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Are BO shipments diffirent then others?

brickfeverpartsbrickfeverparts
in General Vote Up0Vote Down
Hi all,

Just an open message with some *numbers* we found..... odd.....

We are now selling on BO for just over two months and are very very happy with BO all over!

But, probably a Dutch thing, we (i) need to complain about something at some point :)

In the two months we have had quite the amount of orders, wich occasionly can lead to a lost shipment.
However, at this moment we have around 10 cases on BO (lost) shipments within two weeks, from many diffirent countries.

On another selling site we had 9 cases in the past 12 months....... go figure.......

Does anyone share this experience?

We use the same carrier (PostNL) as we use on other online selling places.

Im shocked to say the least, on the amount of emails we get about (lost) shipments
Quite confident half of them will arrive anyway, since we do see increased delivery times at the moment worldwide.

Im Curious George :) if other sellers also see unusual shipping things, as i do see some cases coming by on the forum.

Cheers, (Curious) George.

Comments

  • 10 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • JiriesJiries
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    That a lot of 10 lost cases within 2 weeks? that a lot depend how many orders ratio v the lost shipments you had made in 2 weeks time. In my case I don't remember if I had a lost one but few buyers did message me about the shipment but they eventually arrived. Only few buyers had message me for the missing or stolen 1 or 2 parts shipments as they got it but was open or torn in the corner which I had to resend it again.
  • TeupTeup
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Sorry to hear about your experience. I don't have a similar experience but what you describe seems very statistically significant. The difference with your other shop is striking.

    - I think I've also noticed buyers over here are much more prone to ask (bad) questions. There is a significant difference in what kind of crowds both marketplaces attract. Maybe these buyers are just being impatient? I've had that too around here..
    - If that doesn't account for the discrepancy, are/were you still selling there while these orders got lost? If not, something could've gone wrong over time (e.g. at some point you bought a bad brand of tape and the packages fall apart, or you have a new lable writer with labels that go blank after a day)

    I guess all other factors are the same..
  • HoddieHoddie
    edited March 2015 Vote Up0Vote Down
    If you're seeing a lot of parcels going missing, chances are the problem is with your local carrier, perhaps an employee is taking parcels they like the look of.
  • brickfeverpartsbrickfeverparts
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @Hoddie
    Some starting to turn up, so i guess, since we have *new* buyers here, they are not that used to internationals shipments and asks for the whereabouts quicker then older buyers, seems logic.

    The communication with all buyers here is great, so no stress or bad experience there.

    We have big metall cars picked up by a truck end of every day, so im quite sure no mailman in between touch our shipments :)

    Thanks, i was curious if others had the same.....
  • StragusStragus
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @BrickFeverParts Your shipping methods have quite long descriptions, but they missed a critical piece of information: delivery times! I think it would help to present all customers with that information, don't assume they know anything about international shipping.
  • brickfeverpartsbrickfeverparts
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @Stragus i agree, however, i tried to get a certain feeling past 4 years in shipping times....

    No matter if it is an envelope or parcel, they take between 5 and 50 days worldwide.....
    Partly because customs getting stronger and stronger, im sure, but its unbelievable.

    One week i send a letter to, lets say, Korea, gets there in 4 days.
    Another week, same buyer, 7 weeks, i dont have a clue what the shipping times are :(
  • HoddieHoddie
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Don't forget the 'Air Mail' sticker - my postie friend says it can have massive impact on shipping times. Not sure if he was winding me up or not though!
  • DagsBricksDagsBricks
    edited March 2015 Vote Up0Vote Down
    I'm still waiting on a PostNL -> US shipment after a month. This transfer stream has usually been a week or so. The need to use the parts has passed but that was the risk I took, eh?
  • brickfeverpartsbrickfeverparts
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @Hoddie that should make a diffirence, but we noticed time and time again, that sometimes Postal services choose *cheap* sea bulk shipment, i am confinced of that.

    They will Always say it isnt true, but it happens.

    He also was trying to wind you up i guess, hahaha.

    @DagsBricks we see transition durations up to 6 weeks to US at the moment.....
  • robernatrobernat
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @BrickFeverParts
    I would say there is an unusual amount of buyers 'claiming' lost shipments cause honestly I've had more here in 1.5 years then I've had on BL in 5 years for example, but in some cases indeed it's just a 'delay' in transit (or customs) buyers might simply not be used to international shipments . But 10 in 2 months seems a lot...

    How do you make your shipping labels? Do you write them or do you use a label printer. If the latter, do you print straight from BO or do you copy/paste them into your label printer program?

    I'm asking this because I've noticed many buyers do not correctly complete their "address" details towards 'international' standard, I don't print straight from BO but copy/paste into my Labeler program, BUT I also 'edit' near 60% of all 'given' addresses from buyers to make sure they fit international standards, or would at least me more readable. Very oftenly I also use google to figure out what the exact 'community' it is and what the 'region' (state/province) is, in many cases I need to adapt this before printing the label, and I sometimes remove 'regions' or put it between brackets (for example in Belgium and The Netherlands and Germany we typicly don't add 'regions' or 'provinces' into shipping addresses, so I clear them away or move them between brackets). It does require some knowledge on 'how' the country of destination wants to see an address to make it an easy delivery and therefor it also requires to 'edit' labels before making them.

    Brickowl is mainly build on the 'UK addresses' format, but UK is quite an exception and the addresses have many details, far more then most countries. Technicly it should adapt to each country (Admin has plans in that direction) and the standards that go with it, but that can only work if buyers complete their details correctly, and I've seen some of the 'weirdest' format's around here that have been 'entered' by buyers ;-)
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