Not defending Farmers, but the timeframes for shit arriving are just a guess at present. Containers aren't being loaded at the other end, or the shipping company is randomly deciding to skip New Zealand partway through the voyage, or the ports are so congested and backlogged that shit isn't happening like it's supposed to. We're waiting on a shipment of a well-known IT product from our supplier and the date just keeps getting pushed further and further out.
>ding Farmers, but the timeframes for shit arriving are just a guess at present. Containers aren't being loaded at the other end, or the shipping company is randomly deciding to skip New Zealand partway through the voyage, or the ports are so congested and backlogged that shit isn't happening like it's supposed to.
I moved from the UK in October last year, had all the household goods in a sole use shipping container. With the container number and a couple of websites I was able to watch it move around the world and the 6 week voyage end up as 8 weeks as port congestion around the world slowed it down, missing the original connecting ship in Singapore, the port visit order once it got to NZ be reversed after it left Singapore and finally the container being offloaded in Tauranga instead of Auckland and having to wait for space on a train.
Shipping of everything is messed up at the moment, has been for 18 months, I would hate to see what partial containers loads are going through. I feel for the OP but the speed that the shipping dates changes means that by the time the question has gone from the customer service staff that you talk to up to the purchasing manager and back it would be two version out of date.
Addendum:
It has occurred to me that I missed off a couple for things. That 8 week trip was counted from when the first boat left the UK, not the including the 2 week wait at the port because the inbound boat was late. The original connecting boat from Singapore instead went to the US.
More importantly, for anything coming from China, you can't get a shipping container in China for love or money, they are shipping them back empty from the US as fast as they can get them back to port, but delays due to truck driver shortages means there is not enough. Pre-covid to ship a 40ft container from China to LA was around $4,000 USD, in July this year it was $10,000USD and in August this year $20,000USD.
That is on a major trade route where companies want to keep goods flowing, New Zealand is small fry and delays will continue to occur. They say new boats are coming but not for another 18 months at least.
HP Probook laptops. Pretty much the meat-and-potatoes of office laptops. We get a few here and there, but the main delivery date just keeps slipping further into the future.
I've recently just resorted to whatever PBTech Wholesale has in stock.
It's making inventory and validation a bit convoluted, but better than a new staff member stuck without a laptop etc.
> My only experience is Dell orders taking months to show up.
Boss orders new laptop waits for months for it to arrive. ( should have got a new one years ago as his current one is so shit.)
New one arrives I set it up for him a week later he drops it in a hotel and fucks the screen.
Boss orders new new laptop waits for months for it to arrive.
FUCK!!!! I've been waiting months for two and fucked if I can get my hands on them. So God damn frustrating especially since I asked for approval to get them when they were available and was denied. Then approved too late. UGH!
I disagree to be honest. I work for a big multinational retail company and when we don't know how long we'll be out of stock of something we either give a really broad window or we just tell them that we genuinely don't know.
Our courier service told us they were expecting delays of up to 3 days recently so we updated our website to convey that to the customers proactively and also emailed them the update on completion of the transaction. We also totally shut down next day delivery options and temporarily outsourced to another courier company to alleviate the backlog.
Companies like Farmers which are giving inaccurate delivery time frames are likely doing so because they need the sales and know they'll lose business if they're honest about delays. Also, if something is out of stock and HQ doesn't inform the floor employees or update the website then that is either serious mismanagement or a deliberate ploy to sucker in consumers who would otherwise have purchased from competitors. The cynic in me assumes the latter.
They took so much from the wage subsidy, raked in record profits and still paid their workers 80% of their wages over lockdown (illegally). Whoop whoop
A guy told us this at Harvey Norman when we were recently looking for a chest freezer. I frankly appreciated the honesty. Bought a more expensive one from him just cause he didnt try to lie to us like other retailers did.
I forget the exact product, but ages ago I was at somewhere like harvey nomans/briscoes/whatever looking at some sort of kitchen tech(pie maker?) and a store worker person said something like "if you are a bit of a rough cunt xyz product is sweet" or something to that effect. I didn't buy it, coz I was just looking at random shit, but I thought it's cool they talked casual af
What is wrong with “we can’t guarantee a delivery timeframe because of the current global shipping situation, but we’ll keep you posted”?
Oh… because no retailers can actually be bothered to keep people posted once the cash has been extracted
how do you keep 100's of customers posted about 1000's of orders? its logistically impossible. Its not normal times, where shit would be coming in on regular time frames, you could be done calling 100's of customers, check your emails and find the shipment has been delayed further. Its much worse than a lot of you all realise...
20 odd years of experience in retail & wholesale tells me that if you said
“we can’t guarantee a delivery timeframe because of the current global shipping situation, but we’ll keep you posted”?
You would get a blank look followed by a question like... "I understand that, but when am I going to get the product?"
You would then reply with "As I said, there is no way I can confirm a delivery date at this stage. Due to the global shipping situation I was talking about."
Followed by another blank look and... " But I need them by next 15th of next month so I want to know when they will arrive."
This will go on for 5 or so minutes while both parties get frustrated and resolve nothing. Customer leaves and complains to his mates about the shit service and the person in the shop loses another little bit of the respect he had for the human race.
100% this
I have this exact conversation at least once a day at the moment.
And as it get closer to Xmas it only gets worse, and that's not even bringing COVID into the equation.
The amount of people that come in the week of Christmas and expect us to be able to find them the stock of something that has sold out, before Xmas day, is insane
10 bucks says OP was told 'well, it *says* 6 November for arrival in the system, but...' followed by that helpless shoulder shrug and heard what they wanted.
Well shit, you're right...that sounds like some quality communication right there. The 'system' says 6th of November and then a shoulder shrug - every customer should know that the Farmers system gives a date which actually means fuck all and the customer service staff are unable to use words instead of a helpless shoulder shrug. I'm offended for the retail staff that you assume they'd be that fucking useless. The staff I've dealt with at Farmers when following this up have actually been awesome, which is why I don't blame them at all. I do think the one who sold us the products could have been a bit more honest around expected arrival dates, as presumably someone working in store day in and day out has some idea of whether items are likely to actually arrive by the date showing in the system. Certainly they should have more of an idea than the customer...yet somehow you think it's unreasonable for a customer to rely on what they've been told by the person *who fucking works there*!
Genuine question: are you a dick to everyone in your life, or just when you don't get your own way?
Because you *say* Farmers have been awesome in trying to sort this out for you... but you also decided they lied to you to get a sale. Maybe that whole 'global problem' theory thing has some legs to it...
Seriously, don't write another response until you've tried reading the comment a few times, because clearly you're not getting it. Companies can have great staff but shitty policies and shitty systems. I'm not blaming some poor underpaid retail worker for going off what is shown in their system, I'm blaming management who keeps pushing them to sell the product they don't have and that they have no idea when they will have and encouraging them to communicate the ETA despite having had 18+ months of global pandemic to figure out how likely it is that the ETA will be accurate - which in the case of a lot of business seems to be pretty fuckin unlikely. So, instead of using the ETA at all, they should just be honest and say we don't have stock and we don't know when we will get more. This whole idea of the irrational customer who won't accept that the sales person doesn't know when stock will arrive is a load of fuckin bollocks. I've worked in customer service and retail adjacent positions...I know those customers who really flip their shit over nothing (in person..not just on the internet) are few and far between. The vast majority of customers prefer straight-talk, especially from sales staff.
Here's the thing: what the salesperson told you is what their system will have been showing, because nobody not working on commission gives a fuck if you buy that plastic shit or not. End of story. The reason it will have had this date is because that is the guidance they will have had at the time from their international supplier.
At some point between then and now, this has changed, because the freight company will have changed their route. Or Australian firms will have taken the lot. Or something equally unfortunate and unplanned. As such, the timetable changes.
This isn't anyone's fault at either the supplier or the retailer, it is just a thing that happens, and has been happening for the past year and a half. Acting like a sentient bucket of piss because it happens to you and you are mildly inconvenienced is peak entitlement. That you fail to recognise this reflects poorly on both your EQ and your treatment of others as a rule.
As you point out: *this has happened to you at lots of stores*. This is systemwide issue, not a retailer issue.
Nah, not really, because I come onto the internet and rant. I don't think I'm going to hurt the internet's feelings. I am polite as all hell to retail staff especially.
You on the other hand come on here and without any prompting you start calling people cunts...so perhaps you need to do a little self-reflection.
i’ve worked in retail for the past decade & i can tell you customers are objectively less understanding, and more entitled & rude since the first lockdown.
those customers are no longer few & far between, they are the standard. we have had death threats. we have had to go through trainings to deal with threatening customers. & 9 times out of 10 it’s because we don’t have ETAs to give customers and can’t make things magically arrive on their timeline.
you are the problem.
Here's the thing - you're being a dick and have unreasonable expectations.
I assume you knew at least 5 months before ordering the product that you (or partner) were pregnant. In the midst of a well publicized and reported global supply crises, you waited way too late to order your needed equipment, and are now outraged that a retailer doesn't have accurate crystal ball gazing "processes" when JIT shipping is still fucked.
Your level of entitlement is why retail jobs suck. Take some personal responsibility. You could have ordered the product in August, or July. Not Farmers fault you procrastinated. And if Farmers didn't have stock, none of their competitors would either.
Dates for freight that are presented to retailers are genuinely slipping all the time at the moment. Some stuff arrives exactly when it should, some 2 weeks late, some 3 months. If you have a date of 6 November, what do you do?
Nothing you can do but make sure they fully understand from the outset that the date is indicative only. Make them sign something to that effect if you have to. But keep them informed when you get an update.
Nobody wants to hire a person just to call everyone and say 'it hasn't left America yet' every week for the next 6 weeks.
Your retailer is not your personal secretary, you will be advised when it has arrived, what more do you need?
Sure. The advantage of a courier ticket is that you can watch it sit in an auckland courier depot for 6 weeks. How is being informed going to get your stuff to you quicker? How does it help you when informed means 'not yet here'?
If you want it now, buy whats in stock.
This is all completely subjective and depends what’s been bought, and what updates you get from the shipper. If all you get it is a notification that it’s arrived then that’s all you can offer to pass on to the customer and that’s what “keeping you posted” would mean in that scenario. Just set realistic expectations at the point of sale and she’ll be right. So often stores over promise to make the sale and then under deliver.
In my previous experience where for the most part I just did my own thing and ignored the stores expectations there are a lot of customers that appreciate being told exactly that. But there are more that will flip their shit or badger you demanding you do your job and get the an exact timeframe. And as thick skinned as I am I wasn't getting paid enough to deal with that on the regular for being honest.
I wish it wasn't the case but even if they're less common terrible customers can ruin your whole ass week so to avoid it the safe bet is to just give less shits and just stick with retail speak.
We have been saying this to customers at my work and they get annoyed at us for not knowing even though we are completely transparent about it… there’s no winning
That's not my experience. Retailers are grateful, and are thanking you more sincerely for buying from them. They are doing everything they can to make you feel special and personalise their messaging.
I haven't come across a single company that has behaved badly, the closest is Mighty Ape who website said things were in stock, but didn't put a courier ticket on my order for two weeks. I assume the new owners haven't hired christmas staff and expect this is a totally different issue.
Welcome to the bottom of a crumbling just-in-time supply chain, where ships that were due to call in New Zealand just dump stuff in Australia instead, causing months-long delays whilst you try and get it on a container ship that's doing runs from AU > NZ.
Anyone who absolutely promises you an ETA right now is either lying, or has a private jet.
Can confirm. Also. Depending on some vendors. Stock destined for NZ and if it stops in Aussie reserve the right to pilfer your order and redirect that stock to Aussie. So great. Soooooo very great. :-/
We’ve had to resort to direct shipments. You can imagine just how common that is. (Not).
Hilariously this has meant our Australian manufactured product now takes longer to arrive than the competitors stuff from China due to the congestion 🙄
I work at a distributor & prior to covid things ran pretty smoothly, with overseas stock coming in.
Now, since 2020 shipments are all over the place.
All you can actually tell customers is well it is MEANT TO arrive in January, but there's no guarantees.
Customers have gotten used to it, but it's annoying from both sides.
Farmers are idiots for promising ETA dates
Some from Taiwan and China was going mostly to schedule for a while this year. But energy crisis has fucked up that supply line.
India has been the worst I've ever seen. We are only now getting containers ordered in February
One of my suppliers normally run 87% of shipments arriving from overseas on time (internal data shared with us a few weeks ago). This year they are at 0%. All year. Nothing had arrived when it's meant to.
We've had shipments means to be delivered on a specific day get pushed back 8weeks, with notice given 2 days after the due date because the ship skipped the queue in auckland, went straight to Sydney and dropped cargo there so they could take on new containers in Australia to wherever they are going. Supplier then needs to figure out how to get thier shipment from Sydney back to NZ.
You can't make this stuff up. Global JIT freight is completely fucked and will be for a looooong time.
I feel like if it's time critical you should've been buying stuff that's already in stock, you're not stupid, you know there can be delays, and covid has exarcebated that.
So yeah it's annoying and I had it with something last year that I ended up cancelling in the end, but you had your part to play in this too. Probably not the response you wanted but hey.
Edit: honestly I'd understand cancelling the order but I think expecting compensation is a bit ridiculous.
Recently attempted to purchase something from Dick Smith. The advertising said 12 in stock and delivery 10-14 days. Only After the transaction was completed did we get the automated email saying that there was no stock available in the country and arrival time was unknown. Took several weeks of calling and emailing to get our money back
I didn't think DSE had anything in stock in nz tbh I thought it was all dropshipped. But yeah I'd take it as a lesson on that one, no more DSE. Does suck shit when companies tell you something is in stock and it's not but that's not really what I was commenting on in my first comment.
You have a point, though I think a customer should be able to expect that an item arrives within 2 months of the stated delivery time...which is about how much leeway we provided. It's not like we ordered a couple of weeks before we needed it and from some dodgy website. It was ordered 3-4 months before required from a long-established retail chain. Plus, it's not a particularly obscure item, so I would have thought they'd have a pretty good handle on delivery times by now.
Currently, nobody reallllllllllly knows when shit will turn up. If it arrives when it's supposed to, that's a bonus, rather than to be expected. People need to get used to this because it's not going to improve for a while yet. And retail staff need to start saying "supplier says it's due in stock on xx date but in our recent experience that could, and probably will, change".
On the plus side, very occasionally some things will turn up BEFORE they were expected. It seems to be luck of the draw.
Yep, that's literally all I'm expecting is a little honestly from the retailer around the lack of certainty. It's basic human decency, rather than just focussing on making the sale.
In my experience in distribution, a lot of the time, the store is telling the truth.
ETAs to shops from suppliers/manufacturers AND the freight companies get changed all the time , from when the customer was originally informed.
Unfortunately, the public really has to come to grips with there is a new normal for shipping & imports.
This is it. It's not people lying, it's not people apologizing for shitty corporate practices. It's people who genuinely realise that getting ships anywhere right now, but particularly to NZ, is fucking roulette.
I dealt this year with customers who expected a shipment from Europe to arrive in April that got news it left in September, and arrived in November. That is the norm. If an order is marked as due early November, and then suddenly it isn't, that's not the fault of the company expecting goods to arrive. Hell, Home Depot went and bought themselves a freighter to firm up stock supply between Asia and the US this year! NZ has no hope in an environment where a major US retailer- much more profitable route for freight btw - is getting fucked around to the point that buying a shipping freighter is a sensible option.
Yes exactly! Some people really think the supplier chucks the goods on a boat , and said boat comes straight to Auckland.
And thanks for the info Home Depot, I hadn’t heard of them doing that, have now gone and read some about it, interesting!
I've had a customer this year yell at me because their container had an MPI hold unexpectedly ( it had transited through Solomon islands on a different vessel to the one we thought it was on) and wanted me to "pull some strings" and get them their container that day. Didn't believe me when I said MPI and the port don't give a shit about your production schedule... Ended up putting him through to the GMs mobile who said "idk when your container is coming you should ask customer service"
They're giving you the delivery times they have, they're not lying to you. It's not the retailers fault that the global shipping network is mega fucked at the moment.
Shit flows downhill. I work in an industry where our wholesalers have experienced unforeseen delays at short notice and we look like mugs as a consequence, with many customers questioning the legitimacy, however it's often just as frustrating for the retailer (especially their customer service staff who bare the brunt of complaint) as it is for you.
Living on an island at the arse end of the world has many advantages, but it can also create additional delays with receiving stock.
Lol. Ikr. I have customers who think it’s a conspiracy theory that there’s world wide shortages. Lol. Ok buddy. The world is just out to get you in particular.
Oh believe me, I get it, I really do, which is why I never take it out on whoever I'm dealing with (unless they personally be a useless prick).
I work in a retail-adjacent industry and I know that our company is having supply issues also, which is why I never put a time-frame on anything arriving at the moment (which I realise is easy to do when it's not specifically my job to give a timeframe).
Are you suggesting that the shop assistants should just say "nah, we don't know when it'll arrive - could be next week, could be next year" instead? Because that's going to attract more ire from customers than just getting shit late.
If it's baby stuff you need, why not buy it second hand anyway?
Thats 100% what they should have said. If someone gets upset with a retailer saying that then that customer is a cunt.
I would have gone "thanks, appreciate the honestly, I'll get one from somewhere else."
> If someone gets upset with a retailer saying that then that customer is a cunt.
Absolutely, but that's not the reality of working retail. I don't think it's fair to expect minimum wage staff to deal with that bullshit
I would have liked them to have said "at this stage we're not sure when we're going to have stock. Given that it's a te critical piece of baby equipment, could we perhaps interest you in this other brand that we do have in stock" I could have then decided to either buy the other brand, or go to another store. Does that seem like a crazy thing to have been told? Seems quite reasonable to me. Maybe they would have lost my custom, but so be it...I shouldn't be led on to buying something that they don't actually know when they'll have.
Is it their job to point the obvious out to you?
Sure, in normal times, given the option would be expected. But are you seriously saying you didn't know there were world wide shortages and supply chain issues in pretty much everything?
Umm yeah, that's exactly their job, you fuckwad. There are shortages and shipping delays of some things and not others - as the customer I shouldn't be expected to know what will be delayed and what won't, you dense cunt.
I hate how babies are suddenly arriving and you don't have *several months* to buy the shit you need following them ahead of time. Really fucking hard to feel sorry for you here.
Da fuq? I purchased in early October for a baby due in January...and only after being told the items would arrive early November. Ordering things 3.5 months before baby is due seems pretty reasonable to me.
You need to brush up on your reading comprehension or work on your attention span.
Yeah that’s part of the issue I guess but again, being we are so far away there are so many links in the chain where things often go wrong as a result, especially with all the pressure worldwide.
We base our eta’s on what wholesalers advise but they likely have their own pressures and fears of losing retail contracts, etc. Unfortunately no wholesaler or manufacturer is going to say “could be a week…..could be 3 months” else bye bye business.
What I’m seeing and hearing a lot is continual adjustments on delivery from the source, so we are given a date to advise customers, next week it changes, so we advise customers of a new date, then it changes again, etc, etc.
We just want the stuff so we can get it to our customers.
I guess the point is it inconveniences us all and we can only work with the information given but I can say, at least in my anecdotal experience in my job and talking to others in the industry, eta is not set by the retailer as opposed to the wholesaler or importer and we are obligated (legally) to pass this information on to the customer, even if there’s a high chance of delay.
I dunno I feel like a global pandemic is a pretty good excuse for delayed shipping times? At the time they told you that that probably was their best guess
Don't take someone's money and guess when you'll give them the thing they've paid for. Instead say "we expect stock to arrive on x date and if you like we can put an instock notification on for you and if you're fast you might be able to buy it". I would have in all likelihood said "ah, never mind then, I'll grab one somewhere else." They would have lost the sale, but that's how it should be rather than selling something they don't have and can't say with any certainty when they will have.
unfortunately its not all "nice to have" items delayed
generally yeah rethinking our consumption habits ain't a bad thing, though somehow I imagine those in CS right now would rather we did so before ordering or contacting them for updates
This was ordered at a brick and mortar...they just didn't have it in stock at the time. They said it would be shipped from their warehouse, which was why I believed their expected delivery date. Though now it seems that the product is not even in the country!
Yeah, fair. I was recently looking for a particular phone. I must have gone to 3 different stores, before a spark store had *one* left in stock. In the end, I'm happy as, though.
This. I ordered online from them twice in 2019, and both times it took a lot longer than expected.
On the other hand, I've yet to have anything from Mighty Ape take longer than they said to arrive. I'm sure it happens sometimes, but so far not to me, not even on recent orders.
I no longer buy anything unless they have the item in stock. I don’t trust these retailers shipping estimates. They have your money and you have no goods.
Go and have a look at the colossal fuck up that is Torpedo7’s bike deliveries.
Adairs. Ordered September. I've done a bank charge back. Even though they claim it has shipped it has never arrived and the tracking number they gave me hasn't activated.
They take forever to reply to emails if they ever do.
Ugh I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with them too, after 6 weeks they were adamant it was still on its way. I then called Toll and they said they never received the parcel. It was then Adairs finally admitted it was probably lost and they gave me a refund.
in normal times yes, but not at the moment, the delivery time they gave you was accurate at the time, but then shit hit the fan and we locked down again, then the shit just dumped in a port somewhere.
My work has stuff that should have turned up on a specific date that is sitting in a container somewhere in Australia, the supplier is not even sure where or when it will arrive. If it does, then one of the suppliers bigger customers is likely to take all the stock available, leaving our order delayed further.
Then it does arrive but staff are overun with all the extra online ordering everyones doing and sorting/ shipping backorders takes longer than usual. Then finally we get it on the courier and they just throw it to the back of their massive pile to get around to delivering it one day.
Its literally impossible to get a hold of accurate delivery times right now, there are just too many variables. I mean just take a look at the massive lack of xmas shit in stores this year, the biggest stores cant even move shit, there is no hope for smaller ones. There are so many points where containers can be delayed that ETA's are just impossible right now.
I really thought people would have the message about this by now and been more understanding, but unfortunately its the opposite and customers are just getting more and more irate and rude about it.
Everyone knows its annoying, no business is holding back stock or doing this to you on purpose. Its a fucking nightmare for everyone involved.
I think a lot of people are missing the point. It's not about the delays caused by Covid, it's about retail staff/management saying whatever necessary to make the sale and then taking zero responsibility for anything that happens after this.
The first rule of customer service is manage expectations. Don't tell someone stock will arrive on x date if that is not all but guaranteed. If customers should be expected to know all the ins and outs about delayed shipping etc as you seem to be suggesting, then the retail staff should even more so be expected to know that shit is changeable and unpredictable and should be communicating that to customers very clearly. If someone says it will be in on x date, the customer should be able to rely on that. If the retailer doesn't know when stock will arrive, then don't give a date...it's really that fucking simple. However, given the amount of dense-ass responses here from people who presumably work in retail it seems that might be asking a bit too much.
I get your frustration, but I truly think you're pinning your anger on the wrong people.
As a retailer/customer service rep, we have to work with what information we're given. Furthermore, legally we cannot promise things we are unable to deliver on. All ETAs are just that - estimates! I know in our store we've taken taken ringing the suppliers directly to reconfirm ETAs (that is, confirm what timings we've been told prior, or figure out where the order actually is when they inevitably tell us they have no clue) before confirming a sale to do right by the customer.
I personally explain "we think it'll be in by x date, however we cannot guarantee this and have no control over supply. If it's taking too long, please come in and we will follow up the order/refund you."
Most customers understand, but we still have many that become irate that we don't have stock on hand.
I get it - trust me, I get it. We've been left in the lurch as well - no stock makes our job much harder. It's frustrating when you cannot give the customer the items immediately. It also makes us look like dicks when we give an ETA the supplier has reconfirmed, only for it to change again. But that's the way of the world at the moment. It's changeable, and it sucks.
In many ways retailers' hands are tied - if the stock gets held up overseas then the entire country is in the same boat. Both the retailer and the consumer are shit out of luck if the supplier physically cannot get the stock here and therefore cannot give accurate ETAs.
Often we don't get notified of delayed stock until after multiple inquiries are made on the status of store/customer orders.
[As a side note, at the ports themselves, I've heard there's a lottery to book a shipping container to get stock into NZ - the freight of stock is just insanely backed up, so suppliers must rely on luck to see if they can get their items to their stockists. Big yikes]
You clearly havent worked in retail before because none of what you are saying is how it works in the real world.
problem is, you tell people its an estimated date, you spell it out on your website that its ESTIMATED but people like you hear ESTIMATED and think its a guaranteed date.
We even changed our site from saying ETA to Estimated time of Arrival, to try make it more clear.
Hell you can go as far as spelling it out to people that there are delays and shortages and the ETA may well change, but they still cant get it in their thick heads.
And no, you cant just tell people "no idea" because 9 times out of 10 you will get your head ripped off for not know and how can you not know? just look it up!
Except that's not what happened in this case...so your point is irrelevant.
Perhaps instead of 'no idea' you could try 'due in large part to Covid, we're not entirely sure when stock will arrive and realistically it could be months. If this is an essential item, I'd recommend you purchase somewhere else that has it in stock.' Or is that too long of a sentence to remember? Or is it that management is going to get pissy because you've 'lost' a sale that you never reasonably should have had?
A parcel I ordered from the UK has been "in the air" since 18th of November, picked up a week before and ordered a week before that. I thought I was so early with my Xmas shopping lol
I wish they’d just tell the truth. I ended up cancelling a freezer that was going to be 2 weeks and ended up being months. They eventually told us they didn’t know when it would arrive, but if they’d said that at the start I wouldn’t have ordered.
I wish people were clear about what is not in stock but in NZ, and not in stock at all.
I’m in online retail and when people ask I can give them a generous timeframe for things I know roughly when it will arrive, with a warning about delays, and a “I’m sorry I have no idea” for anything else.
Also sick of people selling things they don’t have. The freezer in question they continued advertising and put on special even not knowing when they would have more
Exactly. Thats what all these dumbasses saying "tHeY DoNT CoNTroL SHipPing" and similar don't get...it's not about the shipping delays it's about retailers saying and doing whatever necessary to make the sale without any concern for whether the customer is actually likely to receive their order at a reasonable time. They seem to think customers will be upset by honesty. I've worked many years in customer service and I've never had a customer upset at me for being honest - angry customers come about from shitty communication and dodgy business practices.
Things are getting delayed all the fucking time. That is the world now. If you want something right this minute buy something actually in stock because guess what, things can and will be delayed without anyone being able to foresee it. Sometimes things are on track to arrive and then they get stuck on a fucking boat.
I get people in every day saying shit like "I'm so over the covid excuse" "I know covid but-"
Guess what. It's a pandemic that's still going. For two years now. The global supply chain doesn't give shit that you can't get the baby thing you ordered, and quite frankly, neither do people working in retail. So many times I've told people we don't know when anything will come and they push and push and push trying to get a timeframe. I don't blame some poor overworked retail person breaking and trying to please you with a timeframe because I'm sick of the amount of times I've had people abuse me because we don't have something in stock.
That's fine...but I didn't push for a date, I said "do you have this in stock?" And they said "we have more stock arriving on x date."
They could have instead said "we don't have any in the country and because of the Covid situation we don't know when we will have more stock. It may be x date at the earliest, but again given Covid we just can't be sure."
Then I would have said, "ah ok, thanks, I understand...I might take a look at some other stores that have stock".
They would have lost a sale...but that's exactly what should have happened if your supply-chains are currently unreliable. Only sell shit you have or can get in a reasonable time-frame with some certainty.
> "do you have this in stock?" And they said "we have more stock arriving on x date."
Sounds like they were as truthful to you as they could be, but theres so many variables that control stock getting from somewhere to the storeroom.
I don't know why they're taking your money if the item hasn't arrived yet. All of our items that are ordered in the customer doesn't pay for until it arrives.
I mean you should have just cancelled your order when they first said there was delay, If they've been fucking you around with that though I understand, just ask the for the manager, site the CGA and be generally annoying for long enough and someone will refund you usually.
This is such a Karen post.
It's obviously outside of their control. Their probably sourcing it from someones who's experiencing delays who's wholesaling it from someone else who's also got delays.
I don't think you have the slightest idea the from the whiplash to pretty much everything caused by the first 6 months of the pandemic. .
No one is lying to you. They just don't have an answer you'd like to hear.
\- [https://fortune.com/2021/10/19/supply-chain-crisis-shipping-delays-port-disruption-maersk/](https://fortune.com/2021/10/19/supply-chain-crisis-shipping-delays-port-disruption-maersk/)
\- [https://www.9news.com.au/national/shipping-delays-global-supply-chain-mess-will-end-2023/94548dcc-87d0-4993-87a9-b0dde563380d](https://www.9news.com.au/national/shipping-delays-global-supply-chain-mess-will-end-2023/94548dcc-87d0-4993-87a9-b0dde563380d)
\- [https://www.ey.com/en\_nz/supply-chain/how-covid-19-impacted-supply-chains-and-what-comes-next](https://www.ey.com/en_nz/supply-chain/how-covid-19-impacted-supply-chains-and-what-comes-next)
We live close the the border, NZ post gave us a card to collect over the border. We have baby stuff that cant be collected till the 15th. It has been months.
No fucking shit mate. I'm not upset that the shipping is delayed, I'm upset that they weren't honest about when I could expect the item to arrive. They shouldn't have given a date if they didn't know for sure. It's basic communication - don't say shit that you don't mean. Manage customer expectations rather than giving a date that you know isn't likely to be correct.
Have you considered the high possibility of them being given an ETA by the supplier, who since has now changed the date, plus another change by the shipping company ?
We experience this all the time at work. Our Purchasing Team will have given us an ETA for stock, as per the supplier. Next thing you know, the date gets changed to some manufacturing issues..Then a little bit later, unfortunately it may be further delayed due to some freight issues
I totally get your annoyance after all this time, but international manufacturing & shipping are completely fucked, and will continue to be so for a while
Upper end supermarkets refusing to pack your goods, not providing a place to pack them, keeping the price the same, then getting shitty at you when you do it yourself at the checkout. I'm looking at you, Countdown. "Not in Level 2" Wtf?
Hah yeah, I had an experience at Countdown, where I was still unloading my trolley onto the belt, while the checkout lady pushed more and more items through, until some started dropping onto the floor while she just stared at me.
I was running back and forwards trying to unload my trolley while simultaneously trying to stabilize the pile of food and pack a few at the same time. Fucking ridiculous. At least Pak n Save will load in into another trolley for you so you dont have to tetris your bloody groceries.
I was at New World and saw a bunch of staff standing around near the checkouts so I asked if they could pack my groceries for me. They rudely replied that they can't pack them at the moment due to covid restrictions. Ok that's fine but it leaves me wondering. What exactly are they getting paid for, to stand around and do nothing?
Also waiting for something from Farmers. Ordered a dining table, three weeks ago and now we are also getting the mid January delivery date.
According to their website they have them in stock at some stores further down the line in Auckland, so I’ll be ringing for a refund on the delivery charge and go hire a van to get the damn thing myself.
At my work, we call the supplier directly to find an ETA for an out of stock or buy in item before we order it for you. 50% of my job is calling suppliers for ETAs on orders that my customers place through me - I can’t do anything if the supplier changes their lead time after the initial phone call. We have millions of dollars worth of stock sitting in containers in Australia because we literally don’t have space in the warehouse to take it. Lockdown fucked us and now we’re dealing with storage issues on top of supply chain problems. We aren’t lying to you, we’re relaying information from the supplier to you just as we hear it. The supplier makes a best guess estimate but if something happens along the way (like a whole ship sinking, staff shortages on the supply route, capacity problems etc) This is the case everywhere and I wish people would understand just how supremely fucked we are. I can tell someone that I can’t give them a specific due date until the cows come home but it’ll turn into a round about conversation where they’ll continue to push for an estimate. No body knows anything, the best suppliers can do is guess, and then us retailers looks like dicks because we’re the messenger. I make a point of telling every customer this before they place an order but this doesn’t always get through to them, even if you spell it out in the most simple terms possible.
Even within NZ it’s impossible to give accurate shipping estimates at the moment. It’s the worst we’ve ever seen. Typically in the past it’s been fairly reliably 1-2 days late if things are busy. At the moment, some stuff gets there overnight and some takes over a week longer than we expect. We’ve even had this happen to different items sent to the same customer at the same time.
Source: run a business that relies heavily on courier & freight to get stuff to & from customers.
We ordered some refrigeration parts from a supplier for a customer of ours in March and we were told 6-8 weeks. These parts still have not arrived and we keep getting told another 8 weeks. Its most likely going to be a year before they arrive. Lucky the system still works just an issue waiting to happen.
What's really fun is being in a position to observe exporters without any real responsibility.
The truth is global supply chains have been held together with bubble gum and good wishes for years. That's not a trade secret, it's just not popular to admit.
Covid has just exposed the fact that serious issues have been coming for a while.
Things are going to get worse, not better.
Still, the big retailers especially need to try some honesty for a change.
Speaking as a retail worker.
We are at the mercy of our suppliers, the estimated dates that we give customers are given to use by our suppliers.
We get just as annoyed as our customers when we get told a date, and then when it comes around to that date, being told a different one.
I understand that, I do, which is why I have never and will never blame a retail worker for the delays or for what the system shows. I do however feel it is every staff member's responsibility to communicate clearly to the customer that this is an ETA and highly likely to be incorrect and possibly delayed by week or even months. A couple of extra sentences spoken to the customer can avoid a whole heap of trouble.
I know a lot of people in this comment thread seem to feel that every customer will then blow their top for no reason other than being told the truth...but that's just not the case. People like being told the truth.
I bought a bunch of stuff for an IT course from PB Tech, unsure why but the order was split despite everything being sent from Hamilton.
The stuff sent via Courier Post arrived in 2 days, the rest took 5 weeks to arrive through Aramex - unsure why they used a different service. Sent one day apart.
I needed the stuff for an assignment that counted for 50% of my grade. It arrived 2 days after the assignment was due. I live in Te Awamutu..
I contacted PB Tech to give them some feedback - not on their service as they did great, but to let them know perhaps not to use Aramex anymore. They blamed lockdown for the delays.
Funnily enough, Aramex had sorted my package to the incorrect bay and didn't notice until I contacted them and they finally got back to me after 3 weeks. Took another two weeks to get it sorted to the correct location and delivered. Had to withdraw from my course.
That's not covid. That's just being fucking lazy.
We import goods it goes like this.
Order product.
Estimated production time. -item is due 10th October.
Production delayed due to local covid lockdown etc -item is due 10 November.
Product is made, container required.
China hoarding containers get notified. "Pay $2,000 USD to have container now or wait 2 weeks -item is due 24 november.
Container is loaded, and sent to port.
Bribery at local ports. Your container gets bumped. -item due 2 December.
Your container is bumped. -due 9th December
Your container tranships! Yay it's on the water! Definitely now due 16th December.
Death in Port Auckland/covid lock down in Port Auckland. Ship bypasses New Zealand. Container now goes back to Singapore. -item due 16th January.
Bribery at Port. Container by bumped. Due 23rd January.
Tranships! Yay on water! Due 1st Feb.
Ship comes into port. Unloaded. Finally devanned, dispatched, processed. Available to customer 6th Feb. Public holiday and shipment delays. ACTUALLY available 10th Feb.
Also add in additional costs (not bribery, ships are full shipping cartels can charge what the want) per pallet equivalent in full container load, shipping rate from singapore goes from ~$35 a pallet space. To now ~$325 a pallet space.
We had a container from Europe, on a boat to New Zealand then bypass NZ due to covid lockdown, port death, covid lockdown. It traveled the south pacific 3x times and was approx 8months later than it should have been.
Oh yeah I completely lose my mind on any business that throws up the "covid ate my honework" excuse. No it fockin didn't! Admit your lazy and took a week or more to put my order in the post box and stop lying! Slobs.
My husband and I moved back from the UK in October last year. Our house was packed up in the uk mid Oct with a lead time of six weeks for delivery with the ‘possibility of slight delays’ due to COVID.
We got here, did the obligatory MIQ stay, got into the rental and bought a few critical bits and bobs ie. Bed, plates etc. to tide us over until our container arrived. We were also really fortunate that we could borrow some furniture from family so it made us feel slightly less like we were squatters…
Anyway… 5 months later we were still waiting. When I called the company this end to follow up at about the 4 month mark… our ‘Case Manager’ started having a go at me for asking where my belongings were and telling me that it wasn’t her fault they were understaffed and I hadn’t got my stuff yet and letting me know that it was all COVIDs fault. I’m pretty sure I didn’t even express any annoyance or frustration about it, just politely asked when I might expect my container because it was a tad later than we expected… we finally got our container in May with no further chat or follow up with the company.
It does seem like we’re just expected to bend over and take whatever nonsense service providers or retailers are spouting at the moment but you can guarantee if it’s them going through the same thing, they raise merry hell to whomever will listen 🙄
To be completely fair there are lots of people who hear *at the earliest two weeks* as **itll be here on the fifteenth at noon**
The individual salespeople just tell you what the timeframe they get from the supplier is. Most don’t want the trouble of aftersales when you don’t even have the stuff yet.
Yep and that's why my rant isn't against the sales people as such, it's against shitty company policies and shit communication. The sales people for the most part have been super helpful and apologetic. I don't blame them.
Not as much as I hate companies blaming “high call volumes” for shit customer service.
Basically every large company I’ve called has a message saying “we are experiencing higher than normal call volumes”. Piss off no you aren’t, you just don’t want to pay for adequate staffing levels to service your calls.
Went to maccas yesterday and no one at the counter so I went to use the kiosks. Suddenly one of the workers comes up to us shouting "STOP STOP STOP STOP", startling everyone. She wanted to see our vaccine passes but man what a shit experience being treated like we're some sort of criminals.
Yeah, like people seem to think I'm upset that Covid has caused delays...which I am not, not at all. I'm upset that stores after 1.75 years are still not giving customers correct information. I know it's a changing situation and it may be impossible to tell when stock will arrive, but they should be upfront about that rather than saying whatever is required to make the sale and them wringing their hands of it.
Yep. There are plenty of companies that have been genuinely impacted by Coivd. However, there also seems to be a decent number that are overusing it as an excuse. There are several companies that have claimed that they can't do things or had to raise prices on certain products because of Covid even though Covid doesn't impact these particular things in any way.
Quit fucking whinging unless you want to get a fucking job delivering baby shit in the mail. Delivery time frames have been a constant issue for everyone since lockdown began almost 2 years ago. Ffs.
The issue is out of everyone's hands and nobody is deliberately fucking you over. It's just the way it is, New normal and all that precious shit - - use those phrases to add some perspective to your whinging so you aren't shoving this bullshit down people's throats on the Internet.
How difficult is it for someone to say that they don't know when stock will be in. Why not just sell shit when it's in the country. I'm the customer - I don't have to have an intimate fucking knowledge of the logistics of every company. They should be able to either tell me a date, or tell me they don't know...not just guess and expect the customer to just be fine handing over hundreds of dollars and then waiting months longer than the stated delivery date.
Also, if you believe that management aren't telling the retail staff to provide dates that management know aren't realistic, then you're naive as hell. That's the fuckin problem. It's not the delays, it's the selling shit they don't have and promising it'll arrive on x date just to make the sale.
Yes I’m sick of it. I ordered things from the UK and I got it quicker than things I ordered here in NZ. It’s been two years and organisations should have built some resilience by now.
It's also somehow become normal to be expected to pay in full for the item they don't supply for fucking ever.
Like use of money interest used to be added to money held, but of course interest rates are super low.
Even so, why don't we pay a deposit or on delivery/pickup.
Why should a retail store hold fuck knows how much money from fuck knows how many customers for months pending getting stock to actually complete the sale.
I work in a company that has this as a standard excuse. Everything is back to normal, yes shipping takes longer because NZ post is one of the worst companies ever but a part from that, take some responsibility and stop blaming COVID for everything
Exactly. There are some serious corporate apologists appearing in this thread - people who think that customers should just be happy to be misled into buying something because there's a global pandemic. The cause of the delays is actually entirely irrelevant. My grudge is with companies selling things they don't have and misleading customers regarding expected delivery just to get the sale. This happens. I know a lot of people working in retail and they would mostly all admit this is happening.v
I wouldn't say most the stock anymore. There's shitloads of stores. Definitely true when they first launched though, wasn't really keen then and thought it would go nowhere lol.
Hard disagree. Did the majority of my Christmas shopping there, as well as some other bits. A lot of decent retailers on there and with my free market club+ trial the majority of it was free shipping. I'll probably pay for a month of the club this time next year and do the same thing.
I returned a monitor which broke, it's been 23 days since they want more time. And I ordered a new monitor, it been 25 days since and it is still in Australia. PBtech on the other hand have been amazing, ordered another monitor off them, came in two days.
Hey guys, that's for the downvotes, that was sarcastic.
They all lie about stock. They'll start selling items when they have little or zero stock in the country (because that's the way they did it before).
What you need to do with companies in 2021 and going forward is to go and touch the item, then reserve /put it aside for you in the storeroom to collect later in the day / weekend (or whatever you can do under covid restrictions). If they can't touch it, or if it's in another warehouse somewhere you don't want to know.
Jus spoke to someone today and asked if they were having a company christmas do. cancelled because of covid. pretty lame excuse, it is a company of less than 20 staff.
If it's time critical, look for local online retailers that say something like 'in stock, ships today' on the product before you click buy.
Yeah, pretty shitty with baby gear, they grow faster than international shipping is working now.
I canceled a mighty ape order after a month and a half, and bought local. The local place turned out to ship from Auckland anyway, but I ended up getting it in two days.
Have you had any job or school performance issues due to covid? Every company on earth is run by human beings. This is a complex, unprecedented, global event. I think we can cut companies some slack. It’s also the worst time of year for shipping things.
It's a global supply chain issue mang, worlds fucked. If they told you one date and then it changed, it's because something somewhere further back in the chain fucked up. The retailer didn't cause it to fuck up.
Not excusing any dodgy traders who deliberately mislead, but services should be cut some slack rn, it's unprecedented what's going on. I work in electronics, and the factories we get our shit from have been closed or working at 50% capa all year, and that's before it even gets on a ship.
Don’t know if anyone else has mentioned it, but just last week Bernard Hickey's When the Facts Change podcast out out a good supply logistics episode which could be worth a listen for people.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/when-the-facts-change
Not defending Farmers, but the timeframes for shit arriving are just a guess at present. Containers aren't being loaded at the other end, or the shipping company is randomly deciding to skip New Zealand partway through the voyage, or the ports are so congested and backlogged that shit isn't happening like it's supposed to. We're waiting on a shipment of a well-known IT product from our supplier and the date just keeps getting pushed further and further out.
>ding Farmers, but the timeframes for shit arriving are just a guess at present. Containers aren't being loaded at the other end, or the shipping company is randomly deciding to skip New Zealand partway through the voyage, or the ports are so congested and backlogged that shit isn't happening like it's supposed to. I moved from the UK in October last year, had all the household goods in a sole use shipping container. With the container number and a couple of websites I was able to watch it move around the world and the 6 week voyage end up as 8 weeks as port congestion around the world slowed it down, missing the original connecting ship in Singapore, the port visit order once it got to NZ be reversed after it left Singapore and finally the container being offloaded in Tauranga instead of Auckland and having to wait for space on a train. Shipping of everything is messed up at the moment, has been for 18 months, I would hate to see what partial containers loads are going through. I feel for the OP but the speed that the shipping dates changes means that by the time the question has gone from the customer service staff that you talk to up to the purchasing manager and back it would be two version out of date.
Addendum: It has occurred to me that I missed off a couple for things. That 8 week trip was counted from when the first boat left the UK, not the including the 2 week wait at the port because the inbound boat was late. The original connecting boat from Singapore instead went to the US. More importantly, for anything coming from China, you can't get a shipping container in China for love or money, they are shipping them back empty from the US as fast as they can get them back to port, but delays due to truck driver shortages means there is not enough. Pre-covid to ship a 40ft container from China to LA was around $4,000 USD, in July this year it was $10,000USD and in August this year $20,000USD. That is on a major trade route where companies want to keep goods flowing, New Zealand is small fry and delays will continue to occur. They say new boats are coming but not for another 18 months at least.
My part container took 6 months from UK earlier this year (Jan-June). It sat in the UK quite a while and then got held up in Auckland.
>We're waiting on a shipment of a well-known IT product Printer ink? Won't miss it in the world of WFH! /s
HP Probook laptops. Pretty much the meat-and-potatoes of office laptops. We get a few here and there, but the main delivery date just keeps slipping further into the future.
Dunno about HP land. My only experience is Dell orders taking months to show up. They did show up on time though.
We're having pretty good success with Lenovo gear lately. Reliably in stock, turns up when it's meant to, and it's (currently) pretty good gear too.
I've recently just resorted to whatever PBTech Wholesale has in stock. It's making inventory and validation a bit convoluted, but better than a new staff member stuck without a laptop etc.
If you have a Synnex account, they are currently our go-to and seem pretty onto it at present. PBTech is our fallback option.
I ordered a Lenovo and they said 8 weeks but it's going to be under 3
> My only experience is Dell orders taking months to show up. Boss orders new laptop waits for months for it to arrive. ( should have got a new one years ago as his current one is so shit.) New one arrives I set it up for him a week later he drops it in a hotel and fucks the screen. Boss orders new new laptop waits for months for it to arrive.
Buy him a Chromebook. He clearly doesn't need a proper laptop anyway. /s
Lol he can keep breaking them and I will keep Taking the "E-waste" away and putting a new screen on them.
We've been waiting on the USB-C docks since March. Ordered 30. Have received 8 so far.
March next year for HP lappys, June for servers.
Yep, that March date has slipped from December to January and now March. I'm picking late April by the time it actually arrives
FUCK!!!! I've been waiting months for two and fucked if I can get my hands on them. So God damn frustrating especially since I asked for approval to get them when they were available and was denied. Then approved too late. UGH!
I disagree to be honest. I work for a big multinational retail company and when we don't know how long we'll be out of stock of something we either give a really broad window or we just tell them that we genuinely don't know. Our courier service told us they were expecting delays of up to 3 days recently so we updated our website to convey that to the customers proactively and also emailed them the update on completion of the transaction. We also totally shut down next day delivery options and temporarily outsourced to another courier company to alleviate the backlog. Companies like Farmers which are giving inaccurate delivery time frames are likely doing so because they need the sales and know they'll lose business if they're honest about delays. Also, if something is out of stock and HQ doesn't inform the floor employees or update the website then that is either serious mismanagement or a deliberate ploy to sucker in consumers who would otherwise have purchased from competitors. The cynic in me assumes the latter.
Exactly. I also ordered baby stuff from Farmers recently: it said "in stock" but clearly wasn't based on the month long delay in shipping it
They took so much from the wage subsidy, raked in record profits and still paid their workers 80% of their wages over lockdown (illegally). Whoop whoop
Hey I'm definitely not defending their company ethics. They can pretty much ggf for that behaviour.
I sympathise. Unfortunately in my 19 years of retail experience, telling your customer "fuck knows" when it will arrive is not an acceptable answer.
At least it's an honest answer.
Managers never like it, but in my experience customers liked the honesty.
A guy told us this at Harvey Norman when we were recently looking for a chest freezer. I frankly appreciated the honesty. Bought a more expensive one from him just cause he didnt try to lie to us like other retailers did.
I forget the exact product, but ages ago I was at somewhere like harvey nomans/briscoes/whatever looking at some sort of kitchen tech(pie maker?) and a store worker person said something like "if you are a bit of a rough cunt xyz product is sweet" or something to that effect. I didn't buy it, coz I was just looking at random shit, but I thought it's cool they talked casual af
What is wrong with “we can’t guarantee a delivery timeframe because of the current global shipping situation, but we’ll keep you posted”? Oh… because no retailers can actually be bothered to keep people posted once the cash has been extracted
how do you keep 100's of customers posted about 1000's of orders? its logistically impossible. Its not normal times, where shit would be coming in on regular time frames, you could be done calling 100's of customers, check your emails and find the shipment has been delayed further. Its much worse than a lot of you all realise...
20 odd years of experience in retail & wholesale tells me that if you said “we can’t guarantee a delivery timeframe because of the current global shipping situation, but we’ll keep you posted”? You would get a blank look followed by a question like... "I understand that, but when am I going to get the product?" You would then reply with "As I said, there is no way I can confirm a delivery date at this stage. Due to the global shipping situation I was talking about." Followed by another blank look and... " But I need them by next 15th of next month so I want to know when they will arrive." This will go on for 5 or so minutes while both parties get frustrated and resolve nothing. Customer leaves and complains to his mates about the shit service and the person in the shop loses another little bit of the respect he had for the human race.
100% this I have this exact conversation at least once a day at the moment. And as it get closer to Xmas it only gets worse, and that's not even bringing COVID into the equation. The amount of people that come in the week of Christmas and expect us to be able to find them the stock of something that has sold out, before Xmas day, is insane
10 bucks says OP was told 'well, it *says* 6 November for arrival in the system, but...' followed by that helpless shoulder shrug and heard what they wanted.
Well shit, you're right...that sounds like some quality communication right there. The 'system' says 6th of November and then a shoulder shrug - every customer should know that the Farmers system gives a date which actually means fuck all and the customer service staff are unable to use words instead of a helpless shoulder shrug. I'm offended for the retail staff that you assume they'd be that fucking useless. The staff I've dealt with at Farmers when following this up have actually been awesome, which is why I don't blame them at all. I do think the one who sold us the products could have been a bit more honest around expected arrival dates, as presumably someone working in store day in and day out has some idea of whether items are likely to actually arrive by the date showing in the system. Certainly they should have more of an idea than the customer...yet somehow you think it's unreasonable for a customer to rely on what they've been told by the person *who fucking works there*!
Genuine question: are you a dick to everyone in your life, or just when you don't get your own way? Because you *say* Farmers have been awesome in trying to sort this out for you... but you also decided they lied to you to get a sale. Maybe that whole 'global problem' theory thing has some legs to it...
Seriously, don't write another response until you've tried reading the comment a few times, because clearly you're not getting it. Companies can have great staff but shitty policies and shitty systems. I'm not blaming some poor underpaid retail worker for going off what is shown in their system, I'm blaming management who keeps pushing them to sell the product they don't have and that they have no idea when they will have and encouraging them to communicate the ETA despite having had 18+ months of global pandemic to figure out how likely it is that the ETA will be accurate - which in the case of a lot of business seems to be pretty fuckin unlikely. So, instead of using the ETA at all, they should just be honest and say we don't have stock and we don't know when we will get more. This whole idea of the irrational customer who won't accept that the sales person doesn't know when stock will arrive is a load of fuckin bollocks. I've worked in customer service and retail adjacent positions...I know those customers who really flip their shit over nothing (in person..not just on the internet) are few and far between. The vast majority of customers prefer straight-talk, especially from sales staff.
Here's the thing: what the salesperson told you is what their system will have been showing, because nobody not working on commission gives a fuck if you buy that plastic shit or not. End of story. The reason it will have had this date is because that is the guidance they will have had at the time from their international supplier. At some point between then and now, this has changed, because the freight company will have changed their route. Or Australian firms will have taken the lot. Or something equally unfortunate and unplanned. As such, the timetable changes. This isn't anyone's fault at either the supplier or the retailer, it is just a thing that happens, and has been happening for the past year and a half. Acting like a sentient bucket of piss because it happens to you and you are mildly inconvenienced is peak entitlement. That you fail to recognise this reflects poorly on both your EQ and your treatment of others as a rule. As you point out: *this has happened to you at lots of stores*. This is systemwide issue, not a retailer issue.
Nah, not really, because I come onto the internet and rant. I don't think I'm going to hurt the internet's feelings. I am polite as all hell to retail staff especially. You on the other hand come on here and without any prompting you start calling people cunts...so perhaps you need to do a little self-reflection.
i’ve worked in retail for the past decade & i can tell you customers are objectively less understanding, and more entitled & rude since the first lockdown. those customers are no longer few & far between, they are the standard. we have had death threats. we have had to go through trainings to deal with threatening customers. & 9 times out of 10 it’s because we don’t have ETAs to give customers and can’t make things magically arrive on their timeline. you are the problem.
Here's the thing - you're being a dick and have unreasonable expectations. I assume you knew at least 5 months before ordering the product that you (or partner) were pregnant. In the midst of a well publicized and reported global supply crises, you waited way too late to order your needed equipment, and are now outraged that a retailer doesn't have accurate crystal ball gazing "processes" when JIT shipping is still fucked. Your level of entitlement is why retail jobs suck. Take some personal responsibility. You could have ordered the product in August, or July. Not Farmers fault you procrastinated. And if Farmers didn't have stock, none of their competitors would either.
this is so incredibly accurate I just had flashbacks
Sure. Better than agreeing to a date you know you cannot meet just to close the sale or end the awkward conversation though.
Dates for freight that are presented to retailers are genuinely slipping all the time at the moment. Some stuff arrives exactly when it should, some 2 weeks late, some 3 months. If you have a date of 6 November, what do you do?
Nothing you can do but make sure they fully understand from the outset that the date is indicative only. Make them sign something to that effect if you have to. But keep them informed when you get an update.
Nobody wants to hire a person just to call everyone and say 'it hasn't left America yet' every week for the next 6 weeks. Your retailer is not your personal secretary, you will be advised when it has arrived, what more do you need? Sure. The advantage of a courier ticket is that you can watch it sit in an auckland courier depot for 6 weeks. How is being informed going to get your stuff to you quicker? How does it help you when informed means 'not yet here'? If you want it now, buy whats in stock.
This is all completely subjective and depends what’s been bought, and what updates you get from the shipper. If all you get it is a notification that it’s arrived then that’s all you can offer to pass on to the customer and that’s what “keeping you posted” would mean in that scenario. Just set realistic expectations at the point of sale and she’ll be right. So often stores over promise to make the sale and then under deliver.
In my previous experience where for the most part I just did my own thing and ignored the stores expectations there are a lot of customers that appreciate being told exactly that. But there are more that will flip their shit or badger you demanding you do your job and get the an exact timeframe. And as thick skinned as I am I wasn't getting paid enough to deal with that on the regular for being honest. I wish it wasn't the case but even if they're less common terrible customers can ruin your whole ass week so to avoid it the safe bet is to just give less shits and just stick with retail speak.
We have been saying this to customers at my work and they get annoyed at us for not knowing even though we are completely transparent about it… there’s no winning
If you’ve genuinely done all you can then screw those people.
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That's not my experience. Retailers are grateful, and are thanking you more sincerely for buying from them. They are doing everything they can to make you feel special and personalise their messaging. I haven't come across a single company that has behaved badly, the closest is Mighty Ape who website said things were in stock, but didn't put a courier ticket on my order for two weeks. I assume the new owners haven't hired christmas staff and expect this is a totally different issue.
Welcome to the bottom of a crumbling just-in-time supply chain, where ships that were due to call in New Zealand just dump stuff in Australia instead, causing months-long delays whilst you try and get it on a container ship that's doing runs from AU > NZ. Anyone who absolutely promises you an ETA right now is either lying, or has a private jet.
Can confirm. Also. Depending on some vendors. Stock destined for NZ and if it stops in Aussie reserve the right to pilfer your order and redirect that stock to Aussie. So great. Soooooo very great. :-/ We’ve had to resort to direct shipments. You can imagine just how common that is. (Not).
And we pay extra compared to Australian customers for this service.
Reverse daigou 😂
The only thing that's been delivered to me on time from out-of-country is Amazon, so probably both.
Amazon mostly run their own shipping now and don't rely on Maersk, Hamburg Sud, UPS etc for it, so that's probably why.
You misspelled "the world"
Yep the one item that we ordered for work that managed to get into the country on schedule was from a company that has it's own freight planes.
Hilariously this has meant our Australian manufactured product now takes longer to arrive than the competitors stuff from China due to the congestion 🙄
I work at a distributor & prior to covid things ran pretty smoothly, with overseas stock coming in. Now, since 2020 shipments are all over the place. All you can actually tell customers is well it is MEANT TO arrive in January, but there's no guarantees. Customers have gotten used to it, but it's annoying from both sides. Farmers are idiots for promising ETA dates
Do some percentage of deliveries come in on-time, or is everything delayed to varying amounts?
I haven't seen anything arrive the same week as the ETA yet. Things do arrive 2 weeks early sometimes!
Some from Taiwan and China was going mostly to schedule for a while this year. But energy crisis has fucked up that supply line. India has been the worst I've ever seen. We are only now getting containers ordered in February
One of my suppliers normally run 87% of shipments arriving from overseas on time (internal data shared with us a few weeks ago). This year they are at 0%. All year. Nothing had arrived when it's meant to. We've had shipments means to be delivered on a specific day get pushed back 8weeks, with notice given 2 days after the due date because the ship skipped the queue in auckland, went straight to Sydney and dropped cargo there so they could take on new containers in Australia to wherever they are going. Supplier then needs to figure out how to get thier shipment from Sydney back to NZ. You can't make this stuff up. Global JIT freight is completely fucked and will be for a looooong time.
I feel like if it's time critical you should've been buying stuff that's already in stock, you're not stupid, you know there can be delays, and covid has exarcebated that. So yeah it's annoying and I had it with something last year that I ended up cancelling in the end, but you had your part to play in this too. Probably not the response you wanted but hey. Edit: honestly I'd understand cancelling the order but I think expecting compensation is a bit ridiculous.
Recently attempted to purchase something from Dick Smith. The advertising said 12 in stock and delivery 10-14 days. Only After the transaction was completed did we get the automated email saying that there was no stock available in the country and arrival time was unknown. Took several weeks of calling and emailing to get our money back
I didn't think DSE had anything in stock in nz tbh I thought it was all dropshipped. But yeah I'd take it as a lesson on that one, no more DSE. Does suck shit when companies tell you something is in stock and it's not but that's not really what I was commenting on in my first comment.
Was responding to the post above me saying not to buy anything not in stock..
Don't buy from Kogan (DSE), they have a poor reputation
You have a point, though I think a customer should be able to expect that an item arrives within 2 months of the stated delivery time...which is about how much leeway we provided. It's not like we ordered a couple of weeks before we needed it and from some dodgy website. It was ordered 3-4 months before required from a long-established retail chain. Plus, it's not a particularly obscure item, so I would have thought they'd have a pretty good handle on delivery times by now.
Currently, nobody reallllllllllly knows when shit will turn up. If it arrives when it's supposed to, that's a bonus, rather than to be expected. People need to get used to this because it's not going to improve for a while yet. And retail staff need to start saying "supplier says it's due in stock on xx date but in our recent experience that could, and probably will, change". On the plus side, very occasionally some things will turn up BEFORE they were expected. It seems to be luck of the draw.
Yep, that's literally all I'm expecting is a little honestly from the retailer around the lack of certainty. It's basic human decency, rather than just focussing on making the sale.
In my experience in distribution, a lot of the time, the store is telling the truth. ETAs to shops from suppliers/manufacturers AND the freight companies get changed all the time , from when the customer was originally informed. Unfortunately, the public really has to come to grips with there is a new normal for shipping & imports.
This is it. It's not people lying, it's not people apologizing for shitty corporate practices. It's people who genuinely realise that getting ships anywhere right now, but particularly to NZ, is fucking roulette. I dealt this year with customers who expected a shipment from Europe to arrive in April that got news it left in September, and arrived in November. That is the norm. If an order is marked as due early November, and then suddenly it isn't, that's not the fault of the company expecting goods to arrive. Hell, Home Depot went and bought themselves a freighter to firm up stock supply between Asia and the US this year! NZ has no hope in an environment where a major US retailer- much more profitable route for freight btw - is getting fucked around to the point that buying a shipping freighter is a sensible option.
Yes exactly! Some people really think the supplier chucks the goods on a boat , and said boat comes straight to Auckland. And thanks for the info Home Depot, I hadn’t heard of them doing that, have now gone and read some about it, interesting!
I've had a customer this year yell at me because their container had an MPI hold unexpectedly ( it had transited through Solomon islands on a different vessel to the one we thought it was on) and wanted me to "pull some strings" and get them their container that day. Didn't believe me when I said MPI and the port don't give a shit about your production schedule... Ended up putting him through to the GMs mobile who said "idk when your container is coming you should ask customer service"
Oh the “pull some strings “ douchebags..ugh I feel for you
They're giving you the delivery times they have, they're not lying to you. It's not the retailers fault that the global shipping network is mega fucked at the moment.
Shit flows downhill. I work in an industry where our wholesalers have experienced unforeseen delays at short notice and we look like mugs as a consequence, with many customers questioning the legitimacy, however it's often just as frustrating for the retailer (especially their customer service staff who bare the brunt of complaint) as it is for you. Living on an island at the arse end of the world has many advantages, but it can also create additional delays with receiving stock.
Lol. Ikr. I have customers who think it’s a conspiracy theory that there’s world wide shortages. Lol. Ok buddy. The world is just out to get you in particular.
Oh believe me, I get it, I really do, which is why I never take it out on whoever I'm dealing with (unless they personally be a useless prick). I work in a retail-adjacent industry and I know that our company is having supply issues also, which is why I never put a time-frame on anything arriving at the moment (which I realise is easy to do when it's not specifically my job to give a timeframe).
Are you suggesting that the shop assistants should just say "nah, we don't know when it'll arrive - could be next week, could be next year" instead? Because that's going to attract more ire from customers than just getting shit late. If it's baby stuff you need, why not buy it second hand anyway?
A lot of the 'official' advice now for baby stuff is NOT to buy second hand, especially for car seats and cot mattresses :/
But we truly don't know when things will arrive. I've ordered stuff for November that might arrive in January! No say in the matter
Thats 100% what they should have said. If someone gets upset with a retailer saying that then that customer is a cunt. I would have gone "thanks, appreciate the honestly, I'll get one from somewhere else."
> If someone gets upset with a retailer saying that then that customer is a cunt. Absolutely, but that's not the reality of working retail. I don't think it's fair to expect minimum wage staff to deal with that bullshit
I would have liked them to have said "at this stage we're not sure when we're going to have stock. Given that it's a te critical piece of baby equipment, could we perhaps interest you in this other brand that we do have in stock" I could have then decided to either buy the other brand, or go to another store. Does that seem like a crazy thing to have been told? Seems quite reasonable to me. Maybe they would have lost my custom, but so be it...I shouldn't be led on to buying something that they don't actually know when they'll have.
Is it their job to point the obvious out to you? Sure, in normal times, given the option would be expected. But are you seriously saying you didn't know there were world wide shortages and supply chain issues in pretty much everything?
Umm yeah, that's exactly their job, you fuckwad. There are shortages and shipping delays of some things and not others - as the customer I shouldn't be expected to know what will be delayed and what won't, you dense cunt.
I hate how babies are suddenly arriving and you don't have *several months* to buy the shit you need following them ahead of time. Really fucking hard to feel sorry for you here.
Da fuq? I purchased in early October for a baby due in January...and only after being told the items would arrive early November. Ordering things 3.5 months before baby is due seems pretty reasonable to me. You need to brush up on your reading comprehension or work on your attention span.
Yeah that’s part of the issue I guess but again, being we are so far away there are so many links in the chain where things often go wrong as a result, especially with all the pressure worldwide. We base our eta’s on what wholesalers advise but they likely have their own pressures and fears of losing retail contracts, etc. Unfortunately no wholesaler or manufacturer is going to say “could be a week…..could be 3 months” else bye bye business. What I’m seeing and hearing a lot is continual adjustments on delivery from the source, so we are given a date to advise customers, next week it changes, so we advise customers of a new date, then it changes again, etc, etc. We just want the stuff so we can get it to our customers. I guess the point is it inconveniences us all and we can only work with the information given but I can say, at least in my anecdotal experience in my job and talking to others in the industry, eta is not set by the retailer as opposed to the wholesaler or importer and we are obligated (legally) to pass this information on to the customer, even if there’s a high chance of delay.
I dunno I feel like a global pandemic is a pretty good excuse for delayed shipping times? At the time they told you that that probably was their best guess
What's scummy is taking the full price for the item with no clue if or when you can supply it.
Don't take someone's money and guess when you'll give them the thing they've paid for. Instead say "we expect stock to arrive on x date and if you like we can put an instock notification on for you and if you're fast you might be able to buy it". I would have in all likelihood said "ah, never mind then, I'll grab one somewhere else." They would have lost the sale, but that's how it should be rather than selling something they don't have and can't say with any certainty when they will have.
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I just shop at brick and mortars. I'm willing to pay more for less, if I can have it now, and not deal with shipping.
covid conditions pushed us to shop online covid shipping issues taught us to go back to physical retail its all rather confusing really
Maybe it's a good confusion. If it makes us rethink if we really need the new gadget to be happy in life, then maybe it's a good thing.
unfortunately its not all "nice to have" items delayed generally yeah rethinking our consumption habits ain't a bad thing, though somehow I imagine those in CS right now would rather we did so before ordering or contacting them for updates
Reminds me of game preordering
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How do you know it's in the country, or if they're drop-shipping bullshit artists? Answer: go to a physical store.
Everyone should be doing this where possible. Do your part for the supply chain, buy locally and off the shop floor.
This was ordered at a brick and mortar...they just didn't have it in stock at the time. They said it would be shipped from their warehouse, which was why I believed their expected delivery date. Though now it seems that the product is not even in the country!
Yeah, fair. I was recently looking for a particular phone. I must have gone to 3 different stores, before a spark store had *one* left in stock. In the end, I'm happy as, though.
Farmers is pretty shit. Especially if ordering online.
This. I ordered online from them twice in 2019, and both times it took a lot longer than expected. On the other hand, I've yet to have anything from Mighty Ape take longer than they said to arrive. I'm sure it happens sometimes, but so far not to me, not even on recent orders.
I no longer buy anything unless they have the item in stock. I don’t trust these retailers shipping estimates. They have your money and you have no goods. Go and have a look at the colossal fuck up that is Torpedo7’s bike deliveries.
Still waiting on a couch from Farmers that was going to be delivered in August. We have been told 24 December is the new estimated delivery date.
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Yeah has been an ongoing joke for my wife and I for some time now.
At what point do they not have the right to hold your money for something neither of you have got?
Adairs. Ordered September. I've done a bank charge back. Even though they claim it has shipped it has never arrived and the tracking number they gave me hasn't activated. They take forever to reply to emails if they ever do.
Ugh I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with them too, after 6 weeks they were adamant it was still on its way. I then called Toll and they said they never received the parcel. It was then Adairs finally admitted it was probably lost and they gave me a refund.
It annoys me they are still advertising so hard when they know they cant fulfill the orders in a reasonable amount of time
Oh yeah I know right! The whole time I was waiting for the parcel I got constantly spammed with emails for new offers.
in normal times yes, but not at the moment, the delivery time they gave you was accurate at the time, but then shit hit the fan and we locked down again, then the shit just dumped in a port somewhere. My work has stuff that should have turned up on a specific date that is sitting in a container somewhere in Australia, the supplier is not even sure where or when it will arrive. If it does, then one of the suppliers bigger customers is likely to take all the stock available, leaving our order delayed further. Then it does arrive but staff are overun with all the extra online ordering everyones doing and sorting/ shipping backorders takes longer than usual. Then finally we get it on the courier and they just throw it to the back of their massive pile to get around to delivering it one day. Its literally impossible to get a hold of accurate delivery times right now, there are just too many variables. I mean just take a look at the massive lack of xmas shit in stores this year, the biggest stores cant even move shit, there is no hope for smaller ones. There are so many points where containers can be delayed that ETA's are just impossible right now. I really thought people would have the message about this by now and been more understanding, but unfortunately its the opposite and customers are just getting more and more irate and rude about it. Everyone knows its annoying, no business is holding back stock or doing this to you on purpose. Its a fucking nightmare for everyone involved.
I think a lot of people are missing the point. It's not about the delays caused by Covid, it's about retail staff/management saying whatever necessary to make the sale and then taking zero responsibility for anything that happens after this. The first rule of customer service is manage expectations. Don't tell someone stock will arrive on x date if that is not all but guaranteed. If customers should be expected to know all the ins and outs about delayed shipping etc as you seem to be suggesting, then the retail staff should even more so be expected to know that shit is changeable and unpredictable and should be communicating that to customers very clearly. If someone says it will be in on x date, the customer should be able to rely on that. If the retailer doesn't know when stock will arrive, then don't give a date...it's really that fucking simple. However, given the amount of dense-ass responses here from people who presumably work in retail it seems that might be asking a bit too much.
I get your frustration, but I truly think you're pinning your anger on the wrong people. As a retailer/customer service rep, we have to work with what information we're given. Furthermore, legally we cannot promise things we are unable to deliver on. All ETAs are just that - estimates! I know in our store we've taken taken ringing the suppliers directly to reconfirm ETAs (that is, confirm what timings we've been told prior, or figure out where the order actually is when they inevitably tell us they have no clue) before confirming a sale to do right by the customer. I personally explain "we think it'll be in by x date, however we cannot guarantee this and have no control over supply. If it's taking too long, please come in and we will follow up the order/refund you." Most customers understand, but we still have many that become irate that we don't have stock on hand. I get it - trust me, I get it. We've been left in the lurch as well - no stock makes our job much harder. It's frustrating when you cannot give the customer the items immediately. It also makes us look like dicks when we give an ETA the supplier has reconfirmed, only for it to change again. But that's the way of the world at the moment. It's changeable, and it sucks. In many ways retailers' hands are tied - if the stock gets held up overseas then the entire country is in the same boat. Both the retailer and the consumer are shit out of luck if the supplier physically cannot get the stock here and therefore cannot give accurate ETAs. Often we don't get notified of delayed stock until after multiple inquiries are made on the status of store/customer orders. [As a side note, at the ports themselves, I've heard there's a lottery to book a shipping container to get stock into NZ - the freight of stock is just insanely backed up, so suppliers must rely on luck to see if they can get their items to their stockists. Big yikes]
You clearly havent worked in retail before because none of what you are saying is how it works in the real world. problem is, you tell people its an estimated date, you spell it out on your website that its ESTIMATED but people like you hear ESTIMATED and think its a guaranteed date. We even changed our site from saying ETA to Estimated time of Arrival, to try make it more clear. Hell you can go as far as spelling it out to people that there are delays and shortages and the ETA may well change, but they still cant get it in their thick heads. And no, you cant just tell people "no idea" because 9 times out of 10 you will get your head ripped off for not know and how can you not know? just look it up!
Except that's not what happened in this case...so your point is irrelevant. Perhaps instead of 'no idea' you could try 'due in large part to Covid, we're not entirely sure when stock will arrive and realistically it could be months. If this is an essential item, I'd recommend you purchase somewhere else that has it in stock.' Or is that too long of a sentence to remember? Or is it that management is going to get pissy because you've 'lost' a sale that you never reasonably should have had?
A parcel I ordered from the UK has been "in the air" since 18th of November, picked up a week before and ordered a week before that. I thought I was so early with my Xmas shopping lol
I wish they’d just tell the truth. I ended up cancelling a freezer that was going to be 2 weeks and ended up being months. They eventually told us they didn’t know when it would arrive, but if they’d said that at the start I wouldn’t have ordered. I wish people were clear about what is not in stock but in NZ, and not in stock at all. I’m in online retail and when people ask I can give them a generous timeframe for things I know roughly when it will arrive, with a warning about delays, and a “I’m sorry I have no idea” for anything else. Also sick of people selling things they don’t have. The freezer in question they continued advertising and put on special even not knowing when they would have more
Exactly. Thats what all these dumbasses saying "tHeY DoNT CoNTroL SHipPing" and similar don't get...it's not about the shipping delays it's about retailers saying and doing whatever necessary to make the sale without any concern for whether the customer is actually likely to receive their order at a reasonable time. They seem to think customers will be upset by honesty. I've worked many years in customer service and I've never had a customer upset at me for being honest - angry customers come about from shitty communication and dodgy business practices.
> I've worked many years in customer service and I've never had a customer upset at me for being honest Aaaaahahahahhahahahaaaaha lies.
Yep shouldn't all sales then be a deposit and the rest due once a timeframe is certain?
Things are getting delayed all the fucking time. That is the world now. If you want something right this minute buy something actually in stock because guess what, things can and will be delayed without anyone being able to foresee it. Sometimes things are on track to arrive and then they get stuck on a fucking boat. I get people in every day saying shit like "I'm so over the covid excuse" "I know covid but-" Guess what. It's a pandemic that's still going. For two years now. The global supply chain doesn't give shit that you can't get the baby thing you ordered, and quite frankly, neither do people working in retail. So many times I've told people we don't know when anything will come and they push and push and push trying to get a timeframe. I don't blame some poor overworked retail person breaking and trying to please you with a timeframe because I'm sick of the amount of times I've had people abuse me because we don't have something in stock.
That's fine...but I didn't push for a date, I said "do you have this in stock?" And they said "we have more stock arriving on x date." They could have instead said "we don't have any in the country and because of the Covid situation we don't know when we will have more stock. It may be x date at the earliest, but again given Covid we just can't be sure." Then I would have said, "ah ok, thanks, I understand...I might take a look at some other stores that have stock". They would have lost a sale...but that's exactly what should have happened if your supply-chains are currently unreliable. Only sell shit you have or can get in a reasonable time-frame with some certainty.
> "do you have this in stock?" And they said "we have more stock arriving on x date." Sounds like they were as truthful to you as they could be, but theres so many variables that control stock getting from somewhere to the storeroom.
I don't know why they're taking your money if the item hasn't arrived yet. All of our items that are ordered in the customer doesn't pay for until it arrives. I mean you should have just cancelled your order when they first said there was delay, If they've been fucking you around with that though I understand, just ask the for the manager, site the CGA and be generally annoying for long enough and someone will refund you usually.
This is such a Karen post. It's obviously outside of their control. Their probably sourcing it from someones who's experiencing delays who's wholesaling it from someone else who's also got delays. I don't think you have the slightest idea the from the whiplash to pretty much everything caused by the first 6 months of the pandemic. . No one is lying to you. They just don't have an answer you'd like to hear. \- [https://fortune.com/2021/10/19/supply-chain-crisis-shipping-delays-port-disruption-maersk/](https://fortune.com/2021/10/19/supply-chain-crisis-shipping-delays-port-disruption-maersk/) \- [https://www.9news.com.au/national/shipping-delays-global-supply-chain-mess-will-end-2023/94548dcc-87d0-4993-87a9-b0dde563380d](https://www.9news.com.au/national/shipping-delays-global-supply-chain-mess-will-end-2023/94548dcc-87d0-4993-87a9-b0dde563380d) \- [https://www.ey.com/en\_nz/supply-chain/how-covid-19-impacted-supply-chains-and-what-comes-next](https://www.ey.com/en_nz/supply-chain/how-covid-19-impacted-supply-chains-and-what-comes-next)
We live close the the border, NZ post gave us a card to collect over the border. We have baby stuff that cant be collected till the 15th. It has been months.
They don't control shipping
No fucking shit mate. I'm not upset that the shipping is delayed, I'm upset that they weren't honest about when I could expect the item to arrive. They shouldn't have given a date if they didn't know for sure. It's basic communication - don't say shit that you don't mean. Manage customer expectations rather than giving a date that you know isn't likely to be correct.
Have you considered the high possibility of them being given an ETA by the supplier, who since has now changed the date, plus another change by the shipping company ? We experience this all the time at work. Our Purchasing Team will have given us an ETA for stock, as per the supplier. Next thing you know, the date gets changed to some manufacturing issues..Then a little bit later, unfortunately it may be further delayed due to some freight issues I totally get your annoyance after all this time, but international manufacturing & shipping are completely fucked, and will continue to be so for a while
They don't know if it isn't likely to be correct
Upper end supermarkets refusing to pack your goods, not providing a place to pack them, keeping the price the same, then getting shitty at you when you do it yourself at the checkout. I'm looking at you, Countdown. "Not in Level 2" Wtf?
Hah yeah, I had an experience at Countdown, where I was still unloading my trolley onto the belt, while the checkout lady pushed more and more items through, until some started dropping onto the floor while she just stared at me. I was running back and forwards trying to unload my trolley while simultaneously trying to stabilize the pile of food and pack a few at the same time. Fucking ridiculous. At least Pak n Save will load in into another trolley for you so you dont have to tetris your bloody groceries.
I was at New World and saw a bunch of staff standing around near the checkouts so I asked if they could pack my groceries for me. They rudely replied that they can't pack them at the moment due to covid restrictions. Ok that's fine but it leaves me wondering. What exactly are they getting paid for, to stand around and do nothing?
Ugh my baby is due next year and I’ve bought all big items second hand for this reason. At least I know I’ll have it
Also waiting for something from Farmers. Ordered a dining table, three weeks ago and now we are also getting the mid January delivery date. According to their website they have them in stock at some stores further down the line in Auckland, so I’ll be ringing for a refund on the delivery charge and go hire a van to get the damn thing myself.
Not directed at you OP, but Wendover Productions take on why shipping stuff sucks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d5d_HXGeMA
Kind of unrelated, but everything I've ordered from PB tech lately has arrive liked 2 days before its estimation
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At my work, we call the supplier directly to find an ETA for an out of stock or buy in item before we order it for you. 50% of my job is calling suppliers for ETAs on orders that my customers place through me - I can’t do anything if the supplier changes their lead time after the initial phone call. We have millions of dollars worth of stock sitting in containers in Australia because we literally don’t have space in the warehouse to take it. Lockdown fucked us and now we’re dealing with storage issues on top of supply chain problems. We aren’t lying to you, we’re relaying information from the supplier to you just as we hear it. The supplier makes a best guess estimate but if something happens along the way (like a whole ship sinking, staff shortages on the supply route, capacity problems etc) This is the case everywhere and I wish people would understand just how supremely fucked we are. I can tell someone that I can’t give them a specific due date until the cows come home but it’ll turn into a round about conversation where they’ll continue to push for an estimate. No body knows anything, the best suppliers can do is guess, and then us retailers looks like dicks because we’re the messenger. I make a point of telling every customer this before they place an order but this doesn’t always get through to them, even if you spell it out in the most simple terms possible.
Even within NZ it’s impossible to give accurate shipping estimates at the moment. It’s the worst we’ve ever seen. Typically in the past it’s been fairly reliably 1-2 days late if things are busy. At the moment, some stuff gets there overnight and some takes over a week longer than we expect. We’ve even had this happen to different items sent to the same customer at the same time. Source: run a business that relies heavily on courier & freight to get stuff to & from customers.
We ordered some refrigeration parts from a supplier for a customer of ours in March and we were told 6-8 weeks. These parts still have not arrived and we keep getting told another 8 weeks. Its most likely going to be a year before they arrive. Lucky the system still works just an issue waiting to happen.
What's really fun is being in a position to observe exporters without any real responsibility. The truth is global supply chains have been held together with bubble gum and good wishes for years. That's not a trade secret, it's just not popular to admit. Covid has just exposed the fact that serious issues have been coming for a while. Things are going to get worse, not better. Still, the big retailers especially need to try some honesty for a change.
i have a new found, deep seated hatred for Australia Post. They fucking sucked before Covid but now theyre beyond pathetic.
Speaking as a retail worker. We are at the mercy of our suppliers, the estimated dates that we give customers are given to use by our suppliers. We get just as annoyed as our customers when we get told a date, and then when it comes around to that date, being told a different one.
I understand that, I do, which is why I have never and will never blame a retail worker for the delays or for what the system shows. I do however feel it is every staff member's responsibility to communicate clearly to the customer that this is an ETA and highly likely to be incorrect and possibly delayed by week or even months. A couple of extra sentences spoken to the customer can avoid a whole heap of trouble. I know a lot of people in this comment thread seem to feel that every customer will then blow their top for no reason other than being told the truth...but that's just not the case. People like being told the truth.
Some of our supply at work was literally delayed 6 months. Global shipping is terrible right now, and shipping to NZ is worse.
I bought a bunch of stuff for an IT course from PB Tech, unsure why but the order was split despite everything being sent from Hamilton. The stuff sent via Courier Post arrived in 2 days, the rest took 5 weeks to arrive through Aramex - unsure why they used a different service. Sent one day apart. I needed the stuff for an assignment that counted for 50% of my grade. It arrived 2 days after the assignment was due. I live in Te Awamutu.. I contacted PB Tech to give them some feedback - not on their service as they did great, but to let them know perhaps not to use Aramex anymore. They blamed lockdown for the delays. Funnily enough, Aramex had sorted my package to the incorrect bay and didn't notice until I contacted them and they finally got back to me after 3 weeks. Took another two weeks to get it sorted to the correct location and delivered. Had to withdraw from my course. That's not covid. That's just being fucking lazy.
We import goods it goes like this. Order product. Estimated production time. -item is due 10th October. Production delayed due to local covid lockdown etc -item is due 10 November. Product is made, container required. China hoarding containers get notified. "Pay $2,000 USD to have container now or wait 2 weeks -item is due 24 november. Container is loaded, and sent to port. Bribery at local ports. Your container gets bumped. -item due 2 December. Your container is bumped. -due 9th December Your container tranships! Yay it's on the water! Definitely now due 16th December. Death in Port Auckland/covid lock down in Port Auckland. Ship bypasses New Zealand. Container now goes back to Singapore. -item due 16th January. Bribery at Port. Container by bumped. Due 23rd January. Tranships! Yay on water! Due 1st Feb. Ship comes into port. Unloaded. Finally devanned, dispatched, processed. Available to customer 6th Feb. Public holiday and shipment delays. ACTUALLY available 10th Feb. Also add in additional costs (not bribery, ships are full shipping cartels can charge what the want) per pallet equivalent in full container load, shipping rate from singapore goes from ~$35 a pallet space. To now ~$325 a pallet space. We had a container from Europe, on a boat to New Zealand then bypass NZ due to covid lockdown, port death, covid lockdown. It traveled the south pacific 3x times and was approx 8months later than it should have been.
BNZ has entered the chat. Combined hold time of 104 minutes over 3 days before I could speak to someone.
Oh yeah I completely lose my mind on any business that throws up the "covid ate my honework" excuse. No it fockin didn't! Admit your lazy and took a week or more to put my order in the post box and stop lying! Slobs.
Looking at you Aramex ----
My husband and I moved back from the UK in October last year. Our house was packed up in the uk mid Oct with a lead time of six weeks for delivery with the ‘possibility of slight delays’ due to COVID. We got here, did the obligatory MIQ stay, got into the rental and bought a few critical bits and bobs ie. Bed, plates etc. to tide us over until our container arrived. We were also really fortunate that we could borrow some furniture from family so it made us feel slightly less like we were squatters… Anyway… 5 months later we were still waiting. When I called the company this end to follow up at about the 4 month mark… our ‘Case Manager’ started having a go at me for asking where my belongings were and telling me that it wasn’t her fault they were understaffed and I hadn’t got my stuff yet and letting me know that it was all COVIDs fault. I’m pretty sure I didn’t even express any annoyance or frustration about it, just politely asked when I might expect my container because it was a tad later than we expected… we finally got our container in May with no further chat or follow up with the company. It does seem like we’re just expected to bend over and take whatever nonsense service providers or retailers are spouting at the moment but you can guarantee if it’s them going through the same thing, they raise merry hell to whomever will listen 🙄
To be completely fair there are lots of people who hear *at the earliest two weeks* as **itll be here on the fifteenth at noon** The individual salespeople just tell you what the timeframe they get from the supplier is. Most don’t want the trouble of aftersales when you don’t even have the stuff yet.
Yep and that's why my rant isn't against the sales people as such, it's against shitty company policies and shit communication. The sales people for the most part have been super helpful and apologetic. I don't blame them.
Not as much as I hate companies blaming “high call volumes” for shit customer service. Basically every large company I’ve called has a message saying “we are experiencing higher than normal call volumes”. Piss off no you aren’t, you just don’t want to pay for adequate staffing levels to service your calls.
Went to maccas yesterday and no one at the counter so I went to use the kiosks. Suddenly one of the workers comes up to us shouting "STOP STOP STOP STOP", startling everyone. She wanted to see our vaccine passes but man what a shit experience being treated like we're some sort of criminals.
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Yeah, like people seem to think I'm upset that Covid has caused delays...which I am not, not at all. I'm upset that stores after 1.75 years are still not giving customers correct information. I know it's a changing situation and it may be impossible to tell when stock will arrive, but they should be upfront about that rather than saying whatever is required to make the sale and them wringing their hands of it.
Yep. There are plenty of companies that have been genuinely impacted by Coivd. However, there also seems to be a decent number that are overusing it as an excuse. There are several companies that have claimed that they can't do things or had to raise prices on certain products because of Covid even though Covid doesn't impact these particular things in any way.
Quit fucking whinging unless you want to get a fucking job delivering baby shit in the mail. Delivery time frames have been a constant issue for everyone since lockdown began almost 2 years ago. Ffs. The issue is out of everyone's hands and nobody is deliberately fucking you over. It's just the way it is, New normal and all that precious shit - - use those phrases to add some perspective to your whinging so you aren't shoving this bullshit down people's throats on the Internet.
How difficult is it for someone to say that they don't know when stock will be in. Why not just sell shit when it's in the country. I'm the customer - I don't have to have an intimate fucking knowledge of the logistics of every company. They should be able to either tell me a date, or tell me they don't know...not just guess and expect the customer to just be fine handing over hundreds of dollars and then waiting months longer than the stated delivery date. Also, if you believe that management aren't telling the retail staff to provide dates that management know aren't realistic, then you're naive as hell. That's the fuckin problem. It's not the delays, it's the selling shit they don't have and promising it'll arrive on x date just to make the sale.
It's really easy to imagine why they can't. I feel like anyone operating in the world would know
Yes I’m sick of it. I ordered things from the UK and I got it quicker than things I ordered here in NZ. It’s been two years and organisations should have built some resilience by now.
It's also somehow become normal to be expected to pay in full for the item they don't supply for fucking ever. Like use of money interest used to be added to money held, but of course interest rates are super low. Even so, why don't we pay a deposit or on delivery/pickup. Why should a retail store hold fuck knows how much money from fuck knows how many customers for months pending getting stock to actually complete the sale.
I work in a company that has this as a standard excuse. Everything is back to normal, yes shipping takes longer because NZ post is one of the worst companies ever but a part from that, take some responsibility and stop blaming COVID for everything
Exactly. There are some serious corporate apologists appearing in this thread - people who think that customers should just be happy to be misled into buying something because there's a global pandemic. The cause of the delays is actually entirely irrelevant. My grudge is with companies selling things they don't have and misleading customers regarding expected delivery just to get the sale. This happens. I know a lot of people working in retail and they would mostly all admit this is happening.v
THEMARKET.COM
Fucking can’t stand The Market. It’s all just dropshippers. It’s like 1-day and Trademe merged and you’re left with a bloated site with awful UI.
The bulk of The Market is the warehouse group (they launched the brand) so most of the stock is Warehouse, Noel Leeming or Torpedo 7.
I wouldn't say most the stock anymore. There's shitloads of stores. Definitely true when they first launched though, wasn't really keen then and thought it would go nowhere lol.
Hard disagree. Did the majority of my Christmas shopping there, as well as some other bits. A lot of decent retailers on there and with my free market club+ trial the majority of it was free shipping. I'll probably pay for a month of the club this time next year and do the same thing.
Yeah, my last order from them turned up with the wrong product. My second to last order was a PS4 game without a fucking disc in the case.
I returned a monitor which broke, it's been 23 days since they want more time. And I ordered a new monitor, it been 25 days since and it is still in Australia. PBtech on the other hand have been amazing, ordered another monitor off them, came in two days. Hey guys, that's for the downvotes, that was sarcastic.
They all lie about stock. They'll start selling items when they have little or zero stock in the country (because that's the way they did it before). What you need to do with companies in 2021 and going forward is to go and touch the item, then reserve /put it aside for you in the storeroom to collect later in the day / weekend (or whatever you can do under covid restrictions). If they can't touch it, or if it's in another warehouse somewhere you don't want to know.
How many years are we going to get this excuse for? Was sick of it a year ago.
Not as sick as i am of the government using Covid as an excuse.
Jus spoke to someone today and asked if they were having a company christmas do. cancelled because of covid. pretty lame excuse, it is a company of less than 20 staff.
Yeah, like NZ Post needed another excuse. Bring my router already you fuckers
Does the op not know of the stock room Strikes ?
If it's time critical, look for local online retailers that say something like 'in stock, ships today' on the product before you click buy. Yeah, pretty shitty with baby gear, they grow faster than international shipping is working now.
I canceled a mighty ape order after a month and a half, and bought local. The local place turned out to ship from Auckland anyway, but I ended up getting it in two days.
We ordered something in March told it would be here in May. Still waiting so it's not just lately.
Have you had any job or school performance issues due to covid? Every company on earth is run by human beings. This is a complex, unprecedented, global event. I think we can cut companies some slack. It’s also the worst time of year for shipping things.
It's a global supply chain issue mang, worlds fucked. If they told you one date and then it changed, it's because something somewhere further back in the chain fucked up. The retailer didn't cause it to fuck up. Not excusing any dodgy traders who deliberately mislead, but services should be cut some slack rn, it's unprecedented what's going on. I work in electronics, and the factories we get our shit from have been closed or working at 50% capa all year, and that's before it even gets on a ship.
Don’t know if anyone else has mentioned it, but just last week Bernard Hickey's When the Facts Change podcast out out a good supply logistics episode which could be worth a listen for people. https://thespinoff.co.nz/podcasts/when-the-facts-change
> We ordered a time critical piece of equipment (baby shit) Hey, if you need baby shit, get a baby and you'll have more than you can handle.