Shipping option "Parcel One" temporarily disabled

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.
  • Yes, you need to follow the rabbit hole of links from one carrier to another.

    Because this is on the “News and Announcements” topic in the forum, since when can we order some rabbits for our beloved Amiga’s Jens?


    Wish you and the whole Icomp team lovely Xmas days and a Happy New Year

    🎄❄️🎄

    A1200 Rev2B OS 3.2| SanDisk CF64GB | Blizzard 1230 IV 64MB FPU 68882/50 | Indivision AGA MK3 | CA-PSU | Eizo S1933 | Bose Companion 2 series III

    A500 Rev6A OS 3.2| SanDisk CF16GB | ACA500+ V2 / Blizzard 1230 IV 32MB | Indivision ECS V3 | ACE2b | CA-PSU | Eizo S1933 | Bose Companion 2 series III

    A1200 Rev2B OS3.2.2 | Black Edition | SanDisk MSD32GB | PistormLite32 | Indivision AGA MK3 | RTG Picaso96 1280x1024| CA-PSU | Eizo S1933

    iAmiga 27" | OS 3.2 FS-UAE | SDD 1 TB | RTG Picaso96 2560x1440

  • That was a reference to tracking information - you speak of "going down a rabbit hole" if you need to dig for information instead of getting it the easy way. In this case, the link goes from Parcel One to a Belgian shipping company, and then to a third that not always knows which parcel is referenced. Really annoying.


    A native speaker may correct me if I have used the term the wrong way.

  • I know Jens, I know 😀

    Because you’re an inventive person, you’ll never know you made some special hardware again 👍

    A1200 Rev2B OS 3.2| SanDisk CF64GB | Blizzard 1230 IV 64MB FPU 68882/50 | Indivision AGA MK3 | CA-PSU | Eizo S1933 | Bose Companion 2 series III

    A500 Rev6A OS 3.2| SanDisk CF16GB | ACA500+ V2 / Blizzard 1230 IV 32MB | Indivision ECS V3 | ACE2b | CA-PSU | Eizo S1933 | Bose Companion 2 series III

    A1200 Rev2B OS3.2.2 | Black Edition | SanDisk MSD32GB | PistormLite32 | Indivision AGA MK3 | RTG Picaso96 1280x1024| CA-PSU | Eizo S1933

    iAmiga 27" | OS 3.2 FS-UAE | SDD 1 TB | RTG Picaso96 2560x1440

  • I’m also waiting on an order from the end of November. Looks like it is stuck in US Customs in Los Angeles at the moment. Hasn’t “moved” since December 10; hoping it is the holiday crunch.


    The funny part is I had a second order that arrived quickly. The Indivision Mk3 is awesome by the way. Worked just as expected and perfectly. Superb work!!

  • Nope - ParcelOne is not up to the task, and their business practise of not finding any customer-oriented solution if a parcel is on a 3-month journey is not helping.


    I did see that today a parcel was sent to Canada with UPS. Is their service really that bad, or is it just the cost that you're worried about?

  • It is the costs. They charge massive "brokerage" fees in addition to taxes and duties at this end. A $100 package typically ends up with $50 in extra fees plus taxes. It essentially doubles the cost of the goods. I refuse to ship anything through UPS.

  • Are there other carriers that guarantee a sub-two-week transit time that have better pricing in Canada?


    The "less than two weeks guaranteed" is a requirement that I am setting, because we've lost serious money due to the long transit times: Customers complained with PayPal, PayPal took the money away from iComp before Parcel One completed their "investigation", and months later, the parcel was delivered. Parcel One of course refuses to pay out the insurance, because they delivered, and PayPal has closed the cases for good, impossible to re-open. Oh, and they charge a "conflict fee" on top.


    So we've lost the money, the goods, shipping cost and the conflict fee. I'm not too keen to open this door again.

  • How much do you think it should cost to ship a package halfway across the world?


    I paid 10x the price of the goods when I purchased Amiga 500 and Amiga 1200 case screws from Amiga Kit to the US.


    I’m sure I could have just put in the research and figured out comparable screws, but I want to support the limited amount of Amiga shops still in existence.


    Just pay the shipping, support Icomp, and enjoy your hardware while it still works.

  • Finding an alternative - or at least checking if there is any - is surely worth putting some time in. I know that a good part of our customers has reached financial independence in the recent past (after all, it's the computer geeks who knew about Crypto and a certain EV manufacturer way before the mainstream press covered it), but given the number of customers in our database, this can't be called "the norm". I therefore fully understand the desire to not waste any money.


    I'm not saying that UPS is a waste of money - far from that! Their service is outstanding, and very far at the top. Just what I want for the experience that iComp customers shall have. However, given the distance in pricing and service to Parcel One and DHL, there may be something in between that I don't yet know about.


    I'm happy to check alternatives, but they must fulfill a minimum standard. I'd prefer if it's a single carrier, not a broker who is passing on the parcel(s) from one service to another - that just opens the door for pointing fingers, saying "it's not my fault!". I want to have one partner for a parcel, and this entity shall be responsible from door to door. If there is a service with good reputation and reasonable pricing for the "last mile" in Canada, I'm happy to check their offer.

  • I'd like to continue to support Icomp, but I can not support UPS in any way. The last 3 shipments with them I've had disputes and 1 ongoing now. I am done with them. Sorry but I will not be ordering any more product with UPS as your carrier and many in our retro computer group here in Canada feel the same.


    I hope you can come up with an alternate solution, preferable postal. I would rather wait a month for goods than support UPS.

  • "Postal" and "one month" is really the worst choice. The currently-open dispute is already escalated with your PayPal dispute (which will end up costing me a dispute fee, thanks for that), and I'm really happy that UPS is (supposedly) faster with their investigations. This is the first time that UPS has lost something, and we don't even know yet if the parcel is really gone, or just delayed.


    In terms of "other solution", I repeat my question: Which parcel service offers faster transit times than the PayPal dispute time, and has a good reputation in Canada?


    I could re-activate DHL shipping to Canada, but only for wire transfers, so the scam "open PP dispute and be sure to get both your money back and the parcel in a month or two" won't work.

  • The paypal dispute is not mine. I would not do that to you!


    Perhaps the solution is a different credit card processing service and going back to postal deliveries. It really works well for shipping into Canada.

  • Sorry for accusing you of being the PayPal dispute person. Found out that it's a "business in disguise" - someone giving a private name and address, but paying from a PP business account. Even a retro business. It's a shame how one retro business will harm the other - this is not funny. They really should know better, and not open a dispute if an eMail is unanswered for six hours.

  • That's just not cool. I would always work with the vendor first. The retro community is not that big, and I am happy to support those who bring us the parts and upgrades needed to keep our vintage machines running.


    Wire payments from Canada are expensive. Do you have another option for credit card processing and bring back postal? At least then you would have more time before someone could claim back.

  • Can't we just Interac e-transfer via email ?


    I mean that's what we do between us Amiga users here..


    Yes, iComp staff would have to open an email to deposit the money in the bank, but then there are no disputes that automatically claw the funds back..

    Defeating automatic clawback is going to get harder and harder going forward as consumer protection ramps up.

  • Wire payments from Canada are expensive.

    Not if you use wise.com - I have written about them in this article before, and I can see that a few people have signed up with them. They are really fast - sometimes I can see the incoming transfer same-day. Further, I'm happy to accept BTC or ETH as crypto payments, reducing the fees even more (roughly 4% on bitcoin.de where iComp trades BTC). I hinted to that possibility here before.


    Lastly, there's always the possibility of using "PayPal to friends and family": You choose wire transfer at checkout, then go to the PP page manually and transfer the money using the "friends and family" function. This is compeltely free of charge, but you'll take a hit when converting currencies.

    Defeating automatic clawback is going to get harder and harder going forward as consumer protection ramps up.

    I don't want to "defeat" automatic clawback. I think it's a perfect way to protect customers. Customer protection is generally a good thing and will help to build trust, especially for new customers. So don't get me wrong - the only thing that's flawed is that the extremely long transit times open up a window for fraud that has been used against iComp more than once. While I don't expect to go back to paying out a salary for me anytime soon, I'm not prepared to support the company while others are taking advantage in such a way.


    I don't understand the "open an email to deposit the money in the bank" - if that's yet another way of transferring money, I'm hesitant to look at it, given the wide range of possibilities that we have already for money transfer. In this day and age, transferring funds is not the problem, but transporting goods is.


    Again, is there *any* express service that has a good reputation in Canada? I may sound like a broken record by now, but I haven't seen any answer yet. If you just keep repeating a request for a proven-flawed method of transportation, I'll have to close this thread without having found a viable solution. Would be a shame.