On last Friday morning US Eastern time about 0800 my OBM called the dealer to place the order for my needed parts by phone. By internet it was not possible to order the parts. She called at about 2200 JST the dealer, which had send me quickly a quote for the Victron Argofet Isolators I urgently need. This was good speed in handling my request for quotation. I was happy! But then…

Then the bombardment of useless automated emails started.

The confirmation of the order showed as shipment “Flat Rate Promo” a term, which is just a nice marketing word, but doesn’t tell if the parcels comes by UPS, FedEx, DHL or what so ever. It took me several email until I learned that the shipment is done by “UPS Priority”, In between I got automated email saying a customer representative will shortly get back to me. What a useless piece of information, which just needs energy to send and received. This was on my Saturday very early morning, but still business time in the US Eastern Time.

This morning, my time, Monday afternoon in US Eastern time, I saw that I haven’t gotten neither a tracking number nor an invoice, both I need for customs clearance. I had to send several emails until I learned the shipment was not done on Friday during an entire business day and I should please wait even 24 h more to allow UPS to activate the tracking. As I want the parts ASAP to continue my sail, this email communication was a bit pulling my nerves. Especially as I got about a dozen useless automated emails.

When I got finally an invoice I saw that the billing address is wrong. So I went back to them and gave them the correct billing address again. (I am pretty sure that my OBM gave them the correct billing address because she understands the importance of it.) After again useless automated emails I got the second version of the invoice. Again, the billing address was wrong. So I send another mail with the needed billing address and explained line by line what it means and why it is necessary. Useless automated emails arrived but not yet an invoice with the correct billing address.

Now I am curious to see what I will get tomorrow morning my time.

Will you bet on the correctness of the billing address in the next version of the invoice?

Does this company not like business from foreign sailors or do they live “America first”?