I got an email from Fenex Ammunition about their recent ammo listing. Just thought I would pass it along.
A Quick Follow-Up on Yesterday’s Inventory Listing
Considering the current demand and the number of customers who were not able to complete their purchase yesterday, we wanted to provide some data as to the size of the problem we are trying to solve as well as answer some basic questions:
Q: Did you actually list anything yesterday? Or, ever? I never seem to be able to get any ammo.
A: On February 25th we listed 300,000 total rounds listed at 10AM EST, just as we said we would. 100,000 9mm 115gr were sold in under 60 seconds; 100,000 9mm 147gr were sold in under 110 seconds; 100,000 9mm 124gr were sold in 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
Our last inventory update on February 11th took approximately five minutes to sell the same quantity of ammunition. So far in 2020 we have posted four separate inventory updates totaling 1.2 million rounds which have lasted a combined total of 20 minutes. We do not expect things to change in the near future.
Q: There must be a small number of wholesalers buying up all the ammo to resell at higher prices. Can you put a limit on quantity?
A: We could, but this is not what is happening. Yesterday we processed 568 orders, which means the average order was approximately 500-750 rounds. Even if we limited orders to 1,000 rounds it would not have changed the outcome in any significant manner. Our in-stock notifications had more than 50,000 signups in February alone and there is simply not enough to go around.
Q: I think there are people using bots or automated accounts to check out quicker than other people. Can you put a stop to this?
A: We know some people are quicker than others, but we have no evidence that they are using bots or automated tools. Even if they are, we are not sure how to solve that issue aside from adding more layers of onerous check boxes or captcha-type security to our checkout process. Unfortunately, our ecommerce platform does not offer this type of security and we are not going to move our website to a different platform just to solve this issue.
Q: How can I speed up the checkout process?
A: There are two things you can do – first, create an account on our site. When you are logged in, your shipping information will be pre-loaded in the checkout process. Second, use Google or Apple to save your credit card information on your phone, tablet, or computer. This way, you can eliminate having to manually enter the information. For security purposes, we do not have a way to save payment information on our site, so you will need to use a third party service on your device to do so.
Q: I had ammo in my cart, and before I could enter my credit card information, it disappeared. What’s the deal?
A: The shopping cart does not “protect” your purchase until payment has been processed. We do not have the ability to add a protection timer to our website. We are a small business, not Ticketmaster or Bud’s Guns. We don’t have a full-time staff of web developers. At this time we do not have a solution for this problem and we do not anticipate having a solution in the near future.
Q: Can’t you guys work faster, put out more ammo, update inventory on a more regular basis, etc.?
A: Guys – if we could, we would. We are working on automating our quality control process to a greater degree and we are working to eliminate some inefficiencies in our process, but the supply chain is still a limiting factor and it will not be resolved any time in 2021. Rest assured we are not sitting on a warehouse full of ammo or components, just waiting to see people struggle. Component prices have gone up on EVERY SINGLE ORDER WE HAVE PLACED with our suppliers in the last eight months. We are a small company, and we can only control a small part of the manufacturing process.
Q: Can I just give you my credit card information NOW, and you can ship me ammo when you have some available?
A: Sorry, we really wish we could take pre-orders, but we cannot. If we took a pre-order from every person who has asked us to do so, we would never have anything to list on our website. We get hundreds of these requests every month and all of them get turned down. We are trying to keep the playing field as level as we can.
Q: Where is the defensive 9mm ammo?
A: We likely will not have defensive ammo available for at least a year. We cannot get the projectiles we need from Speer. We are looking into sourcing our own independently manufactured projectile, but this is a process that will take time, and we have many other issues that require our attention at this moment.
Q: I used to be able to buy your ammo for much cheaper. Why are you guys “price gouging”?
A: If you think ammo prices are going up for no reason, we are not sure what to tell you. The demand is outrageous – worse than the industry has ever seen. The supply of components is nearly nonexistent, and thus, the prices of those components have gone up significantly to the manufacturers. We are paying six to seven times the price for primers that we were paying in February 2020 – IF we can get them at all.
We really wish we could get back to normal, but that is not likely to happen any time soon.
We thank all of you for your support and continued patronage during these
