Buyer Beware

[aldee]

Recently placed an order (13/8/10) with an overseas supplier and sponsor of another forum and waited patiently for the goods to arrive.

As patience grew thin I made some enquiries to supplier and was informed "must be with customs, wait a bit longer"

Waited, called MAF, customs, NZ post ,Oz post, nothing to indicate the goods arrived in NZ.

Contacted supplier,"give it another week, you chose not to insure the package, as per our t&c's we're not responsible".

Bottom line, take the insured option, it would have made the purchase twice as much as the goods cost but you have some come back if things go wrong, don't think an ozpost reference number will help you.

[jamis]

I have just placed an uninsured order with who I think u are talking about aswell, hopefully they come thru...

[martin w]

yeah,who did you buy from,they don't sound very helpful once they have your money!

[MrC]

I usually opt for insurance on the 'bigger' items like barley crushers, regulators, etc. I don't bother for the smaller hops, yeast & keg seals type order.

Surely it wasn't the beloved CraftBrewer?

[welly]

I've ordered from CB in the past uninsured and the goods never arrived. Ross sent out another package but did say that from now on I would need to use the insured option otherwise they wouldn't be able to help.

[aldee]

Yeah its a bit of a piss off,he did say ozpost can help up to $50 but you need to wait 3 months .........

[Greig McGill]

I've had nothing but the best service from Ross. From his point of view, if the postal service sucks, and you chose not to insure it, why should he have to be out of pocket to fix it?

That said, I never take the insured option either. I know Ross is honest, and judged the postal risk to be low, so never bothered. I think I will from now on.

[aldee]

Likewise Greg been happy to date and I hear what you're saying but what price does a business put on goodwill ?
I admit I didn't read before I accepted his terms but who reads t&c's anyway?
I assumed an aust post ref. # would be all the detail I needed should things go astray, gotta be careful assuming things.
In all fairness I've conducted dozens of overseas transactions, mostly without insurance and had no probs,guess my number came out of the barrel.
Just not impressed with how its been handled.

[Tony]

yes, I get my yeast predominantly from them, never had a problem. Although, oz post is notoriously bad and you just don't know when an overzealous maf person might have chucked it?

[aldee]

Tony, my discussions with MAF & customs indicate they will notify you if they hold a package for inspection or destruction.
This is what p's me the most, my enquiries cannot prove the package even entered NZ
And another thing would you want your yeast if it turned up 6 weeks later?

[Dougal]

"my discussions with MAF & customs indicate they will notify you if they hold a package for inspection or destruction."

This isn't always true. Most packages I've had inspected before simply arrive late (often a week or more), with a MAF inspection sticker.
My experience with Ross is that he's really conscientious, but that Oz Post sucks as a carrier. My last yeast order took 2 1/2 weeks to get here.

[Tony]

I wouldn't agree with this either, I'm afraid. My experience with Government departments has rarely been positive and the are bureaucratic as hell. So I wouldn't rely on them to tell you anything. The other side is, it might not have made it out of the country?

I feel your pain though.

[Andrew Dixon]

I would be interested to know what they charge you for shipping of a few pack of yeast to NZ.

Thanks
Andrew