Rockets At The Speed of Semroc

[troj]

Last night, I placed a small order with Semroc, for my 6 year old. Two kits, that I think he'll enjoy building.

Order placed - 6:25 PM
Order In Process - 6:27 PM
Ready to Ship - 5:13 AM (they ran the meter)
Order Shipped - 1:57 PM

With that kind of service, I think the only way it can be improved upon is to have Carl or Sheryl standing on my front porch, knocking on the door, 10 minutes after I place the order. And, well, that's just not likely to happen!

-Kevin

 

[dixontj93060]

That is very, VERY good.

But I believe I have the record here (I'd be interested to see if someone could share a better delivery experience). Now it's not a rocketry vendor, but I feel compelled to share it...

My son wanted to order a new Netbook to take to class (he's pursuing a Purdue Computer Science degree). I placed the order at 4:30pm EST (on a weekday in the late fall of last year). No kidding--the computer arrived at my office at 2pm EST the next day!!! I could not believe it!?!

BTW, the vendor was Tiger Direct. The product was shipped via UPS from their Chicago area warehouse. Chicago is Central time, so they had an hour to play with, but jeez--a $350 item in my hands within 23 hours!

 

[JAL3]

I still say my Semroc experience beats them all.

1. I made a comment in passing about ordering something
2. 2 Days later, the item shows up and I remember I never got around to ordering it
3. I finally log on and "place my order"

People are NOT kidding when they talk about the Semroc time warp

 

[dixontj93060]

So their website incorporates mind-reading AI?

2. 2 Days later, the item shows up and I remember I never got around to ordering it

 

[JAL3]

So their website incorporates mind-reading AI?

I don't think there is anything artificial about Carl.

I had made a comment here on TRF about something missing out of a vintage FSI kit I had bought and said something to the effect of "I am going to place the order tonight". I don't know what happened after that but suspect it was a hospital page; I was doing a lot of pager duty at the time. I plumb forgot about it but Carl and the Semroc crew did not.

 

[georgegassaway]

Last May or early June, I made an order around 12:30 PM.

In less than 2 hours (maybe 1.5 hours), after having gotten the other notices (order placed, order in process, ready to ship) I got a notice that the order had been shipped!

- George Gassaway

 

[dixontj93060]

Last May or early June, I made an order around 12:30 PM.

In less than 2 hours (maybe 1.5 hours), after having gotten the other notices (order placed, order in process, ready to ship) I got a notice that the order had been shipped!

- George Gassaway

The above is actually not that hard. You just go into the USPS website and purchase postage (I just received a notice today within two minutes of completing an eBay/Paypal transaction). I'm curious on actual delivery performance--anyone else physically receive something within a 24 hour period?

 

[Marlin523]

Sem-Rocks!!!

 

[Brent]

Not to be bragging but I order from them and receive it the next day most of the time. Though it could be that I don't live all that far from them.

 

[ScrapDaddy]

wait How does the Post paid thingy work?

 

[MarkII]

And you haven't gotten the package yet?

Early on, Carl purchased a two-station espresso maker for the elves to use on their coffee breaks. Smart move.

Mark K.

 

[MarkII]

One time I placed an order with BRS Hobbies on a Friday afternoon and I received the package the following Monday. I can't imagine how fast it would have been if I hadn't been living up here in the sticks.

Mark K.

 

[MarkII]

Not to be bragging but I order from them and receive it the next day most of the time. Though it could be that I don't live all that far from them.

Who brings it to your door - Carl, Sheryl or Bruce?

Mark K.

 

[Pantherjon]

The above is actually not that hard. You just go into the USPS website and purchase postage (I just received a notice today within two minutes of completing an eBay/Paypal transaction). I'm curious on actual delivery performance--anyone else physically receive something within a 24 hour period?

I placed an order with SEMROC once on a Wed and got it Friday..But the quickest I have gotten ANY order was once from Mcmaster-Carr..Placed the order on a Tuesday afternoon(my day off) and got it the following day..Time from order placement to deliver was less then 18 hours.

 

[Luv2launch]

I have gotten service like that from Newegg.com if I order it early enough and it ships from their warehouse in New Jersey if I order before noon time its here the next day.But for Rocketry related orders Semroc is the best and fastest.

 

[Pat_B]

I ordered from McMaster-Carr at 6pm one day and had it delivered by 8am by their own delivery vehicle. Fastest shipping I ever got from a company.

 

[MarkII]

The only thing that I have ever ordered from MMC (a length of 80/20 rail) took about a week to get here. All of my orders to Semroc get filled and shipped out likety-split, but the transit time from when it leaves their hands until the time it arrives here is a bit more leisurely - 3 days for anything shipped via Priority Mail, and about a week or so for anything brought up here on the regular old trolley.

Mark K.

 

[chanstevens]

Here's one of my favorite brags:

Burning the midnight oil in the usual pre-NARAM building frenzy, I had been fiddling around almost the whole evening trying to make some custom fiddly bits to clip over the fins on my Thunderbird 3. I was unemployed and trying to go ultra low budget, making just about everything myself where possible. A little after midnight on a Friday night, I gave up, sketched out a crude hand drawing of what I was trying to do, along with a little table of dimensions (tapered fins result in 7 unique trim parts for each fin), scanned it and sent it to Carl to quote doing them on a laser. I kept working most of the night, finally hit the sack around 5:00. At 7:00, Carl had tried to reach me asking if I wanted balsa or basswood. When I finally woke back up and eventually got online around 11:00, I replied basswood, at which point he said I was too late--he'd already made two sets out of each, packed 'em up Priority mail, and they were on my doorstep Monday afternoon.

Of course, just before NARAM I'd caught somewhere online that the Semroc gang was closing down the Friday before NARAM to hit the road. Naturally, at about 1:00 the morning they would be leaving, I had a hair-brained idea for an egg lofter modification that would need some special materials that only Semroc carries, and certainly not anything they'd include in their travelling stock. I emailed Carl a "if you're still online and have a little room, could you slip some [special tubing] in?" plea for help. Naturally, he managed to pack about 10 different pieces of various lengths for me to work with.

--Chan Stevens

 

[MarkII]

In my case, Semroc always gets the order shipped out really fast. (Breathtakingly so, in fact.) The convoluted path that the packages take as they journey through the USPS system to get up to this neck of the woods is something that Carl & co. have no control over. (Both FedEx and UPS can be even slower, though.) Their orders still arrive as fast or (most often) faster than those from anyone else that I have dealt with. And when I need something pronto, they get it to me.

Mark K.

 

[troj]

The rockets arrived today, and the picture shows what this is all about...

-Kevin

 

[Pantherjon]

You got that right, Kevin! That is what it is all about!