Amigakit what’s going on!?

[Jpor]

Is it me or has Amigakit really going downhill?
I’m still chasing on a back order from 8 months ago
Sent many a chase Email and even asked over on their EBay sellers site. Not had a single reply to my queries.
This and Amigastore.eu (A.K.A Amigastore. Peee ewwww!) are really letting the Amiga customers down.

[stevelord]

It looks like a bunch of different factors are biting vendors in the arse.

The UK-EU shipping rules around Brexit are pretty horrific. That combined with the EU's change in VAT processing make shipping a bit of a nightmare right now. Supply chains are also still messed up thanks to COVID - e.g. chipageddon.

Just-in-time has just-been-bolloxed, logistics are messy, supplies are messy. For companies that sell out-of-stock items as in stock (e.g. Amigakit did this with me, I believe Amigastore do as well) they're behind before they start.

Add to that the roaring demand from OS 3.2, where I honestly think some vendors underestimated how many people would want roms while overestimating availability, you can see that they're all a bit stretched and under pressure.

For people who have proper processes in and planned for this, I imagine little has changed. You can spot the ones that haven't a mile off.

[-Acid-]

It was the same shit with AK pre-covid/brexit though....

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by -Acid-

It was the same shit with AK pre-covid/brexit though....

Agreed. But to be fair it took a couple of weeks for items to arrive. Now it’s ridiculous

[Predseda]

Anything can happen, there is a lot of going in the world today that makes life hard. But COMMUNICATION with a customer must always work, otherwise reputation falls down rapidly and the whole business is going to hell. No matter how long established the enterprise is.

[Wiking67]

Still whaiting for mine, and no refund yet

[Bren McGuire]

do a quick search here, amigakit seem like a bunch of absolute wankers, nobody should trade with them, yet people keep doing so.

[ma693541]

I live in a EEC country and had never problems with AmigaKit before COVID. Even tried to buy AmigaOS 3.2 from Sweden, with no luck since Norway isn't a EU country and Sweden is. I ordered then AmigaOS 3.2 from AmigaStore in Spain and had luck, they shipped both to UK and EEC countries. Isabel at AmigaStore even advised me to pay a bit extra for insurance and tracking number of the package. They was fast to pack my order and send it further to Madrid AP, but boy that Airport used around 14 days to send it by plain to Oslo and that was just by the COVID situation we all live with all over the globe.

[Gryfon]

They're not wankers - they've been called out many times and responded fairly in public to questioning. I've been buying from Leaman then AmigaKit for 20 years plus. I've driven to their operation in Wales and spoken with them face to face. And seen their 2-3 man operation. I've personally had to wait several months for some orders plus work (re-capping a motherboard for example).

In my own experience 80%-85% of my orders arrived within 3-4 days from them.

I've had similar experiences with AmigaStore, Individual Computers and several other long-time players, both bad experiences - but mostly good.

We are a -niche- market and lot of products are built from scratch - if they get busy such as with 3.2 arriving or COVID not letting them get into work, naturally orders build-up and we all end up having to wait. Look at Amiga-on-the-Lake with Kipper2Ks' new keyboards - pent-up demand over availability, over many years.

Could communication be better? Definitely and I won't argue that.

Are they ignoring you on purpose? I very much doubt it.

And since Brexit (i.e. the last year or so) I've seen previously reliable companies ripping us a new one purely because they can - an Atari 800XL I sent to Poland last year cost £45 there and back, with insurance. A month ago it cost me £75 to just send it to the same recipient as before, with DPD again, but this time he got slapped with a 30% of value VAT charge for the privilege of accepting the parcel! In my book that really takes the \bleeping/ mick. I shudder to think what actions like this will do to prices in our tiny little corner of the Amigaverse as time goes on.

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by Bren McGuire

do a quick search here, amigakit seem like a bunch of absolute wankers, nobody should trade with them, yet people keep doing so.

But who else is there? In the U.K AK are the only players around for Amiga stuff.
Have tried Amigastore.eu and they too have messed me around (twice now)

Have bought directly from Elbox and Indvidual computers in the past without issue as I would rather buy from the Organist (The source) rather than the Monkey grinder (The reseller).

[Gryfon]

Originally Posted by Jpor

But who else is there?.

You've hit the nail on the head. There's no big companies or investors out there in this market, not anymore. You could scratch a living making and selling things for the Amiga but it won't make you a millionaire.

I'm not saying that 8 months is a reasonable amount of time to wait - for anything.

AmigaKit has a phone number. Why not call and ask?

[Jpor]

Well someone on here from Amigakit reached out to me on PM. Advised I use the customer services email as it’s supposed to go to everyone in the company. Been 2 days and counting and NOTHING! Have said If my goods do t arrive I want a refund.
Anyone had to go this route to get a refund off Amigakit?

[Gryfon]

"Been 2 days".

Visit the AmigaKit website and click on "Customer Support" at the top and it explicitly says:

"Please allow two business days for a reply"

from their support email address.

Why aren't you phoning them if you want a more direct response?

Originally Posted by Jpor

Well someone on here from Amigakit reached out to me on PM. Advised I use the customer services email as it’s supposed to go to everyone in the company. Been 2 days and counting and NOTHING! Have said If my goods do t arrive I want a refund.
Anyone had to go this route to get a refund off Amigakit?

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by Gryfon

"Been 2 days".

Visit the AmigaKit website and click on "Customer Support" at the top and it explicitly says:

"Please allow two business days for a reply"

from their support email address.

Why aren't you phoning them if you want a more direct response?

Would have done. But miracles have happened and Now got a refund!
Just goes to show you have to whinge on a Amiga forum like this one to get action done.
The person who PM’d me was one of the main employees from Amigakit. That person was the one who advised me to send out my umpteen contact email to the company they work for

Have ordered from Amigakit through out the years. But this experience really has put me off from buying from them ever again. Nearly 9 months to get this sorted out!

[davideo]

I placed an order with AmigaKit on Monday and the item arrived today.

I has several emails letting me know the status of the order.

I'm pleased with the service I got and will order again from them if the need arises.

Thanks

[Photon]

I think it depends on what you ordered - if one of the products they make are part of the order, they may have to wait for parts to arrive and then get to your spot in the assembly queue. And they probably have to wait longer than ever for parts they ordered to ship to them.

This is solved by keeping parts and a few assembled products in stock. Unfortunately, the "In Stock" sign for such products only means they have the parts, not that they are ready to ship. It would be better with a clearer options that say which products are actually in stock and the others, perhaps a green checkmark with an estimated assembly wait time next to it.

That said, more than a month for International and more than two weeks for domestic is not what we are used to. Totally understandable to want a refund.

Delays can also come from slow customs clearance. Apparently Boris' Brexit deal was a bad one - EU countries still charge full VAT plus a fixed fee. If the value of the package is low-balled, it may get stuck in customs for months (this is my experience). I recommend insisting that the seller specifies the exact order value. Customs will ask you to send the invoice, so you will pay the full fee anyway, just if the order value is correct it's handled in days not months by the slow customs staff.

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by Photon

I think it depends on what you ordered - if one of the products they make are part of the order, they may have to wait for parts to arrive and then get to your spot in the assembly queue. And they probably have to wait longer than ever for parts they ordered to ship to them.

This is solved by keeping parts and a few assembled products in stock. Unfortunately, the "In Stock" sign for such products only means they have the parts, not that they are ready to ship. It would be better with a clearer options that say which products are actually in stock and the others, perhaps a green checkmark with an estimated assembly wait time next to it.

That said, more than a month for International and more than two weeks for domestic is not what we are used to. Totally understandable to want a refund.

Delays can also come from slow customs clearance. Apparently Boris' Brexit deal was a bad one - EU countries still charge full VAT plus a fixed fee. If the value of the package is low-balled, it may get stuck in customs for months (this is my experience). I recommend insisting that the seller specifies the exact order value. Customs will ask you to send the invoice, so you will pay the full fee anyway, just if the order value is correct it's handled in days not months by the slow customs staff.

Agree in part to this. The items I was waiting on were metal SCSI backplates for the Amiga A1200. Now wether these were made in the E.U? But having to wait 9 months is not acceptable. I have discussed the way Amigakit operate especially when I sent back a RapidRoad USB for repair and how I could get informed in updates etc.. I was bluntly told that wasn’t an option There seriously needs a proper web update. To be fair though Amigastore.eu have been the same, yet they did on Occassion communicate about the delays. On Amigakit’s website you can hit the checkboxes about being kept up to date with your orders and when they are posted. But again that’s hit and miss (mostly miss) as in the past I did get emails to say when items were going through the system. This time around I didn’t get that and just got orders I pestered for sent out and the first I knew about them when the doorbell rang it was delivered by the postman.

[stevelord]

Originally Posted by Photon

Unfortunately, the "In Stock" sign for such products only means they have the parts, not that they are ready to ship.

It doesn't even mean that. In Stock is fiction with them. I ordered an "in stock" Fastata which they didn't have and had to fight to get my money back. That kind of crap worked in the 90s when people ordered by post but not now.

Originally Posted by Photon

It would be better with a clearer options that say which products are actually in stock and the others, perhaps a green checkmark with an estimated assembly wait time next to it.

Agreed but I dont see it happening.

[Jpor]

Originally Posted by stevelord

It doesn't even mean that. In Stock is fiction with them. I ordered an "in stock" Fastata which they didn't have and had to fight to get my money back. That kind of crap worked in the 90s when people ordered by post but not now.



Agreed but I dont see it happening.

Who do you use instead of Amigakit these days Stevelord?

It’s a shame aim having to shun Amigakit after being a loyal customer for over 10 years

[scarrabri]

Originally Posted by Bren McGuire

do a quick search here, amigakit seem like a bunch of absolute wankers, nobody should trade with them, yet people keep doing so.

Hey hang on there my friend Amigakit have been brilliant in normal times and there service was second to none but these are tough days and one hell of a struggle withh people still dying so a little bit of understanding would not go a miss and i am sure things will get better my friend