Phoenix Delivery Problems?

[sherbs]

Anyone else have a Phoenix shipped be Vanquish sitting somewhere or possible stolen? FedEx claims it has not moved in over a week from Tracy, CA. All the rep would say was that Tracy, CA Center has and is a problem.

[Shinook]

FedEx is up and down for me with service, getting it this time was a bit rough, but at least I did end up getting it. I paid for 2-day delivery knowing it would be signature required and that I would be out of town the following 3 days. It arrived at my city on time and was loaded onto the truck, but they didn't bother to deliver it. The delivery status then went to "Pending" and they tried to drop it off the next day without warning, which of course meant it didn't get delivered since no one was there to sign for it. After I saw that, I had them redirect it to a facility and picked it up when I got back in town.

I think with the holidays coming up, you can anticipate any shipping related stuff is going to be a cluster and these types of issues will be prevalent, especially if last year is an indication.

[Panther6834]

Originally Posted by sherbs

Anyone else have a Phoenix shipped be Vanquish sitting somewhere or possible stolen? FedEx claims it has not moved in over a week from Tracy, CA. All the rep would say was that Tracy, CA Center has and is a problem.

Not just Tracy. The main Depot in San Jose is also "problematic". In San Jose, there are two facilities one for 'Air', the other for 'Ground'. With the 'Air' facility, I've had 1 problem in 16 years. With the 'Ground' facility, I've had over a dozen problems in in the past 3-4 years, including one package that disappeared, then mysteriously got delivered four months later; several packages that got "misplaced", and we're finally "found" (2-3 weeks later), but only AFTER I filed a complaint & had corporate launch an internal investigation, and (currently) now one package that hasn't been seen in that facility for almost a month.


~ More peace, love, and kindness would make the world a much better place

[sherbs]

I wonder why Vanquish uses them? On the East coast FedEx is a crap shoot also. Has to be the cheapest game in town. UPS is not perfect, but no where near as bad as FedEx. I owned a retail store for 30 years that received daily packages. Never had a damaged or more than a day late or lost package from UPS. Can't say the same for FedEx or USPS.

[B-MOW71]

No not from Vanquish, but from Amain which departed from the Fed Ex facility in Sacramento, CA. Fed Ex did have a delay on mine for a few days before it finally arrived here in Ohio.

I did notice something about my shipment this time and it made me think. I purchased my VS4-10 PRO from Vanquish when they were first released in 2019 and it was shipped in a brown box that said Vanquish on it. I purchased my Origin (in 2018 ) and Phoenix (last week) from Amain and they shipped in a plain brown box without any writing on the box.

I wonder if is possible that somebody recognized what and where the box came from and had an idea what was in there?? I remember when I got my PRO from VP, I was thinking that I was glad nobody noticed the "V" on the box and swiped it!!

Just a thought! Hopefully your lands safely soon!

[sherbs]

It spent 8-9 days in Calf. Then shipped overnight arrived Friday.

[nielsm]

I backordered the Phoenix from Amain on November 4. Their site had listed expected back in stock of Dec 20, so I figured it would ship around then, ideally in time for around Christmas. December 20th came and now there is no longer an expected date listed on the Phoenix.

Anyone have a better sense of when realistically it could arrive? I know supply chain issues are everywhere now, but I ordered it 2 weeks after it was initially released when apparently the initial shipment sold out & nearly 2 months later, still no restock?

[twade984]

I heard they (vp) are expecting restock in January.

They also had a limited restock a week or so ago.

You will likely get one sooner if you check vp’s site directly, amain and rpp typically don’t see new supply until after vp has stock listed on their site.


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[DrIsotope]

FedEx has always been, and will always be... a crapshoot. I've had packages shipped same day, with the one from the East Coast beating the one from San Diego, and I'm in SoCal. On the other hand, I've gotten a snowboard from Minnesota in less than 48 hours.

Anything beyond that, look no further than the LA port issues-- our local home improvement stores had next to nothing in the way of Xmas decorations, and were sold out of what they had by early November. I just imagine Home Depots getting massive deliveries of artificial Christmas trees and Disney holiday inflatables just in time for 4th of July.

I bought my Phoenix like 2 days after release, and so far as I've seen, it's been OOS at Amain ever since. Check out the Spektrum-badged 2-in-1 Fusion motors-- not expected until March. The Enduro Ecto has been out for 6 months, and there's still no estimated date for availability of clear bodies. This is how things are now, it would appear.

[Panther6834]

Originally Posted by nielsm

I backordered the Phoenix from Amain on November 4. Their site had listed expected back in stock of Dec 20, so I figured it would ship around then, ideally in time for around Christmas. December 20th came and now there is no longer an expected date listed on the Phoenix.

Even after the initial release, when all (including VP) but a few were out, Josh, himself, stated that they probably wouldn't be back in-stock until mid-January at the earliest.

~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place

[nielsm]

Originally Posted by Panther6834

Even after the initial release, when all (including VP) but a few were out, Josh, himself, stated that they probably wouldn't be back in-stock until mid-January at the earliest.

Many thanks. Disappointed of course as I was hoping to built it over the break.

[Woolie]

I pre ordered mine on Nov 27th. I knew they weren't in stock but was told I'd have a 2 to 3 week wait. I was fine with this. Alas when I didn't hear anything I wrote to the shop on Dec 20th and was told that the supplier didn't get the alloted volume and wouldn't commit to a delivery date. This pissed me off no end as I have some time off without the family and was looking forward to immersing myself in the build. Oh well, shit happens....

[Panther6834]

You (actually, to ALL those looking for a Phoenix) might consider Googling, and calling around to shops around the country...ya never know what skip might happen to have one (or a few) that nobody else realize.

About 2 years ago, I was interested in buying a ProMarine boat...specifically a Skater, and preferably a Skater X2. This was in the super-early stages of the pandemic when many Asian companies (including the supplier of the hulls for ProMarine) had already started shutting down. Compounding matters further, the owner of ProMarine had already been in search of another hull supplier (preferably a US-based manufacturer), and has not been producing any new boats for at least a few months. Every online source I tried was out of stock, and even the one local shop that happened to be a pro Marine dealer didn't have any Skaters in stock.

The thingy is, I never gave up searching. After randomly calling a number of shops around the country, some of whom referred me to other shops, I finally found one (a Skater X2, no less) at Shafter's Hobbies. Unfortunately, the store had implemented a new policy several months earlier related to not shipping expensive (ie. anything over $400) items. I spoke directly with the owner, and the deal was struck involving me sending a bank issued certified check, including the cost of shipping, to which he would ship the boat once the check was received.

Am I suggesting that those interested in purchasing a Phoenix call every shop in the country? Obviously, not. But, I have proven that persistence can pay off. I'm not saying everyone interested in purchasing a Phoenix will find one...but, there is a good probability that there are at least a few (possibly more) still available, waiting to be purchased. Think of it as thinking the cup "half full" , as opposed to "half empty".

~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place

[DudeWalker]

Getting anything shipped out of Cali is a show. It will sit there for a week once it leaves the vendor - AMain - anyone. Once it crosses out of Cali - relatively normal. I am on the East Coast. I ordered a Phoenix from Amain on release day. I bought another from my LHS in MD a week or so LATER and had it 3/4 built before my Amain Phoenix arrived...

I am not ordering anything out of Cali for the foreseeable future.

[Panther6834]

Originally Posted by DudeWalker

Getting anything shipped out of Cali is a show. It will sit there for a week once it leaves the vendor - AMain - anyone. Once it crosses out of Cali - relatively normal. I am on the East Coast. I ordered a Phoenix from Amain on release day. I bought another from my LHS in MD a week or so LATER and had it 3/4 built before my Amain Phoenix arrived...

I am not ordering anything out of Cali for the foreseeable future.

It's no different than ordering from the east coast, and being on the west coast. I've ordered from Power Hobby...and then, days later, order from Amain, and still have my Amain order before the Power Hobby order. But, you don't see me (or other west-coasters) complaining about how long it takes to receive orders from Power Hobby.

If you're ordering from 3K miles away, and you choose the cheapest (ie. 'free') shipping method, you should be expecting that order to easily take 7-10 days to arrive. If it arrives sooner, great...and, if it doesn't, so be it. But, it's not worth complaining about.

~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place

[DudeWalker]

No. I'm not new to this. The stuff sits at the shipper. The vendors aren't the problem. RPP is the only one that seems ok. I started ordering from Tower again for Horizon stuff. Not trying to insult anyone. This is a real problem; hence the thread was started. Just relaying my experience and how I deal with it.

[Panther6834]

Originally Posted by DudeWalker

No. I'm not new to this. The stuff sits at the shipper. The vendors aren't the problem. RPP is the only one that seems ok. I started ordering from Tower again for Horizon stuff. Not trying to insult anyone. This is a real problem; hence the thread was started. Just relaying my experience and how I deal with it.

Understood...but, as clearly mentioned in the Ops initial post, the problem is NOT Amain...the problem is, very clearly stated, with the FedEx facility in/near Tracy. When I order from Amain, very rarely oops anything shipped to me from the CA warehouse via FedEx, because USPS will get it to be just as fast, if not sooner. About 9 months ago, while not intended as an "experiment", one was accidentally 'created'.

Through Amain, I placed an order one day, followed by a separate order 2 days later. Thing is, the first order was something I seriously needed ASAP (something I needed for Scale Nationals, to which I had it shipped to my parents house in the Vegas area)...so, I paid the additional cost of having it shipped FedEx Air. Two days later, I placed another order...something I didn't need as quickly (a gift for my stepdad), but something I still wanted delivered to my parent's place, as I knew it would arrive while I was still there. Since they're was no rush on this second order, I chose the 'free' shipping method, which...as expected...was USPS.

Two days later, I departed the SF Bay Area, and did my usual same-day trip to Vegas. The second order was delivered that same day...yet, the package to be delivered by FedEx still hadn't arrived. Thankfully, it did arrive the following day, in time for Scale Natls. The USPS delivery took 2 days, whereas the FedEx Air delivery, in the end, took 5 days. But, again, none of this was Amain's fault...100% of that fault was with FedEx.

~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place

[sherbs]

A week or so after the lost Phoenix from Vanquish showed up Via FedEx I ordered a Pro Kit. Vanquish shipped that one Via UPS. It was supposed to delivered on a Monday, 6 day shipping time, it was delivered early, on the Saturday before. Maybe I was just lucky or maybe UPS has a better system for getting items out of Calif. To be clear, both kits were shipped the same day as ordered by Dan @ Vanquish. UPS shipped kit was fine, FedEx not so much.

[DudeWalker]

Wow...

In BOTH of my posts I CLEARLY stated that the problem was NOT the VENDORS but the SHIPPING COMPANIES.

Jeeze...