[CR]Re: Classicrendezvous Digest, Going Postal

(Example: Production Builders)

From: <CYCLESTORE@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 12:39:50 EST
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Re: Classicrendezvous Digest, Going Postal

Hello CR'ers

On some of the talk about slow shipping from Europe and elsewhere. We import items by air sea and it seems even land from Europe. Arrival times vary from dispatch to the very next morning to a couple of months.

I just got a post card from the UK posted 12/15/03. It arrived Thursday, 2/5/04.

Anyone wishing an overseas shipment shipped cheapest way should expect lower priority processing as air/overnight customers willing to pay the extra freight shall get priority in any business. Also remember the common overnight gang here (Fed Ex/UPS) often work through subcontracted carriers over there (especially in the countryside where they are not established) and it causes technical delays in processing at times. In a major city FedEx or UPS will pickup your overseas package at your door and supply forms in your native language.

To post something overseas often requires a long stand in a postal line waiting for a helpful US customs form to fill out with language many native English speakers have trouble filing out (as the instructions and terms are incomplete and cyptic- but you are held to them under penalty of law). The customs form is however helpfully printed in English with a French translation that is often very helpful to someone who lived in the former East Germany and know what penalty of the law can really mean. Now I enjoy standing in a postal line and fining out government forms as much as the next fellow but when someone orders something in a low priority fashion that get what they pay for. I'll take the hour I stand in line with travel time and schedule a trek to my postal facility once a week tops unless it coincides with other duties that are more pressing. In our area they are not even open normal business hours regularly and they will not process anything but envelopes without going to the counter.

If there was real money in old Zeus parts and Huret derailleur clamps everybody would be selling them but clearly there is not. There are usually not operators standing buy 24-7 to write verbose emails, answer phone calls and chase down the status Johnny on the spot for folks who are clearly expecting to pay as little as possible for their service. I say if you don't like the type of service they offer, find another source but be careful how you criticize an honest someone who goes to the apparent trouble time and expense even to offer the obscure products. We have lost many good people and businesses in our little world who found the headache of little use and who have not been replaced by anyone substantially better if at all.

Some would say if a business can't meet you expectation then they shouldn't be in business. We really they shouldn't have yours but for the people that are satisfied it is another story. No one likes slow shipping but I feel with overseas shippers you must remember they are overseas and not around the corner.

I sure was good to get that Christmas card the other day,

Yours in Cycling,

Gilbert Anderson

North Road Bicycle Company 519 W. North St. Raleigh, NC 27603 USA Toll Free Ph: 800\u2022321\u20225511 Local Ph: 919\u2022828\u20228999 E-mail: cyclestore@aol.com

In a message dated 2/8/04 7:07:13 AM, classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org writes:
>Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2004 22:05:39 -0500
>From: "Stephen Barner" <steve@sburl.com>
>To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: [CR]Slow shipment from Europe arrives
>Message-ID: <000b01c3edf0$6f305bc0$6400a8c0@bourke>
>References: <4023E3CC.7030305@erols.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain;charset="iso-8859-1"
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>Precedence: list
>Message: 3
>
>After giving up a shipment of goodies from Baron for lost, a box from the
>Netherlands showed up Friday. Everything was intact and as ordered back
>at
>the beginning of December. Interestingly, it came in with another box
>that
>held an NOS '73 Brooks Pro that I purchased on January 20th, also shipped
>from the Netherlands. Baron did indeed ship my order in early December,
>so
>there must have been a major delay in shipping, or maybe it took awhile
>to
>fill a container for the boat ride over. Neither box appeared to have
>been
>opened en route. All the stuff from Baron was of excellent quality and
>at
>least as nice as I expected.
>
>So, if you are waiting for something from Europe, be patient. Your day
>will
>come soon (saw this is a Chinese fortune cookie today).
>
>Steve Barner, Bolton, Vermont.