AJ Prindle

Full review
I order all kinds of things online. when I need something right away, I choose overnight shipping or next day shipping and I pay extra for it. You would think that when the company receives the order, they would see the Next day shipping and try and ship it..oh, I don't know... maybe "next day"?

Not AJ Prindle. Here's what you can expect from them: If you order an item early Monday morning, request and pay for expedited next day shipping (or overnight shipping), you should probably see your package Thursday or Friday.

Why? According to AJ Prindle's customer service, "We do have to allow the necessary packing and shipping time. The delivery time is a business day from the time it ships."

And don't expect to receive an email with any UPS or FedEX tracking information. Although every other E-Commerce site will confirm your order and give you package tracking information, AJ Prindle won't.

MY STORY: Several days before Hurricane Frances was expected to hit Florida, local store shelves were empty and I needed some alternative power source for an impending blackout. The AJ Prindle web site had a reasonably priced power inverter that you connect to your car battery, which enables you to plug a few household appliances into. (Basically, you're using your car as a generator)

On Thursday morning, 9/2/04 at 11:00am eastern, I placed my order for the 1200 Watt Power inverter-cost $199.99 . 10 minutes later I received a confirmation email telling me I could track my order online via their web site. All I had to do was enter my order number. I waited until the end of the day, went to their order status page (http://www.ajprindle.com/orderstatus.jhtml) and entered my order number. All that came up was a message, "Your order is being processed..."

I waited until the next day, Friday morning 9/3 and entered my order number on the AJ Prindle tracking page. Same message,"Your order is being processed..." No UPS tracking number. Could it be that they haven't shipped it yet?

I call the AJ Prindle Customer service number. The operator could not provide me with a UPS tracking number but said the order is being "processed."

I wait until 1:00pm Eastern and check the order status page; same message and no tracking number. I email AJ prindle's customer service and ask what's happening with my order. While I await their response, I look around for other online shops selling inverters. BINGO! DonRowe.com. I give them a call, ask if they can overnight something if I order now. They say, "Of Course!" Within 15 minutes, I've placed my order and received a confirmation email. Within an hour I receive a UPS tracking number. Imagine that.

Meanwhile, around 4:00pm eastern, I receive a reply from AJ Prindle's Customer Care department. Rachel tells me they're "doing everything they can to get my order to me." I write her back asking why it takes so long to process an order and that I met their "2pm central time" deadline for orders shipped the same day. I also wanted to know where my UPS tracking number was.

Rachel replied back saying that the order had been shipped (lie) and that it takes a while for them to receive the tracking number from the warehouse. (lie)

On Saturday morning, 9/4, I checked again with the AJ Prindle order status page. Same "processing message" and no tracking number. By 1:00pm, my inverter arrived from DonRowe.com . Where was the AJ Prindle order?

The hurricane hit and stayed with us through Monday night. Tuesday morning, UPS delivered my AJ Prindle order, which I promptly refused delivery. I am currently waiting for a refund and will update this when I hear back from them.

Only today, September 8th, am I able to track my UPS package through their order status page - a little too late. UPS shows that the package was received at 5:50pm, the original scan was at 7:15pm, and it didn't get shipped until almost 8:00pm! No wonder it didn't make it in time.

To be fair, the hurricane stopped UPS from flying in to Florida late on Saturday and the AJ Prindle package was delayed due to weather conditions. HOWEVER, if they would have processed and shipped my order on the day it was received, (Thursday) I would have received it the next day (Friday). DonRowe.com had no problem getting the package to me and I ordered from them 27 hours after ordering from AJ Prindle!

Obviously I will not order anything from AJ Prindle again. Their customer service is very poor and they certainly don't "deliver what they promise." (at least not on time)