"delivered to your doorstep"

[gbendaly]

hello every one

somebody out there will some day order a sail abroad
this post is meant to shed a light on the expression " delivered to your door step "
I ordered a cruising shute in HK at lee sails, they did a very nice job for a very competitive price, unfortunately the shipping agent did not and charged me additional fees not mentioned in the agreement.
here is a copy of the mail I sent to Lee Sails

Sir,
as much as I liked doing business with you,
I hated dealing with your Fedex partner who did not comply with our agreement

more over, the local fedex at Beirut international airport charged me an extra 55 $ to allow my custom clearing agent to withdraw the package from their facility ( I have the receipt to prove it)

they (Fedex) contacted me yesterday morning from the airport and offered to clear the package for an extra 150 $ fee I refused and I sent my agent to take care of the customs and VAT,for less than half the price , when he presented the receipts
and the custom clearance ,and paid on my behalf their 55 $, asking them to deliver the package to my address,they simply refused .
as I recall ,it was agreed between us,that I 'll be receiving my sail at my door step! I wonder why the hell did I bother to give you my detailed address if I had to pay extra charges not mentioned and go TWICE to the airport to collect my package ?

I don't know if Fedex international treat their customers worldwide in this manner ??
I know for a fact that DHL or ARAMEX don't!!!
I will certainly restrain from ever doing business with them again and will not recommend them to any one.
more than that I 'll make sure that every one in the sailing community knows what to expect from the expression " to your door step" when ordering sails.

as for the genoa ( ref QN 35969 .) you kindly quoted for, I am sorry to say I am cancelling the order after that incident with the shipping agent.

nice job for the star blister
expensive shipping with unexpected charges
bad delivery

regards

[imagine2frolic]

It can be very difficult at times doing business with someone so far away. I like having the oppurtunity of walking up to their doorstep. In my mind this allows for less miscommunication after the first misunderstanding.....Mr Fugly.....aka i2f

[Lancerbye]

I have also dealt with HK sails and had the sail delivered to Point Roberts WA The sail is great( also a chute) packing was good and the delivery was fair via FEDEX. However I have continued to get bills from Fedex for brokerage fees I had already paid. Their delivery service was adequate but their accounting dept. sucks.

[MidLandOne]

You seem to be very happy with everything except the use of Fedex as they have caused you problems at your end. Wouldn't the sail maker use another forwarder who is more reliable at your end for the second sail you had on order?

On the face of what you have said it would seem unwise to me to ditch what appears to be a supplier whose own work and pricing you appear very happy with apart from one point not within his own business that maybe could be easily remedied by a change of forwarder.

But, of course, starting afresh for the cancelled sail on a new adventure with another sailmaker could be much more fun .

[Stillraining]

Hey ...sounds like FedEx figured out how to get involved in the 419 scams...

[gbendaly]

hi
you may be right there, but I will wait for the sailmaker's reply before comitting either ways.. I'm guessing that Lee sails will get back to me with a proposal or an apology at least
regards

[S/V Elusive]

I bought my sails about 5 years ago with Lam Sails. They too said: "delivered to your door". Not only were the sails about 40% (I bought five so got some really good discounts) of what a US (local) maker would charge, but they were only 1 week late in meeting their delivery time, and damned if they didn't deliver to my door step as promised. The quoted price included all shipping/customs/taxes/whatever.

The only complaint I had was that conveying information through a US rep and with language difficulties, there were several unnecessary back-and-forth emails to make sure they understood what *I* wanted. Oh, and one of the main's reefing tack cringle was right next to an attachment point for a track 'slug'.

As someone above mentioned - obviously the problem is with the transportation (which they ARE responsible for), but for which they may not of had complete control. I would expect that they would work it out with you.

Good luck!

[Spin_Drift]

Too bad for the trouble and time wasted. Pretty unethical of your local FedEx.
This kind of action by the delivery/transport company can be detrimental to the sail-maker's business.

However, you wrote a good letter and I too look forward to hearing what the sail-maker says.