Any experience with ordering from vela?

I've used them, they are good from my experience. Sometimes hard to get on the phone but that was during harsh COVID times so not sure if that was the main factor. Also some items took considerable time to arrive, but again likely not their fault. The issues to the supply chain have been affecting many products the past 1-2 yrs. Good luck!
 
im going to wait until i get everything sorted out proper before elaborating further. i think they are trying to make good on the stuff fedex lost. its just taken forever. i think mostly because they are having things drop shipped.
 
I know the owner. He's a great guy, and I use them all the time. Highly recommend! Many in the Dallas ILCA fleet use his practice sails and they are good quality. I bought a 4.7 sail for my daughter, and it looks great (I also have two practice sails of my own).
 
heres the tl;dr
ordered parts feb 5. stuff got lost. took forever to sort out. got replacements yesterday 5 weeks later.

ordered the parts through their site. 2 ea 5" ports that were about 55 bucks total. they drop shipped from ronstan in rhode island. fedex lost the shipment. (marked as delivered. i was around, no delivery showed up on my cams) emailed vela. they said they would initiate a claim with fedex and it would take 5 business days. i said ok. on the 6th day i emailed them and asked what was up and vela said the claim was denied. i think my comment was something to the effect of "of course it was", so vela said they would initiate a claim with ronstan. that was the first they had been involved. i said ok. but i wasnt really interested in the process of them going through various vendors to get these couple of cheap parts. they said they could place another order for me and they would take 5pct off the order. uh.....no.

so i waited about another week and emailed them again. basically making the point that it was a few bucks in parts and just drop another set in the mail to me. but the logistics of geting ronstan to send someone not their customer something for free i guess was not in the cards. which ok, i get. but in the interest of customer service, how about vela send the 3o bucks in parts their cost and sort this out with their sales person from ronstan on their own. i would have even paid shipping if they agreed. but nope. i ordered 2 replacements from the dinghy shop since i was tired of the process and just wanted the parts for the boat. lol. I got those 3 days later.

vela said theyd ship new stuff to me before the end of the week of the 5th of march. i didnt hear anything. so i emailed them that following week and they said the stuff was leaving the next day. the next day i got the shipping confirmation. 2 days later usps had the package in hand in texas (?) it took 3 days transit from texas to baltimore and i got the replacements yesterday march 14th.

i believe this is my second order from vela and the first went great a year ago. i realize places dont actually have inventory anymore. but for the delay caused and for the agitation, just order 2 new ports and send them to me. i even said if the original order somehow appears id happily pay for them.

in the end the parts finally showed up. they kept on top of it. so point for that. id probably order from them again. but this time ill call them and make sure parts are not being drop shipped. if the stuff gets lost its a bit of a pain to sort out.

the @DinghyShop has been fantastic. sunfish direct has been really great too.
 
I've ordered lines from them quite a bit since APS is out (RIP) probably the best selection on the internet
I wish could have taken advantage of having aps around..then again having them 45 mins away would have probably been bad.. lol.

My vela thing worked out eventually.. Im.realizing I need to call every place to see if they actually have on hand the stuff that's on the website..because moat of the stuff I've been getting the places do not have..which is dumb.. I ordered a ratchet block and rooster hiking strap two weeks ago from boat locker up in Bridgeport ct.. block was on the site..banne says order before 3pm for same day shipping.....oh...they didn't actually have it in stock.. meh....
 
I wish could have taken advantage of having aps around..then again having them 45 mins away would have probably been bad.. lol.

My vela thing worked out eventually.. Im.realizing I need to call every place to see if they actually have on hand the stuff that's on the website..because moat of the stuff I've been getting the places do not have..which is dumb.. I ordered a ratchet block and rooster hiking strap two weeks ago from boat locker up in Bridgeport ct.. block was on the site..banne says order before 3pm for same day shipping.....oh...they didn't actually have it in stock.. meh....

Yeah, lots of shortages. I had to replace my son's laser upper because it snapped that had to get shipped from the UK.
 
Yeah, lots of shortages. I had to replace my son's laser upper because it snapped that had to get shipped from the UK.
Fogh seems to have things I can't get in the u.s.. I love those guys. My pal from Toronto is heading down in 2 weeks and I kinds want to scratch the itch. Lol.
 
Rod is a truly fine fellow serving our strange sport where each of us has personalized toys. My last interaction with Rod was during the recent North U at Austin Yacht Club.
I am not his competitor but I have a small chandlery whose purpose it to always have whatever my local Sailor friends need to get back on the water ASAP. This means constantly re-stocking a quarter million $$$ inventory of all the strange gizmos and lines necessary to make any of the 1500 nearby sailboats work. I don’t even try to have the right color snd don’t much care about brand. If I did tgat the inventory would tie up million$$.
Anyway, Rod showed up around 5:45 with a broken tiller to extension flex joint. He asked if I had a Ronstan replacement.
I told him I had 5 Harken fiex joints in stock and absolutely do not stock other brands because I want everybody at the club to have the exact same part so we never have to worry about sending somebody off with the wrong one.
We replaced the part in his extension and he went down to the lake and swapped out the little piece on the tiller.
He came back twice more during the week because other boats broke the samepart.
And I restocked ten more on Wednesday because the Easter a Laser Regatta was a week away.
I also showed Rod some parts on my pegboards that came from Vela.
This is Rod in the middle winning the J-22 Worlds last summer. I did the keel and rudder.
Two time Easter Laser Regatta winner Paul Foerster is Foredeck and multi time Bruce Cup RC Jeff Progoloff is steering.
 

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