Farnell - non-UPS delivery method for non-UK customers??? Disappointing!!!

Hi Pavol, thanks for your questions.  We’re sorry if there has been any confusion with regards to shipment method in Europe. We’ve published openly our pricing grid structure including the delivery and taxes that everyone would be charged. You can find it still available here:  http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-43546/l/updated-27-march--raspberry-pi-pricing-update. It shows for each country the price and delivery costs in the relevant currency. You will have been invoiced at the new lower price  based upon delivery via Royal Mail international.

We’ve contacted Farnell export on your behalf, and a representative should be in touch with you today. If not, please feel free to Private Message us again.

Thanks again,

Farnell element14 Raspberry Pi Customer Support Team

Hi Customer Support,

   Maybe I missed it, but I don't see any mention of delivery methods in the

pricing grid structure you referenced.  That would probably be a good thing to add.

Even in the UK recently, the delivery methods appear to be inconsistent, sometimes

by courier and sometimes by second class post.  Does the delivery method depend

on whether the customer has a pre-existing trade account?

Hello,

let me add my experience with the ordering process:

RS: registered on 29.02.2012 at around noon, no contact since...

Farnell: placed order with sk.farnell on 29.02.2012 at 14:14 (what a coincidence ), delivery expected w/c 21.05.2012 (as stated in the email update), despatched on 23.05.2012 by Royal Mail 1st class air mail, untracked, despite having delivery by UPS on the invoice.

I brought this up with the customer support (via the form) and received a promt response which stated "it was decided at a later stage, because of the amout of packages that UPS was unable to ship, but the mention of UPS was kept in the system"...

The customer support said it would take between 1 to 2 weeks, but received it in 5 days on 28.05.2012.

After all the time I was just happy to have the board, not overly satisfied with how the delivery was handled, but quite happy with the support response time.

BTW: A friend was among those who had to express their interest, was promised a t-shirt, delivery in w/c 28.05.2012 and received it on 25.05.2012 minus the t-shirt.

Dear Support,

thanks for the answer, but it's not explained there, that the Royal Mail will be used instead of UPS. Thanks for contacting Farnell export on my behalf, but I think nothing is needed anymore, I've been already invoiced with lower price (lower than mentioned in http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-43546/l/updated-27-march--raspberry-pi-pricing-update)

I don't know who e82492184 (maybe Farnell agent? ) is but I like his experience anyway!

MY PERSONAL CONCLUSION:

     if the Farnell support (when called by me immediately after being invoiced, or here in the thread a couple of days ago) would clearly stated as done in e82492184 case: "it was decided at a later stage, because of the amout of packages that UPS was unable to ship, but the mention of UPS was kept in the system"...  I'd accepted it as a correct answer having no more questions and even more: if Farnell delivers a t-shirt to me (as requested as well at that time) I would become the happiest man in the world

    BUT: WHY DON'T YOU (FARNELL) COMMUNICATE SUCH AN IMPORTANT FACT:

"it was decided at a later stage, because of the amout of packages that UPS was unable to ship, but the mention of UPS was kept in the system"...

IN YOUR OFFICIAL UPDATE??? It would be clear for all once forever and this thread would not exist

This is my first experience with Farnell service. I'm eager to see how it'll end up (my RPi is still on the way)... I hope in happy end and believe, that this thread will become a use case for further  Farnell Support Center quality improvement process. Thanks a lot to all, I believe, that till September we all will have a fun with new Raspberry Pies

I wish a really nice summer time to all!

Best regards,

Pavol

P.S: Dear Customer Support, can you contact Farnell export on my behalf and on behalf of e82492184's friend and ask them to send us that nice Raspberry Pi t-shirt as a little satisfaction for this misunderstanding? You have already got my details, maybe e82492184 can provide those of his/her friend.

P.S II: I don't consider your answer as correct, because it really doesn't answer my doubts. But I'm not able to use the button "Unmark as Correct". It always marks it back as Correct... Is it a bug or a feature?

e82492184 wrote:

 

despatched on 23.05.2012 by Royal Mail 1st class air mail, untracked, despite having delivery by UPS on the invoice.

I brought this up with the customer support (via the form) and received a promt response which stated "it was decided at a later stage, because of the amout of packages that UPS was unable to ship, but the mention of UPS was kept in the system"...

But did they charge you for UPS delivery, that's the key question.  It's not fraud unless they charge you for UPS but don't use that expedited delivery, it's merely misinformation.  It's still not nice, and it's confusing for customers, and it should be fixed prompty of course, but it's still just misinformation.

But if they charged you for UPS, and knowingly held onto your money instead of using it for UPS delivery ... well they can get into big trouble legally, as well as gain a tarnished reputation.  Whichever CS staffer you spoke to must understand that I'm sure, no matter how poorly trained.

I sure hope they started fixing this as soon as you notified them of the discrepancy.

Morgaine.

Pavol C:

I don't know who e82492184 (maybe Farnell agent? ) is but I like his experience anyway!

That I am not , just wanted to share my experience and let you know your Pi might be already closer to you than you (or CS) think!

 

Morgaine:

But did they charge you for UPS delivery, that's the key question.  It's not fraud unless they charge you for UPS but don't use that expedited delivery, it's merely misinformation.  It's still not nice, and it's confusing for customers, and it should be fixed prompty of course, but it's still just misinformation.

Pavol C:

I've been already invoiced with lower price (lower than mentioned in http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-43546/l/updated-27-march--raspberry-pi-pricing-update)

It would have been interesting to know what those charges for UPS and Royal Mail were and generally make the whole ordering experience more transparent. To be honest I don't know what I was charged for, however I had this on my invoice:

RASPBRRY-PCBA SBC, RASPBERRY PI, MODEL EA 1 0 1 CN 84714900 21.9100 20.00 21.91

FREIGHT CHARGE GBP (UPS) 20.00 4.50

ORDER PLACED BY MR *********************

*** PAID BY CREDIT CARD ***

Producer Registration Number: WEE/AK0049TZ

which adds up to GBP 31.69 / 39.24 EUR in total which is slightly lower than £32.70 from the pricing update. Maybe that's the difference between UPS and RM?

PS: If Farnell wishes to send my friend his missing t-shirt, please contact me for the details.

My invoice was identical. It's clearly stated UPS! I hope you are right and I will be nicely surprised by a postman on Manday.

@Customer Service: Please can you finally OPENLY DECLARE what it means to be charged for UPS and what for Royal mail?

Pavol

Farnell UK's delivery charges are clearly detailed on their website under "Delivery & Tracking":

Delivery & Tracking

Farnell offers fast same day despatch, normally delivered to you free the next working day.

Standard free next day delivery

• Same day despatch when you order before 8.00pm
• No minimum order quantity
• Goods under 1kg will be delivered by Royal Mail
• Goods over 1kg will be delivered by UPS standard next day delivery

Please note next day delivery can not be guaranteed in all areas of the country. If you would like to specifically request UPS standard delivery (irrespective of goods weight) we reserve the right to charge £2.99.

Need it quicker than next day?

Farnell offer a range of competitively priced guaranteed UPS* express delivery services:

• Weekdays pre 9.00am - £19.50
• Weekdays pre 10.30am - £12.50
• Weekdays pre 12 noon - £9.50
• Saturday pre 12 noon - £15.50

Same day delivery is also available. Please contact us for current pricing.

On a Farnell UK's order page and in their emails, the normal next-day Royal Mail delivery appears as "Basic Shipping:  £0.00", in other words the Royal Mail delivery charge is built in and not quoted.  If you choose UPS delivery then this line changes accordingly and shows you the actual UPS delivery charge.

I doubt that the basic Raspberry Pi package without accessories weighs 1 Kg or more, so unless you specify UPS then it should come by Royal Mail, and no extra charge made for shipping.

HOWEVER (and it's a big however), Pi appears to be coming from their "export" site even when both the depot and the recipient are both in the UK, and that site may be doing things differently to the normal Farnell UK site.  I hope that they don't screw this up.  The "normal" Farnell UK has a deservedly good reputation for efficiency and transparency of their ordering + delivery process, so it would be unfortunate if this were tarnished by the export site messing up.

Morgaine.

It seems, that Farnell won't answer this question clearly anymore...

Pavol