Ordered a can through SS to a local class III dealer that I've gone through for my last 4 cans.  Can't say I've had great experiences through them in the past, guess I'm a glutton for punishment!  They are a SS platinum dealer - so you'd would expect decent service at least!  Nope.

I called them as I received my email to certify today.  The last can I bought I recall I had to go into the store because the ATF required it.  Then they changed the process, and you don't need to certify in person any longer.  Yet the shop said - hey come on down!  After calling them out on their BS, I receive excuses about how things may not go smoothly, blah blah blah.  Then I get the "We'll, we're busy right now."  Really?  I guess ME as an actual customer doesn't count.  I get it - there's folks in the store - but why couldn't they say "hey why don't you give me your phone # and I'll call you back in a bit?"  No.  I had to ask them.

This is last time I buy a can through them.  Last time I bought 2 cans, and waited a fucking hour to pick them up because other people needed helping before they could get to me.  Seems they really don't give a shit about class III transfers.....

In my area there are at least 7 SS powered SOTs.  5, maybe 6 of them are primarily normal gun shops that see the kiosk as easy money.  There's usually 1 guy at each of them that is competent and he's not always around.  The other 1-2 shops are much more competent but lose a lot of customers due to the other shops being available on the SS website.

IMO most of these shops would not be in the NFA game at all without SS holding their hands.  Hopefully you can find the one shop in your area that is competent- otherwise you are just a captive customer and at the back of the line.

Yep. This is why I pretty much always use Capitol Armory now.

My dealer lets me certify over the phone, we both get on the computer. It's really less than 5 minutes to do the whole thing.

They're not lying. They can do it online, but there's constant issues. I've never been able to do it where there weren't connectivity issues on someone's end. The last time 3 weeks ago, we both gave up cause there were so many issues, and I went to the shop to complete it.
The way it should be and the way it is are 2 different things.

They finally called back and it literally took 10 min to certify.  This was MUCH less painless than the last time.....but still, as a customer I feel rather disappointed in the experience.  I am going to check out Capital Armory for my next can.....man.

My first time doing eForm 4 certify with a SS dealer was when eForm 4s were just starting.  Had to go in to certify because, at the time, individuals had to do in person.  Went OK.  It was new to everyone, so some rough edges, but relatively painless.  Second time was last week.  Bought a can from dealer stock on Tuesday, and tried to certify on Friday.  Oops, ATF slighted changed the form, so now the Full Auto software won’t work to certify.  Yesterday, get the call that they had fixed it and try to certify again.  Was near the shop at the time, and decided to do it in person.  The form wouldn’t load, likely because everyone who had been trying since Friday was now trying to certify ate the same time.  After 20 minutes of waiting, gave up and decided to try again the next day.  Finally got it done today, remotely over the phone.  8 days between paying for a can and successfully certifying.  Actual certification went OK, but the SS system seems to be dependent on a number of stars aligning:

NFA person at the dealer has to know what they are doing and be available.
SS Full Auto software has to be working.
SS servers that do the certification via their software have to not be overloaded.

CA is so much smoother and they really seem to have their stuff together.  Ordered a can on Sunday morning, 24 hours later on Monday morning, I was certifying.

I got spoiled by Capitol Armory doing my first couple of suppressors,  their process is so smooth.  I'm in the process of doing my 2nd one through a local SOT using the SS system and even though I'm saving money on the suppressor prices, I don't think I'll do it again.  I picked up an approved one 2 months ago and it still shows in process on my dashboard.

This second one, the local dealer received it 2 weeks ago and just got it entered into the SS system yesterday.  Did the docusign last night and then it came up with some error about Power of Attorney which I don't remember seeing before.  Still waiting to certify.  This after the manager bragged about how he got his personal one approved in 2 days.

I ignore the SS dashboard.  Since only the dealer gets notified when a F4 is approved, there isn’t any way for the distributor (SS) to know it’s been approved, unless someone tells them.  Either you or the dealer have to update it, and I can’t see any dealer taking the time to update SS on an approval, if they even can.  Other than the steps involved in getting to ready to certify, there isn’t really anything on the dashboard that I ever look at.

For the docusign, did you go all the way through to the last page?  Aside from the docusign Form 4, the last page of the package should be a power of attorney allowing SS to act on your behalf for the submission.  That needs to also be signed.  Was it not the last page in the package, or just not signed?

The power of attorney was very last page.  I hit the sign button and it said completed, but then I got an email stating there was a correction made it it and I therefore no longer have access to it.  I did a SS one last year and don't remember the power of attorney form.  And for some reason I don't recall it when doing the Capital Armory docusign process unless I somehow missed  it 4 times.

I seem to remember the Power of Attorney form started appearing during the initial eForm 1 debacle when SS started submitting eForm 1s on behalf of customers using their own eForms account and got slammed by the ATF, which required the eForm submission to come from the account of the the submitter, not a third party account like SS.  I was a part of that, which took months to resolve with the ATF to get all of the forms through instead of just cancelling them all and starting over.  I think the power of attorney form came during that, as part of getting it fixed.  Whether it’s a legacy that they haven’t retired, or still needed because they are somehow doing SBRs again, or whether it has something to do with how their full auto software works with eForms, I’m not sure, but I don’t think it’s needed for how CA does things.

This. Couldn't be any easier. Any issues are typically due to the ATF dropping an update on eForms or something.