"Very customer friendly and no hassle with delivery or my return delivery."

"Fast shipping; quality parts."

"i have used crucial many times and always have a positive experience, from running the scan to find the correct memory too delivery and installation. i highly recommend them and use them exclusively."

"It was fairly easy to find what I needed and to get answers to questions I had about the product. It was easy to check out. The tracking so far hasn't worked but I don't know if that is crucial's issue or UPS's. "

"Order was received in record time. Very happy. Thank you"

"Order was delivered promptly on Time. No problem with
installation of product."

"Short version: Want to know how to lose a customer? Sell them a $300 item that weighs under 5 oz and offer free shipping, but send it via the slowest method you possibly can, give them a tracking number that doesn't work (even after the item is delivered!), and have customer service tell people that's completely normal and not to worry unless it's been 9 business days since they told you it theoretically shipped.

Crucial's website is nice enough (although you can't compare shipping costs easily when checking out), and the Micron RAM they are the retail arm of is of good quality (I think...), but in this day and age free shipping that has a completely broken tracking number and takes well over a week to arrive is inexcusable, particularly on an expensive item that weighs almost nothing.

I, at least, am never shopping here again.


Long version:

Between work and personal purchases, I spend literally tens of thousands of dollars a year online, most of it on technology products, and this is the second-worst shipping experience I've ever had--and their customer service apparently considers it "normal".

I understand that with free shipping I'm getting what I ask for. But on the other hand, Crucial is competing against other companies that offer similar products in the year 2014, so at bare minimum I expect to get a tracking number that tells me the item is on its way to me, and really, for something so expensive and light, I'd expect a little extra effort put into the budget shipping option.

Am I being picky? Sure. But then, why should I buy from a place with substandard service once they've got my money when literally everyone else I buy from can do better?

I ordered, all on the same day:

1) A 31-pound custom-built computer from a national company
2) A box of hard drives from a big place in New York
3) A battery charger from a small store
4) A printer from the 800-pound gorilla store
5) Two monitors from a big electronics reseller in California
6) Some BDs on sale from a favorite place in Iowa
7) $300 in RAM from Crucial, also Iowa

All of these, I opted for free shipping. Which one do you think took the longest to arrive?

Items 1-6 all got to my house within one calendar week (including the computer, which took 4 days to build before it shipped), and for ALL of those I had a working tracking number within 12 hours of getting a shipping notification, including the items that shipped via USPS. This is the level of service I expect in 2014.

Then there's #7, Crucial. It shipped--or at least claimed to--via the weird UPS/Post combo service within 24 hours of placing the order, but took an additional week to arrive, and even after delivery the tracking number they emailed me *still* doesn't work. A functioning tracking number is something I can get when I ship an item using discount USPS shipping as a private eBay seller, yet Crucial can't get me one a week later?

Not to mention the fact that this is an order consisting of four sticks of SDRAM that weighs (I checked) under 5 oz. If I shipped it myself, I could send it first class mail, with no discounts, for $2.69, and it would get almost anywhere in the country in under a week, with a basic tracking number. For $6, I could use a Priority Mail flat-rate box and get it anywhere in 3 days.

So even taking into account that their customers opted to cheap out on shipping (the cheapest alternative is 3-day FedEx at $7 for the same items), Crucial is willing to take a relatively large order--$300--on an extremely light item, and use the most ridiculously cheap, slow shipping method with broken tracking to save, what, a dollar over first-class mail? Couldn't possibly be more than $2.

I'm sure it adds up over thousands of customers, but it's lost my business in perpetuity, and I'm going to think twice about buying Crucial-branded products from other sellers in the futre, too--because really, if they're that cheap on shipping when they're getting the added margins of selling direct, what kind of corners are they cutting on manufacturing?"

"Placing the order was very easy, shipment of the product came fast and everything is up and running smoothly. I will be happy to shop again with Crucial.com. Chris in Poulsbo, Washington."

"I was unable to place order with them because of some unknown reason to do with my debit card. I have done most of my Christmas shopping online this year and have used my debit card and PayPal with no issues except with crucial. I ended up ordering from Seagate and had no issues whatsoever!"

"Very knowledgable customer service people. Very confident with information provided"

"Quick Service! Works Great!"

"The SSD and the Ram worked Great, but you guys switched to Acronis as the cloning software. 2 hours to get it the free version installed and then wanted me to upgrade so I could clone. Lucky for me I still knew about EZ GIG IV (your former clone supplied software or I would have been out of pocket more just to use your product. I came close to just sending the drive and ram back and ordering via Tiger Direct. You guys turned a 40 minute job in to a 3 hour job with your supplied software. I like your SSD's (have bought 15 so far), but dang you are you trying to run me to a competitor? "

"Great memory selection tool on the web site -- easy ordering and quick delivery. Great job!"

"Good information, easy access, and timely delivery"

"The tracking process for the package did not work. I did not know when it would be delivered. The package did finally arrive, but I had to call customer support to track it, and even they couldn't tell me if it was on the way."