Powder Valley

[2bfree]

I had been looking for a particular bullet that I could find no where. I had given up and added my name to a couple notify list when yesterday I was on PD's site and there they were I got excited and ordered 200, I mean even Sierra was out ! I was thinking, I will get the email Monday saying out of stock.
Just got a call from Pd saying my CC did not go thru and can they verify the number. Tuned out I entered the wrong month on the expiration date.
Sure glad they called rather then just canceled the order. Thank you PD.
The bullet was a .308 Pro Hunter RN 150 Grain

 

[kerreckt]

You are lucky that you are dealing with good people. I have made the same mistake in the past and the merchant did not extend that kind of consideration. Best wishes

 

[ArchAngelCD]

This is one for the reasons so many reloaders buy from PV, very good customer service.

Things are tough out there. I'm glad you found the bullets you were looking for.

 

[BYJO4]

Powder Valley is great to deal with. I"ll be glad when they have the powder and primers I like in stock as in the old days.

 

[SWThomas]

That is extremely weird, but apparently common. I had the exact same thing happen a month ago when I ordered some powder. I placed my order, they sold it all in 10 minutes, and I got a call later that day to verify my CC expiration date. PV is awesome!

 

[floydster]

I hope they can get powder one of these days--I miss ordering from them--I need supplies

 

[grubbylabs]

I accidentally ordered an out of stock primer and they tried to call me before they canceled my order. I was not smart enough to answer the phone. I thought it was really nice of them to try to call before they canceled it since on their home page their policy is clearly stated. They indeed seem to be very good people to buy from.

 

[sexybeast]

I can't agree. My friends and I have bought tens of thousands of dollars of supplies over the years from Powder Valley. We would usually order one or two different powders [24lbs] and 30k of primers or more and all split the hazmat and shipping. We would fill the box up! The orders would cost upwards of $1000 This was the big reason we would use PV!
Now you can't and haven't been able to place backorders for almost a year now! A year! If you get a notice that primers are back in stock you get to order a whopping 5k, plus $27 hazmat and shipping. What a deal!
Others will take your back order, fill up the box as it comes in and ship it to you when everything is in. If you plan ahead this is the way to go.
You may think PV is great but they have lost me as a customer. Reloading supplies availability have improved alot and I look to the companys that will save me money and send me a bulk order.
I've also put in my credit card number wrong too. I get a notice right away before the order is accepted online. Don't have to wait for a phone call.

Powder Valley is great to deal with. I"ll be glad when they have the powder and primers I like in stock as in the old days.

How long do you want to wait? You look any other places? Everyone I know has recieved their powder and primers in the past two months, none of them bought from PV.

 

[Potatohead]

I hope they can get powder one of these days--I miss ordering from them--I need supplies

Yes, I've been having much better luck with 3rd Generation for whatever reason.

 

[SWThomas]

sexybeast,

Not sure when you're talking about, but I placed an order with them last month for 10K primers and 28 pounds of powder. They had no problems filling my box. They got my powders before anyone I was watching (which was all of them) and have the lowest prices around.

They're not the only company that's not taking backorders right now. I can hardly blame them when NO ONE knows when these powder companies are going to ship product. Why would they want to deal with the hassle of people placing backorders only to cancel them two weeks later when they find the product elsewhere??? I know I wouldn't want to deal with that. Or the headache of keeping track of all the backorders and dealing with impatient people constantly calling to get a status update when they don't know what to tell them???

Sounds like you're just being a little petty to me.

 

[sexybeast]

Sounds like you're just being a little petty to me.

Not being petty, telling you what I have experienced and what others have experienced.
Others take backorders, PV does not. I think you got lucky or they have recently have changed their policy. Its about time, its only been a year.
Others have muddled through, PV dropped the ball.
The place I bought from placed my order in a box and when everything came in they sent me an email asking if I still wanted it. If I said no I'm sure they would have found someone else who did. I appreciate the effort and I am now their customer.
Again, Myself and others are frustrated with their policys. Not being petty!

 

[grubbylabs]

I Just ordered 10,000 primers as well, it put me at least $5.00 cheaper than the lowest price in town and $10.00 cheaper than the most, and between the two I would not have been able to get more than 3,000 primers. They did not have powder in that I could use so I did not order any powder.

But if things ever get back to any thing resembling normal I will be saving and purchasing large lots of stuff from them. Its the only way to go I think.

 

[grubbylabs]

. Its about time, its only been a year

How is it their fault that after a year people are stile buying in large quantities and fast enough that no one can build inventory?

I don't see how you can blame them for not taking a back order on something when they have no idea when or how much they are going to get, let alone if they are going to get it.

When the demand settles down then I am sure they will go back to pre panic policy where they have a reasonable expectation of how long it is going to take to get a order of powder or primers in.

 

[noylj]

PV: I don't believe they are a big enough company to handle back orders of longer than a month easily and I well understand NOT taking back orders. Then, you have the problem of the OCD crowd calling all the time to get an update on the order, and I would stop all back orders also.
3rd generation is good, but I have ordered powder that they show as in-stock, only to be notified a couple of days later that they are out of stock and the order was cancelled. Again, the cancellation is understandable, but not the web site showing in-stock when they are out of stock isn't. The "excitement" of finally finding powder doesn't match the disappointment of the concealed order. PV is always pretty much up-to-date on their stock.
I always try to maintain a good stock, but I found that Power Pistol worked GREAT in a new 9x19 I got, but I quickly ran out of powder and haven't seen any in over a year and a half. As far as I am concerned, I wonder if Alliant has even shipped any in that time period--wonder if the manufacturer ran into production problems and hasn't been able to supply Alliant.

 

[Muddydogs]

Maybe powder valley can't afford to set on items that they have in stock and wait 6 months for the powder to come in so they can charge your card and ship your order. Think about the money they have setting around if everyone orders say primers that are in stock and back orders powder, are they supposed to put the primer aside for your order then wait who knows how long for the powder to come in only to have the order canceled because another company got there powder order first and everyone jumped ship and went to the other place? It appears to me that most of the bigger company's have stopped taking back orders. I guess if you can't understand why a company would do this and blame them for the lack of components then why not trash them for trying to be smart in business and trying to keep there company in the black and inventory moving.

 

[sexybeast]

Maybe powder valley can't afford to set on items that they have in stock and wait 6 months for the powder to come in so they can charge your card and ship your order. Think about the money they have setting around if everyone orders say primers that are in stock and back orders powder, are they supposed to put the primer aside for your order then wait who knows how long for the powder to come in only to have the order canceled because another company got there powder order first and everyone jumped ship and went to the other place? It appears to me that most of the bigger company's have stopped taking back orders. I guess if you can't understand why a company would do this and blame them for the lack of components then why not trash them for trying to be smart in business and trying to keep there company in the black and inventory moving.

I think they can, smaller online stores do. Powder valley has great buying power, they post items they get in all the time on their Facebook page,
Powder valley has not taken backorders in a year.
You are fine with this and make excuses and explain for them,
I'm not. Others and myself order in bulk to save money and cut down on hazmat and shipping charges, and Powder Valley won't accomodate us.
Powder valley's inventory has been moving. Delivered, marked up, add hazmat, and ship out almost right away. I don't feel sorry for them, they have done OK during this buying binge.

Edit: Archangel wrote:

They drop ship powder for Midway USA.

I did not know this but it doesn't suprise me. I had read that PV is third behind Midway and Cabela's in the reloading components business. The other two sell many more things so the comparison is not exactly fair. But PV is not slouch. And I also would not consider them to be "too small"
I know Midway is taking backorders on many components, I don't know about Cabela's.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Powder Valley is not a "small store" by any means! They drop ship powder for Midway USA. All the powder you order from Midway comes from Powder Valley!

 

[Vodoun da Vinci]

All I know is that I returned to shooting sports and reloading after a 30+ year hiatus to jump right smack into a component and ammunition shortage that still baffles me. Very frustrating to have to plan your reloading needs 6 months in advance and search all over the Internet to find all the parts you need...powder at one place, primers at another, bullets out of stock, dies out of stock, etc. Very frustrating.

Then I found 3 pounds of Unique at Powder Valley when I could find it *nowhere* else even at 2X the price. I think we have to be patient and this is frustrating to some degree - we are all used to it being a competitive market and a buyers market where if a seller/retailer doesn't have the cheapest price and cater to *right now!!* for whatever reason we immediately look elsewhere. I found that I had to cruise thru various online component dealers 3 or 4 times a day and when I saw what I needed I bought it immediately. I once saw Unique in stock at Powder Valley in the evening and made a mental not to order it in the morning and the next morning there was none to be had.

Times are still tough for reloaders and we can blame the retailers like Powder Valley or whoever but they can't sell stock they don't have. I waited 3 months for 9mm dies and had to juggle to get that...still waiting for RCBS .45 ACP dies. I personally really like Powder Valley and will purchase from them again. One thing I really appreciated was that they did not price gouge. I saw some Unique available 3 months ago when Powder Valley had none...at 2X the going price per pound!! No way...I'm not paying 2X the price to encourage gouging.

VooDoo

 

[Muddydogs]

Midway is not taking back orders on a lot of components, every time I look at something it says No Back order. I know all about ordering in bulk, my last purchase of powder and primers from powder valley was around $700 and I ended up ordering another $400 from Wideners to get everything I wanted, this was just for me no need to do a group purchase.

I'm not making excuses for them and I am sure Powder Valley doesn't really care if you shop with them or not as they don't seem to have a problem moving supply’s. I was just trying to bring up the obvious which is why set on a partial order of components for 6 months waiting for powder to show up when someone will buy what they have right now.

 

[mdm]

I would have three problems with taking backorders in this environment.

I don't know how long it will take to fill the backorder.

You are going to take up my peoples' time with phone calls/emails asking "When...?"

You are going to find it somewhere else or decide to buy a different product after sitting on my backorder list for how long? Will you tell me or wait for my people to contact you to see if you still want it?

 

[Jesse Heywood]

Powder Valley posted this on facebook an hour ago:

Powder: Guys, I don't know what to tell you on powder. I wish I had something good to report. Alliant has been telling us since November we would receive a shipment in December. Nothing has arrived and we can't get any further information out of them. Hodgdon was shut down for the last half of December and first part of January. We just received a shipment from them today but it was extremely small with no Winchester or Vihtavuori. The last Accurate and Ramshot shipments we received was in early December. It was a decent shipment but it was gone in a matter of a few days. The supply has gotten worse and the demand has stayed the same.

Notes: Hodgdon closes for the holidays every year, they also do not manufacture powder, they package. And if they don't have any powder to package, why pay people to work?

They drop ship powder for Midway USA. All the powder you order from Midway comes from Powder Valley!

That used to be true. Midway is currently using a different supplier, since PV hasn't been able to buy powder.

 

[sexybeast]

All I know is that I returned to shooting sports and reloading after a 30+ year hiatus to jump right smack into a component and ammunition shortage that still baffles me. Very frustrating to have to plan your reloading needs 6 months in advance and search all over the Internet to find all the parts you need...powder at one place, primers at another, bullets out of stock, dies out of stock, etc. Very frustrating.

So true! I did have to wait for three months. I was able to pick up what I could here and there to keep me going. Several of us order bulk and we all share. One fellow shooter was able to buy twenty 1lb cans of titegroup, he kept a couple and sold the rest to some of us at the range to offset his shipping and hazmat. My first time using titegroup, it was a pleasent suprise.
If you want to save money you have to order bulk which means you will have to wait, which means the vendor you order from has to take backorders.

 

[SWThomas]

I'm cool with sexybeast not buying from PVI. That's one less person competing for their stock when they get it.

 

[grubbylabs]

I'm cool with sexybeast not buying from PVI. That's one less person competing for their stock when they get it.

I agree no one should order from them, except me of course

Few places are doing back orders any more so you cut your options down quite a bit.

I probably here once a week how someone will never buy from me again yet within a week or so they are calling me to order something else.

 

[sexybeast]

I probably here once a week how someone will never buy from me again yet within a week or so they are calling me to order something else

Yeah, that was me!