Mailorder / backorder

Is their attitude really "tough" etc? Have you asked them what they propose to do? You could suggest that they order them in and send them post free.

Charles

The invoice is probably computer-generated from a database, the messag

being whatever the programmer deemed acceptable.

Many companies appear to charge heavily for P+P, I assume to try an claw back some profit

-- Mr Cran

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr Crane's Profile:

I think this is a difficult one for them Mike, either they upset people like yourself who are prepared to wait or upset others who would rather go elsewhere to get the item quickly. A sort of lose/lose situation for them. I suppose you could criticise their stock levels but I suspect the price would go up a fair bit if they had to keep large inventories.

I don't know if Chinese suppliers are involved but I was recently told by a large importer that the lead times for orders were getting longer and longer particularly as the US seemed to be buying up huge quantities of stuff.

I do hope that the excellent choice and supply of reasonable engineering bits that are available is not coming to an end. We have had it rather good for a few years now.

Keith

I agree - it is a difficult one for Arc. At present they have no facility to deal with back orders. It is not the customers fault that Arc does not have the stock. At the same time, it is not Arc's fault for going out of stock. The customer can check availability via telephone, email, website, letter etc.. For a small operation, Arc try their best, but they can loose some of the time for various reasons. Arc believes that their prices are competitive, and if carriage ranging from GBP1.75 to GBP3.95 inc vat is too much, then all they can say is sorry! . Unfortunately in the case of supply from ARC, the customer may incure double carriage, should they wish to re-order goods which may be out of stock, at a future date. So, it is always better to check availability with them. It is a policy decision which has very little to do with having an attitude. If this offends, they can only apoligise.

And yes, ARC is experiencing delays for deliveries from China, ranging from 2 weeks to over 3 months for certain products. Recently, China removed the mejority of rebate it was giving to their exporters - average 12% to 15%. This has resulted in a. some of our suppliers going bankrupt (as they were selling large volumes to the big boys at extreamly low margins), b. demands on some of our suppliers increased for quantity exports prior to removal of rebates so again, those suppliers serviced the big boys first, c. price increases post removal of rebates with some of our suppliers, and now finally, d. there is an average of two weeks backlog at Felixtowe for vessels wishing to land, three weeks at Southampton and similar at most Europian ports. ARC has goods on a container which was expected to land on 3rd September, which has now landed today. There are goods on another container expected to land on 26th September. If that is delayed, ARC will have shortages for the show at Warwick. As our friend in deepest Dorset says...there has to be a better way. :)

Ketan.

It was probably to still have a robust engineering industry of our own but I'm afraid that horse bolted some time ago.

Charles

Completely OT, and merely out of curiosity, how does this backlog work out? Do the ships 'park up' in a waiting area somewhere? Do they dock and have to wait to be offloaded? Do they just slow down a bit on the journey and arrive later than planned?

Thanks.

In message , John Montrose writes

The waiting time must be more valuable than the load!

Mike

Bolted?? Poor sod was sent to the knacker's yard, more like...

Regards, Tony

.....and I used the resulting glue last week.

--

Chris Edwards (in deepest Dorset) "....there *must* be an easier way!"

Or re-route via other ports first - which can then mess unloading and balance. I think I am right in saying that some containers have even been returned to sender before now without ever leaving the ship.

The main problem does seem to be a lack of coordination, but then it only takes missing a slot going through Suez or Panama and a ship can be days late anyway.

Funny you should ask that.. the vessel moves on to the next port of call and comes back later...If they cannot discharge their cargo on return, they just offload at another un-known port at present, and then it is up to the group handler of that/those container/s to arrange haulage from that port and route it to his warehouse. This is what is happening over the past two weeks. Some containers have been offloaded on the continental ports and then smaller feeder vessels have been arranged to bring those containers in. Waiting time is valuable. Real fun and games. Its not lack of "real" co-ordination. Its just over ordering pre-loss of rebate, over booking of vessels, over loading, and finally waiting to off-load. Felixstowe can cope with "normal" import demands. This situation is not "normal". Southampton is crap as normal.

Ketan.

Recent bad weather (last few months) hasn't helped at Felixstowe. They can't operate the big gantry cranes to load/unload when the wind is high, so sometimes can lose quite a bit of time that soon mounts up.

Disrupts local transport badly as well, as the 40 tonners end up stacked (parked) on the inside lane of the A14 dual carriageway into Felixstowe, for many miles back up the road towards Ipswich.

Peter

Well, all I originally asked about was my miserable little back order, and as a result I've become proficient in understanding the complex workings of international trade! Does put it all inperspective a bit I suppose when you look at the scale of the issue! I just wonder in the end how much additional CO2 is added to the environment trundling this stuff around the worlds oceans to provide 'cheap' goods and earn China foreign currency? Still

- that's all another story that I don't think we want to get into here. Anyway, as they say - you learn something new every day, and I always seem to learn something when I look through the postings in this group! Mike

Please God....no! --

Chris Edwards (in deepest Dorset) "....there *must* be an easier way!"

I'm not doubting you have experienced delays in getting a container through the system but I have it on good authority from my father-in-law that a container ship that stands still, either in port or out at sea is such bad news for the shipping companies so in effect they *never* happen. A delay in transit of three weeks from the Far East is, in his words, 'bullshit' and commercial suicide. He says such a delay would only ever happen due to localised storm conditions close to the destination port, or catastrophic failure in the port handling facilities such as them being hit by a typhoon or in the extreme by the ship sinking :) Adjustment to trip times are made to coordinate arrival at ports but only of the order of a few 10ths of a knot, saving fuel by a slower journey time is better than anchoring offshore when you arrive too early. He should know what he's on about, he retired last year after 45 years plying the waves and latterly managing the UK operations of the worlds largest container ship fleet. But, having seen what others have posted maybe things really have gone downhill since he left :)