GHL Product delays

Scdell · Jun 14, 2021

CEReefer said:
I think it's hard for one person, Vinny, to take care of everything. Unfortunately I believe there just isn't a market big enough for aquariums controllers, to justify anything more than 1 person in the US. And that person is in charge of everything that happens on this side of the world, not an easy job, and to be honest we haven't given them a break for 2 years now. I understand we all got thousands of $ in it, but after the first 2 delays I knew that I would see the IOND when I see it, 0 expectations, the only thing I can blame them for is the kickstarter style, that should have been clear, but that's about it.

I agree with most of this. Now let's say you're right about the market being too small and one person to run it. GHL can make that one person's job much, much easier by stocking more items in the United States. It's not that hard to project how many and what type of items they will sell here in a year. Why must every order that's placed need to come out of Germany???
Too much can happen in shipping these days.

Scdell · Jun 14, 2021

Well.......I did get notice that my lightbar bar is here and will be delivered this week.
Thank you Vinny!

vangvace · Jun 18, 2021

Scdell said:
I don't know. It's frustrating. And it's not reassuring to know that something like this can bring the world almost to its knees. Just imagine if something really catastrophic took place. It would most likely induce social breakdown.
Amazon can still get things delivered in a timely manner........ A lot doesn't make sense here. A lot hasn't made sense.

Globally, we put just enough into logistics and infrastructure to make due with a just in time production model. The shipping industry output is higher than ever before and the (US) ports aren't able to keep up. West Coast ports have ships anchored waiting 5-10 days to get into port and unloaded before heading back to East Asia for another load. US exports in that direction is hurting from that too because the ships aren't typically waiting for cargo to be loaded back onboard. Rail and road shipping isn't much better at this point either.
Amazon prime has gone from 1-2 day shipping to 4+ days shipping for me.

CEReefer said:
I think it's hard for one person, Vinny, to take care of everything. Unfortunately I believe there just isn't a market big enough for aquariums controllers, to justify anything more than 1 person in the US. And that person is in charge of everything that happens on this side of the world, not an easy job, and to be honest we haven't given them a break for 2 years now. I understand we all got thousands of $ in it, but after the first 2 delays I knew that I would see the IOND when I see it, 0 expectations, the only thing I can blame them for is the kickstarter style, that should have been clear, but that's about it.

They have a small team in the US, Vinny is just the face of it. That said, it would be really really useful for them if the website state a product was in-stock at the US shop or backordered.

Scdell · Jun 18, 2021

vangvace said:
Globally, we put just enough into logistics and infrastructure to make due with a just in time production model. The shipping industry output is higher than ever before and the (US) ports aren't able to keep up. West Coast ports have ships anchored waiting 5-10 days to get into port and unloaded before heading back to East Asia for another load. US exports in that direction is hurting from that too because the ships aren't typically waiting for cargo to be loaded back onboard. Rail and road shipping isn't much better at this point either.
Amazon prime has gone from 1-2 day shipping to 4+ days shipping for me.

Then please explain how I get an email from Vinny saying they received the item on Monday and they will ship this week. So far no shipping notice. I'm one town north of their warehouse.

CEReefer · Jun 18, 2021

Scdell said:
Then please explain how I get an email from Vinny saying they received the item on Monday and they will ship this week. So far no shipping notice. I'm one town north of their warehouse.

Just knock on their door then.. ;-)

Scdell · Jun 18, 2021

CEReefer said:
Just knock on their door then.. ;-)

Yeah, I have my own business and this is my busy time of year. I make it in the summer for the entire year. I shouldn't have to "knock on their door"

vangvace · Jun 21, 2021

Scdell said:
Then please explain how I get an email from Vinny saying they received the item on Monday and they will ship this week. So far no shipping notice. I'm one town north of their warehouse.

Didn't know you were the only item they had... Oh wait, several pallets of product were sent to them.

Being one town over you could have coffee with them to discuss how they can improve their business.

CEReefer · Jun 21, 2021

vangvace said:
Didn't know you were the only item they had... Oh wait, several pallets of product were sent to them.

Being one town over you could have coffee with them to discuss how they can improve their business.

I would be excited to have a coffee with them!

Scdell · Jun 21, 2021

vangvace said:
Didn't know you were the only item they had... Oh wait, several pallets of product were sent to them.

Being one town over you could have coffee with them to discuss how they can improve their business.

Maybe I'm taking this the wrong way?
I'm not thinking I'm the only one they need to take care of.
Here is the email from them I received one week ago:
Hi Scott,

Shipment arrived a few moments ago and will need a couple days to unpack, sort and restock. We’ll ship your LB this week.

With best regards,
Vinny Altamirano

Here is the one I received today:

Hello Scott,

Your order is shipping out today via FedEx# 979809710024464. Sorry for the delay!

Maybe one should comment on what they know instead of assume.
We all know the old story of assume.

robbyg · Jul 5, 2021

Scdell said:
Maybe I'm taking this the wrong way?
I'm not thinking I'm the only one they need to take care of.
Here is the email from them I received one week ago:
Hi Scott,

Shipment arrived a few moments ago and will need a couple days to unpack, sort and restock. We’ll ship your LB this week.

With best regards,
Vinny Altamirano

Here is the one I received today:

Hello Scott,

Your order is shipping out today via FedEx# 979809710024464. Sorry for the delay!

Maybe one should comment on what they know instead of assume.
We all know the old story of assume.

OK so you got the light bar, is it working ok?

Scdell · Jul 6, 2021

robbyg said:
OK so you got the light bar, is it working ok?

Yep, it works well. Just like any other GHL product. It's why I was willing to wait for it.
I still haven't heard of one person getting an IOND or even a shipping notice.
At this point I'm beginning to wonder if they even went into production until they decided to ship them. I'll wait for it, but I won't be happy about ti.

Michael Gray · Jul 6, 2021

According to ghl it's available. Shipped out. Clearly it's out in germany only. Nothing in US. It would be on this forum. And it's not

Even if you pre-ordered it first day or the top 10. They aren't shipping here. They are dealing with germany only

Scdell · Jul 6, 2021

Michael Gray said:
According to ghl it's available. Shipped out. Clearly it's out in germany only. Nothing in US. It would be on this forum. And it's not

Even if you pre-ordered it first day or the top 10. They aren't shipping here. They are dealing with germany only

According to GHL there was a shipment being sent to the States. Or at least that's what they wanted us to believe.
And you're right. If someone got shipping notice it would be on here.
If GHL had decent customer service instead of lousy service Apex wouldn't even be a player in controllers.
Now, what you're also saying is that if I was the first one to order it I wouldn't get it till all of Germany got theirs? Wow! Isn't that just special.

Michael Gray · Jul 6, 2021

If anyone here got it. It would be on this forum. Nothing is here yet. It's to get us to relax and stop the questions. There isn't any ion in america. They sent us a link to their forum. German forum to show it's out. Lol.

It's not here.

Scdell · Jul 6, 2021

Michael Gray said:
If anyone here got it. It would be on this forum. Nothing is here yet. It's to get us to relax and stop the questions. There isn't any ion in america. They sent us a link to their forum. German forum to show it's out. Lol.

It's not here.

This makes me solo proud to be in the GHL family. Anyone else feel the glow????

robbyg · Jul 6, 2021

Scdell said:
This makes me solo proud to be in the GHL family. Anyone else feel the glow????

I will give GHL the benefit of the doubt and say that it is entirely possible that they emailed German customers first with the Pre-Order offer and as we all know the German reefing community is pretty big.

So yes they could have 500 German Reefers in the front of the line but that does not negate the fact that they should still ship a hundred or so units to the USA at the same time. Mainly because they really screwed up on the development time line and need to get the PR machine going for them, not against them.

Nobody would care about an additional 8 week delay to do it in the proper order if this had happened 18 months ago, but now it has reached the stage where they need to do something right now for the US customer base.

Anyway that is just my opinion of what I think would be a sensible business plan.

Scdell · Jul 10, 2021

robbyg said:
I will give GHL the benefit of the doubt

I'm done giving them any slack. End of May shipping according to them. Mid July now and not a person in the States has gotten a shipping notice. Nor have we heard a word from them explaining anything. This IS a fiasco. And only one source to blame.
This is going to sour a lot of people on GHL.

Scdell · Jul 10, 2021

There's a lot to be said when people are willing to use an inferior product, (Apex) than deal with a company that doesn't communicate well and it's hard to get the equipment.
Yep, the die hards will be patient with GHL because of the quality. But that's only going to get you so many customers. Growth will stagnate. What a shame!

paul01609 · Jul 11, 2021

Cancel or wait, I decided to get the mastertronic because of the wait for ion director.
my email from ghl when I asked about shipping times was it’s going to take several months just to get the preorders sorted.
so you could be waiting several months depending on there list when you ordered

Scdell · Jul 11, 2021

paul01609 said:
Cancel or wait, I decided to get the mastertronic because of the wait for ion director.
my email from ghl when I asked about shipping times was it’s going to take several months just to get the preorders sorted.
so you could be waiting several months depending on there list when you ordered

Let's see......... Several months to get the preorders sorted. What have they been doing for the last 18 months????
Apparently it doesn't matter where you are on the "list" ....... If you're in Germany you got it.
If you're in the States or anywhere else you need to wait. And wait. And wait. Then wait some more........
These things didn't go into production until May is what I'm getting out of all this.