Brodit Supply Issues (was HandNav)

DavidW

Hi all,

As johndglynn posted in his update to his Recommended suppliers thread, HandNav don't seem to have things sorted out when you order Brodit bits from them.

I understood when I placed my order on 16 May that there might be a delay on any order that included a ProClip. As their confirmation email says:

Your order has been received and will be dealt within the next 48 hours. Please note that customers placing orders for the ProClip may find delay on receiving the goods.

I got that acknowledgement very quickly after submitting my order, and was happy to understand that they didn't necessarily keep all the ProClips in stock.

On 22 May, I sent a polite email asking them if they had any idea when they'd ship. I got a reply at twenty to eleven that night saying that they'd ship on 27 May - disappointing, but there was a bank holiday in the way.

On 28 May, it looked like they hadn't shipped, so I emailed again - and never got a reply to that email.

On 30 May, I phoned them, and the person I dealt with was very off-handish. He said they were shipping today, First Class Recorded Delivery. I asked for the tracking number, and he said it hadn't yet been allocated.

The package eventually turned up on 3 June, the date on the postal frank was 31 May, so they broke two promised shipping dates. The email saying they'd shipped turned up in the very early hours of 1 June.

I had got as far as enquiring about price and availability from Nemesis. Their web site doesn't tell you anything useful, but within a couple of hours of my email, I got a reply saying that both the mount and the ProClip I needed (you can figure this out at www.brodit.com) were in stock. The chances were that they would have been a couple of pounds cheaper in the end (though the email didn't quote shipping costs) and, I expect rather quicker.

It may just be that HandNav haven't got things right with Brodit bits, but their whole setup seemed to be in a bit of a mess. I certainly won't use them again, and would recommend that anyone interested in Brodit mounts and ProClips emails Nemesis GB at sales@nemesisgb.com and doesn't bother with HandNav.

I wouldn't have minded if there was a delay and HandNav kept me informed. It was that they twice missed shipping dates they set themselves, and that their attitude seemed very off-handish. My mistake was not contacting Nemesis sooner and telling HandNav to forget about it.

David

Neil F

I can only second that! My replacement turned up yesterday and is a fantastic product Smile

I would have no hesitation ordering again of handnav.

off camping now, tomtom at the ready ;)

Neil

Dave

That's really good news, congratulations Chetan!

asot

How a dissapointed customer turns into a fan!!!

After posting some "bad" comments in this topic, i'd like to say that after all this story, HANDNAV has "grown" and became a more responsible company.

During these 2 weeks, Chetan form HANDNAV contacted me personally to apologise for delay in BRODIT products (not their responsibility), he sent me the goods ASAP on arrival and I ordered again from HANDNAV an EMTAC BT GPS, after appreciating their effort to satisfy any unhappy customer.

I was also happy to find out that HANDNAV listens to customers suggestions (eg. the comment on their confirmation of an order regarding BRODIT products and the - potential - delay)

Keep going this way!

Antonis

A satisfied customer from Greece

Neil F

Many thanks Chetan. I have sent you the incorrect one back 1st class so you should get it tomorrow. Thank you for sorting my problem out so quickly. Hopefully I should have it before I go camping on Friday Smile

Neil

Chetan

Thank you once again to Mark and Neil

"DEFERRED ORDER RELEASED", we do not have control over this, as it is an automated process, but we can certainly pass this on to responsible person.

Further to my conversation this morning (9/7/03) with Neil, we have sent you the correct part 848314 according to your order. As you have explained that you needed 848534(without expansion jacket for TT Cable), we are going to send this part to you today again with free delivery to hopefully arrive next day.

HandNav Technology

Neil F

THE GOOD NEWS - my order arrived this morning

THE BAD NEWS - It's the wrong holder Sad

handnav have sent a holder for ipaq with expansion pack.. I ordered one for ipaq and tomtom cable connection.

iwanted this sorted for the weekend too for a camping trip Sad

Neil

peteoheat

Having placed my order for a brodit mount and proclip with handnav on the 1st of July i was really disappointed to read this thread about an hour later!

However, my experience has been fine. Afer placing my order I received an email which said that it usually took five days to process orders with proclips but could take up to two weeks.

On the 5th I received the "DEFERRED ORDER RELEASED" email ( Chetan, you might want to improve the wording of this it doesn't really tell us anything )

Shortly after I got a "Your order has been depatched" email.

7th of July proclip and mount arrived via Royal Mail. I installed it in 5mins and very good it is too!

Chetan,

I'd be happy to deal with Handnav again based on my experience this time.

A couple of constructive comments...

1. Be a bit more upfront about likely delays on proclip orders. Show more information prior to the purchase rather than in the confirmation email.

2. Change the wording of that DEFERRED ORDER RELEASED email to something like. "Your order is ready for depatch and your credit card has now been charged"

Regards

Mark
_________________
Royaltek Sapphire, IPAQ 3970 firmware rev 2.00, TTN 2.22, GB Maps on 256Mb Sandisk SD Card

Neil F

Thanks Chetan

Excellent sevice!

Neil

Chetan

Neil,

"DEFERRED ORDER RELEASED" means that we have debited your credit card, it usually happens on the day goods are ready to be despatched. During the time customers confirm their orders, credit card is only authorised, but no payment is debited. This is an automated email to notify the customers that payment is released.

If you need further information, email me on chetan@handnav.co.uk

Chetan

www.handnanv.co.uk

Neil F

I just got a 3rd email from handnav stating:

DEFERRED ORDER RELEASED

Does this mean my proclip order has shipped??

thanks

Neil

Carlos

Yes, fair do's - my brodit mount has arrived now, fitted and working perfectly.

Refreshing to see a supplier explaining the issues and listening to customers. I too experienced poor communication at the time, my initial calls and emails went unanswered, been fine since then.

Communication is the key.

DavidW

Chetan,

It's good to see you're trying to address the issues - which I'm sure are difficult because of the vast number of individual items!

I hope my (factual) post at the top of the thread is useful. It wasn't the delay that was annoying so much as the sporadic communication - and you setting deadlines you failed to meet. I appreciate that it's really hard when you're totally dependent on external suppliers for product, and there's probably no easy answer.

Maybe a statement along the lines of:

For the supply of ProClips we are dependent on the stock held by a third party. We will aim to ship your order as soon as possible and will inform you when we have shipped your order.

would help - and you can always have a dedicated email address for people to chase up delayed Brodit orders.

Meanwhile, you've totally restored my faith in your company - because you've shown you're listening to customers. No matter what, problems will happen.

All the best in trying to sort out the problems - it is, after all, in everyone's interest that this is sorted out!

Best wishes,

David

Dave

I think as both Mike and Chetan have said, it's really down to a supply/demand issue with the distributor's. One thing we've seen a lot of is the lack of Arkon products in the UK. There have been huge delays on some of their products, and although there's more of a selectin of retailers that stock these products, equally you find that they are all in the same boat.

It looks like the Brodit issues are being addressed (albeit) slowly with Nemesis and Brodit, so hopefully this will improve in the near future.

Chetan

Dear All,

After carefully reading all the forums, firstly, I like to apologise and like to thank to all those who express their experiences.

I would be very surprise to find any unhappy customers who has bought any other products apart from Brodit range. Most of our other products apart from ProClip gets despatched on same or next day depending the time we receive the order. Yes, we would like to send and despatch the item as soon as possible so that we can get paid, we definately take orders from customers but to be fair we do not charge their credit card until the goods are ready to go out.

We have constant discussions with Nemesis and Brodit regarding their stock issue, but the situation is improving very slowly. In the defence of HandNav, I like to add that not many companies I know that offers the huge Brodit range especially ProClips that causes delay. We want to offer this solution to our customers because I believe it is the great and safe way to secure PDA and GPS. We have also implemented Brodit's thousands of records relating Proclip on to our database so that it can be easy for customers to search their right part. We do everything that we can as a dealer, but if the supplier lets us down than there is very little we can do.

Global Positioning System (Spotlight) do not offer Brodit range therefore, comparison is unfair on HandNav.

We are trying everything we can to keep our customers happy.

If anyone who wants to write than please email me on chetan@handnav.co.uk

Best regards.

Chetan

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