| haiway |
| Have anyone else been having problems receiving items purchased with Alan at DIYLABS.org? I place an order for the metal halide light kit about 2 weeks ago and have yet to receive it. I been patiently waiting for my light kit to arrive so i can resurrect my overhead. I emailed him several times but it seems he has stop responding to them. Hope i didn't get ripped off. |
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| Sir_Vival |
| You're not ripped off, that's just the way he does business unfortunately. It will come fairly soon now I gander. |
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| haiway |
| Okay....thanks for the reply....i was just wondering what was taking so long. |
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| sparkles |
| im having the same problem too though hopfully not lost my money |
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| jj0ns0n |
hmmm...wierd, i got my stuff 3 days.
.....so alan, u gonna hook me w/ quick shipping for that one?? :rolleyes: |
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| sadd3j |
You'll get your stuff eventually.. but usually kinda slow and I don't know if he's improved any but the packaging was kinda iffy. One of my sockets was broken.. which was too be expected since they were free floating in the box :confused:
-rep |
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| haiway |
| Yeah i heard a few complaints about that from various members on this forum about there sockets being broken.....doesn't take much to stuff the packaging with newspaper....oh yeah and i forgot to get the optional shipping insurrance. |
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| sadd3j |
I even got insurance.. but it was just too much of a hassle and the socket was still usable, so I just put up with it.
-rep |
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| edrnrman |
| got to say i recieved everything fairly quick from alan if he has it though it did take a couple weeks to get the triplett lens but ive found all my stuff to be packed well and shipped in timely fashion if he has it in stock |
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| Elkaid |
I had a good experience with Alan. I ordered stuff at the end of July and everything arrived intact and well packaged. I suppose that Alan has modified his packaging methods following's members complaints or suggestions.
Right now, I'm waiting for the condenser lens as many of us here and I hope to get it soon.
The only drawback :
I had to wait 2 whole months :bigeyes: before getting my stuff and the soup laddle is darn expensive for what I got (uhhh well it's a soup laddle in fact).
Finally, I will buy without any doubts from Alan again. |
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| kcsabresfan |
| The condensor is all I've ordered from Alan, and I understand that he's planning to get them soon. I haven't ordered anything else so I haven't received anything from him... But I have emailed him several times, and he's always been quick to respond. He's only about 30 minutes away from me, and has been very cordial. We've planned to try to get together one day to check out each others set ups. He's certainly a nice enough guy, and just from emailing him, I didn't hesitate at all to send him money to help meet the minimum he needed to get the condensors. |
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| LaserLine |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sir_Vival
You're not ripped off, that's just the way he does business unfortunately. It will come fairly soon now I gander. |
Yup, I would have to agree with you. I really don't like his business practices. He messed up on one of my orders when i ordered from him.. sent me the wrong part then i when i said i wanted the part i ordered he said he was out. Ouch... I've seen him on here several time saying sorry to some people, but things just don't change over there. I would reccommend finding a different place to order your stuff from. |
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| jcbklyny |
Listen, at first I thought as you did about DIYLabs. His turn-over time is nothing like a professional company. Sometimes he doesnt ship for days. Other times for weeks.
I'm looking to do the same thing as Alan. So I can be considered competition. Yet now that I've inquired about purchasing optics in bulk I see how and why this happens. The best prices on bulk optics comes from overseas. There are optical companies in the states that you can work with. But almost all of them get their items shipped from main warehouses in China. Shipping times range from 3 to 6 weeks per order. This is because they have to get it shipped to them... and them re-ship it to the buyer in the states. This takes time. And if you dont have the funds to have large amounts on hand at all times... your going to run out and theres going to be a time where people will have to wait.
The only thing I ordered from him was his triplet lens for comparsion shots to my own custom version. It was shipped within 24 hours and at my door within 3 days.
I feel he's doing the best he can with the funds he has available. |
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| haiway |
| Yeah, no doubt Alans a nice guy. Sounds very nice and helpful through his emails. He finally sent my order yesterday....he said he had thought he sent out my order but i guess he overlooked it. Anyhow, my package should arrive pretty soon....i'll update you guys on how everything goes. |
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| LaserLine |
| quote: | Originally posted by jcbklyny
Listen, at first I thought as you did about DIYLabs. His turn-over time is nothing like a professional company. Sometimes he doesnt ship for days. Other times for weeks.
I'm looking to do the same thing as Alan. So I can be considered competition. Yet now that I've inquired about purchasing optics in bulk I see how and why this happens. The best prices on bulk optics comes from overseas. There are optical companies in the states that you can work with. But almost all of them get their items shipped from main warehouses in China. Shipping times range from 3 to 6 weeks per order. This is because they have to get it shipped to them... and them re-ship it to the buyer in the states. This takes time. And if you dont have the funds to have large amounts on hand at all times... your going to run out and theres going to be a time where people will have to wait.
The only thing I ordered from him was his triplet lens for comparsion shots to my own custom version. It was shipped within 24 hours and at my door within 3 days.
I feel he's doing the best he can with the funds he has available. |
Well, in that case don't put it on the website without saying it is on backorder or out of stock. When you start your business only sell what you have in stock. |
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| jcbklyny |
I agree!
He's taking money from people ahead of time in order to buy condensers... that no one has even seen before. Go figure. |
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| Takusama |
Alan does his best to support DIY people like us, if you don't like it, find some place else... seriously.
Don't be a hater! |
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| spocktwin |
| ;) I agree, if you want to deal with some one else you are free to do so. I have had transactions with Alan and yes I wish it was quicker but I have no real complaints and will do business again. He does support the DIY community so give the guy a break. I have never seen any post saying that Alan ripped them off...problems yes but none that Alan wasn't willing to fix. |
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| MC |
Sorry to necro this thread but I just thought I'd vent a little.
A week ago I emailed Alan asking when he'd be able to ship a lamp kit if I were to order on sunday. I recieved a response within 24 hours from Alan. I went ahead and ordered the mh lamp kit and sent another email asking if I'll get a tracking number. No reply. I emailed him again yesterday asking if it had been shipped yet. No reply to this either... |
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| DR_BEV |
i ordered my triplet from Alan and got it within 2 weeks, pretty descent if you ask me. it was packaged well.
will be ordering his MH very shortly! |
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| Demannu |
Patience is a virtue. I placed an order several weeks ago, and have yet to recieve the order, but I have no reason to believe I am being ripped off. Hang tight. And if you can't be patient, order from the big guys on your own, or go to Lawrence and jump the first guy you see going by on a little blue honda.
Patience would probably be the best bet... |
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| ace3000_1 |
| A phone number on his site would be better imo lol |
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| MC |
ehh maybe I was just in a bad mood or something, I got an email back :)
Good guy, I'll do business again :D |
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| coreo |
Yeah I've just been waiting about a month and a half for my order, got pretty ****ed but then he posted that he had a motor bike accident(fair enough then)....
But now I'm ****ed again finally got my order but I'm missing the condenser lens, the lights/ballast aren't prewired like his web site said and I didn't get the soup laddle reflector...So my projector building is on hold for da moment.....:(
(just waiting on a reply via email from alan!!) |
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| sbrewer |
| I think he is a college student doing this out of his dorm room.... |
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| lesko |
FYI:
I don't know how it is in other parts of the world but here in the good old USA The law states that he has up to 6 weeks to get the order out to you...I have used diylabs and have only good things to say about Alan...Emailing him 10 times a day will not get you a answer any faster, He reads about 50+ a day...
lesko |
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| coreo |
I got a email reply back he's going to fix the order up...
So yeah he's a pretty honest guy...Just got to be patient. |
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| diylabs |
Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I wish that I could have avoided this by shipping sooner, but sometimes I am simply unable due to our inventory, which has been the case recently because I've tried expanding what we carry.
I assure everyone that my packaging is fine. If someone received a lamp holder floating in a box, then I would suggest that customs opened the wrapper to see what was inside and never bothered to put it back - all of my lamp holders are pre-wrapped in pairs inside of 2 layers of small-bubble bubble wrap. My apologies if you received anything broken. Of course, I definitely recommend insurance on all orders. If the postal service would make it easier for me, I would just automatically put insurance on all orders to avoid problems.
As for delays, yes I will definitely admit to that. Hopefully anyone that is waiting knew ahead of time that they would be waiting - I try to give everyone a heads up on how long an order will take. If you have tried to email me and haven't gotten a response within a few days, then I suggest you try emailing me from a different address - it seems that a lot of people are emailing me from domains that I cannot respond to, so everytime I try to answer, my email just gets returned to me.
Finally, I will never in a million years rip anyone off. I started this company to provide people with parts without the markup as a way to HELP people. The unfortunate drawback to low markup is not being able to afford keeping a huge number of parts in stock. I know I've been on the forums more than a few times to apologies and promise that I'll change my evil ways, but I truly feel that I have gotten better at all things that are in my control. As long as I keep my prices low, and don't charge any sort of membership fee to have people email me with tons of questions, there is no way that I will ever be able to keep every part in stock all the time. Recently I have been doing pretty well, but some of our newer parts - namely the 400w light kits - are occassionally hard to get ahold of just because they are not produced in huge quantity yet.
If you are having trouble with DIY Labs, whether it be communication breakdown or delays in receiving you order, please just email me (or post on my forum if you feel that your emails aren't going through) - I will do what it takes to keep people happy and trusting of DIY Labs. I sure hope that I am able to do that for all who have posted anything negative here on the forum - I am sorry if I have let some people down. |
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