Sorry to post such a long and potentially monotonous post but I really want to know what others think about my experience of buying internationally. I have included all my email correspondence with the supplier below!

My reason for posting here is simple. I would like to understand if I have been unreasonable in the way I have dealt with this order? All I really want to know is: Do you think I have been treated well by the supplier or have I just been a difficult customer?

Maybe you have some advice or a tip on how I could have got what I was asking for? Perhaps I could have handled the thing better?

Or, just ignore my ramblings and add a post to the Word Association thread, it’s much more fun there :)

Thanks
Darren

--------------

From: Darren Lane
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 5:10 PM
Subject: I hope that you can help me?


Hi David. I hope that you will excuse me sending you a mail directly.

I placed an order at www.bluedo.com for a HTM MX-500 online 22:40 Monday 10th Feb. I did receive an automated response asking for credit card scans and address veriication, to which I immediately replied.

I have not heard from your company since and I am a little concerned. My credit card has not been charged yet and I have posted a mail via your web form asking about the staus of my order.

I wonder if you can tell me what is going on? I ordered from BlueDo after reading some good feedback on remotecentral.com. I noticed that you were posting to queries there today(Wednesday), so I am asking for your help. I expected the order to have shipped by now as I have paid $40 for postage or at least to have heard from your company by now.

Please let me know what is going on. I am an international customer (from the UK), I had hoped that that wouldnt cause a problem.

Many thanks

Darren
p.s. My order numvber is: ************

--------------
From: BlueDo.com
To: Darren Lane
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 12:13 AM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


Darren,

Your order has been processed - you should be receiving the order shortly!

Thank you,

David
www.BlueDo.com

-----------

From: Darren Lane
To: BlueDo.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 5:28 PM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


OK, last time I bother you. What does processed mean please. My credit card has still not been charged ( i just checked with them).

Has it shipped? Who did it ship with? If so can I track the delivery online?

Sorry to be a pest but I have found its best to check!

Thanks
Darren

------------

From: BlueDo.com
To: Darren Lane
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 12:47 AM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


Darren,

The charge may take a few days to appear on your credit card statement.

As you selected, your order ships using USPS Global services, unfortunately there's no online tracking for that.

You're not being a pest at all- I'm glad I could answer questions for you!

Thank you,

David
www.BlueDo.com

----------

From: Darren Lane
To: BlueDo.com
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 11:37 AM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


Dear David.

I would like to find out the following please. Ref order number: ***********

1.Have you actually shipped the order?

2.When did it ship?

3.What was the exact USPS Global service that you used?

4.What was the shipping reference number please?

I have worked with international shipping for over 10 years, I will be able to enquire with USPS using the above information.

I need the answers to the above immediately please. If you are unable to confirm that the goods shipped I will be forced to cancel my order with my credit card company. I am sorry to ask for this information so formally but I am getting rather concerned with your level of service and your inability to answer my questions regarding the status of my order.

Regards
D Lane

----------

From: BlueDo.com
To: Darren Lane
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 7:54 PM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


Darren,

The orders are batched and shipped several times a week, I'll track down the information you've requested and will send it to you once I've collected it all. We ship quite often to international locations and never have any problems, so rest assured you'll receive your order shortly.

Thank you,

David
www.BlueDo.com

---

From: Darren Lane
To: BlueDo.com
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 12:51 PM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


David.

I have lost all patience. Please answer my question: Have you shipped my order? Yes or No?

If you have shipped it, tell me exactly when please.

If you have not shipped my order yet, tell me. I will cancel the order and you can refund my card.

Your website says categorically that the product is in stock and will ship immediately & thats what I expected on Monday.

I have been patient and pleasant so far, surely you can offer me the above information now, I shouldn't have to wait this long for a straight answer.

------------

From: BlueDo.com
To: Darren Lane
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 8:59 PM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


Darren,

I thought I had been clear on this - I apologize if there has been any inconvenience. International orders aren't picked up daily by UPS as our domestic shipments are, they must be brought to the local post office and mailed manually. As this process can often take several hours (waiting in line!) we batch the international shipments and visit the post office not every single day, but at least twice a week to mail the shipments.

Because of this process (and the fact that I'm not the lucky fellow waiting in line at the post office!) I don't have the shipping information, I know that it was processed, packed, and batched on Monday, and it likely shipped within a day or two, but I don't have the exact tracking numbers or anything in front of me.

Transit time is generally 2-10 days to reach customs in your country, so you should be receiving the order very soon. As I mentioned before, I'll research your order and find the information you're after, but we've never had a request like this, never lost an order, etc., so I don't anticipate any problems. If there are any issues receiving your order, we're right here to help you every step of the way!

As I mentioned before, I'll be collecting the information you're after and replying to you when I have it all for you.

Thank you,

David
www.BlueDo.com

---------------

From: Darren Lane
To: BlueDo.com
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 11:15 AM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


David. Thanks for your reply yesterday. This is quite frustrating. All I really want is my order fulfilled in a reasonable way.

You say "If there are any issues receiving your order, we're right here to help you every step of the way!"

I DO have an issue. You have so far been unable to tell me if my order has shipped and IF so, when.

Are you able to tell me why you cannot confirm this? Can you not see that this is very unusual for a supplier to not have this info at hand?

I have assumed since my online request for help on Tuesday has not been answered that you(on this email address) are my only contact at BlueDo, is this the case?

Surely I can expect better service from your company. You have taken my money on Monday! You were quick enough to do that!

Just so I make it VERY clear. I am only asking you to confirm whether my order has shipped, if so when. After that we can talk about the shipping info to help me find out the status of the carriage.

If you cannot answer those two questions by the end of today, Friday 14, 2003, I will have to assume that you have not shipped my order. If that is the case, I request that you refund my credit card immediately or I will contact my credit card company to recall my payment and I will not except any deliveries from your company.

This is the first time I have ever had to call my Credit Card company to ask about problem suppliers, I don't want to have to go through all this.

D Lane

---------------

From: BlueDo.com
To: Darren Lane
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 6:20 PM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


Darren,

I believe I've answered every question you just posed in my previous emails:

"Are you able to tell me why you cannot confirm this?"

As I explained before, there are multiple people working here, all with different jobs. I am not the one who personally drives to the post office, waits in line, and ships the items. Therefore, I have no firsthand knowledge of what orders shipped. As I've tried to explain to you, we don't ship internationally every day. We batch the orders and ship every other day or so. If we made the several-hour trip every day, we'd have to increase the shipping cost to reflect the extra hours involved, which hurts the customer's pocketbook. A day or two delay generally isn't much when we're talking about shipping internationally.

"Can you not see that this is very unusual for a supplier to not have this info at hand?"

To be perfectly honest - we're a small company, and we handle international orders by hand. This proves to be in everyone's best interest as it ensures that every order is packed properly and shipped efficiently. To date, we've not lost a single international shipment, nor have we ever had a complaint like this about the timeliness of international shipping.

You may definitely assume that the order has already shipped, there is no reason to believe that it hasn't. The numbers you've requested would be on the postal receipt, which I am obtaining for you. There is no cause for concern here, I can assure you of that!

I'll be contacting you shortly with the numbers you've requested.

Thank you,

David
www.BlueDo.com

-------------

From: Darren Lane
To: BlueDo.com
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 12:18 PM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


OK. Firstly let me apologise for mailing you also from the website. I wanted to make sure I got in touch with someone today, sorry.

David. You have made your position VERY clear and I think that I understand you. I would like to resolve this in a cheerful and friendly way, I have need desire to argue about this.

I see that you are a small company that has excellent pricing and that the way you work needs to reflect this. I understand the need to deal with International orders differently and that you don't want to have to run out to the Post Office every day, that would be cost prohibitive and would be no way to run a profitable business.

So, I do not mind that the order took a couple of days to get to the post office, you have made it clear in your earlier reply that your website mentions immediate shipping for your domestic customers only. You have also confirmed that there was stock when I ordered and my order was prepared and batched on Monday, awaiting the trip to the Post Office. I am happy with all of that.

I understand the above points and I am certainly not complaining about how your company works. I thank you for assuring me that I have no cause for concern :)

That said, I think that we are talking about different things and I am not making any sense. So to make my request clearer and very easy for you to answer, please ignore my previous requests for answers. I have just one question please:

What day was my order taken to the post office?

Thank you.

Darren

---------------

From: BlueDo.com
To: Darren Lane
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 5:25 PM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


Darren,

I've obtained the receipt for your shipment, which doesn't offer online tracking or anything, but does have some numbers which you've requested.

Customs Label **********
Label **********

I hope that this is useful to you somehow! Thanks again for your order, I expect that the package should reach UK customs within 2-10 days.

Thank you,

David
www.BlueDo.com

-----------

From: Darren Lane
To: BlueDo.com
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 1:58 PM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


Thanks David.

May I ask 2-10 days from when? You still have not told me what day the goods were taken to the post office.

Darren

------------

From: BlueDo.com
To: Darren Lane
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 9:05 PM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


Darren,

I believe the items were shipped on Wed or Thursday of last week. If it is urgent that you know the exact date of shipment, I will research that for you as well.

Thank you,

David
www.BlueDo.com

------------------

From: Darren Lane
To: BlueDo.com
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 9:16 PM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


Yes please.

-------------------

From: Darren Lane
To: BlueDo.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 1:21 PM
Subject: Fw: I hope that you can help me?


Hi.
Have you been able to ascertain the day that my order was take to the Post Office? Was the date not on the receipt that you mentioned?
Thanks

-----------------

From: Darren Lane
To: BlueDo.com
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 12:14 PM
Subject: Fw: I hope that you can help me?


Dear BlueDo,

Is there any reason that you are unwilling to confirm the date my order was take to the Post Office?

You do realise that by you delaying, I am thinking more and more that you purposely held back on giving me the answer so that I did not cancel my order when you failed to "ship immediately".

Thanks again
Darren

-------------

From: BlueDo.com
To: Darren Lane
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 9:47 PM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


Darren,

International shipments aren't automated (as UPS and FedEx shipments are), and packages are 'batched' and an employee drives to the post office, waits in line, and ships the packages manually. Because of this time constraint, and in an effort to keep shipping costs reasonable, we don't visit the post office every business day. The orders are packed and labeled, and brought to the post office in batches every few days. Transit time from the US to your country's customs department is generally 2-10 days, so you should receive your order shortly!

Thank you,

David
www.BlueDo.com

--------------

From: Darren Lane
To: BlueDo.com
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: I hope that you can help me?


David,

I do not know exactly why you will not give me the information I ask for. But you have made it very clear that you are not going to tell me the exact day your company posted my order.

I am unhappy with the way that you have handled my requests, I think that I have been both patient and concise. I may however be completely mad and asking for far too much from you as an International supplier.

I will be posting a question on www.remotecentral.com asking their readers for their responses. It was there where I found out about BlueDo and read your posts about shipping internationally. As the readers are mostly experienced internet customers, I am sure I will get a qualified discussion.

Darren

------------------------

Darren,

I've verified that the order was shipped, and even provided all of the tracking and invoice numbers involved with USPS. Unfortunately they don't offer online tracking. We've shipped many items internationally without incident, and I don't expect this shipment to be any different! Enjoy the remote when it arrives.

Thank you,

David
www.BlueDo.com

-------------------------

That’s it!

I will have two different views on this subject. Since I myself do work at a restraunt. Which is located at the world's largest casino.


I do agree with you not getting your information that you have asked for. I fortanly do not have to deal with international orders. Because I live in the USA. So I would not know much about those types of orders.
However, I do remember going into the US Post office a few weeks ago. And they did advertize. "Track your orders". Although I am not sure if this was for US, or international. HOWEVER, and I mean HOWEVER. There was a quit big dollar sign next to it. Not too sure on what the price is at this time.

Although I just went to www.usps.com and did find a Track & Confirm area. Although that I didn't find a price for the shipper to pay. I did find an area that you can try to put the order number or whatever David did track down PERSONALY, and relayed it to you via email.

Despite the fact it took him an email or two to get you that information. He did get it for you. I scanned quickly over the times in which your, and David's emails were sent. And some were deleted, and some were out of order.

David did mention that BlueDo.com is a small company. I wonder how many people are working there? But it shouldn't matter anyways, unless it's just him. Which I doubt, and then you MUST understand.

Now from his point of view.

You are a tough costumer. But I could understand your concerns. I would try to find out the answers on your questions. But with a small company which ships internationaly only a couple or few days out of the week. Will be very hard to do. Since David was not the person who went to the post office.

And the tracking number might be extra on every order. I personaly wouldn't want to even have that as an opition on orders. So I can see where he comes from not having that as an opition on the webtsite. However, I do not understand why the only form of international shippment, is via USPS. Which is mostly US based anyways.

I do not know the prices for each shipping service. Nor do I know why USPS is the only form of shippment. Maybe BlueDo.com had some bad experinces with the other shippers internationaly.

So did you ever get the shippment?

Rob

Patient??    HA! HA! HA!

Concise??    ROTFLMAO&PIMP!!!!!!!



You sure got THAT right!




INNA NUTSHELL!

Rob. Thanks for your reply. All the points you make are valid. I appreciate hearing another point of view.

I just want to point out that the mails are in order, the times are out because of the US/UK time difference. I havent deleted anything apart from the order/shipping numbers.

Star. er, well. I suppose "concise" was the wrong word :)
I also like your use of pretty colours and large font sizes, they look like crayons.

Just my 2c but I think you were a little impatient.

Also what was the urgency to know exactly what day it shipped?

Regards,
Bruce.

Hi Bruce, I can see that I am not as patient as I thought I was! :)

As to the urgency. I ordered the remote from that supplier primarilly because they say on their website that they ship immediately and keep up to date stocks.

I wanted them to tell me the exact day they shipped package for two reasons. I wanted to understand when I would be likely to receive the order. 2-10 days is fair but not if it starts from a week after the order is placed. Secondly, I made it clear early on that if the goods had not shipped I would cancel the order and move on, no harm done. It felt to me that the only reason not to tell me the exact date was so I did not cancel.

Lastly, is it not commonplace to notify the customer of the when the goods shipped when you order from web companies in the US? Maybe I have been spoilt by the UK supplers.

Oh dear, I am even boring myself now.

edit: btw Bob, No I still dont have the goods but as I don't know when they sent them I don't know if 10 days are up ;p

Dear Sir, next time you place an order we will strap the goods on a talking cheetah to run to the post office .Mean while we will tip off a news team a crime is taking place so a helicopter can show the running cheetah at all times on several news channels so you can see the package at all times .when the package gets to the post office we will live web cast the cctv footage from the post office on our web site after filling in receipt documents in triplicate, signed for in blood and the cheetahs first born cub held as proof of posting we will then pass the goods on to our special courier .We will telephone you to confirm this , e mail you ,take an ad out on your local radio station ,write to you ,get Uri Geller to send a phycic message to you, and of course fly a small aircraft with a flying banner with you reference number on it over your town.A contact from the british secret service has put a homing beacon on your package and nasa will track it with a spy satellite,AT ALL TIMES YOUR PARCEL IS UNDER ARMED GUARD and in no danger. the parcel will be put on concorde and will fly it over your home when one of our special forces para troopers (John Rambo )will parachute down straight down to your door. Six years later we will take half payment of the goods($9.99) and six years after that we will take the balance. sorry for the delay hope this email helps and thanks for your constant e mails and pestering we really enjoy customer feed back
with love

BOB. brown do do

This message was edited by bob griffiths on 02/21/03 09:52.

Dear Mr Griffiths .Is that including discount?

.Thanks
.Darren

No. And he forgot to add the tax on your tea.

Is thre a book due out soon and a film

I have just spotted the mistake no discount! I shall of course be issuing you with a full refund plus a six figure out of court settlement. On a personal note i shall be shooting everyone in the invoicing dept, shaving my testicles and rubbing deep heat into them ,chewing on rusty razor blades and gargling with malt vinegar then stepping in a gas chamber and finally killing myself to punish myself for this inexcusable mistake. all of this with be televised on comic relief to raise money for charity and also you can see the end of your transaction step by step with of course emails informing you ,plane messages, pigeons and Uri Geller messages to follow.

BOB
BROWN DO DO

Personally, I think you were VERY impatient with your questions.

And you also found out, by your own admission, that the website says immediate shipment for domestic customers only.

You also found out that there is no way of tracking the shipment. If they sent out the orders using a service that allowed tracking, it would have cost you much, much more for shipping.

You were also nicely informed a number of times that BlueDo ships out two or three times a week, and that its international orders are received by the customer in 2 - 10 days. That alone should let you know that an exact shipping date and and/or receipt date are probably not available without an exhaustive search, if at all.

And your emails are so soon after your actual order, that I doubt many companies that ship internationally would even have a chance to send you an email before you sent your first "complaint".

I give BlueDo credit for how they dealt with you, and you'll probably find few companies that would deal with you this well.

Be patient and be thankful you got such a good price and a two-year warranty to boot! (Are you people familiar with the phrase - "to boot"? If you aren't, it means basically, something added on to an already sweet deal that usually wouldn't be, or something to that effect.)

Very soon this will all be over and you will be happily enjoying your MX-500 and wonder why you made such a big deal about it.

Yours truly,
Greg (not a fan or an employee of BlueDo) Mitchell

Sound like you own the company mitchell

That's what people keep telling me about Home Theater Master.

You'll note I said "not a fan"? :-)