Fotoimpex shipping delays

[wyofilm]

For the first time ever, I am using a forum to call out a company with regards to personal dealings. I have tried multiple ways to contact Fotoimpex to check on why I have not received my order from Nov. 2020. I get no response from Fotoimpex. Please contact me via conversation so that I can communicate with you. Thank you.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

Have you not received a tracking number? I placed an order with FOTOIMPEX on November 27, 2020. Tracking shows it left Baad Sarrow on December 1, 2020. DHL received the package, moved it from Rüdersdorf, to Rodgau, and then, on December 4, to the DHL facility at Frankfurt airport. There it has sat ever since. I suspect DHL first waits to fill a container, then that container sits until one of the very reduced number of flights can take it across the pond.

Your issue is with DHL and COVID-19. FOTOIMPEX is probably just as frustrated as we are, but has no control once a parcel leaves its hands. Until the pandemic ends, I'll be ordering from Freestyle, allowing it to deal with international shipping.

 

[wyofilm]

Have you not received a tracking number? I placed an order with FOTOIMPEX on November 27, 2020. Tracking shows it left Baad Sarrow on December 1, 2020. DHL received the package, moved it from Rüdersdorf, to Rodgau, and then, on December 4, to the DHL facility at Frankfurt airport. There it has sat ever since. I suspect DHL first waits to fill a container, then that container sits until one of the very reduced number of flights can take it across the pond.

Your issue is with DHL and COVID-19. FOTOIMPEX is probably just a frustrated as we are, but has no control once a parcel leaves its hands. Until the pandemic ends, I'll be ordering from Freestyle, allowing it to deal with international shipping.

Well, it looks like you might be right, but it was ambiguous enough for me (there is a link to USPS tracking number as well) to enquire. I'm a pretty low maintenance customer, but I do like to have correspondence at least acknowledged.

 

[Team ADOX]

For the first time ever, I am using a forum to call out a company with regards to personal dealings. I have tried multiple ways to contact Fotoimpex to check on why I have not received my order from Nov. 2020. I get no response from Fotoimpex. Please contact me via conversation so that I can communicate with you. Thank you.

Done.
Please have a look at your conversations.

 

[wyofilm]

Done.
Please have a look at your conversations.

Thanks! for responding. I appreciate it.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

Thanks! for responding. I appreciate it.

Keeping us in suspense? Aren't you going to share what they said?

 

[Deleted member 88956]

Frankly I think it is a childish thread to start with.

 

[pentaxuser]

The only reason we may have to ask what the Adox response has been stems from whether the problems the OP had with his order could affect others here who placed orders at about the same time and presumably from the U.S. unless what Adox has had to say has implications for those from outside the U.S. If the problems are peculiar to the OP's order only and were a one-off then as long as the Op is happy and it seems he is then that's the end of the matter isn't it?

pentaxuser

 

[Deleted member 88956]

I called it childish calling out an establishment on an international forum and for what? If he is happy without telling everyone what exactly happened is beyond childish.

 

[mshchem]

I'm curious too.

 

[Deleted member 88956]

Fotoimpex has an excellent reputation, and thanks to Adox only, we have access to things nobody else cares to deliver, Harman included. Solving personal dirt of whatever kind has no place on a platform like this one. I'd call it unethical too, but it's been run through mud and has little meaning nowadays.

 

[MattKing]

I would have tried a Photrio "Conversation" first, but I see no problem with a thread asking for advice about how to contact and obtain a timely response.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The whipping will continue until the OP's moral has improved.

 

[mshchem]

The whipping will continue until the OP's moral has improved.
View attachment 264396

 

[wyofilm]

Childish? Ok, perhaps Matt King is right that I should have tried a 'conversation' with them first. However, I asked them to contact me, because I hadn't been able to reach them through obvious means. I didn't call them names. I didn't yell. I asked them to contact me, which they did. When they contacted me, I thanked them.

They are looking in to my order, but as of yet I don't have an answer from them. I expect that they will let me know soon. They also asked me how I tried to contact them. Perhaps there was a technical problem.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Childish? Ok, perhaps Matt King is right that I should have tried a 'conversation' with them first. However, I asked them to contact me, because I hadn't been able to reach them through obvious means. I didn't call them names. I didn't yell. I asked them to contact me, which they did. When they contacted me, I thanked them.

They are looking in to my order, but as of yet I don't have an answer from them. I expect that they will let me know soon. They also asked me how I tried to contact them. Perhaps there was a technical problem.

As in lost?

 

[Team ADOX]

Childish? Ok, perhaps Matt King is right that I should have tried a 'conversation' with them first. However, I asked them to contact me, because I hadn't been able to reach them through obvious means. I didn't call them names. I didn't yell. I asked them to contact me, which they did. When they contacted me, I thanked them.

They are looking in to my order, but as of yet I don't have an answer from them. I expect that they will let me know soon. They also asked me how I tried to contact them. Perhaps there was a technical problem.

Please have a look at your conversations, new reply from us is there. We hope the technical problem is solved now.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us directly again.
Have a nice weekend, best regards.

ADOX - Innovation in Analog Photography.

 

[Bikerider]

It is pretty well much the same going the other way. I sent a parcel to my son who lives in The Hague. It was tracked as far as Dover with Royal Mail, then transfered to DPD for onward travel to Holland and 36 hours after posing it it arrived at some parcel centre in The Hague. It was posted on the 6th December but didn't arrive at his address until the 24th.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

...They are looking in to my order, but as of yet I don't have an answer from them. I expect that they will let me know soon...

I'm still waiting for my order, which has now been at DHL's Frankfurt airport location for seven weeks and one day. Perhaps FOTOIMPEX might look into the status of all orders it shipped to the U.S. There's no mechanism for individuals here to contact DHL with questions on stalled shipments. Only business customers get a DHL "contact us" option.

OK, now everyone can give me grief for not contacting FOTOIMPEX privately with that suggestion.

 

[Team ADOX]

I'm still waiting for my order, which has now been at DHL's Frankfurt airport location for seven weeks and one day. Perhaps FOTOIMPEX might look into the status of all orders it shipped to the U.S. There's no mechanism for individuals here to contact DHL with questions on stalled shipments. Only business customers get a DHL "contact us" option.

OK, now everyone can give me grief for not contacting FOTOIMPEX privately with that suggestion.

Our international shipment expert will have a look at it on Monday when he is back at the office.
International shipments are currently facing many problems due to the Covid19 pandemic. Just to name a few
- most of the international air transport volume is done by the passenger airplanes, as their cargo departments are much bigger than needed for the passenger baggage only, and the remaining space is used for airfreight
- as the passenger flights have decreased globally by about 85%, a huge amount of airfreight cannot be transported anymore
- that and the demand peak for lots of consumer consumer goods (people have been ordered 'like hell' online during all the lockdown periods) have lead to a massively increased demand for container shipping
- but meanwhile there is a lack of containers on the main shipping routes, and shipping costs have been exploded in the last months.

ADOX - Innovation in Analog Photography.

 

[wyofilm]

As in lost?

There is no way for me to know, which is why I tried contacting Fotoimpex. In my conversation with them, I expect to have more information Monday or Tuesday of next week.

This entire issue has me looking deeper into DHL and covid shipping delays. The first thing that I can say is that, at least for me, delays aren't readily understandable. For example, according to DHL, shipping to Mexico from Germany would be fine, while shipping to the United States will be slow. How slow isn't readily apparent. Canada looks to be a trouble spot, as well. At least from Germany.

That is according to this website:
https://www.dhl.de/en/privatkunden/kampagnenseiten/coronavirus.html#kanada

On the other hand ...
However, on goes to this website from DHL the delays appear to be minor (as in 1 day).
https://www.simplydhl.com/covid-19updates

I understand we might be talking ocean voyage here, but a company like DHL fills shipping containers regularly. I would guess daily.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

Our international shipment expert will have a look at it on Monday when he is back at the office...

Thank you very much.

...International shipments are currently facing many problems due to the Covid19 pandemic. Just to name a few
- most of the international air transport volume is done by the passenger airplanes, as their cargo departments are much bigger than needed for the passenger baggage only, and the remaining space is used for airfreight
- as the passenger flights have decreased globally by about 85%, a huge amount of airfreight cannot be transported anymore
- that and the demand peak for lots of consumer consumer goods (people have been ordered 'like hell' online during all the lockdown periods) have lead to a massively increased demand for container shipping
- but meanwhile there is a lack of containers on the main shipping routes, and shipping costs have been exploded in the last months...

Pretty close to what I suspected in post #2 above.

My sincere condolences to FOTOIMPEX and its international customers. In this situation, the merchant deserves absolutely no blame.

 

[wyofilm]

Our international shipment expert will have a look at it on Monday when he is back at the office.
International shipments are currently facing many problems due to the Covid19 pandemic. Just to name a few
- most of the international air transport volume is done by the passenger airplanes, as their cargo departments are much bigger than needed for the passenger baggage only, and the remaining space is used for airfreight
- as the passenger flights have decreased globally by about 85%, a huge amount of airfreight cannot be transported anymore
- that and the demand peak for lots of consumer consumer goods (people have been ordered 'like hell' online during all the lockdown periods) have lead to a massively increased demand for container shipping
- but meanwhile there is a lack of containers on the main shipping routes, and shipping costs have been exploded in the last months.

ADOX - Innovation in Analog Photography.

Thanks for looking into this. It would be helpful to know if ANY shipments from you to the United States have arrived from orders being placed since around the latter part of Nov. 2020. I assume Sal and I aren't the only ones!

 

[Sirius Glass]

There is no way for me to know, which is why I tried contacting Fotoimpex. In my conversation with them, I expect to have more information Monday or Tuesday of next week.

This entire issue has me looking deeper into DHL and covid shipping delays. The first thing that I can say is that, at least for me, delays aren't readily understandable. For example, according to DHL, shipping to Mexico from Germany would be fine, while shipping to the United States will be slow. How slow isn't readily apparent. Canada looks to be a trouble spot, as well. At least from Germany.

That is according to this website:
https://www.dhl.de/en/privatkunden/kampagnenseiten/coronavirus.html#kanada

On the other hand ...
However, on goes to this website from DHL the delays appear to be minor (as in 1 day).
https://www.simplydhl.com/covid-19updates

I understand we might be talking ocean voyage here, but a company like DHL fills shipping containers regularly. I would guess daily.

I completely understand. Every month I have a shipment of large objects shipped from Australia. The shipments were taking two weeks. With COVID it changed to three weeks, but now it sits in Brisbane for up to 24 day and only moved when I filed a complaint. Now we switched to DHL and it takes less than six days with Australian and US customs. I am fully aware of the anxiety.

 

[foc]

Our international shipment expert will have a look at it on Monday when he is back at the office.
International shipments are currently facing many problems due to the Covid19 pandemic. Just to name a few
- most of the international air transport volume is done by the passenger airplanes, as their cargo departments are much bigger than needed for the passenger baggage only, and the remaining space is used for airfreight
- as the passenger flights have decreased globally by about 85%, a huge amount of airfreight cannot be transported anymore
- that and the demand peak for lots of consumer consumer goods (people have been ordered 'like hell' online during all the lockdown periods) have lead to a massively increased demand for container shipping
- but meanwhile there is a lack of containers on the main shipping routes, and shipping costs have been exploded in the last months.

ADOX - Innovation in Analog Photography.

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't think or care about the bigger picture.
"I want my parcel and I want it now ! "
It doesn't take a genius to work out that if international travel/ the movement of people is limited, then the same will apply to goods and services. And to compound the matter there has been an explosion of online shopping due to the pandemic restrictions/lockdown.