Midway Customer service

[Denver]

I've owned a brass tumbler that I bought from Midway years ago. A 1292 model I believe. It died a few weeks ago and so I called Midway to see if I could buy a replacement motor. The person I talked to asked how long I owned it, and said I could't remember. She said hold on for a couple minutes while I look it up, and came back on a in a short time and said send it back and they'd replace it. I sent it in a couple days later and within a week I had a brand new one with a store credit for the amount of the postage to send the old one. I'd call that service above and beyond. :bigsmyl2:

[Lead Fred]

I bought a barrel sight plug for $4, they charged me $3 shipping and $3 for a service fee.

I asked why the service fee. They said because your order is under $25, we have to send someone down to get the part, and package special.

I told the CEO of Midway that Cabella's ships free to thier store 15 minutes from my house, and they dont care how much I spend.

[imashooter2]

I bought a barrel sight plug for $4, they charged me $3 shipping and $3 for a service fee.

I asked why the service fee. They said because your order is under $25, we have to send someone down to get the part, and package special.

I told the CEO of Midway that Cabella's ships free to thier store 15 minutes from my house, and they dont care how much I spend.

Midway tells you what the shipping and fees will be. Why did you complete your order if you were unhappy with them? :veryconfu

Midway runs a business. They know their costs and they charge what they need to in order to make profit. If you don't like the costs shop elsewhere.

ETA: Did you call the CEO of Cabela's and tell them to start selling dovetail blanks too? Hard to get that free shipping on stuff they don't sell.

[BD]

I've done a fair bit of business with Midway, and they replaced one of my 1292 tumblers for free as well.

IMHO they've been to both ends of the spectrum on shipping, and now they're settling somewhwere in the middle. Originally everything was "free shipping" from Midway, (I bought a lot of bullets from them in those days). When they quit that, they went way overboard on the shipping charges and fees for a while. And, it was pretty tough to figure what your costs were going to wind up, particularly on backordered stuff. Since then they seem to have settled their shipping policies, and explain them pretty well. I try to deal with them entirely on line where I get a clear idea of the costs before I commit.

Sometimes it just doesn't make sense to buy from them. I'd say Lead Fred managed to find one of those situations.
BD

[TAWILDCATT]

thats why I deal with midsouthshooters.com never have bought from midway as the prices from midsouth have been good.:coffee:

[The Double D]

Isn't the reason they are replacing those tumblers free, because they were catching fire?

[leadman]

There was a recall on the tumblers. They paid for the shipping both ways. They installed a thermal link in one of the power wires.

[imashooter2]

Isn't the reason they are replacing those tumblers free, because they were catching fire?

That recall was in 1998. Mine was years old by that time and I sent it in for the mod (marked the motor before I did). It came back with the same motor in it. Not sure of what they did to it. Anyway, it has enough hours on it that the plastic bowl wore through 2 years ago. I replaced the bowl when Midway listed them on close out and the tumbler is still going strong. Hard to be bitter about that kind of performance.

Link to the old recall:

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml98/98088.html

[Buckshot]

............You really DO have to pay attention to an outfits shipping charges. I learned that REAL well when I first began to use E-Bay. Some of those heathens make all their profit on shipping. I got a shock when I bought two recoil buffers for my CZ75 clone from Dillon. I was online when the thought struck me. It'd been crossing my mind for awile, but never at the right time.

I never even bother to check shipping simply thinking it'd be a couple bucks ya know? Those recoil buffers were like $9.95 each (which almost activated the gag reflex anyway) but I ordered 2 of'em. When they arrived I looked at the shipping doc and they'd charged me $9 in shipping! What the .................!!!???? Could'ave dropped'em in a regular 1st class envelope and shipped them for a buck and STILL made money. Their shipping is based on how much you spend dollar wise, and not size or weight.

Like right now, if you order 4 primer tubes for $19.95, you'll pay $9 in shipping. If you buy a Dillon 1" Bench Wrench for $7.95 you'll pay $7 shipping. Re-freaking-diculas if you ask me (and maybe you're NOT, heh, heh). So these days I'm ultra sensitive to shipping charges and look for that first.

..............Buckshot

[cajun shooter]

Midway will stick it to you with shipping. They are now changing it seems. They would charge $12.95 for an item that weighed 2 oz and could have been put in an envelope. Just as Buckshot said happened to him on e-bay. I hope that Midway continues to see they were wrong and tries to better the shopping with Midway. I was at a point that they were the last people that I went to because of the charges.

[mooman76]

I've been ordering from Midway for a few years now and never had a problem with shipping. The costs are up front and they give you a good selection of shipping methods so you can choose cost vs. time it takes to get it unlike some places that ship the way they ship and that's what you get. As for the $3 charge for small ordersI just either order enough so I don't pay it or order somewhere else.

[James C. Snodgrass]

No head aches or hassles with Midway and I've been doin' business with them for 25 yrs .:coffeecom

[Jim]

Not too long ago, Midway revamped their web site. Now, it's stuck in first gear, low range. I emailed them several times and they finally responded telling me something to the effect of "Yeah, we're working on that". That was over a month ago and it's still the same. I don't shop there anymore.

[stubshaft]

Don't feel too bad, last time (the very last time) I ordered something from Graf and sons their $4.95 flat rate shipping cost me $17.95!

[BD]

I deal with whoever has the best price on what I'm after, delivered to my door. You have to look at the shipping as part of the price. Graf & Sons actually had one of the best deals going on powder & primers. Order 4 eight pounders of powder and 10,000 primers in a single package and get the shipping and hazmat free, plus 5% off for an order over $500. I don't know if they still offer that deal or not, but the last time I did it resulted in my shooting Titegroup in the .45 acp for less than any suitable surplus powder available at the time.

When I was in SC, I shot at indoor ranges which required plated bullets. Graf & Sons and Midway were typically the lowest cost/1,000 delivered.

These days most of what I order from Midway is being price shopped against Brownells. Misdsouth, Natchez and Grafs don't carry a lot of that sort of stuff.

I don't think you can make any hard and fast rules about where to buy shooting supplies. At least I haven't seen any general trend of one place being the "best" price and service over any length of time.

BD

[Geraldo]

I tend to shop Midsouth and Grafs first, but that doesn't rule out Midway and others. Last year I bought two new presses from Cabelas because they had a deal where they would take $20 off an order over a certain amount. I got the presses delivered for a few bucks less than the average online price as the $20 paid for shipping and then some.

Last week I bought a Contender barrel for which I had no dies, brass, or bullets. When I started looking for this stuff Midway was the only one with everything, so I ordered from them and chose the method of shipping I wanted.

Given the current shortages we probably all buy from whoever has what we need and are happy enough to get it.