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Posted on 14th Mar 2020 @ 12:38:01 PM
This "news" thread has now been retired to allow for more general issues and factors affecting our service to be communicated without the background of the pandemic.
Please note this is not to cast doubt on or comment on a very real health threat but to expand the coverage so that all current factors are understood and noted properly.
You can find our follow on status update by clicking this link.
[Update: July 24th 2020 @ 16:20 GMT+1]
No change in arrangements for shipping as we've focused on clearing manufacturing backlogs, particularly cartridge remanufacturing and cleaning.
We are STILL shipping on Mondays and Thursdays.
Please note: With changes in advice and following care to maintain limited contact with others, we are now starting to organise holiday time to see family and find a different set of walls to look at after 4+ months of staying put. The current pandemic is now far from over but we are intending to close off this news item thread and start fresh with a more long term "Status notice" that encompasses all elements that affect and/or will affect orders, stock levels moving forward.
[Update: July 18th 2020 @ 22:30 GMT +1]
School holidays have started, meaning [Martins]/my wife (a teacher) is now able to take over most of the child herding for a few weeks. This will free me up to fire through a larger number of tasks still pending. We will not be working every day as this is still quality time with our families, but it will help reduce the chaos element caused by school planning.
Manufacturing, restocking tasks are still ongoing but demand is roughly the same (if not more) than normal so we are using non-shipping days to build up our stock, particularly of units we manufacture in house (flush clips, printer potty kits, refill bundles, re-manufactured cartridge sets and more besides).
We are STILL shipping on Mondays and Thursdays.
Until stock levels and critical/important tasks have been completed, or we've been able to bring other manufacturing support in to carry the load (safely) we need to maintain this approach.
Expert medical and scientific guidance has not changed, so our precautions remain in place.
[Update: July 1st 2020 @ 22:57 GMT+1]
Due to continued confusion regarding our limited shipping days, we have renamed the "DHL Next Day" service to "DHL Priority".
We are still looking after our children, still doing long hours (whenever possible) to restock our inks and internally manufactured tools, etc... and all the usual administration, support, etc... required to keep things moving.
Orders are shipping on Mondays and Thursdays only regardless of the shipping service chosen, regardless of the "normal" speed that non-pandemic circumstances would otherwise allow.
We appreciate that this is neither ideal, nor welcome for those who need items quickly, but we are doing our best and if you feel this is still insufficient, then please exercise your right to choose an alternative supplier.
[Update: June 30th 2020 @ 22:10 GMT+1]
Shipping will remain limited to Mondays & Thursdays for the foreseeable future due to childcare needs & the workload/labour required to get stock manufactured/ready.
We are managing to restock successfully and almost every stock item is now available again including SquEasyFill caps and 18g needles/scabbards.
Support/Comms is taking longer primarily due to the sheer volume of emails/phone-calls and our detailed responses.
Consideration being given to the use of a blog/FAQ to deal with some of the current common ones to help reduce the repetition of some information (which required time to write!).
Overall... Not much has changed in terms of the virus itself... continuing to assume sensible precautions.
[Update: June 24th, 2020 @ 23:30 GMT+1]
Following the latest UK Government announcement, regarding the easing of lockdown conditions, we have chosen to maintain pre-existing practices until reliable, data-led medical and scientific advice indicates otherwise.
Shipping:
Stock:
Support/Communication:
Overall:
Still only shipping orders Mondays and Thursday
As per June 12th with following adjustments:
[Update: June 12th, 2020 @ 21:00 GMT+1]
Recap.
Shipping:
Stock:
Support/Communication:
Accounts/Invoicing:
Overall:
[Update: June 6th, 2020 @ 22:45 GMT+1]
Health wise, we're all okay.. still isolating from each other as much as possible. Contingency plans now in place as the second wave is all but guaranteed here in the UK.
[Update: June 5th, 2020 @ 00:35 GMT+1]
[Update: June 1st, 2020 @ 20:35 GMT+1]
As per May 29th with some adjustment:
Still healthy but no change in our plans to split our shifts and reduce contact as much as possible. Government advice is actively contradicting key medical and expert virologist information/advice and we are not taking chances.
[Update: May 29th 2020 @ 00:29 GMT+1]
From June 1st my wife physically returns to her teaching role in school on at least 2 days a week so, despite my children remaining home, we have to assume that the possibility of infection will rise considerably. Net result, we're tightening up the rota again so that myself and other team members are not in the same building together, or if we need to be, strict cleandown protocols will be required, such as face-masks, surface washdown, etc.. This will continue to affect our capacity to ship orders and/or manufacture our products.
Our opinion on the political/official advice situation has no place on this page.. Instead, we'd like to reiterate that we hope you will continue to maintain social distancing, wash your hands regularly and look out for one and other.
Moving on...
Manufacturing/Stock:
Shipping Changes:
Support:
Stay safe.. Thanks... Martin
If you were watching the news in the UK you would be forgiven for thinking that this whole situation was coming to an end. It's not. Contacts we have through family and friends in the health service (even one actively researching the virus) have left us in no doubt that this is just the first wave and that behaviour of many here in the UK is guaranteeing a second wave. Our opinion of politicians or individuals at this point is somewhat moot as we're actively taking sensible precautions to avoid unnecessary contact. Incidentally we are NOT sending out children back to school for their mental, emotional well being, let alone their physical health.
So, with this in mind the following still applies:
Manufacturing/Stock
Shipping Changes:
Support:
Overall we're in reasonably good shape and hope you are all too.. but in case this needs repeating, please don't follow the uninformed, ill-advised herd by letting your guard down now. You need to be sensible, safe and keep direct human contact to an absolute minimum. This virus doesn't care one jot about your freedoms, frustrations or your nationality. Please do the sensible thing for yourselves and those you care about.
[Update: May 14th 2020 @ 22:50 GMT+1]
Back to work today and managed to get a few things done. Ink stocks for Epson Claria + Canon PGI-72, CLI-8, 521/526 and PGI-5/520/525 all came in so we've started rebottling the out-of-stock items as a priority.
Cartridge remanufacturing for CLI-42v2, PGI-72 and the 550/551 hybrid carts is next on the agenda for tomorrow but we're not expecting to get it all done.
Some returns, refunds are pending processing tomorrow... They've taken a while to get to but they're on the list.
[Update: May 10th 2020 @ 21:20 GMT+1]
Our Covid-19 tests all came back negative, thankfully, and assuming nothing changes I will be able to leave the house and work on site, from Thursday 14th. However, as before, there is no reliable indicator or understanding of immunity, so we will continue to split shift to avoid potential spread. The good news is that manufacturing will be able to continue from Thursday, albeit as/when parenting responsibilities allow.
One team member remains unaffected and active, so orders continue to ship on Mondays and Thursdays as before.
Product Stock is incoming for inks in particular, some are still being manufactured but we're not expecting extended delays as yet.
Shipping/Postal delays remain much the same. Orders to Spain are currently experiencing significant delays so DHL Express is recommended, or to wait until things have changed.
[Update: May 5th 2020 @ 17:20 GMT+1]
Shipping delays are starting to show a pattern, and they are substantial to the point that we considering halting shipping Internationally with the exception of DHL Express & Fedex.
Things are slow but are still arriving... eventually.
[Update: May 4th 2020 @ 14:00 GMT+1]
Due to contact with a confirmed infected colleague, my wife and the rest of our family are now in full isolation for a second time. This will mean that manufacturing will once again be affected as we're not allowed to leave the house. The potential positive in this is that testing capacity has improved here in the UK and, because my wife is a keyworker, we're all able to be tested. This hopefully means we can determine what our status is after the last period of isolation.
For now at least nobody is showing any symptoms other than the occassional nervous cough and we all feel fine but, as ever, the emphasis here on is the health of staff and our families. Much as that will create frustration and delay, it is the reality we have to deal with. Once we have some test results we'll be able to work out what comes next.
Product Stock
We continue to re-stock as best we can with bulk ink stocks waiting to be shipped from manufacturers, while other stock is on backorder, awaiting completion. So, long term, things are looking positive.
Order Dispatch
We're still getting orders out the door in no small measure thanks to Sharon who has been working her socks off throughout. Meanwhile, I'm working from home to answer queries, sort out stock orders and get us past the various hurdles.
Everything else remains as per the last few updates.
[Update: April 30th 2020 @ 20:30 GMT+1]
Shipping: Worldwide delays
Shipping in UK and Internationally remains "challenging" and delays are much the same as in our April 27th update.
Flush Clip Rationing (CLI-42, PGI-9, PGI-72)
Because we are unable to restock one key component used in our flush clips for these cartridge types we're having to ration them, with sets of 4 now on hold and only single clips included with our standard refill bundles. This will remain in place until we have received the new stock from the manufacturer, possibly as late as early July.
Incoming Stock
We are now waiting for new stock for PGI-72, PGI-9 as well as inks for our older Image Specialists inks for Claria, Canon PGI-5 to CLI-526 types. Once they arrive the next challenge will be to re-bottle everything to the relevant 50ml and/or 125ml volumes but we will be prioritising stock that has run out.
A large shipment of T3661 type maintenance boxes has arrived and is now available and we've caught a few stock mis-counts in other maintenance box items such as T04D1 so stock is now available again.
Other inks and products are also becoming available and are going on the system as/when we can but ironically the supplier/manufacturer side of things is still functioning, albeit slower than normal.
[Update: April 27th 2020 @ 21:00 GMT+1]
UK Shipping/Post [Particularly Royal Mail]
Royal Mail continues to massively understate the effect of the Coronavirus on their staff and their ability to deliver packages. Discussions with other online retailers has indicated that considerable volumes of post is failing to be processed with delays of 1,2 and even 3 weeks... particularly for the second class / RM48 services.
As of Monday 20th April we began switching most of our packages away from these services but regrettably a large number of earlier orders have been affected.
Following further investigation we've decided to switch orders to use of the RM24 service as our base shipping service. This is still taking upwards of a week but is being delivered relatively faster than the RM48 service.
International Shipping/Post
We are now getting increasing number of queries and reported problems from International customers with even Tracked & Signed packages taking much, MUCH longer than normal.
It is almost impossible to keep up to date on what is happening so we are fast approaching a point where we may have to restrict International Orders to using Fedex and DHL Express shipping services only.
To give some brief examples.
In almost all countries the massive increase in eCommerce/online shopping has all but overwhelmed the postal and courier systems and added substantial delays to the networks.
Health & Staff
Health wise we're all okay and the biggest draw on time now is the need to be parents first and foremost. Additionally, being married to a teacher means that there's more need to schedule our hours around each other. Ultimately, this means that support tickets are taking longer to get answered than intended so apologies for that. I am working the backlog now while juggling stock orders and our other service contacts. If anyone has a time compression utility or service that fits 48 hours into a standard day, please let us know.
We are no longer 100% sure which day of the week it is but we are still functioning and doing what we can to keep things moving. As ever, thank-you for you continued patience and understanding. Please keep home as much as possible and stay safe.
[Update: April 21st 2020]
We're still working.. Royalmail are still very much struggling to process packages, particularly anything sent after the weekends so we're processing Royal Mail packages on Monday and taking the post office for collection on Tuesday. This helps avoid the weekend rush and the potential for packages to end up in the Monday overflow storage which is like a blackhole.
Still waiting for updates on ink orders so we'll update when we have a firm ETA.
Thanks to everyone who queried or just sent their thoughts. We've been lucky and everyone is well so thanks again... Very much appreciated. Hope you are all similarly staying safe and well.
[Update: April 18th 2020]
Very short update...
I'm still coughing but otherwise healthy so now the key delays are due to parenting and waiting for manufacturers and suppliers to respond.
Shipping services are now under tremendous strain across the board with many mail and courier staff looking after their children, self-isolating or seriously ill. As a result we have made the decision to adjust our shipping service options to those that offer tracking and provide some means of identifying where packages are in the system.
Some caveats:
We appreciate that some customers will have urgent requirements or just be suffering from cabin fever and itching to get on with some printing project. Please, we understand those stresses but right now so many people are working in a climate of fear and doing the best that they can. Some are even losing their loved ones or worse, their lives. Please try to be kind, be patient and take care of yourselves too.
[Update: April 13th 2020]
First off. We hope, despite the current situation that you have had something akin to a Happy Easter... that the kids didn't steal your eggs (If you had any to start with!) and that somewhere in amongst all of this you have been able to find your silver lining.
At time of writing, we're taking time with family as it's a bank holiday but tomorrow orders will ship as is our current "normal". Orange CLI-42 clips and silicon plugs are due Wednesday and with that I will be spending my evenings manufacturing flush clips to replenish stocks for Pro-100 refill bundles.
Cartridge cleaning (for Canon carts) will potentially re-start from Wednesday but as we are still practicing a split shift it will be on a limited basis. This won't have a knock on effect in terms of re-manufactured cartridges for some weeks but it's a start.
Some other key points:
Last thing to note. Even though we suspect that I have had this virus, we cannot confirm (due to lack of testing availability) so here, we have to act as if I have had it AND as if I haven't (ie: that I could get it) at the same time. That creates some interesting mental gymnastics but it is essential to keeping people safe.
[Update: April 10th 2020]
Thankfully the period where I was suffering with virus symptoms appears to have passed and after a couple of days of feeling "rough" I'm now back on my feet. That said, I still need to observe the self-isolation requirement of a further 5 days so I remain at home as required. There is also the lack of testing which means I cannot confirm whether I did infact have the virus, so we have to assume that I can still catch it.
The good news, of sorts, is that I can now deal with the nurmal pre-sales, support and other queries reasonably quickly but manufacturing of parts, etc... will have to wait a few more days.
Thank-you to those who wished us well and were patient while we got back up on our feet.
[Update: April 7th 2020]
Regrettably I am now showing symptoms for the Cv-19 virus so we're having to go into isolation as a family at home. While I'm not feeling brilliant I am still functioning, for now at least, but it will definitely have an impact on our ability to carry on dealing with support queries or any of the usual mundane aspects of VAT invoices, etc...
Since the lockdown in the UK we have been using a split shift process such that nobody is in the unit at the same time as anyone else. We've delineated specific/restricted work areas, and we've been cleaning down shared surfaces. As such orders are expected to continue using the new "normal" for now.
Unfortunately, some aspects of what we do will now be considerably affected:
Additionally we are still experiencing some delays and stock issues:
Not the best news but again, to reiterate. STAY HOME, STAY SAFE!
We are still in semi-lockdown and orders are being shipped Mondays & Thursday successfully as per the last update (March 26th).
One major change is that postal/courier services are now starting to hit border border closures to package/cargo traffic which will definitely be impacting International customers. It is virtually impossible to keep up with the changes so if you are an International customer we would recommend you check the relevant updates directly:
Royalmail (for services marked "RM" )
https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5317/~/international-incident-bulletin
DHL Parcel (was UKMail)
https://www.dhlparcel.co.uk/en/business-users/help-centre/live-service-updates.html
NB: We're expecting this to continue to work unless the UK shutsdown everything except vital medical/key supplies
wnDirect / Ascendia
https://www.asendiausa.com/asendia-insights/service-updates/
This is changing daily.
DHL Express
https://www.dhl.co.uk/en/important_information/covid_19.html#containerpar_expandablelist_a028
No particularly useful information. Recommend checking the Fedex PDF (see below) for likely delays.
Fedex
https://www.fedex.com/en-gb/coronavirus.html
https://www.tnt.com/dam/tnt_campaign_media/global_media_library/covid-19-docs/fedex-covid-19_service_impacts.pdf
This is changing daily.
Short version... The rule of thumb appears to be "If your country is in completely lockdown there won't be any deliveries, so please wait".
While the restrictions and confusion will vary over time, the overall disruption will likely last for months as different governments adjust to the realities of the situation.
[Update: March 26th 2020]
It's now been a few says since the UK was placed on an effective lockdown. While we are aware that online business has not been told to close we have remained mindful of safety of our staff and families first. To that end the following is now setup.
This bears repeating... Stay at home unless you absolutely have to.
[Update: March 22nd 2020]
Following information and advice from friends and family working in the NHS we have decided to place ourselves and our families on a self imposed isolation with minimal external contact. As such many of our plans to continue manufacturing are now on hold until we can determine how to effectively avoid cross contamination between our staff. There is also a question mark as to how and/or when a lockdown will be imposed.
As a result we are tentatively changing our plans as follow:
If you are reading this and are still not convinced as to the veracity or need for such drastic measures please consider that this is a key income stream for us. Everything we're hearing, from informed individuals, with direct knowledge and/or practicing in the field of medicine has persuaded us that this is a significant threat to human life. Or to put it another way we're prepared to lose the business rather than take chances.
Stay at home.
[Update: March 19th 2020]
Following recent changes in government policy and events in other countries, we are now adjusting as follows:
In summary, we're adjusting to circumstances as they change but as noted previously we're in it for the long haul.
Nobody is being laid off and we fully intend to support our customers, staff and wider community over the coming months and into the future.
Thank-you for your understanding, your patience and your continued support.
You will undoubtedly have heard about Covid-19 and while we're not going to deal with the massive amounts of confusing information surrounding it, we do need to update you on how this affects our ability to function and supply customers.
Short version
There are delays developing across the board. We may have to temporarily suspend shipping (to some or all destinations), sales and potentially shutter the business temporarily in the future.
Emphasis here is on "temporary".
Long version (bullet points for brevity)
The good news is that many of our preparations for the Bre*it mess have meant we have some extra stock, particularly with regards to inks, but unfortunately not across the board.
We should note that we are in this for the long haul. We're intending to make use of any time/space we have to clear the backlog of jobs that have sat on our "would like to get done" list and, assuming nothing dire happens, we will continue to provide support (and any pre-sales advice) via email.
Beyond that we will be looking at ways to help our local community particularly those who will need support so we're not sitting on our hands.
Whatever your own personal situation, please try to weigh up the information with a critical eye and take precautions where you can. We'll update as/when we can.