Capetonians combining orders to save on delivery costs from Germany?

[ChrisF]

20 minutes ago, Wayne pudding Mol said:

Lucky you - my stuff from bike 24 took 4 days to hit Jhb - still not here, 7 weeks and counting 

garbaruk parts from similar area at similar shipping costs but non postal got here in less than a week 

I have about R10k worth of stuff in the SAPO system .... few years and counting.

 

Tracking numbers suggest it is at the Johannesburg depot ....

 

 

Simply no way I will use SAPO again

[MajG]

Ordered stuff from UK,  shipped via FedEx,  delivered to my door with 5 working days.

They charged R150 handling fee then us normal customs vat charges as per normal.

[BaGearA]

40 minutes ago, MajG said:

Ordered stuff from UK,  shipped via FedEx,  delivered to my door with 5 working days.

They charged R150 handling fee then us normal customs vat charges as per normal.

Which store 

[cadenceblur]

Would also like to know!

[bob1978]

Oh dear it would seem I've been lucky till now. Wish I'd started this topic before ordering already from bike 24 last week. This is the current status from bike 24. No doubt I'll be topping up my airtime monday and contacting dhl and bike 24 to get my package delivered to my door without sapo involvement. I will also also be contacting bike-components.de to ensure door to door delivery as the only option.  I wont order from bike-components until I've had a chat with them. I'll keep all updated with my bike24 delivery situation as it unfolds. Those interested in combining on an order plz PM me.

[quintonb]

If only I knew DHL Paket was the German postal service. It's been 2 months wait for about R3000 worth of parts from bike24. Tracking all fine until it lands in SA. MIA for now. Been in touch with my local post office who have been very helpful, but can't seem to help with the SA tracking no. For now I've written it off. Blows my mind as to how absolutely useless the postal system is. I just presumed that the DHL option on payment was full courier service. Lesson learnt. 

[quintonb]

56 minutes ago, bob1978 said:

Oh dear it would seem I've been lucky till now. Wish I'd started this topic before ordering already from bike 24 last week. This is the current status from bike 24. No doubt I'll be topping up my airtime monday and contacting dhl and bike 24 to get my package delivered to my door without sapo involvement. I will also also be contacting bike-components.de to ensure door to door delivery as the only option.  I wont order from bike-components until I've had a chat with them. I'll keep all updated with my bike24 delivery situation as it unfolds. Those interested in combining on an order plz PM me.

DHL express won't help you. DHL Paket is German postal service and has no link to DHL express. I spent almost 2 weeks emailing DHL locally and internationally and everytime the answer was "unfortunately we are unable to help you". They can't even use the tracking no. as it doesn't register on their system. You are in the hands of SAPO unfortunately. 

[MajG]

21 hours ago, BaGearA said:

Which store 

Works components,  sell headsets

[bob1978]

I wonder if it's worth getting my Xhosa neighbour to email and phone SAPO customs dept. and explain that she had asked me on her behalf to order the parts for her Son's Birthday etc...  Nothing to lose now????

[Eddy Gordo]

I used to have a tracking link where you could use the international tracking number. You could trace it with that number to the day it arrives at the post office. Now I cant seem to find the site or even remember the name, as I never made use of it last year. To make things worse, my browser history only goes back 2 months, I used to have much more available until the last update.

[MORNE]

4 hours ago, quintonb said:

If only I knew DHL Paket was the German postal service. It's been 2 months wait for about R3000 worth of parts from bike24. Tracking all fine until it lands in SA. MIA for now. Been in touch with my local post office who have been very helpful, but can't seem to help with the SA tracking no. For now I've written it off. Blows my mind as to how absolutely useless the postal system is. I just presumed that the DHL option on payment was full courier service. Lesson learnt. 

Dunno if you still can, but you used to phone EMS at the airport (JHB int) and get the local tracking number by giving them the foreign one.  You also used to be sble to intercept a package there before it got sent to Witspost sorting centre - usually where stuff goes missing. We used to track it to SA, then phone ems, get the local tracking number, then literally drive there and get it before it got handed off.

 Your local P.O wont be able to help. 

Edited May 30, 2021 by MORNE

[bob1978]

4 hours ago, Eddy Gordo said:

I used to have a tracking link where you could use the international tracking number. You could trace it with that number to the day it arrives at the post office. Now I cant seem to find the site or even remember the name, as I never made use of it last year. To make things worse, my browser history only goes back 2 months, I used to have much more available until the last update.

Do you mean this one?

[Eddy Gordo]

9 hours ago, bob1978 said:

Do you mean this one?

Nope, that only picks the parcel up once its scanned here or certain tracking numbers. Others just dont get picked up. Can be very hit and miss

Edited May 31, 2021 by Eddy Gordo

[Grease_Monkey]

On 5/29/2021 at 11:18 AM, Wayne pudding Mol said:

Lucky you - my stuff from bike 24 took 4 days to hit Jhb - still not here, 7 weeks and counting 

garbaruk parts from similar area at similar shipping costs but non postal got here in less than a week 

I recently had something come into SA with DHL. Also hit SA shores in 5 days or so, then took another 4 months before arriving at my local post office, where I had to stand in the queue for 2 hours to get it. Never again....

[hansolo]

Apparently Germans trust/use their Postal system a lot more than we do. One of friends moved over there and they mailed him a OTP to register on his medica aid app, granted he did have the OTP within 24 hours.

 

[MORNE]

SAPO is just a dinosaur. Ze Germans, like others,  obviously preempted that "snailmail" was a dying industry and reinvigorated it by basically turning it into what we know as a courier company. Perfect example why state owned enterprises are just a 5hit idea. They are so stuck in the 1950's it's not even funny.  If they sold SAPO to the private sector i'm sure it would be turned around into a perfectly reliable courier business within no time. But then the same could be said for all the other failing ones lol.