Isn't this a lovely bunk bed? Its very cute. It has 2 beds and staircase with drawers. Lovely features but so far this bed has caused me the most stress in the last 7months.
When we first placed an order for the bunk bed, we assumed it comes as a complete unit with the staircase. Shock on us! The supplier sells them as separate units i.e the beds and staircase. So of course when it arrived, we looked for the staircase(02B) and when we didn't find it inquired from supplier who said it was not packed. That was just great:-(
A lovely client of mine came , liked the bed and I explained that the staircase was missing but we would request for it to be shipped with our next consignment. The client was willing to wait and we moved on. The second consignment arrived and our agent informed me that the goods were many and couldn't all fit into the container. He said that they left out some stuff and I prayed that the whole bunk bed would be complete and that the flight of stairs would also be there. Your guess is as good as mine, they had shipped the second bunk bed and again left out the 2 staircases. Email at the time was not going to work for me. I called the agent and complained. Can you imagine my client had waited for 3 months and then what was I going to tell her? They forgot the staircase again. These guys had packed 4 pieces of the same study table and no-one told them to leave 2 of those and pack the staircases? May I mention that another lovely client had already paid for the complete bunk bed with its staircase even before we shipped.
Well I requested the agent to ship the remaining staircases. He loaded one in a container that was leaving ten days after ours and I consoled myself that it would arrive at same time as ours. Well to cut long story short, that staircase,to date has not arrived. You can refer to my blog on the frustrations at the Mombasa port, that's what the owner of the consignment is facing to date, 1 and half month later. I totally understand what he is going through and I console myself that we are many in this journey.
During this frustrating time, some guys came and convinced me to try their services. So I sent the other staircase through their company. Would you believe that for the last 3 weeks I had been calling the guy, someone else would pick the mobile and he would never return my calls. Once he promised the staircase would arrive on 5th August and it didn't. One day, a stranger called and said he would follow up on my cargo and later gave me contacts of a gentleman who manages the warehouse. When I was being introduced to this company,I was told they deliver to your door step. The guy at the warehouse told me to go collect my cargo 17th yesterday at Mlolongo.I assumed it was same company I was introduced to but to my surprise, the guy did not know the company or the contact person I mentioned. He quoted the price for clearing and we left it at I would pick it up first thing today.
I called a colleague of the guy who was not picking my calls who then referred me to their boss. I was one upset customer and the boss said he would investigate and would get back to me. Later in the day, he called and informed me that they would deliver the goods to us at the shop. Well today they sent their driver. I had planned to deliver the staircase immediately it arrived. The staircase couldn't fit in our car and the driver was so kind as to accept to deliver it to the client's house. We did that over lunch time and I can breath a sigh of relief on that one. Now I cross my finger for the other staircase.
So I see our clients admire this beautiful bunk bed and at times cringe at the headache, phone calls and stress it has caused me. At some point I wondered, whether am jinxed with this client? She is so nice , yet things just seem to go wrong when we are delivering to her. All in all I thanked God for her patience and understanding, because it could have been worse.
This is the world of business.Now I understand why we did International Relations and learned about culture because if you do not understand the different cultures and backgrounds, you can easily call it a day in this business and you would be justified. For us, we know its our calling and we stay strong as we learn from mistakes and experiences.
A lovely client of mine came , liked the bed and I explained that the staircase was missing but we would request for it to be shipped with our next consignment. The client was willing to wait and we moved on. The second consignment arrived and our agent informed me that the goods were many and couldn't all fit into the container. He said that they left out some stuff and I prayed that the whole bunk bed would be complete and that the flight of stairs would also be there. Your guess is as good as mine, they had shipped the second bunk bed and again left out the 2 staircases. Email at the time was not going to work for me. I called the agent and complained. Can you imagine my client had waited for 3 months and then what was I going to tell her? They forgot the staircase again. These guys had packed 4 pieces of the same study table and no-one told them to leave 2 of those and pack the staircases? May I mention that another lovely client had already paid for the complete bunk bed with its staircase even before we shipped.
Well I requested the agent to ship the remaining staircases. He loaded one in a container that was leaving ten days after ours and I consoled myself that it would arrive at same time as ours. Well to cut long story short, that staircase,to date has not arrived. You can refer to my blog on the frustrations at the Mombasa port, that's what the owner of the consignment is facing to date, 1 and half month later. I totally understand what he is going through and I console myself that we are many in this journey.
During this frustrating time, some guys came and convinced me to try their services. So I sent the other staircase through their company. Would you believe that for the last 3 weeks I had been calling the guy, someone else would pick the mobile and he would never return my calls. Once he promised the staircase would arrive on 5th August and it didn't. One day, a stranger called and said he would follow up on my cargo and later gave me contacts of a gentleman who manages the warehouse. When I was being introduced to this company,I was told they deliver to your door step. The guy at the warehouse told me to go collect my cargo 17th yesterday at Mlolongo.I assumed it was same company I was introduced to but to my surprise, the guy did not know the company or the contact person I mentioned. He quoted the price for clearing and we left it at I would pick it up first thing today.
I called a colleague of the guy who was not picking my calls who then referred me to their boss. I was one upset customer and the boss said he would investigate and would get back to me. Later in the day, he called and informed me that they would deliver the goods to us at the shop. Well today they sent their driver. I had planned to deliver the staircase immediately it arrived. The staircase couldn't fit in our car and the driver was so kind as to accept to deliver it to the client's house. We did that over lunch time and I can breath a sigh of relief on that one. Now I cross my finger for the other staircase.
So I see our clients admire this beautiful bunk bed and at times cringe at the headache, phone calls and stress it has caused me. At some point I wondered, whether am jinxed with this client? She is so nice , yet things just seem to go wrong when we are delivering to her. All in all I thanked God for her patience and understanding, because it could have been worse.
This is the world of business.Now I understand why we did International Relations and learned about culture because if you do not understand the different cultures and backgrounds, you can easily call it a day in this business and you would be justified. For us, we know its our calling and we stay strong as we learn from mistakes and experiences.
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