Midway
I order a ton of stuff off the internet. I am proud to say I haven't been to a mall or anything but a grocery store or gas station in the last five years. I've ordered everything you can imagine...batteries, vacuum cleaners, sausage, string cheese...etc, etc.
Midway's website is nice but the response time from their system is painfully slow even on the fastest of connections. Delivery of product is as expeditious MidSouth, Amazon, Cabela's....no differentiation there as far as I can tell.
Midway needs to invest in some hardware and/or re-write their queries to serve up pages faster.
I shop at MidwayUSA ONLY if I can't find it anywhere else and when I do, I make sure I've got some other browsing to do while I wait for Midway to load the page.
Cabela's needs to rewrite their system so that, when an order is shipped in multiple segments, they accurately communicate what has been pulled and and what has been shipped. I got an order this week with a packing slip that had three items that were not included in the box. When I got on the phone with Cust Service, I learned that those three items had been pulled (i.e. an order to ship had been created) and were coming in a second box that was shipped after the first box.
My first choice these days is MidSouth. I have a .17 HMR and MidSouth seems to have the best prices on Hornady ammo. Prices on other items seem to be as good or better than other vendors.
One thing in particular that I like about MidSouth's website is their Advance Search function. I provides the ability to search based on the Manufacturer's Part Number. It makes it very easy to find things. All you need to do is first go to a manufacturer's website, look up a product ID and then flip back to MidSouth's advance search page and look for the product ID.
While I'm at it, I need to put in a plug for Possum Hollow Cleaning and Reloading Supplies.
http://www.possumhollowproducts.com/
The only thing I've ever ordered from them is a bore guide. You can't really order anything on their website but my experience with Eric (the owner) was memorable.
On a tip from an email inquiry to the J. Dewey Mfg. Co I called Possum Hollow to see if they had a bore guide for a Savage .17HMR. Eric answered. He rummaged around, confirmed he had one on the shelf, told me he'd ship it that day and he did. I asked him how I should pay him. He proceded to tell me when I received the item in a few days, I should try it out and if it worked, send him a check. Now I don't know if that's how he handles every transaction but I got the bore guide, had a question, called him, got an answer and sent him a check just as fast as I could. That kind of faith needs to be validated by a prompt remittance.
J. Dewey themselves deserve honorable mention here.
http://www.deweyrods.com/
I ordered a one piece, coated cleaning rod and some misc items from them a while back. Shipment was timely but what was notable to both my wife and me was the packaging. The cleaning rod was in a long box as you might imagine. What was impressive however, was the amount of newpaper he'd taken the time to stuff into the package and wrap around the contents. I think was probably most of one days edition of the local newpaper. My wife and I read every page.
Hope this helps.
