Exceeding dispatch time in these unusual times.

Gaston.La.Brick

Not only shipping is delayed, parcel shipping across continents is fully blocked where I am (Belgium, Europe). The buyers are notified and have agreed that I keep their parcels until later date. They are fine with it. I announce this pro-actively as well in my store (T&C).

Can't Brick Owl remove the "exceeding time" warning at this time?

I guess this is more to an admin of Brick Owl, but I just post it here and see your thoughts as well.

Lawrence

It's important that the stated dispatch time on your store front remains accurate. You would need to update your shipping methods to remove any countries that you are currently not able to ship to. After that, the message will disappear for existing orders after a week.

Aladine

@Lawrence - not possible to do it that way. For instance, DHL still works in Germany, but has restrictions for many international shipping destinations, not only countries but sometimes just regions or towns within countries. And all these restrictions change frequently, can happen from one day to the other, and in such cases the shipment is not just stored for later forwarding but simply not accepted by DHL.

Lawrence

Thank you for the information. I've now temporarily disabled the message until May 15th. I can review it again if this is still an issue at that time.

Aladine

@Lawrence - same (disabling message) should apply to quotes, please.

Lawrence

If you get a quote from a country you cant ship to, the best thing to do would be to contact the customer. You can then either provide a quote or cancel the quote depending on what they'd prefer. You should also then update the method to remove any new countries you can no longer ship to.

Hoddie

I've been doing as Lawrence suggests, everybody has been very understanding so far. I even had to cancel one order outright and swallow the PayPal fee because bPost suddenly stopped shipping to Turkey. I've been checking their list daily and amending my shipping methods to match, but changes can happen at any time.

I've been using variations of the following messages:


Hello,

Due to shipping restrictions relating to the corona virus situation, it will not be possible to send these items to you. I'm sorry for any inconvenience, and hope you manage to secure the items you need elsewhere.

All the best,
Paul



Hello,

I am only shipping orders via letter post due to the corona virus situation, it will therefore not be possible to send these items to you:

- Baseplate Mountain 16 x 16 Raised with Shaped 10 x 10 Hole and 4 Pegholes and Marbled Pattern (53588) Dark Gray
- Support 6 x 6 x 10 Stanchion (2681) Black

I can send the rest of your order for €3.03 but only once you have removed these items.

For your information - nobody is ill here, but we have children who are in the 'at risk' category and are therefore choosing not to visit the Post Office until the situation improves.

I'm sorry for any inconvenience, and if you don't wish to proceed to order at this time, hope you manage to secure the items you need elsewhere.

All the best,
Paul

Aladine

@Lawrence - for quotes it's the same thing as for orders. There are countries where restrictions do not apply to the whole country but to regions or just towns. And countries where you can only ship certain sizes or volumes. So removing the whole country makes no sense.

Lawrence

Understood, thank you for clarifying, hopefully the other advice should still apply

Aladine

@Lawrence - thank you. Due to the various and frequently changing shipping problems/restrictions I only accept quotes for the moment. And I'm not willing to give a shipping quote and receive an order (and the money), and then tell the buyer 'sorry, can't ship, don't know when'. And even if the buyer says that he can wait. IMO it wouldn't be serious! I only give quotes where I can really ship for the quoted shipping price (and normally ship same or next day to avoid that there's a new restriction meanwhile).