Nothernerns Prices & Customer Service Has Greatly Improved

[Premium Parrots]

I suspect that, as always, the order was fresh when shipped. Your order just happened to sit in customs or in the shippers warehouse[for whatever reason] for that extended length of time and went bad. Not at all Northerners responsibility. Johanna did try to resolve this a month or so ago when she became aware of this issue but she never got a response from you. Once someone with more authority was aware of the details they are happy to make good on it. I think, tho I'm not sure, the problem may lie with the regular customer service reps at the time this happened. They know Northerner can't be held responsible for delays by customs or the shipping company and were only following company policy. Yours was an extreme situation [length of time and amount of snus involved] and none of the regular customer service employees had the authority to replace the order or issue a credit and they probably stuck to policy and didn't seek higher up approval or didn't know they could get the approval, to get your issue resolved.

so to recap....

your order was fresh and shipped in a timely manner
your order sat in customs or at the shipping company far too long
your order was finally delivered but was spoiled
you went thru normal channels to get a resolve, if possible
those channels were following normal policy [not being responsible for delays after the order is shipped]
once the proper personel were notified they attempted to fix it for you anyway
you neglected to reply to the PM they sent to you to get this resolved
today the proper employee knows what the issue details are
and your issue is being resolved to your satisfaction irregardless of company policy

I knew once the proper personel had the facts they would more than likely make it good for you. Tho not obligated to.

Now, we all know Northerner when thru a rough patch going thru PACT and a website changeover. Surely one or more orders fell thru the cracks but once fully aware of any issues, even those that are not their fault, they want to fix them if possible so their customer can be assured of a pleasant buying experiance every time. To my knowledge Northerner has resent snus or credited an account every time someone had broken or missing tins that was surely the fault of the shipper or customs.....tho they can't be held responsible for the actions of others they stand up and make it good for their customers.

Kudos to Northerner....and a sincere thank you to Johanna

Squeezy, my friend, please read the PM I sent you

carry on.

[DanF]

In the grand scheme of things after reading (skimming) through this thread: the only thing that comes to my mind is the insignificant amount of money (not for the buyer, I agree but) for The Northerner.

Why would a company that I assume does business in somewhat large numbers ($$$) not just go ahead and make a customer happy.....for relative pennies?

We are not talking about returning a leased Mercedes to a Dealer because the customer is "unhappy". We are talking about an online order of Snus.

But then again I may not be seeing the grand scheme of things.

Dan

[squeezyjohn]

It is now in the process of being sorted out to my complete satisfaction DanF - my case has obviously fallen through the cracks in their systems several times. But far better late than never!

[chadizzy1]

In the grand scheme of things after reading (skimming) through this thread: the only thing that comes to my mind is the insignificant amount of money (not for the buyer, I agree but) for The Northerner.

Why would a company that I assume does business in somewhat large numbers ($$$) not just go ahead and make a customer happy.....for relative pennies?

We are not talking about returning a leased Mercedes to a Dealer because the customer is "unhappy". We are talking about an online order of Snus.

But then again I may not be seeing the grand scheme of things.

Dan

It isn't unheard of for companies that make a shit ton of money to operate the wrong way, then to realize it, fix it, and make even more money.

Take Domino's Pizza for example. Operated for years under one mode, made a shit ton of money. Realized one day, hey, we COULD be better - so changed their recipe from the ground up, now make more money than ever before.

I think what happened is Northerner realized their mode of operation was a failure, and that changes had to be made, now have made those changes, and attempting to rebuild their reputation.

The hard part about rebuilding a reputation is it can take a lot of time, so we'll see how the reception and reaction is to them changing their operational characteristics.

[Thunder_Snus]

Some things I have noticed about the northerner site since I have been skimming through it the past few days.
I'm not going on a rant or throwing them under the bus, just a few key observations i have made.
the price per can and the "as low as" is pretty misleading compared to how "normal" snus distributors handle it. When I see 3.99/3.77 I assume i can buy a can for 3.99 but if i buy atleast ten it will be 3.77per can. On northerner this is usually the price per can if you buy 50, although a discount is available for other quantities like 10 or 25 and so on. It's not a major problem but who really is concerned about the price of 50 compared to the price of 10 in your normal purchase?

Their points system seems to be so confusing that they don't even have a disclosure on how it works.
Like all other snus sites, the site runs incredibly slow, why is this?
They still seem to have no idea how to run an inventory system. Clearly it shows lab 06 as out of stock right now and displays it on the page. But I can't see that lab 13 is out of stock until i click on the picture and it doesn't look like they would make me aware of that if i just added it to my cart and checked out. Even beyond that it doesn't let you know low on stock or anything else on certain products you might rather leave out rather than risk a delay.

The inventory accounting is the only real thing that will keep me hesitant at placing an order. Would it really be difficult to employ one person that can account for quantities coming in vs what is being sold and have that updated atleast once a day? They do seem to be pulling through and its especially nice to see they are helping squeezy but I would really hate to repeat a nightmare of having to wait 2 weeks for my product to ship because they are waiting on a can of something i threw in just out of general interest and could easily do without.

[DanF]

........................The inventory accounting is the only real thing that will keep me hesitant at placing an order. Would it really be difficult to employ one person that can account for quantities coming in vs what is being sold and have that updated atleast once a day? They do seem to be pulling through and its especially nice to see they are helping squeeze

but I would really hate to repeat a nightmare of having to wait 2 weeks for my product to ship because they are waiting on a can of something I threw in just out of general interest and could easily do without.

Now I am starting to see some light in this long expensive tunnel.

The above bold print is a red flag (at least for me).

Online sites that are selling everything from razor blades to Lamborghinis (no matter what) are not programmed to intuitively figure out just what a buyer.... "threw in out of general interest and could easily do without" before shipping the clicked on product.

Not having the product in stock (might) put a delay and backorder on the entire order. They may ship what they do have but they can't decide what we could "easily do without".

Dan

[Frosted]

The problem in the past from my own experience...the website would indicate that all products were in stock when they weren't thereby delaying the whole order until they got the stock in. That could take a very very long time.

[Thunder_Snus]

Now I am starting to see some light in this long expensive tunnel.

The above bold print is a red flag (at least for me).

Online sites that are selling everything from razor blades to Lamborghinis (no matter what) are not programmed to intuitively figure out just what a buyer.... "threw in out of general interest and could easily do without" before shipping the clicked on product.

Not having the product in stock (might) put a delay and backorder on the entire order. They may ship what they do have but they can't decide what we could "easily do without".

Dan

That's exactly my point. I don't expect northerner to know that they could just cancel that can. Maybe i wanted to give WOW honey a try, maybe it's my dying father's last wish to have it one last time before he passes, who knows. I would just like to see a current inventory level that I can trust is accurate before I buy. My typical order is 40 cans of thunder frosted. Atleast a roll of something oden's and then various things I want to try, 1-5 cans of rustic blend/islay whiskey etc. If i put in one can of rustic blend and they don't have it. I'd rather they just sent me everything else. They could keep the extra 5 bucks i spent on the rustic blend for all i car. Sure I want all of my thunder to arrive and certainly want all of my odens to arrive. That's the big problem i see with northerner that I have never experienced with buysnus. I remember there were multiple times when almost everything northerner had was out of stock. It wasn't until atleast a week later that they had that updated to reflect it. So there were a ton of people waiting on orders who were being refused refunds because of their mess up. This new staff seems to have it together and I like to see that, but they are using the same inventory system of basically just saying its in stock its out of stock....doesn't matter I don't think anyone has a clue. With an online only store it should be correct up to the second. We have 1000 cans of thunder frosted and some guy bought 40...that should instantly update to reflect 960 cans left the second i submit payment. When V2 trucks show up at the warehouse with 1000 more cans it should be instantly updated to 1960.

Maybe investing in that quick of an accounting system is too costly, i really don't know. But atleast a basic idea would be great. Current the website has one product that says its out of stock and another one is also out of stock but you have to click on something you typically wouldn't click on to see that information. I remember buysnus had thunder orange and it said it was in limited supply. I could have gambled but I didn't like orange THAT much so i could leave it off, I'm confident everything else that didn't have that warning was plentiful. They can keep their misleading "as low as" pricing when most people think it is for 10 cans rather than 50 and whatnot that doesn't bother me. Knowing if they can actually send me what I am paying them for is still a huge concern for me though.

[Snusdog]

I think this "in stock/out of stock" problem is being rectified in large part by the centralization of the warehouse......in other words.......from my unprofessional, completely speculative perspective.........it seems a large part of the confusion stemmed from running two warehouses on two continents from one inadequate system

In the past the software read both warehouses and would indicate that the product was in stock regardless of which warehouse it was actually presiding (thus it might be "in stock" in the whole of the Northerner system, while it might not be in stock in the warehouse from which you were ordering)......which is to say.....it was as good as out of stock for you........ even though the company had it somewhere in stock.

As they are centralizing their distribution.......I think this issue is becoming less pronounced (in fact, it seems to have already become so)

Anyway.....I have noticed a strong return of Northerner.........and I for one welcome the come back.......cause it is best for


ME

[Bigblue1]

Notice the OP has not ever figured in the Buysnus loyalty program which is perfectly straightforward. Buy 5 rolls the 6th is half off. And for those that are not familiar if someone registers with you as a sponsor their rolls count towards your bonus. Helluva a bonus/referal program if you ask me. My last 2 yrs of orders from buysnus have cost me less than $2.25 a can each and every time. Also they give 10% off most of the time as well on top of buy 10 get 5 free a lot of the time. Also I never have had a problem with them which goes a long way in my book......

[Premium Parrots]

I figured it correctly including the total cost including shipping, any loyalty points or 6th roll half price bonus included. $2.25 a tin can't include shipping for you unless you referred quite a few people to get that much of an xtra discount...and the snus was already on sale. Also, when you get to the six roll point the half price discount applies only to the cheapest snus in you cart.

Like I mentioned before I recommend that everyone price check between the vendors and then decide where to order from. One never knows what may be on sale at any vendor.

I didn't make this thread to go head to head with any vendors. It was made to let the members know that northerner has gotten things in order finally. Wait till northerner actually put there new points system in place. It will be interesting to see what it is.

Then we may see some real competition between the vendors...and that's good for all of us. During PACT it seemed none of the vendors cared and followed northerner and raised prices even tho they didn't incur the additional expense like northerner did because they were trying hard to bring snus to the usa and we then had to pay the taxes...therefore northerners prices went up because of the tax. Its just been maybe the past year that buysnus has really offered any real sales. Some of which were great for us. What buysnus in fact did was take advantage of northerner having to raise the prices and buysnus followed suit because they could and get away with it. Its not like we have a ton of choices of where to get our snus. Of course, when the manufacturers raised the wholesale price all the vendors had to raise their prices accordingly.

It boils down to this....Northerner was trying hard to get FDA approval to bring snus to the USA in the brick and mortor shops for us and had to charge the us customers the tax while buysnus didn't incur any additional costs they still raised their prices....starting with the outrageous shipping. Let that sink in for a moment.

Again, I like both outfits and always price check. Just saying northerner seems to be getting their act together and both will have to stay competitive....which I like even better.

[resnor]

My first couple orders were from snuscentral, buysnus, and some other site...Northerner was always too expensive. My last order was Northerner, they were a good bit cheaper for me, and shipped extremely fast, and no annoying stickers.

I get that people have a negative view of Northerner, but it seems that they are turning things around. If you want to not use them, due to past experiences, that's fine, but try to realize, they might actually be a better option now.

[Thunder_Snus]

I figured it correctly including the total cost including shipping, any loyalty points or 6th roll half price bonus included. $2.25 a tin can't include shipping for you unless you referred quite a few people to get that much of an xtra discount...or the snus was already on sale.

Like I mentioned before I recommend that everyone price check between the vendors and then decide where to order from. One never knows what may be on sale at any vendor.

I didn't make this thread to go head to head with any vendors. It was made to let the members know that northerner has gotten things in order finally. Wait till northerner actually put there new points system in place. It will be interesting to see what it is.

PP I know you have to order snus a lot. Clear something up for us. Are you ever stuck waiting for a shipment or not getting part of it due to them not having inventory like in the past?

[Bigblue1]

Actually my last order for 45 tins was $2.22 a can. Yes it was on sale as they run sales quite often.

General Long White Extra Strong Portion 10 Pack	1	45.47	45.47
General Strong White Portion 10 Pack	2	45.47	90.94
General Long White Extra Strong Portion 1 Pack	5	0.00	0.00
General Strong White Portion 1 Pack	10	0.00	0.00
Bonus discount 50 % on: General Strong White Portion 10 pack			-22.73
Amount before discount:			136.41
Discount code:reference = 10%			13.64
Amount:			100.04
		Shipping cost:	0.00
Order total:			100.04

You can say what you want but that's how everybody should be doing it. Also I've never got a referal discount but I'm sure snuffy is making good on my purchases. And yes that's when they had SM free shipping but regardless it was cheap..... Also I always check em all but in my last 2 orders let's say 16 months Northerner couldn't touch it. But as Always as I'm sure any smart consumer is gonna do We will check them out as well. Really didn't need the commercial for it.....

[Premium Parrots]

yea that was a hell of a one time, year end sale with the free shipping. I wish they did that more often. I bought quite a bit that day because of that. Now since that great sale is over northerner has been cheaper for me. However, it seems most of the time what I want is NOT on sale at buysnus. I think it was on dec 25th that everything was buy 2 rolls get one free. Its dam hard to beat that.

You do realize that northerner is watching this thread and is currently planning a new points/discount system. The better you make Buysnus look the better northerners new system will be for us.

I'm ready to reap the rewards of the competition between the two vendors.

What I don't understand is why buysnus charges almost $12 a roll more for Jakobssons products than northerner does? And Buysnus shipping goes up the more you buy while northerners shipping goes down.