All my stuff, with 3 notable exceptions, come via SGP. To my knowledge, the packages are processed by the SGP office in Hong Kong, not in Singapore. At least my 30+ packages haven't been. From HK, the SGP office puts them on planes - "despatched to overseas". My stuff usually takes about 15 days to get to me, once "information received" shows up. I honestly have no idea how SGP ships to the US. It may be the same or it may not be.
The notable exceptions? 2 packages came through HKP and took 3 weeks just to be processed through security. One of those parcels ended up being returned to FT, for some unknown and probably arbitrary reason - no batteries or liquids. FT refunded me without even being asked.
The other arrived normally, just taking a bit longer. The third exception was an experiment I did to see if what Vapor Break was like. The VB package was shipped via Sweden, really did transit through Sweden physically and took 32 days before it arrived here in Israel. I was not hyper-impressed with the quality of the products I ordered either, so the experiment is not particularly conclusive.
OK, my conclusions?
Like Vapero, I am now a hobbyist and do not NEED what I am ordering. Do I want it??? Well, yeahhhhh. I must be the only little old lady in the whole Middle East with 2 MVPs, one SVD, a VTR (amazing...) a Bagua, a Chi You, a UCan, a drawer full of cool liquids and neat shiny stuff, and a Caravella, a Kayfun 3.1 and a Kayfun Lite on their way. For a tiny fraction of what it would cost me either to try to buy here (yeah, right) or buy in the US or Europe, with major shipping expenses. The time it takes is the time it takes. I can live with that. I have never had a quality problem that FT didn't resolve.
I would say that much of the "drama" we read about is...uh, to put it nicely, 'self-generated' by a kind of 'crowd hysteria effect'.
I don't want anyone to feel I'm attacking them. Some packages really did go missing, and travel round the world before they eventually landed where they were supposed to, or did get arbitrarily seized and returned when HKP was in full-blown security mode.
But a lot of issues were actually non-issues and came from unreal expectations, not knowing much about FT, or shipping, or how things worked, not reading stickies, not digesting information, thinking that a shipping date was an arrival date, playing 'follow-the-leader' when one guy starts screaming 'liar! scammer!" everybody else starts screaming...At one point in the forums I am sure there were shills from other companies starting fires and rumours.
If I hadn't read the forums during September and October, and hadn't known about tracking, I might not have realized there was even an issue with shipping...My Customs is perfectly capable of holding up packages for ever and ever, for no reason other than that they can.
At one point, I didn't dare even post that I'd got vapemail - it seemed tactless to say "yes, my parcel got here normally, thank you."
I really want Captain Shay's mouse to arrive
, Comma Holly's parcel to be recovered from the black hole it has fallen into...
but I have no sympathy whatsoever for some posters over in the FT forums who simply throw temper-tantrums in the check-out line because their ticket/refund/shipment hasn't magically shown up within 3 hours and 4 minutes on their doorsteps. Who post threats of immediate sanctions if their demands are not met within 24 hours (on a weekend, in the middle of the night China time...
)
Before tracking was generalized, back in the Middle Ages when I was young, you paid your money and then you simply waited. Now everyone runs around like chickens in a corn field yelling that their packages are still in Acceptance.
Nobody, thank goodness, is married to FT. It's a shop. If you're happy, continue. If you're not, for whatever reason, it's your money and you can spend it where ever you like on whatever you want.
