Experience with CRC's move from DHL to SkyNet?

[Eugene Brown]

Placed an order yesterday morning on their new customer interface (which is quite cool!) and selected the express option. My past orders have come with DHL, but this morning I got an update via email saying the parcel will be delivered via SkyNet. Any experiences with SkyNet, do I need to worry?

 

I really hope I don't have to endure another Bike24/DHL Paket/SAPO/EMS saga like I'm having at the moment 

[Mongoose!]

 worse experience ever
just got my parcel 10min ago.
When in the CRC basket the postage looks real cheap. -
but when they e mail you the manifest with customs duties / VAT they add an "admin fee"
This admin fee was about 2 times the amount that was charged in chain CRC basket as shipping

 

I e mailed CRC on that, (not transparent way of doing business). received some standard reply on a shipping query

 

Please note my concern was not on custom duties or VAT but :ADMIN FEE"...

 

 

T"hanks for your email.

 

I understand your frustration at the additional charges that you have incurred upon receipt of your order.

 

Charges and handling fees for processing orders through customs are applied by the customs authority and are an unfortunate by product of ordering from overseas. We try to be honest, during the ordering process and in our delivery information, that we are a business in Northern Ireland, as we do not wish you to be surprised that you have ordered from the UK.

 

You can see this on our delivery information page online at: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/staticcontent/postageInfoPage.jsp

 

Courier administration charges are levied, on occasion, by our courier partners and are an additional charge that we cannot predict. Various factors affect whether there is an additional courier charge to be levied – the courier, the size of parcel, whether the customer has an account with the courier, the contents etc.

 

We chose our couriers based on their ability to offer speed of delivery, reliability, a tracked service and a reduced postage cost that we can pass on to our customers. We know that some couriers charge additional costs and we do try to balance this cost by providing really low shipping costs, in many cases free shipping, and to be up front, on our site, about the additional charges that could be applied in your country.

 

We always use customer opinion to make improvements to how we do our business and we will ensure your feedback is pushed to the Global Shipping Team.

 

We would really appreciate your feedback by clicking on one of the options below.  Overall, how easy was it to get the help you wanted today?

 

Very Easy
Fairly Easy
Neither Easy/Difficult
Fairly Difficult
Very Difficult

 

Thanks,

 

Kumiko"
 

Edited May 3, 2018 by Mongoose!

[Eugene Brown]

Really gets my blood pressure up when you have to be exposed to patronizing pr&cks like that! How long did your parcel take to arrive, compared to the good old DHL days?

[Raydek]

Yeah, experienced this as well.. Nowhere near as quick as DHL, previous express orders have been at my door with 48 hours, now with Skynet about 11 days.

 

Here is the tracking record FYI.

 

https://ws01.ffdx.net/v4/etrack_blank.aspx?stid=skynet&pageid=0002&cn=056830757071

 

Edit: When I saw that the parcel was in JHB I called to request invoice to pay (as I have every time with DHL) to speed up delivery, their reply was simply "we don't do that, you need to wait for us to contact you".  And then once paid, their policy is a 48hr turnaround time to release parcels once monies reflect in their account.

Edited May 3, 2018 by Raydek

[Mongoose!]

order placed 18.4.2018.......received today.

one pair of cycling shoes

[Jewbacca]

Hasta la Vista, DHL

[Scott-ish]

I'm having a terrible time with UPS, trying to get them to send me an invoice on VAT/Duties has been a nightmare. My parcel is just sitting in their warehouse with "outstanding documentation required".

[Chavo]

Same experience with SkyNet, took waaay longer than DHL ever did. I ordered around Easter weekend so expected a bit of a delay with the public holidays, but not 2 weeks worth of delay. Did not feel like an express option at all and the admin fee of R350 was just insult to injury. Just had to suck it up and move on...

[Mongoose!]

Same experience with SkyNet, took waaay longer than DHL ever did. I ordered around Easter weekend so expected a bit of a delay with the public holidays, but not 2 weeks worth of delay. Did not feel like an express option at all and the admin fee of R350 was just insult to injury. Just had to suck it up and move on...

 

R350 plus VAT on R350 = R402.50

Edited May 3, 2018 by Mongoose!

[ALLMTB]

Yip same here.

Previous orders which were shipped with DHL were quick and easy, now with Skynet my last experience was terrible. 

R350+ for admin and I had to call them three times to find out when I'll be receiving the invoice as my parcel had already landed in the country. Took way longer to deliver as well. Numerous mails also went unanswered. 

[Marsh00]

Skynet is absolutely shocking. Used them about two weeks ago. Took at least twice as long as DHL, charging more than my experience with DHL and the customer service is pathetic (don't answer the phone, staff attitude sucks, I have been told to wait for an invoice two days in a row "someone will contact you" seems to be the standard response). Express delivery nogal!!

 

You will not have a good experience with them. I don't think I'll use CRC again, unless they go back to DHL.

[JJDT]

Not good news for me either as I read through this topic. Also orderred a derailleur through CRC...also opted for express delivery...parcel is with them from Monday...

Will give feedback on my experience.

[CAAD4]

Let CRC know guys, as I'm sure as small as we are , there are still a lot of Randellas going to them every month.

[Mongoose!]

In the past  DHL was so quick, I always wondered if CRC had like a local warehouse or something...lol

[hillel]

I worked in the courier industry and Skynet has always had a reputation for being useless, just my 2 cents worth.

[TechieCT]

Placed an order yesterday morning on their new customer interface (which is quite cool!) and selected the express option. My past orders have come with DHL, but this morning I got an update via email saying the parcel will be delivered via SkyNet. Any experiences with SkyNet, do I need to worry?

 

I really hope I don't have to endure another Bike24/DHL Paket/SAPO/EMS saga like I'm having at the moment 

I ordered 2 weeks ago for express delivery(3 - 5 working days).The package is still sitting in JHB at customs and Skynet is "waiting" to hear back from customs regarding clearance so they can invoice me for VAT. I am Cape town based....