Anyone had trouble with an order from Small Bear (SynthCube)?

Chuck D. Bones

Chuck D. Bones

Circuit Wizard
The story so far:
Order placed June 25th. After almost 3 weeks of no activity, I email them asking for a status update. Immediate response with an apology and a promise to look into it. Another week and no progress. So I called them. Another apology and two days later I receive an email with a tracking #. Order arrives July 27th. Of 13 line items, five are missing and one is short by four pieces. Tomorrow, a phone call.

I have bought from SB/SC before with no problems. How about the rest of you?
 
Chuck D. Bones said:
The story so far:
Order placed June 25th. After almost 3 weeks of no activity, I email them asking for a status update. Immediate response with an apology and a promise to look into it. Another week and no progress. So I called them. Another apology and two days later I receive an email with a tracking #. Order arrives July 27th. Of 13 line items, five are missing and one is short by four pieces. Tomorrow, a phone call.

I have bought from SB/SC before with no problems. How about the rest of you?
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Last time I ordered was for 5 100kC dual ganged pots.

They sent 3 100kA single gang.

They ended up sending me the correct stuff but I’m done ordering with them. They don’t have anything I really need that Tayda doesn’t provide and the customer service isn’t that great since Synthcube took over.
 
After they sent me $100 in vintage bbds in a plastic bag in another plastic bag, I swore them off unless absolutely necessary. I'm of the belief that the new ownership either doesn't know what they're doing or don't care. 125B stock has been coming soon for almost a year...
 
I looked at it at the time as a big parts score for them and nothing else.

I said poor customer service before and that was a little harsh.

I think their employees just don’t know their way around the guitar pedal parts they purchase from SBE.
 
I've had a couple of mix ups but nothing that was a deal breaker. They always made it right. I think it's just growing pains.
 
I ordered a few wrong values, called them on the telephone on a Saturday and someone updated my order right there. I received the updated order. Haven't needed to buy anything from them since though
 
Big Monk said:
I looked at it at the time as a big parts score for them and nothing else.

I said poor customer service before and that was a little harsh.

I think their employees just don’t know their way around the guitar pedal parts they purchase from SBE.
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But to not even check the items against the shipping order, that's just lazy. Maryjane is legal in MA, so that may be the cause. :rolleyes:

In my case it was poor customer service because the first customer service guy said he'd take care of it and didn't. Then another customer service guy said they personally pulled the items and packed them. You don't have to know what the parts are to know whether every line item is packed. They all have SKU numbers. My wife doesn't know electronics, but she can sort resistors because she knows what colors are.
 
I had a package last year that evaporated in the USPS system, "shocking" surprise. I sent them an email and next day they had the same order sent to me at no cost, even for shipping. About a month later the original package showed up. I ordered a boat load of germanium transistors so was pretty stoked to get that haul.

Hope everything works out for you. Dealing with that stuff always sucks
 
I’ve asked them a dozen or so times since they acquired small bear what the timeline was on them restocking some stuff I needed. Each time they’ve changed their answer, from waiting for a new shipment to arrive any day, to needing a new supplier, to having them in production, with timelines switching between a few days, to weeks, to months, to indefinite time frame, to just a week or so, and back again. Too much uncertainty for me, and the mistakes in my own orders have turned me away from ordering from them again unless I need to.
 
Aentons said:
I've had a couple of mix ups but nothing that was a deal breaker. They always made it right. I think it's just growing pains.
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Small Bear announced it was being bought by SynthCube, 7 JAN 2022.
I don't know when the actual change was made, but growing pains should be over by now.

I'm with you, though, as I had a few minor order-mishaps that SynthBearSmallCube rectified immediately. No deal-breakers.
Haven't had to order from them of late.

My biggest gripe is the same as Nick's: they're not restocking anything guitar-related, it seems.
 
Reading this post had me nervously double-checking a recent (and first!) order from Smallbear but fortunately everything was there. It was a 7 SKU order with mainly ICs and some odds and ends. I’ve had good experiences with Amplified Parts so I’ll make a point of trying to order anything I can’t get from Mouser from them, along with Love My Switches.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention!
 
I spoke with their Ops Mgr this morning. He assured me he would pack it up himself and send it out. I have a tracking # and eventually USPS will acknowledge that they have the package in their possession.

It's a small business and they make mistakes. Mammoth (RIP) and SBP have both screwed up orders and made it right. My first SB order was sent to the wrong place and the package I received had all the wrong parts (value far in excess of the parts I paid for). The shipping label with my address was plastered over a shipping label that was bound for Australia. This was back when Steve Daniels was running the company and they went above & beyond to make it right. I trust that the Aussie got his/her parts ok.
 
My last order included 10 CIC ROHS 3PDT Blue footswitches that I have been using for years but this lot had dodgy threads & you couldn't tighten the nut without it jumping threads which reported here on the Forum.
I contacted them & they new about the Issue & sent 10 more that were a newer corrected batch???
I received those & they had the same issue!
I asked them to send me an equivalent which were well made alternatives.
I ended up findind some more 4mm Double thickness nuts that used to come as a bonus when Steve Daniels was running it & have used those on the ones with the slightly undersized thread CIC's with no issue.
 
I've had no issues with Small Bear orders. The only thing I've noticed that's unusual is their continued wait on restocking enclosures.
 
The remaining parts from my order showed up 2 days ago. Everything intact. Eventually SB made it right.
At work we used to have to closely monitor some suppliers because they had a history of shipping late and providing no advance notice that the ship date was slipping. From now on, I'll check the status of my SB orders frequently.
 
Months ago I ordered some of their hookup wire, as it came highly recommended from a few reliable sources.

It frayed VERY easily and was a royal pain to work with. I called em and after checking out their stock, they said “yep, seems like a manufacturing issue”. They sent some replacement wire out (from an “old” batch), and threw in a little extra. Unfortunately it also sucked! 🤷‍♂️

Still, they were very nice and tried their best to fix the issue. It took a looooong time to receive my initial order since it was during a big sale and they were bogged down.

I’ll probably avoid em unless I have no other option for something.
 
I just checked out their stock because they are having a 20% sale but they don’t seem to have anything interesting. Almost no enclosures in stock, all their knobs are twice the price of Tayda’s and I am not gonna buy pairs of Ge transistors for $6.99 if I can help it (I usually go to eBay first). Do they have anything worth checking out at this point?
 
Maybe some pots that are hard to find anywhere else.

Some of their knobs are higher quality than Tayda.

I have never bought matched Ge transistors from SB. Steve Daniels knew what he was doing. I have doubts whether SC knows or cares how to properly match Ge transistors.
 
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