I recently made a purchase from HRO Atlanta on a Wednesday for two items, one a VHF/UHF SWR/Power meter and a cable for amplifier connection. The power meter was in stock at Atlanta, which is about 120 miles from me. I have ordered many big ticket Icom items from them in the recent past, and I usually get next day delivery by UPS if I call in and order before their UPS pickup. I made the mistake of ASSUMING they would do the same. I needed the meter for antenna work to be done that weekend. They shipped from Texas because the cheap MFJ cable was not in stock in Atlanta, so I got the order on Tuesday. I complained via email to the Atlanta HRO and was forwarded to the HRO head manager. He called me on the phone and proceeded to tell me that they would not make as much money if they had shipped as two orders (yeah, two bucks to ship a 1 oz cable 1st class). He basically told me that it did not matter that Atlanta had the expensive meter that I needed, that it was more important for them to make a profit than to keep amateurs happy. In the last two years I had ordered from Atlanta HRO an Icom IC-7600 and an Icom IC-9100 transceiver plus much more over the years.
I can assure you that when I order the IC-7610 this spring that it will be from DX Engineering.
73, Ray AK4RL
Hi Ray,
First off let me offer you my support with your issue. If you feel you've been mistreated- you probably have been.
Second, please ignore these idiots taking you to task for voicing your dissatisfaction. You have every right. And since it is your inconvenience and your money- even more so.
It's been my theory for a while that when a larger vendor gets criticized, friends or very loyal customers jump into the fray to defend the vendor in question. The ham community is small, so if you criticize HRO, "friends" of employees or owners will drop out of the sky blaming you for the problem. Which is sad- because it's the exact opposite of what should happen.
I have not had good experiences with HRO. And I'm not shy about it. In my case HRO screwed up and order- then told me an untruth which was that I needed to deal with the post office to recover the item. The truth was the item was never shipped. Eventually after complaining here they took action and got my items to me.
But not before I got my behind chewed up by "friends of HRO".
Stick to your guns. Vendors have a responsibility to create satisfied customers.
Don't even get me started on the 2 meter amp that took HRO a year to ship. Then promptly failed after a couple of hours of use... that's another story.