50% of our AndyMark orders wrong

[I_AM_Clayton]

We've been lucky to not have to order many parts online for our robot this year but when we have, 50% of the time we've been shipped the wrong parts. We ordered c channel and received REV extrusion metal. A week later we ordered a 2015 kop chassis, belts and 4 8" grey 2010 grip wheels along with two 8" omnis. The chassis and the belts came in correctly but we received 4 6" white grip wheels and the omnis. Is this usual from Andymark? Has anyone else been experiencing this, during build season?

[cbale2000]

Originally Posted by I_AM_Clayton

We've been lucky to not have to order many parts online for our robot this year but when we have, 50% of the time we've been shipped the wrong parts. We ordered c channel and received REV extrusion metal. A week later we ordered a 2015 kop chassis, belts and 4 8" grey 2010 grip wheels along with two 8" omnis. The chassis and the belts came in correctly but we received 4 6" white grip wheels and the omnis. Is this usual from Andymark? Has anyone else been experiencing this, during build season?

Haven't had this issue with Andymark this year, but I have run into it with another supplier of FRC parts (which shall go nameless). I think because many of these suppliers are fairly small operations, there's a bit more of a rush to get a lot of items shipped out with very little time and manpower to do it. It seems like as FRC grows, and the use of COTS parts becomes more and more prevalent, the suppliers are having a hard time keeping up with the demand.

At least, that's my opinion based on what I've observed, the only people who can really tell us for sure what causes issues like these are the suppliers themselves.

[Christopher149]

I do not remember receiving any orders for FRC parts that were even slightly wrong or mispacked (including AM, Vex, various vouchers). You should bring this up with AndyMark.

[Cory]

Talk to AndyMark, they're the only ones who can ship you the stuff you actually ordered (which I'm sure they'll do, once you talk to them).

[BJT]

I got the wrong size wheels in an order too. They fixed it quickly as soon as I contacted them.

[Chief Hedgehog]

I have had great luck with AndyMark throughout the last 4 seasons. Both AndyMark and VEX have incredible customer service.

We did receive a FIRST Choice order that was missing a Xbox 360 controller - I emailed them and it was in our shop within 4 days.

Another "trick" I have learned with AndyMark and VEX is if you call after your order is placed, you can check on the order and they will verify the order - as well as the order of queue.

Case in point - we placed an order on Monday (Feb 1) and I called on Wednesday to check on it and the service rep called up the distribution manager to check the status. She confirmed that the items would be shipped on Wednesday. FEDEX has them arriving at Becker on Friday.

These people know that dependability and reliability in our short season is a must - a simple call can rectify any concerns. I love working with both of them!

[Foster]

Originally Posted by I_AM_Clayton

We've been lucky to not have to order many parts online for our robot this year but when we have, 50% of the time we've been shipped the wrong parts. We ordered c channel and received REV extrusion metal. A week later we ordered a 2015 kop chassis, belts and 4 8" grey 2010 grip wheels along with two 8" omnis. The chassis and the belts came in correctly but we received 4 6" white grip wheels and the omnis. Is this usual from Andymark? Has anyone else been experiencing this, during build season?

My orders from AM and VEX have always come in correctly.

Have you considered that someone from AM is looking at you order and going "Umm, thats not going to work out well, you should be using this instead."? Seriously, you should have called them.

Originally Posted by Chief Hedgehog

Another "trick" I have learned with AndyMark and VEX is if you call after your order is placed, you can check on the order and they will verify the order - as well as the order of queue.

Since VEX is pretty much same day ship, why call them and ask? I hate bothering people / remotely micromanaging on something that I have a high confidence will be right and that I'll get a shipping notice for pretty soon.

[Jimmy Nichols]

Been ordering from AndyMark since 2006 and haven't had an issue that wasn't cleared up with an email or a phone call. They are all for the most part involved with teams or have been involved so they know what its like to go through a build season.

[Sperkowsky]

Never had this issue but I have had issues with Andymark shipping. We have found vex shipping is faster.

[Jon Stratis]

I haven't any any issues with our parts this year... And I've placed 8 orders with AndyMark this seaso!. I know, it's crazy, but that's sort of how our design has evolved. At one point, I think I had 3 orders placed before the first one arrived...

[Nemo]

Build season must be nuts over at AndyMark!

We've never had issues with them. With as many orders as they ship, humans are going to make mistakes once in a while, but on those rare occasions they are quick to make it right.

[seg9585]

We had 1 wrong order so far this year (FIRST Choice had missing parts) out of 4, and 2 orders out of 5 were missing parts or had wrong items last year.
So yes, we have experienced issues in the past, but every time I just call them up, and they are very nice and correct the problem quickly.

[Tim Sharp]

In five years we've never had any trouble at all with Andy Mark customer service . Other than a small delay in order processing during the heights of FIRST Choice distribution they've always been quick and accurate with their orders.

[mathking]

Just for kicks, I checked and we have placed a total of 103 orders from AndyMark over the years. (For the past several years we have set up an open PO. So I probably send our an order a couple times a week.) We had one quickly corrected mistake. I appreciate the "Your order was packed" emails alerting me that I can soon check on shipping status. Our school treasurer really appreciates their professionalism.

[wgardner]

For two straight years, we've had delays in shipments of AndyMark field elements right after FTC kickoff. An order placed the Monday after Saturday kickoff took about two weeks to ship. You'd think they'd be able to plan for this rush, especially as they have been the single-source of FTC fields for the past two years. Maybe they could take pre-orders and have them ready-to-ship (or even ship the day before kickoff with them still not arriving until after kickoff)?

We also had an order of motors that was shipped to another person, with their order shipped to us. And then, to top it off, the other person wouldn't ship our order back to AndyMark and AndyMark ran out of the motors we ordered, so what should have been a wait of a few days for motors ended up taking weeks because AndyMark mixed up the shipping labels on two orders.

We also have repeatedly received shipments of AndyMark motors with the motors haphazardly thrown loosely into a shipping box, while Pitsco and Servocity always have shipped individually wrapped motors properly padded for protection. Teams have shown examples on twitter where their AndyMark motors have arrived already broken because of inadequate padding in shipment.

AndyMark makes a lot of very innovative products for FIRST programs. But in our experience their shipping is not up to world-class standards at this stage in their growth.