BATC Forum

Hello everyone,
I still miss an order I have placed on the BATC Shop back on 17th March.
There is no real info anywhere, on whom to contact when the orders have problems. I understand that this is a voluntary service, but essentially missing out on an order for over 3 weeks, that was announced to take around 8 days for delivery (in the FAQ) is not quite satisfying. On top there are no instructions on how to handle the situation with no contact info. Hence I have to resort to writing publicly in the forum.

So what do I do with a 117£ Order that was still not delivered. Can I get a refund? Can you as the shipping volunteers get a refund from the Royal Mail and return that to me?

I totally get the fact that working with tracking numbers is an additional hassle. I was also obliged to do postal services for one of my employers without having it in my job description. I know the pain, but I also found solutions back then. It may all go well without tracking numbers for small items (i.e. under 10£, where the total loss does not hurt budget) but with the possibility to have expensive orders in the shop, the BATC should really consider getting professional postage services, or at least use tracking numbers on the parcels. (Why not use "Tracked barcode labels on a Roll" to apply to parcels in your own office, just add enough postage stamps and you can drop it of in any post box. No need to stand in line at the post office.)

The reason I simply had to order in the BATC shop and actually sign up for membership with the BATC is that the Serit FTS-4334L Tuner for the MiniTiouner is essentially Unobtanium on the free market. There is no other source that has it listed in an online shop. Just some forums that have members selling full kits. No Ide where they got it from. If there were other sources, I would have bought elsewhere, but I was stuck with the BATC webshop.

Sorry for pestering everyone, I just don't want this issue to go unnoticed.
Best,
DL7BUR

Hi

Sorry to hear that your order has not yet arrived. Eight working days was a reasonable estimate for deliveries in Europe before Brexit, but it now appears that customs delays can increase the delivery time. Your order would not have been posted until the 18 March at the earliest, so it is only 12 working days in the postal system so far. However, we will amend the FAQ.

We have also found that large orders to Europe are now attracting customs fees - that may well be the reason for the delay in your order.

The BATC shop volunteers have recently been handling over 20 orders each day (of various sizes/weights and to various countries); sticking stamps on them and putting them in a Post Box has not been a practical option for a number of years. The postage for the orders is mostly handled by the Post Office staff and then billed to the Club. Using tracking would increase the prices and the administrative burden on the volunteers; we are investigating the options available at the moment.

Not sure that there is anything that we can do about being the only source for FTS-4334L Tuners. There is no reason why any other group of enthusiasts can't order a batch of 200 tuners from the manufacturer and resell them.

Lastly, shop@batc.tv is a good e-mail address for enquiries about orders. But please don't upset the volunteers - the work that they do is very much undervalued.

Please keep us informed about your order status.

Dave, G8GKQ
BATC Chairman

Thanks for getting back to me Dave.
Not trying to upset anyone.
Will wait another 3 weeks and then consider it lost.