Waiting for backordered items

[Merrick]

Anyone have an idea how long a customer, on average, has to wait before they receive backordered items?

I placed an order with lightfighter tactical last month on the 23rd and I'm still waiting for 3 of the items I ordered. They say they can't give me any estimate because they themselves don't know when they will have the items back in stock.
I ordered:
1 TT Hyd Carrier
1 Paraclete Quad Pistol Mag Pouch
1 Alta Superflex Knee Pads

The same goes for Airsoft Extreme. I am waiting on 2 Guarder Mag Pouches and a Battery that I ordered last month. They can't say when they might be in either.

Is a month not reasonable enough for a business to contact their suppliers and restock items in order to ship them out to thier customers? The least they could do is list their items online that are out of stock as well as have more personable customer realations staff. When I call to inquire about my orders status they talk to me like its my fault. Anyone else been in this spot before? How long should I expect to wait?

[Josh Walrus]

ive been in the same situation, i just cancelled the order for store credit then ordered from somewhere with the items in stock, and use the store credit on something else

but i dont like trying to deal with people via email about convincing them to validate your store credit and stuff now, so i just email retailers to see if what im going to order is in stock first

[Jacko]

With Lightfighter, expect to wait a looooong ass time. I cancelled an order that was over 3 months backordered and I'll never do business with them again. Try Diamondback Tactical for anything that's not TT. For TT stuff, go to their website, they'll get it to you ASAP.

[HnD]

I am in the same boat, waiting for my aimpoint comp M2 for two weeks now from lightfighter.

Thanks Jacko i should just cancel my order

[endzweck]

sometimes i've ordered things that went on backorder, then forgot about them, and about 4 months later, i get a surprise in the MAIL! YAY! yeah that sucked...

[Merrick]

Thanks everyone for your input.
I'm going to call tomorrow and if they don't have at least one of the items in and ready to go, I'll find someone else who does.

[Knief]

The thing about lightfighter is that they supply first and foremost to military personnel. Not to mention their suppliers are probably putting out maximum production and selling it faster, since there is a war going on. It's more important for somebody being shot at with real bullets to have the right gear, wouldn't you say? So with that in mind, it's understandable to me to have to wait a little longer for gear.

As far as Airsoft Extreme is concerned, they may be having customs troubles or their supplier is just taking their sweet ass time or something. I don't know. I don't have an excuse for them.

[HotelSixActual]

In a free market economy though you shouldnt have to make exscuses for retailers. If a company cant deliver your goods in time, go with a company that can. Tough break for lighfighter if they can't suppor their civilian customer base well because of their military contracts but thats somethign they should be dealing with besides having peopel wait several months for their products. So if they arent producing good customer service and delivery times, go with a company that does.

I have herd some bad stuff about lightfighter and i dont really like how there website displays their products. But i have herd a lot of good stuff about diamondback tacticle so i will probebly end up ording some stuff from them in the near future.

[Motown]

My rule of thumb is, if a reputable retalier forces me to wait more than a month, I go somewhere else.

I can certainly empathize with many of the retailers focusing on providing the necessary accountrements to our Military personnel, however, they should also be able to empathize with me, a civilian, purchasing for airsoft. There are a plethora of different retailers out there, if one doesn't have or can't get what I want, I'm quite confident that there are others that can do the same.

I've found the best way to deal with retailers whom are taking their sweet old time, is to give them an earful over the phone. Email is fine for checking up on the status and sending feedback, though only the phone can truly convey the emotion of how pissed you are. Sometimes, you may be able to light a fire under them to get your order going, others, they may rebuff, forcing you to shop elsewhere.

[Merrick]

Well, I called today and gave everybody an earfull. I canceled most items that I was able to find instock elsewhere but I'm still going to have to wait on a few things....... sigh..........what's new.

I also went with Tactical tailor to get one thing and wound up buying many little pouches and such. ahhh the crazy frustrations of a geardo's existence.

[Hadoken]

Believe it or not there is a war going on so good gear is in high demand. Gear companies are cranking things out as fast as they can, but since they're mostly smaller workshops/factories with a limited amount of workers they can only do so much at a time. (Not including Blackhawk of course)

The waiting game does suck. I'm still waiting for a dump pouch I ordered six months ago and it is getting pretty frustrating. In the end however, I know it will be worth the wait.

Just as Boanerge mentioned : The best thing to do would be to give the company you're ordering from a call or email and find out if your items are actually in stock before placing your order. There are plenty of gear retailers out there, one of them is bound to have what you're looking for.