping to each individual across the free shipping locations.

I think if you have some basic understanding of how shipping costing works, you would have a little bit of an open mind on their policy.

In addition to the increased cost of door to door shipping, you are at the mercy of the freight / delivery company to schedule from the depot to your door. That usually adds 2 -3 days to the shipping time, maybe more if you are in the middle of nowhere.

I had an exercise machine delivered from a depot. They took over a week to get it the last 100 miles from the depot to my place. Then they sent it alone on an 18-wheeler with no lift-gate! The driver would not drive on 1/4 mile of dirt road to our property, so I had to cart it back on my tractor forks. If I did not have the forks, they probably would have had to take it back and try again later with the right kind of truck.

Based on that experience, I would rather drive to the depot and pick it up myself. EA ships to a FedEx depot about 40 miles away. We go there for shopping quite often, so it is no problem for me to pick it up.

 

[fried1765]

Fried, I kind of feel you are nit picking, yes they advertise free shipping, but it would be an exorbitantly expensive adder for everyone one else to give free tailgate shipping to each individual across the free shipping locations.

I think if you have some basic understanding of how shipping costing works, you would have a little bit of an open mind on their policy.

My "basic understanding of how shipping costing works" is:

Titan advertises FREE shipping (with lift gate) to a residence ANYWHERE in the USA, but EA will not do the same, even within 1000 miles of Conover, NC.?

To me, it is a valid comparison,.... to you.... it is "nit picking"?

 

[lilranch2001]

simple answer
yes
I do not know how long EA has been advertising on here but this is the first time I remember anyone blching about this policy.

I guess you are just more attuned to reality than all the rest of TBN


I have only bought one item from them, and did not expect to get free shipping to my home, but them maybe I am just easy to get along with

 

[goeduck]

If it is a standard product that EA sells a lot of (and from this thread it sounds like they do), then it is not right that they invoice that far in advance. Yesterday I ordered a special length of 4x8 lumber to replace a damaged portion of my dock. The lumber has a special treatment for wet saltwater application and is cut and treated after my order. On something like that I expect to pay up front as they cannot realistically resell it. That is not the case with these grapples as far as I can tell. Does EA tell you upfront they are charging in advance?

 

[K5lwq]

If it is a standard product that EA sells a lot of (and from this thread it sounds like they do), then it is not right that they invoice that far in advance. Yesterday I ordered a special length of 4x8 lumber to replace a damaged portion of my dock. The lumber has a special treatment for wet saltwater application and is cut and treated after my order. On something like that I expect to pay up front as they cannot realistically resell it. That is not the case with these grapples as far as I can tell. Does EA tell you upfront they are charging in advance?

In my case they did. Not an issue for me at all. Very happy with the way EA does business.

 

[fried1765]

In my case they did. Not an issue for me at all. Very happy with the way EA does business.

Well...... here is a little more information.

EA "free shipping" is either to the nearest "freight terminal",(100 miles away) or to a "local business".
The "local business" I have used, is an auto repair shop.
They have no forklift, or dock.
An EA shipment to the auto shop comes on a truck which is always equipped with a lift gate, and the item is set on the ground at the shop.

Then I must hook up my trailer, bring a come-a-long, two planks, and some pipe rollers, and slowly ratchet the pallet onto my trailer.
If the truck were to pull up in front of my residence, it would be easier for him, and I could unload him in seconds,..... without a lift gate.

The auto shop is located in an area more difficult for a truck to access than my residential address, which is roadside.

Yes......EA does state that there will be an extra charge (significant) for delivery to my residence, and then adds a lift gate fee too.
The extra charge quoted on a previous order, was $150......too much for me!

The auto shop is 8 miles from my residence ($150 for 8 miles?)
The trucking company truck passes by my residence every day.

As I mentioned above, this is NOT an issue with Titan, or with other large item deliveries I occasionally get.

EA makes nice stuff!

I surrender!
This story/explanation is over!

 

[lilranch2001]

And it is YOUR choice to purchase from EA!
Some people just love to find a reason to whine!

 

[K5lwq]

Well...... here is a little more information.

EA "free shipping" is either to the nearest "freight terminal", or to a "local business".
The "local business" I have used, is an auto repair shop.
They have no forklift, or dock.
An EA shipment comes on a truck always equipped with a lift gate, and the item is then set on the ground at the repair shop.

Then I must hook up my trailer, bring a come-a-long, and some pipe rollers, and pull the item onto my trailer.
If the truck pulled up in front of my residence instead, it would be far easier for him, and I could unload him..... without a lift gate.

The auto shop is located in an area more difficult to access than my residential address.

Yes......EA does state that there will be an extra charge (significant) for delivery to my residence, and then adds a lift gate fee too.
As I recall the extra charge quoted was $150.

As I mentioned above, this is NOT an issue with Titan, or other large item deliveries I get

They shipped it to my place of business and used our loading dock. My employees used the fork lift to set the items in the bed of my truck while I was in meetings. Then I used the tractor to unload once I got home.

Free shipping is not free. EA pays for what they offer. If they added another 300 or so to cover shipping to residential areas and called it free shipping anywhere, would that be more acceptable?

 

[jgedmond]

If it is a standard product that EA sells a lot of (and from this thread it sounds like they do), then it is not right that they invoice that far in advance. Yesterday I ordered a special length of 4x8 lumber to replace a damaged portion of my dock. The lumber has a special treatment for wet saltwater application and is cut and treated after my order. On something like that I expect to pay up front as they cannot realistically resell it. That is not the case with these grapples as far as I can tell. Does EA tell you upfront they are charging in advance?

Yes, they tell you when you are ordering that the card will be charged immediately. I bought from them based on reputation of their product quality, but I am not happy with the way they do business. All risk to the consumer and none to them. If they go belly up, what do I have, except an electronic order confirmation?

I agree with you that special orders are, well ... special and I expect to pay in advance and not be able to return the item. But, as you say, they sell a lot of the Wicked Grapples. First off, I don't understand the 8-week lead time. It seems like they could make them ahead of time and sell them pretty quickly. That is the way most businesses work, it's an asset on the books called inventory. If for some reason a buyer changes their mind, I am sure that they could sell from their inventory to somebody else on any given day. Maybe NC has a huge inventory tax or something.

Are they creating an impression of scarcity to enhance their brand? It seems like an investment in fabricators would grow their volume of business significantly.

 

[Doofy]

Someone needs some cheese with that whine.
EA paid the shipping on my Wicked 60 Grapple from North Carolina to Seattle, Wa. From there, it was put on the barge to Alaska and I paid $400 to my Dealer for that portion of its journey. The last 125 miles cost an additional $150. I still feel the product was worth the cost.

 

[lostcreekranch]

Our Ranch is on a dead end road but, we built a very generous turning circle at the end of our road. I’ve even had Old Dominion show up with one of their double trailers on a couple of deliveries.

When any of the LTL delivery guys call me, prior to arrival, I tell them to go to end of our road, make the circle, and I meet them at our front gate with tractor and pallet forks.

By the time I get to our front gate, the pallet is at back of trailer, I grab it with forks and off they go. Usually less than 4-5 minutes from rear door up to rear door closed.

The only time it took longer than that was with an OD double trailer and my pallet was on the front trailer. The driver unhooked the rear trailer, pulled forward, opened front trailer rear door, and I grabbed my pallet.

As I recall, my EA deliveries all came by FEDEX LTL. Quick, easy, no extra charges.

If you’ve got complaints, get on the phone and call Travis or Rick at EA. They’ve always given me first class service.

 

[goeduck]

If average time from EA order to shipping is 8 weeks, you can probably figure EA spends last 2 weeks on your Grapple, from fab, assembly, painting and prepping for shipping. So apparently the EA business model is to use customers money for 6 weeks. If you can do it, this is a lot better business model than carrying inventory on your books. In the pictures of their factory you can see how many grapples they are selling, so do the math on how much customer money they are using.

So hats off to EA to get its customers to pay to front end the business and to keep (most all anyway) customers happy. They have been saying for a long time that they are investing and, no doubt from the pictures they have posted, they are doing just that. Maybe it is hard to wean themselves off of the front end cash flow and they will kick the can down the road again and again and keep up with the 8 week delivery while using happy customers money. Who can blame them? Customers are lined up shelling out money.

 

[fried1765]

Yes, they tell you when you are ordering that the card will be charged immediately. I bought from them based on reputation of their product quality, but I am not happy with the way they do business. All risk to the consumer and none to them. If they go belly up, what do I have, except an electronic order confirmation?

I agree with you that special orders are, well ... special and I expect to pay in advance and not be able to return the item. But, as you say, they sell a lot of the Wicked Grapples. First off, I don't understand the 8-week lead time. It seems like they could make them ahead of time and sell them pretty quickly. That is the way most businesses work, it's an asset on the books called inventory. If for some reason a buyer changes their mind, I am sure that they could sell from their inventory to somebody else on any given day. Maybe NC has a huge inventory tax or something.

Are they creating an impression of scarcity to enhance their brand? It seems like an investment in fabricators would grow their volume of business significantly.

You should ignore all logic, with regard to EA business practices!
EA buyers will categorically reject any type of constructive criticism.
By expressing your situation/opinion here, you will now and forever, be labeled an EA basher.
EA products are excellent.

 

[jgedmond]

You should ignore all logic, with regard to EA business practices!
EA buyers will categorically reject any type of constructive criticism.
By expressing your situation/opinion here, you will now and forever, be labeled an EA basher.
EA products are excellent.

Sounds like I am joining a cult - in a good way. :laughing:

That 8 week junior member initiation period is tough though.

 

[lilranch2001]

Once again, if you do not like EA's business model, you do not need to purchase, I bet Ted has not beat in one head of a customer MAKING them purchase from him!

I bet almost each and every one of them have watched his FREE how to videos tho!