Shed Pickups

Gagaryn

Anyone ordered from Shed Pickups lately?

I ordered pickups about a month ago, so just before xmas. I knew that would delay things, but got a notification saying they were on the way and a RM tracking number on 10 January.

But they were never posted. I contacted them a few days after that as the tracking was "RM waiting on sender posting" - got a reply claiming pickups are on the way. I explained no updates on tracking but got no reply.

Still no tracking updates so contacted them again yesterday, got a quick holding reply "checking for you now" but nothing since then.

Not impressed with the service. Small company I know, but don't think actually posting after contacting me to say the order is on the way is too much to ask. 

This normal for Shed or am I unlucky?

Schnozz

Can you phone them? Very small but great, so i wouldn't be too worried just now. Phone call speeds things up a lot though.

Gagaryn

Schnozz said:

Can you phone them? Very small but great, so i wouldn't be too worried just now. Phone call speeds things up a lot though.

No phone number on website - just email. 

willo

Hi - so I literally (this week) had a similar issue. I ordered a set of HA59s just before Christmas and on January 10th received a Royal Mail notification saying they were expecting the parcel and got a tracking number.

However, as of yesterday the Royal Mail website hadn't updated and just said they were waiting for a parcel (9 days after the tracking number was generated).

I emailed Shed yesterday and, later in the day, got an automated update from Royal Mail saying the parcel would be delivered tomorrow (i.e. today) - and I have just received them earlier.

On the plus side, this was end-to-end quicker than I expected (I expected them later this month), and if my email triggered the shipping, then that was a very prompt response.

On the less positive side, my email didn't get an actual reply and so another question I asked in it has not (at time of writing) been replied to - but again, I wasn't expecting a response within 24 hours so I'll give it a few days.

Is it possible that they notify Royal Mail to expect a parcel early on, just as a general process thing, even when the pickups are still not ready to be shipped?

Maybe worth trying to reach them via Facebook etc. Good luck, hope it works out for you.

victorludorum

I seem to remember similar things happened in the past, but my memory is fading daily.

Gagaryn

willo said:

Hi - so I literally (this week) had a similar issue. I ordered a set of HA59s just before Christmas and on January 10th received a Royal Mail notification saying they were expecting the parcel and got a tracking number.

However, as of yesterday the Royal Mail website hadn't updated and just said they were waiting for a parcel (9 days after the tracking number was generated).

I emailed Shed yesterday and, later in the day, got an automated update from Royal Mail saying the parcel would be delivered tomorrow (i.e. today) - and I have just received them earlier.

On the plus side, this was end-to-end quicker than I expected (I expected them later this month), and if my email triggered the shipping, then that was a very prompt response.

On the less positive side, my email didn't get an actual reply and so another question I asked in it has not (at time of writing) been replied to - but again, I wasn't expecting a response within 24 hours so I'll give it a few days.

Is it possible that they notify Royal Mail to expect a parcel early on, just as a general process thing, even when the pickups are still not ready to be shipped?

Maybe worth trying to reach them via Facebook etc. Good luck, hope it works out for you.

This is actually quite reassuring. I have no issue with waiting a month, especially over the xmas holidays. Just weird, getting notification of shipping, then no shipping etc. Sounds like they are just really poor at communicating. Stupid me took the old pickups out when I got the shipping notification. Regret that! I'll chase them again tomorrow by email - don't see the point of switching to communicating via Facebook - their email works as they do reply - sometimes. Just not with any meaningful info.

Alegree

Royal Mail do not do inwards scans on a lot of services. They lie about 'waiting to receive parcel', when they're sitting on it but can't be bothered to scan it in as received. 

We get this complaint daily.

willo

Gagaryn said:

willo said:

Hi - so I literally (this week) had a similar issue. I ordered a set of HA59s just before Christmas and on January 10th received a Royal Mail notification saying they were expecting the parcel and got a tracking number.

However, as of yesterday the Royal Mail website hadn't updated and just said they were waiting for a parcel (9 days after the tracking number was generated).

I emailed Shed yesterday and, later in the day, got an automated update from Royal Mail saying the parcel would be delivered tomorrow (i.e. today) - and I have just received them earlier.

On the plus side, this was end-to-end quicker than I expected (I expected them later this month), and if my email triggered the shipping, then that was a very prompt response.

On the less positive side, my email didn't get an actual reply and so another question I asked in it has not (at time of writing) been replied to - but again, I wasn't expecting a response within 24 hours so I'll give it a few days.

Is it possible that they notify Royal Mail to expect a parcel early on, just as a general process thing, even when the pickups are still not ready to be shipped?

Maybe worth trying to reach them via Facebook etc. Good luck, hope it works out for you.

This is actually quite reassuring. I have no issue with waiting a month, especially over the xmas holidays. Just weird, getting notification of shipping, then no shipping etc. Sounds like they are just really poor at communicating. Stupid me took the old pickups out when I got the shipping notification. Regret that! I'll chase them again tomorrow by email - don't see the point of switching to communicating via Facebook - their email works as they do reply - sometimes. Just not with any meaningful info.

Fingers crossed - keep us posted. I'm sure it will be fine.

My best guess is they register that there's a product to ship with Royal Mail (effectively, buying the delivery slot) early on but this triggers the tracking number and so we think the pickups will come in a few days. However, they still then have to finish winding and sending them.

My guess is that's what going on with your order and the communications aren't great. It's clearly not yet been shipped and you can prove that so I think its just going to be a matter of explaining to them and keep on chasing. Like you, I had no issue waiting and actually, in totality, these have arrived earlier than I expected! Just an uncomfortable period where Royal Mail wasn't updating.

My only thought about Facebook was that you can then take the conversation public and, if you want to, that can sometimes stimulate a response from brands. The issue that @victorludorum was referring to was the old business - it was a one-man band but communication was poor, it went under, and some orders went unfulfilled. When they relaunched last year they were very clear that the same guy was winding the pickups, but the business and communications were being ran by other people. So I'd say its a good reason to keep following up but, also, not a reason to be particularly concerned.

Good luck!

Gagaryn

Alegree said:

Royal Mail do not do inwards scans on a lot of services. They lie about 'waiting to receive parcel', when they're sitting on it but can't be bothered to scan it in as received. 

We get this complaint daily.

Mine has had that status since 10 January though, so either RM couldn't be bothered scanning AND delivering, they actually don't have it or some combination of both!

Ddigger

I ordered some items from Axesrus.  Received a Royal Mail notification last week saying delivery Wednesday 14th.  The RM tracking page never changed/updated after that.

 Messaged Axesrus on Monday to give them a heads up.  Parcel arrived yesterday.

Royal Mail have gone right down the tubes since they were privatised to make them more competitive, efficient and improve the service.

gatheredinsong

I particularly like the process of arranging a different place of delivery if you won't be in, which has worked none of the three times I've tried to avoid my parcel being left on the step in the rain all day.

rickd2112a

Not shipping related but I did email them a couple weeks ago asking some questions on the HA59s. I never got a reply.

At the same time, I asked similar questions to Sunbear and Alan Dingwall and got replies later the same day.

I know the Shed pickups get good reviews, but so do Sunbear and Alan, so I will order from them.

@willo I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the HA59s now you have them.

drofluf

Not saying this is what has happened here - I don't know Shed pickups or where they're based - but I had a similar issue recently. The company I was dealing with shipped from China so created the label there - which I assume generated the waiting for package status with Royal Mail - then I had to wait about a week for the package to be shipped from China before it then entered the Royal Mail system. I assume they bulked it with lots of other packages and sent via another means to the UK where they were unpacked and dropped of at a post office. 

djspecialist

I bought a pair of VIP-90 from Shed last March. I can't remember exactly how long the delivery took, but I don't remember it being particularly slow.

And the pickups are brilliant!

impmann

Royal Fail tracking system is bollocks right now. And their delivery times are 'fluid' at best. 
They also state there are no hold ups in the system right now, which is absolute crap. I've had so many parcels that I've sent and had sent to me since before Xmas that bear no relation to the services I purchased - and their tracking system appears to be built of lies, and broken promises.

But they are still the best of a shit bunch right now.

willo

rickd2112a said:

@willo I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the HA59s now you have them.

 Definitely - it will be a little while before I get them put in as they've arrived before I've been able to get the other parts, wiring loom etc. But I'll share my thoughts whenever I have them installed.

Gagaryn

Still no follow up to Monday's message assuring they would look into whether my pickups have been posted or not. All quite disappointing. I would have thought that would be a 5 minute job!

BillDL

There's always the possibility the person is sick and unable to respond to emails, and by the time they have accumulated it could be overwhelming.  It sounds to me as though he has paid for postage online to print the labels and effectively "booked" the postage, but that he hasn't yet taken them to a post office for whatever reason.  The Royal Mail tracking will then just say "we are expecting the item".  The "on the way" status update usually gets triggered when the bar code is scanned into the sender's receiving depot even though it still has to go through one or more hubs and eventually to the recipient's delivery depot.

A seller trading as a business should be answering emails though, even if it's single sentence replies that may seem curt by their brevity.  I suppose it all depends on how well set up they are for communications and how important they see communications in their business model.  A one-man-band operation must find it quite hard to make the products and keep up with a schedule while also answering customer emails and questions from prospective customers.  Many of us have an expectation that if a business it trading online and refers to "we" and "our" in their "About Us" page, there is more than one person running the business and that is not always the case.  Since 2023 Shed Pickups has two other directors apart from the founder and they brought "a notable wealth of knowledge and experience to Shed Pickups as a business".  If the owner of the business consistently can't be arsed to answer customers' emails, then in my opinion they don't deserve the custom.

Gagaryn

I got a reply an hour ago. Might be down to RM as post was busy over Xmas, (I didn’t get tracking until 10 Jan).  Will check with the staff member who posts, whether they have been posted. (Told me last week they were on the way, and on Monday he’d check but still hasn’t.) If lost Spencer will build more, apologies for delay, can have a discount on future orders. I appreciate the sentiment, but my focus is on fulfilment of this order. Still no details, but a reply. Ironically, Spencer’s day job is a postie! 

adam_farmer

I emailed them back in November about their Telecaster pickups and the lack of reply put me off, bearing in mind their history. It does seem that everyone who receives a set seems to really really like them. 

BillDL

Gagaryn said:

....... Ironically, Spencer’s day job is a postie! 

Maybe you have to send a self-addressed stamped postcard to get a reply?