So I have an interesting situation, and thought it might be interesting to hear from the community how you would would like a razor manufacturer who tries to keep his ear to the ground to handle this. And I thought it might also be interesting to share with you some of the daily challenges that come making and selling razors. 
Some background; I handle all the orders myself. (for better or worse hehe) But it does mean the buck stops with me. I think that is important when it's your own product and when you want to try to make every bit better. I ship a fair amount, but my volumes don't get me access to any of the really good services like 48 or 72 hour world wide. I use DHL who are ok, and I have quite fixed costs which is good being small. But the trade off is my parcels are usually 2 working weeks on average to most places around the globe. DHL do say that it can be 18 work days with customs/weather etc so on the long side its 3 weeks. But 9 times out of 10 they beat this. This is all clearly stated on my website, and at the checkout. In a world of Amazon I know this is an eternity, but as a small player I haven't managed to find anything that can compete yet.
So to the situation. A customer placed an order for multiple razors as gifts while they were in the US. They subsequently traveled home to another continent, and the razors arrived the day after they left. DHL managed the delivery in 13 days. But within that 13 days were Memorial Day in the US, and two public holidays directly after the order on this side. So technically they did it in 10 days. I've been informed that the parcel will bounce to me, but the customer would obviously like more razors sent to their new location. They have said they will pay more shipping costs if needed. There is a parcel room at the destination in the US, but they say they can't forward the original parcel on.
I obviously want to help my customer, but two shipments of multiple razors is a reasonable value in transit for a small supplier. And I know that bounced parcels take ages (3 months sometimes), and usually arrive back in tatters.
My gut says that the original parcel should be forwarded. (Especially if more shipping is being offered anyway) But I don't want to leave my customer high and dry as they were gifts.
So over to you, what would you do? What would you expect as a customer? And how would you want me to handle this if it was you?
Andrew - Hone.
Some background; I handle all the orders myself. (for better or worse hehe) But it does mean the buck stops with me. I think that is important when it's your own product and when you want to try to make every bit better. I ship a fair amount, but my volumes don't get me access to any of the really good services like 48 or 72 hour world wide. I use DHL who are ok, and I have quite fixed costs which is good being small. But the trade off is my parcels are usually 2 working weeks on average to most places around the globe. DHL do say that it can be 18 work days with customs/weather etc so on the long side its 3 weeks. But 9 times out of 10 they beat this. This is all clearly stated on my website, and at the checkout. In a world of Amazon I know this is an eternity, but as a small player I haven't managed to find anything that can compete yet.
So to the situation. A customer placed an order for multiple razors as gifts while they were in the US. They subsequently traveled home to another continent, and the razors arrived the day after they left. DHL managed the delivery in 13 days. But within that 13 days were Memorial Day in the US, and two public holidays directly after the order on this side. So technically they did it in 10 days. I've been informed that the parcel will bounce to me, but the customer would obviously like more razors sent to their new location. They have said they will pay more shipping costs if needed. There is a parcel room at the destination in the US, but they say they can't forward the original parcel on.
I obviously want to help my customer, but two shipments of multiple razors is a reasonable value in transit for a small supplier. And I know that bounced parcels take ages (3 months sometimes), and usually arrive back in tatters.
My gut says that the original parcel should be forwarded. (Especially if more shipping is being offered anyway) But I don't want to leave my customer high and dry as they were gifts.
So over to you, what would you do? What would you expect as a customer? And how would you want me to handle this if it was you?
Andrew - Hone.
I can only apologize.