(im)Patiently waiting for my new _______!!!

[Ardien Rast]

I made a $650 order 10 weeks ago and still haven’t received. I sent a few inquiries and got no response from customer service. Is anybody else experiencing radio silence from customer service? I understand that a lot of people have ordered during quarantine, but I just wanted to make sure my order wasn’t lost or forgotten, considering how big and expensive it was. Anybody else experiencing this?

[matth431]

Quick question for those who've modified their orders to get something sooner rather than face delays - did the order change on the site under My Orders? Or did the new saber just show up?

I told them I would accept the Spectre without engraving but it's still showing as with on the order form. I don't know if they would bother with such a minor amendment, but it also makes me a little paranoid that the change hasn't made it from customer service to manufacturing and I'm still gonna end up waiting 11-13 weeks for the engraved one... :/

[MVHI JEDI]

Holy crap, you sent them BACK?!  You must be brave, patient, AND masochistic!  Good luck!   

Yeah well its a combination of my only two not-so-great experiences with UltraSabers.  Almost 60 sabers, and the Archon 3.1 was the only one that had a malfunction.  Before that, I broke my Manticore and sent it back, they fixed it for free (not even a warranty issue) and had it back to me in 9 days.
My Empress came with the wrong color switch, so I felt confident sending back both the Archon 3.1 and the Empress.
Unfortunately, now they're MIA.

[Jedi Tron]

I made a $650 order 10 weeks ago and still haven’t received. I sent a few inquiries and got no response from customer service. Is anybody else experiencing radio silence from customer service? I understand that a lot of people have ordered during quarantine, but I just wanted to make sure my order wasn’t lost or forgotten, considering how big and expensive it was. Anybody else experiencing this?

I'm in the same boat.  15 weeks on a $1350 order and no response from customer service even with weekly e-mails.  So far the only e-mails I've gotten from US are the automated ones.  I understand they are busy but 1 status e-mail a month doesn't seem to be too much to ask.
Others in the forum have gotten responses from [email protected], but I'm not sure how.

[ProtechOne]

Congratulations, Protech!  It's beautiful.

Thank you very much, it's not what i originally ordered, but i like this better!

But now my kids are not happy with their stunts....

[Jedi_Phoenix]

I know a lot of people are complaining and griping about production delays and no email responses...I'm just going to point out that on top of the fact that Texas is a Covid-19 hot spot, it's also about to be slammed by Hurricane Laura, which forecasters say will be a Category 4 hurricane when it hits land.

For the sake of comparison, Katrina was a Category 5.  

*shrugs*  Just something to keep in mind, folks; there's a lot going on right now.

[Cyclops942]

I made a $650 order 10 weeks ago and still haven’t received. I sent a few inquiries and got no response from customer service. Is anybody else experiencing radio silence from customer service? I understand that a lot of people have ordered during quarantine, but I just wanted to make sure my order wasn’t lost or forgotten, considering how big and expensive it was. Anybody else experiencing this?

You obviously have not read anything in this thread, if you are honestly asking this question.

This is a group of UltraSabers customers and fans, not a way to reach UltraSabers customer service.  Nobody here works for UltraSabers.  We can give advice, but we can’t provide specific information about your order because we don’t have access to any of that information.

ORDINARILY, you would probably have your saber in your hand already, because their turnaround time was typically 1-2 weeks.  Lots of us old-timers have that as our default experience with UltraSabers.  HOWEVER... in early December of last year, thanks to all the fan excitement surrounding the last Star Wars movie, a new Star Wars TV show that apparently should have been titled “Baby Yoda” instead, the release of a new Star Wars video game, the Christmas gift-giving season, and a winter sales promotion, they began to have so many orders that they fell behind.  In January, there started to be issues with parts and components, because of the COVID-19 issues in China, where some of the electronic parts are manufactured, and they fell a little more behind.  In February, the fallout from COVID-19 started to have effects here in the United States, and some of their more-local parts suppliers fell behind, not just the ones in China.  As time progressed, and as social-distancing measures needed to be put into effect in the workplace (causing more than the usual scheduling issues of getting the right technician, the right saber, the right parts, and the right tools all at the right workstation at the right time, multiplied across the multiple suppliers used), the backlog continued.  On May 25, they lost all their emails prior to that date, and that has caused its own issues.  They have staff working 24x7 trying to catch up from the backlog, and some progress is being made, but they are nowhere near back to normal yet.

Their overall delivery times have slipped quite a bit; although some folks still get their sabers in a week or two, some sabers take three or four weeks, and some take eight weeks or longer.  Note that the orders are NOT worked in a First-In-First-Out queue order; there are too many dependencies on various parts, technician skill sets, machine/workstation availability, and Lord-only-knows what else for that to be even close to efficient.  There have been entire books— heck, entire college courses— written on efficient manufacturing-process scheduling, so there’s no way I can give a full explanation here; just know that it’s very complicated.

The response times on the customer service emails have slipped quite a bit, too.  All I can say is to keep sending POLITE emails to [email protected] with your order number in the subject line, but I wouldn’t send an email every day; that will just clog up the Inbox and make it harder to find the emails that need an answer other than “Yes, we have your order, and it’s in the processing queue, but I can’t tell you when it will ship, because we are waiting on <fill_in_the_blank>.”  There’s nothing wrong with wanting an update, because you have sent them your money; just understand that right now, getting an update, or your saber, is going to take longer than normal, and longer than any of us would like.

[matth431]

Oh, for Force's sakes...

Thank you for your response. I just wanted to confirm that you wanted to switch to the Scorpion WITHOUT claws. Please let me know and I will asisit you on making these changes and shipped out to you ASAP.

 

Thanks for choosing Ultra Sabers.  Please feel free to email us here if you have any other questions or concerns.

No, they offered me the SPECTRE without engraving instead of my order of WITH engraving.

I mean I guess they both begin with S but so does the answer to S in "What the F is this S?!!"

EDIT:I've apologized to the CS rep for my harsh email in case this is a mistake. Not her fault. But I don't want a Scorpion...

[Tai Chi Chuan Wijchen]

You obviously have not read anything in this thread, if you are honestly asking this question.

This is a group of UltraSabers customers and fans, not a way to reach UltraSabers customer service.  Nobody here works for UltraSabers.  We can give advice, but we can’t provide specific information about your order because we don’t have access to any of that information.

ORDINARILY, you would probably have your saber in your hand already, because their turnaround time was typically 1-2 weeks.  Lots of us old-timers have that as our default experience with UltraSabers.  HOWEVER... in early December of last year, thanks to all the fan excitement surrounding the last Star Wars movie, a new Star Wars TV show that apparently should have been titled “Baby Yoda” instead, the release of a new Star Wars video game, the Christmas gift-giving season, and a winter sales promotion, they began to have so many orders that they fell behind.  In January, there started to be issues with parts and components, because of the COVID-19 issues in China, where some of the electronic parts are manufactured, and they fell a little more behind.  In February, the fallout from COVID-19 started to have effects here in the United States, and some of their more-local parts suppliers fell behind, not just the ones in China.  As time progressed, and as social-distancing measures needed to be put into effect in the workplace (causing more than the usual scheduling issues of getting the right technician, the right saber, the right parts, and the right tools all at the right workstation at the right time, multiplied across the multiple suppliers used), the backlog continued.  On May 25, they lost all their emails prior to that date, and that has caused its own issues.  They have staff working 24x7 trying to catch up from the backlog, and some progress is being made, but they are nowhere near back to normal yet.

Their overall delivery times have slipped quite a bit; although some folks still get their sabers in a week or two, some sabers take three or four weeks, and some take eight weeks or longer.  Note that the orders are NOT worked in a First-In-First-Out queue order; there are too many dependencies on various parts, technician skill sets, machine/workstation availability, and Lord-only-knows what else for that to be even close to efficient.  There have been entire books— heck, entire college courses— written on efficient manufacturing-process scheduling, so there’s no way I can give a full explanation here; just know that it’s very complicated.

The response times on the customer service emails have slipped quite a bit, too.  All I can say is to keep sending POLITE emails to [email protected] with your order number in the subject line, but I wouldn’t send an email every day; that will just clog up the Inbox and make it harder to find the emails that need an answer other than “Yes, we have your order, and it’s in the processing queue, but I can’t tell you when it will ship, because we are waiting on <fill_in_the_blank>.”  There’s nothing wrong with wanting an update, because you have sent them your money; just understand that right now, getting an update, or your saber, is going to take longer than normal, and longer than any of us would like.

Point!

[MVHI JEDI]

You obviously have not read anything in this thread, if you are honestly asking this question.

POINT!!!

[HomelessTadpole]

After 17 weeks of waiting, I have received the "Golden Ticket" email today. They are being sent with FedEx which is great since USPS troubles had me worried about delivery.

I ordered two Apprentice v5; one with an amethyst blade and the other with a blue blade as well as a Dark Apprecntice v5 LE with a red blade. All with sound.

While I have emailed 4 times over the course of 17 weeks, I had no response to any of those emails so this is a great turn around on a subject that I was very close to canceling.

Now, with the estimate of a Monday delivery to my employer, I wait for a little longer...

[Jedi_Phoenix]

After 17 weeks of waiting, I have received the "Golden Ticket" email today. They are being sent with FedEx which is great since USPS troubles had me worried about delivery.

I ordered two Apprentice v5; one with an amethyst blade and the other with a blue blade as well as a Dark Apprecntice v5 LE with a red blade. All with sound.

While I have emailed 4 times over the course of 17 weeks, I had no response to any of those emails so this is a great turn around on a subject that I was very close to canceling.

Now, with the estimate of a Monday delivery to my employer, I wait for a little longer...

I know it sucks getting no reply, but that Golden Ticket trumps everything; congratulations.   We look forward to your review and photos/video.

[Tdhuck]

After 17 weeks of waiting, I have received the "Golden Ticket" email today. They are being sent with FedEx which is great since USPS troubles had me worried about delivery.

I ordered two Apprentice v5; one with an amethyst blade and the other with a blue blade as well as a Dark Apprecntice v5 LE with a red blade. All with sound.

While I have emailed 4 times over the course of 17 weeks, I had no response to any of those emails so this is a great turn around on a subject that I was very close to canceling.

Now, with the estimate of a Monday delivery to my employer, I wait for a little longer...

I also ordered the Apprentice V5 with the amethyst blade 11 weeks ago and just got my “Golden Ticket” today! I have also emailed 5 times with no response so to see the shipping email today was pure bliss! It’s an overdue (because I didn’t know it would take this long to arrive when I ordered) birthday present for my husband. He knows I ordered something for him and that it is taking a while to get here, but doesn’t know what! It’s his first saber! I have been a reader on this forum for quite a while as I waited for my purchase to ship and I hope those of you who have ordered and have yet to receive them will be getting good news soon! My heart is with you all!

[Jedi_Phoenix]

I also ordered the Apprentice V5 with the amethyst blade 11 weeks ago and just got my “Golden Ticket” today! I have also emailed 5 times with no response so to see the shipping email today was pure bliss! It’s an overdue (because I didn’t know it would take this long to arrive when I ordered) birthday present for my husband. He knows I ordered something for him and that it is taking a while to get here, but doesn’t know what! It’s his first saber! I have been a reader on this forum for quite a while as I waited for my purchase to ship and I hope those of you who have ordered and have yet to receive them will be getting good news soon! My heart is with you all!

Congratulations!  Since you've been a reader for a while, you'll know we'll be waiting for pics.   

[HomelessTadpole]

Hurricane Laura may have it's say in the whole process too which would be according to the rules of 2020 so far. Hopefully everyone in Texas is OK and the sabers get a minimal delay without getting knocked around too much.

Pictures and maybe a video will be a thing once I get those boxes in my hands!