Alf,
I'd like to refer back to the thread of a month ago in which I posted:
"As a result, we now wait until SA Post confirms the parcel is lost. We can then claim from insurance and do not wind up out of pocket. The down side is that a full investigation takes about 2 months."
And:
"The enquiry we launched to find your shipment is on the link in my first post, and now we wait. What else do you expect us to do? Of course I'll check up as much as I can. Your order has already been rescheduled for production. The moment it is confirmed lost we re-ship again. We'll contact you as soon as we have information."

Here is the link to the form to refresh your memory.

We didn't get any information back other than that the enquiry was initiated from SA Postal Service to Canada under the enquiry number CFE 0790. The name of the lady we received this information from is Joan and her phone number is +2741 508 4182. When we spoke to her she said that the parcel is is tracked as far as Canada and she is waiting for the Canadian Postal Service to reply.

So if you want to badger us every month, feel free to do so. I don't know what more we can do unless you want us to e-mail you once a week to tell you that we have no news, until we get news. Personally something like that would annoy me if I were the recipient.

HunterJim
Interestingly, the legal position is that we have in fact delivered. Proof of that can be seen at the link above. We go further than that though by lodging enquiries, searching for the parcel and replacing it when proof is given that it has been lost. We are no longer prepared to just keep on sending parcels unless proof is received that they are lost. We've been taken to the cleaners too many times. This is a lot more than some US suppliers do who state that, once they have delivered to the carrier, the problem is yours.

Cannon
How can you say the parcel is untrackable? By e-mail and at this link we gave you the full information to track the parcel in the USA.
Once again, this is how we find out that people have received their parcels if they claim they have not. This time I will number the steps so it's easier to follow:
1) Customer claims he has not received the parcel.
2) We fill in a form, like the one at this link and hand it in at our post office.
3) We wait.
4) In the case of a USA enquiry, often USPS never replies.
5) If there is no reply, after 4 weeks SA Post will repeat the enquiry.
6) If after a further 4 weeks their is no reply, SA Post re-imburses us and claims from the foreign postal service.
7) We ship a new parcel to replace the lost one.
8) In the event of a reply with proof of delivery, we know when customers are ripping us off.
9) It works exactly the same with parcels from overseas to South Africa.

Seeing that you can't communicate with USPS from inside America, we will now try and do it from here. (If there is anybody who can chase down the phone number for the USPS Foreign Centre in New York City, I will be grateful.)

jeffeosso
You do realise that with your kilt up, it's easier to kick your sorry behind till your nose bleeds?

JCN
You say: "(ie-manufacturer wouldn't take your money unless the bullets were in stock and ready to go out the door)?"
This has been our policy for the last 20 months. For the disasters preceding that time, I think we have paid our dues in apologies and making good with extra products. Here is some advice: Make sure you know what the difference is between a drive band bullet and a grooved bullet before you start.

HenryC470
It's easy to be a coward and hide behind an anonymous handle. We already have a US Dealer, we have never ripped anybody off and we are taking advice on how to deal with your comment.

JeffreyDenmark
We have great respect for many of the forum members. Others we can do without. We estimate that AR Forum members make up a very small but valued fraction of our customer base. It is a fact that we do not always know if a customer is an AR member. Where they are known to us, AR customers include a disproportionately large percentage of very knowledgable people..... and some who wear kilts. (Disclaimer: I unreservedly apologise to any Scotsmen without a sense of humour for the preceding figure of speech.) How about placing an order with HV Concepts or with us and see for yourself what happens? The vast majority of our orders from the last 20 months proceeded without problems and we have very strong evidence that, where problems ocurred, they originated with the foreign country postal service and not with SA Post.

GeorgeInNePa
This reminds me of another quote, I forget the movie: GO WASH YOUR MOUTH BOY!

RIP
Have you actually placed an order with HV Concepts? As for the comment to Alf, when is it going to sink in with you guys that we have delivered? How must we deal with bad service by the postal system in the country of destination? We are now supplying a USA dealer as this was what everyone suggested as a solution and still we get snide comments.

I am starting to see why very few manufacturers take part in these forums.

Gina,
Your best course of action would be to make all previous customers whole FIRST and wait for the postal inquiry and subsequent insurance payout yourselves.

Asking a customer who has ALREADY waited over two years to wait for the wheels of the South African postal bureaucracy to grind ad infinitum before re-shipping is poor customer relations, and terrible advertising.

The problems GS Custom Bullets has encountered are not the fault of the customers, and they should not be asked to suffer any longer.

George

Gina,
With that kind of "Customer Service" I will not be using GS bullets either. Your response "just rubs me the wrong way" and that's unfortunate for you and me! In my opinion, customer service can make or break a company - time will tell. I wish you the best of luck, but sign me a "Lost Potential Customer"

Gina,
I have emailed HV concepts repeatedly regarding getting the .423/320gr HV and .423/387gr FN. All I get are maybe's and then nothing. My first test of trying to order from HV Concepts has been a failure. Another difficult situation there too.

You do indeed make the finest quality product, but the logistics are impossible.

I would simply like to see your countryman, Alf, now in Canada, get his order. Just my snide peculiarity.

Congratulations for outgrowing AR.com.

MHC_TX
So it is OK for posters to call me a thief, a liar, that I am ripping them off, openly declare that they will do their best to influence people not to do business with me , and generally make any kind of disparaging comment they wish? Is it OK for a customer to claim his parcel has not shown up and, after we have replaced it and lodge the enquiry and claim for the loss, we receive proof it was in fact delivered? Is it OK for an AR member to ask for free samples for a "test" and an "article" and then sell the free samples?

Is it OK for an AR member to accuse me openly of fraud when it is patently not so? Should I keep quiet and just let it slide? I have done this (let it slide) but there comes a point when one fights fire with fire.

GeorgeS
I would love to do as you suggest and both Alf and Cannon's orders are scheduled for production. By the time they are ready, we hope to have an answer from SA post and, if not, will probably send them anyway. Then we have to hope they do not surface and get delivered because that will void our claim and we will be out of pocket, again.

Gina,
I believe most people have better things to do (I hope) than accuse "you" or anyone else of lying or ripping them off. There is a business saying "the customer is always right". They sent their hard earned money to you for a product that they apparently never received. It would seem to me that it is your responsibility to get the product to them (that they paid for). I assume you made the arrangements for shipping the product (not the customer), so it should be your responsibility to make sure it gets there. And, I would hope that filling these orders would have priority for you and your company. It shouldn't take 2 years or whatever it was to get this matter resolved. I would like to try your product (there seems to be nothing but praise for your bullets on this same forum), but I will not place an order until I hear good things about "Customer Service". So, impress me with happy customers (either way "good" or "bad" the word will get out). In the meantime, I will use another product!

GeorgeS,
Sage advice and the point is taken. Stridency is history but I will state facts even if the results are unpleasant.

We billed the customers who received duplicate orders and only two came to the party. We never heard from the others and most email addresses stopped functioning after a while.

Spie
iKobo said they will keep us informed but we have heard nothing yet. I will get your parcel off this week regardless and we can sort the rest when we have an alternative processor or iKobo resolves their issue with M/C. XETrade did not happen because, with closer inspection, their service was geared for wire transfers only and we are specifically trying to avoid that.

RIP
We will never outgrow AR, there is too much to be learned here. Even stuff that has nothing to do with business or bullets.

Gina,
I always do my homework before I start. My last post was part of that process.
If your bullets are readily available in the US I will buy and use them, and whistle a happy tune while doing so. If they perform as well as I have heard they do I will sing their praises (and post pictures).
If a niche exists I will attempt to fill it.
As for the negative comments on this forum, well, welcome to the world of commerce. Starting a new business is tough. Starting a new business with world wide distribution is much tougher. Be glad for all the professional malcontents on this site. They are you unpaid QA department. It is very hard to hear negative comments when you have committed all your money, time, and energy to an endeavor that you believe in. However. You must develop a thick skin, act on your weak points, and move forward. When a problem has been corrected you have to have the patience to ride out the turbulence until things settle down. It's hard, but most good things (eg parenting) are.
JCN

Here is one reason why I want GS Custom bullets:



That is not the best group I have shot with them, but it is an example. Another reason is the superior performance of a flat nosed solid on game. And another reason is that the GS grooved bullet design provides lower pressure and higher velocity than a standard bullet design (Barnes has NOT properly implemented a grooved bullet design).

Recently I emailed an order for more than 500 GS Custom bullets to HV Concepts, Inc. Now I am patiently waiting. In one caliber I am down to only 12 GS bullets left, and it causes me great stress.

Andy,
I will look into the North Fork solids. I like the same weight soft and solid combo and that is what North Fork does. Does the .458 solid have less bearing surface than the soft? That is the only reason I can imagine that you might say the solid requires +2 grains of powder over the soft. It is usually the other way around???

Gina,

Can you tell me when I will be able to pay for the .416 FN bullets on Invoice: INV02098 ?

Gina,

Good reply. Anyone that orders products whose delivery is dependent upon a crappy and failing infrastructure like South Africa (and the US) has to take their chances in my opinion.

Getting anything out of the USPS is probably worse.

If the bullets are so desirable, maybe folks will have them shipped DHL from now on. A bunch of whiners, or is it weiners?

Stir it up, stir it up......