First, if you have questions, PLEASE EMAIL:  SUPPORT@EIO.COM. We are NOT answering questions posed in the comments of this or any other blog. We are answering ALL EMAILS to support@eio.com within 24-48 hours, Mon - Fri.

In the interest of transparency for those who are reading this posting, this announcement is to update everyone about the situation regarding stock of 3M respirators as well as what role we are trying to play in shipping orders and finally to give our customers a reasonable expectation of when your order can ship.

To start, firstly we apologize to all customers who are trying to call and not getting through. We are a small business with a small staff, but the demand for 3M respirators has led to an increase in telephone calls and emails that is somewhat beyond our ability to manage. We ask that anyone with a question regarding specific shipments or anyone who needs to cancel an order email us at support@eio.com and read this announcement in great detail. We would also encourage you to cancel your order by the 6^th actual day of your order is you cannot wait for us to fulfill your order in due time.

Inventory

Regarding the inventory of 3M respirators, it’s our understanding that pretty much ALL distributors are completely sold out of all respirators. We are still taking orders because the demand is so high, you will be able to add the items to the cart and complete an order because we are working closely with our 3M sales rep to get product to ship to customers and we are receiving shipments every week which allows us to ship a number of orders each week. We are shipping all orders on a first come, first served basis so if you are placing an order on our site and if you keep the order in place, we WILL ship it, but it will be first come, first served and we cannot give you a specific ship date due to the unusually high demand. Please DO NOT place an order with the expectation that it will ship immediately and be delivered within 2-days. Few if any distributors will be able to honor that at this point. If you select expedited shipping at checkout, it will ship expedited when inventory arrives.

We are also continuing to take orders because there are other sellers in online marketplaces that are price gouging and scalping individual masks to the highest bidder in an attempt to capitalize on the sudden demand for this mask. If we do not sell these masks, others will at a much higher price. We find this to be extremely distasteful and we are rejecting obvious orders from marketplace resellers and scalpers on Amazon and eBay so that we can reserve stock for smaller orders ensuring respirators for individuals and families. We are reserving orders for individual use or for shipments to family overseas and are rejecting most large orders from resellers so that we can supply masks to people in need at an affordable price.

While your order may take some time to ship, we have not increased our price with the demand for 3M respirators. The only thing we ask is that you be patient while we try to ship these to you as quickly as possible.

In summary, we have fluctuating stock levels and shipments, but we are taking orders because we are getting some shipments in and shipping those out right away. We are taking and holding orders with the expectation that we guarantee, based on assurances from our 3M sales reps, that your order will ship as soon as we get the inventory in. If you cannot wait, you may email us to cancel your order, however, you would lose your place in line and most if not all 3M distributors are in the same situation.

Timeline for Shipping

In response to the increased demand, 3M has increased their production to 24/7 in early February to meet increased market demand. To start with they have been reserving stock for healthcare and emergency personnel, and once that stock is at an acceptable level, they will start releasing the larger orders that all distributors have placed as equally as possible. Each different model of mask has a different lead time. Although 3M is typically reliable in terms of lead times and ETA, due to this very unique situation they are not making any guarantees and we do not feel it’s appropriate to commit to specific release and ship dates that we have not received.

We also received an announcement from 3M stating that once we as a distributor reserve the stock for your order, we are not allowed to cancel it. This essentially means we are taking your order on the premise of it being “made to order.” We’ll take your order and reserve the stock with 3M, however, we will not be able to cancel it past 7 days, which is why we are asking you to cancel by day 6 if you cannot wait for your order.

We have not been given solid dates or exact timelines as to when we will receive the large orders we placed with 3M over the past month. As stated earlier, we have received some and shipped those, but 3M is releasing orders as equally as possible to all distributors.

To help you make a purchasing decision, the respirator that our rep has told us will be available at the earliest date and the highest quantity is the 8210PB1-QP. Before ordering this, we recommend that you look at the product specifications and ensure that it will work for your needs as we are not trained in the use of said products and cannot guarantee its efficacy for any given usage not prescribed by the manufacturer.

We will be still taking orders for all respirators, but we would like to state there will be a longer wait. We also recommend avoiding any respirator in the “Aura” series due to the fact that they have a much longer timeframe for shipping.

In summary, we cannot guarantee a shipping date or even estimated time, but what we can guarantee is that once we have reserved your stock, we will ship it as soon as inventory arrives. If you contact us for a ship date, we cannot provide one, we can only guarantee that we will ship it on a first come, first served basis for stock that has been reserved.

Cancelling your Order

Due to the high volume of customer contacts, we will not be taking cancellation requests over the phone. We ask that you submit your cancellation request in writing, from the email address that you used to place the order and reference your order number and “cancellation” in the subject of the email. You must email support@eio.com for us to cancel any orders.

Since there is an indeterminate waiting period for your order to ship, and these items are considered “made to order” for the time being, we ask that if you cannot wait for your order that you cancel by day 6. On day 7 of the order, we capture the payment so that we can reserve the stock for your order with the manufacturer. Once your stock is reserved after payment, we are not able to cancel the order with 3M. If you ask to cancel your order after the funds have been captured, we do reserve the right to assess a 10% cancellation fee as outlined in our terms and conditions (agreed to at checkout). This cancellation fee is primarily because we cannot cancel the order once we have reserved stock as well as to recover business losses associated with processing a payment in the internet marketplace. If you want to avoid a cancellation fee, please cancel prior to day 7 and the capturing of your funds.

In Summary

We thank everyone for their business and continued patience as we fulfill these orders. Please be aware that we are a small, family –owned business. We are not trying to take advantage of this situation, we have kept prices low and are trying to ensure that orders are filled as fairly as possible. We will continue to take orders, but please be aware that there is a waiting period solely caused by a global demand that the manufacturer, 3M, has even been challenged to keep up with.