Normally this is fine, it does make shipping time a bit longer to those places. Typically those places only receive deliveries on specific days each week. The estimate for this order was 5 shipping days, which is about 2-3 days longer for the regional delivery. Not horrible and most people in outlying areas like this completely understand the situation they're in.
I shipped out an order on July 18th and well today is August 7th.
The connecting company that my vendor chose for this delivery decided that they wanted to wait until something else arrived to deliver in the same area and would not do the delivery otherwise. So the product sat on their dock for two weeks until my client called to tell me they hadn't received the order or a call from the trucking company explaining themselves.
This burns for two reasons, the length of time of course and the fact they charge an additional fee of 40+ dollars to call the client about the delivery.
I contacted my local representative on Thursday asking for answers. He immediately contacts the delivering terminal and they tell him the whole "We were waiting for another shipment so we could condense, blah blah blah." story. Whereas I understand the concept, there's a time when this concept while good for your bottom line is bad for your clients.
They tell the rep they'll do the delivery the next day.
I get a call today from my client. That delivery never actually happened, he's now on his way to the terminal to pick up his order instead. Since tomorrow marks 3 weeks to the day the order was shipped.
Three weeks to get 500 miles. I should have used a mule and cart to get it to him, it would have been there sooner.
I'm now in the process of trying to keep my cool talking to the freight company, since I'm so pissed off at the whole situation. These lazy fools went and pushed all the buttons at once.