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View Full Version : Is Wakemakers Still In Business?



kaneboats
03-31-2010, 09:50 AM
Does anybody know if Wakemakers is still in business? I put in an order 14 days ago and have not heard from them. I have left messages for Jason and for Spencer and sent e-mails. I have not received any kind of response. I would order from someone else at this point except that I already paid for my order!

I am going to suggest that no one else order anything from them until they resolve this. My order easily should have been here by the end of last week. OR, they should have at least communicated with me as to why not.

I do not understand this type of "business" practice and will have a hard time recommending them to anyone in the future. If anyone knows what is going on, please let me know.

gus 08 mobius lsv
03-31-2010, 09:59 AM
i just called wakemakers and talked to jason on friday i think. they have been nothing but great to me. either answering questions or talking my order and getting it processed very quickly.
their emails never came thru for me for some reason but everything else was great with them. i think you'll find almost everyone here thinks the same. sorry about your issues kane but maybe its just a bad time for them or they aren't getting your call
888 338 6085 ext 803 is direct to jason try that if u haven't already!

kaneboats
03-31-2010, 10:08 AM
Well, I have used the phone number on their site and the e-mail address they gave me. When I log on my order shows "pending". You would think they would be calling me to explain if there is some issue as to why this hasn't shipped. In the meantime, the season has started here and I have plans for outings this week that are being disrupted by this.

gus 08 mobius lsv
03-31-2010, 10:22 AM
oh i understand and you have a right to be upset just doesn't sound like them to not call back or for you to not be able to make contact with them.

kaneboats
03-31-2010, 10:44 AM
I have not dealt with them before. I relied on their reputation as indicated by members on here. That's why I am asking if anyone knows if they are still in business. The fact you spoke to one of them on Friday and it seemed like business as usual is very troubling.

DOCDRS
03-31-2010, 10:45 AM
The ability to get someone on the phone there seems to be sporadic, as well as email return. I think they are very busy right now but iknow that in a business this is not acceptable. i have had fairly good service and y order was pending for about a week and then shipped. I even went back on to make sure that everything i had ordered was instock. It took about 10 - 14 days to get my stuff about a month ago. It would be nice to know what the delays are....always more easier to take when al least an explanation is given rather than no communication at all.

brain_rinse
03-31-2010, 10:48 AM
Unfortunately I've been having similar issues. Jason, when I finally get a hold of him, is EXTREMELY helpful and delivers great customer service. But it takes multiple emails and phone calls and much more waiting than I'm comfortable with to get any answers. I think they have a good business model but unless they fix their customer service issues I doubt they'll make it through the summer.

byronkoz
03-31-2010, 10:54 AM
FWIW, I ordered a 750 sac a couple weeks ago from them and recieved an email a few days later it was put on back order. I called Jason and they didnt have any grey left but had black so I took that instead, arived at my door in a couple of days. Pretty much everything ive ordered has taken some time to get but like mentioned before, Jason is very helpfull over the phone.

kaneboats
03-31-2010, 10:56 AM
I would have liked to have had that option. Gray or black? Who cares?

DOCDRS
03-31-2010, 11:00 AM
I wanted and ordered black cause it matches my boat :)

jmvotto
03-31-2010, 11:35 AM
Pat, try his e-mail, he told me he does not get to his pm's right away.

I have consulted with him but have yet to place an order. i guess i better get on it if i want it for May 1st:rolleyes:

kaneboats
03-31-2010, 11:47 AM
I have sent emails and left phone messages. I have some FF miles. I'm thinking about paying them a visit.

byronkoz
03-31-2010, 12:20 PM
[QUOTE=kaneboats;90620]I would order from someone else at this point except that I already paid for my order!
QUOTE]

Actually in my experiance with them they dont charge your account/card until the order is shipped. Are you sure payment has been prossesed?

mmandley
03-31-2010, 12:24 PM
Spencer is the easiest guy to get ahold of since he works at the main AWS office.

I spoke to AWS on Wend and they said Spencer was out on vacation. ''

As for Jason all the times i have tried to contact him its been a miss and no joy there.

I know Jason is busy with other things and this is why Spencer was helping him out.

It would have been nice to let there customers know they are out of officer for a week or something. I am going to call down to AWS on Monday to check on my gear as well LOL.

If you call you want the AWS dealer in Oregon City. Thats the office Spencer is working out of and its been my best way to contact him directly.

kaneboats
03-31-2010, 12:26 PM
Taking your advice I did call yesterday and was told Spencer was gone to lunch. I left a message with them for him and the call was not returned.

I actually paid with Paypal and the payment went through while I was on the phone with Jason on March 17th. I would not have said I had already paid if it was not true.

dusty2221
03-31-2010, 12:27 PM
The same thing is hapeingin over on the Supra board. There is a rant just like this one....seems like it is common.

byronkoz
03-31-2010, 12:30 PM
Taking your advice I did call yesterday and was told Spencer was gone to lunch. I left a message with them for him and the call was not returned.

I actually paid with Paypal and the payment went through while I was on the phone with Jason on March 17th. I would not have said I had already paid if it was not true.

LOL wasnt accusing you of lying Kane, just making sure as I didnt realize my payment wasnt prossesed till I checked on it. Just trying to help.

kaneboats
03-31-2010, 12:35 PM
Looks like it's not all that uncommon. Here's one post I found (from 3/29):

..... I just spent the time to blast wakemakers.com for their lack of customer service and communication, and wouldn't you know that my session timed out while I was typing. Knowledgeable.... yes.....Proficient and communicative.....absolutely not.

Long story short, I expected my order last Tuesday and it still hasn't shipped. I even went as far as to tell them to completely remove the backordered items from the order and that I would source them elsewhere. Not surprising, no response from them. In fact, it took 3 straight days of emails to get a response. Oh, give them a call you say.... been there, done that. Sat on hold until the cows came home with no mention of hours or availability. I guess the one good thing with the delay is I was able to remove the backordered part from my order today because I can reuse the parts from my original setup. Order still hasn't shipped, however.

Freakin 88 degress here tomorrow, and I have no ballast system to speak of because I ripped out the old in anticipation of the new......LAST WEEK!! Of course, my windows are still with the tint guy though But who needs windshields to surf @ 10.7mph? Ballast on the other hand....

END OF POST FROM SUPRA BOARD.

kaneboats
03-31-2010, 12:38 PM
There was also an interesting post from Jason (from 3/27, I think):

Man, you guys are overwhelming us with orders! Sorry for the delay in getting the last few out, we'll have more product in stock this week.

kaneboats
03-31-2010, 12:42 PM
The same thing is hapeingin over on the Supra board. There is a rant just like this one....seems like it is common.

If you reread my posts this is not a "rant". I posted here seeking information about whether Wakemakers is still in business as I have had no indication from them that this is the case.

dusty2221
03-31-2010, 03:20 PM
If you reread my posts this is not a "rant". I posted here seeking information about whether Wakemakers is still in business as I have had no indication from them that this is the case.

Sorry if you took "rant" as a jab. I was only trying to share with you that it seems to be happening to several, to further prove your issue.

:)

sandm
03-31-2010, 03:42 PM
Kane, if you paid via paypal with credit card, just call and dispute the charges. most cards will reverse the charge and you can be on your merry way to order from somewhere else that will ship now. if you paid by bank acct, you're left waiting for them to respond. good lesson to ALWAYS pay by cc off paypal as you have NO recourse if you pay by bank account, contrary to what paypal preaches..

sorry to hear about this..
seems to be a recurrent theme with wakemakers. guess business must be real good.

kaneboats
03-31-2010, 03:44 PM
I had a paypal balance from selling some stuff so I used that. If they are no longer in business I will try to recover the payment. No one has given any clear indication either way though.

mmandley
03-31-2010, 09:07 PM
Sorry to hear about all the problems Kane. i wish i could take over there shipping department, even in my free time i could keep them on track i bet LOL.

You say the windshield if off getting tinted? Nice man.

I realy wouldnt take the boat on the water with out a windshield. It does add structural stability to the boat. I doubt you would have a problem other then looking strange, and you will catch a lot more spray and water in the face.

kaneboats
03-31-2010, 10:29 PM
Not my windshield. THat was a post from the Supra guys.

In the meantime I have now received an e-mail stating my order has shipped. I saw Jason was on the boards today and PM'ed him about what was going on. He did not respond but within a few minutes I had an email stating my order was shipped. I don't know if it's true yet but that's the info I received. Per UPS the tracking # is not yet active. We'll see.

2007 Outback V
03-31-2010, 11:43 PM
It is a shame to see a business with such potential slowly extinguishing its' own existence. If it is true that business for them is plentiful, then more employees are needed. We all know how many people are looking for work, plenty of well qualified candidates I'm sure.

Kaneboats, I empathize with your situation. While I must agree, Jason is particularly knowledgeable and extremely helpful in phone conversation, it is sporadic at best. I called recently and ended up leaving a message. Surprisingly my call was returned a few hours later, however I missed the call. I was disappointed that the caller did not leave a message, bad business practice?

I have ordered through Wakemakers once before. I will say shipping was not prompt, yet acceptable. I was considering placing another order soon, but I am taken aback by Kaneboats and others dilemmas.

I hope Jason takes notice to this thread soon.

dusty2221
04-01-2010, 10:53 AM
^ Or, by sending me all the supplies needed for the Tsunami upgrade for free. I mean, I'll pay shipping of course...

:)

kaneboats
04-01-2010, 11:09 AM
I don't want anything for free. I am happy to pay for the stuff I want (and I do appreciate the disount they extend to owners on this board). But, I sure wish they would communicate with customers a little better. We want them to do well and we want to support them but they do make it a little difficult.

98outback
04-01-2010, 11:22 AM
Not sure if this still applies but when we did the group buy with wakemakers they only ship the 15th and the last day of the month because they gave us free shipping. I guess when they ship a large amount at one time they get a better rate which helps them out and helps us (the buyers) out. Since he gave you a good price still im not sure if this applied to you or not. Im not defending them though as they should have had some kind of contact with you if this is the case.

kaneboats
04-01-2010, 11:25 AM
That was not the case.

98outback
04-01-2010, 11:28 AM
This is from a post about our group buy we had last year. See number 3. This is directly from Jason. Im not sure if this is done with all his sales or not. When I ordered from him before the service was great.

A couple of more things that I forgot to mention when we spoke on the
phone:

1) The coupon is only good for one use per person. It costs us money
to process credit card payments, so limiting the numbers of payments
we process allows us to offer these discounts.
2) The last valid day for the group buy is June 30th. We have to put
a deadline in place, otherwise people try to get the discount 6 months
later.
3) We'll ship all orders placed before the 15th of June on the 15th,
and all orders placed before June 30th on the 30th.

Hopefully that makes sense, if you have any questions or concerns,
please let me know.

Thanks,

Jason
www.wakemakers.com
(888) 338-6085

98outback
04-01-2010, 11:28 AM
Disregard previous post.

kaneboats
04-01-2010, 11:33 AM
Look, this was my order, not your order from last year.

Since you doubt my credibility, here is a message from Spencer last night:
. . .
Pat,
i am sorry for the delay. I just saw that you had called Active Water Sports, my other employer, a day ago. I was out of the office.

Your order has been shipped. We were waiting on a stocking order that was held up twice by our supplier. I am working through all of the emails one by one. If you need anything else or have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. Again I am very sorry for the delay. Two weeks is an unacceptable amount of time to wait for your order.

Thanks,

Spencer Welch | Wakemakers.com
888.338.6085 | [email protected]

On Mar 26, 2010, at 9:53 AM, [my email]@comcast.net wrote:

What does "pending" mean? Did this ship yet?

Thanks,

Pat

kaneboats
04-01-2010, 11:33 AM
OK, mine too. :)

98outback
04-01-2010, 11:39 AM
I was not doubting your credability in any way. My post had no reference to that. When I saw your post that it hasd just shipped yesterday which was the last day of the month and you had ordered it so long ago i remembered how he did his shipping. I have read on other forums that his shipping is slow so I think they may do this with all their orders regardless if it is a group buy or not. Sorry you took it the wrong way.

kaneboats
04-01-2010, 12:01 PM
The fact so many people are defending their poor business practices just shows how much we all want them to succeed. Unfortunately, you can see how out of touch they are just by examining the message from Spencer. He admits that two weeks is way too long for a customer to have to wait for an order and even offers an apology. But, I waited two weeks just to have it shipped. I'll end up waiting closer to three weeks to actually receive it. This was lost on him.

I hope everybody understands that I have their best interests at heart. I really do want them to succeed and I'd like to be able to deal with them in the future. So I am going to offer them some advice:

1. Answer your phone-- if you can't, return calls from customers by the next day. If you are unable to do this, put a message on your phone system that says why you can't.
2. Never lie to your customers (or even BS them). If it's going to take 3 weeks, let them know that up front. They may not like it but they aren't going to end up mad at you.
3. Respond to e-mail messages within 48 hours, especially if the customer has an order # already.
4. If there is a problem with an order, be proactive rather than reactive. Contact your customer and deliver the bad news up front and be ready to offer an alternative (black instead of gray or whatever).
5. If you have to have a policy to make your business model work, let the customers know the policy but try to adapt it so it's not too painful. For example, if you save money by shipping only 2 days a month, try to make it 3, like the 10th, 20th, 30th-- then let the customers know.

Most people are pretty reasonable. They will also read FAQ's on a website that provide information but also explain the why: e.g., shipping on 3 predetermined dates each month allows us major cost savings that we are able to pass on to you.

I have a feeling that this operation started as a hobby but grew into a real business. These guys are scrambling to catch up. It's also seasonal so that they can't really put on a full time person to help out. But maybe they should consider an "intern" to assist in the spring when things heat up.

Anyway, I wish them the best of luck and hope they are able to get the ship righted as this really has the potential to be a good business.

kaneboats
04-01-2010, 12:07 PM
I don't know if that's the case now. But, they do offer free shipping (as does just about everybody else these days). I just think if it is the case a customer is entitled to know it.

brain_rinse
04-01-2010, 12:11 PM
The fact so many people are defending their poor business practices just shows how much we all want them to succeed. Unfortunately, you can see how out of touch they are ...
Completely agree with this and the rest of your post. It's all about communication and that's what they haven't gotten figured out. I must still be in the email stack that they haven't gotten to yet.

jmvotto
04-01-2010, 12:16 PM
Is this a real full time business or just some side business someone dabbles at?

98outback
04-01-2010, 12:18 PM
If they are only shipping certain times of the month it needs to be attentioned to the customer up front. I think the biggest problem overall is communication. If the company was to fail it would be because of their customer communication not their prices. It sounds like wakemakers is a job that is done on the side and the 2 people that do it work regualr day jobs. This seems to be a big thing now where people open up websites and drop ship everything. Their time is not fully devoted to the website job and thus the cusotmers do not get the attention they deserve. When i ordered my sacs from the last year they were shipped to me directly from barefoot international so that means they were drop shipped. I dont think wakemakers has any inventory at all.

98outback
04-01-2010, 12:31 PM
So if you pay for overnight shipping your chances of actually getting it in a week or 2 are slim to none.

brain_rinse
04-01-2010, 12:41 PM
Decided to try the phone again and was able to catch Jason. I gave him the heads up that things have been boiling over due to lack of communication, so I expect him to show up here and give his perspective at some point.

brain_rinse
04-02-2010, 02:34 PM
So I thought I should update this thread with how things turned out for me. While my order didn't ship out when I thought it was supposed to, Jason sent it 2nd day air so that it would still show up on the same date. When the thru hulls thread didn't match the ball valves, Jason sent new ones for free, even though the old ones were cut and installed already. And he gave me a couple of items I needed to finish my install at cost to make things right. So I have to say this part is customer service at its finest. The communication issue still stands, but it would seem they are going to try to get things back on track.

moombadaze
04-02-2010, 05:04 PM
Kaneboats, have you recieved your ballast bags yet?

kaneboats
04-03-2010, 12:50 AM
I'm across the country from them. Just one surf bag and it's on the way. Should be here on 4/8 or so.

stretch55
04-03-2010, 03:45 PM
Everytime I call Wakemakers I talk to Jason. He' is very helpfull. I am redoing my entire system, intake side and drain side. I've spent probably a total of an hour and a half on the phone with him going over every possible system and situation for my set up. I guess that I am one of the lucky one's though. Since I live 5 min from Wakemakers I don't have to worry about shipping I can just go pick all my stuff up. I hope you get everything worked out.

jmvotto
04-05-2010, 11:22 PM
With all the issues with Wake Makers anyone see a reason not to order connectors direct from flo rite at about 40 % of the cost at wm and hose from a jamestown distributors same savings.

mmandley
04-06-2010, 12:28 AM
I spoke to Spencer today, as always i called AWS Oregon City and bam had him on the phone. I ordered 2 more T800 pumps and a bunch of hose. He said it will be at AWS on Monday morning when i get into town.

Spencer mentioned they are planning on hireing a person to answer calls and such as they are getitng busy with things.

I cant say anything for the mistakes they have made thus fare except they are a new company and both guys are very passionent about there reputation as a company and are working very hard to make everyone happy.

I will still use WM and if you guys like you can go threw me to get your gear and i will pick it up and ship it for you if thats something you want. I am not offering this as a WakeMakers favor, im offering as a Moomba favor for my Moomba brothers and sisters.

Mike

byronkoz
04-06-2010, 01:15 PM
With all the issues with Wake Makers anyone see a reason not to order connectors direct from flo rite at about 40 % of the cost at wm and hose from a jamestown distributors same savings.

I ordered all my fitting from them except the actuall fly high fitting that thread into the sacs, dont think they sell them? I ordered my switches, sac fittings and a 750 lb sac from Wakemakers and had no problems. Talked to Jason on the phone a couple times and he was super helpfull. Just waiting for my actuators for the switches to get here that he had on back order.

jmvotto
04-06-2010, 03:02 PM
byronkoz,

shouldn't these fit into the sacs ?

the 2nd and 3rd connector down


https://www.flow-rite.com/catalog/united-states/marine/34-fittings/connectors-adaptors

byronkoz
04-06-2010, 03:07 PM
Actually J I dont think so. Im pretty sure for the sac itself you need the one with an o ring on it. Like this one. Maybe someone else can clarify.

http://www.wakemakers.com/fly-high-pro-x-series-fitting-w736.html

jmvotto
04-06-2010, 03:20 PM
Yes, i planned on picking up some o rings at lowes. I dont think they cost $4.00 a piece.;)