Midway Rant

[Kansas Ed]

I don't know if everyone is experiencing this, but it takes AGES to traverse Midway's website. I mean, it's to the point that I won't hardly go there anymore because the pages load SO SLOOOOW. I can't believe it's my computer or browser or DSL, cause I stream TV programs regularly. Anyway, I emailed Larry Potterfield a couple of weeks ago, and got what I thought was a BS answer from him. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed the lag time in Midway's website, and if they are going to other venues because of it.

Ed

[TedH]

I had that problem in the past, but since a couple months ago when they were down for an upgrade it's been a lot better for me, works fine.

[bsaride]

I haven't had any problems with their website other than picking the right term to use for a search.

I had a problem on a delivery about 6 weeks ago and they handled it very well and quickly too.

I order once or twice a month from them.

[Ysabel Kid]

Sometimes painfully slow, but boy do they have a nice selection!

[BenT]

Their old search feature was better, the new one is slow. I usually look up the product number in the catalog and then input it on the website to see if it is in stock. Or I step through the catagories to get where I need to be.

[Mike D.]

I purchased several reloading items from them this afternoon and it took FOREVER to load the pages. This site was like that this morning, too. BTW, it's only 2216 in CA, so it's still Thursday.

[FWiedner]

I've got pretty old PC, and their site seems to work OK for me.

Maybe I just have low expectations.

[claybob86]

I've found their site to be so ridiculously slow that I do not browse around just to see what they have anymore. I used to really like Midway. Not so much anymore. They could invest in the necessary equipment to provide decent service to their customers, but it seems like they are more intent on becoming the wal-mart of the shooting world and trying to run everyone else out of business. That's my impression, anyway.

[Hillbillygunsmith]

I have been doing business with Midway for several years. Recently I have gotton back into pistol shooting, IDPA, with my son and have been ordering a large amount from Midway.
Until today, I have not had a problem with Midway and enjoyed doing business with them. Today that may have changed and I am giving serious consideration on never doing business with them again.
I tried to order a Ciener 22 kit conversion for the Colt 1911 I shoot. Everything was fine until the order clerk told me that she could not ship the conversion kit to me as it had a 15 round magazine and as we all know California has a ban on any mags that are over 10 rounds.
The clerk did advise me that they had in stock both Ciener 10 and 15 round magazines. I wanted the conversion kit, which comes with one mag and two additional mags. I asked her if she could change the 15 round mags for the 10 round mags that they had in stock and ship it that way to me and that would not be in violation of any laws. She advised me that she did not think she could do that as the kit comes as a sealed package. I asked her if she could speak with her supervisior and see if it could be done and I would not have any problem of receiving a open sealed package.
She was kind enought to put me on hold while she contacted her supervisior. Upon completion of the conversation with her supervisior, she stated to me that the supervisior had stated that they could not comply with my request due to the reason they would have to do it with "EVERY CALIFORNIA CUSTOMER" that requested it . I thanked her for her time and cancelled the order and hung up.
This California customer did not appreciate the poor customer service I got. My request was a very reasonable one if they wanted to sell their products. I am also aware that the 15 round mags are in more demand then the 10 rounds we must use here, so that is not a issue for switching the mags.
From the attitude and reply that supervisior gave, I can only surmise that Midway does not really care about taking care of their customers from CA. I sent Midway an email about what I felt was very poor customer service. I am waiting their reply, but unless they change that policy of switching mags for a CA. customer, I will never do business with them again and will inform all my other shooting club friends that are from CA. and do business with Midway.
I have been checking Midway's site for about a month to see when they would get that conversion kit back in stock, and when they do, they give me that excuse. I did locate a company here in Ca. that sells the 22 conversion kit and they were more then happy to do business with me.
In the future I may have a hard time believing the owner of Midway when he makes his famous commercial pitch, "We want your business". Brownell's has never failed me like Midway did today, they will be getting more business from me.
Hillbillygunsmith

[El Chivo]

I have no complaints, just bought a screwdriver set and punch set and some Lyman globes. The great thing about them is they have EVERYTHING and so you don't have to place 2 or 3 orders and pay 2 or 3 shipping charges.

As far as loading goes, I haven't noticed it. It may depend on the time of day, and I do most of my net shopping at 2 am PST.

What I like best, as a newbie, are their copious customer reviews which give the real skinny on the products, as opposed to the marketing boilerplate you see word for word on other sites. I have been able to get a good idea of each product and how it might work for me, from those reviews.

Of course, if you guys stop logging on, the site will load faster for the rest of us.

[BenT]

The one thing I like about Midway is that they ship in a timely manner. I usually get my stuff within 2 days and they send me e-mail letting me know that they shipped.I ordered something from another popular place a few weeks ago and it took almost 2 weeks to get it. I had to call the seller after 5 days to see if the item was out of stock since I hadn't gotten it or an e-mail of any type. They had just shipped it that day. So it took them 5 days just to get it out the door. I do like to spread my business around to different places though.

[TedH]

I guess I'm kind of bias towards Midway because I'm only about five minutes away from them. I place my order first thing in the morning, then run out on my lunch break to pick it up, no shipping.

[Chuck 100 yd]

I liked their old format better. This one is slower and has more steps.
I was a midway customer before they were online / or before I had a computer. I still phone in my orders even when I find the item online. and yes,they are quick to ship.

[Modoc ED]

I have been doing business with Midway for several years. Recently I have gotton back into pistol shooting, IDPA, with my son and have been ordering a large amount from Midway.
Until today, I have not had a problem with Midway and enjoyed doing business with them. Today that may have changed and I am giving serious consideration on never doing business with them again.
I tried to order a Ciener 22 kit conversion for the Colt 1911 I shoot. Everything was fine until the order clerk told me that she could not ship the conversion kit to me as it had a 15 round magazine and as we all know California has a ban on any mags that are over 10 rounds.
The clerk did advise me that they had in stock both Ciener 10 and 15 round magazines. I wanted the conversion kit, which comes with one mag and two additional mags. I asked her if she could change the 15 round mags for the 10 round mags that they had in stock and ship it that way to me and that would not be in violation of any laws. She advised me that she did not think she could do that as the kit comes as a sealed package. I asked her if she could speak with her supervisior and see if it could be done and I would not have any problem of receiving a open sealed package.
She was kind enought to put me on hold while she contacted her supervisior. Upon completion of the conversation with her supervisior, she stated to me that the supervisior had stated that they could not comply with my request due to the reason they would have to do it with "EVERY CALIFORNIA CUSTOMER" that requested it . I thanked her for her time and cancelled the order and hung up.
This California customer did not appreciate the poor customer service I got. My request was a very reasonable one if they wanted to sell their products. I am also aware that the 15 round mags are in more demand then the 10 rounds we must use here, so that is not a issue for switching the mags.
From the attitude and reply that supervisior gave, I can only surmise that Midway does not really care about taking care of their customers from CA. I sent Midway an email about what I felt was very poor customer service. I am waiting their reply, but unless they change that policy of switching mags for a CA. customer, I will never do business with them again and will inform all my other shooting club friends that are from CA. and do business with Midway.
I have been checking Midway's site for about a month to see when they would get that conversion kit back in stock, and when they do, they give me that excuse. I did locate a company here in Ca. that sells the 22 conversion kit and they were more then happy to do business with me.
In the future I may have a hard time believing the owner of Midway when he makes his famous commercial pitch, "We want your business". Brownell's has never failed me like Midway did today, they will be getting more business from me.
Hillbillygunsmith

Knowing that the conversion kit had a 15-round magazine included, why did you try to order it and slip it by MidwayUSA in the first place. If the lady hadn't caught it you'd have gotten an illegal (in CA) magazine. Or was that what you wanted?

It even warns about complying with State laws when ordering from MidwayUSA in their catalog.

I perfectly understand their not wanting to break a sealed kit and changing out parts in it. I seriously doubt if Brownells would do it either and they for sure wouldn't ship a kit containing a 15-round magazine to CA either.

[Hobie]

Aside from having broken the sealed conversion kit package, the 15 rd mags would not have had packaging. Those mags would then have to be sold at discount.

[Kansas Ed]

I'm not dissatisfied with the service that Midway gives. Matter of fact, I've also been doing business with them since before there was an internet. My major gripe is the download time for each webpage. Sometimes it takes 30-45 seconds per page to download. I just don't have the patience to go through all of that when other companies offer similar pricing and I can check availability in a matter of a few seconds rather than Midway's 5-10 minutes per item. And BTW, we have 4 active computers in the house, all on DSL, and all stream video and movies flawlessly, yet none of them will traverse Midway's site worth a hoot in either Firefox or IE. I wish they would see this and fix their servers....

Ed

[deerwhacker444]

Midway is now the last place I'll go to buy stuff.

It really irks me that Midway has all the money they need to sponsor the NRA, create TV shows on the Outdoor Channel and jet set around the world on hunting trips, but..they will now allow me to order less than $20 bucks worth of stuff without being charged for a minimum order.

There has been a couple times where all I've needed was a slot blank or some other 2$ part and couldn't order it because of a minimum. I find that unacceptable.

Recently, I've ordered my stuff from Grafs. They have a $4.50 flat shipping rate. I'd much rather give them my business since they're obviously trying to save me money.

[handyrandyrc]

Kinda too bad - Graf's increased their minimum order from $40 to $100 dollars!

[Brian in FL]

I usually try to order from Graf & Sons, but if you've been to their web site lately, you've noticed that they are out of stock on a whole lot of items. So my second choice is either Mid South or Natchez. I don't use Midway at all. I called in a simple catalog request in August and was told that that month's circulars had already gone out and I would get the September one. I have not seen a single circular from them since. And they told me that there was a shipping charge for their master catalog. Who ever heard of such a thing?

So far, I've been able to get anything I've needed (except primers and Varget powder, but none of the mail order houses can supply those items on anything like a regular basis) at Mid South or Natchez with very fast service. Speaking of Varget, Natchez has a service whereby they'll send you an e-mail when an out of stock item comes in. That saves a lot of time checking back all the time.

Also, Natchez has the lowest price on Remington 200 grain bullets for the .35 Remington. I've got enough of them now for a lifetime of hunting.

[marlinman93]

Still somewhat slow. I haven't been happy with Midway since they started charging shipping and handling fees. I used to buy something from them almost every sale catalog, but now it's rarely.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

Yeah, their response times have slowed of late. The site with the slowest response times though is often MidSouth. I have a 30 second timeout on their responses versus a 20 second timeout for Natchez, Grafs, and Midway.

The only thing I've ordered from Midway lately is ... well ... primers, obviously.

[Modoc ED]

I have to laugh at you guys that are complaining about a 30-second to 45-second wait for a page to load. I remember the good ole DOS Days and the Microsoft 3.1 Days combined with dial-up. Sometimes you would wait hours for a download. You could hit the enter button, go to the can, go to lunch, pick your teeth, stop by the good looking blonde's desk on the way back to your desk and when you got back, the download was just finishing -- if you were lucky.

MidwayUSA is a bit slow now-a-days due to the HEAVY traffic they are handling. They've alread upgraded their servers once and it looks like they may have to do it again.

I keep going back to MidwayUSA because inevitably they have what I want in stock with the exception now-a-days of some reloading comonents -- powder and primers mostly.