Should I be freaking out?

[Xtal]

I ordered gold from the online shop I normally order it from.  Normally they would notify me of shipment after 7 business days, but now it's been... quite a bit longer than that.

I just called to find out when I can expect shipment and was told that they are awaiting their shipment, which should be in early next week.

Is it time to freak out yet?

Maybe I've read a little too much FOFOA.  I'm just... not happy right now.  Will be much happier once the shiny is in my hands.

[notsheigetz]

If you are talking about Goldmart I'm in the same boat. It's been 3 weeks since they notified me they received my order and nothing yet, including a response to an email I sent them two days ago.  This is my fourth purchase from them and although they have never come through within the 7 days they claim is typical on their website it has never taken this long. Curiously, this is the first time I have bought gold in which it immediately increased in value. Every other time it was the opposite. Probably doesn't have anything to do with it but it is curious.

I'm not freaking yet though. You can find a good number of complaints on the internet about their shipping but I've yet to see anyone claim they never got their order at all.

[Reub]

I've waited as long as a month for Goldmart to deliver but they haven't let me down (yet).

[Xtal]

Thanks you two.  Yes, it is Goldmart.

[MediumTex]

I wouldn't freak out.

[annieB]

I'm sure you'll be ok but I would not want to do business when the terms keep changing.
Hope we hear from our resident gold expert.

[notsheigetz]

I switched from AJPM to Goldmart because of their free shipping and slightly lower prices. Also, their coins seemed to always be shinier. Whether that means newer or not, I don't know.

There is no guarantee of shipping time on the Goldmart website, just a statement of what is "typical" which has never been typical for me. It has never bothered me that it takes a little longer than typical but at 3 x typical a little communication with the customer would probably be in their interest to avoid the kind of complaints you find by googling (and I know the posts here come up in search engines so there you have it Goldmart).

I'm also cutting them some slack because I screwed up myself by forgetting to sign the first check I sent them. They handled that situation very politely and waited for me to send another check.

Don't know if I'll be looking for another dealer next time or not. I live within 15 miles of Gainesville coins so I can go complain in person if they leave me hanging.

[Libertarian666]

I switched from AJPM to Goldmart because of their free shipping and slightly lower prices. Also, their coins seemed to always be shinier. Whether that means newer or not, I don't know.

There is no guarantee of shipping time on the Goldmart website, just a statement of what is "typical" which has never been typical for me. It has never bothered me that it takes a little longer than typical but at 3 x typical a little communication with the customer would probably be in their interest to avoid the kind of complaints you find by googling (and I know the posts here come up in search engines so there you have it Goldmart).

I'm also cutting them some slack because I screwed up myself by forgetting to sign the first check I sent them. They handled that situation very politely and waited for me to send another check.

Don't know if I'll be looking for another dealer next time or not. I live within 15 miles of Gainesville coins so I can go complain in person if they leave me hanging.

Couldn't you buy over the counter at Gainesville Coins then, or at least pick up an order there? That would eliminate the wait and shipping costs.

[AgAuMoney]

Right now delays are typically production related - mints are turning big bars into the smaller products as fast as they can get the big bars and run them thru the mill.

I prefer drop ship (where producer ships directly to me instead of to retailer who then ships to me) arranged via a broker, e.g. ColoradoGold.  For smaller orders I've found their fees are not competitive, so I tend to make a circuit around the local shops looking for deals (and often find them).

[notsheigetz]

Couldn't you buy over the counter at Gainesville Coins then, or at least pick up an order there? That would eliminate the wait and shipping costs.

Yes, that was exactly my thinking. I would have done so in the past but they don't take personal checks like Goldmart and getting a bank wire transfer from Fidelity used to be a pain in the a**. I understand that Fidelity has made it much easier so I will probably give it a try next time though my buying spree is probably done for a while.

[Libertarian666]

Couldn't you buy over the counter at Gainesville Coins then, or at least pick up an order there? That would eliminate the wait and shipping costs.

Yes, that was exactly my thinking. I would have done so in the past but they don't take personal checks like Goldmart and getting a bank wire transfer from Fidelity used to be a pain in the a**. I understand that Fidelity has made it much easier so I will probably give it a try next time though my buying spree is probably done for a while.

I have recently had no difficulty getting Fidelity to do a bank wire, even an international one. They even waived the fee for me, although obviously I can't guarantee they will always do that. However, I did it by going to one of their offices; it may not be as convenient doing it over the phone. Gainesville will also take credit cards, although at a higher price, but if you want the points on a card that provides reasonable rewards that's probably a wash.

[Xtal]

Finally got shipping notice!  Time to go boating....

[notsheigetz]

Finally got shipping notice!  Time to go boating....

That's good to hear. I'm still waiting. I did get an email last week that it would be shipping "early next week" but we have now arrived at late next week and nothing.

I don't mind so much but I just looked at the website again and beneath the golden eagles it still says "in stock and ready to ship" just as it did when I bought mine. I guess one should not take that to mean that it is actually going to ship, just that it's ready.

[mortalpawn]

Finally got shipping notice!  Time to go boating....

Be careful with the boating - some people here have lost all of their gold, guns and ammo in horrible boating accidents.

[notsheigetz]

My order, placed on August 1, finally shipped yesterday.

Despite the low prices, the free shipping, and two previous satisfactory experiences, I believe this will be my last order with Goldmart. It's not so much the long shipping delay that bothered me but the false advertising of "In Stock and ready to ship" along with a promise to deliver "early next week" that turned into late the following week. If you do some Googling on Goldmart you will find many nearly identical complaints, including quite a few with the Better Business Bureau in Nevada. This company gives every indication of being in some kind of distress and one begins to worry that one day you will go to the website to check on your order only to find the URL no longer works.

Now if they had just told me honestly that they had the gold ready to ship but lost it in a boating accident I would have been more understanding.

[Reub]

So who will you use instead?

[notsheigetz]

So who will you use instead?

I used AJPM before Goldmart and got good service but I think I'll give Gainesville coins a try. They are only about 30 minutes from my house.

[Larshus]

It depends on what you ordered.

If its something common like american Gold Eagles *and* there is no current holdup to tier one distributors, Tier ones will get their shipments once a week. That means gold mart will get their shipment from the tier ones every week. If its taking more than 2 weeks for this type of item, no including verification of funds on a personal check, something is wrong.

If you order older coins such as Swiss, French, British, this can take longer at times. These coins have to pass through customs, along with a whole slew of other issues. It can take an extra week or two in the worst case.

Now, I personally think that an online retailer dealer should let you know if they have in STOCK the item you are ordering, or if its coming from a wholesaler. That's just my opinion though.

[Reub]

G-ldmart is getting worse.....might not use them again.

[Reub]

G-ldmart sent me an email last week stating that their servers were compromised, or something, and that all back orders would be fulfilled by mid-week this week. Well it is now Friday so I called them and they told me that the problem with their computers was worse than what they thought and because of that they ran out of inventory on American eagles but more would be coming next week...blah, blah, blah. It has been a month since my small order was placed and now they have proven to me to be unreliable. I will not be using them again and would recommend that others be very leery.

[MitchB]

Tulving also looks like it has quite a number of problems:

http://golddealerreviews.com/reviews/go ... /3-tulving

[Kriegsspiel]

I have used Goldmart a couple times now, with no issues. So it's not all bad news from them.

[Reub]

My order was eventually completed however I have lost some confidence in them.

[PP67]

Newbie question about buying physical gold:  When you place an order, is your order locked in at a certain price or is it the price of gold when they finally ship?

Thanks!

[Libertarian666]

Newbie question about buying physical gold:  When you place an order, is your order locked in at a certain price or is it the price of gold when they finally ship?

Thanks!

I believe most dealers lock in when you order. However, the last time I dealt with Kitco (selling), they gave me the option of picking the price when placing the sell order or when they got the metal.

So I guess the real answer is to check with the dealer.