Ancor crimper rant

[hellosailor]

I've questioned Amazon about my math skills, because I'm sure THEY know how to count, and pointed out that if four times are all shown as "IN STOCK, FULFILLED BY AMAZON PRIME" and they can be delivered on the next day if I choose one-day delivery...then there's no reason that three of them can arrive in the standard two days,as promised, while the fourth item mysteriously is going to arrive two days later. Sometimes, they'll even agree that they can bump up the last item to "next day" shipping and, lo and behold, make it arrive on time.


I think they just count on customers being too lazy to complain when Amazon uses "that new math". Sometimes they just say "Gee, we're sorry, we'll add a month to your membership" and that's sometimes useful too.(G)

[Canibul]

I don't have the prime membership. We have all our stuff, Amazon and various other US vendors, ship to a consolidation and forwarding company in Sarasota, who then put it all in one box and send it on down to us. Saves us some money, as we can buy from various vendors and use whatever method works to get it to Florida. We can even use the Postal service in the US ( NOT HERE!!) and MyUS gets better Fed Ex rates than we do and it's only from Florida to here on the courier costs. Still expensive and it also has worked out well that the Sarasota forwarder ( MyUS) also insists on getting the paperwork right before they will ship our stuff on down. This actually saves us some hassles at this end. Amazon vendors are horrible about leaving invoices out of the shipments entirely. Which causes a huge issue at this end with Customs. MyUS won't ship until all the values are listed etc.

Also, FedEx, UPS or DHL here all charge $ 25 per shipment for customs clearance in addition to the import duty. So putting three shipments in one box saves us $50 in that clearance fee alone.

Part of the trade off to live in a place like this. There are a lot of others, too. Not sure why we thought it would be a good idea in the first place.

[hellosailor]

The lack of invoices is actually intentional. Lots of stuff gets sent directly as GIFTS and of course, you wouldn't want Aunt Tilda to know just hoe cheaply you bought those doilies for her armchair.(G)


Not to mention, it saves a *load of paper and printing and stuffing from Amazon. But since they already have a "Gift enclosed?" option, they could (wake up, Mr. Bezos!) also include an "Include invoice?" option. Or, print the invoice anytime the GIFT option wasn't chosen. As it stands...someone has to go online, print I manually, get it to your re-shipper and stick it on the box.


"Amazon Uber Alles" has a way to go, starting with Bezos paying some attention to details instead of just dreaming.


I imagine the extra speed of Prime getting things to your re-shipper wouldn't make much difference in the overall scheme of things, unless it was worth your while anyway for their spotty video & music, etc.


Might be able to make your shipper's life easier if you set up some arrangement, like a pre-formatted custom's declaration on a fax or email "Form" and sent them that in advance, so they could just paste it up & ship when the goods arrived?


The customs brokerage thing is, AFAIK, a universal monopoly exception given to the international postal operations. Send something by postal mail, no brokerage fee, they each just deal with it as a "courtesy" to each other. Send the identical package by ANY other shipper? Yes, you pay brokerage fees. How does the song go? "Its good to be king."

[Canibul]

If you mail something here you would actually do better to just throw it in a trash bin at your end and save the postage. Cause it ain't getting to the recipient in most cases. Unless it's worthless.

Two weeks ago I got a letter from Social Security telling me that I needed to contact them immediately. This was their third and final notice. It was dated and postmarked 15 November, 2014. It took it eleven months to come 600 miles?

People getting UPS mixed up with USPS has been a problem. The Brits are absolutely the worst too. They go ahead and put stuff in Royal Mail even after me carefully explaining that they need to use a courier. My last go around with a Brit Chandler, I even paid 70 pounds for their courier service to avoid the mail. They decided to "save me some money" and gave it to the mail anyhow. And of course it's disappeared at this end. No record. Gone.

[hellosailor]

Cruisers reported a similar problem in the Galapagos for a number of years. They'd stop in the post office, buy postage and send a post card since that stamp and postmark would be really rare for some one collecting stamps.


And somehow, the mail never arrived. It turned out at least one clever "postmaster" would just peel the stamps off, throw out the cards, and resell them again, pocketing the resales.


I suppose some pressure could be exerted to simply drop international post to the T&C, the international postal union probably has that ability. But it might be more fun to start an international conspiracy, and send dye packs, the same ones that bans put in their cash draws for robbers, to various people in the T&C.


And when you see the really colorful postal handlers...ask the King [sic] if you really are going to need to speak to the international postal union in order to get someone else appointed to the mails.


Call it the David Bowie Memorial Postal Movement. (In honor of, RIP, Davie.)

[Canibul]

We had the postmaster herself rip us off recently. Blatantly. She even made two fake phone calls "to Customs" to verify that yes, the duty on marine imports had gone back up from 10 to 30% just recently.

We checked later, there has been no change in marine import duty. It's still 10% and a bunch of surcharges that bring it to 17%. But this lady, a TCI government employee, assured us that it was 30%. Where she screwed up was that she forgot to put in the surcharges. That's actually what tipped us off. She was hoping we would just pay cash for the charges, and of course she could adjust the amount later and pocket the difference.

[Blue Crab]

Living the dream in exotic locations.

[Canibul]

Here, sadly, in ten years we have learned it's safest to just assume that whomever you are dealing with is in the process of actively looking for a way to rip you off. From the top government officials on down through every layer of the economy.

Oh, they'll smile and laugh and be your new best friend. Because that's the way it's always worked for them. And they'll steal you blind at every opportunity.

I could easily count the number of what we would consider "honest local businessmen" on one hand. The dishonest ones would now number in the dozens.

[Blue Crab]

I don't think anyone has challenged your experience. Bummer to read about it tho.

[Canibul]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

I don't think anyone has challenged your experience. Bummer to read about it tho.

You're right. Sorry to get off on a rant. I've just been dealing with our health insurance company here. Guess what. Yeah, they just tried for a massive ripoff. I don't know whether to be upset more over the fact that they would try to cheat long time customers (9 years is a long time here) or sad that they think we're actually stupid enough to fall for it.

This is our first long time foreign living experiment. Perhaps this is a normal situation in a small country where the only source of income is tapping into the wallets of others. These people have no basic skills. They produce nothing. They have no craftsmen, or artisans, or manufacturing. Going to be a different world here once Americans discover Cuba. Who would want to pay $ 15 a six pack or $700 a night for a hotel room here with that alternative, all new and unexplored.

Never mind. Time to make some changes and move on.

[Canibul]

an update, for anyone who gives a rats...
I just today received yet another new $70 Ancor crimper. I ordered it based upon this discussion thread. I bought this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...rch_detailpage

Of course I had to use it, immediately. Now, four crimps later, I would have to say it sucks. The write up says that it is made for the heat shrink connectors. Well, on 4 out of four crimps it damaged the heat shrink over the connector every time. Yeah, it crimps. But since I have about 300 various size HS butt connectors, I figure I just blew another seventy bucks.

THIS guy will NOT buy anything else from Ancor. I have a hundred and forty dollars into two crimp tools that are useless to me.

Buyer beware. I have a simple $ 10 crimper that does a much better job than the $ 70 Ancor.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Canibul

an update, for anyone who gives a rats...
I just today received yet another new $70 Ancor crimper. I ordered it based upon this discussion thread. I bought this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...rch_detailpage

Of course I had to use it, immediately. Now, four crimps later, I would have to say it sucks. The write up says that it is made for the heat shrink connectors. Well, on 4 out of four crimps it damaged the heat shrink over the connector every time. Yeah, it crimps. But since I have about 300 various size HS butt connectors, I figure I just blew another seventy bucks.

I have a hard time believing that the new crimper with its controlled cycle isn't producing better and more consistent crimps than your $10 special... unless it's not set up properly. Is there anyone around who could examine some crimp samples and help you adjust the new tool if needed?

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by Canibul

an update, for anyone who gives a rats...
I just today received yet another new $70 Ancor crimper. I ordered it based upon this discussion thread. I bought this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...rch_detailpage

Of course I had to use it, immediately. Now, four crimps later, I would have to say it sucks. The write up says that it is made for the heat shrink connectors. Well, on 4 out of four crimps it damaged the heat shrink over the connector every time. Yeah, it crimps. But since I have about 300 various size HS butt connectors, I figure I just blew another seventy bucks.

THIS guy will NOT buy anything else from Ancor. I have a hundred and forty dollars into two crimp tools that are useless to me.

Buyer beware. I have a simple $ 10 crimper that does a much better job than the $ 70 Ancor.

Well that's not good news. Ancor has changed their tool line and sadly most of the stuff is sourced in China these days. I've not used that tool particular tool with that crimp-die set..

One has to wonder if they are even testing the products they source? The original Ancor tool, like the FTZ tool, was pretty decent but they probably dropped it in favor of making a bigger margin..

Are you using polyolefin heat shrink terminals or nylon? I am not at all a fan of nylon and use 100% polyolefin. Nylon terminals rip far too easily and blister and bubble if you are not extremely careful. Polyolefin terminals are much more user friendly.

[MarkSF]

I was kind of annoyed that I had just bought the FTZ crimper, when the new, fancier looking Ancor came out. Now I feel better!

[Terra Nova]

The problem is your choice of heat shrink butt splices. Better to apply the heat shrink after doing a proper connection. Your first tool would have done the job.