Banzai music so slow these days

[DaSt]

Hi,

I wonder if anyone else here has recently ordered at banzai and is still waiting for the package 2 weeks later ? They are not answering my mails or phone calls..

Thanks

[Beaker]

Where are you DaSt? Banzai do have a reputation for being a bit slow - highly unusual for a German company.

I have used Banzai in the past, and every time, the items took a couple of weeks to get to me in England.

[Marbles]

I'm in Holland and received a package last week. Did take them about a week till a week and a half. The stuff that got backordered I just fished out of my mailbox today. So you don't have to worry, they're still in business!

[Freppo]

Here's some moaning.. :P I've just had a terrible experience with Banzai.

I ordereda a whole bunch of enclosures from them. When the order arrived there was several enclosures missing, although the order said that it shipped complete.

So I sent them an email explaining the situation. Then they changed the order to backordered and promised to send out the rest of the enclosured as soon as they got back in stock, in about 1-2 weeks. All good so far..

Well, after about a month, not hearing anything from them, I sent them an email again asking what has happened to my order. By then I had also noticed that all the enclosures I got earlier were missing the screws from the bottom plate, so I asked about that aswell.

They took over one week to reply, saying that they did send the screws. I looked carefully again, searched everywhere, even looking in every enclosure to see if they put all the screws in one enclosure for some dumb reason.. Nope, no screws. They also wrote that the backordered enclosures was no longer avaliable from their supplyer... Ok.. Could have told me that earlier.

So now i'm waiting for a new reply regarding replacement of backordered items or a refund. It's been a few days, still no reply. Probably the last time I placed an order from them...

[cylens]

ok, more moaning:

about enclosures, I've had exactly the same kind of experience as Freppo, but I forgot about not receiving the backordered enclosures (in the meantime, I've decided to paint them myself), 3 months after that, I've decided to cancel the backorder.

and I had missing screws with the enclosures I got shipped, and I cannot find suitable screws...

My understanding is that they used mammoth enclosures... and never stocked them.

My main complain about Banzai is the false info about stock... they've been terrible at completing orders the past months (I've received an email yesterday about shipment of a 3 month old backorder: 1 C50K pot and 6 clear fresnel lenses... jesus...)

[Freppo]

Sorry to hear about it, and that i'm not alone.. That sucks :/
I'm still hoping that they will get back to me soon and agree to send me the missing screws.. we'll see..

[Muadzin]

I'm of the firm opinion that Banzai is being run by former civil servants. No order seems to get the go ahead to be shipped without it spending at least one week in some Banzai bureaucrat's desk.

Lots of people rag on Tayda for being cheap, but at least they ship within a day.

[Silver Blues]

And Tayda's not even cheap. Everything I've gotten from them has ranged in quality from decent to excellent.

[Beaker]

As I sais in my earlier post, "I have used Banzai in the past". I've not ordered anything from Banzai in over a year, as I got fed up of being messed around by them.

[Muadzin]

Well, they do have a bigger selection of products then Musikding, especially rare enclosures, trannies and IC's, that from time to time necessitate me having to place an order. The alternative is using an American supplier like Smallbear, which does have those items and ships on time but the longer shipping time makes it take just as long. Plus the rising dollar and potential customs duties does it make it risky. Not to mention that the more you order from Smallbear, the bigger their shipping costs become. $15 to ship two rolls of wire, a TAPLFO chip and 4 trannies seems ludicrous. But the only reason its only two rolls of wire and not three (because I do like their wire) is because then for some inexplicable reason shipping costs almost doubles.

[Beaker]

I think that is because Smallbear's shipping cost is calculated by weight and by volume.

I am quite prepared to have to wait for deliveries from the Far East or America, but not from Germany - especially when they only send half of it.

It is a real shame - as you rightly saw, their catalogue is impressive, and they list lots of things that are difficult to get elsewhere in Europe.

[tabbycat]

ugh, i've got so many missing orders of bits, or bits missing from orders, that i find myself logging on to ebay less and less because i invariably have to spend time mailing someone about something. the 'cheap from china thing' is great when it works because i'm broke, so it means i can build loads more things for the same money as buying from specialist places (who just buy it in bulk from china anyway). but when it doesn't go straight it's a total drag.

for example, i have a low fi synth with sequencer i'm making for which i ordered in twenty spdt switches in two batches of ten, ordered a week apart. supplier says they have been delivered but maybe lost, which i highly doubt. one lost maybe, but not both. especially of the same thing. that says to me stock or dispatch problem at the switch supplier. the odds are hugley stacked against two separate orders of the same thing going missing. like the wilde quote 'to lose one parent is a misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness'. so the synth is gathering dust while i email.

another ongoing curse is moogy knobs that turn up without their fixing screws. happened quite a few times now. to be fair, replacements inevitably get sent. but it just holds things up. so unboxed builds stacking up.

fortunately i just do this as a hobby learning thing that goes with my music making, not for a living, so am not stressing much. but i don't know how you people trying to run businesses, even small time, cope with that sort of stuff. must be maddening. felt especially for freppo's story as i know he is just trying to get started and it must be seriously frustrating to have a slack supplier screw up your plans.

[Marbles]

As I read these stories, I do remember they forgot to send me an enclosure too one time..
Did receive it later with an apology though.

But besides that shipping takes rather long to holland, and that their MKT caps come with shortened legs, they do have a bigger stock than Musikding or Newtone in Holland.

[traktop]

My last order took like 3 weeks...

[Freppo]

Banzai music should really work on their email-support... Still no reply after 9 days since I last wrote to them.

However, I just tried their chat-support service on their website and got help instantly(!).. They were very helpful with my order regarding the backordered items. Don't look like I will see my missing screws anytime soon though...

I'm happy I got through to them and they were helpful. But overall they have handled my order very poorly so I won't be buying from them again.

Funny thing is that I wrote to Musikding asking a question. Got a reply within 5 minute. That's more like it... :)

[cylens]

yes, musikding have always been great! they won't let you order something that is not in stock

and fyi, 1590BB are the cheapest I could find (cheaper than daier): got 25 for 138,90 euros shipping included...

[DaSt]

I'm in France and they used to be quite OK on their sending time (about a week) but these days it's getting really slow over there.

I finally got my stuff yesterday, took 3-4 weeks and i'm still missing two enclosures (were in stock atm, but in fact weren't... as they always do). I think i'll begin painting my own enclosures so that i can order a whole bunch and customize em myself.

Anyway getting a support answer from em takes at least 7days nowadays and tha's a shame since their hardware is good and I can't anything I need on their site.

[Eric]

Each time I pass an order to Banzai I cross fingers and hope there will be no problems. What is finally useless. The last time on about ten coloured enclosures, the first three arrived three weeks later. For the following ones I had to wait three months more. The customer support is almost non-existent plus I wasn't really satified by the powdercoat work. Now I definitively forget Banzai and I prefer Dasmusikding with whom I never had any concern. I live in France and generally my orders arrive in the week. By the way has anyone a good source for coloured Hammond enclosures in Europe?

[Ciaran Haslett]

Well....i wish I had read this thread before I placed my order 3 weeks ago!

Long story short...I ordered a Belton 3, heard nothing for 2 weeks even though the item was listed as in stock and they took payment immediately.  I send an email and get an automated reply.  The next day I get a shipped confirmation email and think, happy days.  

Well the tracking number didn't work on Deutsche Posts website until 2 days ago.  Just there now I got an email saying my package was delivered to their logistics team for handover to a UK courier (i think DHL)

German efficiency must not carry over to their postal service.

I should have paid the €2 extra and went with Musikding or TAD.

[rocket88]

Dude, everyone forgets that German efficiency is nothing more then a myth.