Glass Awards Problem with Marco

[Liesl Dexheimer]

I just wanted to give anyone who orders from Marco a heads up. I ordered a few glass awards last week & had a few problems with the order. Everything looked ok until I got to the last award I was checking and noticed that the base was not attached to the glass piece. The item specifically is # GL94 (a circle glass award w/ silver base). I called customer service & found out that they switched vendors & the new awards come disconnected from the base. I think they were doing this to make it easier to laser engrave, however I don't like the thought of having to assemble it myself. They suggested double face tape but I don't trust it enough to hold glass & a metal base together. Customer service rep did send me a new award with the base attached although I noticed I was billed for it, hopefully they will issue a credit & call tag for me to send the other one back as I asked.

Also, a day later I noticed that the smaller glass award (# GL93) was attached slightly off the base. I did engrave it though, I had thought of sending it back but since I had already gone through the hassle & wasn't really happy with the end result I just let it go. Hopefully the customer won't be too unhappy.

Just wanted to let everyone know to be on the lookout for this problem if you order something from them...

[Ross Moshinsky]

It's better they aren't attached. We did a crystal award the other day and it was about 1/8" off center on the base.

Marco is by far the worst of the big three. They can't even bother keeping their warehouses stocked.

[Scott Shepherd]

They can't even bother keeping their warehouses stocked.

They aren't alone. We have a customer that orders the same thing every single year. It's probably a total of 20-25 pieces and every single year, we order them and then they miss the ship date, then miss the 2nd ship date, and we normally get them a day or so before the event, leaving us no protection if we make a mistake. This year, we ordered everything 4 weeks in advance. We called the other day to verify it because they have an award date for it all, and they won't have the items until 4 days before the event, and we're 3 days shipping from them.

It seems no matter how early we order them, we never get them early.

I won't mention any names, but I can say it's not marco.

Our marco here used to be Plastics Plus. We got almost all of our plastic from them. They were awesome. Now, if we want to go pick something up (it's local), we call some central number to place the order and we have to wait for them to process the order, based on their backlog across the country. It could take 5 minutes, or it could take 5 hours. So you can't just call the order in and drive there, you have to call it in and then wait until the enter the order. If you show up at the place and they haven't entered the order yet, then you won't get your order. It's a horrible, horrible system and took what used to be a great company and turned it into a place we only go if we have to because it's such a pain.

[Liesl Dexheimer]

Wow, good info to know. Marco's warehouse is 2 states away from us, I have never had any problems getting orders, usually get them the next day which makes me happy. I think maybe 1 or 2 other times in the past I have had a problem receiving defective merchandise (scratch on glass award) but other than that they've been pretty good. It is unfortunate that more companies are stocking less making it harder for JIT (just in time) orders.

[Frank Corker]

Maybe this might explain why it occassionaly happens - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqzVm93ObTc

[Liesl Dexheimer]

Haha, omg, that's a good one Frank!

[Martin Boekers]

Back orders and delays were a problem I had with multiple vendors a few years
back. It seemed to sort it self out and they got on track. Now it seems that "train"
has derailed again. I have had issues in the last few weeks with orders that are back
ordered for a couple months! Much of my work is quarterly awards so I have to have
the same product. I have had to increase my inventory to be sure of this. It's getting to
the point again that I have to order the next quarter awards as soon as they pick up
this quarter to be absolutly sure I will have the product. This is with a handful of major
vendors. So much consolidation and merging of vendors may have something to do with
it. The funny thing with one is that on the recording while you wait for sales, they say how
great their inventory is and you won't have to wait for their products.....ok, maybe not so
funny, the last three times I called they were out of stock! I can work through this, but
it takes more time and resources to stay on track.

My only issue with Marco is I go through stages with resin eagles that many have broken wings
so I have to check each box when it comes in.

[Rodne Gold]

Every time a local co messes me around , I just decide to import my own stuff at between 1/5th to a worst of 1/2 of local prices , at those savings its worth keeping the inventory myself. Still haven't got a call from the one local acrylic and engraving lam suppliers that were perpetually outa stock of what they KNEW we used , my orders with em have dropped to $500 a month from an average of $ 8000 monthly. Been 8 months already - not a peep...

[john passek]

Maybe the boats from china don't sail as often so the venders don't get their stock.